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What can borrowers do to benefit from the latest student loan relief of up to $20,000?
Here are 6 tips from EDCAP to help you take advantage of student debt cancellation.
It's not a radical idea to say that hospitals should be helping patients, not suing them! Governor Kathy Hochul, sign S.6522A/A.7363A to prevent aggressive debt collection. Nobody should risk financial ruin because they needed medical care.
Read more in The Buffalo News.
Every 28 seconds a student loan borrower goes into default. Congress can put borrowers on a path toward financial security by passing The Student Loan Literary Act of 2022 (H.R.8643).
Read more in the latest column from CSS President & CEO David R. Jones.
Student loan debt affects people of all backgroudns, but our latest research finds that Black and Latina women are much more likely to be burdened by it. New York and Congress need to act now to mitigate the growing impact of this crisis.
The #EITC is one of the most powerful anti-poverty tools available, and expanding it will help New Yorkers bridge the poverty gap and build more economic security.
More than 1 in 5 Bronx residents struggle to afford transit, but more than half of eligible respondents in our Unheard Third survey haven't applied to Fair Fares for a half-priced Metrocard. NYC needs to invest in better outreach and increase eligibility to 200% of the federal poverty line so that all low-income New Yorkers can have access to this vital program.
See the latest Fair Fares report with our complete findings and policy recommendations here.
Mass transit can be NYC's great economic equalizer, an engine for upward mobility, and a key to jumpstarting an inclusive recovery from the pandemic recession — but that can happen only if transit is AFFORDABLE. New Unheard Third data shows that far too many eligible New Yorkers are still unaware of Fair Fares, a program for half-priced subway and bus fares.
See the full report here.
“If you think of the budget as the primary document of the city or state’s priorities, then 421-a is number one — and what 421-a mostly does is subsidize market-rate apartments.” — Sam Stein, CSS Housing Policy Analyst.
See coverage of our latest housing report on 421-a in THE CITY.
In 2021, NYC’s most expensive & anachronistic housing program – 421-a - turned 50. In June 2022, it’s set to expire.
Our latest report follows the history of 421-a & shows how its cost has exploded without creating meaningful housing affordability.
EDCAP Director Carolina Rodriguez joined ABC's Here and Now to discuss the student debt crisis and expanding consumer assistance programs for student loan borrowers.
#NewProfilePic!
Learn more about our new look and how we're powered up to champion a more equitable city and state.
New Yorkers need your support more than ever. Help keep our programs available to people who need affordable housing, access to health care, and a living wage to support their families.
All gifts made by 12/31 are being matched by a generous donor! Make your gift here.
NEW Unheard Third data! Low-income New Yorkers overwhelmingly chose affordable housing & higher wages as measures that would help them the most economically. These issues should be at the top of Mayor-elect Eric Adams's agenda.
See our complete findings and policy recommendations in our latest policy brief.
New York’s nonprofit hospitals have been filing liens on nearly 5,000 patients’ homes annually. And it’s almost always against people who simply don't have the money to pay their medical bill.
Read more in our latest Discharged Into Debt report.
⚠️ Congress is currently negotiating whether to make devastating cuts to the proposed federal investments in the Housing as Infrastructure Act. Any more roll backs would be catastrophic as over 5.8 million tenants across the country are at the brink of eviction without federal or state protections.
❌ Our members of Congress are RIGHT NOW poised to make historic investments to stabilize communities by securing people’s homes. It has never been more clear that deep investments in housing are needed, and the Build Back Better Agenda Congress is currently negotiating is just that opportunity.
Being an Uber driver or DoorDash cyclist isn’t just a side gig. New CSS research from has found that many New Yorkers in the gig economy depend on these jobs to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.
Low-income New Yorkers and communities of color continue to bear the brunt of the economic recession and housing crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The road to an equitable and inclusive recovery requires urgent, bold, and effective action from our next chief executive. How will the next mayor address housing insecurity and affordability, reverse mass unemployment, and tackle the growing inequities that the pandemic has so deeply exacerbated? What will the mayor do to reimagine a city that works for all New Yorkers?
New analysis shows solving child poverty is in reach with President Biden's proposal to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) as part of his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The expansion would cut child poverty in New York by an estimated 36 percent.
Whoever the next NYC Mayor is, they must learn from the successes and flaws of the de Blasio administration's housing plan — we need an integrated plan that addresses the various aspects of the housing crisis together, and we must move toward the decommodification of housing to ensure true affordability for people who are struggling most.
Several legislators and coalition groups have proposed tax reforms that can put the state on a path towards an equitable recovery. Our new report provides an analysis of select tax reform areas— personal income, wealth, and financial sector transactions—and how such reforms would reduce inequality while raising urgently needed revenue for the state.
De Blasio made historic investments into housing, and yet the housing crisis persists. Why? His plan overlooked the needs of those hurting most from the status quo.
Mayor de Blasio has made huge investments in affordable housing, but the housing crisis persists — in many ways, things have gotten worse. Sam Stein's new report looks into why this administration didn't make a deeper impact, and what lessons the next city government can learn.
“Patients are getting slaughtered. People are having their wages garnished, the whole nine-yards." Earlier this week, we got Northwell Health to throw out their medical debt lawsuits. Now we urge the other 42 NY hospitals who have sued over 2,500 people during the pandemic to follow Northwell and STOP SUING PATIENTS!
Check out Elisabeth Benjamin's appearance on Capital Tonight with Susan Arbetter on why this unethical practice must end and why we need the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act.
Hospitals received billions in CARES Act bailout funds but are still suing patients who can't afford their medical bills. Northwell is the primary culprit, but overall 55 hospitals sued nearly 4,000 patients from March to November.
Check out the NY Times story and dive deeper with our Discharged Into Debt report.
Housing is health care! Anyone who's serious about saving lives and ending this pandemic should support a comprehensive eviction moratorium, the Housing Access Voucher Program + social housing conversions.
Rest in peace, Mayor David Dinkins. We're feeling this loss today with all of New York. A true gentleman and towering figure in city politics. We salute his legacy as NYC's first black mayor and extend our deepest condolences to his family.
New York City’s so-called recovery remains tepid and uncertain. The scale of job loss and pay cuts is now worse than The Great Recession, and the fallout continues to hit low-income New Yorkers the hardest.
Real estate investors call them "distressed assets." Tenants call them homes. New York must start treating housing as a social good, not a profit generator!
Meet Emerita Torres, our new VP for Policy, Research + Advocacy! Emerita comes to CSS after more than a decade as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about Emerita's background and her vision for New York.
