News Update: Recent Interesting Articles and Reports

Here are some recently published interesting articles and reports to check out.

State/Local:

• “For Transgender Homeless, Choice of Shelter Can Prevent Violence,” by Diana Scholl, City Limits, Dec. 6 – Transgender homeless at risk of violence in certain shelters, city policy allows people to stay at shelters based on gender they self-identify with.
• “Subtraction Lesson: The 26 Schools Slated for Closure,” by Jarrett Murphy, City Limits, Dec. 6 – City closing more public schools, examination of reasons for their shutdown.
• “Fights Over Medicaid Could Threaten New Administration’s Health,” by Ari Paul, GothamGazette, Dec. 2010 – Due to high state budget deficits, Gov. Andrew Cuomo facing pressure to cut spending on health care for low-income people.

National:

• “High Expectations & Strong Supports Yield Postsecondary Success,” The Forum for Youth Investment, Dec. 14 – Brief on increasing education for older, vulnerable youth by providing the support needed for their success.
• “How to Turn a School System Around,” by Nikhil Swaminathan, GoodMagazine, Dec. 9 – Reports provide information on how school systems can improve and better educate students; city and local school districts must tailor options to meet specific school systems’ needs.
• “America’s Most Vulnerable,” by Charles M. Blow, NYTimes, Dec. 10 – A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study shows the level of child wellbeing in the wealthiest 24 countries in the world, with the U.S. ranking last. – “Children that Fortune Forgot,” NY Times, Dec. 12– Chart displaying information revealed by UNICEF study.

Study shows number of hungry in NYC increased in 2010, recommends policy improvements

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) revealed that demand at NYC food pantries and soup kitchens increased by 6.8% in 2010 after already going up by 20.8% in 2009. The information was in a survey titled “Hungry New Yorkers Barely Hang On,” which further showed that 51.4% of NYC soup kitchens and pantries did not have sufficient resources to meet this high demand. The Huffington Post quoted Joel Berg of the NYCCAH stating:

“No one is celebrating that in the richest city in the history of the world, with 58 billionaires, half of the charitable organizations have to turn people away.”

The NYCCAH made several policy recommendations for the federal, state, and city government in order to reduce these high levels of hunger, and make already existing programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (previously the Food Stamp Program) more effective.

Federal recommendations include:

• Making school breakfasts standard in public schools;
• Funding universal school lunches (As discussed in the previous blog post, the recent passage of the Child Nutrition Bill has made significant steps toward this achievement);
• Expanding number of children who are eligible for free/reduced price lunch programs; and
• Avoiding cutting funds from needed programs like SNAP to fund alternative efforts.

New York State recommendations include:

• Ensuring access to the Women, Infants, and Children Program site in every low-income neighborhood; and
• Increasing state funding for outreach efforts, breast-feeding promotion, and peer counseling in order to support early childhood health and wellbeing.

New York City recommendations include:

• Expanding the Breakfast in the Classroom program and mandate that it be used during instructional time;
• Continuing and expanding the universal school lunch program; and
• Increasing outreach on the Women, Infants, and Children program and summer meals.

If these suggestions are taken seriously, the dire problem of hunger in New York can begin to be alleviated, particularly for youth. As Berg states, “the only reason we’re not experiencing a full-blown catastrophe” is because of the implementation of government programs. In order to diminish hunger further, these programs must be examined, evaluated and improved. To read the report in full, please click here.

Homeless population in great need, but funds for services being cut

According to the Queens Courier, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) announced Code Blue procedures would take effect at 8 p.m. Dec. 7, and continue until 8 a.m. the next morning on Dec. 8. This means that because the weather prediction was of a temperature or wind chill below 20 degrees, the DHS doubled both its outreach vans and personnel that night to protect unsheltered people from death. These outreach teams assess the health of homeless individuals and evaluate their symptoms of cold weather distress, such as hypothermia and frostbite, providing help when needed.

Similarly, the Bronx Times reported on Nov. 22 that the Coalition for the Homeless’ food vans have been feeding more than 900 homeless New Yorkers each night in the Bronx and Manhattan. Over the last year, the demand for NYC’s food pantries and kitchens has increased by nearly 7%.  Clearly, New York families are in desperate need of assistance, and this need is only deepening as winter sets in.

These examples highlight substantial programs that New York’s homeless population is in dire need of. But with budget cuts reducing funds for homeless services, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, it is likely that these programs will face huge funding losses in the upcoming months.

The Gotham Gazette reported that the budget cuts are part of an attempt to close a $3.3 billion budget hole next fiscal year. The Bloomberg administration proposed nearly $1.6 billion in new cuts last month, with nearly $19 million of which being taken from the Department of Homeless Services over the next 18 months. With these cuts, the department will have less ability to provide the kind of outreach that was used the other night to ensure that homeless individuals did not die in the cold. Between 2005 and 2010, the shelter population increased by nearly 9%. Currently, 18.7% of NYC residents live under the federal measure of poverty. It is not the time to greatly reduce the budget for services that New York’s most suffering individuals are in critical need of.

