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Opinion

Stopping the Crime Wave in the Construction Industry


Construction workers need protection (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


There’s a crime wave affecting hard-working New Yorkers that you won’t hear about on cable news. Construction contractors are using underhanded schemes, shell companies, shady bank accounts, and check-cashing stores to avoid paying employees the full pay they have earned. In New York, that adds up to $1 billion in wages lost every year, impacting tens of thousands of workers. 

As Americans finish filing their income taxes this week, consider that tax fraud in the construction industry adds up to more than $8.4 billion every year in lost federal and state tax revenue. Funds that should be going to fund police and emergency services, build schools, or help veterans are instead lining the pockets of wealthy developers who refuse to play by the rules.  

Getting cheated out of wages is an all-too-common experience for construction workers, and with 528,000 New Yorkers employed by the construction industry – about 1 in 18 workers statewide –  this is an issue that hits close to home for thousands of families in the Empire State. 

Law enforcement officials across New York are stepping up to fight this crime wave, but more needs to be done in Albany to strengthen existing laws. 

At the state level, the Construction Wage Theft Task Force is a coordinated effort among the NYS Department of Labor (NYSDOL), the New York State Attorney General, and local District Attorneys to combat corruption and crime within the construction industry. Due in part to the efforts of this task force, the NYSDOL has recovered more than $360 million in stolen wages over the past decade. 

At the county level, aggressive district attorneys are also cracking down on wage theft. During his tenure as president of the District Attorneys Association of New York, Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler made fighting tax fraud a top priority. Just a few weeks ago, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced his office’s first-ever Worker Protection Unit to investigate and prosecute wage theft. That new unit builds on the success of his predecessor’s Construction Fraud Task Force.

In Albany, there is a renewed push to toughen penalties for stolen wages. A bill introduced by Senator Neil Breslin and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz would amend the penal law in relation to wage theft. This legislation would enable prosecutors to charge larceny for stolen wages, which is a much more serious felony charge than a typical “scheme to defraud” that might be charged today. 

It makes sense – why should a rich contractor get off easier than a petty thief if they both end up stealing a day’s wages from a construction worker?

We hear a lot lately about rising crime, but wage theft is one that stays under the radar. The offenders rely on their victims to stay silent, threatening future employment opportunities and using their power and influence to evade accountability. That’s coming to end, because more and more people understand that workers aren’t the only ones being cheated. Stopping wage theft is good for business, it’s good for blue collar workers, and it’s good for New York’s economy.

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Bill Banfield is Assistant to the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC), the union representing more than 30,000 men and women employed by the leading residential and commercial general contractors and carpentry subcontractors in the region.

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Expanded Health Coverage is a Win for All; State Leaders Should Include it in Final Budget Deal


A health care push (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


Recent estimates suggest that there are approximately 245,000 New Yorkers — our friends, caregivers, laborers, and neighbors who do not have health insurance simply because they do not have a qualifying immigration status. With the three-year mark of the first known COVID-19 case in New York in our rear view, we now know all too well the importance of a strong healthcare delivery system, investments in public and population health, and access to healthcare. 

Because of federal restrictions, individuals without qualifying immigration status are ineligible for insurance coverage options that are federally funded, locking them out of primary and preventive care. New York State currently provides state-funded coverage for income-eligible children and pregnant individuals regardless of immigration status. Further, New York State provides Medicaid and CHIP coverage for qualifying immigrant children and pregnant people. Now New York State could expand      coverage to all low-income people regardless of immigration status.

Currently, the Governor and leaders of the State Senate and Assembly are negotiating the next state budget. The Legislature, in their one-house budget resolutions, modified the Executive's proposal to expand the Essential Plan through a 1332 State Innovation Program waiver, which could secure federal funding to expand eligibility to all New York residents including immigrants currently not eligible for the Essential Plan. Coverage expansion is critical because we know that insurance impacts how individuals access needed care. Disease that might be preventable becomes chronic because of delays in accessing care. And these delays result in more costly and often complex treatments and lead to worse health outcomes. 

Immigrants are part of the bedrock of New York State from Buffalo to Brooklyn, Rochester to Rockland, Staten Island to Syracuse, Potsdam to Poughkeepsie. 