Congrats to EDCAP director Carolina Rodriguez for receiving the NYS Senate District 6 Woman of Distinction award from Senator Kevin Thomas for her work tackling issues of student work in Nassau County! Read more about Carolina's work in her community here.
Calling all faith leaders! Learn more about #CleanSlateNY and how you can get involved in the fight for an automatic expungement law. Let's #endperpetualpunishment! Register for our Interfaith Expungement Roundtable this Thursday 10/29.
How are millennials faring in New York City these days? It really depends. There are vast disparities between local and transplant millennials in education, housing, and jobs, and the COVID-19 recession threatens to make things much worse.
In our latest report, Irene Lew and Oksana Mironova lay out key policy recommendations that NYC must include in its recovery plan to ensure local millennials' needs are being met.
We’re proud to once again be a part of the @nytimes #NeediestCases campaign. Read today's launch story to learn about the work CSS and other agencies have been doing to help those in need during the pandemic.
Our Amanda Dunker was the featured speaker at tonight’s UES4BLM gathering. She spoke about how the disparate racial impact of COVID-19 was *not* inevitable, but the result of decades of policy decisions that created structural inequality in NY’s healthcare system.
Read more about the decisions that brought us to this point, and how we can achieve equitable reform moving forward.
How can we reimagine housing as we fight these impending crises? “Expand the stock of social housing,” CSS housing policy analyst Samuel Stein tells The New Republic. “That is, housing that is affordable to working people, decommodified, and democratically controlled.” Read the full article here.
Also, if you want to learn more about social housing, check out "Social Housing in the U.S." and "How Social Is That Housing?" by our own Oksana Mironova.
ABC spoke to Elisabeth Benjamin about the structural inequity in our healthcare system, and how that's manifesting in COVID-19 testing. "These disparities didn't just materialize out of thin air," Elisabeth says. "These disparities occurred by design and that is what we call structural racism."
Read the full article and watch the extended interview here.
For further reading, check out our call for structural reform in healthcare by Benjamin and CSS Health Policy Associate Amanda Dunker.
Too often, public housing residents are left out of discussions on the future of NYCHA, so we went and asked tenants how they want to see NYCHA respond to its crisis.
We found they are sharply divided on many key issues in the NYCHA 2.0 Plan, with fear of gentrification and displacement being the main concerns among opposition. Read more in our latest housing report.
It's July 1 and tenants still need rent relief. New York needs to take immediate action to expand the eviction moratorium and develop a universal, comprehensive program to help renters. If we don't do anything, there will be a tsunami of evictions this summer with housing courts now open.
The Community Service Society will commemorate this crucial holiday by closing our offices and giving our staff and volunteers a day to honor the achievements and perseverance of black Americans and reflect on the substantial work that still lies ahead in the struggle to attain true equality.
No one should be getting outrageous bills like this for Covid-19 treatment. With a tsunami of medical debt coming from the pandemic, New Yorkers need consumer assistance like MCCAP now more than ever.
In this time, it's important to recognize the many ways that the state harms black bodies. In our latest blog, Elisabeth Benjamin and Amanda Dunker shine a light on how structural inequalities in NY's health care system have made #covid far more deadly for people of color. We also lay out both immediate actions and long-term policies that would ensure that all New Yorkers have affordable health insurance and that resources are distributed based on need, not wealth.
Join us for our virtual NY Reentry Roundtable on June 3rd! We'll be discussing reentry services during the pandemic with @fortunesociety, @bronxdefenders, @legalservicesofCNY + Legal Assistance of Western New York.
COVID-19 has been challenging for all of us, but it will never stop our commitment to low-income New Yorkers. If you can, please support us on #GivingTuesdayNow as we continue helping New Yorkers get through this crisis.
COVID-19 has intensified the city’s ongoing housing crisis, pushing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers further into housing insecurity. Click here to read more from housing analysts Oksana Mironova and late Tom Waters about how the pandemic is affecting an already overburdened system, and what assistance is needed.
If you have student loans, find out how the CARES Act affects you. Remember each situation is different, and our student debt hotline is open to help you explore your best option!
Click here for updates on what the federal and state governments are doing for student loan borrowers, and how it applies to you.
Our Financial Coaching Corps has some tips for New Yorkers who are struggling during the COVID-19 crisis. Get coached through what to do if the crisis has put you out of work, how to budget, and how to prioritize your bills and financial obligations. And if you need free one-on-one with a financial coach, our staff is available for remote sessions!
Click here for their COVID-19 Financial Tips guide.
If you're worried about paying your student during the COVID-19 crisis and don't know what to do, we're here to guide you. Check out our latest fact sheet by EDCAP with federal and NY state updates, and advice for how to move forward.
While you're here, if you have a moment please contact your legislators and urge them to EDCAP's services statewide!
Student loan anxiety is only going to skyrocket during the COVID-19 crisis if we don't get help to borrowers ASAP. If we get the necessary funding from the state government, EDCAP can expand its free, unbiased services statewide. Click here to contact NYS legislators.
We teamed up with Empire Justice Center to provide five ways that New York State can help low-income New Yorkers during the coronavirus epidemic. Check out our suggestions here.
We can't face a public health crisis when New Yorkers have to worry that their hospital is going to sue them. Between 2015 and 2019, non-profit hospitals in NY filed 31,000 cases, discharging their patients into debt. Read the latest report from CSS, and join our campaign to end medical debt!
The last thing people need during a public health crisis is the stress of a $10K medical bill. New York has a chance to stop unfair medical billing with the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act, which is now on the table in the legislature. Advocate now to end medical debt!
Our own Elisabeth Benjamin joined the Brian Lehrer Show this morning to discuss how the coronavirus is exposing the vast healthcare disparities in our country. Thankfully, Governor Cuomo has ensured that testing for COVID19 will be free for all New Yorkers. But Elisabeth wants to see more action from the federal gov't. As our country works to develop a vaccine, we can't afford to have the same price gouging we see with insulin and epipens.
Right to Counsel and stronger rent laws helped reduce evictions in 2019. With evictions down 29% in areas with RTC, it's no surprise there's growing enthusiasm for such programs locally and nationally.
Read more on RTC's success and why it's time for expansion.
Evictions have fallen by 29 percent in zip codes that have Right to Counsel. Our latest analysis from Oksana Mironova dives into why Right to Counsel is working, and why New York City should continue its expansion.
You can also find coverage of the analysis in The City.
What makes social housing different from contemporary "affordable housing" programs? Our housing analysts Oksana Mironova and Tom Waters are here to explain it to you and discuss how local, state, and federal goverments can support social housing in our latest blog.
Our president David Jones and program director Carolina Rodriguez joined ABC's Here and Now to discuss the state of the student loan crisis in New York, and how our program will help people struggling with student debt get back on their feet. Watch the interview here.
