A rendering for The Coney, a proposed casino in Coney Island
After Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature decided that Downstate New York—which includes New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County—could potentially get three full casino licenses on a faster timeline than originally planned, the application process has begun and concepts for proposals have been sporadically announced.
The availability of the three casino licenses and the process for awarding them were finalized in the state budget passed in April 2022, in part accelerating a plan from a prior casino law passed in 2013 that allowed for the more immediate opening of several Upstate casinos.
The formal application process for the three Downstate licenses began in January of this year, with the region’s two current “racinos” — the MGM Resorts International’s Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Genting Group’s Resorts World New York City in the Queens Aqueduct Racetrack complex — believed by some to be at the front of the line for licenses to become full casinos with table games. They are currently limited to a race track and slot machines, and since they are both already established their owners are hopeful that they can win full licenses, allowing them to expand significantly with games such as poker, blackjack, and more.
But they have serious competition from a series of groups that have put forward proposals across the city and beyond.
As of May 1, there have been 11 casino proposals announced in some form, including five in Manhattan (Midtown, Hudson Yards, Penn Station, Times Square, and adjacent to the United Nations building), two in Queens (Willets Point and Ozone Park), one in the Bronx (Throgs Neck), one in Brooklyn (Coney Island), one in Nassau County (Uniondale), and one in Westchester County (Yonkers).
In order to formally apply for a casino license, the minimum capital investment for the project must be $500 million, applicants must submit a research study detailing the economic impact their casino would have on the surrounding community, and they must pay the $1 million application fee.
The casinos are intended to promote economic growth for the state through jobs at the venues and increased activity in surrounding communities, while also providing tax revenue that will fund education and financial assistance programs — as well as the MTA, per the new state budget passed in early May of this year. Along with the $1 million per proposal in application fees, each of the potential three casino license awardees will be required to pay a $500 million license fee to the state. Taxes will produce ongoing revenue, including but not limited to at least 25% on gross slot gaming revenue and 10% on all other gross gaming revenue.
State Senator Joseph Addabbo, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate’s Committee on Racing, Gaming, and Wagering, said the casino licenses are a hot commodity for all involved.
“The gaming industry gives about $3 billion on average every year to education,” Addabbo said in an interview with Gotham Gazette. “There is billions in revenue, there's thousands of construction and post-construction jobs. So the opportunity here doesn't come about every couple of years, this is a one-time shot. We're not talking about more licenses, this is three, and that's gonna be it for the foreseeable future.”
Addabbo, and the state senate committee he chairs, will monitor the downstate licensing process and provide oversight, but does not have a role in the selection of the applicants.
There are multiple governing parties overseeing New York’s gaming initiatives, including the gaming committee in each house of the Legislature and the ultimate decider, the New York State Gaming Commission. Before final decisions by the Gaming Commission, the entity presiding over much of the downstate license application process is the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, which was created as part of the 2013 law allowing for new casino licenses upstate and, eventually, downstate. The commission elected new members in 2022 to oversee the downstate casino licensure process.
The Board is now composed of three members: Vicki Been, an NYU professor and former New York City deputy mayor; Quenia Abreu, President and CEO of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce; and Stuart Rabinowitz, an attorney and former president of Hofstra University.
Its power ranges from setting the licensing fees to conducting investigative hearings at any stage of the application process. Ultimately, it will select up to three candidates to be reviewed for licenses by the Gaming Commission. It reports to Governor Kathy Hochul, though Hochul has indicated she is not involved in the process.
On January 3, the Board released a Request For Applicants (RFA), which included guidance for potential bidders, evaluation criteria, and an outline of the entire process timeline.
That kicked off a casino bidding process that is split into two stages, and many proposals have emerged.
Stage 1
The first stage of the formal process began with the Board’s RFA in January and a period in which potential applicants could ask questions.
As of March 2, the Board received “several hundred questions” and is working on responses, which will then be published. After the publication of those responses, there will be another round of question-and-answer as the process unfolds. The official deadline for applications will be 30 days after the Board’s second set of question-responses is published — a deadline expected to be sometime this summer or fall.
