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Contact: Frank Sobrino
O: (212) 669-4193
Statement
of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum for
City Council Hearing on
Recommendations
of Mayor’s Poverty Commission
Thank you Chair De Blasio, Chair Rivera,
and Chair Vann.
I would like to commend the Mayor
for convening this commission. Government has a responsibility
to help lift working families out of poverty so they have the
opportunity to join the middle class. It is vitally important
that the city administration and the people’s elected representatives
work together to ensure that the recommendations of the Poverty
Commission are implemented effectively and sustained over the
long-term.
To that end, I would like to briefly
raise a few issues and questions that I believe should be considered
at today’s hearing, chief among them the issue of funding.
It is to this administration’s credit that it is willing
to set ambitious goals for the reduction of poverty, but we cannot
expect city agencies to do more without additional resources.
I applaud the Mayor’s pledge
to raise at least $24 million in private funds to underwrite the
Commission’s recommendations. An influx of private donations
will certainly give this new anti-poverty initiative a shot in
the arm. But private donations are not necessarily reliable or
sustainable over the long term, and it is crucial that the funding
to carry out the Commission’s recommendations be institutionalized
so that it outlives the present administration.
It is also crucial, as a plan of action
is fleshed out over the coming weeks, that the Commission’s
recommendations be interpreted broadly to include as many low-income
New Yorkers in their scope as possible.
The Commission’s report calls
for “improving and expanding benefits that support work.”
I urge the administration to interpret this recommendation as
a mandate to adopt tools like the Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents
waiver and remove obstacles such as the finger-imaging requirement
for food stamp applicants, steps that would help more New Yorkers
put food on their tables and bring more federal dollars into the
city economy.
The Commission also recommends that
the city “expand programs that help prepare fathers for
job opportunities, skills-building, and legal, financial, and
emotional responsibilities of parenthood.” I, of course,
strongly support this recommendation.
But in a city where the poverty rate
among single mothers is 41 percent and the labor force participation
rate for single mothers with no more than a high school education
has risen to nearly 58 percent, I would hope that the Commission’s
recommendation could be broadened to include single mothers as
well as fathers.
I will conclude by reiterating the
importance of cooperation among city agencies, the City Council,
the Office of the Public Advocate, and all other government entities
in the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations.
We need to work together to ensure
that this new commitment to low-income New Yorkers is effective
and inclusive in the here and now and sustainable for future generations.
Thank you.
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