If you need assistance with your student loans, call our hotline at (888) 614-5004 or visit edcapny.org to set up an in-person appointment.
Here's where NYPD's fare evasion enforcement is most intense. The bigger and redder the dot, the worse it is. Enforcement intensity is 60% higher in poor black and brown neighborhoods compared to poor white and Asian neighborhoods.
Check out the latest Gothamist piece on the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act, which would bring many important protections to patients.
Advocate in our campaign to End Medical Debt here!
We recently launched the Education Consumer Debt Assistance Program (EDCAP) to give free, unbiased help to people who are burdened by student loan debt. Learn more about our services.
The MTA has been pushing a false narrative that fare evasion can be policed away. But new NYPD data confirms that fare evasion is largely a result of poverty, and enforcement hits poor black and brown communities the hardest.
Read our latest analysis here.
Paying back student loans shouldn't be this hard. Join us on Thursday, Jan. 30 as we discuss how we can hold loan servicers accountable while giving New York's 2.4 million student borrowers the help they need to navigate the complex debt landscape.
Every 28 seconds, another student loan borrower goes into default. Join us on 1/30 as we discuss how to hold loan servicers accountable while giving NY's 2.4 million student borrowers the help they need to navigate the complex debt landscape.
More than 100,000 New Yorkers have already gotten their #FairFares MetroCards. Starting Jan. 27, the program will be open to hundreds of thousands more. This is a life-changing program for New Yorkers who are trying to get ahead.
Read more in the Daily News and go to nyc.gov/fairfares for more info on eligibility.
Join us on Jan. 30 for our second annual student loan debt summit and hear from policymakers and advocates on how to hold loan servicers accountable while giving New York’s 2.4 million student borrowers the help they need to navigate the complex debt landscape. RSVP here.
This is what happens when you help someone afford a MetroCard! Read how getting an unlimited MetroCard helped Darius overcome financial difficulties and become an I.T. analyst.
Join us on Jan. 30 for our second annual student loan debt summit and hear from policymakers and advocates on how to hold loan servicers accountable while giving New York’s 2.4 million student borrowers the help they need to navigate the complex debt landscape. RSVP here.
Advocate today for the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act to end medical debt in NY! This bill would curb unfair billing practices, allowing patients to easily understand what they owe and avoid paying bills that they shouldn't be on the hook for.
75-year-old Edward Durham is one of New York's 2.4 million student loan borrowers. Student debt affects people of every age and circumstance.
Read Edward's story and learn more about our upcoming event, "Solving the Student Debt Crisis."
State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Clean Slate NY campaign member Zaki Smith penned this op-Ed in the Daily News to make the case for automatic expungement of stale criminal records. CSS is part of a statewide coalition advocating for a clean slate law to unblock opportunity for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.
"As I see it, the MTA has a choice: Police the poor and criminalize poverty under the guise of making the system safer. Or make the system run better by directing limited resources to where they are truly needed."
Read CSS President David Jones' statement on why he's voting "No" on the MTA budget.
Our healthcare system can change for the better, but only if we demand it! If you want to #EndMedicalDebt in New York, make your voice heard by advocating for the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act.
In New York, a criminal record can mean a lifetime of blocked opportunity. We're working to change that. Learn more about our Clean Slate New York campaign.
Today we're launching Clean Slate New York to fight for an automatic expungement law! Learn more about our campaign in this Times Union piece.
This is the state of healthcare in America, but we have a chance to change it in New York. Listen to NY Times reporter Sarah Kliff discuss the issue on The Daily, and advocate today for the Patient Medical Debt Protection Act to end medical debt in NY!
Give to CSS this Giving Tuesday and your gift will support the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program!
Unfair medical bills and hidden fees should never stop New Yorkers from getting the health care they deserve.
Where do the 2020 Democratic candidates stand on issues that matter to low-income New Yorkers? Check out our Voter Guide to see how they stack up.
Unfair medical bills and hidden fees should never stop New Yorkers from getting the health care they deserve.
Join us for a conversation with Steven Greenhouse about his acclaimed new book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor. Greenhouse, who covered labor issues for The New York Times for two decades, recounts pivotal episodes in the labor movement’s history and explains how unions lifted millions of workers and helped build a fairer nation. He then examines the decline of unions and how that has hurt workers, and concludes with inspiring stories of recent events, like the teachers’ strikes and Fight for $15, that are sparking a resurgence for labor.
We need to make public transit more affordable instead of punishing those who can't afford it. CSS was proud to help Jasmín pay off her fare evasion ticket.
Read her full story here.
So far, the debate moderators haven’t been paying much attention to housing - but many of the candidates have. We broke down each of their housing plans and analyzed how they’d affect NYC.
Read more here.
NEXT WEEK hear @jumaane.williams speak on a panel about how black New Yorkers have been displaced -- geographically, economically, and socially -- during our #fullparticipation conference. This year's conference is exploring the evolving role of the punishment in African Diaspora communities and their collective struggle for humanity. We'll have something for everyone: opportunities for artistic expression, breakout groups where you can jump into the discussion, and panels where you can just sit back and listen to an incredible lineup of speakers.
Our Full Participation conference is coming up in two weeks! This year we're exploring the impact of enslavement on African Diaspora communities, the evolving role of the punishment system, and the cultivation of art as healing. Everyone deserves the right to fully participate in the life of the community.
Please join the Young Leaders Council (YLC) for a fun evening of dancing, networking, and raising money for a great cause.
YLC is a group of civic-minded young professionals who are committed to advancing the Community Service Society's work and mission of fighting poverty in New York City. All proceeds from the event will benefit CSS's research, advocacy, policy, and litigation work, and support innovative programs that help hardworking New Yorkers get ahead.
Tickets include 2 hours passed hors d'oeuvres and 3 hours open bar. Music by DJ Jamm. RSVP here.
While fare evasion arrests are down, enforcement is rising overall as police are issuing more and more summonses, which come with a hefty $100 fine.
Read the full analysis by CSS senior economist Harold Stolper.
No amount of ads or police can “deter” people from their economic struggles. Criminalizing poverty only makes it harder for struggling New Yorkers.
The city and the MTA need to work together to give low-income New Yorkers more support, not use the transit system as a tool to shame and criminalize them.
Read the full op-ed by CSS president David Jones and senior economist Harold Stolper.
What is public, and how is it changing? There’s been lots of confusion and misleading info about the new rules, and we’re here to clear things up. Use this FAQ to get the facts straight before taking any action on public benefits use.
