Biden has ‘Big mouth,’ China charges
With his son planning to plead guilty to federal tax crimes, an impending forced House vote to impeach him, his poll numbers plummeting, and now news that he’s called Chinese leader Xi Jinping a dictator—President Biden has more than a toxic mix of problems on his agenda.
Then again, Hunter Biden, his youngest son (Beau died in 2015) has cut a deal to avoid prison; the impeachment charge is practically dead on arrival in the House; and Biden’s poll numbers are—like most poll numbers—uncertain at this time. Of most immediate concern is his charge that Jinping is a dictator, particularly while Secretary of State Antony Blinden has made overtures to bring about calm between the two nations.
Biden asserted in remarks Tuesday evening in California, in connection with the supposed spy balloon that the U.S. shot down, “The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when [we] shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there. That was a great embarrassment for dictators—when they didn’t know what happened.”
The balloon was flying across the U.S. and was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas. “It was blown off course, up through Alaska and then down through the United States, and [Jinping] didn’t know about it,” Biden said.
The president’s comments, as expected, have ruffled the Chinese government and they responded quickly. Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, called the remarks “extremely absurd and irresponsible. They’re an open political provocation.” Moreover, she said, the balloon was unintended and caused by circumstances beyond China’s control.
Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, had a stronger reaction. “Biden’s big mouth is a loose cannon,” he said. “Mutual trust is what China has been stressing, so Biden’s comments are very destructive and damaging.”
The comments also contradict Blinken’s recent mission. How they will add to the brewing tumult during the 2024 presidential elections is left for debate.
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URBAN AGENDA: Expansion of CityFHEPs Voucher Program is a Moral Imperative
2023 was supposed to be the year of housing in New York State. While the Senate and Assembly leaders finally put together a last-minute housing deal before the end of the legislative session in June, it never even came up for a vote. Albany failed to deliver even the most basic protections for New Yorkers, with plenty of blame to go around.
One bill included in the failed housing package was the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), which would have created a state version of the Section 8 voucher program. It would have generated about 20,000 new vouchers for housing-insecure New Yorkers. By providing immediate relief to people who are homeless or facing eviction, HAVP could have been a crucial tool for housing the city’s nearly 70,000 homeless people.
Unfortunately, for the fourth year in a row, the state government has abdicated responsibility for addressing New York’s spiraling homelessness and housing crises. With no hope left for support from Washington, D.C., city leaders are left in an unenviable position: having to deal with all the complexities and externalities of a failing housing system with limited jurisdictional authority to fix it.
One powerful tool the city has in its toolbox is CityFHEPS, New York City’s own voucher program. It is a crucial lifeline for many New Yorkers, putting them on a path to safe and stable housing. About 4,000 households were able leave the shelter system with CityFHEPS vouchers in 2021.
But the program also has serious problems: it forces applicants to meet complex criteria that are punitive and often at odds with each other; it requires people to wait months before beginning their housing search; and, it excludes some people who need it most, including undocumented immigrants and homeless workers whose wages are considered “too high.” As a result, it can take a very long time for households to leave the shelter, with average stays spanning from 509 to 855 days.
In late May, the New York City Council took a bold step to improve this crucial program, by passing four bills that would move individuals and families out of the shelters quicker, while also helping many other families avoid entering the shelter system in the first place. The bills:
- Ended the “90-day rule”, which forced people to go into the shelter system and stay there for three months before becoming eligible for rental assistance and being able to begin their search for permanent housing.
- Revised the “utility allowance” rule, which reduced rental support for voucher holders whose landlords do not include utility costs in their rent.
- Ended punitive work requirements and income-eligibility at 50 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), making the voucher available to a broader share of low-income New Yorkers in need of housing support.
- Expanded CityFHEPS eligibility, making it accessible to a broader range of income-eligible households facing eviction.
Bucking the trend of complete inaction on housing justice at all levels of government, the City Council took the kind of bold action that we need to finally confront homelessness the best way possible: by housing people. The Mayor has, thus far, supported one aspect of the City Council’s plan: ending the 90-day rule.
But, he has pushed back on other aspects of the plan, claiming that the CityFHEPS expansion create more competition for current voucher holders seeking to exit shelter and would cost the city $17 billion over the next five years.
First, by preventing evictions, an expanded CityFHEPS program will reduce the number of households entering the shelter system long-term, creating less competition for those trying to use vouchers. And, the expanded CityFHEPS program makes many more homes available to voucher holders seeking to move out of shelter.
Second, while ongoing rental assistance undoubtedly costs money, our calculations show that the net cost of expanding CityFHEPS is $3 billion over five years. While this is a big price tag, we will be preventing almost 200,000 families from enduring the trauma of eviction and the instability of homelessness.
