Government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, including cash transfers and tax credits, reduced poverty in New York City, even while poverty citywide—particularly among minorities—persisted well above national averages, a report from Robin Hood finds.

Released in collaboration with Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, the Columbia Population Research Center, and the Chinese American Planning Council, the report, The State of Poverty and Disadvantage in New York City (76 pages PDF), found that while poverty was increasing in New York City between 2019 and 2020, government policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic cut the poverty rate of adults and children in the city by nearly 60 percent (from 37 percent to 16 percent for adults and from 45 percent to 18 percent for children). All told, cash transfers and tax credits moved 1.9 million New Yorkers out of poverty, according to the report.

While government support played a substantial role in stabilizing incomes in New York City, the overall poverty rate of the largest city in the United States remained substantially higher than the national average (nationally 9 percent for adults and 10 percent for children). The study found that poverty among Asian, Black, and Latinx New Yorkers (23 percent, 19 percent, and 23 percent, respectively) was nearly twice that of white New Yorkers (12 percent). In addition, New Yorkers living in poverty experienced health problems in 2020 at a rate 7 percentage points higher than all New Yorkers (29 percent compared with 22 percent). Among minorities living in poverty, health problems were roughly 40 percent more common.

The fourth in a series of Poverty Tracker reports, the study is notable for its collaborative focus on New York City’s Asian community, which expanded reporting among ethnic groups with origins from more than 30 countries, and included a specific effort to reach Mandarin Chinese speakers. Asian Americans are among the most demographically understudied groups in the United States and are underrepresented in many data sources, according to Robin Hood. The report found that nearly one in four Asian New Yorkers lives in poverty, a rate on par with other minority groups and 40 percent higher than the citywide average. Poverty within the Asian community was even higher among seniors (28 percent), those with limited English proficiency (30 percent), and those with a high school degree or less (33 percent).

“This report illustrates what we’ve seen across our city—that too many people are struggling, and poverty remains persistent and pervasive,” said Robin Hood CEO Richard R. Buery, Jr. “This report shows that government policies and investments during the COVID-19 pandemic had a real and positive impact on poverty in New York City.”

“We have seen the benefits of influential, intentional poverty-fighting policies in New York City and have evidence that change is in our grasp, but many of those policies have expired and several continued to exclude immigrant families,” said Wayne Ho, president and CEO of the Chinese American Planning Council. “We need bold government policies and resources that can keep all New Yorkers out of poverty and on the path toward economic mobility.”

(Photo credit: GettyImages GCShutter)