Council Speaker unveils record of achievement innovating new programs and Council proposals that help New Yorkers
Today, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams delivered her fourth State of the City address at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, outlining her vision for effective leadership of city government. Speaker Adams highlighted major issues facing the city and the Council’s work to tackle them under her leadership. She also unveiled several new proposals that advance increased resources for New Yorkers and solutions to significant challenges across the five boroughs.
Over the last three years, Speaker Adams and the Council have prioritized critical issues of health, housing, safety, and opportunity for all New Yorkers. Speaker Adams has introduced several major new initiatives through her past State of the City addresses, and the Council has incubated these innovative programs with its own funding and through partnership. These programs can make an even greater impact with the increased funding support of the mayor’s office.
- CUNY Reconnect was first established after Speaker Adams proposed it in her 2022 State of the City Address. A university-wide program that re-engages former working-age students who have earned credits to return and complete their degrees, CUNY Reconnect has helped re-enroll 47,000 students, the majority of whom are women and people of color. Over 3,000 returning students have graduated after accessing this new opportunity.
- Speaker Adams announced her intention to establish trauma recovery centers, which are designed to provide victim services for survivors of violent crime less likely to receive help and stop cycles of crime. The Council provided the initial funding and support to establish New York State’s first trauma recovery centers in New York City, within the Bronx and Brooklyn. Its multi-year commitment has provided these new services for communities experiencing high levels of violence, contributing to safer neighborhoods.
- Speaker Adams first announced the intention to initiate city support for anti-poverty guaranteed income programs in her 2023 State of the City Address. The Council then passed Council Member Crystal Hudson’s Local Law 105 of 2023, clearing the pathway for the City to support guaranteed income programs. In October 2024, Speaker Adams and Council Members announced a new Council funding initiative to support a guaranteed income program for expectant mothers to improve maternal health and reduce child poverty. The initiative supported The Bridge Project in establishing a new cohort of 161 pregnant women experiencing housing insecurity who receive regular and unconditional income assistance. It is the first time in city history that municipal funds have been utilized for a guaranteed income program.
Speaker Adams also announced several new proposals, including to expand 7-day library service, childcare support for more working families with infants and toddlers, and CUNY programs for working adult and low-income students. Speaker Adams proposed the creation of a minority business accelerator and a new model of holistic community centers, as well as solutions to non-profit contract payment delay solutions. More details on each of these new proposals are outlined below.
The full text of the speech can be accessed here.
Photos from the speech will be posted on the New York City Council’s Flickr page.
Expanding 7-Day Library Service
- The Council will seek to expand 7-day library service to 10 additional branches citywide. This approximately $2 million expansion will ensure New Yorkers have more equitable access to library services and the educational and economic opportunities they provide across the five boroughs.
Accelerating Minority Business Growth
- To support the successful growth of minority-owned businesses, the Council will help establish a Minority-Owned Business Accelerator, modeled after a similar effort in Cincinnati. Since 2003, the Cincinnati program has helped several dozen minority-owned small businesses scale up by providing them with strong individualized business strategy and support, greater access to capital to finance expansion, and connections to major regional companies that direct significantly more procurement dollars to them. There are roughly 20,000 Black- and Latino-owned businesses across the five boroughs, but far too few of them ever grow from small businesses into medium-sized or large businesses. Yet far too few of them are able to grow into medium-sized or large businesses.
Expanding Child Care for Working Families
- To expand access to affordable childcare for children two years old and younger, the City should fund a voucher that covers half the cost of childcare, or $12,000 per child annually, for families earning up to $128,000 a year—or 100% of the State Median Income. This expansion would provide much-needed relief for working families that are currently ineligible for support and stretched too thin.
Increasing Access to a CUNY Higher Education
- CUNY is an engine of equitable economic opportunity for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers, serving as a pathway to education and mobility.
- To expand access to educational and economic opportunities for working adults and low-income students in the City’s public university system, the City should take the following steps to expand and enhance CUNY support programs:
- Baseline funding for CUNY Reconnect
- Expand Support for Low-Income Adult Learners by establishing CUNY Flex and CUNY Fresh Start programs that provide academic support and forgive old debt
- Expand CUNY ACE from reaching 3% of eligible students to 30% to boost graduation rates
- Expand application fee waivers for more low-income students
Establishing a New Model for Holistic Community Centers
- To address disparities in health outcomes and community safety within certain neighborhoods, Speaker Adams proposes the creation of new community health, wellness, and recreation centers in neighborhoods with significant health and safety challenges. The Council will work with City agencies to develop the necessary planning to create these new centers, beginning in Southeast Queens.
Fixing Administrative Barriers to CityFHEPS
- As part of its continued commitment to reduce bureaucratic barriers to accessing CityFHEPS and ensure its effective implementation, the Council is releasing a set of improvements to the program’s application and benefit delivery processes that can be administratively implemented by the mayoral administration and Department of Social Services. These recommendations present viable, low-cost solutions to issues related to administrative delays, technology, personnel, policies and procedures, and source of income discrimination, among others.
Reducing Delayed Payments to Non-Profits
- Despite their essential role, nonprofit service providers face significant challenges due to the City’s routinely late contract payments. To reduce payment delays to city-contracted non-profit human services organizations and ensure the timely delivery of critical services to New Yorkers, the Council will take the following actions:
- Advance legislation to reduce delayed payments to non-profits by shifting contracts to a grant-based model
- Advance legislation that requires City agencies to submit corrective action plans for Retroactive Contract Registrations
- Advocate for the Administration to restore funding to the Mayor’s Office of Contracts Services (MOCS)
Strengthening Community Planning for Housing & Neighborhood Development
- In December 2022, Speaker Adams released a Planning and Land Use Toolkit, which serves as a principled guide and set of options for Council Members, local communities, land use applicants, and city agencies to employ for successful outcomes that balance citywide goals with neighborhood needs in development.
- To strengthen more inclusive community involvement and create a more equitable planning process, the Council will release a Community Planning Framework that builds on the Planning and Land Use Toolkit.
Expanding the Continuity of Mental Health Care
- Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) programs provide essential, high-intensity treatment and wraparound support services for individuals with severe mental health challenges. However, demand for these services far exceeds capacity. To address the wait lists for IMT and ACT programs and strengthen the continuum of care, the Council will fund the creation of a pilot step-down program for clients who have progressed in their recovery and require less-intensive services.
An accompanying report on the Speaker’s proposals can be found here.
A list of the previous State of the City proposals that have been implemented by the Council can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment