a. The council hereby finds that over 40 percent of New Yorkers are affected by poverty or near poverty; that residents of impoverished communities are at increased risk for housing instability and homelessness, mental illness, chronic disease, and lower life expectancy; that in the city of New York, significant differences in poverty rates across race, ethnicity, and gender have persisted for many years as a result of historic and ongoing systemic inequalities; that child poverty affects nearly 1 in 4 children aged 0 to 3 years in the city of New York; that poverty is more likely to affect children, foster youth, young adults, and families of color as well as female-headed households; that single mothers of young children are more likely to drop out of the work force or work low-paid jobs, and to report that they would seek higher paid work if they could access childcare, compared to mothers in two-parent households; that economic disadvantage in a child’s early years has a profound effect on subsequent health, development, and educational attainment; that young adults aging out of foster care in the city of New York face significant barriers to education, employment, and access to housing; that over 4,500 young adults experience homelessness and housing instability in the city of New York each night; that many local and federal policies that were effective in reducing housing instability and child poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic have been discontinued, causing a rebound in homelessness and child poverty; that studies suggest that unconditional direct cash transfer programs offer a cost-effective tool that, in combination with other public benefits programs, can reduce short- and long-term poverty and its negative effects while improving recipients’ well-being across a range of domains; and that additional evidence is needed to determine what characteristics of unconditional direct cash transfer programs are most effective, and to what extent, in reducing poverty and its negative effects while supporting the well-being of children, families, young adults, and other vulnerable individuals.
b. The Council recognizes the value of pilot programs that study and evaluate the impact and potential benefits of unconditional direct cash payments on eligible participants’ quality of life; the importance of individualized counseling for eligible participants’ understanding of the potential effects of such payments on other public benefits that they may receive; and the benefits of collecting consistent, meaningful data about participants and the impacts of unconditional direct cash transfer payments in the context of different program designs. The Council seeks to maximize the utility of such programs and assessments to inform future policymaking.
(L.L. 2023/105, 7/23/2023, eff. 7/23/2023)
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