For more on information on the budget cuts, click here.

City puts more at risk by cutting funds for homeless youth

Due to city and state budget cuts, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) will be cutting its Runaway and Homeless Youth Services expenditures by $969,407 in the current fiscal year, and by another $700,000 in FY12. Other reductions by the DYCD in services for homeless youth include:

• Street Outreach Services will be cut by 50% in FY11 and eliminated in FY12;
• Drop-In Centers, funded by the City Council, will be reduced by 50% in FY11; and
• The DYCD’s Borough-based Drop-In Centers in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens will be reduced by 1/3 in FY11 and 23% in FY12. The Staten Island Drop-In Center will be cut by 10% in FY12.

Homeless LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) youth, who make up 40% of the homeless youth population, will be disproportionately affected by these cuts. The Ali Forney Center and the Bronx Pride Center, both of which provide supportive services for this population, are both losing 50% of the city funds that were allocated for their drop-in programs, totaling $185K of the $969K in cuts.

These cuts could be devastating. A 2008 census by the New York City Council indicated that about 3,800 youth experience homelessness in NYC, and there are only several hundred shelters and transitional beds available for these thousands of young people. Moreover, homeless LGBT youth often have a more difficult time staying in these shelters because they are often subjected to homophobic abuse. Drop-in and outreach centers are critical, and without these services many will not have the assistance needed to combat the struggles of living on the street.

These cuts are also being enacted despite research that indicates need for more drop-in centers and outreach efforts. In October 2009, Mayor Bloomberg appointed a 25-member commission to research how to better assist homeless LGBT youth and prevent future homelessness amongst this population. The commission’s report suggested adding 200 beds for LGBT youth, increasing drop-in center hours, extending particularly overnight hours, and expanding street outreach. Ironically, the city is now doing precisely the opposite of what their own commission recommended, making what could have been an effective effort to help NYC’s struggling youth completely go to waste. Hopefully these changes will not put more youth at risk, but it seems, undoubtedly, that they will.

Report reveals upsetting percentages of children in poverty, change needed for youth nationwide

In their November Early Childhood Education Update, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) reported the National Center for Children in Poverty’s (NCCP) findings on low-income children and their families based on the 2009 Census data. The facts include that in 2009:

• Children (under age 18) represented 36% of all people living in poverty, even though they comprise only 25% of the population.
• About 42% of children lived in low-income families at 200% or below the federal poverty level, while about 21% of youth lived in poor families.
• 46% of young children (under age 6) lived in low-income households, while 24% lived in poverty.
• 53% of young children (under 6) in urban areas lived in low-income families, while 38% of young children in suburban areas and 54% of young children in rural areas did.

The NCCP’s statistics on children in poverty in New York show that locally, the situation is not much better:

• 40% of all children (under 18) live in low-income families at 200% of below the federal poverty level.
• 20% of all children live in poor families, below 100% of the poverty level.

Unfortunately, the NCCP further reported that the percentage of children living in low-income families (both poor and near poor) has increased from 37% in 2000 to 42% in 2009. Moreover, the percentage of children under 18 in low-income families is greater than that of adults, with children nearly twice as likely as adults (age 65 and older) to live in poor families.

The report states that factors contributing to children’s poverty include race/ethnicity, parents’ education, and parents’ employment. But with the divide in Congress created by the recent election, and voters appearing to be against government spending, quick improvement in these areas seems unlikely. Janet Hook and Sara Murray reported in the Wall Street Journal that already, Congress is unlikely to extend unemployment benefits for two million jobless workers by the time the benefits program begins to lapse in two weeks. It is also already likely that Bush-era tax cuts for the highest earners will be extended. With these devastating statistics showing how much families are in need, these changes leave little hope for people in poverty. Impoverished children often do not have the voice to advocate for themselves. Public pressure from adults is needed now, more than ever, to support the nation’s struggling youth.

Additional articles and reports

Here are some more interesting recent articles and reports to check out:

State/Local:
• “Community Care Center Opens in Bronx,” by Peter Milosheff, Bronx Times, Nov. 10 – Amerigroup Community care opened its first facility in the Bronx, offering low-income families state-sponsored free and low-cost health insurance programs for children.

• “Community Colleges Grad Rates Are Low,” by La Shawn Pagan, Queens Courier, Nov. 10 – 71.5% of full-time CUNY community college students fail to graduate after 6 years, programs such as childcare assistance offered to help students graduate faster.

• “Community Demands Living Wages,” by Luisa Garcia, Queens Courier, Nov. 10 – Labor and community groups protested for living wages for retail workers, part of growing campaign to require city businesses that receive public subsidies to pay a living wage with benefits.

• “Tell Me What I Want to Hear: Bloomberg’s Living Wage Study,” by John Petro, Huffington Post, Nov. 9 – Mayor opposes bill that would guarantee workers at city-led development projects a living wage, believing that it will raise unemployment.

National:
• “Recession Shadows America’s Middle Class,” by Marc Pitzke, Spiegel Online, Nov. 10 – Many Americans moving from middle-class to near-poverty during recession, and with Republican Party recently reclaiming the House of Representatives, less will be done to help.

