New York's Fight to Cut Child Poverty in Half | This Robin Hood Moment

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In this episode, we take a deep dive into the groundbreaking work of the New York State Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council (CPRAC), established under the Child Poverty Reduction Act signed into law in December 2021. This initiative sets a bold goal of reducing child poverty in New York State by 50% by 2031. We explore how this legislation came to be and the role it plays in shaping policies aimed at lifting children out of poverty.

Our featured guest, Kate Breslin, President & CEO of the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy (SCAA), played a pivotal role in bringing this landmark legislation to fruition. Under Kate’s leadership, SCAA led the charge in advocating for the Child Poverty Reduction Act. She joins us to discuss the council’s work, upcoming recommendations, and the potential policy changes that could reshape the lives of New York’s most vulnerable families. We also touch on the ongoing process of drafting and refining the Council’s recommendations, leading up to the final vote scheduled for December 18, 2024, and what’s next for the fight against child poverty.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at info@robinhood.org.

“This Robin Hood Moment” is hosted by Kevin Thompson and Crystal Cooper. The show is produced and edited by Cory Winter, with graphic design by Mary Power. Additional motion graphics and footage are provided by Motion Array. Our theme music is from Epidemic Sound.

Learn about the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy and the New York Can End Child Poverty campaign.

For information on past and upcoming hearings about the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, visit the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) Public Meetings website and search for “Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council”.

The views and opinions expressed by external podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Robin Hood or its personnel, nor does Robin Hood advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Kevin Thompson: From Robin Hood—New York City’s largest poverty-fighting philanthropy—I’m Kevin Thompson. Welcome to “This Robin Hood Moment.”

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Kevin Thompson: In Albany, a group of policy makers have been meeting to address one of the most critical issues facing New York State today, child poverty. At the center of this effort is the New York State Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, or CPRAC for short. This council was born out of the Child Poverty Reduction Act, signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul in December of 2021.

It’s a bold, ambitious piece of legislation that sets forth an equally bold goal, to reduce child poverty in New York State by 50% by the year 2031. Consider for a moment the weight of that commitment. We’re not just talking about incremental change.

We’re talking about transforming the futures of thousands of children and families in a profound and measurable way. The numbers are staggering. Currently, nearly one in four children in New York lives below the poverty line.

These children face daily struggles, food insecurity, unstable housing, inadequate health care, challenges that have far-reaching consequences on their development, their education, and ultimately their futures. The work of CPRAC, therefore, is not just about addressing poverty in the abstract. It’s about changing the trajectory of young lives.

CPRAC has been tasked with studying the deep-rooted causes of child poverty and formulating policy recommendations to tackle them head-on. But this process is far from complete. As we speak, the Council is nearing a critical milestone.

This December, the Council will vote on its final report, recommendations that could redefine how New York State addresses child poverty for years to come. So as the December vote approaches, the stakes are higher than ever. What’s decided in the coming months will determine how or if New York can deliver on its promise to cut child poverty in half.

But before we dive in, if you want to email me with guest suggestions or thoughts on the episode, you can reach me at info@robinhood.org.

Kevin Thompson: Crystal, I think when we talk about reducing child poverty, we’re really talking about addressing a fundamental issue that underpins so many of the challenges we see across New York City, and frankly, across the entire state.

Absolutely, Kevin. And it’s important to note that while the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council was established by the state, Robin Hood’s involvement in this issue runs deep. Poverty, especially child poverty, has been at the heart of Robin Hood’s mission since day one.

Crystal Cooper:Absolutely, Kevin. And it’s important to note that while the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council was established by the state, Robin Hood’s involvement in this issue runs deep. Poverty, especially child poverty, has been at the heart of Robin Hood’s mission since day one. And our Policy and Advocacy Team has worked tirelessly to address the systemic roots of poverty in New York City. This collaboration with the Council is a perfect example of how we’re continuing that fight on a broader level.