In the meantime, a series of potential applicants have been announcing proposals for casinos across the five boroughs and in the suburbs. More are expected as the deadline approaches, while some that have been publicized may not officially enter the bidding process.
After the official application period ends, applicants that choose to formally move forward in the process and pay the $1 million application fee will be reviewed based on their geography by a Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Each application will trigger the establishment of a CAC.
The CACs for each proposal in Westchester and Long Island are composed of five members—one each chosen by the governor, relevant mayor, and local state senator, State Assembly member, and City Council member. CACs in New York City will be composed of six members, with the addition of the relevant Borough President choosing one.
For example, for a proposed casino(s) in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the CAC would be made up of representatives of Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, and City Council Member Ari Kagan (or the official themself).
CACs will hold public hearings and review written responses to casino proposals under their purview, and must hold a vote to determine whether each proposal has local community support. CACs can also provide feedback for the proposals, asking questions or expressing concerns, which applicants can respond to prior to the vote.
In order for a casino proposal to move on in the process, the CAC vote must yield at least a two-thirds majority in the affirmative, meaning four votes. Proposals that are advanced move on to the Gaming Facility Location Board.
The first stage of the process will end after all applicants are approved or disapproved by the CACs, and those approved are submitted to the local zoning authorities to begin the relevant review process by which a potential casino could win the necessary zoning changes.
Senator Addabbo said the creation of the CACs is a new function for New York when reviewing casino proposals, and called them an integral part of the process.
“That is a critical first step, something we did not do back in 2013 when we did the initial four licenses upstate, there was no community input,” Addabbo said. “And even when they were doing a racino for Aqueduct, the community had very little input, not even advisory, but just whenever we had the opportunity, we gained input. But this is something new for this go around of the three licenses downstate, and it's a critical step, without that CAC approval, they can't go forward.”
Aside from adding the CACs, the state is retaining most of the structure from the 2013 upstate casino licensing process, during which the Gaming Facility Location Board selected three casinos out of 16 applicants: Montreign Resort and Casino in Thompson, Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady, and Lago Resort Casino in Tyre.
Stage 2
Stage two will begin once the aforementioned application and zoning process is completed, after which the Gaming Facility Location Board will announce the remaining applicants, who will publicly present their proposals to the Board and hear comments from a public audience.
The Board will then select “up to three applicants” to be reviewed by the State Gaming Commission, which will ultimately finalize casino license winners.
According to the RFA, the Gaming Facility Location Board will select applicants based on a weighted system, with “economic activity and business development” being 70%; “local impact siting” 10%; “workforce enhancement” 10%; and “diversity framework” 10%.
The Gaming Commission is composed of five people, including Chair Brian O’Dwyer. The other members are John Crotty, Peter Moschetti Jr., Marissa Shorenstein, and Jerry Skurnik.
The Commission will review applicants' ability to fund their casino projects in full, meet all the state's requirements, fund any proposed community outreach programs proposed, and otherwise follow through.
Making Progress
Though the process remains in Stage 1 going into the summer, Senator Addabbo is hopeful that it will be finished by the end of the year.
“I know they have the wherewithal and the professionalism to do the downstate licenses even though it is a different process,” Addabbo said of the Gaming Facility Location Board. “But nevertheless, I am keeping an eye on the progress they are making in terms of ultimately accepting these submissions by the proposed sites, and then evaluating them. So we're not there yet, but hopefully soon.”
Another major proponent behind the process has been New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former state senator who was chair of the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee when the racino licenses were being awarded. At the time, Adams wound up as part of an ethics investigation into the process and though he was never charged with a crime, he was reprimanded by the New York State Inspector General for working with figures tied to one of the bidders, including revealing internal information and attending a victory celebration, and not adequately responding during the Inspector General’s investigation.
Adams has said he would like at least two licenses to go to proposals in the city, citing the economic benefits they could bring.
“We would love to have two in New York City,” Adams said in March 2022. “I think it would be a great boost for the economy, and we are evaluating what's the best location, so we can weigh in with some type of communication. We're looking forward to doing so.”
