Affordable Housing Featured on Next METROFOCUS

A new edition of the award-winning series MetroFocus premieres in the New York metro areaWednesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW21 and Thursday, October 3 at 8:30 p.m. on THIRTEEN and at 10:30 p.m. on NJTV.

The next edition of MetroFocus features a look at the question: what is affordable when it comes tohousing in New York City? The term affordable housing is part of the mayoral campaign and an issue many New York City residents say is one of their top concerns. Host Rafael Pi Roman interviews Becky Koepnick, the Director of the Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy at New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy aboutthe definition of affordable in one of the world's most expensive cities and possible solutions to the problem. Koepnick says, "What we're seeing now is that it's gotten worse than it's ever been and almost three-fourths of low income New Yorkers are paying more than half of their monthly income towards rent."

Jim Paymar, anchor of the Long Island Business Report, brings us the first in a series of stories looking at how the region is coping as the one year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy approaches. Paymar introduces us to Hofstra University Professor Mary Anne Trasciatti who is building a video librarythat's helping residents cope with the trauma and preserve stories from the storm in the hard-hit city of Long Beach on the south shore of Long Island.

MetroFocus begins reporting on some of the six ballot measures facing New York state voters this November. Proposition 5 asks voters to approve a land swap in the Adirondacks between the state and a mining company. Albany Public TV's Matt Ryan, Managing Editor of New York NOW reports from Lewis, NY. The Executive Producer of PBS Nature, Fred Kaufman, tells us how the bird's-eye views in the six-part Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation came to be. Kaufman shares excerpts from the upcoming final episode where we see how the birds actually became filmmakers and why a trained flock of geese took a detour to Brooklyn as they flew past the Statue of Liberty.

MetroFocus is a production of WLIW21 in association with WNET, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

MetroFocus is made possible by James and Merryl Tisch, the Ford Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Charlotte and David Ackert, Jody and John Arnhold, Betty and John Levin and the Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America.