The expansion of the Essential Plan will also lead to savings for New York State. Currently, individuals who are undocumented can access costly emergency Medicaid, but with this Essential Plan expansion, we are investing in the care for these individuals and investing in the entire healthcare delivery system. Today, the costs related to uncompensated care places a burden on our safety net hospitals and community clinics that are a critical component of the healthcare delivery system in New York. 

We all have a responsibility to reduce access and enrollment barriers including language access, education on the American medical system, and addressing legitimate fears to ensure that this population has access to the affordable, high-quality healthcare they deserve.

Our health depends on it. 

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Dr. Ashwin Vasan is New York City health commissioner. Murad Awawdeh is Executive Director of New York Immigration Coalition. Dr. Talya Schwartz is President and CEO MetroPlusHealth.

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Hochul’s Climate Test: Banning Gas, Stopping Pipelines


Gov. Hochul talks climate (photo: Governor's Office)


New York is poised to ban fossil fuels in new buildings statewide. A politically popular priority of New York’s grassroots climate movement, the law would be the first of its kind in the country. With the Governor, Senate, and Assembly on board, they can make it happen in the state budget that will be finalized any day now.  

The key question that remains: how fast will they move to ban fossil fuels in new construction?

It is imperative that New York ban fossil fuels in new buildings starting in 2025, with no delays and no loopholes. New York City, Ithaca, and Beacon already have bold gas bans on the books that go into effect in 2024. The more lawmakers delay, the more fossil fuel profiteers lock their dirty fuels into New York’s energy mix, harming public health, deepening environmental injustice, and worsening the climate crisis. 

Cleaning up building pollution also means stopping the projects meant to deliver more gas. One major fracked gas pipeline expansion will be decided this month — it must be stopped. The Iroquois Pipeline Company has a proposal before the state to substantially increase the amount of fracked gas moved through the 37-year-old pipeline that runs from the Canadian border to New York City and Long Island. To make it happen, the company has proposed doubling the size of four toxic compressor stations in the Hudson Valley and Connecticut

In addition to increasing climate pollution, the Iroquois gas expansion threatens public health. Compressor stations are toxic, noisy equipment linked to serious health risks. A Food & Water Watch analysis found that compressor stations emit ozone and smog-forming particulate matter linked to asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, low birth weights, and certain cancers. What’s more, homes near compressor stations report noise levels far exceeding guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with negative implications for quality of life and health, including sleep deprivation.

Iroquois’ gas expansion proposal is environmentally unjust. The compressor stations proposed for expansion are located in Athens and Dover, communities that already shoulder more than their fair share of fossil fuel infrastructure. Dover residents already live in the shadow of the massive Cricket Valley fracked gas power plant; next door, the Athens Generating Plant, which also runs on fracked gas, looms over homes and schools. It’s a sadly common story, where the same communities are required over and over again to bear an ever increasing burden of pollution. At a time when we need to be moving off fossil fuels as quickly as possible, we can’t keep dumping more pollution on these communities.

The Iroquois gas expansion would also undermine our state’s climate goals. By 2030, New York must reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 40% – 85% by 2050. These targets are ambitious, but they are also achievable – unless we continue to allow new fossil fuel infrastructure in New York. To date, Governor Hochul has rejected several fracked gas power plants, but greatly expanding an existing pipeline’s capacity, with all the attendant increases in greenhouse gas emissions, is just as destructive to a livable future as building one from scratch.

Last but not least, Iroquois’ gas expansion proposal is profoundly unnecessary. New York City is making bold strides off fossil fuels, from Local Law 97 to the new construction gas ban. As of next year, buildings — our largest polluters — will be getting off gas. Iroquois’ proposal flies in the face of our local laws. Even the EPA has weighed in, writing that the Iroquois pipeline expansion proposal is unnecessary and out of alignment with state and federal climate policies.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last month was clear: fossil fuels have got to go. It’s up to states like New York to lead the way in ending our reliance on destructive fuels like fracked gas. Governor Hochul and the Legislature must enact a prompt ban on fossil fuels in new buildings starting in 2025 in the state budget and reject the Iroquois Pipeline expansion.

