Featured Reporting

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NYC’s Right to Shelter Implodes as Mayor Adams Warns ‘It’s Not Going to Get Any Better’
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City Hall is talking about the ‘next phase’ after dozens of arriving migrants spent the weekend waiting in the heat and without access to a bathroom to be let into the city’s ‘welcome center.’
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Read the full story on THE CITY.

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Migrants Find Work and Forge New Networks but Still Live in Hotels and Relief Centers
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Asylum-seekers who have been here for many months are helping newer arrivals find jobs and their way, but a paycheck is no guarantee of escaping city shelters.
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Read the full story on THE CITY.

Weary Migrants Stay in Elementary School Gyms as Angry Parents Protest Outside
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While organizers make plans to provide showers and clothes to asylum-seekers, other New Yorkers demonstrated against their presence and what it would mean for their kids.
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Read the full story on THE CITY

City targeted same homeless New Yorkers over and over in encampment sweeps, data shows
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Story was a Third Coast finalist for new feature
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams has pushed city agencies to clear homeless encampments from streets and subways. He’s said repeatedly it’s about ‘dignity’ and getting homeless people into stable housing. But new data obtained by WNYC from the city’s sanitation department raises questions about the efficacy of those plans.
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South Bronx school scrambles plans, seeks donations for dozens of asylum-seeking students
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One South Bronx school with dozens of newly enrolled children of asylum seekers rapidly changed its curriculum and plans to meet the needs of the new students.
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Migrant’s suicide attempt revives fears of conditions at Red Hook shelter
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Migrant men adjust to live in the sprawling Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, a shelter with 1,000 beds, after the suicide attempt of one of the residents.
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Amazon, Starbucks and REI: A new crop of NYC union organizers may be having a moment
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Workers at a national retail chain REI in SoHo voted to unionize last week. So did tech workers at the New York Times. Baristas at a handful of Starbucks locations around the city are organizing, so are thousands of Amazon warehouse workers. Their union vote will take place later this month. month.
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Read the full story on Gothamist or listen on WNYC.

"It's The Cuomo Way": Former Staffers Describe Toxic Workplace Under Governor’s Relentless Thumb
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Ana Liss was in her twenties when she won a fellowship to work in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office in 2013. She was surprised, upon arriving, to be quickly invited by senior staffers to sit at a desk positioned right near the governor — in his “line of sight,” as she described it.
At first, she didn’t understand why. Another woman in the office offered Liss some insight, telling her Cuomo “likes blondes,” particularly those in stiletto heels.
Read the full story on Gothamist.

More Than A Month After Ida, A Family That Lost Everything Is Still Without a Home
Oscar Gomez had spotted a flyer for a basement apartment on a lamppost in Queens.
In 2011, he was looking for apartments for himself, his sister and her 10-year-old daughter Litzy, who Gomez was helping to raise. The three had been living together with other members of their extended family in a house they’d rented in Woodside. But the owner was selling off the property and wanted them out.
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Bronx Man Dies Of Coronavirus Alone In His Home As Family Mourns A World Away
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Hundreds of New Yorkers are dying in their homes of COVID-19, and the city has only recently started including them in the official toll. But beyond the numbers are the stories of the people who fell victim to the virus before they could get to a hospital -- like Guillermo Frestan, who died alone in the Bronx last month as his family struggled to care for him from thousands of miles away.
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Staggering Surge Of NYers Dying In Their Homes Suggests City Is Undercounting Coronavirus Fatalities
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If you die at home from the coronavirus, there’s a good chance you won’t be included in the official death toll, because of a discrepancy in New York City’s reporting process. Update: After WNYC/Gothamist's reporting, the city has reversed its position and will count probable COVID-19 deaths that occur at home.
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Read the full story on Gothamist.

Inside One Brooklyn Hospital’s Scramble To Prepare For Surge In Coronavirus Patients
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New York City has more than 36,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection. A look inside a Brooklyn hospital shows it has been rapidly transformed to handle COVID-19 patients.
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Read the story on Gothamist or listen on NPR.

“I Don’t Know If I Can Do It”: A Veteran Nurse Describes The Gradual Return To Normalcy, And The Paralyzing Fear Of A Second COVID-19 Wave
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Arlene Meertens has been in nursing for nearly 30 years.
She’s the daughter of a nurse, and she always felt called to care for others, even as a young girl growing up in Guyana, where she remembers fetching water for an elderly blind neighbor.
But as a patient care technician at hard-hit Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, she says the COVID-19 pandemic has changed her, and she’s not sure if she can continue on if there’s a resurgence of the virus in the fall.
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Misinformation Hotline Stokes Fear Of Vaccines In Ultra-Orthodox Community
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It seems benign enough: a dial-in hotline where moms can get advice on potty training and recipe ideas. But in the five months since the measles outbreak began in New York City, the Akeres Habayis Hotline has taken on a different meaning and a different purpose, serving as a telephonic hub for ultra-Orthodox mothers who are resistant to vaccinating their children.
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Read the full story on Gothamist or listen on WNYC.