Poverty soared to 2M in city as pandemic effects linger
A half-million more New Yorkers are living in poverty after key pandemic-era benefits were allowed to expire, according to a new study Wednesday from the Robin Hood anti-poverty foundation and Columbia University.
The city’s poverty rate jumped to 23% from 18% between 2021 and 2022, with the number of residents struggling to make ends meet climbing to 2 million from 1.5 million. The increase marks the largest single-year increase in at least a decade, with profound implications for children.
The report was the latest reminder of the lingering economic impacts of the pandemic and other challenges the city continues to face as federal aid programs ended while the underlying issues remained.
“Our city is in the midst of an affordability crisis,” Richard Buery, CEO of Robin Hood, said in a statement. “Alarmingly, this year’s annual Poverty Tracker report observes the sharpest one-year increase in poverty we’ve found since launching the study in 2012.”
Researchers surveyed a representative sample of 3,000 New York households every three months over the course of the study. Among their chilling findings, the latest poverty rate was double the national average, as federal policy changes were exacerbated locally by record-high rent and inflation.
Several programs that eased conditions for many, including stimulus payments and the expanded Child Tax Credit, ended after the pandemic. This contributed to the growing poverty rate, researchers found.
The problem was even more staggering for the city’s youngest residents. The child poverty rate increased to 25% from 15% — to one in four children — during the study.
Buery described the trend as “particularly disturbing,” after years of pandemic-era policies had brought the city’s child poverty rates to record lows. Policy fixes like tax credits, and housing and child-care vouchers, can help millions of New Yorkers leave hardship behind, he said. But Congress failed to extend benefits like the temporary Child Tax Credit enhancement after the emergency ended.
“We have lacked the will to keep these policies in force,” said Buery.
More than half of the city’s population either lives in poverty or is “low-income” and facing challenges to make ends meet, according to the report. And it’s possible the data have only continued to worsen since 2022.
Representatives of the Grand Street Settlement, a social services provider, said needs have continued to increase over the past year with the arrival of more asylum seekers.
“There are long lines for securing a box from our food pantry on a regular basis,” said Nina Piros, senior early childhood director . “We’ve seen a need for things like diapers and formula.”
The organization is advocating for an expansion of child care that would make more resources available for children and help parents stay in or reenter the workforce.
“The news is certainly grim,” said Christopher Wimer, director of the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. “But if there is a silver lining it is that recent years have proven that well-designed policies can and do reduce poverty dramatically. We know what works, it’s just a matter of doing it.”
The report recommended the expansion of local, state and federal aid.
Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for Mayor Adams, pointed to an array of city initiatives aimed at youth employment, job creation and social services, plus an expanded tax credit, as steps forward for the city.
“Under the Adams administration, New York City is working better for working people, with a record number of private-sector jobs and all of the nearly 1 million jobs lost during the pandemic recovered more than a year ahead of projections and two years ahead of projections for the rest of the state,” Lutvak said.
While, by many metrics, it seems New York City has surged back from the pandemic, many of the city’s residents are making less than they were before and income disparities between the city’s richest and poorest have grown.