Join us for a conversation with Steven Greenhouse about his acclaimed new book, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor. Greenhouse, who covered labor issues for The New York Times for two decades, recounts pivotal episodes in the labor movement’s history and explains how unions lifted millions of workers and helped build a fairer nation. He then examines the decline of unions and how that has hurt workers, and concludes with inspiring stories of recent events, like the teachers’ strikes and Fight for $15, that are sparking a resurgence for labor.
This fall, more young New Yorkers are heading back to school with valuable work experience under their belts, and much needed earnings in their pockets, thanks to recent significant expansion and improvements to the City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). In his latest Urban Agenda column, CSS President/CEO David Jones argues for expanding the program.
Interested in reading more? You can find all our research on opportunities for NYC youth here.
New York tenants won historic protections this year, but the new law is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Whether you're a tenant, neighbor, social service professional, or invested community, it's important you learn more about what rights are protected for NY renters.
Read our Know Your Rights fact sheet here.
Who's ready to make sure every NYC youth between 14 and 22 years old has access to a summer job experience? Our young people are worth the investment! CSS President/CEO David Jones' latest Urban Agenda column dives into the importance of expanding the Summer Youth Employment Program, with some nuggets of our research that back it up.
Interested in reading more? You can find all our research on opportunities for NYC youth here.
Social service professionals! Come hear from housing experts on recent changes to NYC’s rent laws and housing court, and find out how you can stay informed with online resources, training, and tools from the Benefits Plus Learning Center. Register for free.
This Labor Day, New Yorkers say they need a vacation. Our latest report shows widespread and bipartisan support for the proposal to give all NYC workers paid vacation.
Introducing automatic expungement into New York law is a historic step forward for our state! Visit our marijuana decriminalization fact sheet to get the details on everything that's included in the new law.
You can also read the New York Times article here.
New York's new marijuana decriminalization law goes into effect today, and with it a process for automatic expungement of past convictions for offenses that are now decriminalized. Visit our marijuana decriminalization fact sheet to get the details on everything that's included in the new law!
Check out today's NY Daily News, where our head of policy Nancy Rankin makes the case for paid vacation for low-income workers. Our polling found New Yorkers overwhelmingly want our city to join the rest of the industrialized work and make paid time off a right for all workers.
Read the op-ed, and dive deeper with our policy brief on who lacks paid vacation now (hint: it's low-income workers, part-time workes, and small business employees) and more on the widespread support New Yorkers have for a paid vacation policy.
Congratulations to CSS President and CEO David Jones on being named to City and State's Manhattan Power 100. Check out the full list here.
We're proud to have worked with @LegalAidNYC, @NYCDefenderS, @lac_news, and @ndsharlem to seal records for hundreds of people with low-level #marijuana conviction histories. Everyone deserves the right to full participation in their community.
Congratulations to CSS President and CEO David Jones on being named to City and State's Manhattan Power 100. Check out the full list here.
Despite Fair Workweek laws in NYC, unpredictable work schedules remain a huge problem for many low-income workers. Our latest report looks at who's being affected and how a lack of awareness means many #workers aren't aware of their new rights.
Congratulations to CSS President and CEO David Jones on being named to City and State's Manhattan Power 100. Check out the full list here.
The first legislative session with Albany’s new political landscape wrapped up in June, and low-income New Yorkers saw many important wins. Check out our breakdown of the biggest victories, spanning housing, criminal justice, healthcare, and consumer protection.
We're proud to have received the Champion of Justice award from John Jay College's Prisoner Reentry Institute at last month's graduation ceremony.
At CSS, we're always working to help people with criminal #conviction histories overcome barriers to #reentry through policy, advocacy, and program services. Learn more about our criminal justice and prisoner reentry initiatives.
We convened a panel of experts to discuss what happened in the 2019 legislative session when it comes to reentry and how it affects individuals with conviction histories. You can watch the conversation here.
We did it! Governor Cuomo has signed the rent regulation reform bill that provides historic strengthening of tenants' rights, taking immediate effect.
Click here to see our housing research and learn more about why the new rent laws are a crucial step toward solvoing New York's housing crisis.
The right to a lease renewal is a central tenet of rent regulation, but it doesn't mean much if landlords can ask for insane rent hikes that they know tenants can't afford. Good Cause Eviction would limit rent increases to 1.5 times the inflation rate for 1.6 million households statewide. It would also eliminate arbitrary evictions, Evictions would only be allowed for non-payment of rent, damaging the home, creating a nuisance, or similar reasons. Evictions should be a last resort and not just a means for landlords to profit.
On June 6, we rallied with Teens Take Charge to call on NYC to integrate its high schools. Check out our research and analysis on why our politicians need to act now, and what they can do to create a more equitable education system.
Our proposal for reforming the admissions process to NYC's specialized high schools.
Testimony by CSS youth policy director Lazar Treschan on replacing the SHSAT.
Fair Fares is already helping out thousands of New Yorkers! Check out the Daily News' latest coverage on the program's rollout and expansion.
With rent regulation set to expire on June 15, we’ve been churning out analysis all month long to show why New York's tenants urgently need Universal Rent Control. Check out our latest reports here.
Our own Elisabeth Benjamin went to Albany for yesterday's hearing on the New York Health Act and bringing a single-payer system to New York. More than a million New Yorkers still don't have health insurance, and even for those with insurance, health care costs are often unaffordable.
Read Benjamin's testimony, view our statewide health affordability data, and check out press coverage in Times Union and The Wall Street Journal.
More than 60% of Bronx tenants are rent burdened. But did you know it's just as bad for tenants in Rochester, areas of the Hudson Valley, Suffolk County, and more? Universal Rent Control is a statewide issue.
Read the report, and take action to support universal rent control in New York State here.
If you think universal rent control is only a NYC issue, think again. It doesn’t matter if you live in Rochester, the Hudson Valley, Suffolk County, or the Bronx (among many, many other places). Our housing crisis is statewide, and we need a solution that works for renters everywhere.
Read the report, and take action to support universal rent control in New York State here.
Learn more about the loopholes in New York City's rent stabilization laws and how they actually work in our new report, Closing the Loopholes: What Six Rental Histories Tell Us About Fixing Rent Regulation in New York.
Read the report, and take action to support universal rent control here.
Who's ready to celebrate 175 years of our fight against income inequality? Join us for the CSS Annual Spring Gala on May 22 at historic Gotham Hall as we celebrate our history before a distinguished audience and honor friends for their significant contributions.
"The whole system is rigged against patients. It's not about patients, it's not for patients. It's about everybody getting their own. And patients are mad."
That's why we launched We The Patients! Learn more about how you can get involved in health reform advocacy.
#TBT! 2 years ago today we stood outside City Hall after #FairFares got snubbed from the 2017-18 NYC budget. “Fair Fares will go on. I will fight it until my very last breath,” CSS president David Jones said. We kept fighting, and now Fair Fares is a reality.
