Projects

Letter to the NY Times Editor by Sienna Baskin

"Portrait of a Prostitute," New York Times, January 9, 2012 Letter to the Editor by Sienna Baskin, Co-Director of the Sex Workers Project

UJC 2011 Annual Report

Check out our 2011 Annual Report.

CDP Releases "Reimagining Rezoning" Report

On December 1st, the Community Development Project in partnership with CAAAV: Organizing released a new report, Reimaging Rezoning: A Chinatown for Residents is a Chinatown for All. The report offers up an alternative vision for rezoning Chinatown and calls for the creation of a Special Zoning District around the area. "Reimaging Rezoning" is based on extensive community research, including 451 surveys, a canvass of 140 local businesses and in-depth focus groups and interviews. The report highlights the need for protections for residents and businesses and details how rezoning the area can curb harassment and gentrification. The report launch included a presentation about the report's findings and recommendations and panel discussion about how zoning can be used as a tool to protect low-income communities of color. Panelists included Chinatown community residents, representatives from other New York City communities that have undergone rezoning and experts on zoning and land use, including Hunter College professor Tom Angotti. City Councilmember Brad Lander delivered the closing remarks.

2011 New York City Council Human Rights Report Card

The Human Rights Project has released their 2011 Report Card. This is a unique advocacy tool which evaluates the commitment of the New York City Council to promoting the human rights of New Yorkers, and grades each City Council Member individually. The report also assesses the Council's human rights record as a collective legislative body, and documents the roadblocks that progressive legislation often encounter in the Council.

Read the Report Card

Sex Workers Project Co-Director, Sienna Baskin, Profiled in GO Magazine

"Women At The Helm," GO Magazine, November 9, 2011

Community Development Project with VOCAL-NY Releases "Beyond Methodone" Report

On October 6th, the Community Development Project in partnership with VOCAL-NY released a new report, "Beyond Methadone: Improving Health and Empowering Patients in Opioid Treatment Programs." The report examines one of New York's most stigmatized and marginalized populations and evaluates the performance of methadone programs in meeting the needs of their patients. The report, which is based on over 500 surveys and five focus groups with methadone patients across 29 methadone programs in New York City, found a range of unmet health needs and challenges for methadone patients. According to the report, prevention and treatment of Hepatitis C and drug overdose are two of the most critical health needs being overlooked by methadone programs. The report was released at a policy briefing with VOCAL-NY, advocates, New York Assemblymembers Richard Gottfried, Chair of the Assembly Health Committee and Steven Cymbrowitz, Chair of the Assembly Alcoholism and Drug Abuse committees.

For more information about this report and others by the Community Development Project, please visit this page.

UJC's Newest Project, the Police Reform Organizing Project, in the New York Times

New York Times: "Letter to the Editor: Harmful Practices by the New York Police Dept.," October 2, 2011

MHP Responds to City's Initiative to Address High Rates of People with Mental Illness in Jails

Although the overall number of people in jail is on the decline, the number of incarcerated people with mental illness continues to increase. At long last the City appears to be giving the crisis of the incarceration of people with mental illness the attention it deserves. Twelve years ago the Urban Justice Center sued the City for its failure to provide services to people with mental illness released from jail. (See Brad H. v. City of New York special section.) The City has never lived up to its obligations and opposes extending the Brad H. settlement agreement which requires it to provide this population with treatment referrals, medication and prescriptions, public benefits, and housing assistance upon release. We are pleased that the City is now focused on identifying the factors that cause people with mental illness to be incarcerated and remain in the city jails at such high rates and on developing treatment interventions. The City can start to address this crisis by embracing its obligation under the Brad H. settlement and set up a system that provides quality, individualized discharge planning services. If New York really wants to be a leader on this issue, getting discharge planning right is an important first step. It is unconscionable that in more than eight years, the City has not lived up to its obligation.
NY1: "Rikers Island Struggles With Record Mental Illness Numbers," September 30, 2011

CDP's and 5 Community Partners Release New Report about Public Housing

On August 8th, the Community Development Project (CDP), in partnership with CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Community Voices Heard (CVH), Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), and Mothers on the Move (MOM), released a new report titled "A Report Card for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA): Residents' Evaluation of NYCHA and Recommendations for Improvement." The report is the result of a year-long, citywide, participatory research project. CDP's partner groups collected 1,446 report cards from 71 NYCHA developments that asked public housing residents to "grade" NYCHA on issues related to repairs, maintenance and management. The report includes NYCHA's grades, research findings and recommendations for NYCHA to improve programs and policies.

Read coverage of the report in the Daily News and an Op-ed by Alexa Kasdan and Lindsay Cattell of CDP's Research and Policy Initiative.

For more information about this report and others by the Community Development Project, please visit this page.

Street Vendor Project issues report on Police Harassment of Fruit & Vegetable Vendors in Chinatown

SVP released a report on July 21 about how excessive police enforcement is harming access to healthy food in the low-income neighborhood of Chinatown.

The report, entitled "Spoiled", focused on Forsyth Street Market, a group of vendors who sell high-quality, affordable produce near the Manhattan Bridge, where 95% of clients are Asian-American. The police and health departments gave nearly 2,000 tickets to Forsyth Market vendors in 2009 and 2010 &ndash a rate of almost 3 per day! Nearly 40% of the tickets were written by one small group of officers from the NYPD’s Fifth Precinct.

The report found that the majority of tickets were written for infractions, like storing boxes of fruit next to a pushcart, that make little sense to enforce in a market setting. In fact, at Union Square Greenmarket, the same conditions exist, but no tickets are written. The report called on the City to cease its strict enforcement at the Forsyth Street Market, which is undermining its efforts to increase access to fruits and vegetables in low-income neighborhoods like Chinatown.

• Click here for Village Voice coverage
• Click here for WNYC coverage
• Click here for DNA Info coverage

Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project on front page of nytimes.com!

"Visa Delays Imperil Iraqis Who Helped U.S.," New York Times, July 12, 2011