NYC mayor’s head of homelessness agency is resigning

The three schools in question are the School for an Urban Environment, the Peace Academy middle school and the Foundations Academy HS, all three located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

Peace Academy has only 47 students, the lowest enrollment rate in the city and Urban Environment has only 57, the second lowest.

City officials say the department is undergoing a comprehensive review.

“Closing a school is always a hard decision”, Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement.

Taylor’s departure comes at a time when de Blasio has faced sharp criticism for a rise in homelessness.

It’s not only developers who are nonplussed by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policies – housing activists are also less than pleased with the mayor’s affordable housing plans, and they’re getting loud.

While those schools were “phased out” over a period of years, the current administration plans to shut down the three schools after this academic year.

But education unions – who have in the past railed against closures – claim it is the right thing for the city to do in this case because the schools have too many problems to save.

It is a new tactic for the de Blasio administration, which has aimed to turn around struggling schools by offering extra support through the Renewal Schools program. Yet he also made a point of leaving closure on the table as a “last resort”.

“We will move heaven and earth to help them succeed”, said DeBlasio in November previous year, according to Chalk Beat.

And the state named both of the middle schools on its “persistently dangerous” list this year – based on reports of violence.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images The mayor called tackling homelessness in New York City an “urgent priority”. “No school should be closed”. He previously worked for the Administration for Children’s Services. Mayor Bill de Blasio has become steadily less popular, despite his seemingly populist message.

The city promised to help each of the 212 affected students find a new school for next year.