New York City is at a critical juncture as communities are working together to recover from the pandemic and rebuild. This is also a time of significant change, with new city and state leadership, as well as significant federal funding to support recovery. This moment requires bold leadership and long-lasting investments in children, families, and communities in order to build a foundation for resilience and recovery. 

CCC’s newly released data book, Keeping Track of New York City’s Children: 2022, lays bare the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on children, families, and communities of color, and the critical need for government leaders to take action to lift incomes; stabilize housing; reconnect children and youth to early education, youth services, and K-12 schools; invest in our human services workforce; and address the youth behavioral health crisis. 

As Mayor Adams’ administration and the City Council continue working toward an adopted budget, CCC urges city leadership to support the following budget priorities to advance an equitable recovery for all New York City children, families, and communities. 

Read our FY 2022-2023 City Budget priorities by downloading the publication or reading them below.

Healthy

Support children’s behavioral health needs:

Baseline $5 million in funding for the Mental Health Continuum, a model for integrating a range of direct services to students with significant mental health needs in high-needs schools partnered with hospital-based clinics.

Provide $28.5 million to bolster existing school-based mental health clinics and to bring school-based mental health clinics into 100 new schools.

Maintain funding for Council-funded Mental Health Initiatives, including Children Under Five, Court-Involved Youth, Mental Health Services for Vulnerable populations, Developmental, Psychological, and Behavioral Health, Autism Awareness, and LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

Invest $118 million to bring Restorative Justice to 500 schools in FY 2023.

Ensure our public health systems support children and families

Enhance and baseline funding for Access Health at $4 million.

Ensure programs funded through the Article 6 General Public Health Works Program do not experience a loss in funding due to state reductions.

Provide funding for recent legislation designed to address childhood lead poisoning, including legislation that enhances proactive inspections and tenant notifications (LL39)and legislation that enhances tenant notifications of lead hazards (LL40).

Housed

Improve Access to City FHEPS Subsidy

Fully fund the CityFHEPS voucher rate increase, specifically by increasing budget funding for the program by at least $35 million

Increase upstream access to CityFHEPS by eliminating program requirements that necessitate an eviction filing, shelter history, or income to qualify.

Increase access to affordable and stable housing

Increase access to supportive housing for families with children facing eviction by including domestic violence survivors as an eligible population for supportive housing, and by amending eligibility requirements so they do not require a lengthy DHS stay or a diagnosed disability.

Enforce the mandate to set aside at least 15% of HPD-funded housing projects for people experiencing homelessness, and open Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) homeless set-aside units to all shelter residents, not just those residents in the Department of Homeless Services (DHS).

Address budget cuts and understaffing in DHS, HRA, and HPD:

Increase Human Resources Administration’s (HRA) head count to meet the demand of increased check processing requests (for both the Emergency Housing Voucher’s CityFHEPS and FHEPS) and one-shot deal requests.

Restore funding for HPD and increase staffing to address significant delays in affordable housing production, placement of tenants in units’ set-aside for those at risk or homeless, and inspections and other critical functions.

Address the needs of runaway homeless youth

Support the City Council’s proposal to add $6 million to fund 120 additional runaway homeless youth shelter beds to fill the need.

Educated

Oppose proposed cuts to the Department of Education (DOE), specifically the $375 million cut due to enrollment changes and a staffing cut of 3,600 positions

Achieve an equitable early care and education system

Fund extended day and full year 3-K and Pre-K programs and invent in increased system capacity to serve infants and toddlers full day and year-round.

Support comprehensive parity between early childhood community-based organizations (CBO) staff and their DOE counterparts by addressing the needs of preschool special educators, center directors and assistant directors, and support staff who were left out of the initial parity agreement, and by ensuring the next phase of parity negotiations addresses teacher and staff longevity and benefits.

Invest in the child care workforce by increasing and facilitating access to the state’s upcoming market rate adjustments for center and family day care providers, as well as by increasing the value of vouchers.

Address the backlog of childcare vouchers distributed by Administration of Children’s Services (ACS) and HRA.

Support the City Council’s proposal to strengthen the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) by outlining 3-K and Pre-K enrollment by type of setting and program, cost per pupil, and identify extended day and extended year seats.

Address the needs of foster care students and homeless students

Leverage federal relief money to hire 150 shelter-based DOE Community Coordinators to support students experiencing homelessness.

Fulfill the City’s commitment to hire a DOE team dedicated to students in foster care

Invest $5 million for the DOE to provide bus service or other door-to-door transportation to students in foster care.

Ensure educational supports for bilingual and immigrant students

Invest $2.1 million in this year’s budget and commit to supporting a 3-year, $8.3 million transfer school pilot to increase newly arrived, high-school-aged immigrants’ access to programs that meet their needs.

Safe

Expand year round opportunities for youth development and employment

Support the City Council’s proposal to invest an additional $43.2 million to expand year-round core youth employment programs such as Work Learn Grow and Advance & Learn.

Advance rate equity by increasing the cost-per-participant rates of COMPASS contracts to $1,848 and SONYC contracts to $1,410.

Support the Mayor’s proposal to expand Summer Youth Employment Program and Summer Rising, and ensure sufficient transportation for students, equitably resourced contracts and compensation for providers, and special attention to inclusion of services for students with spe- cial needs.

Ensure that year-round and summer employment, as well as after-school programming, is available and accessible to justice involved youth, disconnected youth, and youth with disabilities.

Invest in mentorship for youth in foster care and justice-involved youth

Baseline $35 million in Fair Future funding to expand services for young people up to the age of 26 and make services available for both foster youth and justice-in- volved youth.

Promote community safety by investing in youth-led community-rooted initiatives

Reallocate $450 million from school policing into opportunities for young people in schools and communities.

Expand investment in Cure Violence and other community-rooted programs that employ a public health approach to community safety.

Fund high-quality youth engagement programs and services, including those employing “credible messengers,” to young people in spaces that are important to them.

Fund comprehensive civil legal services for young people facing barriers to employment, housing, accessing public benefits, or any other legal need.

Invest more deeply in conflict mediation resources at schools and in neighborhoods.

Economically Secure

Invest in the nonprofit human services workforce and advance tax policy to lift incomes

Support the #JustPay Campaign to address and combat inequitable pay among human services workers, by establishing a cost of living adjustment, setting a living wage floor, and creating a comprehensive wage and benefit schedule for government contracted human service workers.

Support the Mayor’s proposal to invest $250 million to deepen the local Earned Income Tax Credit, which establishes the deepest enhancement for the lowest earners.

Combat food insecurity

Increase funding by an additional $63.5 Million for the Emergency Food Assistance Program’s (EFAP) baselined budget to accommodate the increased costs of adding fresh food to the program and continued need.

Increase HRA’s budget by $10 Million and baseline this enhancement to engage CBOs in benefits outreach and streamline benefits applications.

Allocate $5 Million to establish a new Food Justice Grant program to support community-led projects to advance food justice and build wealth in BIPOC and low-income communities.

Include $3.5 million for additional school food managers in The Office of Food and Nutrition Services (OFNS).

Allocate an additional $50 million per year in the DOE’s 5-Year Capital Plan to support a planned phase-in of 500 more cafeteria redesigns and fully scale the highly successful Cafeteria Enhancement Experience (CEE) to all high schools and middle schools, thereby supporting school food participation, student well-being and reduced lunch lines.