City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus Seeks Summer Jobs for all Youth Applicants

After New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced $170 million in the budet for nearly 1,300 new police officers, the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus said a comparable investment in youth employment—particularly for young minorities—should have accompanied it. 

The caucus released a statement late Wednesday describing the deal as a missed opportunity and calling for the city's Summer Youth Employment program, which offers up to six weeks of employment for people between the ages of 14 and 24 at participating small businesses, nonprofits and city agencies, to receive an additional $100 million—enough to provide work for every current applicant. 

“The unemployment rate for Black and Latino young people, statistically most likely to be the perpetrator or victims of handgun violence in NYC is 46 percent. While adding more cops will help, it’s not fair to rely on the NYPD alone. It is not fair to the men and women who risk their lives every day and not fair to the communities they serve,” caucus members said in the statement. “With the addition of police personnel, which many still support, we are disappointed that an amount of equal resources were not made to job programs for young people holistically improving our public safety discussion.”

Caucus Co-Chairs Rosie Mendez and Andy King could not immediately be reached for comment about any possible discussions relating to an additional $100 million for youth employment ahead of the budget deadline at the end of June. City Councilman Jumaane Williams, whose office distributed the press release, also did not respond to a request for comment.

City & State previously reported that the Council was urging de Blasio to provide the funding necessary to increase the Summer Youth Employment program’s 35,000 slots by 10,000.

Ultimately, the arrangement announced by de Blasio and Mark-Viverito at their ceremonial budget-agreement handshake contained $21 million more than initially proposed for the initiative, which would amount to roughly 50,000 slots.

The deal also included financing for about 950 job opportunities for youth through an anti-gun violence initiative and $12 million to establish a year-round job program for about 6,000 young adults. 

City Council Finance Committee Chairwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland’s office said the new program would be similar to its summer counterpart, but would also incorporate mentorship and career planning assistance. The $12 million should be enough to fund up to 192 hours of work for about 6,800 people, her staff said.