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URGENT ACTION NEEDED- HELP US BRING DOLLARS TO OUR REGION!
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for joining us- as a unified voice- and signing on to our letter. As always, we thank you for your partnership and hard work protecting our Long Island region.
Dear Director Mujica,
As we enter the fall months, nonprofit organizations across the state are feeling a chill—it’s not just the changing weather, but rather the frightening conviction that without an influx of resources imminently, NYS stands to be largely undercounted in the 2020 Census. As you know, New York State’s budget has an allocation of up to twenty million dollars that has not been released. This letter serves as a strong request and encouragement to release those dollars and begin the RFP process immediately.
The sense of urgency is now. The context of a shifting immigration policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric and action from our federal government has already had a vicious impact on New Yorkers. Health and Human service agencies receive calls on a daily basis from families dropping off of nutritional security programs, housing assistance, Medicaid and so much more—for fear of scrutiny and for fear of family dissolution. If families are choosing to forgo food, leaving their homes and meeting their basic needs for family preservation, can you imagine the unconscionable challenge of asking them to self-identify for the government? Title XIII alone will not provide reassurance.
For the past year, we have been working tirelessly to rally our communities around the 2020 Census. We understand just how much next year’s Census survey will affect the viability of our communities and the lifestyle we all enjoy here in New York State. We have built an infrastructure—the bones of this work. However, we need meat on those bones--our committees and community leaders are unwavering in their commitment to this cause and endlessly creative in their suggestions and plans. But inevitably, our wealth of good ideas will run up against the lack of provided funding. Without significant dollars devoted to the organizations comprising local Complete Count efforts in New York State, we face a near-certain undercount in 2020. The challenges facing the 2020 Census, like a lack of federal funding, the introduction of the untested digital response option, the prevalence of fear and distrust of government, and the persistent anti-immigrant rhetoric, policy, and practice of the current administration, are simply too great to overcome without financial investment from New York State.
It is not every day that a coalition of leaders, representing sectors as varied and communities as diverse as ours, speaks together with a unified voice. Ours is a Committee with a hopeful, committed vision for the future of our great State. We are invested in our hometowns, in our families and neighbors, and in working without pause from now through 2020 to ensure that every single New Yorker is fairly represented in the Census. We are working to raise all boats across the State, partnering with the NYS Association of Counties and many Statewide organizations and have learned through this work how desperately an investment is needed now.
Administering a twenty million dollar program is an effort that requires time and we don’t have time. We all know that the time frame between getting a State funding contract approved and having the money flow is never insignificant. For example, we know that due diligence requires NYS departments to review contracts through the NYS Grant Gateway process and then for the NYS Comptroller’s Office to provide final approval before a contract can even be executed. We have all seen this process take several months. We urge you to start this process immediately so that the dollars can get to the organizations that need to be entrenched in communities now educating people about the ten-year funding impact and how fear nurtures an undercount, which is something New York simply cannot afford. New Yorkers have already lost too much with changes to the State and Local Tax deduction, the continuous assault on our communities and the climate of fear in which so many recently arrived New Yorkers are living. New York deserves its fair share and in order to have any chance of achieving that, we need our State to support the work being done now to achieve an accurate count in 2020.
Thank you for your consideration.
Undersigned:
Health and Welfare Council of Long Island
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