But Adams has also come under scrutiny around his casino-related relationships, including hiring his long-time friend Timothy Pearson as a senior advisor. At the time, Pearson was also a vice president of Resorts World Casino handling security. More recently, Adams’ former chief of staff, Frank Carone, signed a consulting contract with Greenberg Traurig, the legal firm representing SL Green in its Times Square casino bid.
Referencing the mayor’s time as chair of the Senate Racing and Wagering Committee, Senator Addabbo said Adams surely “understands the economic growth involved, the jobs, the revenue, and everything else that comes along with these casinos. So he's saying, 'Yeah, I want two' because he sees the potential economic growth and again, the jobs.”
Proposals
There have been proposals announced and hinted at in all five boroughs except Staten Island, one on Long Island, and to expand the existing MGM casino in Westchester.
Manhattan appears that it will have the most bids, with five current proposals in the works. Borough President Mark Levine, who will select one member of any CAC in Manhattan or serve himself, has remained neutral to the bidding war while in its early stages, but is focused on making sure any casino would benefit the surrounding community.
“On the one side, there are benefits for jobs and economic development, so we have to look at what any proposal would mean for a neighborhood, good and bad,” Levine said on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast in February. “We have to weigh concerns about gambling addiction and what it would mean to local residents, so there's a lot to consider.”
Midtown East
The Soloviev Group, in partnership with one of the largest casino companies in the country, Mohegan, is hoping to build a casino on one of the biggest undeveloped lots in Manhattan.
Adjacent to the United Nations building in Midtown along the East River, according to the draft plan the 6.7 acre plot would host a massive ferris wheel along with four acres of green space, two residential towers, a hotel, and a museum devoted to democracy. The casino itself would be situated mostly underground with windows overlooking the water. The project is initially being dubbed Freedom Plaza.
Times Square
Caesars Entertainment has partnered with realty-company SL Green and Jay Z’s entertainment business Roc Nation to try to bring a Caesars Palace casino to Times Square.
The companies argue the casino would be a central player in the revival of the Theater District, with $117 million in funds going to initiatives around education, theater tickets for children in underserved communities, and more. The casino would be smaller than some of the other proposals, which the companies say will lead customers to also see Broadway shows and other attractions in and beyond Times Square.
But the proposal has come with some of the harshest pushback yet. The ‘No Times Square Casino’ coalition is a group of community groups in the Times Square area banding together to prevent a casino. The coalition officially denounced any applicants in the area on April 14, citing congestion, economic disruption, and social harm as main concerns.
Manhattan Community Board 5, which includes the Times Square area, has also passed a resolution pushing for the local City Council Member, Erik Bottcher, to oppose a casino bid for Times Square.
Hudson Yards
The Related Companies, one of the real estate firms behind the Hudson Yards redevelopment project, is partnering with Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts to bring a casino next to the Javits Center. The casino would be part of a larger project located on the western half of Hudson Yards, platformed on top of the MTA rail yard, and potentially consist of public parks, a school, a hotel, many restaurants, and the casino.
The project is being pitched as an apt extension of Hudson Yards as it currently exists — the largest private real estate development in American history with multiple tourist attractions, a mall, public space, event venues, and more — and neighbor to The Javits Center, the massive convention center whose attendees would be natural potential patrons of a new casino.
Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson’s Bay Company is hoping to bring a high-end casino to its flagship store at 611 5th Ave. The company wants to use 200,000 feet of existing space from the ninth through the 11th floors of the store to bring a luxury casino, which would include a rooftop terrace overlooking Rockefeller Center. The upper floors are currently used as temporary swing spaces.
Penn Station
City real estate giant Vornado Realty is looking to build a casino on the lot that currently houses Hotel Pennsylvania. The hotel, which sits across from Penn Station, is currently being demolished, part of a major potential redevelopment plan for the entire Penn Station area that has hit significant roadbumps.
Vornado is proposing a casino to complement any future upgrades to the station and surrounding neighborhood, though the future of those plans, championed by Governor Hochul, has become uncertain given the company’s reevaluation of its proposal, which relied heavily on new office towers.
