“The focus on cutting life-saving programs like SNAP as a method to reduce the government debt is disingenuous, at best, and self-serving and cynical at worst. Taxing the rich would be a far more effective way to address the debt.”
Immigrant-headed households make up only 17 percent of the city’s population but constitute 21 percent of households earning below the “true cost of living.”
“Of all the challenges a child experiencing homelessness may be faced with, a basic lack of supplies to complete schoolwork should not be one of them, especially since education can be a critical tool to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.”
“The very forces contributing to a worsening housing emergency are also impacting the workers tasked with solving that crisis. Those who work to find permanent and safe apartments for the housing-insecure and homeless should not find themselves at risk of eviction and displacement.”
Some in Sunset Park worry their experience of random violence will invoke a response more focused on carceral measures than addressing structural inequalities that shape public safety. “When I think about safety here, I think of how we need stimulus relief bills, unemployment and healthcare,” one local resident told City Limits. “Not police.”
Researchers from the Asian American Federation (AAF) found that about 290,000 Asian Americans in the New York City Metropolitan Area experienced poverty in 2019, up from 252,000 in 2010.
Researchers said their findings counter a narrative that stimulus payments and unemployment benefits were “too generous” and disincentivized work.
Federal and state eligibility rules disqualify those who file with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs—a common practice among immigrant workers. Experts estimate that there are around 107,610 children in ITIN-filing households across New York State.
‘We can address poverty and public health concerns by providing people the housing, social services and care they actually need—and by divesting from policing and incarceration.’
The economy would have been a major topic in this campaign year even if COVID-19 never happened. Now, amid massive unemployment, a fiscal emergency, and potential long-term changes in commuting and retail, it’s pivotal.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
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