Queens borough budget hearing: community boards push for sewer fixes, housing, precincts, hospitals and school upgrades

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards convened a two‑day public hearing on the mayor’s preliminary fiscal year 2026 budget on Jan. 27, hearing multiple community boards and nonprofit organizations press for capital and expense funding to address floods and sewers, housing needs, public safety, health care equipment and school facilities.

The hearing brought representatives from nearly every Queens community board plus hospitals, CUNY campuses and dozens of neighborhood nonprofits to present specific requests and short narratives of local needs. Top priorities raised repeatedly were upgrades to sewer and stormwater infrastructure, expanded affordable and supportive housing, new or expanded police precincts and emergency infrastructure, hospital capital equipment, and school and college facility work.

Why it matters: Queens communities described recurring, damaging floods in multiple neighborhoods and said aging combined sewers are failing as new housing and population pressure increases demand. Officials and nonprofits said many of the borough’s capital priorities require city, state and federal funding working together and urged the borough president and Queens’ City Council delegation to press for targeted allocations during the budget negotiations.

Most‑raised needs and notable requests

Sewer, flood and coastal protection: Community Board 1 district manager Florence Cloris said sections of her district require “immediate full pipeline reconstruction,” describing chronic ponding and sewage backflow that forces residents to repair water damage and live with hazardous conditions. Community boards across Queens — including CB2, CB3, CB4, CB6, CB10 and CB14 (Rockaway) — emphasized combined sewer upgrades, catch basin cleaning and street…