The company has not publicly announced any partners for the project, and no renderings or detailed plans have been published.
Ferry Point
The only current bid in the Bronx is at Ferry Point Park in Throggs Neck, connected to the Trump Links Golf Course. Gaming company Bally’s is hoping to put a casino where the golf course clubhouse now stands. The casino would use about ten acres of land, with seven more for public green space and potential housing for employees.
The casino proposal has come with mixed feelings. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson is worried about how the Throgs Neck and larger Bronx community would be affected by the casino, but she’s intrigued by the economic development potential.
“I want to be able to make sure that there's a real community benefit, but you understand when you’re building out casinos, you're going to have a hotel, restaurant, parking, small businesses, retail,” Gibson said recently on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast. “So you're building a whole new neighborhood within a neighborhood and you're bringing in clientele, I want to make this beneficial for the Bronx.”
Coney Island
The only current proposal in Brooklyn is for a beachfront casino in Coney Island, near famous long-standing attractions. Real-estate investment firm Thor Equities Group is partnering with Saratoga Casino Holdings and The Chickasaw Nation, as well as Legends Hospitality.
The casino would include a hotel across from the boardwalk, a convention hall, and a large entertainment venue. Part of the pitch is to help make the area a place with year-round attractions.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said he is open to the prospect of a casino in Coney Island, but he has questions about benefits for the surrounding community.
“We need a reinvigoration of some sort,” Reynoso said on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast in January, speaking about Coney Island in general. “I don't know if a casino answers that, but I don't want to dismiss it outright, especially if this casino could provide, within five years, can every single [public] housing development in Coney Island be repaired and be dignified housing? Can they do that? Are they going to bring more people? We're talking about one of the highest rates of unemployment. Coney Island, unemployment, almost 12%, especially for Black and brown people. Are we talking about full-time jobs that they can get? Those are all things you can't just push aside.”
Mets-Willets Point
Aside from the already-established Resorts World casino, there is one other proposal announced for Queens, with a big push underway. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is looking to capitalize on the already-announced $780 million development project in Willets Point, which will bring a stadium for New York City Football Club, housing, retail, and more, and put his own casino adjacent to the Mets’ Citi Field.
Cohen has named the proposal “New Green Willets” and hopes to put the casino where some of the Mets parking lots are currently, though he will need the city to remove the current zoning designation in order to begin construction — it is technically city-owned park land.
Members of the community have already begun protesting the proposal, which will set the table for the CAC’s deliberations.
For his part, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is hoping to get both a Willets Point casino license and the expanded Resorts World license.
“I think it would be a homerun, perhaps to have two,” Richards said on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast in December. “But the jobs, what's happening at Willets, transportation improvements — I will take it all coming out of this pandemic. But let me end by saying this on the casino: one of the things we've been clear about is right across the train tracks is neighborhoods, like Corona, have been hit hard during this pandemic. And we want to make sure that even as Willets is developed, even with the possibility of a casino, that we're also focusing in on a lot of the community benefits that need to also be a part of this plan.”
Nassau
Casino and resort company Las Vegas Sands has proposed to buy the lease of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and use the 80 available acres of land to build a casino, hotel, community spaces, a performance venue, and celebrity chef restaurants. Las Vegas Sands is collaborating with RXR Realty, which has been working on the Coliseum site.
Sands announced on April 26 that Nassau County signed a 99-year preliminary agreement with the company to use the Coliseum site for the casino, a major first step in the bid’s chances. Sands will also need approval from the Nassau County Legislature, which is scheduled to meet around the proposal on May 22.
While the proposal is in its early stages and there is growing institutional support, community pushback has started. A petition ‘Say No To The Casino’ has garnered more than 2,000 signatures. Hofstra University is suing the Nassau County Planning Commission for not adequately notifying the public of a hearing to consider the Las Vegas Sands casino, which it says violates the state Open Meetings Law.
