City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

A co-op building in Queens. The City Council will hold a hearing Tuesday on transparency at co-op housing across the city. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.

Upcoming housing and land use-related events:

Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 9 a.m.: The Landmarks Preservation Commission will decide on whether to consider the following sites for landmarks designation: Public School 15 Annex/362 Schermerhorn St.; Church of Saint Mary/440 Grand St.; and the Lithuanian Alliance Building/ 307 West 30th St. More here.

Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 10 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings will hold an oversight hearing on transparency in New York City co-ops. The meeting will also include discussion of a bill that would require co-op boards to disclose their reasons for rejecting an applicant, and another that would legalize single-room occupancy apartments (shared housing). More here.

Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m.: The Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, which monitors construction impacts and quality of life issues related to the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project in downtown Brooklyn, will hold a public meeting. More here.

Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 10 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on General Welfare will hold an oversight hearing on the city’s housing voucher program, CityFHEPS. More here.

Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 10 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will review the following land use applications: MTA 125th and Lexington Rezoning, Herkimer-Williams and 18-15 Francis Lewis Boulevard Commercial Overlay. More here.

Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 10 a.m.: The City Planning Commission will meet to vote on the following projects: 1417 Avenue U Rezoning and 150 Flagg Place. It will hold public hearings on the following: ACS – 1000 -1034 Dean Street, Seaside Park & Community Arts Ctr Special Permit, 1325 Ave of the Americas-Text Amendment/Cert and 33-01 11th Street Rezoning. More here.

Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 10:30 a.m.: The NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust will hold its next board meeting. More here.

NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) are closing lotteries on the following subsidized buildings over the next week.

2250 Aqueduct Avenue Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $90,686 – $261,170 (last day to apply is 12/3)

Vleigh 77, Queens, for households earning between $69,155 – $189,540 (last day to apply is 12/4)

64-08 Wetherole Street Apartments, Queens, for households earning between $92,812 – $227,500 (last day to apply is 12/5)

897 New York Avenue Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between  $101,280 – $227,500 (last day to apply is 12/5)

Mosholu Concourse Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $58,698 – $120,540 (last day to apply is 12/5)

Concern Logan, Brooklyn, for households earning between $55,166 – $105,000 (last day to apply is 12/5)

One Sunset Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between $28,766 – $189,540 (last day to apply is 12/5)

The post NYC Housing Calendar, Dec. 1-8 appeared first on City Limits.

By RYAN J. FOLEY and EDDIE PELLS

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Two gymnasts who say they were sexually abused at an elite academy in Iowa filed lawsuits Monday against the sport’s oversight bodies, alleging they failed to stop Sean Gardner from preying on girls despite repeated complaints about the coach’s behavior.

The lawsuits allege USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport were told about “inappropriate and abusive behaviors” in December 2017, including that Gardner was hugging and kissing girls and engaging in other grooming behaviors while coaching at a Mississippi gym.

The organizations failed to properly investigate, revoke Gardner’s coaching credentials, report him to law enforcement or take other actions to protect athletes, the lawsuits allege. They claim the inaction enabled Gardner to get a job at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, in 2018, where the gymnasts say they and other preteen and teenage girls were abused despite additional complaints about Gardner.

The institute was founded by prominent coach Liang “Chow” Qiao, who is known for producing Olympic champions and was also named as a defendant in the lawsuits.

Lawsuits are first filed since Gardner’s arrest

The lawsuits, filed in Polk County, Iowa, are the first civil cases brought in an abuse scandal that came to light in a series of reports by The Associated Press after the FBI arrested Gardner in August. They allege USA Gymnastics and SafeSport, the watchdog created by Congress to investigate misconduct in Olympic sports in the aftermath of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal, missed repeated opportunities to stop Gardner.

The center said Monday it had not been served with the lawsuit and typically does not comment on litigation. It noted that its 2022 temporary suspension of Gardner came “upon receiving the first report of sexual misconduct” against him and was published on its online database of disciplinary action. That was “the only reason Gardner was barred from coaching young athletes in the years until his arrest,” it said.

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Gardner’s sanction escalated from “temporary suspension” to “ineligible” on Sept. 12 due to his arrest.

Responding to questions in August about the original AP reporting, the center said it had been notified by USA Gymnastics that a gym where Gardner worked had resolved a 2018 case involving the coach that didn’t pertain to sexual misconduct. The center said coaches at Chow’s were aware of subsequent allegations involving sexual misconduct but failed to report them.

USA Gymnastics spokesperson Jill Geer said Monday the organization appreciates “the seriousness of this case” but declined further comment.