Kevin Thompson: That’s right. Our Senior Policy Advisor, Loris Toribio, has been closely involved in the Council’s work, advocating for the most effective, research-driven policy solutions to reduce child poverty. The Council itself is made up of a broad coalition of experts and advocates, each with a different piece of the puzzle. But Loris’ expertise—and the work of our Policy and Advocacy team—has ensured Robin Hood’s voice is heard at the table.

Crystal Cooper: And it’s a table that really needed to be set. When you look at the numbers, it’s clear that this is an emergency. One in five children in New York lives in poverty—that’s about 800,000 kids. And when you think about the impact poverty has on a child’s education, their health, their overall development—it’s devastating. Without the right policies in place, we’re not just failing these children today, we’re setting them up for even greater challenges in the future.

Kevin Thompson: That’s why the council’s work is so critical and why the upcoming vote on their recommendations is such a big deal. It’s a critical moment, not just for New York, but for the entire country, really. If we get this right, if the council’s recommendations are implemented and fully funded, we could be looking at a future where child poverty is cut in half by 2031. That’s the goal, and that’s what we’re fighting for.

Crystal Cooper: It’s a fight we’ve been in for a long time, Kevin. Robin Hood has always been laser focused on using data and research to guide our work. We know that when you tackle the root causes of poverty, you can change lives. And we’re seeing that in our policy work, thanks to the leadership of advocates like Loris and the collaboration with state and local governments.

Kevin Thompson: And we’re thrilled to have someone with us today who’s been central to all of this. Kate Breslin, President and CEO of the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. She has led the charge for many of the child poverty reduction initiatives here in New York State. Under her leadership, the Child Poverty Reduction Act was signed into law, and she’s a key figure on the Advisory Council.

Kate, it’s such a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to “This Robin Hood Moment.”

Kate Breslin: It’s great to be hear, thanks!

Crystal Cooper: Let’s start by talking about you and your work, Kate. You’ve been leading the Schuyler Center for years and have fought for policies that support families and children. Can you tell us a little about your journey—what motivated you to take up the cause of child poverty, and what drives you to keep pushing forward?

Kate Breslin: So, the organization I lead, the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, has for 150 years worked to improve state policies that affect people experiencing poverty and others who are otherwise disenfranchised. So, I’m really both, I guess I would say lucky and proud to lead an organization that’s been doing this for so long. For me, it’s always been really about fairness and, like Robin Hood, I believe that a person’s zip code or where they’re born shouldn’t be determinative of the opportunities that they have to succeed and experiencing, as a child, experiencing poverty is one thing that severely limits opportunity.

Poverty is a thief of opportunity. And so, I’ve found that in the work that we do at Schuyler Center, poverty is one of the things that can drive good or bad outcomes in all of those. I’ve cared about this issue for a long time.

I’ve approached it from the health perspective and from many other perspectives. And right now, it’s exciting to be thinking about it from the perspective of all of those.

Crystal Cooper: Would you say that the whole perspective approach or multi perspective approach informed Schuyler Center’s work to pass the Child Poverty Reduction Act back in December 2021? Give us a little bit of insight for people who don’t go to Albany, who don’t sit in these rooms. What was that like? What did it require?

Kate Breslin: Oh yeah, I think about it like this. We have state programs and we have philanthropy trying to mitigate so many of the challenges that families are facing. At the same time, we need to address the structural things that are causing all of that to happen.

And so we’ve been finding over the years that, let’s take for example health. So there are many things that can drive poor health, and experiencing poverty in childhood and beyond is one of those things. And so we as an organization really said, we need to be thinking about all of the ways we can mitigate the impacts of poverty and we need to figure out the ways of changing the landscape.

So we worked with other policy makers and came up with this idea of, how do we craft some policy that commits the state to reducing child poverty? Now let’s just start by saying really what we wish we could have gotten is a commitment to end child poverty, we’ll get there! But we thought, let’s start with something that we think people could get behind and feel like is doable.

So what the legislation, the Child Poverty Reduction Act does is it articulates that child poverty in New York is a problem. It’s one of the areas where New York is not the leader. We are in the 41st in the nation with regard to child poverty.

So we’re not doing well as a state. And so if we can cut child poverty in half, we’ll be on our way. And what it will take to do that is many different policies.

