Economic Security Requires Accessible Food & Housing: Here’s What We’re Doing
Insights
November 13, 2024
Each year the week before Thanksgiving is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, a time to reflect on economic security as many of our families and neighbors prepare to gather under the same roof for a cheerful meal. As we give thanks, we must also strive to increase equity in housing and food access.
There truly are solutions that address housing and food security for families—solutions we have the power to influence. But even as the cost-of-living crisis continues to strain financial stability, we have concrete opportunities to alleviate this stress and reduce child poverty.
What’s on the Agenda for Housing Security?
CCC continues to advocate for reforms that would make it easier for families in shelter to exit housing and for families at risk of eviction to avoid housing loss. In the past month, CityLimits published an op-ed by our Executive Director Jennifer March discussing housing initiatives from the Mayor’s City of Yes proposal and child well-being. In the piece, Jennifer examines the connection between unhoused families and child development, writing: “If we want our children—New York City’s next generation—to succeed, we must work towards securing a safe, affordable and permanent home for every child. That’s because housing insecurity is directly correlated with negative impacts on the lifelong development and well-being of children, causing struggles in school and worse health outcomes, among many other long-term consequences.” Considering that NYC’s vacancy rate is at only 1.4% right now, CCC supports plans to expand housing stock that could generate between 100k and 200k houses for families in the city. Additionally, CCC co-submitted a statement representing the Family Homelessness Coalition (FHC) in response to the City for All housing plan, the NYC Council’s response to Mayor Adams’ citywide zoning reform proposal, currently under review by the Council. These plans focus on a range of affordability issues, tackling not only stock issues but other problems preventing families from connecting with housing, including housing voucher utilization, funding for housing agencies, and more. The statement explains: “Tackling the city’s family homelessness crisis requires a broad set of solutions, including more funding for eviction prevention and aftercare services, streamlining rental assistance programs so families can exit shelter faster, and fully funding the city agencies responsible for affordable housing production and benefits access.”
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Over 32,000 children currently live in NYC shelters
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354 average number of days for family stays in shelter in FY24
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1.4% vacancy rate for NYC apartments in 2023
CCC and FHC have consistently pushed for solutions that keep families connected to stable housing, many of which address funding issues for agencies as well as expanded eligibility for rental assistance to prevent evictions and help faster shelter exits. While there are good programs in place to help families experiencing homelessness and housing instability, funding issues, access issues, and waiting times continue to hinder these systems. At the end of October, State Comptroller DiNapoli released an audit of NYC’s City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) program, which revealed that households waited 10 months on average to be found eligible and that program participants struggle to get timely responses on their vouchers once they are approved and applications overall. These issues have been known to families and advocates for some time, especially steering members of the Family Homelessness Coalition. Proactively, CCC submitted testimony to the City Council for an Oversight Hearing on the City of Yes Housing Opportunity Proposal in late October. The testimony acknowledges opportunities to address housing insecurity for NYC’s families through City of Yes, but recognizes, like the State Comptroller’s report and the Council’s own plans, that there are other solutions to housing insecurity that must be prioritized to expedite housing placement for families experiencing homelessness and prevent homelessness altogether. Our testimony recommends steps the city can take to reduce barriers in voucher administration, invest in prevention and aftercare services, and CityFHEPS reform. Collectively, these recommendations would increase funding for timely supportive services at both the top of the assistance application process and after a family is placed in housing to prevent shelter re-entry. We also know that there are legal services organizations who temporarily took on a role in processing housing voucher applications during the height of the pandemic and were successful in speeding up processing times and reducing the overall burden on the system of processing CityFHEPS applications. We fully support dedicated program funding to allow these organizations to regularly process applications and reduce strain on Homebase—a solution that directly addresses the Comptroller’s report findings. Read CCC’s full testimony and recommendations here.
CCC is working hard to collaborate with leaders and organizations to bring forward solutions to these challenges in housing security. We will continue to present recommendations that address wait times, processing issues, and expand housing opportunities to more families in the city. Stay tuned for take actions on our priorities around housing that you can take part in!
Food Security Advocacy Gaining Momentum
Food security is an everyday indicator of child well-being and a big priority for CCC. We have been a long-time supporter of cash assistance and income support programs that address food affordability for families, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). On this front, CCC has joined a newly formed “SNAP4All” Coalition, made up of over 80 organizations across New York State, calling on the state to extend food benefits to low-income households currently ineligible for SNAP solely due to their citizenship status. The Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council (CPRAC) currently has a proposal to create a state food benefit for families with children, with full eligibility for all noncitizens as part of a package of proposals to reduce child poverty by 50% in 10 years. Food security is deeply tied to child poverty, and food programs have a significant and direct impact on reducing it. The coalition wrote a letter of support for this proposal, explaining how exclusion of SNAP benefits from non-citizens hurts a number of New York families with varying statuses, despite contributing nearly $3 billion in state and local taxes per year. A similar letter was also sent to the Governor last month ahead of budget discussions. CCC will continue to be a vocal supporter of this initiative to reduce child poverty for all New York families.
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53% of SNAP participants are in families with children (Hunger Solutions NY, 2022)
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800,000 New Yorkers are excluded from SNAP benefits due to their immigration status (SNAP4All)
In tandem with expanding SNAP eligibility with a state program lookalike, CCC also supports raising the SNAP minimum benefit. The cost-of-living crisis is apparent via grocery bills for families due to significant inflation over the last four years. To put it into perspective, this article from last summer shows how the average household is spending hundreds of dollars more on groceries in 2024 than in 2021. Budgets for families are simply not stretching as far and this financial strain directly impacts child poverty. Last budget season a push by advocates and elected leaders to increase the SNAP minimum benefit to $100 gained traction with the current minimum at just $23 per month (the New York State Senate did include funding to increase SNAP minimum benefit to $50 per month in their FY25 One House budget, but it did not make it into the final state budget). We are renewing this call to increase the benefit along with our partners for Fiscal Year 2026.
Additionally, we are continuing to advocate for Universal School Meals across the state as part of the Healthy School Meals for All NY Coalition. Providing free meals for all students regardless of income is a proven strategy to improve mental and physical health and strengthen educational and economic equity. You can take action for school meals today with the coalition here. A family of four earning just above $55,500 in New York—far below a living wage in our state—does not qualify for free school meals. You can read more about this and school meals impact on poverty reduction in our September Insight “To Fight Child Poverty, Feed Kids in School”.
What’s Next?
As families struggle to afford basic needs across the state, it is critical that we recognize the role food and housing security play in reducing child poverty and increasing child well-being. The throughline of these issues is increasing economic security for all New York families and ensuring effective channels of support are maintained and properly funded. We will be submitting more recommendations to tackle these pressing, everyday issues for children and families at every opportunity this fall/winter into the Fiscal Year 2026 budget season for both the state and city. Stay connected with us for opportunities to make your voice heard in support of our priorities when the time comes.
