Dior Williams lives paycheck to paycheck while raising her 3-year-old son, Peter.

“I don’t have a savings and I don’t even see where I can save at the moment because every dollar counts. Every single dollar counts,” Williams said.

Williams works as a part-time esthetician, picking up extra shifts when she can. She said the early childhood program at Grand Street Settlement, a nonprofit social services group in Bedford-Stuyvesant, makes it possible for her to support her child.

What You Need To Know

  • According to a new report by Columbia University and the philanthropic Robin Hood Foundation, 23% of city residents were unable to afford basic household necessities in 2022

  • Experts say increased poverty rates are largely due to the ending of government programs from the COVID-19 pandemic

  • The Robin Hood Foundation is calling on elected leaders to permanently expand the federal child tax credit program and New York's Empire State Child Tax Credit

“It feels almost impossible. Like, how do you take care of yourself when everything you do has to be concerned about your kid, the roof over your head every single day, the food on your plate every single day,” Williams said.

Williams is among the nearly 2 million New Yorkers living in poverty. According to a new report by Columbia University and the philanthropic Robin Hood Foundation, 23% of city residents were unable to afford basic household necessities in 2022. In 2021, that number was 18%.

“500,000 additional New Yorkers are living in poverty in 2022 versus 2021 and that is the biggest increase we’ve seen since we started tracking the state which was back in 2012,” Sarah Oltmans, chief of grant strategy at Robin Hood, said.

The report also found 25% of children in the city are living in poverty compared to 15% in 2021. Experts say this is largely due to the ending of government programs from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There was this incredible policy response at the federal level but at the state level as well. Programs like the expanded Child Tax Credit, expanded unemployment insurance, all of these things really helped make ends meet for people,” Oltmans said.

Meanwhile, Williams wants to see investments in affordable housing, education, and childcare in the hopes that her son will live the life he deserves.

“I don’t want my son to have to rely on a paycheck that barely scrapes the surface in terms of providing for your household,” Williams said.

The Robin Hood Foundation is calling on elected leaders to permanently expand the federal child tax credit program and New York’s Empire State Child Tax Credit.

“There were policies that were working, that were helping move families out of poverty and we just didn’t invest enough in them, we didn’t make them permanent. So, I take that as a sign of hope that we know there are policies that work,” Oltmans said.

Experts say permanent government subsidies could lift tens of thousands of New Yorkers like Dior Williams and her son out of poverty.