BY ROSE ADAMS
Low-income youth and
their families in New York
City will lose out on more than
$109 million in wages because
of the city’s controversial decision
to cancel a program that
connects young city dwellers
to summer jobs, a recent study
found.
The Independent Budget
Offi ce’s study showed that
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision
to cancel the Summer
Youth Employment Program
in the wake of COVID-19 will
cause 70,000 young people to
miss out on between $700 and
$1,600 in wages each — potentially
stripping families of a
needed income boost as unemployment
rates skyrocket due
to coronavirus-related shutdowns.
De Blasio, who canceled
the program to save $119 million
as the city faces a multibillion
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COURIER L 6 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
dollar budget shortfall,
has faced backlash from
teens and advocates who say
the program provides young
people between the ages of 14
and 24 with valuable job experience.
Last year, the Summer
Youth Employment Program
connected 74,500 young people
— less than half of the total
applicants — with jobs in
business, non-profi t, government,
and other sectors. Eightfi
ve percent of participants
came from families that make
$31,000 a year or less, and
many lived in affordable housing,
the IBO study found.
One Bronx student, who
has participated in the program
for three years while his
family has resided in a homeless
shelter, said that he relies
on the money he earns to
buy himself new clothes every
year.
“It was very helpful to me
specifi cally because I was in a
shelter and my parents didn’t
have that much money,” said
Rahkim Powers, a 17-year-old
high school senior. “They had
to work and save up so we can
leave the shelter.”
Powers said he’s concerned
that he won’t fi nd a job this
summer amid the coronavirus
closure and soaring unemployment.
“I’m very worried,” he
said. “I was dependent on that
to pay for my clothes for school
and to save up money.”
Citywide, 14-percent of the
program’s youth lived in public
housing in 2018, and their
summer earnings accounted
for about 6 percent of their
families’ household income,
the study shows.
Last week, de Blasio said
his administration is working
with the City Council to “revitalize”
Mayor Bill de Blasio cancelled the Summer Youth Employment Program
because of COVID-19. The Offi ce of Mayor Bill de Blasio
the program, which
would be part of the city’s
ongoing budget process that
will be fi nalized by the end of
June.
“The City Council has
raised important ideas, proposals,
ways of addressing
how we revitalize the Summer
Youth Employment Program
in the context of this pandemic,”
he said at a June 11
press conference. “That is an
ongoing conversation with the
City Council. That will be part
of our budget decision making
with the City Council over the
next two weeks or so.”
LOST WAGES
Families to lose $109 million in pay from
cuts to youth employment program: Report
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