Public Advocate's Corner

Sunday Afternoon in Harlem

On Sunday, a representative from the Office of the Public Advocate visited The Grant Houses Family Unity Day to distribute frisbees and participate in the day's activities. Michael Morrison, a special assistant to Public Advocate Gotbaum, attended the event on LaSalle Street and met with families throughout the day.

PA Gotbaum Promotes Chinese Guide to Public Benefits

Today in Chinatown, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum promoted a comprehensive Guide to Public Benefits for Immigrants in New York City in Chinese. The free guide provides valuable information on federal, state and city benefits, and is the first of its kind to specifically example immigration status as part of benefit eligibility. The Public Advocate first released the guide in November 2008 in six languages, including English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Bengali.  

Low-income working immigrants may need government help, for themselves or their families, but may not know how to access the benefits they need. According to the NYC Dept of City Planning Report, The Newest New Yorkers, there are more than 261,000 Chinese-born immigrants living in New York City, and 22 percent of them live in poverty.

Public Advocate Gotbaum said:

“Immigrants bring our neighborhoods to life and make our culture the most diverse in the country. We’re here today to promote a very important resource for the Chinese community and let immigrants know that this guide offers crucial information about federal, state, and city benefits. We have already gotten about 50,000 requests for guides—7,500 of those for Chinese guides."

Read the full release.

Gotbaum Speaks on Public Benefits & HRA Job Centers

This morning, Public Advocate Gotbaum spoke to a roomful of advocates at a meeting of the Welfare Reform Network. The Public Advocate spoke specifically about her office’s recent report on the experiences of clients at Human Resources Administration (HRA) Job Centers [pdf] and the Ready Access to Assistance Act.

Gotbaum said, "Long waits, missing records, miscommunication. These are the last things New York’s low-income families need, especially at a time like this. My office’s report identified these problems in August and September of 2008, when New Yorkers were just becoming aware of the severity of the economic crisis. 

Two weeks ago we learned that the City’s unemployment rate jumped a full percentage point from November to December, to 7.4%, reaching the highest level in five years. We should expect job losses for months to come. With high unemployment, we need to be prepared for an influx of people who need access to benefits. There’s no time to waste. New Yorkers are in need, and HRA needs to address the problems at its Job Centers.

Is there an easy solution to these problems? No, just as there is no easy way out of our current financial crisis.  But there are ways the city can reduce barriers to benefits." Follow the link above to see our recommendations.

To find out more about the REAACT bill, watch the video below.

Making Strides for Breast Cancer Research

"Everyone is here for one goal, to help find a cure for breast cancer," said Betsy Gotbaum at the American Cancer Society Walk yesterday. "I want to congratulate all the survivors here and say good luck to all of you walkers – I'll see you out there!"

Pictured: Council Speaker Christine Quinn & Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum cheer on the walkers.