IMPACTS OF THE COVID CRISIS ON WORKING- EXCLUDED CLASS IMMIGRANT, BLACK, AND BROWN IN THE NEW YORKERS EPICENTER MAY 2020 EXCLUDED IN THE EPICENTER | 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 04 SUMMARY 06 INTRODUCTION 12 FINDINGS 12 Key Takeaways 13 Health Care 16 Income and Job Loss 18 Housing 22 Education 26 Community Relief Response 29 RECOMMENDATIONS EXCLUDED IN THE EPICENTER | 3 SUMMARY Credit: Walter Wlodarczyk. Our communities are reeling from COVID-19 a distance - one of the cruelest aspects of and the crisis it has unleashed. This has been the disease. We never thought we'd have to one of the most difficult periods in the more provide step-by-step support for community than two decades that Make the Road New members making final arrangements for their York has worked to support and organize loved ones, but that is the reality we face. immigrants and Black and Brown New Yorkers. Speaking to thousands of community members But community organizations can only do each week in the communities where we so much given very scarce resources. As work in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long this report demonstrates, the public health, Island, and Westchester, far too many members economic, and housing crisis continues, and and their loved ones have contracted the the unmet needs of immigrants, Black, and virus and died. We hear daily from workers Brown communities are simply staggering. who have lost their jobs, are excluded from The report examines in detail the experience of accessing Unemployment Insurance and all working-class immigrant, Black and Brown New other income supports, and do not know how Yorkers during this crisis. Based on a survey they will be able to buy groceries or pay the of 244 primarily Latinx immigrants across New rent. We hear, too, from front-line workers who York City, Long Island, and Westchester, one face the risk of contracting the virus at their third of whom are undocumented, it provides work sites, where they labor without adequate striking findings related to the pandemic’s toll protections. on community members’ health, income and As a community organization dedicated to work, housing insecurity, and education. meeting the needs of our members and As the only survey to date focused on the neighbors, while also fighting for policies that experiences of immigrant New Yorkers address structural problems, we have provided reported in their own words, the quantitative direct cash and food assistance. We have and qualitative data provide powerful insights created virtual community spaces to maintain into the scale of this crisis and the depth of its connection and purpose among our members. impact across immigrant communities. We have counseled families in their grief from EXCLUDED IN THE EPICENTER | 4 MRNY members held a May Day caravan to demand a #Recovery4All in New York, stopping first in front of Gov. Cuomo's office with a mariachi band. Credit: Walter Wlodarczyk. The survey data lays bare the harrowing health 90% were worried about being able to pay in impacts of this crisis on immigrant, Black and May (the survey was conducted in late April). Brown communities. Well over half (58%) of respondents have been sick themselves or The original data included herein speak to had a family member sick since March 1st, and the enormity of the problems facing these 60% of those have either confirmed or believe communities, while identifying urgently-needed that they were COVID-19 positive. In addition, government solutions. Community members one out of 6 respondents (16%) has lost a are dying from COVID-19 and, as one of our family member to COVID-19. The mental health members recently shared, “if we don’t die from effects of the crisis are stark as well. Close to the virus, it will be from hunger.” As residents two thirds (62%) of those surveyed report that in the epicenter of the pandemic grapple with they or someone in their family have suffered the grave risk of infection, the dramatic loss of anxiety or depression since the start of the income, and deep concern of displacement, crisis, and close to half of those (48%) report they need urgent action from the federal, not knowing where to turn for help. state, and local governments. The report thus concludes with a list of policy demands. The data further demonstrates the grave economic impact of the crisis. In 92% of The Trump administration and its allies in households surveyed, 84% of respondents Congress willfully excluded millions from themselves are currently unemployed and economic relief. It is thus especially urgent for 88% lost their jobs due to the pandemic. New York State—and particularly Governor Meanwhile, only 5% of respondents received Andrew Cuomo—to advance a true recovery unemployment benefits in the prior month