Councilmember Althea Stevens along with a slew of nonprofits providing services for the city’s youth population are sounding the alarm on projected budget cuts to youth services, including beds for homeless and runaway youth.
Stevens, who chairs the City Council’s Committee on Youth Services, told the Bronx Times that projected budget cuts come at a time when local providers are competing with each other for resources as they face shortfalls in staffing and struggle to stay afloat because of late contracts with the city.
“One of the issues is a lot of our providers are often fighting or hoarding information because they see each other as competitors and we really need to really knock down those walls of folks being competitors and say ‘we’re in this together,’” said Stevens, the Concourse Village progressive who is hosting a press conference at City Hall Park to address the cuts on Wednesday. “But because of the funding structures and the funding model, it has instead set providers up to like kind of divide and conquer them.”
Last year, 2,392 young people were placed in a crisis services or transitional independent living support program, according to the city’s Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD,) which funds Runaway and Homeless Youth Services, including residential programs for youth ages 16-24.
Mayor Eric Adams’ preliminary budget was proposed at $102.7 billion. The new fiscal year begins on July 1.
DYCD’s budget for health and welfare services is projected to decrease from $1.1 million to $943,0o0 by fiscal year 2024.
A DYCD spokersperson told the Times they don’t anticipate no service impacts on DYCD-funded programs despite the proposed cuts in the FY24 budget, and that a bed would be available to whoever needs one at the 229 DYCD-funded runaway and homeless youth beds in the Bronx.
In November, Adams announced a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), to find discretionary cuts and savings worth 3% across most city…
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