• “In U.S., 14% Rely on Food Stamps,” by Sara Murray, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 4 – Number of Americans relying on government assistance to buy food has increased, particularly amongst families, women, and young children.

• “Scary New Wage Data,” by David Cay Johnston, Tax.com: The Tax Daily for the Citizen Taxpayer, Oct. 25 – Income/wage data reveals the depth of job loss in 2009, as well as income inequality. Nationally, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined, but at the very top, salaries increased more than fivefold.

Importance of early learning, care programs for youth

In the previous blog post, I discussed the city’s initiative, EarlyLearn NYC, to better integrate the Administration for Children’s Services’ (ACS) child care system with the Head Start and Universal Pre-Kindergarten programs, in order to make limited funding more efficient and each program more effective. In the report “Strengthening the Pre-K Investment: Next Steps to a Winning Beginning for Every Child in New York State,” Winning Beginning NY, an early care and learning coalition, emphasizes the importance of programs for New York’s youth. Facts published in the report include:

• In the last 12 years, the Universal Pre-Kindergarten program (UPK), which provided free Pre-K services open to all four year olds, offered in both schools and community programs, showed gains in students’ language, reading and social skills.

• Districts with broader assessment measures also showed gains in emotional adjustment, self-regulation, math, and physical and mental health as a result of the UPK initiative.

• The rate of return to an extra dollar invested in programs targeted towards the earliest years is greater than the rate of return on a dollar invested in programs targeting any older age.

Another pamphlet from Winning Beginning NY stresses that the learning that occurs during a child’s earliest years, such as self-control and the ability to focus, is irreplaceable and crucial to future academic success. This learning, however, cannot take place without the presence of carrying adults and educators, although most young children in New York have no parent at home during the day. Children need successful child care and early education, and only effective policies can provide these necessities. The pamphlet states:

“When times are hard, children are especially vulnerable and policy matters more than ever. It’s not always easy to see the connections between legislators’ policies and a young child’s promise; between what happens in Albany and what happens in playgrounds and pediatrician’s offices around the state. But when they study the children born into these trying times, scientists will make those linkages.”

However, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) wrote in their EarlyLearn NYC Concept Paper that although they support many aspects of the initiative, they have an equal number of questions and concerns about the program, including:

“…the underlying financial assumptions, the loss of capacity to serve children needing subsidies, the disproportionate impact on smaller community based programs in communities of color, the impact on the family child care system, implications for the unionized workforce, and concerns regarding the Community Needs Assessment’s overwhelming role in resource alignment decisions.”

The FPWA further explains concerns over the external pressures on ACS to move EarlyLearn forward quickly, for doing so will not allow sufficient time to examine these potential issues with the program. The report states:

“There has been a noticeable absence of any risk analysis and potential impact on communities of moving ahead full scale.”

Therefore, as Winning Beginning NYC reveals, steps towards improving child care and early learning in New York City is crucial, and thus, the ideology behind EarlyLearn NYC is good. But as the FPWA points out, if not closely examined and carried out effectively, the gains the program has the potential to achieve may turn into unfortunate losses.

Budgetary challenges facing NYC’s subsidized child care

In their October 2010 Fiscal Brief, “City’s Subsidized Child Care System Faces Rising Costs, Shrinking Funds,” the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) reports changes in enrollment, spending, and funding for the city’s subsidized child care. Findings reveal difficulty ahead for the child care system:

• The number of children receiving subsidized care rose substantially from 89,000 in 1999 to 116,000 in 2006, a 31% increase. Since then, enrollment has declined to 102,000, a 12% decrease.

• Despite the decline in the number of children receiving subsidized child care since 2006, spending on the child care has continued to rise. This is due to a decrease in the number of children placed in unlicensed informal care, which is less expensive than other types of subsidized child care, and by the rising cost of labor, insurance, and rent.

• Child care spending increased as more federal and state funds became available through the Child Care Block Grant in the first half of the decade. Since 2005, however, these funds have leveled off and spending growth has become increasingly dependent on the availability of city funds. While city funding grew from 2005 to 2009, the growth came to a halt in 2010 as growing budget problems led the city to decrease funding for child care.

To cope with these budgetary challenges, the Bloomberg Administration has developed plans for reducing the number of children in subsidized child care as well as lowering the cost of providing care. The city is also implementing the EarlyLearn NYC initiative, which seeks to better integrate the ACS (Administration for Children’s Services) child care system with the federally funded Head Start program and the state funded Universal Pre-Kindergarten program. Head Start offers educational programs for children ages 3 to 5 and a wide array of support services for their families. The Universal Pre-Kindergarten program provides high-quality, educational pre-kindergarten programs to four-year-old children. Each of these programs is critical for today’s youth, and improvements in them could help New York’s children immensely. Although integrating the three would not provide any additional government funds, it could result in improvements with these existing programs, making the use of limited funds more efficient and more effective.

For the IBO’s Fiscal Brief in full, click here.