On April 21, 2021, CUF published New York's Safety Net in Jeopardy, a report that highlighted how NYC’s human services nonprofits have stepped up to meet surging demand amid COVID-19, even as an alarming number are on the brink of financial catastrophe. The report called on the city to "restore the $20 million cut from the city’s indirect cost rate initiative and fully fund the program in the years ahead." 

Later that same week, Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson announced that the city would fully restore the Indirect Costs Rate Initiative launched in 2019 with an investment of $120 million over two years. CUF’s research has shown that fully funding NYC's human services organizations is vital to an equitable recovery. The city's latest investment is an important step forward at a time when a record number of New Yorkers continue to rely on basic safety net services. 

For more of the Center for an Urban Future's research on strengthening New York City's human services sector, see Essential Yet Vulnerable: NYC's Human Services Nonprofits Face Financial Crisis During Pandemic, and the event "Heading Off New York City's Human Services Crisis."