Our sector—and our city—are grieving. Fred didn’t just advocate for solutions; he built them, leading Urban Pathways to deliver hundreds of units of supportive housing across New York City and shaping the broader field through decades of leadership, from HELP USA to Homeless Services United (HSU).

He pushed the field forward—not just on housing, but on equity—championing efforts like #JustPay to ensure the human services workforce is valued and sustained. The last time our CEO, Gregory J Morris, MPA, saw Fred, he spoke about his transition and told Greg he’d always be around. Greg believed him then, and believes it now. His work, his clarity, and his conviction will continue to guide us… just from way, way up above.

“I think the biggest challenge is getting people to understand that we know what works. That we’ve known for a number of years that there are real solutions that are cost-effective. That we can move someone who has lived on the streets for a significant number of years into an apartment and eventually into a level of self-functioning that maximizes their potential. That is doable. I think it’s getting that message out that we don’t have to live in an environment—in a society—where people are relegated to living on our streets. If you invest the resources, we can really turn it around.” — Frederick “Fred” Shack, Urban Pathways

Must watch: Fred Shack and Gary P. Jenkins of Urban Pathways joined “In Focus” on NY1 on July 13, 2025.

The preliminary budget fight between Mayor Mamdani and the City Council reveals a genuine tension — not just political posturing — over who bears the cost of fiscal instability, and what that means for the workers and communities that depend on city-funded services to get ahead.

Mamdani’s $127 billion spending plan deserves credit for trying to correct years of deliberate underbudgeting. But greater honesty about costs doesn’t answer the harder question of how to pay for them. The Council, under Speaker Menin, responded with a $6 billion alternative that rejects both the property tax hike and the drawdown of reserves, arguing the city cannot “in good conscience fund the City’s needs on the backs of homeowners or renters, by digging into emergency reserves, or by cutting essential programs.”

Mamdani dismissed the Council’s plan sharply, arguing it “double counts savings, overestimates revenues, [and] exaggerates savings on interest payments,” and warning that, if adopted, “it would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets” — meaning “working New Yorkers would pay the price.” His own solution is structural: tax the rich, end what he describes as the state’s long-running drain on city resources, and acknowledge that without action from Albany, “our deficit won’t disappear — it will repeat year after year, asking future generations to shoulder the burden.”

Both the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) and State Comptroller DiNapoli cut through the back-and-forth with the same warning. DiNapoli noted the plan relies on “actions where the city lacks direct control or faces implementation risk, including $1.8 billion in as-yet unidentified savings” — a shaky foundation for a budget. CBC went further, calling the assumption that reserves will be replenished in FY 2028 — even as the budget projects a $6.7 billion gap — “at best extremely tenuous and at worst a gamble.”

For us, the stakes in this fight are immediate. The Council’s response calls out $7.8 million for CUNY Reconnect as a program that should not be subject to the annual budget dance, a signal that investments in adult education and economic mobility remain perennially vulnerable when fiscal pressures mount. The deeper question this budget fight raises isn’t really about reserves or revenue re-estimates. It’s about what kind of city we are trying to build out of this moment, and for whom.

NYers already hit hard by current and anticipated federal retrenchment — including stop-outs, low-wage workers stuck below the middle, and families for whom affordability and economic mobility are one and the same — cannot afford a budget deal that papers over structural gaps without investing in the pathways that actually close them. And corporate partners are on edge, navigating uncertainty, tightening margins, and increasingly questioning who is responsible for building and sustaining the talent pipeline.

Affordability is a workforce policy.

When 85 percent of new good jobs by 2031 will require education and training beyond high school, and when completed apprenticeships translate into average salaries of $80,000 and more than $300,000 in increased lifetime earnings, the budget choices we make now about CUNY Reconnect, earn-and-learn programs, and sector-based training are the difference between a city that grows its way toward fiscal health by expanding who can participate in its economy, and one that simply manages decline more transparently.

On March 17, 2026, the New York City Council’s Committee on Economic Development held a budget oversight hearing for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) with Committee Chair Virginia Maloney leading a sweeping review of EDC’s borough-wide portfolio at a moment of fiscal pressure, federal uncertainty, and growing demand for accountability on job quality and equity. Watch the hearing video.

1. Big capital agenda. Workforce still secondary:  EDC outlined a borough-wide pipeline—Kingsbridge, Hunts Point, Brooklyn Marine Terminal, Willets Point, Staten Island North Shore—focused on housing, green infrastructure, and food access. Workforce was meaningfully included, but still not positioned as a core metric.

2. Fiscal pressure is real—and unresolved:  Council pressed on the Moody’s downgrade, weak job growth outside healthcare, outdated federal data, and federal funding risks. EDC projected resilience but acknowledged data gaps and uncertainty.