Existing Casinos
MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Resorts World Casino in Queens, the two current downstate ‘racinos’ — meaning race tracks and some gambling via slot machines but not table games — have been seen as likely frontrunners to win licenses to expand to become full-fledged casinos and offer far more amenities.
Addabbo, the Queens state senator and gaming committee chair, has been a major figure in the development and oversight of Resorts World, which is not far from his district. He said that though Resorts World has acres it is looking to expand upon with a new license, MGM will be applying with more space and the ability for a larger expansion project.
“With Resorts World, they already built their hotel, they already built an expansion, and they still have acres to build upon, but they still have about a billion-dollar investment,” Addabbo said, indicating his view of a disparity between the two in terms of their status and growth potential. “MGM, basically waiting for that license, they have great potential with their acreage, they’ve got a lot of room to expand and build upon and certainly improve that area, which means a thousand construction jobs, as well as the thousand post-construction jobs.”
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by Kristian Burt, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
People in the street (photo: NYC Department of Transportation)
May 15, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: A Vision for a More Livable City, with Sara Lind of Open Plans
Sara Lind, co-executive director of Open Plans, joined the show to discuss the group's vision for a more livable New York City, including specific programs, like Open Streets and Open Restaurants, state and city policy priorities, and more.
Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.
Read more: Max Politics Podcast: A Vision for a More Livable City, with Sara Lind of Open Plans
Mayor Adams unveils the MyCity portal (photo: Caroline Willis/Mayoral Photo Office)
Mayor Eric Adams began to fulfill one of his major campaign promises in March as he launched the “MyCity” online portal that promises to help New Yorkers more easily apply for public benefits and access city services. The platform — which Adams calls "a legacy project" — is in its infancy, currently only providing access to childcare applications, but is meant to grow into a one-stop-shop for many if not all interactions with city government.
But civic technologists say that the administration’s approach to building MyCity repeats the mistakes of the past by farming out the work to contractors, in what was a reversal of its initial intent to develop the portal in-house and do it cheaper and more efficiently.
Adams has repeatedly sung the praises of technology as a tool to make government work better for the people, in part built on his experiences with the NYPD’s CompStat system during his two decades in the police department. In his first month in office as mayor, Adams consolidated the city’s various technology agencies under the banner of the new Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), led by new Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser, and charged it with creating MyCity.
“For the first time, families who need help paying for child care can apply in one place, with one application,” the mayor said in a statement as he launched the portal in March, pledging additional services would be added in the future. “We are using the power of technology to reduce the bureaucracy and red tape in our government, to help New Yorkers get the services their taxes pay for, and to ‘Get Stuff Done’ for the working people of this city.”
But the rollout of MyCity didn’t happen on the timeline his administration had first predicted or through the process it initially envisioned. Initially, OTI had declared that it was building the portal in-house, earning praise from civic technology experts. It was meant to launch by late 2022, but was delayed for months.
Adams admitted in a year-end interview with the New York Times that technology had been one of the areas where he faced a steep learning curve in his first year, delaying the launch of MyCity. “We could rush it out now, but I really want to kick the tires,” he said at the time. At the unveiling, Adams said the delay was worth it in order to get the most user-friendly product possible, calling it "a foundation of how this city is going to function."
Ultimately, while the administration said that about 100 city employees worked on MyCity, a substantial amount of its development has been contracted out to 14 different technology firms in 31 separate contracts so far worth more than $3.4 million.
According to OTI, the city owns the intellectual property created under those contracts. Civic technologists, however, say that the open-source technology infrastructure for MyCity already existed in Access NYC, an online portal managed by the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity where people can already determine their eligibility for public benefits, which is meant to be a key feature built into MyCity.
And they say the administration lost an opportunity to build out a Digital Service Organization (DSO) that could create internal tech solutions using open-source software rather than purchasing outside software, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective iterations of this tool and development of others.
“While it's exciting to see the centralization of services and at least the incorporation of a modern technology stack, it is disappointing that the city's internal teams are not resourced to support this ongoing work,” said Noel Hidalgo, executive director of BetaNYC, a civic technology group, who advised Adams’ transition team on the MyCity portal. “I was expecting to be disappointed. I am disappointed, but I have hopes that something's going to change. I just don't know when that change is going to happen.”