Learn more about our hard-fought campaign for Fair Fares.
Join us on April 29 for a panel discussing solutions to New York City's health care affordability problem. RSVP for free.
Stop criminalizing poverty, MTA. In our NY Daily News op-ed with TransitCenter, we explain why the MTA should take a customer-focused, data-based approach to fare collection rather than continuing to scapegoat bus riders themselves.
You’ve seen the signs saying the $15 minimum wage has arrived in NYC. But it hasn’t arrived for everyone. “Tipped workers” still regularly earn less, and it’s causing higher rates of poverty and hardship for them.
Check out our data and analysis here.
Please urge the NY State government to fully fund Community Health Advocates! New Yorkers need help understanding and using their health insurance, and that's where CHA delivers. CHA has handled more than 300,000 cases since becoming New York's statewide health consumer assistance program in 2010, saving consumers $35 million in health-related costs.
Ask your legislators to #supportCHA here.
Evictions have dropped more than 5x faster in zip codes with Right to Counsel than in similar zip codes without it, our latest data analysis found. Having an attorney in housing court makes all the difference!
Read our latest analysis on the first year of Right to Counsel and potential for expansion.
Congratulations to Nancy Rankin, our VP for Policy, on being named one of the five most distinguished women of non-profit work in NY by City & State New York for her pioneering work on #FairFares. “I never see the research we do as an end in itself,” Nancy told City & State. "I’m not interested in putting out reports that sit on the shelf. We’re trying to use our research and our evidence to describe real problems and make the case for policy change that would make a large-scale impact.”
Community Health Advocates (CHA) helps New Yorkers navigate the complex health care system by providing individual assistance, outreach, and education to communities throughout New York State. In 2010, CHA was designated New York State’s consumer assistance program. Since then, CHA has handled 337,000 cases for consumers and small businesses, helping them obtain health care services, understand their health insurance, and make health insurance work for them.
In order to adequately serve all New Yorkers in need, CHA needs the state to increase its funding. Please ask your legislators to support CHA.
New Yorkers need help understanding and using their health insurance. Please advocate for the New York State Legislature to increase Community Health Advocates' funding so they can adequately serve the needs of all New Yorkers.
New Yorkers at all income levels are struggling to afford high healthcare costs. Overwhelmingly, consumers want to see our leaders in Albany act now to address the coverage and affordability issues plaguing people across our state. Check out the new data release here!
Let's lift the burden off the 2.3 million New Yorkers struggling with student loan debt. Ask your legislators to fund SLCAP!
New Yorkers want to see action on healthcare affordability. 76% of New Yorkers are worried about affording future healthcare costs, according to new data. It's not hard to understand why, considering the data shows more than half of New Yorkers experienced issues affording healthcare costs in the last year. Check out the full statewide data release here.
Fair Fares will be available to all New Yorkers at or below poverty by January 2020! Read our statement and details of the rollout phases here.
Please ask your legislators to include automatic expungement of marijuana-related criminal records as part of marijuana legalization!
Predatory lending and fraudulent business practices that make navigating student loan debt really hard. It's #whyweneedhelp, and why we want funding for the Student Loan Consumer Assistance Program (SLCAP) to give student borrowers unbiased guidance so they can properly navigate the student loan industry and improve their financial health.
Ask your legislators to fund SLCAP here.
If New York is going to legalize marijuana, it has a moral obligation to expunge criminal records for marijuana-related convictions. More than 800,000 New Yorkers have been arrested on weed charges in New York State over the last 20 years. When people get convicted on those charges, their criminal record can stay with them forever, affecting their access to employment, housing, and trade licenses. It'd be unjust to continue punishing New Yorkers for something that's legal.
We need to make sure our elected officials know this, and you can tell them here.
We can't allow the student loan industry to continue taking advantage of student borrowers. Since the federal government refuses to rein student loan servicers in, we need a local solution. Please urge your legislators to fund the Student Loan Consumer Assistance Program here.
Cases like Miguel's are all too common, and they're why we need help. Please urge your legislators to fund the Student Loan Consumer Assistance Program here.
Tell the NYS Government to fund the Student Loan Consumer Assistance Program (SLCAP). Too often, student loan companies care more about making the largest profit than finding the best plan for borrowers. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has turned its back on the borrowers it should be protecting. People struggling with student debt need some place to turn to for unbiased guidance, and SLCAP would be that place. SLCAP would provide info, direct assistance, and when needed, legal assistance to student borrowers.
Come hear Seth Frotman speak about student loan debt on Jan. 31 at our event! Frotman, a student loan watchdog, quit the CFPB after accusing the Trump administration of turning its back on student borrowers. He now runs the Student Borrower Protection Center.
New York's rent laws are up for renewal this year, so it's important for all of us to know what's fact and what's fiction when talking rent regulation. In our new blog post, we outline and debunk five common myths about rent regulation. Check it out here.
How crucial is rent regulation? More low-income tenants in NYC live in rent regulated apartments than in subsidized and public housing combined. Yet, our city has lost nearly 300,000 units of rent regulated housing since 1994. There are many steps our politicians need to take to end NYC's housing crisis, and strengthening our rent laws is an utmost priority. With New York's rent laws up for renewal this spring, the time for Governor Cuomo and the NYS Legislature to act is now! This is an opinion that New Yorkers across the board -- including homeowners and unregulated housing tenants -- are behind, as our research shows.
Read our new report "Rent Regulation in New York City: How it works, what went wrong, and how to fix it" to learn more.
In gentrifying neighborhoods of New York City, there's a significant increase in the number of 311 complaints referred to the NYPD. If you click on this map, you'll be able to navigate through the 1,049 lower-income tracts we analyzed citywide and see which areas are gentifying, and the influx of white residents in those areas has correlated to an increase in 311 complaints.
We hope you'll read the full report as well (which also has a version of the map within it).
The body of evidence showcasing increased police enforcement in gentrifying neighborhoods is growing. Our research has found that, as newcomers move in, there's a spike in 311 calls referred to the NYPD for "quality-of-life" complaints -- something as innocuous as a noise complaint. Between 2011 and 2016, these complaints rose 40% faster in gentifying communities than in communities that didn't see an influx of white residents.
Our latest report explores the over-policing of communities of color and how it's making black and brown neighbors feel unsafe. Check it out, along with additional coverage from The Root.
In June, we celebrated the inclusion of #FairFares in the city budget and a Jan. 1 launch with Mayor de Blasio, city leaders, and allies. The city has had 6 months to get together a plan for implementation and outreach, and it's letting down hundreds of thousands of low-income New Yorkers by failing to launch the program on time.