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Laura Shindell is a Senior New York Organizer with the national advocacy organization Food & Water Watch. She is based in Queens. On Twitter @LShindell & @foodandwater.

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The State Budget We Need: Investing in New York’s Children and Families is the Surest Path to Community Safety, Recovery, and Well-Being


Seeking big numbers when it comes to investment in children (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


The drumbeat of headlines suggesting youth-on-youth gun violence is skyrocketing in New York City and State may be attention-grabbing, but these headlines are profoundly misleading. New Yorkers are right to be concerned about safety in their communities. However, reverting to failed, punitive policies of the past is not the answer. 

Gun violence is real, and children are far more likely to be a victim of gun violence than the perpetrator. For example, in 2021 in New York City (the last year with full-year data available), of 2,011 shooting incidents on record, 95 incidents were perpetrated by a minor. Only 28 of those shooting incidents met the description of a minor perpetrator harming a minor victim; while in 156 of all incidents a minor was the victim.

While similar gun violence data is not available for all of New York State, state level data does illustrate declining youth crime in New York City and State. Youth arrests have fallen by 80% over the last decade and arrests for major (index) crimes are similarly down 79%.

When youth under 18 years of age engage in shootings and other serious crimes, under New York’s Raise the Age law, they are held accountable. All 16- and 17-year-olds charged with felonies are arraigned in the Youth part of adult Criminal Court. If they are charged with a shooting or even displaying a deadly weapon, or of causing significant physical injury, the case stays in adult court, where adult sentencing applies.

Cases that begin in or are removed to Family Court can result in detention, individual and family-based counseling, intensive case management, and access to educational and mentoring supports, as well as short- and longer-term court-ordered residential placement. Characterizing Raise the Age as diminishing accountability is wrong. 

Advancing policies and budgetary commitments that improve community safety and child and family well-being should always be paramount. Shamefully, misguided calls to criminalize children and youth not only ignore the facts on Raise the Age, but they also distract from other sobering statistics that should have every New Yorker and elected representative pressing for urgent and immediate action. 

There are more than 4 million children in New York State and over 700,000 of them live in poverty; more than 114,000 are homeless. More than 800,000 households with children in New York report not having enough food to eat. The state’s subsidized child care system reaches less than 10% of eligible children. And while there is little public data on the behavioral health status of all children, 20% of female and 17% of male students in New York report having considered suicide in the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for children and youth 10 to 24 years of age. These issues demand attention.

Child poverty, homelessness, hunger, and the behavioral health crisis should be the statistics making headlines, and state leaders must ask themselves: what am I prepared to do to address these pressing needs? 

New York’s children and families deserve a state budget that makes meaningful investments in them - lifting incomes by raising the minimum wage and implementing tax reforms for and expanding child care to low-income households; addressing hunger by funding universal school meals; stabilizing housing and combating homelessness by supporting a statewide Housing Access Voucher Program; improving young child development and family stability by investing in early intervention and child welfare prevention; and addressing the child and adolescent behavioral health crisis by investing heavily in community-based clinical services.

The state budget must also do more than simply appropriate Raise the Age resources but must ensure all counties, including New York City, and community-based youth programs within them, access the funds. 

Prioritizing these investments as Fiscal Year 2024 state budget negotiations are finalized is the surest path to safety, recovery, and well-being for all New Yorkers. 

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Jennifer March is Executive Director of Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. On Twitter @JenMarchCCC & @CCCNewYork.

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Reimagining Students’ Future Through Holistic School Safety Action


Senator Monica Martinez, the author, speaks with students


As an educator and former school administrator responsible for the health, safety, and well-being of children, I can attest there is no greater fear than your students and faculty being in danger. 

As school shootings and violent threats continue to spike across the nation, school districts are confronted with the unavoidable question of how to best reduce, prevent, and respond to emergency situations, particularly those involving active shooters. Having worked in the Brentwood School District for 14 years, I am fortunate to have never experienced such a tragedy, but many cannot say the same. 

Preventative measures have largely spanned the implementation of door locks, metal detectors, surveillance, security guards, active shooter drills, and anonymous reporting tools. The inclusion of school security guards specialized in an academic environment and updated technological response systems within our communities may aid in strengthening schools’ response to emergency situations.

