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City Council to Hold Oversight Hearing on 'Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on Communities of Color'


city council hearing

Mayor de Blasio visits health care workers (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


Though the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged New York City, causing more than 17,000 deaths and untold devastation on the lives of residents, the impact has been worse for communities of color where existing disparities in economic status and access to health care have only been exacerbated. On Thursday, the New York City Council will hold a remote oversight hearing to examine those disparities, their causes, and the steps that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is taking to tackle the problem.

The hearing will be led by the Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Council Member Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat who himself contracted and recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“Our goal for the hearing is to understand how systemic failures and injustices in the healthcare system, housing, education and environmental degradation contributed to communities of color being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” Torres said in a statement. “We'll hear directly from experts knowledgeable about how disparities in these areas exacerbated the spread of COVID-19.”

Council Speaker Corey Johnson said, “The Council is holding this hearing to hear from both experts and impacted communities about what is causing these disparate impacts so we can chart a path forward for a more equitable city that eventually closes these gaps of racial inequality.”

On April 6, the city shared initial data that showed black and Latino New Yorkers dying at much higher rates than white and Asian people. De Blasio expressed both a lack of surprise and indignation. Though equity, including racial and ethnic equity and good health care for all, has been a major through-line since his first mayoral campaign, he spoke of the disparate coronavirus impacts almost as inevitable. He pledged additional resources, testing, and an added public information campaign in the hardest-hit neighborhoods.

Nearly three weeks later, on April 26, de Blasio announced the creation of a Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity to monitor efforts to mitigate the outbreak in communities of color and to ensure that long-term recovery programs are focused on remediating existing inequities.

The task force was one of several the mayor announced to focus on a “fair recovery” for the city. He also said he would convene yet another Charter Revision Commission, the third in his time as mayor and the second created by him directly (another commission was created by the City Council through legislation).

“This crisis is not only about a virus; it’s about the fallout from hundreds of thousands of our neighbors losing their jobs and struggling to provide for their families. It’s about the outsized devastation communities of color are facing across the country,” de Blasio said in a statement. “I am not only calling on New Yorkers from all walks of life to help us get our city back on its feet – I am calling on them to join me in the fight ahead for a fair recovery.”

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams had called on the administration two weeks ago to ensure a coordinated response to the impact of the outbreak on communities of color. On Sunday, Williams praised the mayor’s announcement but issued words of warning.

“Who comprises this task force, how quickly they are empowered to act, and the force of that action are paramount,” Williams said in a statement. “Throughout this crisis, our government has moved too slowly on all levels, and now we need to be quick and decisive. The primary function of this task force cannot be to engage in a long, protracted process of deliberation and study, dwelling on how we got here. We know this disparity was created by a long history of systemic inequities and injustices. Additional delays waste time that the people being devastated by this crisis-- those who are deemed essential but treated as expendable-- just don't have. Ultimately, we need results, not a report, and the work of this task force must have a voice in and be supported by the city's budget.”

The mayor’s new racial equity task force quickly faced criticism. Along with Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson, de Blasio appointed his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray, to co-chair the group, which was seen by some as a political move to boost her reputation as she considers a possible bid for Brooklyn Borough President in an election set for next year. McCray has also been the architect and face of ThriveNYC, the city’s beleaguered mental health initiative that has stumbled over a dearth of results for the hundreds of millions put into the program.

Among those who criticized the mayor for appointing McCray was Brooklyn City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who is already a declared candidate in the Brooklyn Borough President race. “We need people that are health experts at the front lines that are doing this work,” Reynoso said in a phone interview. “I think of Chirlane McCray as a very capable and intelligent person. I just don’t think she’s an expert in handling any of these issues that we're talking about.”

Reynoso said the administration should not have been caught off guard by the disparate impact of the coronavirus on communities of color. “My biggest concern is that the mayor ran on a campaign of a ‘tale of two cities,’ so to me it feels like he understood the gross inequities that existed before the coronavirus hit,” he said, “and I just feel like we've had six-and-a-half years to adjust to many issues in a significant or an aggressive way.”