Please advocate with us and urge Mayor de Blasio to release a plan ASAP so that New Yorkers can access this benefit as promised.
Happy New Year! We are already hard at work on our 2019 agenda as we continue to fight for opportunity, social equity, and human dignity for all New Yorkers. Swipe through to see a few of our major accomplishments and impacts in 2018. Please continue to stand with CSS to protect, inspire, and uplift low-income New Yorkers. Read more stories about our 2018 work at the link in our bio.
When you stand with CSS, you are helping thousands of New Yorkers unlock life-changing benefits. Your support is crucial to expanding our reach to more hardworking New Yorkers who deserve a fair shot at a better life in the new year.
Please make your year-end gift today.
2019 is right around the corner, and we're ready to tackle all sorts of challenges -- old and new -- to help New Yorkers thrive and overcome hardships. To continue serving low-income New Yorkers, we need your continued support.
Please donate and help us make New York a fairer place this coming year.
Student loan debt is a huge and growing problem, which disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income New Yorkers, making it difficult for them to make ends meet, build savings, start families, buy homes and complete their education. Under President Trump, the federal government has steadily abandoned its role in protecting consumers from unscrupulous for-profit colleges and loan servicers.
Join us for a keynote address and panel discussion to explore what we can do to address this problem; its implications for upward mobility; and how New York compares with what is happening nationally.
With less than two weeks to go before the promised launch of Fair Fares – half-priced MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers – Mayor de Blasio has not told eligible New Yorkers how and when they will be able to sign up. The mayor promised this benefit to New Yorkers struggling to afford subway and bus fares when he agreed to fund “Fair Fares” back in June. Now they are counting on him to fulfill his pledge.
Click here to email or tweet the mayor to ask him, “What’s the plan for rolling out Fair Fares?”
We urge the de Blasio administration to release an outreach plan and timetable for #FairFares. Now with only two weeks until the scheduled start of the program on January 1, thousands of low-income New Yorkers who were promised half-priced MetroCards in 2019 are eagerly waiting to hear how and when they can sign up.
Read our full release, along with press coverage from the New York Daily News and Gothamist.
Regarding NYCHA, we believe a new consent agreement that meets Judge Pauley's concerns is the best option for both parties. However, if federal receivership is the only option, we strongly oppose a HUD-administered receivership in favor of a judicial receivership.
CSS president David Jones explains why in today's Daily News op-ed.
CSS senior housing policy analyst Victor Bach joined NY1's Inside City Hall to discuss the state of NYCHA ahead of Friday's court deadline. Catch the full segment here.
With NYCHA in flux, this is a crucial time. That's why we launched "NYCHA Need to Know," a monthly newsletter by NYCHA guru Victor Bach to keep residents and their allies informed on all the latest news. Every month, we’re providing news links, analysis, and action alerts about events, campaigns, and more all in a reader-friendly format. Sign up to receive "NYCHA Need to Know" and catch up on editions you've missed.
New Yorkers want to see NYC invest in rent assistance over more tax breaks for developers. Today, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer proposed to invest $125 million a year in operating subsidies, plus $375 million annually in new capital funds for affordable housing.
Like with other forms of rent assistance, operating subsidies would allow tenants to pay lower rents without compromising building operations and maintenance. We are big fans of this new proposal, and we tell you why in our new report.
Giving Tuesday is here! Support CSS and take a stand against economic inequality in New York City. We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us and helped us deliver impactful results, like these ones for Fair Fares and Paid Sick Leave.
Today only, you can double your impact thanks to a group of generous donors who have offered to match every dollar donated today up to $6,000. Donate before midnight!
This year, #CHA resolved more than 27,000 health-coverage cases, saving New Yorkers nearly $7 million in health-related costs. With your help, we can do even more next year.
Read more about how CHA fought for Adam, an 8-year-old child with an autism disorder, to receive much-needed speech therapy after his insurance plan initially denied his request through a violation of New York State law.
With assistance from the Benefits Plus Learning Center, Bill Reilly got his full Social Security benefits restored in 2002. Not only has Bill maintained an independent life since then living with cerebral palsy, but he's still completing marathons! (You can read the New York Times' profile here.)
Take a break from the Cyber Monday hustle and bustle and think ahead to Giving Tuesday. The more you help us, the more we can impact New Yorkers who need assistance. Take a stand against economic inequality in New York and donate to CSS today.
Meet Darun, a recent immigrant from Thailand whose tight budget often restricts her to one meal a day so she can afford her subway fares for work and school. Thanks to Fair Fares, her trip will be easier next year.
Fair Fares is one of many ways CSS has helped low-income New Yorkers this past year. With your help, we can do even more in 2019. Take a stand against economic inequality in NYC and donate for Giving Tuesday.
This Thanksgiving, we're so thankful for our RSVP volunteers. Featured above is Carolyn Bratton, who was profiled in the New York Times this month for her work at Elmcor Senior Center in Elmhurst, Queens. You can read all The Neediest Cases Fund stories and donate to benefit CSS and seven other beneficiary organizations.
Meet Miriam, a hardworking mom who struggled to land a job because of her criminal conviction history. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers face obstacles to employment, housing, and more because of a criminal conviction, no matter how minor or how dated. We're fighting for a comprehensive criminal record expungement law in New York State, and we ask you to become a CSS advocate this Giving Tuesday.
Read Miriam's story and take action here.
Giving Tuesday is one week away! This is a great time to double your impact as a generous group of donors is matching the first $6,000 we raise. Learn more about some of our recent work that's helped create a more equitable New York, and donate today.
If you don't have health insurance yet for 2019, we'll help you get enrolled! The first Open Enrollment deadline is coming up soon. If you want coverage starting January 1, you'll need ti be enrolled by December 15.
Call (888) 614-5400, email enroll@cssny.org, or fill out this form for more info and to set up an appointment and get enrolled for free.
How will the midterm elections affect the future of New York City housing? Using data from the 2017 Housing and Vacancy Survey and the CSS database, we created an interactive resource showing where different types of housing are located in New York City by legislative district. You can toggle between public, rent-regulated, unregulated, HUD Family, HUD Senior, Mitchell-Lama, and owner-occupied housing for congressional, state senate, state assembly, and city council districts.
Check out the maps here.
Open enrollment begins today, and coverage could be more affordable than you think! Certified CSS Navigators will guide you through everything so you can get covered for 2019. Our services are free, unbiased, and confidential.
Call (888) 614-5400, email enroll@cssny.org, or fill out this form for more info and to set up an appointment.