Student mental health programs are vital for supporting the long-term health and well-being of our youth. It is important to emphasize each school district and region has varying demographics with unique student needs; there is no one-size-fits-all model for safeguarding our students against acts of violence in school.  

Recent school shootings and threats have exposed vulnerabilities and deficiencies in response systems. In New York State, our emergency response services are operating on outdated technology. There is modernized technology known as Next Generation 911 (NG911) that enables faster response times, improved communication, increased accessibility for disabled individuals, enhanced location accuracy, and effective coordination among multiple emergency response agencies. This could make all the difference in life threatening situations where communication is critical and seconds matter. We should remain open to exploring all viable options. 

The role of security guards in schools has undeniably changed. It is imperative school security guards receive school-specific training in youth mediation and conflict resolution, de-escalation, and the dynamics of student behavior. This will ensure they are equipped with the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to serve our students in the most effective way.

Student mental health and well-being should not be an afterthought. Students are often in a school environment for over 40 hours per week. We would be doing them a disservice if we did not recognize and act on the need for supportive resources to empower and guide our youth through any mental, social, and behavioral challenges. Social and emotional learning must be incorporated into school curricula to help students develop important skills like stress management, resiliency, and empathy. As educators and community leaders, we must build a safe environment and a culture of acceptance within our schools.  

At the end of the day, schools are a place for learning, growth, and development. Our students should be expanding their minds in class and excited about upcoming school events, not fearful of school shootings or any other type of violence. Together, we must raise awareness and implement holistic school safety measures to fully support our school districts, students, parents, staff, and communities statewide.  

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State Senator Monica R. Martinez represents the 4th district, on Long Island. On Twitter @NYSSenatorMRM.

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It’s Time for Albany to Expand Educational Choice for New York City Families


(photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


This month, the New York State Legislature has the chance to pass a state budget that will have a profoundly positive impact for thousands of students in New York City.  

In February, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed lifting the regional cap on charter schools in New York City, and reviving “zombie” charters – a proposal that would finally allow more public charter schools to open their doors. The proposal would mean two things: more good schools in the communities that need them most and giving more parents a choice of where to send their kids to school.  

The Governor isn’t alone in this fight – charters are supported by a vast majority of New York City families, and Mayor Eric Adams has been clear in his support for public charter schools. In fact, a new StudentsFirstNY poll was just released that shows just how popular charter schools are in New York City — 78% of Black voters and 81% of Latino voters believe charters can play a positive role in our school system; nearly two-thirds of New York City voters – including two-thirds of Black voters and more than three-quarters of Latino voters – want the charter cap lifted; and two-thirds of Latino voters are more likely to support candidates if they support charter schools. 

I stood shoulder to shoulder with the thousands of families who have rallied with legislators for months to ask that organizations like Latinas on the Verge of Excellence (L.O.V.E.) and East Side House Settlement expand their work to lift up students. For that to happen, we need the legislative leaders in Albany to honor their constituents’ wishes and ensure that the Governor’s proposal is included in this year’s final budget. We simply can’t afford to leave this solution off the table when it has the potential to make a real difference for students – especially the thousands of students from Latino and Black communities who have been left behind by the education system. 

When I immigrated to New York City from Colombia, I saw the disparities faced by Latina students firsthand. I worked hard. I put myself through college by working as a personal trainer, and was able to succeed, launching my own nonprofit – L.O.V.E. – to support, mentor, and empower young Latinas to succeed in school.  

Over the past decade, L.O.V.E. has served over 2,500 students across 30 different public schools in New York City, providing young Latinas and young women in general the mentorship, college and career counseling, and targeted support they need to promote their educational, physical, and mental well-being. When schools quickly pivoted to go online during the height of the pandemic, so did we. Our program became a safe-haven for young women who felt like they had nowhere to turn to share their struggles, feel valued, and receive the social-emotional and academic supports they need to grow and thrive.    

Today, we’re working to scale the success of the L.O.V.E program and open a brand-new school that provides individualized learning, wellness support, a college preparatory curriculum, and a plethora of extracurricular activities to prepare young women to succeed in their academic and personal lives.  

