Plan sets eight citywide goals to address racial disparities across employment,
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice today released the final Citywide Racial Equity Plan (REP), New York City’s first government-wide framework for advancing racial equity.
The final plan follows a 30-day public comment period after the preliminary plan was released in April. During that period, the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice (MOERJ) gathered feedback from New Yorkers across the five boroughs and worked with 45 City agencies to strengthen the plan’s goals, strategies and indicators.
Alongside agency-level commitments finalized this year, the plan sets eight citywide goals that New Yorkers can use to track the City’s progress:
- Housing: By 2034, address racial disparities in rent burden and homelessness by dramatically increasing the production of affordable housing across New York City.
- Early Childhood Education: By 2034, reduce achievement gaps and racial disparities in literacy, numeracy and social-emotional development by expanding and improving early childhood education while advancing job quality for child care workers – the majority of whom are women of color.
- K-12 Education: By 2034, increase the number of integrated New York City public schools with stable enrollment, equitable access to academic programs and services, and culturally responsive leadership that improves belonging, engagement and academic outcomes for Black and Latino students, multilingual learners, students with disabilities and other historically underserved communities.
- Unemployment: By 2034, reduce unemployment rates among Black, Latino and Asian American New Yorkers relative to 2026 rates, including by improving workforce development outcomes.
- Justice System: By 2034, reduce the jail population, which is disproportionately made up of New Yorkers of color, while operationalizing smaller borough-based jail facilities.
- Health: By 2034, improve pregnancy-related health outcomes for Black New Yorkers, including by reducing Black maternal mortality, with progress tracked by race and ethnicity.
- Transportation: By 2034, reduce racial disparities in transportation access by prioritizing faster, more reliable and accessible bus service in Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity (TRIE) neighborhoods and communities experiencing the greatest transportation burdens.
- Connectivity: By 2034, increase home broadband adoption in the city’s most under-connected neighborhoods, with data disaggregated by neighborhood.
“New Yorkers told us what mattered to them, and this plan is built around those demands,” said Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. “For too long, government has been willing to acknowledge inequality without setting goals for ending it. This plan changes that. These commitments are specific, measurable and public, and New Yorkers should hold us accountable for delivering on them. Whether it means narrowing disparities in unemployment, reducing Black maternal mortality or making sure every child has access to a great public education, this is what it looks like to govern with equity in mind.”
“This plan sets targets we intend to meet and gives New Yorkers a way to check our work along the way,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. “The goals around unemployment and housing speak directly to what we hear from working New Yorkers every day: They want a fair shot at a job and a home they can afford in the neighborhoods they call home.”
“The public feedback sessions gave New Yorkers the opportunity to make this plan stronger and more intentional,” said NYC Chief Equity Officer and NYC Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice Commissioner Afua Atta-Mensah. “We heard a clear demand for baselines, accountability and structural change. Training sessions and outreach alone are not enough to change people’s lives. The final Racial Equity Plan reflects the input from New Yorkers of all backgrounds. New Yorkers should be able to see and feel the impact of this work, and government must be accountable for closing these disparities.”
The final citywide Racial Equity Plan builds on the NYC True Cost of Living (TCOL) Measure, also released in April, which found that 62% of New Yorkers cannot meet the true cost of living and that the burden falls disproportionately on Black and Latino households.
MOERJ will report every two years on progress toward each of the eight citywide goals, alongside the plan’s broader set of agency-level goals, strategies and indicators. The NYC Commission on Racial Equity (CORE) will continue to serve as an independent accountability partner on implementation.
“SBS is proud of our role in addressing systemic inequities and connecting New Yorkers from all backgrounds to free business and workforce services that build real economic security,” said SBS Commissioner Kenny Minaya. “I want to thank Mayor Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Su, and our sister agencies for their partnership, and recognize the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice for its leadership in bringing this plan together and ensuring that race is never a barrier to success in New York City.”