Limited data released by NYPD shows racial disparities continue to exist citywide in turnstile arrests and summonses. This data remains incomplete, as NYPD has refused to obey the law and release fare evasion data for every subway station in #NYC. Public transparency of fare evasion enforcement is a necessary step toward holding NYPD accountable for a history of racialized “broken windows” transit policing. Read the full analysis by CSS senior economist Harold Stolper.
For most New Yorkers, no matter the positive strides they have made, their criminal record is their record for the rest of their lives, on view for all to see. It acts as a permanent red light that can prevent them not only from achieving their dreams, but from getting a job or a place to live. To allow for full participation in our economy, we must improve our laws. Our new report lays out the case for improving the current criminal record sealing law in New York State and moving towards a more comprehensive expungement law.
Our latest episode of the Fighting Poverty, Strengthening New York podcast looks into the eviction epidemic in NYC, introducing Daisy Young, who, after losing her job and watching her savings deplete, found an eviction notice on her apartment door. We look at how CSS, along with other members of the emergency rent coalition, work to prevent homelessness through providing funds to halt evictions before the marshal shows up. And we hear from CSS housing analyst Oksana Mironova on how policy change is needed to keep low-income New Yorkers in the places they call home.
Listen here.
CSS Associate Counsel Kimberly Westcott opens the second day of our conference "Full Participation is a Human Right: Moving Beyond Punishment", which looks at the impact of the criminal punishment system and calls for a movement that recognizes full participation in the community for all. Panels discuss many paths forward including how New York should pass laws expunging criminal records for full participation to become a reality.
Learn more about the conference here.
Congratulations to CSS President and CEO David Jones on being named to City & State's 2018 Nonprofit Power 50, honoring the 50 most powerful people in the nonprofit sector. David’s relentless advocacy on behalf of low-income New Yorkers has helped empower a countless number of people since joining CSS in 1986.
Check out the full article in City & State here.
Check out Latino USA's new podcast that we collaborated on about the growing world of warehouses and the opportunities they offer to Latinx workers. Our research on Latinx youth shows how crucial Career and Technical Education (or similar programs) is to help students prepare for and succeed in a changing labor market as traditional blue collar jobs disappear.
Listen to the podcast and read more about our research in this piece by youth policy director Lazar Treschan and policy analyst Irene Lew.
Every person in our communities deserves full participation. We're looking for submissions to feature on our conference website for “Full Participation is a Human Right: Moving Beyond Punishment.” These “blogs” can be in any format you want -- essays, policy recommendations, personal accounts, poetry, etc. – about incarceration, punishment, exclusion from community, human rights, expungement, or any related topics.
Email fullparticipation@cssny.org with submissions or questions. And if you haven’t registered for the conference, you can register and check out Zudaydah Rivera's poem in full along with other submissions at full-participation.org.
Khalil Cumberbatch currently serves as Associate VP of Policy at the Fortue Society, a reentry organization whose goal is to build people and not prisons. While New York has taken small steps toward criminal records expungement, the current laws do not help those who need it most and prevent full participation in the community. At our conference next week, Khalil will join a panel to discuss the issue.
Click here to learn more, see the full schedule, and register for free.
While in federal prison, Topeka Sam witnessed firsthand the epidemic and disparity of incarceration on women, more specifically women of color. She felt the urgency to bring the faces and voices of women in prison to the public in order to bring awareness to women’s incarceration and post-incarceration issues in order to change the legal system. On Oct. 11, Topeka will speak at Full Participation is a Human Right: Moving Beyond Punishment, our conference that will focus on the impact of the criminal punishment system and call for a movement to enact expungement laws in New York. Come hear from her and dozens of other experts, many of whom have been affected firsthand by the criminal punishment system, in panels, breakout groups, art exhibitions, and more.
View the full conference schedule and register for free here.
What’s at stake in our fight for fare evasion data? Our research found that, in Brooklyn, 90% of the people the NYPD arrested for fare evasion in 2017 were black or Hispanic. Young black men were the targets of half of all fare evasion arrests despite making up only 13% of the low-income adult population. We need citywide data to see if these unjustifiable racial disparities exist throughout New York City.
Read the New York Times feature and dive deeper into the issue with our fare evasion reports, The Crime of Being Short $2.75: Policing Communities of Color at the Turnstile and No Easy Pass for Transit Riders.
A criminal record is not a proxy for assessing who a person is. For tens of thousands of New Yorkers, past criminal convictions – no matter how minor or how dated – can prevent them from finding a job or a home. On Oct. 11-13, join us for a conference that will focus on the impact of the criminal punishment system and call for a movement that recognizes full participation in the community is a human right. New York needs to pass laws expunging criminal records for full participation to become a reality. We’d love for you to join us for panels, keynotes, breakout groups, art exhibitions, and more.
Click here to learn more and register.
Despite improvement, NYC's poverty rate remains higher than the national rate. Additionally, rent burdens -- the share of income tenants spend on rent -- remain far higher than they were before the Great Recession. (Nationally, rent burdens have returned to where they were before the crash.)
Click here to read the full analysis of newly released census data by CSS policy expert Tom Waters.
Evictions are a major player in NYC’s ongoing housing crisis. With legal incentives to force tenants out of rent stabilized homes, landlords filed over 200,000 evictions in 2017. All the more reason why the Right to Counsel (RTC) program, which provides low-income tenants facing eviction with an attorney, is so crucial to curbing this eviction epidemic—and in turn the housing crisis.
Click here to read the full analysis by CSS housing expert Oksana Mironova.
Thank you to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for supporting One Fair Wage! Eight states have passed One Fair Wage legislation to end the subminimum wage for tipped workers, including Michigan just last week.
Help us make New York next. Click here to take action.
This Labor Day, we celebrate new workers’ rights in New York City, like paid family leave and the rising minimum wage. However, enforcement of these laws is often slowed by a lack of awareness.
Read our full report here, and spread the word so workers know their rights!
For Women's Equality Day, we are celebrating some of our recent achievements that have made New York a fairer place for all women. Learn more about our victories and initiatives below.
Bill de Blasio has taken positive steps to combat New York City’s housing crisis, but the lack of coordination between the city’s different affordable housing strategies has left the city far short of what’s needed.
Click here to read the full op-ed in Crain's New York Business by CSS housing analysts Tom Waters and Oksana Mironova.
New York City's tech workforce is thriving, but its growth is not benefitting everyone. Women, black, and Latinx adults, and native New Yorkers overall are underrepresented in the burgeoning industry.
New HVS data reveals the number of NYC apartments affordable to low-income households declined by nearly 50% between 2002 and 2017. The combination of vacancy deregulation, the loss of subsidized housing, and overall rising rents is dramatically shrinking the city’s supply of affordable housing.
