City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams outlined her own State of the City vision with an address in the Bronx Thursday focused on improving economic mobility — and rezoning figures to play a major role in her plan.
During her address at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Community Center, Speaker Adams offered something of an answer to Mayor Eric Adams’ “Working People’s Agenda” unveiled at hizzoner’s State of the City address on Jan. 26. (The mayor and speaker share a common surname, but are not related.) It also helped set the tone for upcoming budget negotiations between the mayor, who was in attendance for the address, and the City Council in the run-up to the June 30 deadline.
One major highlight of Speaker Adams’ “People Over Everything” plan aims to combat poverty by allocating $5 million toward guaranteed income programs aimed at helping low-income mothers with infants, as well as vulnerable youth. These two groups, she explained, are at the highest risk of poverty because of engagement with the foster or criminal justice systems.
Guaranteed, or universal basic, income programs have popped up throughout the U.S. since 2020 as a means to help close economic racial disparities.
One such program was launched in New York City in 2021 by The Bridge Project, which is providing a guaranteed income to young mothers in Washington Heights, Inwood and Harlem making less than $52,000 annually to help them afford essential items for their families, according to Ms. magazine. Recipients receive bi-weekly payments of anywhere between $500 and $1,000.
Speaker Adams said The Bridge Project is just one nonprofit whom she wants the city to work with to expand the availability of guaranteed income to people in need.
“We will work with organizations like the Bridge Project, Children’s Defense Fund, and Chapin Hall to support programs that provide monthly financial assistance payments to vulnerable young people and low-income mothers with infants,”…
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