3. City-run grocery plan raises cost questions: The city-owned grocery store initiative dominated the back half of the hearing and revealed significant unanswered questions about long-term costs. EDC confirmed $70 million in capital funding for five stores (one per borough), with a third-party operator model under development. 

What Comes Next: Our Take on What It Will Take

First, EDC has put a clear stake in the ground on workforce—but the system around it needs to catch up.  Interim President Jeanny Pak described workforce development as one of EDC’s four strategic pillars and named several active programs. EVP ShehilaRae Stephens elaborated: “EDC has been very intentional about creating pipelines to innovative industries that are going to be able to provide long-term stability and financial growth for New Yorkers — and that is really aligned with our efforts around improving job quality and trying to get New Yorkers to a space where they’re able to sustain jobs at a livable wage.”

That framing now needs to translate into project-level accountability—starting with the site-specific job commitments tied to major capital projects.

• Kingsbridge Armory (Bronx): 3,600 jobs projected, with a stated focus on local Bronx hiring. EDC cited a $216M city/state/federal investment and approval by the City Council last October.
• Brooklyn Marine Terminal (Red Hook): 2,000 permanent jobs cited, anchored by a project labor agreement. Council Member Alexa Avilés challenged EDC directly: “What we have yet to see is a materialization of jobs, actual jobs from the property… I would like to see what jobs are resulting from any of this investment in the communities that directly abut all of these properties.” 
• South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (Sunset Park): Described as over 90% complete, with “over 1,000 good-paying green collar and union jobs already created on site.”
• Hunts Point Produce Market ($405M redevelopment): EDC confirmed all existing jobs — “thousands of jobs up there, mostly union” — will be retained during construction, with the new all-electric facility projected online by the end of 2029.
• BATWorks / Brooklyn Army Terminal: Named as the future home of “the largest green workforce training facility in New York City,” connecting Sunset Park residents to green economy employment.
• Spark Kips Bay (Manhattan): Described as a life sciences and health tech education hub where “students can attend high school, college, and advanced degree programs on the same campus” as medical and life sciences employers.

Alongside these projects, EDC has made meaningful programmatic investments, though stronger connections to measurable outcomes will be important as this work evolves. EDC highlighted several programs by name:

• East Brooklyn Workforce Fund: $1.4M investment launched October 2025; five CBOs selected to connect local job seekers to construction, green economy, and real estate sectors.
• Hunts Point Economic Mobility Network: $1.4M investment, Greater Hunts Point EDC named as lead organization; focused on green economy and tech job pathways.
• Sunset Park Economic Mobility Network: Launched June 2024; connecting workers to green economy, life sciences, manufacturing, and maritime jobs.
• North Staten Island Northshore Fund RFP: Released February 2025; targeting workforce programs for young Staten Islanders on the Northshore.
• Founder Fellowship: Fifth cohort recently announced; 400 entrepreneurs across 243 startups have raised over $170M in capital since 2022.
• CUNY Startup Internship Program: 110 NYC-based students placed at 80+ startups in FY2025, with many receiving full-time offers.
• Construct NYC / Waterfront Pathways: MWBE-focused construction pipeline programs offering technical and financial support to diverse firms accessing EDC contracts.

Job Quality and Metrics — A Gap in the Record

Chair Maloney asked directly: “How does EDC conceive of its role in generating stronger job growth in the future, and how do we ensure that those jobs are high quality?” EDC’s response referenced its programs but did not cite measurable targets. Council Member Avilés pushed further on industrial sector metrics: “Having one in three tenants doesn’t say we are meeting growth targets… What is the growth target, and are we actually meeting that?” 

Child Care as Workforce Infrastructure — An Overlooked Prerequisite

Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez pressed EDC on a gap conspicuously absent from its workforce framing: child care. “How is the city thinking about child care as part of its economic development strategy, particularly as a prerequisite for workforce participation?” EDC’s response was notable: “Child care is needed for all workers to be able to go to their jobs and work every day… it’s part of economic development. It can’t be separated.” 

From Promises to Proof: Our Point of View

If workforce is going to sit at the center of economic development, it has to move from rhetoric to structure. Right now, we are still funding activity, not outcomes—layering programs across agencies without clear ownership, consistent metrics, or accountability. The result is predictable: jobs are promised, pipelines are named, but outcomes remain diffuse. What it will take is simple—and hard: set real targets for job quality and hiring, tie every capital dollar to enforceable workforce outcomes, and track it publicly so we know what’s working. Align the system so employers shape demand, CUNY and providers deliver against it, and projects actually produce hires—not just headlines. And fund accordingly: not for participation, but for placement, retention, and wage growth. 

We’ll know it’s real when a groundbreaking includes developers, employers, nonprofits, city and state officials, and job seekers—because workforce isn’t an add-on, it’s built in from day one.

