Here’s a hard truth about public policy: When government retreats from its responsibility to protect vulnerable families, Black communities often feel the impact first and the longest. For generations of Black Americans in New York City, this has been the reality.
Today, New York stands at another such moment.
As Congress and the White House move forward with significant reductions in federal support for programs that millions of Americans depend on, the consequences are beginning to come into focus. These same political leaders are celebrating delivering tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of working-class communities across the country, and in New York, who are left wondering how they will absorb the loss of health care, nutrition, housing, and income supports that help struggling families remain afloat. To be sure, these concerns are particularly acute in Black communities, where generations of economic inequality have left many households with fewer resources to weather financial shocks.
Last year my organization, the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), released a statewide health care affordability survey that found that 68 percent of New Yorkers experienced at least one health care affordability burden in the past year, while 80 percent worry about affording health care in the future. Even more troubling, 66 percent reported delaying or going without needed medical care because of cost. Nearly one-third said medical expenses forced them to deplete savings, incur debt, or sacrifice other necessities.
Those findings should serve as a warning.
If New Yorkers are already struggling to afford health care before the full impact of federal funding reductions is felt, what happens when support for health coverage and safety-net programs is reduced further? What happens to working families living paycheck to paycheck? What happens to seniors, people with disabilities, and children whose access to care depends on public programs?
The answer is simple: hardship increases. And hardship is not distributed equally. Black New Yorkers continue to face higher rates of poverty, lower household wealth, greater housing insecurity, and more significant barriers to economic mobility than many other groups. CSS’s longstanding research on economic insecurity—including our Unheard Third surveys—has consistently documented the precarious financial circumstances faced by millions of low-income New Yorkers. Our research shows that one-third of New York City’s voting-age citizens live in low-income households, underscoring just how many residents remain vulnerable to economic shocks.
That vulnerability is occurring at a time when the cost of living continues to soar.
Housing remains unaffordable for far too many families. Transportation costs strain household budgets. Health care expenses continue to rise faster than wages. Food insecurity remains a daily reality in many neighborhoods. Federal spending cuts threaten to intensify every one of these challenges.
According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, H.R.1’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will cost New York $5.8 billion in FY27 and rise to$14.3 billion in FY30. The danger of these cuts is not just the loss of funding itself, but the cascading effect that follows.
When food assistance is reduced, more families turn to food pantries. When health coverage becomes more difficult to obtain, people delay treatment until illnesses worsen. When housing assistance becomes harder to access, more families risk eviction and homelessness. Each problem compounds the next. The costs eventually shift to local governments, hospitals, schools, nonprofits, and neighborhoods.
Fortunately, New York is not without options.
City and state leaders must begin preparing now for what lies ahead. That means protecting access to affordable health coverage, strengthening rental assistance programs, investing in anti-hunger efforts, and preserving supports that help working families remain economically stable. A good example of this is the decision to expand the Fair Fares transit discount program in the city’s recently enacted budget. As a result, more than 1.3 million working-age New Yorkers will be eligible for half-priced bus and subway fares later this year.
So, the question facing New York is not whether the federal cuts will have consequences. They will. The real question is whether we will act quickly enough to protect the communities that have the most to lose. History teaches us that moments of economic uncertainty often deepen existing inequities unless government intervenes intentionally and aggressively. Without action, the burden will once again fall disproportionately on Black communities and other New Yorkers already struggling to get by.
That outcome is not inevitable.
New York has a long tradition of standing up for working families and vulnerable residents when others turn away. The months ahead will test whether we remain committed to that tradition. The next crisis is not a distant possibility. It is already taking shape.
Our challenge now is to ensure that the people who can least afford another setback are not asked to bear the greatest sacrifice. The future of thousands of New York families depends on the choices we make today.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.