The social costs of expanding access to vouchers, while momentous, are hard to quantify and are often obscured in budget negotiations focusing exclusively on immediate costs and benefits. Numerous studies show that people’s incomes increase when they access permanent housing, while their healthcare costs – including those covering emergency hospitalizations and mental health services – decrease. The prospects of their children’s educational and employment success rise and their long-term healthcare costs decline.
This is not time to be playing politics with the lives of the city’s most vulnerable New Yorkers. In the wake of state inaction on our failing housing system, the Council’s bills over the best hope of turning New York’s homeless crisis around. We urge the mayor to reconsider his veto threat, and work with the Council to put the city on a path toward housing for all. That should be a moral imperative.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.
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Longtime Harlem Week board member and Harlem Rocket co-founder, Michael Preston
Michael Preston has been committed to service and support of the Harlem community throughout his professional life. He has served as a board member with Harlem Week for the better part of 30 years, going back to 1992, and is the co-founder of Harlem Rocket, a Black-owned high-speed boat tour of Harlem on the Hudson River that is set to launch this summer.
Preston is also vice president of customer experience & government affairs for Paradise Express, the parent company of Harlem Rocket. He has also been a customer service manager and theater manager with the Atlanta Civic Center.
“There is something about being able to provide people with an experience, and that has resonated throughout my life,” Preston said about his professional career.
One of five children, Preston has many cherished memories of growing up in Harlem and becoming immersed in the culture. His father was in the military, so Preston was born in Sacramento, but he and his family moved back to Harlem, where they were originally from, when he was 3 years old.. He attended St. Thomas the Apostle and Powell Memorial High School.
“Between 115th Street and 125th Street was our playground,” Preston said.
His father held numerous jobs and was heavily involved in the arts as a jazz musician, photographer, sculptor, painter, jewelry-maker, and cartoonist, which inspired Preston’s passion for managing and producing shows. At a young age, he would work with his father as a poet, collecting tickets, or managing the lights.
“My appreciation for the arts, culture, painting, music was something we experienced every day of our life,” Preston recalled.
In 1979, when Preston was 16, his father died from a heart attack. He attributed this tragedy to high blood pressure, which motivated his life decision to switch to a vegan diet.
After graduating from high school, Preston was set to go to Penn State, but chose to attend HBCU Virginia State University thanks to being guided by his grandfather, who was an alum. While at Virginia State, he switched to vegetarianism, which he has followed to this day. He also eventually transferred and earned his bachelor’s degree from City College of New York in 2012. He holds both Virginia State and City College dear to him, since one is an HBCU and the other is in Harlem.
When Preston first came aboard Harlem Week, he had been managing a law firm in addition to working with Greyhound. Tony Rogers, former executive board member of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, asked him to help out government affairs, managing permits, etc., during what was a difficult period for Harlem Week in the early 1990s.
He was asked to join the board, and has renewed every year since with the exception of 2003–2005, when he worked with the Atlanta Civic Center.
“We give away more than 110,000 in scholarships, grants, and awards to nonprofits and students going and returning to college,” Preston said of his work with Harlem Week. “I love the concept of us supporting our own—but it is also about us bringing the art, the culture, and the experience to first, the residents of Harlem and New York, and then, the visitors from throughout nationally and internationally,“ Preston said.
While at City College, Preston connected with his current business partner, Garry Johnson. They created Paradise Express in 2012 and more recently established Harlem Rocket, which is expected to launch at the end of July.
The boat tour will take passengers on a tour of Harlem on the Hudson River, going north from 125th Street to the northern top of Manhattan at Spuyten Duyvil Creek and then coming down as a thrill ride. Tour elements include history lessons about Harlem sites and Black people in the maritime industry, such as Crispus Attucks and Matthew Henson.
Harlem Rocket is partnering with sponsors such as the electronics company Ray Marine and Universoul Circus.
More information can be found at the website Harlem Rocket.com, where tickets will become available, and on Instagram @HarlemRocket.
The Harlem Rocket is part of the larger Harlem Waterfront Initiative, which aims to spur economic development in Harlem. Other elements of the initiative will be a ferris wheel called the Harlem Wheel and the Harlem Maritime Museum.
Preston cherishes his family, including five adult children—four daughters and one son—and four grandchildren.
“I’m proud to be of Harlem—living in Harlem; my children born and raised in Harlem; and connected to institutions like the Apollo, the Studio Museum, the Schomburg,” Preston said. “Being a part of Harlem Week is all-encompassing.”
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