Join us October 11-13 for Full Participation is a Human Right: Moving Beyond Punishment, a conference discussing how current systems prevent New Yorkers with criminal justice histories from fully participating in our communities and how we can move toward solutions.
Sign up here to be the first to receive updates on this one-of-a-kind event.
CSS's Elisabeth Benjamin honored as one of Crain's New York's Notable Women in Healthcare
Read our statement here
The latest CSS report that examines our annual Unheard Third survey and other data sets to glean insights into the economic outlook for low-income New Yorkers—the more than 3 million city residents who earn less than twice the federal poverty level, or about $40,000 for a family of three. What are the positive factors that are opening the gateway to upward mobility for these residents, and what’s holding working-age households back from getting ahead?
join the Community Service Society of New York (CSS) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) for a presentation and panel discussion on how to make the tech sector more inclusive. We will discuss how New York City can leverage public-private partnerships and investments to accelerate economic mobility and wealth building for underserved New Yorkers. https://secure.cssny.org/page/s/register-for-making-the-tech-sector-inclusive-
Fair Fares—our proposal to offer half-priced MetroCards to New Yorkers living at or below the poverty line—has been included in next year's city budget!
This is a huge win for low-income New Yorkers who struggle to afford the cost of our subways and buses. It's a powerful, poverty-fighting measure that will connect low-income New Yorkers to economic opportunity and make New York a more equitable and more affordable city.
Read the press release on the win here, and Nancy Rankin's remarks from the press event celebrating this victory here. Photos from the press event can be seen at our facebook page.
Read David Jones' statement to Mayor de Blasio on the need to fund the Fair Fares proposal in the city budget. http://www.cssny.org/news/entry/mr.-mayor-seize-this-opportunity-to-help-working-poor-afford-public-transit
Listen to the collaboration between CSS and Latino USA on the challenges facing Latino students in higher eduction. "Navigating the Maze of Higher Eduction" is the first in a series of podcasts being released. You can read more about the data supporting this piece here.
New York City has always been known as a chronically tight, high-cost rental market. In recent decades, housing affordable to low-income New Yorkers has become more elusive and homelessness has skyrocketed.
The city’s low-income population has remained fairly stable since 2000, with about a million households living below twice the federal poverty level. Yet the number of homeless families in shelters has tripled.
Our latest report uses Community Service Society’s (CSS) annual Unheard Third survey of low-income households in New York City to examine the multiple types of housing insecurity experienced by renters today.
NYPD stop-and-frisk tactics were ruled unconstitutional for violating the rights of minorities in 2013. Today the #NYPD makes far fewer stops, but recorded stops still follow the same old discriminatory pattern of targeting low-income communities of color—resulting in hundreds of arrests for low-level, non-violent offenses that don’t uncover weapons or improve public safety. And evidence suggests as many as 73% of NYPD stops go unrecorded. Read more
“Segregation is corrosive, for both opportunity and democracy.”
As New York City Council Member Brad Lander and our President David R. Jones point out in a recent op-ed, while segregation has fallen in most American cities, it remains stubbornly high here in NYC. This is true even 50 years after passage of the Fair Housing Act, and more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education. Read the full editorial here.
Our Fair Fares campaign has been working towards bringing a discount for low-income New Yorkers on the MTA. 1 in 4 New Yorkers say they regularly cannot afford the cost of the subway or bus, preventing them from getting to work, doctors appointments, or other important tripis. We are closer than ever to making this important proposal a reality. Read more about it here.
On April 10, we hosted a presentation and panel discussion on barriers to young-adult employment and education, featuring findings from a recent report by CSS and JobsFirstNYC. Watch the full event here.
More than 75 percent of people in the correctional facilities at Rikers Island are stuck behind bars because they cannot afford bail. Not only that—the buildings are filled with 90 percent People of Color.
Read the New York City Bar Association's Task Force on Mass Incarceration's statement recommending the closure of Rikers Island.
It's National Public Health Week! The Harlem Health Advocacy Partnership (HHAP) and CSS work to improve the health of low-income, public-housing residents by providing community-health workers and health advocates.
Read an article featuring HHAP published by Boston University's Public Health Post.
Join Community Service Society and Riders Alliance for a rally to demand Mayor de Blasio fund discount MetroCards for low-income riders in this year's budget!
Rally for #FairFares!
Wednesday, April 11, at 10 a.m.
City Hall Steps
Between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street
Manhattan
Subways: 2/3/4/5/6/R/W
Buses: 120, BxM18, M22, M55, X10, X11, X12
Under the Fair Fares proposal by CSS and Riders Alliance, working-age New York City residents would save $726 annually off the cost of a monthly MetroCard.
See why more than half of the New York City Council supports Fair Fares.
Happy 8th anniversary to the Affordable Care Act (ACA)!
CSS and our partners statewide serve tens of thousands of people each year trying to navigate the often confusing world of health insurance.
Our CSS Navigator Network offers enrollment assistance throughout the state in the New York State of Health marketplace. Our Community Health Advocates (CHA) program offers free, confidential assistance to consumers with any kind of health insurance—at any time of year.
One toll-free hotline—1-888-614-5400—will connect you with either program.
Give us a call!
Learn more about how CSS helps New Yorkers get affordable healthcare.
Happy First Day of Spring!
The Harlem Health Advocacy Partners (HHAP) demonstration project pairs Community Health Workers with CSS Health Advocates to help reduce disparities in chronic diseases among New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents in East and Central Harlem and improve their long-term health and quality-of-life.
Diane Keller is a volunteer colleague on the Community Health Advocates (CHA) helpline.
CHA is a program of the Community Service Society provides free and confidential individual counseling and educational community presentations to individuals, families, advocates and providers about health insurance in New York State.
Learn more about how CSS helps New Yorkers obtain healthcare.
On March 8, 2018, CSS filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a client who lost his job when a background check screening comany pulled up two felony convictions that belonged to someone else.
We argue that our client's unfair termination was in violation of the New York State and City Human Rights Laws as well as New York City's Fair Chance Act, which is designed to protect employees and jobseekers from criminal record-based discrimination.
Read our Press Release.
CSS’s Nancy Rankin has a message for the mayor: We’ve had enough debate on Fair Fares. It’s time for action.
Half-price metro cards would save poor New York City transit riders $726 annually off the cost of 12 monthly passes. So what’s stopping us from moving forward with this cost-effective strategy for helping low-income New Yorkers get ahead? Mayor de Blasio's insistance that Fair Fares needs its own special revenue source, unlike many of his favored initiatives.
Read Nancy's Op-ed in the New York Daily News.
Read more about how enforcement favors drivers over transit riders.
Read more