“This racial equity plan will be our guide to ensuring that every New Yorker can fully participate in the cultural life of our city as artists, cultural workers, and audiences,” said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij. “New York's vibrant cultural ecosystem was shaped by generations of advocates who fought for inclusion through public investment, but funding and resources remain uneven for communities that have experienced generations of underinvestment. This plan recognizes that cultural equity, racial equity, and economic justice are inseparable, and will shape how DCLA distributes public resources, designs programs, and measures success.”
“For far too many New Yorkers, a stable, affordable home remains woefully out-of-reach, particularly for communities of color who have borne the legacy of discriminatory housing practices. The Citywide Racial Equity Plan is a significant step in addressing this disparity,” said Department of City Planning Director Sideya Sherman. “By creating more income-restricted housing across all five boroughs, we can level the playing field for low-income families and give more New Yorkers the opportunity to live in the neighborhoods of their choice, remain in the communities they call home, and build a future in our city.”
“ACS is committed to eliminating racial disparities across New York City’s child welfare, juvenile justice, and childcare assistance systems and advancing equitable outcomes and well-being for children, youth, and families,” said Rebecca Jones Gaston, Commissioner of the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). “This racial equity plan builds on our ongoing work to address disparities in both people’s involvement with and experiences of our systems, from expanding access to concrete resources that help families thrive, to strengthening mandated reporter training and reducing unwarranted reports of suspected child abuse, to ensuring the lived expertise of families and young people informs our strategies and solutions. We will continue to work in close partnership with families, youth, communities, providers, and other system partners to advance this work. We applaud the Mamdani Administration for prioritizing these efforts and for its commitment to ensuring that race or ethnicity does not determine whether or how a child, young person, parent, or family experiences ACS.”
“The Department of Finance is committed to administering the City’s tax and revenue laws fairly, efficiently, and transparently, and ensuring that every New Yorker has equitable access to the services we provide,” said Finance Commissioner Richard Lee. “Under Mayor Mamdani’s leadership, we are advancing policies that reduce barriers for historically underserved communities and expand access to benefits, tax relief programs, and other resources that support all New Yorkers. With the launch of the Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention, we are also bringing agencies and stakeholders together to protect vulnerable homeowners and confront the growing threat of deed theft and fraud. I thank the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice for its work on this initiative and look forward to advancing equity and making New York City a fairer and more just place to live.”
“DSNY is committed to placing racial equity at the center of critical programs around diversion, cleanliness, containerization, and commercial waste reform, building on recent waste equity and environmental justice initiatives,” said NYC Sanitation Commissioner Gregory Anderson. “This report lays out plans to identify disparities, make improvements, and expand partnerships with local organizations — not just for awareness, but for real changes in how programs are implemented in historically underserved communities.”
“Racial inequity, historic and continuing, is a stain on American society,” said NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “It wastes enormous talent and beauty that exists, but is not always allowed to flourish, in our Black and Brown communities. I am proud to be a citywide elected official of New York City at this time, when frank, measurable commitments to increasing racial equity are being made, at long last. It will be a privilege for my office to track and advocate for progress toward these goals and support New Yorkers citywide in doing the same.”
“Today’s release of New York City’s first-ever Final Racial Equity Plan is a historic and long-awaited milestone,” said Deputy Speaker Nantasha Williams. “This plan represents years of advocacy and a commitment made directly by New Yorkers to embed racial equity into how our city plans, budgets, and delivers for our communities. I want to thank Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his commitment to seeing this work through, MOERJ Commissioner Afua Atta-Mensah for her leadership, and CORE Chair and Executive Director Linda Tigani for her steadfastness throughout this process. The release of the plan is an important achievement, but ultimately its success will be measured by implementation and whether New Yorkers can see and feel meaningful change in their neighborhoods and their lives. As Deputy Speaker, I look forward to working with the Administration, MOERJ, CORE, and my colleagues in the Council to ensure we turn the commitments in this plan into measurable and lasting progress.”
