By Jyoti Thottam
More than 5,000 Queens teens who held federally funded summer jobs last year stand to lose that opportunity this year unless city and state legislators act quickly, advocates say.
“The city and the state need to put up the money,” said Doug Turetsky of the Campaign for Summer Jobs. “It's not something that can be fixed in June.”
The campaign, a coalition of more than 30 community groups throughout the five boroughs, is lobbying city and state lawmakers to restore summer-job funding that may be cut through a provision of the federal Workforce Investment Act. While the law was intended as a way to improve job opportunities for the nation's poor, it may inadvertently siphon off money that had been available for summer jobs.
The law, which Congress passed last year, consolidates 75 different funding streams for various jobs programs into two block grants to states – one for youth programs and one for adult programs. It also stipulates that 30 percent of the youth funds must go to year-round programs for young people not in school rather than summer jobs.
“Those two things severely limit the amount of funds that are available,” Turetsky said. “Plus the governor can take 15 percent of the entire block grant and use it for other purposes.”
Last year, federal funds provided more than $47 million of a total $54 million in funding for 40,000 summer jobs in New York City, including 5,500 in Queens. While the precise impact on the city's summer jobs program is still unclear, Turetsky estimates that three-quarters of the 40,000 summer jobs provided last year are at risk.
“It's not clear at all what's going to happen,” he said.
Waiting for the ax to fall, meanwhile, are dozens of community-based organizations and the thousands of young people who hope to find work with them this summer. Nearly 5,500 low-income teenagers from every neighborhood in Queens had federally funded summer jobs last year, with the highest number coming from southeast Queens.
“We're concerned about this and upset,” said Susan Noreika, chairwoman of Community Board 13, which covers Queens Village, Laurelton, Cambria Heights, Glen Oaks, Floral Park and Bellerose.
Board 13 found jobs for more than 500 teens with various non-profit groups and city agencies last year, and Noreika said young people are already submitting applications for this summer's openings. The minimum-wage positions range from parks workers and day care aides to police precinct clerks and summer camp counselors.
“These are people who are ready to enter the work force,” Noreika said. “What they learn is how jobs are done. It's well worth the investment.”
The looming cuts to summer camp staff could have a ripple effect as well. If federal funding is unavailable for the counselor positions, community-based summer camps may have to charge higher fees.
“If this source of labor is not directly available, working families are going to have a real problem this summer,” Turetsky said.
Noreika has already sent in more than 600 applications from summer-job applicants to the campaign's headquarters for a Feb. 22 demonstration at City Hall.
The Campaign for Summer Jobs plans to present thousands of these applications to City Council members to pressure them to compensate for some of the funding likely to be cut from the summer-jobs funding in this year's city budget.
“Then I think we're going to have to look for a long-term fix from Congress,” Turetsky said.
The Campaign for Summer Jobs is organized through United Neighborhood Houses, a Manhattan-based non-profit organization.
