A new plan to hire thousands of workers to help families in need in New York
Why it matters: New York is struggling to fill vacancies.
New York City is the nation’s largest municipal employer, but has recently struggled to recruit and retain workers. According to Council data, there were more than 20,000 vacant municipal jobs as of September 2023.
The vacancies have caused service delays that have affected the most vulnerable New Yorkers. For example, last year only 14 percent of financial assistance applications were processed within the required 30 days over a four-month period, compared to 95 percent in 2019, according to preliminary survey data. Management report mayor. City officials say they recently hired 1,000 workers and reduced delays in processing benefits.
“The pandemic and uneven recovery have exacerbated economic hardship, while a lack of capacity within our city agencies has undermined the access to assistance that families could once rely on,” Ms. Adams said in her speech on Wednesday. “This doesn’t have to be our reality.”
How the plan would work: Partly by hiring CUNY students and seasonal workers.
Working with the largest municipal union, District Council 37, starting this year the city would fund an employment initiative that would create a path to jobs in the city for people working in workforce development programs at the City University of New York and others institutions. Participants would receive assistance with civil service exam preparation and exam fees.
The second part of the effort would connect workers who are typically out of work, including young people and asylum seekers, with seasonal jobs in the city, such as cleaning crews or internships in various industries.
Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37, said in a statement that the initiative would “be an engine of economic opportunity and upward mobility for New Yorkers of all backgrounds.”
Background: Ms. Adams pointed to a lack of affordable housing as another reason people are leaving New York.
Ms. Adams has become one of the most outspoken critics of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. She has criticized the city’s budget management and its policies on housing and criminal justice, while proposing alternative solutions.
On Wednesday, Ms. Adams continued her criticism, saying that “years of understaffing and underinvestment have weakened critical agencies.” She said the Council would conduct its own reviews and issue “report cards” to measure the agencies’ performance in delivering services.
Ms. Adams noted that housing costs were forcing black New Yorkers to leave the city in disproportionate numbers. Over the past two decades, she said, the city has lost 10 percent of its black population, or nearly 200,000 people. “Without a path to building equity, aging New Yorkers are moving elsewhere to build their legacies,” Ms. Adams said.
She called on the city to develop more housing, including by repurposing sites like the Aqueduct Racetrack in her Queens district and even building on top of libraries. She said the Council would seek to change zoning rules to make it easier to use housing vouchers in private developments and consider ways to lower the income level needed to qualify for affordable housing.
Among her other priorities, Ms Adams listed mental health, maternal health, childcare and tackling a surge in hate crimes. Addressing the influx of more than 180,000 migrants since spring 2022, Ms Adams said the city needed “more collaboration” to “strengthen” its response. She added that the Council would establish a “newcomers” task force to develop new ideas to help migrants integrate into the city.
“The Council is full of good policy ideas that can provide important solutions to our city’s challenges,” she said. “But laws and policies are only as good as their implementation.”
How the mayor responded: Mr. Adams said he and the speaker had the same priorities.
Mayor Adams, who attended the speech, has argued that his efforts to manage the migrant crisis and help the city recover from the coronavirus pandemic have been successful. In evaluating his tenure to date, he has embraced the slogan “jobs up, crime down.”
But the recovery has been uneven. While there is job growth in the private sector, much of it is in low-wage jobs. Much of the wage increases has gone to higher incomes. And the poverty rate reached 23 percent in 2022, a sharp increase compared to 2021.
The mayor, who faces low approval ratings and whose campaign is under investigation by federal authorities, said his government was “working together” with the Council president to make the city more livable.
“The priorities the speaker laid out today are our shared priorities: childcare, housing, women’s health care and more,” the mayor said in a statement, adding: “We look forward to working on the speaker’s proposals to dive.”