He noted in particular that the communities with the greatest rates of asthma are the poorest communities of color in the city, so the administration should have taken specific precautions to protect those populations from a respiratory disease like COVID-19. “So for me it just is very concerning,” Reynoso said. “We needed to wait for data and even after we got the data, we had to wait some more.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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As Coronavirus Shutdown Goes On, Increasing Concern About Senior Isolation


senior citizens New York

Seniors are especially vulnerable to isolation, now more than ever (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


Senior centers are closed. Visitation to nursing homes has been suspended. Social distancing orders have been broadly applied to businesses. Older people are the vast majority of those dying after contracting the virus. The COVID-19 era is marked by death, vulnerability, and isolation for older New Yorkers, with social interaction increasingly difficult to come by. The resulting isolation, already a major problem for seniors in more normal times, is of significant concern as New York City attempts to save as many people as possible from both the novel coronavirus that has already taken roughly 17,000 city residents and the worst social traumas of its fallout.

“A quick call could help an older adult in your life avoid social isolation,” reads a banner on the homepage of the New York City Department for the Aging, encouraging New Yorkers to call their older loved ones and providing a number, 212-244-6469, for the agency’s recently-launched “Aging Connect” service.

The lack of visits and social interactions can have serious repercussions for older adults. Recognizing that “Loneliness and isolation are increasingly part of the experience of growing old” because of “Reduced inter-generational living, greater social and geographical mobility, [and] the rise in one-person households,” a study of older adults from the United Kingdom showed “individuals with strong social ties have a 50% greater likelihood of survival compared with those who have poor social relationships and networks.”

The drastic COVID-19 era reductions in social interactions for older New Yorkers -- with no trips to senior centers, no visitors at nursing homes, and, if following social distancing rules, no home visits from friends or relatives -- is also putting lives at risk. And while these measures are important to public health, advocates are increasingly worried, and pushing the use of telecommunications to try and maintain connections for seniors. 

Many organizations are seeking new and innovative ways to engage older adults during this crisis and help ease the effects of social isolation.

At the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), a nonprofit that seeks to “promote social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities,”  staff are conducting wellness checks at least once a week to socialize and check in with their older members. Staff check in more frequently with those who are living alone, helping to break the monotony and forge essential connections, according to Edgar Pereira, chief program officer at CPC.

Beyond that, CPC is introducing older adults to Chinese checkers online, hoping it will enable them to play with their friends, and links to an English class where they can continue the learning process despite the upheaval of the organization’s offerings.

“It’s been challenging, but they’ve been very creative in how they’re reaching out,” Pereira said.  

The Center for an Urban Future (CUF), a nonprofit think tank, recently released a report with a series of 40 policy recommendations compiled from various organizations aimed at helping seniors through the coronavirus crisis, including ideas from CPC and others on combating social isolation.

Ed Friedman, the executive director and co-founder of Lifetime Arts Inc, suggested drafting volunteers to call older adults on the phone to converse and to hold participatory online classes for older adults.

Through the calls, Friedman wrote, “those who live alone will feel less isolated, and if there’s a dire problem, the organization sponsoring the volunteers may be able to solve it.”

Combating social isolation by holding the participatory classes, including literary, performing, and visual arts, “will provide meaningful social engagement among participants as well as a meaningful activity that doesn’t have to focus on the epidemic,” Friedman said.

Terry Kaelber, director of the Institute for Empowered Aging at United Neighborhood Houses, a nonprofit, said in the CUF report that government at all levels must help combat social isolation among seniors, especially at this time, and should do so by providing more resources to community organizations to “access and use conference call and video streaming technologies to support virtual support groups, discussion groups, exercise, and other programming,” and “develop phone trees, where CBO staff work with older people to conduct daily check-in calls, thereby activating existing friendship and support networks,” as well as including older adults in the recovery effort, and providing updates on the status of the virus.

The city’s Department for the Again launched Aging Connect, “its in-house contact center,” in mid-February. The phone service, which is in partnership with 311 and the state service for older New Yorkers, connects the caller with an “Aging Specialist” to find “services and supports available for older adults and their caregivers, and volunteer opportunities,” according to the announcement of the service’s launch.

