Hotels have long been considered a last resort for sheltering people who’ve lost their housing. But over the past few years, they’ve become New York’s predominant response to homelessness outside New York City, a recent investigation by New York Focus and ProPublica found.

Social services agencies across the state now place nearly half of all individuals and families seeking shelter in hotels. Yet those placed in hotels often go without services that they’re supposed to receive in shelters, such as meals, help finding housing and sometimes child care so they can look for work.

The growing reliance on hotels has been driven by soaring rent, shelter closures and a spike in evictions that followed a moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s been a century since a sitting state legislator was last elected to be mayor of New York City.

In 1925, state Senator Jimmy Walker triumphed over incumbent John Hylan to become New York City’s 97th mayor. In 1932, he was forced out of office by then-New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt after accepting numerous bribes from businessmen seeking city contracts.

One hundred years later, 33-year old state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani upended New York politics by soundly defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor. Though he will face several candidates in the general election in November, including incumbent Mayor Eric Adams running as an independent, Mamdani is favored to win and take office as mayor on January 1.

To enact his ambitious agenda to make the city more affordable, he would need to strike a better relationship with his former colleagues in Albany than Walker did.