Posted on 02/28/2018 10:46:43 PM PST by Olog-hai
As any New Yorker knows, finding an apartment is not easy. The citys affordable housing lottery was set up to assist residents, but applying for the lottery takes time and patience.
Brooklyn resident Maria Martinez told PIX11 shes been applying faithfully for 20 years, since the inception of the lottery program. Speaking through a translator, she said the process is frustrating. You keep applying. You hope you end up with a home, but it hasnt happened for me yet, Martinez said.
Martinez currently rents a one-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg. She lives with her husband and two teenage children. Sometimes I do lose hope, but I apply anyway and you just hope, keep applying and keep insisting, Martinez said. Itd be wonderful if they could tell you that you even lost it, but they dont tell you. You just never get any notice back and then later on, you find out the building has been filled up.
Martinezs situation is like countless other New Yorkers. The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development is the agency that oversees the lottery. The statistics from HPD are stark. There are currently 1,144 affordable housing units available in 18 buildings. According to HPD, on average, there are 700 applicants per unit. Theyve set up the online Housing Connect portal, streamlining the online application process. There are 1.7 million registered users of the site.
(Excerpt) Read more at pix11.com ...
20 years applying for a housing lottery, yet she still has to speak through a translator?
She’s been waiting 20 years. Could have earned an advanced degree in four years and made enough to buy a home 10 or 15 years ago. But, nope, would rather wait to hit the jackpot.
Our CA town requires developers to set aside “below market rate” units in every new project. Maybe 1 out of 1,000 win the lottery. Makes liberals feel so good about themselves because they “are doing something.”
Talk about a lost generation.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
“speaking trough a translator”
I’d ask them if they “lost Crosby” too, but that’d get lost in the translation.
Funny you should put it that way; I was going to say that its like people lining up, hoping to secure a spot in Hell.
When I first brought my then Thai wife to the US, she spoke almost no English, and we had to converse in Thai. Got her enrolled in and ESL class, plus her self studying, and within a few months she could speak English to the degree she got a job a local restaurant.
It was a funny household, with me, the tall white guy speaking Thai so I could maintain my language skills, and her speaking English to enhance hers.
I don't understand how people come to the US, and after 20yrs still need a translator.
The people who work in the salon where I get my nails done came here *legally* from Vietnam. Theyve taken on English names that their customers can pronounce, so its a place filled by David, Susie, Vivian, Andy, and Louis.
The nail techs are *all* speaking English their customers, with varying degrees of success. But, they learn fast. Ive watched them for two years now.
One of the guys is working on bringing his wife and baby from Vietnam. He said it could be another two years. I asked him if it was costing a lot of money and he acknowledged that it was indeed. So he flies back as often as he can.
These people come here legally, get themselves professional licenses, work hard (10 hour days), learn English, and assimilate into our culture. Meanwhile, a bunch of entitled jerks jump the line, suck up our tax dollars and demand more.
Quite the contrast.
Brooklyn resident Maria Martinez told PIX11 shes been applying faithfully for 20 years
You would think she might learn English in the 20 years she has tried applying
sorry lost part of the quote
Brooklyn resident Maria Martinez told PIX11 shes been applying faithfully for 20 years, since the inception of the lottery program. Speaking through a translator,
Isnt housing a civil right in NYC?
20 years here, 2 teenagers, and cant speak English
Makes you wonder what kind of job opportunities this person would have had if she spoke fluent English all these years. Enough to not need a housing lottery, perhaps.
nyc is a sewer, the ocean can’t possibly rise fast enough.
Not everyone is smart enough to earn a degree, much less an advanced degree, but no doubt this woman and her family could have improved their own lot over 20 years.
Ugh and the airports are the worst. I, unfortunately, have to fly into LGA and work in midtown about once a month or so for work.
Allegedly, but that doesn’t make the fantasy a reality.
NYC is way beyond carrying capacity, continuing only because residents pay an insane price to be there. Can’t afford it? Move.
RENT CONTROL.
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