So we thought that this piece of legislation was a tool to articulate the problem and identify a goal that we can all work toward. So the goal is that New York State will cut child poverty in half over a decade with attention to racial equity. And that’s really important.

It’s written into the law, Black children and Latino children experience poverty at twice the rates of their white peers. So then the law goes on to articulate some potential solutions like tax credits, housing, food benefits that should be explored. So right now, that’s what we’re in the process of.

I want to call out that our legislature passed this bill with near unanimous and bipartisan support.

Crystal Cooper: That’s wonderful.

Kevin Thompson: That’s great.

Crystal Cooper: And congratulations.

Kate Breslin: Governor Hochul signed it. So we have this great momentum among our legislative leaders and our governor. And now is the time where we need to see the investment.

Kevin Thompson: I imagine there’s a lot of political and logistical work behind the scenes to get this off the ground. How are you all sort of making that sausage to kind of arrive at what you think the biggest impacts will produce?

Kate Breslin: So as policy makers, allowing children to experience poverty is a policy choice. So every day that we are continuing to allow 20% of our kids to experience poverty, our leaders are making a policy choice because we saw, as a great and recent example, at the federal level, we increased the child tax credit. We significantly increased it.

We made it more available to lower income people, and we gave an extra bump for those we know who are the poorest families or the ones with the very youngest children, and we saw child poverty reduced nationwide dramatically. So we have a very clear example of one thing that we know can work. So one of the things that we looked at and asked Urban Institute to model was some changes to New York State’s child tax credit.

So there’s the federal one that changed during the pandemic for one year, child poverty got reduced, and it went right back up when that went away. But New York also has its own child tax credit, as do many other states. So we asked the Urban Institute, for example, to model making the child tax credit available to the lowest income people and increasing the amount.

And we gave them some different amounts. And certainly the changes to the child tax credit, according to the Urban Institute, could have a significant impact on child poverty. It’s direct.

In some ways, it’s logical. Getting more money into people’s pockets reduces the likelihood they’ll be experiencing poverty. And so they modeled also some housing proposals to create a voucher program to help low-income families with housing.

And they modeled creating a state-only food benefit for families who are ineligible to get the federal food benefit: SNAP. And then they took a look at sort of how those different policy proposals might interact with each other.

Crystal Cooper: So we know what the data show, Kate. What are the families themselves saying? I’m sure that you and your staff, folks that you work with, have met some memorable and incredible New Yorkers along the way. Is there one family story that sticks with you, someone who really embodies why this work matters and really the consequence of that choice, that policy choice to let poverty prevail?

Kate Breslin: I so appreciate you asking that. One of the things that we built into this piece of legislation was an expectation that the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council would include people who have lived experience. One of the things we hear a lot is that when, when you’re experiencing this level of financial deprivation, that one event can have a cascading impact.

One of the people that we met with, she was working, she had two kids, she got a small increase in her wage, which put her just over the amount that allowed her to qualify for childcare assistance. So she had taken the salary increase, lost her childcare assistance, so was no longer able to bring her children to childcare because childcare is extremely expensive when you’re paying for it on your own. Then lost her job because she had lost her childcare assistance and couldn’t leave her kids at home.

And those are the kinds of things that we hear from people a lot. I have one person we talked to who said she really wishes that she could help her kid get a driver’s license, but even that is sort of out of reach for them

Crystal Cooper: …financially, out of reach?

Kate Breslin: Yeah. So just the opportunities that our young people miss out on is something that we hear a lot about. There’s both sort of the hard concrete side of things and then that less tangible part.

Kevin Thompson: What do you think are the most critical next steps to ensure that the council’s recommendations not only get adopted, but that they’re truly making a difference to reduce child poverty by 2031?

Kate Breslin: In the near term, what we are hopeful about is that the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council will be advancing recommendations to the governor by the end of this calendar year. The next thing that really is important that we need to see is we need to see the governor in the executive budget, which gets presented in January. And that’s the governor’s blueprint for the finances of the state for the coming year.

