New York, NY – Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Finance Committee Chair Daniel Dromm, Capital Budget Subcommittee Chair Vanessa Gibson and the City Council released today the Council’s response to the Mayor’s Fiscal 2021 Preliminary Budget. The Preliminary Budget was released in January – three months ago when the city was a drastically different place. The impact of COVID-19 on our economy has been much like the effect of the virus itself – sudden and with a quick decline.
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THE COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
CITY HALL
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10007
April 7, 2020
Hon. Bill de Blasio
Mayor of the City of New York City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Dear Mayor de Blasio:
The New York City Council herein provides its response to the Fiscal 2021 Preliminary Budget pursuant to section 247 of the New York City Charter.
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These recommendations follow reports of struggles facing nursing home residents and staff during COVID-19
NEW YORK, NY – New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Margaret Chin, Chair of the Aging Committee, Council Member Carlina Rivera, Chair of the Hospitals Committee, and Council Member Mark Levine, Chair of the Health Committee, are calling on the New York State Department of Health (DOH) to protect and improve conditions for aging New Yorkers living in nursing homes amid the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
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New York, NY – Speaker Corey Johnson urged the New York State Department of Labor to create a system capable of handling the increased demand from New Yorkers seeking unemployment insurance due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the past few weeks, there has been a large number of New Yorkers who lost their job and have reported difficulties filing their unemployment insurance claims.
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“We applaud the Department of Education for creating Regional Enrichment Centers (RECs) across the city as our school system remains closed. RECs are critically important in this time of crisis, providing a safe and nurturing environment for the children of essential workers, such as healthcare and grocery store workers, first responders, and pharmacists. RECs are staffed by teachers and ensure students are supported during the remote learning process and have access to meals, recreation, and other enrichment activities.
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NEW YORK – “Franklin Graham has a long history of spewing anti-LGBTQ hate speech and I find it extremely troubling that he and his organization are involved in our relief efforts in any way. New York City is known around the world for our embrace of diversity and Franklin Graham has spent his career standing against these values.
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NEW YORK – “Tomorrow is the first of the month, which is the time when many New Yorkers are required to pay their rent. This month is unlike any we’ve seen as a city, and hundreds of thousands of people who were working just a few weeks or even days ago are now unemployed and worried about how they will survive.
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“During a time when New York City is relying on first responders and other frontline workers to help us battle coronavirus, it is unfathomable that the city would close one of the main child care facilities in Staten Island for these families. Parents who dropped off their children this morning at the Regional Enrichment Center at PS/IS 861 in Graniteville learned that the facility would close Monday.
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Roughly 32% of emergency food programs have already closed in NYC due to the COVID-19 crisis – and many more are in danger of shutting
NEW YORK, NY — Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Mark Treyger, Chair of the Council’s Education Committee, and members of the New York City Council’s Budget & Negotiations Team, along with the leaders of Met Council, City Harvest and other major food security organizations, are calling on the de Blasio administration to release $25 million in emergency funding to struggling food banks and food assistance programs during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) to halt a looming hunger crisis.
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