Spotlight on Food Hardship: Compounding hardships and health challenges among New Yorkers struggling to afford food
This Poverty Tracker report shows how food hardship increased from 2021 to 2022—rising from 30% to 34% among adults and from 39% to 43% among families with children—and documents how commonly it overlaps with other hardships and health challenges.
New York City’s 3-K for All Supports Mothers’ Labor Force Participation
Using data from the Early Childhood Poverty Tracker, this report focuses on the role of New York City’s 3-K in supporting mothers’ labor force participation and employment.
Spotlight On: Liquid Assets, Financial Shocks, and Entrances into Material Hardship
This report uses Poverty Tracker data to examine whether liquid assets guard New Yorkers from sliding into hardship after experiencing a financial shock. The findings show that roughly $2,000 in liquid assets appear to buffer against added hardships after such a shock, but not all New Yorkers have access to such financial reserves.
Spotlight on Early Childhood Education: Participation in Pre-K before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
This report uses Early Childhood Poverty Tracker data to better understand how families changed their engagement with city’s pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs in response to the pandemic. Pre-K enrollment was lower on average after the onset of the pandemic, but the drop in enrollment was relatively smaller for families with lower incomes, Black and Latino families, and immigrant families than for their counterparts. However, these children also showed disproportionately higher rates of remote learning than their peers – which research suggests may lead to poorer outcomes for children.
Spotlight on Early Childhood Education: Participation in New York City’s 3-K for All program
This report uses Early Childhood Poverty Tracker data to examine participation in New York City’s 3-K for All program, which aims to expand the universal pre-K program to the city’s three-year-old children. The report finds that only a fraction of eligible families enrolled in a 3-K program despite their high interest in the program, and the gap between program application and enrollment was larger among Black, Latino, and lower-income families than their counterparts. Those who did enroll in 3-K had much lower childcare costs than those who did not, saving an average of $450 a month.
Work and Education After the Pandemic: Who was left behind?
This report draws on in-depth interviews with Poverty Tracker participants to better understand the experiences of low-wage workers through different stages of the pandemic. Their stories show that while the effects of the pandemic may be fading for many, workers with low-wages have incurred substantial debts and continue to struggle as they re-imagine and retool their work lives.
Special Series: Health and Health Care in New York City, Second Report
This report examines healthcare utilization among New Yorkers with high health care needs who also face economic disadvantage. These New Yorkers often forgo needed care, driven by issues of access related to cost, transportation, and mobility. Inequalities were even more stark among those facing housing challenges. This work is part of a special series funded by The Helmsley Charitable Trust.
The State of Poverty and Disadvantage in NYC 2021
This year’s Poverty Tracker report spotlights the temporary pandemic relief programs that dramatically — but only briefly — brought child poverty in New York City to historic lows in 2021. The reduction in poverty rates highlighted in the report shows that government policy can be an effective poverty-fighting tool.