Gardner faces federal child pornography charges for allegedly placing a hidden camera in a bathroom at a gymnastics studio in Purvis, Mississippi, between December 2017 and April 2018 to record his students. Investigators say he created videos showing close-up images of at least 10 minors naked or undressing, which they recovered from his computers last year while investigating reports of sexual abuse.

Gardner has pleaded not guilty and has been jailed pending trial, which is scheduled for next month. His attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

Plaintiffs in lawsuits are now college students

The lawsuits allege the plaintiffs were 11- and 12-year-old trainees at Chow’s who dreamed of one day competing in the Olympics when they began training under Gardner in 2018. They say they were subjected to “physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, harassment and molestation” until they quit the gym years later.

The plaintiffs include Iowa State gymnast Finley Weldon, who reported claims of abuse by Gardner to police and later went public in an AP interview. The other is 19-year-old University of Iowa student Hailey Gear, who also wants to go public with her allegations, according to her attorney, Elizabeth Pudenz. They seek unspecified damages for their injuries and treatment expenses. Several other former gymnasts have reported abuse, and more lawsuits are expected.

The AP generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly.

In addition to USA Gymnastics and SafeSport, the defendants named in the lawsuit are Qiao, the former Chinese gymnast who opened Chow’s in 1998 and coached Olympic gold medalists Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas; Qiao’s wife, Liwen Zhuan, a coach who helps run the gym; and their family corporations that own the business and the property on which it sits.

Lawsuits detail concerns over Gardner’s ‘grooming behavior’

The lawsuits allege all the defendants were negligent in how they responded to reports of Gardner’s misconduct.

The parents of a gymnast filed reports with USA Gymnastics and SafeSport in December 2017 alleging Gardner required girls to give him long hugs after every training in Mississippi and that he kicked one girl out who refused, the lawsuits claim. He allegedly had an improper closed-door meeting with a girl whom he verbally abused, kissed gymnasts on their foreheads, drank alcohol excessively in front of them, made sexual jokes to girls and inappropriate comments on social media, and stalked one girl who he was instructed to stop contacting, the lawsuits claim.

Gardner’s then-boss also reported to USA Gymnastics in January 2018 that Gardner had engaged in “grooming behaviors,” but he was allowed to continue coaching.

The lawsuits allege SafeSport received another report from a parent at Chow’s “concerning improper behaviors” by Gardner in September 2020 but failed to investigate.

The lawsuits allege Qiao and Zhuan failed to conduct an adequate background check before hiring Gardner and continued to employ him even after receiving complaints that he inappropriately touched girls while spotting them during exercises.

Qiao and Zhuan didn’t immediately return a message left at Chow’s. The gym has said that Gardner passed a standard background check, and it fired Gardner after he was suspended by SafeSport in July 2022, even though “there had been no finding of misconduct at that time.”

Pells reported from Denver.

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in the nation’s capital by a suspect who is an Afghan national, the Trump administration announced a flurry of policies aimed at making it harder for some foreigners to enter or stay in the country.

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The administration said it was pausing asylum decisions, reexamining green card applications for people from countries “of concern” and halting visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.

Days before the shooting, a memo obtained by The Associated Press said the administration would review the cases of all refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.

The stepped up effort to restrict immigration has been harshly criticized by refugee advocates and those who work with Afghans, saying it amounts to collective punishment. Critics are also saying it is a waste of government resources to reopen cases that have already been processed.

The Trump administration says the new policies are necessary to ensure that those entering the country — or are already here — do not pose a security threat.

Here’s a look at the major changes announced over roughly a week:

All asylum decisions suspended

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said on the social platform X last week that asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Besides the post, no formal guidance has been put forward, so details remain scarce about the planned pause.

People seeking asylum must show to U.S. officials a threat of persecution if they were sent back to their home country, whether because of race, nationality or other grounds. If they’re granted asylum, they’re allowed to stay in the U.S. and eventually apply for a green card and then citizenship.

The Afghan suspect in the National Guard shooting was granted asylum earlier this year, according to advocate group #AfghanEvac.

The right to apply for asylum was already restricted by the Trump administration. In January, Trump issued an executive order essentially halting asylum for people who have come into the country through the southern border. Those cases generally go through immigration courts which are overseen by the Department of Justice.

USCIS oversees the asylum process for foreigners the government isn’t trying to remove via immigration courts. While Trump’s January order didn’t affect those cases, Edlow’s social media post suggests they will now come under additional scrutiny. Edlow did not say how long the agency’s pause on asylum decisions would last or what happens to people while those decisions are paused.

