New York City in brief

Nearly two million New Yorkers risk losing their Essential Plan health coverage, as Washington’s looming $7.5 billion funding cut—over half the program’s annual pot—spurs Governor Kathy Hochul to request a federal reclassification and tighten eligibility to preserve some 1.3 million policies. Albany scrambles for fiscal remedies while some 450,000 wait to see if their lifeline will be trimmed, not axed, in this season’s budgetary haircut.

Following a court order, federal authorities have unfrozen $30 million for the Gateway Hudson Tunnel, giving New York and New Jersey’s vast rail project a modest jolt after months of Trump-era funding delays. With $175 million still withheld and lawsuits piling up, commuters and a thousand union workers inch closer to relief—though it seems the light at the end of this tunnel continues to play hard to get.

President Trump, channeling fiscal hawks everywhere, denounced the Gateway Tunnel between New York and New Jersey as a costly “boondoggle,” alleging—without offering figures—that it will bankrupt taxpayers. His administration, having grudgingly released $30 million after a federal judge’s nudge, still withholds most funds for the rail project meant to replace aging Hudson tunnels. Infrastructure, it seems, remains America’s favourite political football—tossed, spiked, and rarely carried across the goal line.

A late January snowstorm dusted New York City with nearly a foot of snow and left officials touting their response, yet the cold snap claimed at least five lives before flurries began and exposed gaping cracks in municipal support for the homeless. Enhanced Cold Blue shelter policies moved 170 people indoors, but for many, the city’s warmth seemed a slippery notion, melting away as soon as the sun returned.

With some 7,500 New Yorkers facing the expiry of federal Emergency Housing Vouchers—thanks to the Trump-era squeeze and a recent funding denial from HUD—officials are scrambling for stopgaps while rents rally and affordable options vanish. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development cobbled together a two-year fix for about 2,000 families, but the rest must hope for a miracle or, failing that, a slightly less underfunded bureaucracy.