Our April 2013 Launching Low-Income Entrepreneurs study found that with middle-income jobs in decline, entrepreneurship offers an increasingly promising pathway out of poverty; but that few low-income New Yorkers are currently taking this route to economic self-sufficiency. We recommended that the city develop programs to expand the number of low-income, native-born entrepreneurs in the city and encourage more low-income people to turn to entrepreneurship.

We are pleased to report that Mayor de Blasio has announced plans to do just that. In his first State of the City speech, the mayor announced a new Entrepreneurship Fund for low-income New Yorkers which will leverage private capital to increase and provide more opportunity for low-income entrepreneurship in the city. This is an important step in bridging the city's inequality gap and providing more pathways to the middle class for low-income New Yorkers.