3 Takeaways in 30 Seconds

• The hearing featured testimony from newly appointed DYCD Commissioner Sandra Escamilla-Davies, who expressed her commitment to building cross-sector partnerships with schools, community-based organizations, and philanthropy to ensure that young people have the resources to thrive. She noted DYCD’s recent expansion, noting that its number of contracts—now well over 1,000—has increased at a pace that has strained the agency’s administrative infrastructure. As part of a larger assessment, Commissioner Escamilla is reviewing DYCD’s operational backbone, programmatic capacity, and performance and evaluation processes.  
• Committee Chair Althea Stevens (D-Bronx) brings deep knowledge of DYCD programs from her years as a program operator at East Side House Settlement in the Bronx. Over several hours of sometimes pointed questioning, Chair Stevens pushed the administration panel on a range of programs, including Summer Rising, Runaway and Homeless Youth, and Beacon and Cornerstone community centers. She also pushed on NYC’s high rates of youth unemployment, citing the startling figure of 23.8 percent unemployment for Black youth, and cited the need for “full-year programming around employment.”
• In a shift from past hearings, DYCD reported that its Advance & Earn program is fully enrolled this year, with over 1,300 participants. The agency also noted that Work Learn + Grow is serving 6,500 participants with 55 SYEP providers, plus an additional 1,190 through Learn & Earn providers, for a total yearly budget of $30 million. DYCD received a record number of 209,000 applications for SYEP last year.  

A Deeper Dive: The Details Behind the Headlines

As NYCETC noted last year in our “Putting Our Dollars to Work” report, DYCD has seen dramatic growth over the last fifteen years. Its funding for workforce programs alone more than doubled in constant dollars between Fiscal Years 2009 and 2024, and the Mamdani administration’s proposed Fiscal 2027 budget calls for another $40.4 million for workforce programs over Fiscal 2024. The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and other workforce initiatives combine to serve well over 105,000 participants each year.

With that scale comes expectation. 

During the hearing, Chair Stevens and other Committee members pointed to the City Council’s December “report card” on DYCD, which called for an agency-specific strategic plan, clearer and more consistent funding timelines, and stronger communication with contracted providers. Commissioner Escamilla agreed on the need for long-term goals and deliverables and reiterated that her current review is focused on whether DYCD has the right infrastructure and program mix to deliver for the public.

At the core is how DYCD sees its role. DYCD referred to itself as “a contracting agency.” While that’s a reasonable characterization given the bulk of its work, it doesn’t fully capture the agency’s broader influence. Through the design of concept papers and RFPs—and the funding levels it sets—DYCD helps shape the direction of policy in practice. NYCETC supports the Council’s recommendation that DYCD develop a strategic plan, including a clear articulation of the values and priorities guiding how contract parameters are set.

In the near term, the agency is moving on several fronts. The Commissioner highlighted key initiatives, including a new COMPASS (Comprehensive After School System of NYC) RFP designed to stabilize contracts, increase rates, and fund 20,000 additional seats—an effort that has already generated nearly 1,500 proposals. DYCD also restored $20 million for Summer Rising, extending the program day by two hours and reinstating Fridays, and announced an expansion of the Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) program with 100 additional beds.

What Comes Next: Our Take on What It Will Take

DYCD’s workforce division increasingly operates programs in close collaboration with NYC Public Schools and the City University of New York. Following up on last month’s Workforce Development Committee oversight hearing with the Office of Talent and Workforce Development and CUNY, the Committee on Children and Youth should hold a joint hearing with the Workforce Development Committee to examine system-wide coordination of programs and services that prepare youth for jobs and careers. Areas of focus could include how the four entities are jointly planning and sharing information, the administration’s overall goals related to career readiness, and the additional resources and infrastructure needed. 

Another worthwhile hearing topic would be the administration’s strategy regarding young adults who are out of school and out of work (OSOW), who number over 100,000 in New York City. Again, this is an issue that crosses agency lines, involving not only DYCD, NYCPS, and NYC Talent but also the Administration for Children’s Services, Department of Probation, and the Human Resources Administration. Suggested reading: JobsFirstNYC, “Economic Mobility for New York City’s Young Adults: Where Progress Meets Persistent Barriers.” 

Go The Distance

Read the City Council’s Fiscal 2027 Preliminary Plan Department of Youth and Community Development Budget Overview, and watch the full hearing.

