Citizen Action of New York and Coalition on Human Needs Report New Findings on Poverty

New York is finally seeing poverty rates edge downwards. Sustained economic gains and strong federal and state programs have led to welcome progress in the fight against poverty over the last several years.

But poverty in New York remains higher than it was before the Great Recession, and actions by Congress and the Trump administration threaten to weaken the very programs that have contributed to progress made so far.

Click here to read Poverty and Progress in New York

That’s among the findings of Poverty and Progress: The State of Being Poor in New York and New Threats Ahead, a new report released today by Citizen Action of New York and the Coalition on Human Needs.

New York’s poverty rate was 14.7 percent in 2016, down from 15.4 percent in 2015 and from 15.9 percent in 2014 according to U.S. Census data released in September. Nationally, the poverty rate declined to 14.0 percent in 2016, down from 14.7 percent in 2015 and from a high of 15.9 percent in 2012.

“New York is making modest progress in reducing poverty, but we can and must do better,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizens Action of New York. “With job growth continuing and with strong federal and state programs for low-income New Yorkers, we are in an excellent position to reduce poverty more substantially. There are 2.8 million New Yorkers living in poverty who are counting on us to succeed. Now is the time to invest in these programs and build on the positive momentum – rather than reduce funding.”

CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein said many New Yorkers have been lifted out of poverty by programs such as housing assistance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), low-income tax credits and assistance for people with disabilities.

“But now these very programs are on the chopping block,” she said. “The budget passed by Congress and backed by the White House would cut billions of dollars from these very programs. Such cuts would cause millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to suffer in poverty and near poverty.”

Among the report’s findings:

Several communities of color saw improvements in poverty rates: 21.1 percent of African Americans and 24.2 percent of Latinos in New York lived in poverty in 2016, down from 22.6 percent and 25.5 percent in 2015, respectively. Both communities saw poverty rates return to pre-recession levels, showing that progress has been made. However, communities of color still remain disproportionately affected by poverty; the poverty rate among non-Hispanic whites in 2016 was 9.6 percent. It is important to note that Latinos are poorer in New York than in the U.S. overall.

New York has made progress in lowering the child poverty rate, which stood at 20.7 percent in 2016, down from 2015 when it was 22.0 percent and down from 2013 when it was 22.8 percent. Tragically, children remain more likely to be poor in the U.S. than any other age group. As with adults, children of color experience poverty at much higher rates than their white peers. In fact, African American and Latino children are more than twice as likely to be poor as white children. In 2016, 13.3 percent of non-Hispanic white children in New York lived in poverty, compared with 29.3 percent of African American children and 31.5 of Latino children.

New York also has made progress in the number of people with health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and New York’s decision to use federal dollars available to the state to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income adults. In New York, 6.1 percent of the population was uninsured in 2016, down from 10.7 percent in 2013. Nationally, the uninsured rate in 2016 was 8.8 percent, down from 9.1 percent in 2015.

Poverty and Progress: The State of Being Poor in New York and New Threats Ahead notes that over the years, anti-poverty programs have lifted 3.1 million New Yorkers, including 840,000 children, out of poverty on average each year between 2009 and 2012. Examples: 440,000 were lifted out of poverty on average each year by Supplemental Security Income (SSI), 710,000 fewer were poor because of SNAP, and 580,000 escaped poverty because of housing subsidies.

But these are the very programs threatened in Congress and by the Trump administration.

Overall, the report notes, the Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution passed by Congress would slash programs serving low- and moderate-income people by $2.9 trillion over a decade.

Even with the Affordable Care Act remaining in place, the budget would slash Medicaid by $110 billion by adding a harmful work requirement for recipients.

It would cut SNAP by $150 billion and cut roughly $500 billion from other low-income federal support programs such as the school lunch program, SSI and low-income tax credits.

And it includes more than $90 billion in cuts to educational and social services programs and roughly $300 billion in cuts to other low-income programs, including rental assistance and job training.

It also calls for $800 billion in cuts to domestic appropriations, threatening further cuts to housing, education, and substance abuse treatment, to name just a few, as well as substantial reductions to Medicaid, SNAP, assistance for people with disabilities, and other critical programs.

“This budget shows the vision of the House and Senate leadership – to drastically reduce critical programs for low-income families in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich and corporations,” Weinstein said. “If our elected leaders really want to boost our economy and create jobs and a highly-skilled labor force, they would invest in programs that lift millions of children out of poverty, not cut them. They would invest in programs that allow parents to find and keep good paying jobs, like training programs, scheduling and paid leave protections, and child care. And they would require the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share, so we can increase these investments.”

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