We need to scale excellence where we see it – and today, we’re seeing it in public charter schools, where Latino and Black students continue to close the proficiency gap in both math and English, and where enrollment has grown despite the downturn in district school enrollment. We should be expanding these schools, not stunting their growth. Albany revived 22 New York charters in 2015, and they can do it again. 

These are ideals that all New Yorkers can get behind. The only thing standing in the way is the charter cap, and because of it, innovative schools like L.O.V.E. may never be able to open their doors.  

The state budget and legislative session in Albany isn’t just a selection of bills and dollar figures – it’s a reflection on our values as New Yorkers. So, the question is, what do lawmakers value more, the status quo or our students and families?  

Now more than ever, we need to ensure that as we continue to recover from the pandemic together, we do so equitably and in a way that addresses the inequities that marginalized populations in New York City face every day. That starts with improving education, and improving education starts with lifting the charter cap.  

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Claudia Espinosa is Founder of Latinas on the Verge of Excellence (L.O.V.E.). On Twitter @LOVEmentoring.

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For a More Equitable New York City, Reinstate 421-A


Affordable housing on the docket (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


The great strength of New York is our diversity. Strangers from all walks of life share the subway, the sidewalk, and the park. Of course, it’s not perfect: spiking inequality coupled with an acute housing affordability crisis has fostered disparities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.  But very few large cities anywhere on the planet has our “gorgeous mosaic” of the well-off and the working class; the immigrant and the well-established; the young and the old; the cis- and fluid-gendered; Black, brown and white, all living, loving and striving in close proximity.   

To support this mix, New York is a national leader in inclusionary housing. The inclusionary model is where subsidized apartments are distributed within privately developed residential buildings.  Inclusionary projects typically set aside approximately 25%-30% of their apartments for various tiers of lower- and moderate- income residents in exchange for financial and other regulatory incentives. According to New York University’s Furman Center, nearly 70% of rental housing built over the past decade used a tax abatement, producing about 20% of all new affordable housing units. 

Last June, Albany let the current subsidy program (the alluringly named 421-a) lapse. The predictable frenzy to get projects in the ground prior to the incentive’s sunset has been followed by an equally predictable dearth of new project starts. The obstruction of the housing pipeline comes at a particularly unfortunate moment of spiking housing costs: just when we really need more housing production, almost none are being planned. Inaction, no doubt politically convenient, has truly let us all down.  

As the budget season in Albany hits fever pitch, one hopes for a healthy examination of the program’s costs, effectiveness, and areas for improvement. However, it’s important to remember inclusionary housing’s ample benefits to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

The program works for the population it is designed to serve. Lower- and moderate-income New Yorkers have access to the same community, transportation, and civic infrastructure as their wealthier neighbors. Critically, residents are not warehoused in under-maintained, under-served, and under-supported housing campuses. 

The program takes the pressure off brown and Black communities to shoulder development. The mayor and governor have rightly called for desperately needed new housing to be equitably distributed. Wealthier, whiter neighborhoods have the bulwark of Landmarks, land use controls and lawyers that stifle development and increase socio-economic disparities. Inclusionary housing is a tool that can be effectively executed, using the higher values found in wealthier neighborhoods to cross-subsidize affordable production. According to the Furman Center’s comprehensive analysis of housing production from 2010-2020, while “most of the affordable units were built in poor neighborhoods populated by people of color. The 421-a property tax break for rental housing …was the one program that brought diversity to whiter and wealthier areas.”

The program maintains affordable housing. Owners and managers have the built-in incentive to maintain their properties to continue to compete in the rental marketplace. 

The program is good for the local economy. Much ink has been spilled about how 421-a “lines the pockets of fat cat developers” and other hyperbole. It is worth noting that the design, construction, financing, and maintenance of new housing creates good-paying jobs for many New Yorkers from architects and engineers to electricians and concrete workers, to brokers and appraisers, to doormen and porters. 

A full half of the 800,000 new homes in Governor Hochul’s housing plan rely on some form of revised 421-a program. As lawmakers seek strategies to address the housing crisis, they should look to the successes of 421-a in building a more equitable city.

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Dan Kaplan, FAIA, LEED AP, is a Senior Partner at FXCollaborative, a leading architecture firm in New York committed to building a better world through equitable and sustainable design.

