Immigrant Access to the Food Stamp Program
One fourth of those eligible for food stamps but not participating in the Food Stamp Program are immigrants, according to FoodChange’s Immigrant Access to the Food Stamp Program report. Due to this lack of food stamp participation, New York City forgoes $646 million every year in federal funds. While hunger and food insecurity are widespread among New York City’s immigrant populations, the highest concentrations of eligible but not participating immigrants reside in Queens and Brooklyn. (April 2, 2007)
Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Businesses started, owned and operated by immigrants are boosting the city’s economy according to A World of Opportunity, a new report by the Center for an Urban Future. The reports finds that many immigrants are self-employed and that their businesses have created jobs and play a key role in neighborhoods throughout New York. However the report says there is more that government, businesses and non-profit organization could do to help these entrepreneurs. (February 7, 2007)
Concerns Of The Working Poor
This survey by the Community Service Society looks at what low-income New Yorkers see as the most important policy issues for public officials. The survey is set up to compare and contrast the attitudes of American born New Yorkers to those of immigrants. Both see as the top issues keeping rent down and improving public education, but the U.S.-born are worried most about jobs and crime; immigrants say housing and health care. The report examines the reasons for the differences. (January 25, 2007)
English Class Shortage
The number of English as a second language classes provided by New York State’s English for Speakers of Other Languages program has not kept up with the increasing demand for the courses, according to a new study by the Center for an Urban Future and the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. In 2005, there were more than 1.6 million adults in the state with limited English skills, but just 86,433 seats in state-run English programs, the study, “Lost in Translation,” says. And in New York City, the program had only 41,585 places for the 1,230,866 adults with limited English skills. (November 15, 2006)
Street Vendors
This survey of 100 of the estimated 12,000 street vendors in New York City, entitled “Peddling Uphill: A report on the conditions of street vendors in New York City,” conducted by the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center, found that “the legendary success stories of the past are nearly unthinkable today; vendors are faced with so much regulation and harassment that they can barely subsist.” The report gives a rundown on who vendors are, where they are from, why they vend – 38 percent said they couldn’t find another job; 27 percent said they love the freedom – and enumerates their struggles, especially what the report calls police harassment: 22 percent of tickets were because they were “too far from curb,” 15 percent because they were “too close to storefront.” Among the report’s recommendations are a reduction in fines, an increase in vending licenses, language access for the 80 percent of vendors for whom English is not their primary language, and reform in enforcement procedures, along with an easy-to-use manual of relevant laws and resources. (October 5, 2006)