Dear John,

In our cheers each evening, it’s easy (and important, of course) to focus on doctors and nurses providing essential, lifesaving services in our ERs. We also cheer for many workers we’ve come to recognize as essential, even if we failed to see that before: food chain, transit, sanitation workers, and many more.

What about our nonprofit human service providers? Nonprofits in every corner of our city have stepped up to provide critical assistance: delivering meals to homebound older adults, staffing homeless shelters, caring for people with disabilities, reaching survivors of domestic violence, offering mental health support, continuing to work with our young people, and helping New Yorkers in crisis get access to food, healthcare, and other critical services. Cultural and parks and education nonprofits, public libraries, and advocacy groups have worked tirelessly to move critical programming online. But I fear we haven’t done enough to recognize their critical role.

Meanwhile, they are facing new and unplanned costs, large-scale revenue losses, and massive uncertainty. The Center for an Urban Future interviewed dozens of organizations for a recent report, finding that nearly every organization they spoke with is facing a revenue shortfall due to delayed grant funding, cancelled contracts, and cancelled fundraising events. At the same time, organizations are faced with millions in unanticipated costs: setting up new IT systems for work from home, additional cleaning and personal protective equipment, hazard pay bonuses, hiring new temporary workers to make up for lost volunteers.

We must recognize the essential work of our nonprofits, and provide them with the support they need to keep doing it. Nonprofits should be reimbursed for providing hazard pay to frontline workers (the HEROES Act that the House approved last week would help immensely). The state and city should issue guidance to loosen up spending restrictions and work with nonprofits on more flexible budgets that take into account the current PAUSE order and uncertainty. And at the federal level, improving the availability and usability of grants and loans for nonprofits, small and large (including changes to the PPP program which we have been calling for), will be a big help to get organizations through this time.

Early in this crisis I called for the City to maintain its commitments to contracted non-profits, and to work with them to find alternative ways to fulfil grant obligations and provide services virtually. While some reassurance and guidance has been given, I’m afraid that communication about grants from both the Administration and the Council has left too much uncertainty. Yes, we are facing a gaping budget gap, but we should not close it by retroactively cutting funding that nonprofit service providers already spent in good faith.

Nonprofits that rely more on private funding need our support too. This is an extremely challenging time for all nonprofits, whether they are service providers, cultural institutions, or advocacy organizations. Help us build community support for them by sharing a message about your favorite non-profit, why you support them, and what they are doing right now to help us weather the COVID-19 crisis. We will share out responses and links to donate to the groups you recommend.

Finally, one bright spot (along with a little news about our family): At this critical moment, New York City’s nonprofit community is getting a great new champion. I’m proud to share that my wife, Meg Barnette, is starting a new job this week as the President and CEO of Nonprofit New York. After a decade at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (where she helped lead the creation of their new health center in Queens and the merger of PP affiliates across New York), Meg is taking on this new role to support nonprofits of all types and sizes across the city to build capacity, strengthen practices of diversity equity, and inclusion, and help the nonprofit sector weather the current crisis. You can cheer her (and NYC’s nonprofit community) on in her new role via Twitter at @NonProfitNYPrez or learn more about Nonprofit New York here.

Nonprofit New York’s goal? To strengthen our city’s nonprofit sector to thrive as something that we so desperately need right now: a relentless, collective force for good.

Brad

In this email:
City and State Updates
New Loan Opportunity for Small Businesses
Upcoming Virtual Events

