ALBANY – Child poverty has reached “epidemic proportions” in cities across upstate New York, with rates of 50% or higher among many minority communities, a new report revealed.
While 23% of children statewide lived in poverty, black and Latino children in cities like Troy and Schenectady had rates stretching as high as 73.7%, according to the report released Friday from the Assembly’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force.
Assemblyman Marcos Crespo (D-Bronx), chairman of the task force, said the report showed “an alarming trend that threatens the economic and social stability of the state.”
In New York City, 30% of children under 18 were living in poverty, but the rates were higher for Latino children, 40.1%, and black children, 33.1%, the task force found after reviewing census data.
Crespo said the report showed the need to, among other things, boost New York’s minimum wage and increase funding for affordable housing and child care subsidies.
