via gothamist:
Immigrant advocates and members of the City Council are throwing their weight behind a budget-threatened, first-of-its-kind childcare program for low-income immigrants who lack permanent legal status.
The exclusion of the program Promise NYC from Mayor Eric Adams’ executive budget for the next fiscal year was at the center of a City Council hearing and rally outside City Hall on Tuesday.
The Adams administration launched the program in January with $10 million in city funding for the care of 600 children over six months. Several councilmembers want to renew the program, and some advocates want to boost funding to $20 million to cover the entire school year. Funding is set to expire at the end of the month.
The initiative, which aids families deemed ineligible from other childcare programs because of their immigration status, is an acknowledgment that immigrants without legal authorization to work still need to feed themselves and their families – and that lack of free or affordable childcare impedes them from being able to work.
With immigrants widely ineligible for federally funded childcare, Promise NYC has been heralded as a vital support – especially to migrants who have newly arrived in the city. Families with children account for more than 70% of those living in shelters.
New York City’s childcare costs rank among the most expensive in the country. The median annual cost of commercial daycare for toddlers hovers around $18,000 across the boroughs, and $23,000 for infants, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.
AC