City and State Updates

Latest impacts: As of this afternoon, 16,059 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19, and another 4,828 are presumed to have died from COVID. More than 50,618 have been hospitalized and there have been 191,650 positively identified cases. Yesterday, the City released new data of deaths from positive COVID cases broken down by zipcode for the first time, allowing us to see more specifically what we already suspected: the hardest hit neighborhoods in the city are lower income communities of color, while weather whiter neighborhoods have seen fewer deaths.
Masks available: Representative Yvette Clark and I will be at the Bartel-Pritchard Square entrance to Prospect Park (Prospect Park West and 15th Street) on Sunday between 12 and 1 PM to distribute masks to parkgoers to help people comply with social distancing. Our office has a limited supply of masks, if you have ideas for organizations or places that need them, let us know.
Evictions update: On May 7 Governor Cuomo announced an extension of the state’s 90 eviction moratorium which was set to expire on June 20th. While the new extension until August 20 will help protect many tenants, it is far narrower than the original moratorium, and will still leave tenants vulnerable to eviction if they are not able to pay the rent owed when housing court resumes and the eviction prohibition ends. The Right to Counsel and Housing for All coalitions created a useful summary of who the eviction moratorium covers and other relief tenants are calling for, more information here.
Middle and high school admissions: The disruption of this school year means that middle and high schools that usually rely on grades, tests, and attendance to determine admission will need to make changes. I sent a letter to NYC schools Chancellor Richard Carranza this weekend, on the 66th anniversary of the Brown v. Board supreme court decision that invalidated segregated schools, urging the DOE to look at District 15’s admissions changes as a model for middle school admissions in the 2021-22 school year, and to consider thoughtful recommendations from advocates about mitigating inequities in high school admissions.
Summer school: The Mayor and the Chancellor today announced the plan for remote summer learning, expected to serve 177,700 students. Students who are required or recommended to attend will be notified in June, and determinations will be made based on performance across the entire year. Regional Enrichment Centers will continue to operate throughout the summer, and students who are enrolled in a summer program and who attend a REC will engage in remote learning at the REC site.
Open streets for pedestrians and restaurants: If you have feedback on how the Open Streets are working on your block, or any problems that arise, we’re eager to hear from you. I got a chance to try out the open streets in Carroll Gardens this weekend and was happy to see many young cyclists enjoying the space and the sunshine. Together with Councilmember Keith Powers, I am organizing a letter with our city council colleagues to support opening street space to restaurants for open air seating this summer. The City Council is working on a plan and the administration is open to the idea, so hopefully we will be able to make this opportunity for local restaurants a reality.
Unemployment updates: The state has issued over $9.2 billion in unemployment benefits to around 2 million New Yorkers. State leaders have said that, while it has mostly cleared the backlog of pending claims, pandemic unemployment assistance (and especially for freelancers and independent contractors) has taken longer to process and many of you are still waiting.
Economic recovery: The NYC Independent Budget Office released a new report earlier this week which estimates a $9.5 billion shortfall in the City’s budget over the next two years, and predicts that employment won’t regain its pre-COVID levels until 2024.
Get your ballot: You must request your mail-in ballot by June 16 to be able to vote absentee in the June 23 primary. It just takes a few minutes, and the sooner you request, the sooner you will get your ballot. Request an absentee ballot here: https://nycabsentee.com/.
Repurpose Fresh Direct bags: Grocery delivery provider Fresh Direct has stopped reusing their large and useful delivery bags. We’ve asked a few providers of emergency food if they can use the bags, and will be collecting people’s extra bags to donate to food pantries. Bags can be dropped off at the following locations between the appointed hours. If you want to volunteer to be a collection site in another neighborhood, reply here to let us know.
- Kensington: 3 Avenue C, Saturday 5/22 at 4 PM
  Carroll Gardens: 71 3rd Place, weekdays from 8 AM to 6 PM
  Park Slope: 256 13th Street, weekdays from 9 AM to 6 PM

New Loan Opportunity for Small Businesses

Thanks to the generosity of Greg Perlman and Michael Clark through The Change Reaction, and the partnership of the Hebrew Free Loan Society and Assemblymember Carroll, we are able to offer zero-interest loans for some small business and independent contractors in our district. Two types of loans are available: 1) 0% interest loans up to $25,000 for small businesses in the area which are currently operating and need support to get through this time of reduced revenue, and 2) loans of $3,000-$7,500 for independent contractors and small business owners who have been required to close or cease operating due to the state’s PAUSE order. More details on and the application are here.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, May 20 at 2 PM: Justice in Action Conversation on Education Equity Pt. 2. Register here.

Join Ruth Messinger and me for our weekly “Justice in Action” conversation this week with Mark Winston Griffith, host of School Colors, a podcast about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools and Executive Director of the Brooklyn Movement Center, and Emma Rehac, a student director with IntegrateNYC (a youth-led organization that stands for integration and equity in NYC schools) who served on the panel that developed the admissions recommendations for next year.

Tuesday, May 26 from 6-8 PM: Small Business Townhall with Councilmember Lander and Assemblymember Carroll. Register here.

Join us to discuss the challenges facing small businesses. We will be talking about the PPP and EIDL programs, our new interest-free loan program, and are eager to hear from you about other ideas to support small businesses.