After years of being on rocky financial footing, the State University of New York Downstate Hospital, Health Sciences Center, and University (SUNY Downstate) may be on the way to stability with Governor Kathy Hochul’s promised $450 million in funding in the state budget.
“Tonight, I’m speaking not only as an elected official but as a neighbor who has personally been treated at Downstate, my wife treated at Downstate, so I know the importance of the role it plays in the community,” said Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is also running for mayor this year.
Hochul’s executive budget for fiscal year (FY) 2026 allocated a total $15.3 billion for SUNY projects overall. Within that allocation, $100 million in operating support and an additional $450 million for modernization costs are set aside for SUNY Downstate Hospital.
Public and SUNY Downstate’s hospital staff testified at meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22. Credit: PHOTO CREDIT: Ariama C. Long. 
2025 Brooklyn Borough President Candidate Khari Edwards at SUNY Downstate Advisory Board meeting on Jan. 22, 2025. Credit: PHOTO CREDIT: Ariama C. Long. 
Brooklyn State Senator Zellnor Myrie (right) and Councilmember Rita Joseph (left) seated at SUNY Downstate Advisory Board meeting on Jan. 22, 2025. Credit: PHOTO CREDIT: Ariama C. Long.
Constructed in 1966, SUNY Downstate is in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The teaching hospital has 342 beds and is the state’s largest academic medical center; housing several undergraduate nursing and medical institutions, a graduate school, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative. SUNY Downstate is the 93rd percentile for total Black graduates and 50th percentile for total Hispanic or Latinx graduates. The hospital portion currently has more than 800 physicians representing 53 specialties, supported by about 3,000 healthcare professionals who work to address health disparities, chronic conditions, and systemic inequities in underrepresented communities.
SUNY Downstate is also a Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH), meaning it serves a large number of those with Medicaid and without insurance — a huge factor in why it was in financial ruin after the COVID-19 crisis in 2020.
In February 2024, the state announced it would be “transforming” the facilities. The transformation meant $300 million capital investment toward moving inpatient services across the street to Kings County Hospital, and $100 million last year to cover the hospital’s deficit.
Myrie and other electeds, advocates, clergy, unions, and hospital staff led a series of massive demonstrations against the plan, saying the changes would effectively close the hospital.
“Downstate is an anchor institution in Central Brooklyn, home to the only kidney transplant center in this borough, and one of two regional perinatal centers. Critically, it is the only state-run hospital in New York City,” continued Myrie. “Last year, when the governor’s budget proposed closing SUNY Downstate and sending its patients elsewhere to receive care, this community, which has some of the worst racial health disparities; the worst maternal health outcomes; the worst rates of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and the least access to affordable quality healthcare — learned about the budget proposal and was rightfully outraged.”
This year’s executive budget announcement about additional funds for SUNY Downstate came at the first convening of the hospital’s new community advisory board meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22. The eight-member board was established last April by Hochul and is tasked with making recommendations to develop a reasonable and fiscally responsible plan for SUNY Downstate’s future with community input.
SUNY Downstate falls in Councilmember Rita Joseph’s district. At the meeting, she called the hospital a lifeline for services and education. She urged the board to expand community engagement and public hearings from the scheduled three to accessible town halls and virtual forums. “SUNY Downstate must position itself as a leader in advanced care, not just for Brooklyn, but for patients across this city and beyond,” said Joseph.
Similarly, others testified to wanting more staffing to help with patient ratios; a reduction in the hospital’s bed capacity from 342 to 250 to improve efficiency; improvement in outpatient preventive care centers; renovation of the emergency room department; creation of private labor, delivery, and postpartum rooms in the maternity ward; and rebuilding heart surgery programs and maintaining cardiothoracic services, among other moves.
Khari Edwards, the first vice president of color of external affairs at Brookdale Hospital in Brownsville (another safety net hospital that serves Medicaid and Medicare patients or those without insurance), recalled a similar effort: fighting to keep Brookdale from closing in 2017.
“I am ecstatic that the governor committed to keeping Downstate’s doors open with an infusion of capital money. Fifteen years ago, I was part of a group created to address the second Berger Commission that wanted to close safety net hospitals. The fight for safety net hospitals will need to continue because capital money will not be enough,” said Edwards, who is running for Brooklyn Borough president against Antonio Reynoso. “With the new leadership in Washington, my hope is that the governor will change the reimbursement rates, giving hospitals a chance to truly survive this federal administration and pending Medicaid cuts for low-income communities.”
“She [Hochul] can’t just be giving money and we don’t know where it went,” testified one nurse, responding to the fact that the state’s executive budget proposal hasn’t been finalized yet.
Many attendees criticized the state and the advisory board for taking almost nine months to hold its first public hearing, when it promised to release a report by April 1, 2025. The state’s final adopted budget is usually approved by the beginning of April.
“SUNY Downstate has always stood as a vibrant part of the community. We must continue working toward solutions to ensure the healthcare of Black and Brown individuals and its protection,” said Anita Taylor, a representative for Congressmember Yvette Clarke, who demanded that the deadline for a final report be extended to hear more public testimony. “As we near an April deadline, we are concerned about the lack of transparency from the governor-appointed commission and their process and findings, as well as about the many delays in conducting public hearings.”
Reynoso thanked the groups that rallied to save SUNY Downstate. He hinted at even more funding coming from his office in his short speech, but didn’t make an official announcement about how much. “I want to hold back on information that I have because we want to make sure we announce it the right way, but I will be here with SUNY Downstate,” said Reynoso. “Brooklyn borough hall will be supporting SUNY Downstate, and it will not just be words — there will be funding attached to that.”
The advisory board is slated to have two more public hearings, on Feb. 27 and Mar. 13.