Older adults, their caregivers, representatives from community-based organizations, and others are encouraged to call. “[The] launch of Aging Connect will allow older New Yorkers to speak directly with an expert who has been trained to provide comprehensive solutions for the most complex situations,” said Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez in a statement. “This is yet another exciting step in our ongoing effort to adapt our services to the growing, multifaceted needs of older adults.”

The press release stressed that multilingual support is available, as well as the “capability to translate more than 240 languages over the phone through LanguageLine Solutions.” Specialists are available weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. while other days and hours New Yorkers can call 311.

Another approach being advocated to fight isolation is including older adults in the response to the pandemic. Ensuring seniors are informed and have a say in how the response and recovery impact them might help them feel more in touch with the larger society.

Kaelber, in an interview with Gotham Gazette, said that if older adults are included in the response, it could easily be stronger.

“As we think about recovery and whatever shape that looks like, we know that older people have really good ideas,” Kaelber said. “They’ve lived in their neighborhoods for a long time. They’ve been in New York in a bunch of different ways and making sure we get their input and recovery will be important and also be a good way to make sure that people are connected and not isolated as the recovery efforts start to happen. It’s important that we don’t just go to older people and say, okay, we’ve figured out what you need and there it is. But rather we do it together, we have a concerted effort with community organizations, like settlement houses, to really engage older people and let them define what it is we need. And we’re probably going to come up with a much better solution if we do that.”

Pereira also discussed ensuring seniors have accurate information. In the Chinese community, WeChat is a major venue for conversation and disseminating information. Pereira said seniors who are a part of CAPC turn to WeChat for news regarding the pandemic and its fallout. The problem is that “it’s not as accurate” as it should be, and part of CPC’s response is to “provide updates and get accurate information” to its members.

“There’s no way to really check with people, when people pull out their WeChat, but we have a sense of control and the responsibility to provide the information through the media. So it’s been very helpful, and a lot of seniors appreciate that,” Pereira said. “That’s why we teamed up with local media to say, ‘hey, listen, we want to provide accurate information versus false misinformation.’”

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by Katie Kirker, Gotham Gazette

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Ben Max contributed to this story.

‘Recovery Strategy Group’ Eyes Future of Work in Post-Coronavirus New York Economy


2 experts prep

Workers are at the forefront of a new effort (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


New York’s economy will likely take years to recover from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of people unemployed and billions of dollars in lost revenue. A group of experts from the public and private sectors is hoping to create a roadmap to recovery that will help the state emerge stronger from the most challenging socio-economic crisis it has faced in modern times.

The pandemic has forced the closure of entire industries in New York, with mass layoffs and furloughs ravaging the workforce. The hardest hit sectors include retail, hotels and restaurants, arts, entertainment, and recreation. As of April 18, more than 1.4 million people had filed for unemployment insurance with the state Department of Labor. In New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak, the effects have been dire. By some estimates, the city has already lost 1.2 million jobs and will lose another 475,000 over the next year.

[Read: New Reports Paint Bleak Picture of New York City Economy, Budget]

But the 51-member NY Workforce Recovery Strategy Group, announced this past week, is already planning the way ahead. The group includes representatives from business coalitions, nonprofits, labor groups, policy think tanks, and academia.

“We all recognize that we're all dealing with this firsthand, that there are a lot of issues that need to be triaged and dealt with in the very immediate future,” said Jose Ortiz, Jr., executive director of the NYC Employment & Training Coalition and a member of the new Workforce Recovery Strategy Group. “But we also thought it was important that organizations that were across the different sectors of work and employment came together to start to think about what a strategy would look like for redeploying the workforce, for strengthening the business community, and for ensuring that there was equitable access to a post-COVID economy over the coming months.”

Other organizations participating in the new strategy group include all five borough chambers of commerce; consulting firms; social service organizations; advocacy groups and coalitions; and others, with names including the New York Immigration Coalition; Google; the New York City Hospitality Alliance; and many others.

