NYC high-rise fire displaces hundreds. How do they find affordable housing?

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NYC high-rise fire displaces hundreds. How do they find affordable¹ housing?

Transcript²

After the deadly fire in a Bronx apartment building, hundreds of people are living in hotel rooms. But finding housing in another affordable building like Twin Parks may not be easy.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

The fire that killed 17 people in a Bronx high-rise earlier this week has also displaced hundreds of residents from the building. Officials have promised that tenants³ who want to move will get vouchers⁵ to live somewhere else. But as NPR's Laurel Wamsley reports, finding affordable housing in New York City is hardly a simple task.

LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE⁶: For the residents who survived Sunday's fire, there's the pain of losing friends and neighbors and the awful memories of smoke-filled stairwells that acted like chimneys. There's also the question of where to go now.

KAREN DEJESUS: Looks like a war zone on the third floor. My wall is broken. My door is down.

WAMSLEY: Karen Dejesus lives on the building's third floor, two doors down from where the fire started. She was briefly⁷ allowed to go back to her apartment on Monday. Like many residents of the building, called Twin Parks North West, she and her family are now in temporary housing.

DEJESUS: The Red Cross was here. And they placed us into a hotel. But we're just here to wait and see what's going to happen.

WAMSLEY: For those whose homes are uninhabitable, New York City and the Red Cross are currently providing hotel rooms. Other residents are staying in hotel rooms paid for by the building's owner. But a big question is on the horizon for residents, to return to the building or move? When Twin Parks North West opened in the early 1970s, it was considered a model of subsidized affordable housing. The building is now home to many immigrants. Eleven of those who died in the fire were from Gambia in West Africa. Three-quarters of the building's households are on Section 8 vouchers, the federal program that subsidizes housing for very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled. Most of those vouchers had been tied to units in the building, which is supervised by the state of New York. The residents will now be able to take their vouchers elsewhere, Lieutenant⁸ Governor Brian Benjamin said this week.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRIAN BENJAMIN: We will be working with the developers and those on the ground to make sure that everyone has adequate housing as soon as possible if they cannot come back to the building.

WAMSLEY: Judith Goldiner is an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, which is helping⁹ residents assess their options.

JUDITH GOLDINER: Some people may want to go back. A lot of people likely are going to want to move.

WAMSLEY: She says in New York, as elsewhere, far more people qualify for Section 8 vouchers than receive them. And getting a voucher⁴ doesn't mean it's easy to find a place to live.

GOLDINER: You have to go out and find a landlord who is willing to take your voucher, whose apartment fits your family size, and also whose apartment is going to pass what we call housing quality standards. And that can be pretty difficult in New York City.

WAMSLEY: Goldiner suggests the building's owners, known as Bronx Park Phase III, should play a major role in finding apartments for the Twin Parks residents who want them.

GOLDINER: This is a very large, affordable housing, for-profit consortium. They have lots of other apartments. And it seems to us that they should be helping people find other places if that's what people want to do.

WAMSLEY: Neither the building's owners nor New York state made anyone available for an interview for this story. But the owners said in a statement to NPR that they are, quote, "working to find more permanent housing solutions for those who decide not to return." And New York state said in a statement that it will work to accommodate residents with and without vouchers. Goldiner said she was surprised by the fire at Twin Parks, a building that's fairly new by New York City standards. It's just the sort of building where Legal Aid tries to get its clients into.

GOLDINER: A building where they're going to be able to afford the rent, where the conditions are pretty good, where they're not going to be overcrowded. Most of the people in the building had been there a really long time.

WAMSLEY: It makes the situation even more tragic¹⁰, she says.

Laurel Wamsley, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF THOSE WHO RIDE WITH GIANTS' "THE RESPECT FOR THE OLD BEAST")

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。

4 voucher   

n.收据；传票；凭单，凭证

参考例句：

• The government should run a voucher system.政府应该施行凭证制度。
• Whenever cash is paid out,a voucher or receipt should be obtained.无论何时只要支付现金，就必须要有一张凭据或者收据。

5 vouchers   

n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据

参考例句：

• These vouchers are redeemable against any future purchase. 这些优惠券将来购物均可使用。
• This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel. 这一次我们得到了在附近一家旅馆入住的免费券。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。