As Poverty Rises in New York City, 1 in 4 Can’t Afford Essentials

A quarter of New York City residents don’t have enough money for staples like housing and food, and many say they cannot afford to go to the doctor, according to a report that underscores the urgency of an affordability crisis elected officials are struggling to confront.

The report, by a research group at Columbia University and Robin Hood, an anti-poverty group, found that the share of New Yorkers in poverty was nearly double the national average in 2023 and had increased by seven percentage points in just two years.

The spike is in part due to the expiration of government aid that was expanded during the pandemic.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, appearing to recognize that discontent about the high cost of living could imperil their political futures, have focused their agendas and re-election hopes partly on conveying to voters that they are trying to make New York more affordable. It is a formidable task, said Richard Buery Jr., the chief executive of Robin Hood.

The city “has so much wealth but also so much need,” he said. He added, “These are entirely human-made problems.”

The report is part of a roughly 13-year-study that surveys a representative sample of more about 3,000 households in New York City. Researchers use a different metric than the federal government to measure poverty, taking into account income, noncash support like tax credits and the local cost of living.

Under that metric, the poverty threshold for a couple with two children in a rental household in New York City is now $47,190. The study found that 58 percent of New Yorkers, or more than 4.8 million people, were in families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line — about $94,000 for a couple with two children or $44,000 for a single adult. Poverty rates among Black, Latino and Asian residents were about twice as high as the rate for white residents, according to the report.

Mr. Buery applauded several of the policy proposals in Ms. Hochul’s executive budget as a good start to addressing this crisis. The governor has proposed slashing the state’s income tax for most residents, and she wants to give expectant mothers on public assistance a $100 monthly benefit during pregnancy, plus $1,200 for those mothers when their child is born.

The report found 26 percent of children in New York City, or 420,000 children, live in poverty.

The most sweeping proposal would give eligible families a tax break of up to $1,000 per child under the age of 4 or up to $500 for each child aged 4 to 16. Researchers at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University estimated that the tax cut and several other earlier proposals Ms. Hochul supported could reduce child poverty in New York City by about 17 percent.

“It pains me as a mom to think of little kids’ stomachs growling while they’re in school while they’re supposed to be learning,” Ms. Hochul said in her State of the State address last month.

Avi Small, a spokesman for Ms. Hochul, pointed to cuts to programs like Medicaid that Republicans in Washington want to enact as another threat to poor New Yorkers.

“The governor is tackling the high cost of living with tax cuts, credits and refunds while expanding social services for those who need it most,” he said.

Late last year, Mr. Adams proposed eliminating New York City income taxes for more than 400,000 of the lowest-wage earners. The City Council also passed a major housing plan he championed known as “City of Yes.” The plan includes billions for the construction of affordable housing and zoning incentives that allow developers to construct larger buildings so long as they include cheaper units.

“Mayor Adams has been using every tool in our administration’s toolbox to put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers and make New York City more affordable so that families can thrive,” Amaris Cockfield, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, said in a statement.

The Robin Hood report highlighted a scarcity of housing and its rising cost as main drivers in the growing number of people living in poverty. Most people surveyed were either working or looking for a job. And yet many reported falling behind on rent or struggling to pay for food.

“There is a lack of political will to actually invest in services for the lowest-income people,” said Chris Mann, an assistant vice president for Women In Need, which runs shelters in New York City.

Peter Nabozny, director of policy for the Children’s Agenda, and Mr. Buery served on a state task force that offered policy recommendations for cutting child poverty in half by 2032. Ms. Hochul spurned their suggestions of a larger child tax credit and a new housing voucher.

Mr. Nabozny said some recent government anti-poverty efforts have been positive but “are not large enough to achieve what we could achieve if we really set our mind to it as a state.”

One affordability proposal from Ms. Hochul that some legislators have opposed is giving millions of New Yorkers tax rebates of up to $500 depending on their income. This is slated to cost $3 billion, the same amount as last fiscal year’s budgetary surplus.

State Senator James Skoufis, a Democrat, said that a large portion of this funding could, for example, instead be used to expand a program that reduces the property tax burden on older people.