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New York Must End the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes and Protect LGBTQ Lives


State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (photo: @bradhoylman)


For decades, Big Tobacco companies like R.J. Reynolds have insidiously pushed menthol cigarettes onto our most vulnerable communities, perhaps most infamously with Black Americans. Menthol cigarettes are mint-flavored and highly addictive because they soothe the throat and mask the harshness of regular cigarettes. As a result of tenacious advertising and marketing campaigns, today 85% of all Black smokers smoke menthols compared to just 29% of whites. 

What is less known, however, is that in the 1990s Big Tobacco companies began targeting queer communities with menthol-flavored products as well. On the heels of the AIDS epidemic that took the lives of a hundred thousand LGBTQ+ men, Big Tobacco sought to take advantage of the emerging LGBTQ+ market and started directly marketing towards the communities. Masquerading as allies, Big Tobacco companies  advertised at pride festivals and other LGBTQ+ community events and even contributed financially to local and national LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS organizations. Internally, R.J. Reynolds’ marketing campaign was called “Project SCUM” (Sub-Culture Urban Marketing), showing us how they really feel about the queer people they’re profiting from.

As with communities of color, Big Tobacco’s advertising machine paid off. Smoking rates are generally higher in the LGBTQ+ communities: 1 in 6 LGBTQ+ adults smoke cigarettes, compared to about 1 in 8 non-LGBTQ+ adults. Even more worrisome are the smoking rates among LGBTQ+ youth. In 2021, 17.4% of LGBTQ high school students used tobacco products, compared with just 11.4% of their cis-heterosexual peers. 

Menthol-flavored products are more prevalent in our communities as well: 36 percent of LGBTQ+ smokers report smoking menthol cigarettes, compared to 29 percent of non-LGBTQ+ smokers. Much of this data comes from the 2009-2010 National Adult Tobacco Survey, the last major effort to research LGTBQ+ tobacco use. Many health experts theorize that the numbers may be even higher since many people may not have been out at the time. 

Big Tobacco is using the same playbook to kill LGBTQ+ folks as they have done for decades with the Black and Latino communities. By banning menthol-flavored products in New York State, as proposed in Governor Hocul’s executive budget and our bill S2441/A3907, we’d go a long way to stopping thousands of people from smoking and thousands more from even picking up the habit in the first place. 

Big Tobacco, of course, isn’t going down easy – while profiting off the harm of communities of color and LGBTQ+ communities, both groups with a difficult history with policing, they’ve spread misinformation about local law enforcement’s role in enforcing the proposed menthol ban. 

Let’s be clear: our bill explicitly prohibits the NYPD or any local law enforcement agency to make arrests for unregulated individual purchase, use, or possession of any kind of cigarette – just as they do now with flavored e-cigarettes. To avoid adding police presence to already overpoliced communities, we will only pass a bill that makes the lack of law enforcement crystal clear. Big Tobacco’s most recent misinformation campaign that says otherwise is just one more example of how low they will stoop to keep their profits up. 

In the last century, the government callously ignored a major health crisis in queer communities by turning a blind eye to the AIDS epidemic. But today, while 13,000 Americans die from AIDS each year, more than 700,000 die from smoking-related deaths. We must end this needless suffering. It’s time to ban menthol and protect thousands of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers from the greed of predatory tobacco companies. 

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Dr. Scout is the Executive Director of the National LGBT Cancer Network and the principal investigator of both the CDC-funded LGBTQ tobacco-related cancer disparity network and Out: The National Cancer Survey. Brad Hoylman-Sigal is a Democratic State Senator from Manhattan. On Twitter @scoutout & @cancerLGBT & @bradhoylman.

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New Yorkers Deserve Health Equity; Fully Funding Safety Net Hospitals and Expanding Health Insurance to All is How To Do It


Advocates rally for the Coverage for All bill in Albany (photo: Daniel Altschuler/@altochulo)


After the last three years, New York’s health care system continues to face an unprecedented crisis – particularly for safety net hospitals located in historically marginalized communities that primarily serve uninsured patients struggling to access care. These are the same low-income neighborhoods that bore the brunt of COVID-19 and have long suffered from the effects of New York’s two-tiered health care system. To reduce health inequities, the State must fix the structures that perpetuate them.

