The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a deep toll on Southeast Queens. Nearly a year after New York City shut down, Queens residents are still losing loved ones and falling ill at alarming rates. In Richmond Hill alone, the positivity rate is higher than any other neighborhood in the five boroughs.
In addition to the public health and unemployment crisis triggered by COVID-19, many families in our borough are facing yet another crisis — an inability to access economic relief to mitigate the pain of losing income. While state assistance like unemployment benefits and stimulus checks have been available to some workers, many others have been excluded. This includes undocumented immigrants, New Yorkers recently released from incarceration, and workers in the cash economy like street vendors and domestic workers.
Many of my constituents are facing eviction, struggling to put food on the table, and getting buried deeper and deeper in debt. Meanwhile, New York’s billionaires have grown richer during the course of the pandemic, to the tune of $87.7 billion.
Excluded workers are a vital part of our borough’s economy. Many of these workers run the mom and pop businesses that make our communities vibrant. They include child care providers, restaurant workers, street vendors, laundry workers, construction workers and so many others who make our lives possible.
If we continue to shut these workers out from aid, our economy — and the vibrancy of our city as a whole — will suffer. Undocumented workers also contribute to the social safety net that has proven so essential during the pandemic, paying more than $140 million in taxes every year.
Undocumented workers are not the only excluded workers: New Yorkers returning home from incarceration are ineligible for unemployment due to a lack of recent work history. Our neighbors working in the cash economy are often left behind because they lack enough records to demonstrate a loss of income.
Our state, which prides itself on being one of the most progressive in our nation, must provide income relief for excluded workers. Right now, the state legislature is debating several pieces of legislation that would raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and use the additional revenue to create a $3.5 billion fund for excluded workers. The fund will deliver direct, monthly cash payments, retroactive to the start of the pandemic and continuing through the end of the pandemic, and it will include flexible application materials to expedite relief.
It’s time for those who have profited off the pandemic to pay their fair share and support the workers who keep our economy running. Let us meet the demands of this moment with morality and support excluded workers.
Assembly Member Khaleel M. Anderson represents the 31st Assembly District, encompassing the neighborhoods of Arverne, Brookville, Far Rockaway, Hammels, Rosedale, South Ozone Park, South Richmond Hill, Springfield Gardens and Laurelton.