The DYCD section begins at 2 hours 32 minutes. Public testimony begins at 5 hours 2 minutes. A number of NYCETC members testified:  

• 5 hours 11 minutes: Kate Connolly is a Senior Policy Analyst at United Neighborhood Houses.
• 5 hours 19 minutes: Micharey Almanzar, YouthBuild Program Manager, NMIC & YouthBuild students.
• 5 hours 29 minutes: Ira Yankwitt, Executive Director, Literacy Assistance Center & NYCETC Advisory Council Member. His testimony warned of major threats to adult literacy funding. New York City currently receives over $24 million annually through Title II of WIOA, but the Trump Administration has proposed eliminating this funding and restricting access based on immigration status—potentially excluding roughly 75 percent of current and prospective learners. In response, the New York City Coalition for Adult Literacy (NYCCAL) is urging the Mamdani administration to invest $20 million annually in adult education regardless of status and calling on City Council to increase discretionary support by $3.5 million.
• 6 hours 36 minutes: Aaron Sanders, Deputy Director of Government and Community Relations, Grand Street Settlement.
• 6 hours 39 minutes: Debra Sue Lorenzen, Director, Youth and Education, St. Nicks Alliance.
• 7 hours 12 minutes: Allison Hollihan, Director of NY Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents, Osborne.

The conversation was directly shaped by a Center for an Urban Future (CUF) report, developed in partnership with NYCETC and JobsFirstNYC, which was cited extensively throughout the hearing and helped inform Council priorities.

Key Takeaways

• The hearing commenced with testimony from Lauren Andersen, Vice Chancellor for Career Engagement & Industry Partnerships at CUNY, and Doug Lipari, Executive Director of the Office of Talent and Workforce Development. Each panelist shared details on several strong cross-agency partnerships designed to support young New Yorkers in building skills, gaining work experience, and preparing for career success. The panelists stressed their close collaboration and support across agency lines.
• Highlighted programs included CUNY Career Launch, through which 2,000 CUNY students connect with paid work each summer; College Now, a partnership of CUNY with NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) through which 31,000 high school students earned college credit last school year; and Work, Learn & Grow, a partnership of CUNY and NYCPS with the Department of Youth and Community Development that offers college credit, postsecondary planning, and paid internship to over 6,500 high school students annually.
• On the adult side, Lipari noted that the City’s Community Hiring initiative has over 200 procurements now open. At full implementation, Community Hiring will leverage more than $20 billion in city contracts per year to connect New Yorkers to employment opportunities. Mr. Lipari also mentioned that his office manages an annual budget of $2.7 million.

As the Committee on Workforce Development continues its work, NYCETC urges Chair Julie Won and her colleagues to consider how best to support the development of a workforce system aligned with equitable growth. Reflecting the cross-cutting nature of workforce development, the Committee should continue to convene joint hearings that clarify how employment and workforce services connect to key policy areas—including K–12 and higher education, the social safety net, economic development, immigration, accessibility and inclusion, justice-impacted individuals, and the older adult and caregiver workforce.

Recommended Areas for Future Hearings

• NYC’s Plans to Serve Prime-Age Jobseekers and Workers. With testimony from the Department of Small Business Services and the Human Resources Administration, the Committee should review programs that support jobseekers and low-income incumbent workers—including the implementation of SNAP work requirements—to surface best practices, identify service gaps, and ensure alignment between engagement strategies and pathways to sustainable employment.
• Meeting the Talent Needs of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses. In partnership with the Committee on Small Business, the Workforce Committee should call upon SBS, HRA, DYCD, and the NYCEDC to detail how they are engaging small and mid-sized employers to fill critical vacancies, strengthen retention, and create clear pathways for worker advancement.
• Workforce Opportunities Related to the World Cup. With the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Committee should examine how the City is aligning workforce development strategies with large-scale events—particularly in sectors such as hospitality, transportation, security, and tourism. Hearings should assess how local talent pipelines—including NYCHA residents and historically disconnected New Yorkers—are being prepared to access these jobs, how small and mid-sized businesses are supported to participate, and how short-term event employment can translate into long-term career pathways.

Watch the Hearing

A recording of the hearing, Aligning Higher Education with Workforce Demand, is available on the New York City Council website. We’ve included timestamps below to feature testimony.

• Eli Dvorkin (CUF): 1 hour 59 minutes
• Gregory J. Morris (NYCETC): 2 hours 46 minutes — delivered public testimony emphasizing the need for stronger system alignment to better connect New Yorkers to quality jobs.
• NYCETC Member Kalani Leifer (COOP Careers): 2 hours 53 minutes

Funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), this investment will support workforce training and strengthen our ability to connect New Yorkers to quality jobs while helping employers meet demand.

This is exactly the kind of targeted federal investment our sector needs—and a clear signal that workforce development is core economic infrastructure. We’re grateful for the support and the opportunity to build durable pathways to sustainable employment, particularly for NYCHA residents and New Yorkers who have been left out of the labor market, while strengthening local talent pipelines and expanding access to opportunity across the city.