As Ortiz noted during the Friday interview, it’s understandable that the city, state, and federal governments have been laser-focused on stemming the tide of the coronavirus public health crisis, and have taken limited steps to keep workers and businesses afloat. Federal stimulus dollars have gone to some nonprofits and businesses to maintain their payroll while many individual taxpayers are receiving direct relief funds. Small business loan programs at the federal and local levels were quickly tapped out, though, with efforts to replenish the federal program in motion.

As governments take insufficient, stop-gap measures to tackle the current crisis, the NY Workforce group aims to find specific long-term solutions to future problems, focusing on four key areas: supporting small business and entrepreneurship with grants, loans and workforce development programs; identifying large-scale public works projects that can put large numbers of people back to work; maintaining the educational and job training ecosystem for youth and adult learners; promoting equity for the most marginalized workers and providing them with individual relief.

“I think there are things that we do genuinely have to be concerned about,” said Ortiz, noting that some of the issues facing the state’s workforce existed well before the pandemic. “What does the future of work look like over the next 10 years? How is the economy changing? What are the needs in talent specifically that are associated with those employment needs? And...how do we best support the employers and business groups in delivering that type of talent?”

Concerns about workforce development have been particularly raised in New York City, which saw a strong and sustained recovery from the Great Recession but one that was marked by inequity. The job landscape diversified outside of Wall Street, but most of the new jobs created were in low-paying sectors. Wages went up but did not keep pace with the inflating cost of living. Jobs with better pay required greater education or more skill development, lacked by those who desperately needed those jobs. Roughly 18.9% -- or 1.6 million people -- of New York City residents were living in poverty as of July 1, 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

As Mayor Bill de Blasio touted the city’s success and pushed for creating “good-paying jobs” that pay at least $50,000 a year, experts and advocates like Ortiz noted that the city’s residents may not be the ones filling those jobs -- a debate that raged as the Amazon ‘HQ2’ deal came and went.

“What has become evidently clear during this crisis is that the slow reconstruction of jobs or even elimination of some of those jobs over the next 10 years essentially happened overnight,” Ortiz said.

On Sunday, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio separately announced plans to slowly reopen the state’s and city’s economies. Cuomo’s plan envisions a phased-in regional approach, beginning with construction and manufacturing. De Blasio created several task forces to ensure that efforts at promoting economic growth focus on minimizing the inequities, particularly racial disparities, that already exist in the city and have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

“This crisis is not only about a virus; it’s about the fallout from hundreds of thousands of our neighbors losing their jobs and struggling to provide for their families. It’s about the outsized devastation communities of color are facing across the country,” the mayor said in a statement. “I am not only calling on New Yorkers from all walks of life to help us get our city back on its feet – I am calling on them to join me in the fight ahead for a fair recovery.”

As Ortiz noted, economic recovery takes longer for the most vulnerable workers and they are more adversely affected by each subsequent crisis. In the midst of this pandemic, they also make up a large proportion of the essential workforce that is keeping the city and state’s systems running. “We really need to value people not just in the way of basic essential services, but we need to provide stronger futures for them that includes a strong pathway to employment,” he said.

The 51 initial organizations in the NY Workforce Recovery Strategy Group are Association for a Better New York, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Bronx Chamber of Commerce, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Brooklyn Navy Yard Corporation, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, Center for an Urban Future, Children’s Aid, Chinese-American Planning Council, City University of New York, Civic Hall @ Union Square, Cognizant, Company, Consortium for Worker Educational, DC37, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey, Google, Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, Henry Street Settlement, HERE to HERE, Hispanic Federation, HR&A Advisors, Human Services Council of New York, JobsFirstNYC, L&M Development Partners, Long Island City Partnership, Lutheran Social Services of New York, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals, New York City Employment & Training Coalition, New York City Hospitality Alliance, New York Immigration Coalition, Nonprofit New York, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow, Partnership for New York City, Per Scholas, PHI, Phipps Houses and Neighborhoods, Queens Chamber of Commerce, Regional Plan Association, School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, STRIVE NY, Tech:NYC, The Bronx Private Industry Council, The Fortune Society, The HOPE Program and Sustainable South Bronx, and Workforce Professionals Training Institute.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.



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