New York City’s Covid-19 Federal Relief Funding: Implications for Human Services And Workforce Development
This report details how the City of New York is utilizing $20 billion in Federal Covid-19 relief funding to support education, public health measures, human services, public safety, and more. In FYs 2021 and FY 2022, New York City planned to spend about three-quarters (nearly $15 billion) of the Federal Covid-19 relief funding, with a little over one-tenth of those funds supporting human services. The bulk of human services funding last year and in the current fiscal year went to house the homeless in hotels or to prevent families from losing their homes, and for youth-related services. While the City is using $300 million for job training and $272 million for small business, tourism, and restaurant industry assistance, these commitments likely will not go far enough to restore employment to the pre-pandemic level, and certainly will not underwrite a “building back better” approach. The City reports that it is using $300 million in Federal fiscal relief funds for “nonprofit financial support” over five years, but that reflects a $60 million annual commitment made before the pandemic. Nonprofit human services providers rose to the challenge of the pandemic. They delivered an array of emergency response services including helping people connect to needed financial assistance, keeping shelters open for the homeless and survivors of domestic violence, delivering food to the homebound, launching telehealth services, and helping families secure digital access in their homes. Yet despite providing these essential services, the City government provided nonprofits insufficient support or guidance. Going forward, the City should recognize that nonprofits are a critical part of crisis response and community recovery, commit to paying equitable wages to contracted human services workers, and fully fund contracts and pay on time.
Editor’s note: This is part of a regular biweekly Covid-19 Economic Update prepared by economist James Parrott of the Center for New York City Affairs with the support of the Consortium for Worker Education and the 21st Century ILGWU Heritage Fund.