In many underserved communities, safety nets are the only hospitals that render care regardless of a patient’s financial situation or immigration status. These anchor institutions operate on far fewer resources than other hospitals and against the backdrop of inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates that haven’t been updated since 2008. At the same time, our State’s undocumented community has long suffered from our unequal healthcare system, even before the pandemic. We all witnessed what the public health crisis did to our community of immigrant New Yorkers who braved the frontlines to keep New York running.

In the face of rising health care costs and uncertain economic headwinds, the State’s current reimbursement model for safety net hospitals is unsustainable, made even more so by Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget, which would cut $700 million in funding. Despite near-uniform agreement that these hospitals provide vital resources and necessary care for vulnerable New Yorkers, chronic Medicaid underfunding has left them to grapple with deep negative operating margins and face hard choices about services and capacity, adversely affecting the communities they care for.

Last year, the Governor also promised to access federal funding to extend health insurance to undocumented New Yorkers but has yet to do so. The consequences of inaction for low-income and undocumented communities are dire. Denying safety net hospitals adequate funding puts millions of lives at risk because of poor health outcomes and places a significant financial burden on our already beleaguered health care system. Leaving federal funds on the table that could cover health insurance for immigrant New Yorkers is also a significant lost opportunity. Why would we turn down federal funding that could provide lifesaving coverage at no cost to the State?

New York has long been recognized as the home to some of the nation’s premier hospitals and health care facilities. We have produced groundbreaking research and treatments, and we have realized the positive impact that extending health insurance has had on patients and hospitals alike. The challenges posed by our current health care crisis present another opportunity for New York to lead the way by improving coverage and care while creating equitable outcomes.

But there are viable solutions that legislators have introduced to help New York achieve those goals.

First, the Health Equity Stabilization and Transformation Act would allow the State to leverage a larger share of federal Medicaid funds, ensuring that safety net hospitals receive adequate reimbursement rates to finally address the Medicaid gap that has plagued hospitals serving underserved communities. By shoring up the finances of safety net hospitals, we can guarantee they can continue to operate in the short term while strengthening their long-term viability.

Second, the Coverage for All legislation would extend a lifeline to an estimated 255,000 uninsured New Yorkers currently excluded from federally-funded health insurance such as Medicaid and the Essential Plan because of their immigration status. While immigrants comprise 54% of New York’s frontline workforce and are invaluable contributors to our economy, many have been deliberately denied access to New York’s health care system. If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that our communities are stronger and healthier when everyone has equal access to lifesaving health insurance and care.

As both chambers of the Legislature have proposed, the State should include Coverage for All in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to expand the Essential Plan to all low-income New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status, bringing us one step closer to guaranteeing health coverage for all. By amending the Federal 1332 Waiver request to include all immigrants regardless of immigration status, which would have zero cost to the state, it would enable the State to use the estimated $2 billion “passthrough” surplus to provide comprehensive coverage for all eligible low-income people through the Essential Plan. 

If enacted, these solutions would profoundly impact the health of low-income communities, advance racial equity, and better prepare us for future public health emergencies. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that access to quality health care is critically linked to so many aspects of our society. Now more than ever, it is essential that Governor Hochul and State policymakers fully fund our safety net hospitals, expand health insurance to all immigrants, and guarantee everyone in need has access to quality care. Doing so would benefit our fellow New Yorkers’ health and well-being and our health care system as a whole.

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Ramon Rodriguez is the President & CEO of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn and Co-Chair of the New York Safety Net Hospital Coalition. Theo Oshiro is the Co-Executive Director of Make the Road NY. On Twitter @MaketheRoadNY.

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Navigating a Better Path Forward on Mental Health


Outreach in the subways (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


Every day on the Lower East Side and throughout the city, teams of dedicated, trained outreach workers walk the streets, searching out folks who seem like they may need a helping hand.

Perhaps the people they meet are unhoused and would benefit from a hot meal, fresh clothes, or a medical check-up. Maybe they display signs of mental health issues but don’t know how or where to find the right services that would steer them away from harming themselves or others. Or perhaps they simply need a human connection.

