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Opinion

Key Steps the Adams Administration Should Take to Protect Unemployed New Yorkers Looking for Work


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New Yorkers seeking help (photo: Gerardo Romo/City Council)


When Mayor-elect Eric Adams takes the oath of office in January, he will need to do more than just manage the city’s economic recovery. He will have to ensure that the more than 8% of New Yorkers who are unemployed are able to participate in it. This means ensuring that job-seeking New Yorkers aren’t forced to take on debts they can ill afford just to apply for one in the first place.

Unfortunately, there are warning signs that predatory private actors are already putting many out-of-work New Yorkers in this precise position. 

For-profit colleges and trade schools have seen a surge in enrollment around the country – a troublesome trend given that many of these institutions often load up their students with debt and do comparatively little to improve their employment prospects in return. These institutions are a particular threat here in New York City since they often target working-class Black and Latino neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn. These neighborhoods not only have the highest rates of attendance at for-profit institutions. They also have the highest rates of students with loans in collection.

Another threat to New Yorkers trying to enter or reenter the job market comes from private employment agencies. A 2016 study by the Center for Popular Democracy and the Center for an Urban Future found that job-seekers sometimes paid private employment agencies in New York City up to a month’s salary for a job placement. Other agencies simply collect a fee and then send job-seekers to a job site where no employers are located. The same 2016 study found that these schemes are particularly common in immigrant communities such as Jackson Heights and Washington Heights.

The combination of for-profit colleges and profiteering employment agencies is a dangerous one-two punch for working-class New York families. Job-seekers are pulled further into debt when they try to retrain, and then are forced to sacrifice wages they can’t spare just to apply for a job they don’t yet have. 

Mayor-elect Adams can prevent these predatory practices from landing a knock-out blow when he takes office in January. An important first step will be appointing an energetic commissioner for the (clunkily named) Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). This Department, the powers of which were expanded during the de Blasio administration, has sweeping authority to protect workers and consumers from “deceptive or unconscionable trade practices.”

These five words—and associated legal provisions—empower the DCWP to serve as the tip of the spear in any fight against profiteers preying on vulnerable New York City residents. The next commissioner of this department should commit to using that power to the fullest extent.

First, the commissioner should reinvigorate the department’s long-standing fight against exploitative for-profit colleges and trade schools. One of Mayor de Blasio’s longtime DCWP commissioners, Lorelei Salas, led a legal battle against these types of for-profit educational institutions—both exposing the extent of the problem and, where necessary, hauling these institutions into court. In addition to continuing this fight, the next DCWP commissioner should launch a task force to immediately identify and put a stop to any private colleges that have taken advantage of New Yorkers in the wake of the pandemic. 

Second, the department must get serious about putting an end to predatory private employment agencies. The next DCWP commissioner should not only commit to targeting employment agencies that take job-seekers’ money and provide little in return. He or she should also team up with other city agencies to promote Workforce1 Centers, which are public job-placement agencies, by ensuring that these centers are active in the same communities where predatory private employment agencies tend to operate. Likewise, the next commissioner should partner with unions in building an effective workforce-training pipeline that connects job-seekers with quality job placements.  

These simple steps are not only an economic imperative, but a moral one. Many of the communities that for-profit colleges and private employment agencies target are the very same communities that suffered most during the pandemic: working-class Black, Latino, and immigrant neighborhoods. The death toll was not only highest in these neighborhoods, but the economic devastation was particularly severe.

These communities deserve help, and that’s exactly what Mayor-elect Adams ran on. When selecting his Department of Consumer and Worker Protection commissioner, Mayor-elect Adams should make sure that they get some.

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Adam Hofman Bradlow previously worked on consumer protection issues in the U.S. Senate and is a 2018 graduate of Yale Law School. He is a Project Manager at Dalberg Advisors. On Twitter @abradlow.

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‘Less is More’ is Needed Now, Not in March


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Gov. Hochul signs the Less Is More Act (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


The state of New York took a moral step recently when Governor Hochul signed into law the Less Is More Act, which aims to soften the draconian parole laws that have disproportionately harmed people of color. Nearly 200 New Yorkers re-joined their families as soon as the bill became law, freeing them from Rikers Island amid escalating pandemic deaths in New York jails.

We can’t declare victory just yet. “Less Is More” doesn’t go fully into effect until March. For many people, a four-month wait is a matter of life or death. It needs to be put into effect immediately, and Governor Hochul should take the necessary steps to do so.

New York still has the worst parole system in the country with its use of incarceration for non-criminal technical parole violations -- like missing an appointment or even being early for a job, yes early. The state spent more than $680 million in 2019 to reincarcerate people on such violations.

This not only harms individual lives and families without improving public safety but also increases the state prison population. New York imprisons more people for non-criminal technical violations of parole than any state in the U.S. There are about 35,000 people in New York State under active parole supervision. Of those, more than 800 are incarcerated for technical violations.

Of course, the racial disparities are stark. Black people are incarcerated for technical violations at five times the rate of white people in New York state. In the city, that rate grows to 12 times. Latino people are nearly 30% more likely to be incarcerated for a technical parole violation than whites. Technical violations rob weeks, months, and even years from people’s lives, keeping them stuck in the prison system. Tragically, these violations also affect parolees’ loved ones and communities.

Covid remains an even deadlier threat to people in prisons and jails. We know the infection rate for people in prisons and jails is five times as high as the rate for the average American, and that at least 2,000 people have died of covid while detained. We also know the only viable option to blunt the spread of covid in prisons and jails is through decarceral measures.