We need to see an investment that is focused on child poverty. So I’m old enough to remember that in 2008, we experienced what we now call the Great Recession. We did see poverty go up.

We saw, you know, revenues at the public revenues go down. And when things started to come back, you know, the economy did rebound and child poverty didn’t. It’s been side stuck.

This is not a situation where it’s going to trickle down. So a good economy doesn’t necessarily mean that we are going to see fewer children experiencing hardship. So what we need is we need to see some intentionality from our leaders around investing in the things that we know will have an impact on child poverty.

Crystal Cooper: Kate, that is such a mic drop moment. We can almost end this conversation right there. How can organizations like Robin Hood and how can everyday New Yorkers support the work that you’re doing and support the work of the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council so that we demonstrate that we have the will and that we’re making it a mandate to pass these recommendations into law?

Kate Breslin: In some ways, I feel like my organization and some of the other advocates out there, we’re the usual suspects. We’ve been at this for a while organizationally. What we really need is for our governor and our New York State senators and our New York State Assembly members to hear from regular people, certainly from our business leaders, from our civic leaders, whether that’s city leaders or county leaders.

We need them to be saying, this is why this matters to me. If you talk to mayors, they’ll tell you that child poverty has an impact in their cities. We need them to be letting our state policymakers know.

If you talk to business people, they likely understand that they have some staff who might be having challenges affording childcare. We need to have them let our policy makers know that this impacts us too, and here’s how. Robin Hood has done such a fantastic job at really raising the economic impacts of child poverty.

And I know that you’ve had colleagues do some analysis. We know that the state loses revenue because of child poverty. And whether that’s because we’re paying more for increased health costs, you know, for educational outcomes, increased incarceration, there are so many reasons.

So we need to hear from more people about why this matters and why it matters to them.

Crystal Cooper: It almost sounds as if no matter your perch or your cause, there is a direct impact of child poverty on you and on the issues you care about.

Kate Breslin: Yes, and we have pediatricians telling us, I see this in my practice, here’s how it shows up. And I think we all as advocates and together with colleagues at Robin Hood are trying to really do a better job at making sure that people do understand that even if they’re not experiencing poverty, it impacts all of our communities.

Kevin Thompson: Kate, thank you so much for being here today and for all the work you’re doing.

Kate Breslin: It’s great to be here. I so appreciate it. I hope to be able to come back and say we won.

Crystal Cooper: We’ll be checking in with you. I expect that people will heed your call and will want to know how it’s going. Thank you again so much and good luck.

Kate Breslin: Thank you.

Kevin Thompson: Before we wrap up today’s conversation, we want to share another important perspective, one that adds a deeply personal dimension to the conversation.

Crystal Cooper: That’s right, Kevin. Earlier, I had the chance to sit down with Candice Cabral. Candice is a statutory member of CPRAC, but what makes her role so unique is that she’s not a policymaker or a researcher. She’s someone with lived experience of poverty, and she’s been invited to the Council to ensure that its recommendations are grounded in the realities that families face every day.

Kevin Thompson: It’s one thing to analyze data and trends, but it’s another to hear how policies or the lack of them play out in someone’s life. So, Crystal, what stood out to you most about your conversation with Candice?

Crystal Cooper: Honestly, everything. Candice’s story is so powerful because it shows both the challenges and the resilience of families navigating poverty in New York.

Candace Cabral: But I come from Puerto Rican mother. My dad is Dominican, but he got deported when I was very young. So, I never got to meet this person. I’m 40 years old now, still don’t know who my father is. My mom was the, she worked as a nurse. She literally was the prostitute, but also had a drug addiction of Cprac and coal at the same time when I was a kid.

Dealing with that, I got abused when I was very young. My mom actually took me to the house, the drug house, to actually purchase the drugs for her constantly. So if I didn’t do that after school or before school, it was a problem. It became a problem. So when I went to the first door of Booth Home when I was 16, that was the first time I felt like love. You had a set ability of eating, safety, you’re in school, you have people looking after you.