Caseloads have been rising for all types of asylum applications. The number of asylum cases at USCIS rose from 241,280 in 2022 to a record 456,750 in 2023, according to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics.

A focus on countries ‘of concern’

On Nov. 27, Edlow said his agency was conducting a “full scale, rigorous reexamination” of every green card for people he said come from “every country of concern.”

“American safety is non negotiable,” Edlow said.

The agency said in a press release that same day that it was issuing new guidance that could make it tougher for people from 19 countries the administration considers “high-risk,” including Afghanistan, when they apply for immigration benefits such as applying for green cards or to stay in the U.S. longer.

The administration had already banned travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 of those countries and restricted access for people from seven others.

No visas for Afghans

Other stricter stricter measures are also directed at Afghans.

On Nov. 26, USCIS said it would be suspending all “immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.” That would affect Afghans already living in the U.S. who are applying for green cards or work permits or permission to bring family members to the U.S.

Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced late Friday on X that the State Department has temporarily stopped issuing visas for all people traveling on Afghan passports.

The Trump administration had already severely limited travel and immigration from Afghanistan. The one avenue that had remained open was the Special Immigrant Visa program. Created by Congress, it allowed Afghans who closely supported the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan and faced retribution because of their work to emigrate to America.

But the State Department’s announcement means even that avenue is now closed.

According to #AfghanEvac, a group that advocates for Afghans coming to the U.S., about 180,000 Afghans were in the process of applying for the SIV program.

FILE – Police officers block a street as demonstrators march at a protest opposing “Operation Midway Blitz” and the presence of ICE, Sept. 9, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

A review of refugees admitted under the Biden administration

Even before the shooting of two National Guard members, the Trump administration was planning a sweeping review of tens of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration as part of the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program.

That program, first launched in 1980, oversees the process by which people fleeing persecution can come to the U.S. Refugees are distinct from people seeking asylum, although they meet the same criteria. Refugees have to apply and wait outside the U.S. to be admitted while asylum-seekers do so once they reach the U.S.

Trump suspended the refugee program the day he took office and only a trickle of refugees have been admitted since then, either white South Africans or people admitted as part of a lawsuit seeking to restart the refugee program.

Then on Nov. 21, Edlow said in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that the administration was going to review all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration. That’s nearly 200,000 refugees.

Advocates say refugees already undergo rigorous vetting.

By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Four Republican-led states agreed to settle lawsuits against the federal government over access to voters’ citizenship data, ending a dispute that began with the Biden administration in advance of the 2024 presidential election.

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Officials in Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio entered the settlement with the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem roughly a year after the states individually sued the agency under President Joe Biden. They had alleged the previous administration was withholding information about citizenship status that they needed to determine whether thousands of registered voters were actually eligible to cast a ballot.

Each of the states could soon run searches for thousands of voters using names, birthdays and Social Security numbers through the federal government’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program. It has been significantly upgraded under the Trump administration. In turn, the settlement reached Friday says the states may share driver’s license records with the Department of Homeland Security “to assist in improving and modernizing” its database.

The information sharing is likely to be a focal point of the 2026 midterm elections. Voting rights groups have already sued the administration over the expanded program, known as SAVE, arguing that the recent updates could result in eligible voters being unlawfully purged from voter lists. Separately, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has asked at least half the states for their complete voter rolls, a request that Democratic elections officials have questioned out of concern that the data would be provided to DHS.

Voting by noncitizens is illegal in federal elections and can lead to felony charges and deportation. State reviews show it is rare for noncitizen s to register to vote and even rarer that they actually cast a ballot.

Still, before the 2024 election, Trump pushed claims without evidence that noncitizens might vote in large enough numbers to sway the outcome. Many Republican candidates and lawmakers nationally emphasize that even one instance of a noncitizen voting illegally is too many.

The SAVE program, which has been around for decades, is operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of DHS. It has been widely used by local and state officials to check the citizenship status of people applying for public benefits by running them through a variety of federal databases.

DHS and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency updated the SAVE program earlier this year, according to public announcements. It is now free for election officials, allows searches for voters by the thousands instead of one at a time and no longer requires agencies to search using DHS-issued identification numbers. When a name, date of birth and government-issued number is entered, the database will return initial verification of citizenship status within 48 hours, according to the settlement.

As part of the settlement, Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio will develop a memorandum of understanding with the federal government within 90 days on use of the SAVE program. The settlement also dictates that they will negotiate a new information-sharing agreement for “for the purpose of improving” the SAVE system. That may include providing DHS with 1,000 “randomly selected driver’s license records from their state” within 90 days.