New York Daily News: Aid Nonprofits To Ease NYC Affordability Crisis

Published In: New York Daily News

Mayor Mamdani brings a renewed sense of hope and urgency around tackling the affordability crisis. If we are to make real progress on affordability, we must address a critical piece of the equation that is too often overlooked: the nonprofit sector.

Affordability, as the mayor knows, is about accessing child care, securing stable housing, and earning living wages. For millions of residents, those services and opportunities are delivered by nonprofits.

Nonprofits are the backbone of this city’s social infrastructure. They run homeless shelters, operate after-school programs, provide employment training and placement, support older adults, and help families navigate crises. In many neighborhoods, they are the first, and often the only place people turn to for support.

Yet the organizations doing this essential work are themselves caught in the same affordability crisis squeezing New Yorkers.

Many nonprofits operate under strict city contracts that dictate nearly every aspect of their work, including how much they can pay their employees. These contracts are often underfunded and inflexible, leaving little room to adjust wages as the cost of living rises.

The result is a workforce that is deeply committed, but increasingly strained.

Homeless shelter workers can earn as little as $19 an hour. Child care workers in city-contracted after-school programs face similarly low wages, despite playing a critical role in supporting working families.

At the same time, nonprofits are being asked to do more with less. In Brooklyn Org’s recent survey, 86% of nonprofits reported higher costs over the past year, and 90% saw increased demand for services. Yet 60% experienced cuts in government funding. Facing this squeeze, nearly half have cut non-personnel expenses and more than a third have frozen hiring.

Compounding the challenge is a system that makes it harder to deliver services. Chronic delays by the city in paying nonprofits for services delivered under contract, which amount to about a billion dollars, force organizations to take on debt just to meet payroll and keep programs running.

Mamdani has rightly recognized that small businesses need support to survive in this financial environment. The city’s recent loan fund to help small businesses manage cash flow is an important step. Nonprofits deserve the same level of attention and investment.

Like small businesses, nonprofits are major employers, accounting for roughly 15% of the city’s workforce. They hire locally and reinvest in neighborhoods every day. They are economic engines as much as they are service providers.

New Yorkers understand this. In our 2025 People’s Pulse survey, 75% of residents said it is important for city government to support local organizations addressing social, economic, and housing issues, and 56% said they want more city funding for grassroots groups.

If we want a more affordable New York, we need a comprehensive strategy that includes nonprofits as partners. That starts with ensuring timely payments. No organization delivering essential public services should have to wait months, or even years, to be paid. It also means reforming contracts so nonprofits can offer living wages. The city cannot expect high-quality services while locking organizations into funding levels that make fair pay impossible.

And it requires a broader commitment to stabilizing the sector through access to capital, flexible funding, and policies that reduce administrative burdens so nonprofits can focus on serving New Yorkers.

The mayor has set an ambitious agenda. By expanding that vision to include nonprofits, he can ensure that affordability is not just about lowering costs, but about strengthening the institutions that make this city livable in the first place.