At the first time in my life, I felt like even education, I have led all my life, I’ve been in special ed. So even in high school, but at that moment, it felt like I can make it. I was going to be a person that was going to be succeeding.

When I turned 17, I got to come back home to my mom. Did amazing counseling, succeeded, but my mom did no counseling, no effort showing that she was willing to take me back home. But they gave me back to her. Even though, if you see a poor paper, I didn’t want to go back. I was 17. I knew it was going to be more harder for me to go back in that living situation than what it was. Some more little story. When I turned 17, I got out, told me, you’re grown. You’re 17.

I can’t do anything for you anymore. At this time, I’m actually homeless at 17. She’s getting ready to move out. Her addiction is really bad. At this moment, I was scared. I didn’t finish high school at 17, so I felt like I just stopped school. I stopped everything. I felt like I had to worry about where I was going to live. What was I going to eat?

Who was going to protect me? What was I going to be doing? So for me, for a long time, I didn’t have access for public assistance, so I had to literally learn to get all these things as a 17-year-old. Didn’t know these departments. Didn’t know how to navigate. Didn’t know how to read.

So when I went to welfare, the things they, public assistance, when they were asking me these questions, first I said, is Social Security, where do you live? I didn’t have any of these things. So it took like 90 days or 60 days to honestly get on a case, to be getting any food stamps, to get any assistance or any support.

Crystal Cooper: What I found so striking about Candace’s story is how those experiences shaped her desire to advocate for others. Now she’s using her voice on CPRAC to push for solutions that reflect the needs of real families. Here’s what she had to say about how she came to join the council and why this work matters so much to her.

Candace Cabral: I have my son is 19 now. It was totally different. He was growing up with me guys. He was going through all these parenting classes. He just told me that at a 19 was like, mom, we started going to board education because the school, the environment that I was in, just everything. And I looked at him and I was proud of that.

My kids are advocating now. Honestly, I look at my kids and I tell them that you were put here for me. Like this is big for me. Like being on this council means everything. This is legacy for me. This is something that I can show my kids that your mom wasn’t just talking about it. She was honestly being about it. You can’t take my story and give it to someone else. You know, you have to live by it.

You have to understand these organizations and be a part of them, guys. You can’t just say, write up this documentation and think is that I’ve been to a lot of organizations that they feel that parents shouldn’t be the hoist, guys. We shouldn’t be on that documentation.

We shouldn’t be on that paperwork. But you’re taking our ideas. What we’re saying to our community, what we’re saying to these councils is coming up to say, this is what parents, this is what our community is saying. So why not uplift what we’re saying? You don’t have to live through this. But you at least want to be compassionate, understand why.

And so it needs to be changed. We need to be at the table. We need to be getting paid for these things. So our children that we’re just not being a part of the table. We’re actually making change.

Kevin Thompson: It’s incredible to hear someone like Candice bringing so much insight and passion to this effort. It’s a reminder that solving poverty isn’t just about programs and policies. It’s really about people. And people like Candice are key to making sure those solutions are truly effective.

Crystal Cooper: Absolutely. Candace’s voice on CPRAC is a vital reminder of what’s at stake. I think her contributions will resonate with so many families across New York. And I’m so glad we can include her perspective in today’s episode.

Kevin Thompson: Thanks for bringing us that conversation, Crystal. And thank you, Candice, for sharing your story and the work you’re doing to fight poverty. As we close, let’s keep her words and her experiences at the forefront of how we think about these challenges moving forward.

Crystal Cooper: And to our listeners, thank you for joining us today. If you want to learn more about the work of the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council and how you can get involved, check out the links in our show notes or at our website at robinhood.org/podcasts.

Kevin Thompson: And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss our next episode, where we will continue exploring the most pressing issues impacting families in New York City.

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Kevin Thompson: This episode of “This Robin Hood Moment” was produced and edited by Cory Winter. Graphics by Mary Power. Our theme music is from Epidemic Sound. I’m Kevin Thompson, joined by the ever-insightful Crystal Cooper, for Robin Hood—New York City’s largest local poverty-fighting philanthropy. Thanks for listening.