A newly released report by activist group Good Jobs New York says that LMDC's $230-million assistance plan is fundamentally flawed. Before distributing massive US Department of Housing and Urban Development funds to Downtown residents, LMDC should spend the time and money required to ensure that the environment is safe, the report says.
"Nobody is sure what the air quality and environment is like down there but the city and state government are willing to pay people to live there," says GJNY director Bettina Damiani. "Their priority should be to ensure that the quality of the air and the environment is healthy. Until everyone knows what's going on and the correct testing and cleanup is completed, the assistance plan could be siphoning funds that could be used to do that."
Under the LMDC draft plan, Lower Manhattan is divided into two zones and funding for both zones is split between two programs. The Immediate Impact Zone includes the area closest to the World Trade Center site, an area south of Chambers Street, west of Broadway and including all of Battery Park City. A secondary zone, presumably less affected by the Sept. 11 bombings, is an area south of Canal and Rutgers streets down to Chambers Street.
The bulk of the LMDC funding--between $175 million and $220 million--would be earmarked for housing assistance. An additional $10 million or so would be dedicated to business assistance. Residents eligible for housing assistance would include those who enter into or renew a two-year-minimum lease with an expiration date after Aug. 31, 2003. Tenants living within the primary zone would receive a minimum of $4,000 and a maximum of $12,000 over two years. Residents of the secondary zone would be eligible for no more than $6,000 and no less than $2,000 over two years. Individual grants would be calculated as a percentage of a tenant's or homeowner's monthly housing bill.
Damiani says that using housing payments as a basis for meting out funds is unfair. "They say they want to provide maximum benefit to low-income residents but they don't base the grant on income, they base it on your rent," she tells GlobeSt.com. "If they really do want to address the concerns for low-income folks, basing [the grants] on rents is not the way to do that.
GJNY's report, Reconstruction Watch, also takes issue with the business assistance component of LMDC's draft plan, which would distribute $10 million among firms that are located below 14th street and have fewer than 500 employees. According to Damiani, the plan to hand the money directly to employers and the lack of a reporting mechanism gives too much discretion to business owners and leaves workers with virtually no options.
"Where's the guarantee that employees are going to get any kind of training and why can't workers decide on what kind of training they want?" Damiani asks. "Wouldn't it be more efficient to provide vouchers or grants to individual workers? And the draft plan does not address reporting requirements. There's no flexibility for workers at all. If they really want to help employees, they're steering money in wrong direction. LMDC did not return calls for comment on this story.
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