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Homeless Advocates Pushing to Turn Vacant Lots into Affordable Housing Rally at City Hall

By DNAinfo Staff on September 29, 2010 5:14pm

By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — Advocates for the homeless rallied at City Hall Wednesday for a bill that would institute an annual census of vacant properties in the city with the aim of converting some of those empty lots into affordable housing.

"Homelessness is a very complicated issue, there's no one answer," said Marc Greenberg, executive director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing. "But one key element is making sure we fully utilize the resources available."

The bill, introduced to the City Council in February, has already collected nearly 30 City Council members as co-sponsors. 

Peter Marcuse, an emeritus professor of urban planning at Columbia, noted Wednesday that approximately 40,000 New Yorkers currently reside in shelters, and 10 percent in overcrowded apartments.

Marc Greenberg, executive director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, rallied for a census of vacant properties in the five boroughs Wednesday.
Marc Greenberg, executive director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, rallied for a census of vacant properties in the five boroughs Wednesday.
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DNAinfo/Tara Kyle

A 2007 report conducted by Picture the Homeless and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's office found 24,000 unoccupied housing units in the borough alone.

"It seems to me there is something very wrong with the housing system in New York," Marcuse said. "Getting down to the details on who owns them, why they're vacant, what it would cost to rent them, how we could distribute them is simply information that we need."

In the absence of an official city census, Picture the Homeless is currently operating a crowd-sourced map to count vacant properties around the boroughs.

"As a society, we have an obligation to care for those in need," said Greenberg. "We're called to do better."