Through proven methods, their own lived experiences, and endless reserves of patience and perseverance, these outreach experts help those who may be in crisis navigate the maze of social service agencies and programs. The end goal is as simple as it is essential: to connect people to voluntary services and support to help them flourish.

This “navigator” model has shown great success in the past, and represents a refreshing break from a failed status quo that has time and time again failed to provide a meaningful solution to our communities’ needs. For far too long, the default response to addressing unhoused people struggling with mental health or substance use challenges has been the criminal legal system — so much so that, in 2020, one in five people sent to Rikers was unhoused and experiencing mental health challenges.

But this isn’t a case of applying a band-aid to a gaping open wound, to use a common analogy: it's actually the equivalent of ripping open a deep laceration even wider. These individuals — so often our neighbors, our relatives, our friends — don't need jail; they need treatment, hospitals, and supportive programs. By tossing them into a carceral system that is incapable of addressing the root of these problems, their struggles and conditions will only worsen. To ignore their needs is to condemn people to an endless doom spiral between the streets, shelters, and incarceration that can – and has – resulted in catastrophic tragedy for themselves, or innocent bystanders around them.

Thankfully, there is a better way to dramatically improve — and often save — countless lives, and it's now getting a huge shot in the arm. A new program launched through the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) will invest $6 million in a mental health initiative to immediately reach New Yorkers with deeply entrenched needs. The plan deploys networks of navigators like the ones described above who will build relationships – and trust – with people where they are. A rapport is first established by connecting people living on the streets with immediate needs, such as food. Growing the relationship leads to the next round of healthy support and engagement: connecting people to a wider range of wraparound services, like housing assistance and treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. This progression of engagement, fueled by emerging trust, ultimately makes them and their neighbors safer.

This effort, operated in a pioneering partnership between CUNY’s Institute for State and Local Governance and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, will build on the promising successes of similar past work. In a previous CJII program, created in partnership with the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, community navigators in East Harlem were able to connect with more than 1,880 clients from late 2017 through August 2021. Navigators gave 68% of participants at least one referral, and among those people, 90% accessed one or more of these services referred to them. Since the program’s inception, 61% of participants had some or all of their immediate needs met.

Most promisingly, 39% of those who utilized services through fresh outreach had been disengaged from social services for at least six months prior to enrollment in the program — suggesting a powerful ability to connect with people who may have previously given up on seeking help. One participant noted that she “didn’t feel alone anymore” because she had a Navigator supporting her. 

This groundbreaking outreach also corrects a racial imbalance that infects our shattered criminal legal and health care systems. More than 60% of those incarcerated in New York City jails are Black, as are 56% of heads of household in city shelters (including single adults), even though Black people comprise just 25% of the city’s total population. Quite simply, a path forward to a brighter, healthy, more fulfilling future exists for people who right now are swept aside to the margins of society.

This approach is a vast improvement over the status quo. Rikers is no place for someone grappling with mental health or substance use issues; the notorious facility has descended into chaos and violence, and offers inadequate support for those in need. New York City must reduce its reliance on criminalization, and instead invest in services and programs that build safe communities and center humanity.

In addition to the moral and human value, there is an economic benefit to using community-based supports in lieu of incarceration. At a time when cities and states are experiencing budget crunches, the cost for community-based programs are exponentially lower than a bed at Rikers, ranging from $1,000 for some light-touch interventions to $50,000 for more intensive services per person, compared to more than $550,000 per year per person at Rikers.

But more importantly, there is no price tag that can be applied to turning a person’s life around — or saving it. The value of connecting people with touchpoints in their community can’t be

measured on a ledger sheet or in a budget book. Neighborhoods like the Lower East Side — and the others served by this trailblazing program—will be safer, healthier and more productive. And this is how we build a New York City that lifts up all its people, and gives everyone, no matter the challenges they face, the opportunity to live the life they deserve.

Michael P. Jacobson is Executive Director of CUNY’s Institute for State and Local Governance. City Council Member Carlina Rivera represents District 2 in Manhattan and chairs the Council’s Criminal Justice Committee. On Twitter @michaelislg & @CarlinaRivera.

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