Opponents will tell you that “Less Is More” is bad public policy that only gained popularity because of so-called one-party rule by Albany Democrats, which is also not rooted in fact. Many of the provisions in “Less Is More” come from other states that have already implemented similar reforms, reducing community supervision populations and curbing violations, while also increasing public safety. The reforms mimic successful ones in more conservative states including Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Utah. Additionally, “Less Is More” aligns with reform principles outlined by current and former community corrections officials from across the country

The Less Is More Act is supported by over 300 community, advocacy, and faith groups across the state, eight District Attorneys representing more than half of the state’s population, and law enforcement leaders from across New York, including the Albany and Erie County sheriffs. It has widespread support from victims’ rights groups like the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Sending people to jail for non-criminal activity does not increase our public safety. With “Less Is More,” New York will be at the forefront of shifting parole from being overly punitive to being supportive. It is a matter of life and death for the communities of New York, and it makes sense for everyone.

Not only must we speed up the timeline to prevent needless incarceration as COVID-19 continues to spread in our jails and prisons given the Delta wave and the threat of the Omicron variant, but we must also protect the law from baseless attacks with questionable motives.

We need Governor Hochul to implement Less Is More today. Every day implementation is delayed is a day where peoples’ lives, health, and wellbeing hang in the balance.

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Ashish Prashar is the Global CMO at R/GA and a justice reform activist. He sits on the boards of Exodus Transitional Community, Getting Out and Staying Out, Just Leadership, Leap Confronting Conflict, and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice. On Twitter @Ash_Prashar.

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Removing Obstacles to Gender-Affirming Care Will Help New York End the HIV Epidemic


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An affirmation of transgender rights (photo: Don Pollard/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


World AIDS Day is an opportunity to celebrate the progress we have made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, while recommitting ourselves to Ending the Epidemic once and for all. While we have come a long way since the 1980s, some communities have been left behind. Ending the Epidemic will require a sustained focus on populations placed at highest risk, particularly people of transgender experience.

Recent finding shows that transgender women are 49 times more likely to be living with HIV compared with the general population, and a CDC analysis confirmed that both transgender women and men are disproportionately affected by HIV.

For people of trans experience, navigating the health-care system can be a minefield. Trans people frequently face difficulty accessing healthcare due to discrimination and poor training on the part of medical providers, harassment in medical settings, and, when able to find a provider who will see them, often have to educate the person who is supposed to be giving them care about transgender health issues. This is particularly difficult when someone has just had a gender-affirming surgery requiring travel to another area, and then comes home with no one to take care of them. One of the most significant issues trans patients face is navigating health insurance.

Necessary gender-affirming surgeries, such as facial feminization surgery and breast augmentations, are categorized as “cosmetic” by many insurance companies and aren’t covered, despite lots of evidence showing they save transgender lives. And although New York is one of the few states that mandate Medicaid to cover transition-related care, many mainstream Medicaid plans have not developed the capacity to support transgender members in accessing gender-affirming procedures. 

When surgeries are covered by commercial insurance or mainstream Medicaid, patients often have issues finding an in-network surgeon who has experience and training in gender-affirming procedures. It can take months, or longer, to obtain an out-of-network exception so patients can see a surgeon who has training in the gender-affirming procedures they need. When they do find a surgeon, getting surgical coverage usually requires at least one appeal, adding weeks to an already fraught process.

For patients, this is a tremendous burden. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who knows what surgery they need, but has to fight for months to find a surgeon and get insurance approval—all while continuing to experience heightened anxiety, depression, and distress in a body that has the wrong parts. It’s easy to see why so many people of trans experience aren’t engaged in care.

Thankfully, New Yorkers on Medicaid have better options. Medicaid Special Needs Health Plans (SNPs) are serving a significant number of transgender members, and work closely with culturally-competent providers like Callen-Lorde to ensure the unique needs of the transgender community are met. These plans listen to experts and work with us and the patient to ensure that they get the care they need without avoidable delay. This includes covering gender-affirming surgeries, and having an expansive network of providers with experience caring for transgender patients. 

As detailed in a recent report, Amida Care, New York State’s largest SNP, serves 2,100 transgender New Yorkers, accounting for 20% of their membership. Amida Care’s members have access to high-quality care that isn’t there for those with mainstream private or Medicaid insurance plans. The results speak volumes. Of Amida Care’s transgender members living with HIV, 94% have an undetectable viral load. Additionally, they are working to connect their HIV-negative transgender members with highly-effective HIV-prevention tools like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a pill that is proven to reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by 99%. 

If we are to end the HIV epidemic, we need more health insurance plans to step up and do a better job serving their transgender members. We also need the state to support SNPs so they can continue to provide a high level of care to the transgender community. Medicaid in New York State sets reimbursement rates for different types of medical care. The current rates for gender-affirming procedures must be adjusted to attract qualified surgeons. As trans members are stabilized in care at plans like Amida Care, they are accessing the surgical procedures they need to keep living their lives. In order for providers to be fairly compensated for this critical emerging care specialty, Medicaid rates must keep up with the actual volume of services we provide.

Amida Care’s success is a testament to what is possible when you create an environment for patients that supports them in accessing gender-affirming care. It engages populations most deeply impacted by HIV in health care, and also ensures people are living in bodies they want to care for.

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Zil Goldstein, FNP-BC, AAHIVS is the associate medical director for TGNB Care at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. On Twitter @CallenLorde.

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