for all by creating a $3.5 million fund for and only 15% report receiving any type of excluded workers, canceling rent, and government assistance at all. Given the scope addressing the public health crisis in the state’s of the economic devastation wrought by this jails and prisons by freeing at-risk detained and crisis, 54% of respondents shared that they incarcerated people. were not able to pay their rent in April, and EXCLUDED IN THE EPICENTER | 5 INTRODUCTION THE CONTEXT Immigrant, Black and Brown neighborhoods were marked by inequity well before this The coronavirus is devastating communities pandemic, with limited access to health across New York. Ten weeks after the first insurance, healthcare and healthy food, confirmed case,1 the state has confirmed low incomes, high unemployment rates, 340,657 infections and 26,656 deaths.2 outsized rent burden, less healthy and more COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted overcrowded living conditions, and, as a result, New York’s low-income communities of color. more chronic health problems.5 As of early May, Black and Latinx New Yorkers have died of COVID-19 related illness at rates One of the most extreme concentrations of more than two times higher than their white COVID cases has been in Elmhurst, Corona, and Asian neighbors.3 And, as we demonstrate and Jackson Heights, Queens — home to below, the economic toll in immigrant, Black, thousands of Make the Road New York (MRNY) and Brown communities has been enormous. members. These neighborhoods have seen an enormous spike in infection, hospitalization, Immigrant communities and communities of and death. But it has not just been immigrant color throughout New York are the epicenter of communities in Queens, where 47% of the crisis -- home to many essential workers on residents are immigrants, that have been hard the front lines of the crisis, helping to feed and hit. The Bronx, where 35% of the population care for others. In fact, immigrants make up a are immigrants, has the highest infection rate majority of New York City’s essential workforce of any borough in New York City.6 On Long and one-third of the essential workers Island, the hardest hit neighborhoods have statewide.4 been Brentwood, Central Islip, and Hempstead, the region’s largest immigrant, Black, and Brown communities in the region.7 NYC COVID DEATHS BY RACE/ETHNICITY NYC COVID CASES BY BOROUGH = % COVID deaths = % NYC population Queens 54,121 Brooklyn 46,579 The Bronx 39,878 Manhattan 21,662 34% 29% 28% 22% 27% 32% 7% 15% Staten Island 12,380 Latinx Black White Asian Data available as of May 8, 2020. Source: DOHMH. EXCLUDED IN THE EPICENTER | 6 This crisis has shone a light on the economic At the same time, New York State has not taken fragility of many immigrant, Black, and Brown substantial action to support excluded workers communities across New York. In addition to or to address the desperation that many newly being more likely to perform essential work, out-of-work tenants feel about upcoming immigrants and Black and Brown New Yorkers rental payments. In the midst of a pandemic, are more likely to have lost work from this the message to these workers seems to be crisis. that they are good enough to clean streets and subways, stock grocery stores, deliver According to a report by James A. Parrott and food to homes, and even care for the sick, but Lina Moe at the New School’s Center for New not good enough to access vital economic York City Affairs, 68% of job loss in New York assistance, worker protections, and adequate City has been among people of color, with health care. an especially high figure among Latinx New Yorkers. Immigrants have been particularly hard Moreover, thousands of Black and Brown hit. The report finds: New Yorkers—who are disproportionately incarcerated and detained—sit in jails, prisons, While foreign-born workers held and detention centers, where infection rates 49% of all private jobs before the are sky-high. For instance, at New York City’s pandemic crisis, they account Rikers Island jail, the infection rate was 9.6% for 54% of the lost jobs...The as of May 5, while the citywide rate was 2.1%, 54% displacement rate among according to the Legal Aid Society.10 In the undocumented workers is twice first five weeks of the crisis, there were ten that of the 27% overall private confirmed deaths and 1,200 confirmed cases in New York City’s jails.11 As of May 10, the State’s sector displacement rate. Department of Corrections and Community The report further estimates that 192,000 Supervision reported more than 1,650 undocumented workers in New York City have confirmed cases among staff, incarcerated 12 lost their jobs or been unable work since the people, and parolees. Experts say the number 13 crisis began.8 is likely much higher.