OTI has pushed back against the broad criticism of its reliance on outside vendors.
“It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback from a distance when you're not accountable to more than 8 million New Yorkers. With MyCity, this administration is rebuilding city services from the ground up to help working families effortlessly apply online for child care subsidies and to provide the foundation for New Yorkers to access future city services and benefits,” said OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “To ultimately deliver a better product for New Yorkers, the City supplemented its internal talent and expertise with external experts, including more than 10 M/WBEs, who provided invaluable support on key components of the project such as translation services, user testing, and design.”
Legendre noted that the work done by one of the main contractors, Innovative Business Concepts, Inc., included strategy, project road-mapping, and portal design, which will all continue to benefit the portal’s functions in the long-term.
The portal’s infrastructure also includes a document retention hub for future applications, a dashboard to track application status, user-friendly authentication, a mechanism that allows virtual signatures from multiple legal guardians, translation into 11 of the most commonly spoken languages in New York City, the capability to upload documents from a mobile device, and cybersecurity measures to protect people's data.
Legendre also said that MyCity could possibly be rolled out on other platforms in the future, such as a mobile application.
Currently, MyCity does include other options besides the childcare application, with categories labeled “Business,” “Jobs,” and “Benefits.” But those merely link to other city agency websites – the last one connects to Access NYC.
“It's not just a website. This is about the fundamentals of how government services are built in the 21st century,” Hidalgo said. But, he added, “there doesn’t seem to be anything revolutionary about it. Even the technology, there's nothing grand about it. It's the same software that the city has been using since the pandemic because it's a better webform software than what the city had been using prior to that.”
Besides HRA’s online tool, civic tech experts also point to other digital tools developed by the city in the recent past, in particular Planning Labs at the Department of City Planning, which could have been used as the model approach.
“For the Adams administration to not be able to recognize where good things were happening and where the opportunity to continue good work is when it comes to information technology reform is really disappointing,” said Devin Balkind, a civic technologist. Balkind and others have called for the city to create a DSO, similar to models adopted by other cities like Boston or the 18F division of the federal government. “If [the Adams administration] were observant, they would have seen the opportunity to do things much faster, better and cheaper than they're doing it now,” said Balkind.
Even former Mayor Bill de Blasio “paid lip service” to the DSO model by announcing an NYC Digital Service just one month before his tenure ended, Balkind pointed out.
“Adams campaigned on it and I hope he figures out what everyone else seems to have figured out, which is that there's a model for government IT reform that works and is valid and he should use it,” Balkind added.
A spokesperson for City Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, who chairs the Council’s technology committee, declined to comment but said that the Council member is considering an oversight hearing on the administration’s approach to technology contracts, including the development of MyCity.
Comptroller Brad Lander’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The comptroller is responsible for monitoring and reviewing city contracts.
A former city technology manager who wished to remain unnamed said that the use of outside contractors isn’t inherently the wrong choice and not necessarily more expensive. But he questioned the reason behind the choice for MyCity. “Why wasn't the internal team meeting the goals? Why is the NYC Digital Service not a thing anymore? What happened to that?,” he asked.
He did have some words of advice for the administration. “Full ownership [of the software] and capacity for maintaining the project has to stay in house. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for failure because…you can't have forward continuity when there's nobody around that actually knows how the thing works.”
According to Legendre, the website’s technical support and maintenance are carried out by both internal staff and external contractors. And he said that the administration is indeed expanding its technology team. “We’re aggressively building internal capacity and will also continue to tap a wide range of external expertise to deliver solutions as quickly as possible,” he said by email.
A digital service model within city government is the right way to go, said the former city technology manager. “There's this perception that government employees can't build modern tools. They can,” he said. “You just need to hire modern tool builders.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Note - this article has been updated to note that the city's benefits eligibility screening tool is called Access NYC and is run by the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity. Access HRA is a separate tool managed by the Human Resources Administration.