It’s not just New Yorkers facing an affordability crisis.
With the City coffers low on cash in recent months, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration is considering delaying payments to hundreds of nonprofit organizations serving people in need, according to sources familiar with internal City Hall discussions.
The administration sources said their budget team is closely watching anticipated cash flow as they gear up to implement a new local law requiring the city to pay social service nonprofits 50 percent of their annual contract award — up front in July — at the start of the next fiscal year.
The law was aimed at correcting decades of painfully late city payments to programs providing afterschool, summer youth, mental health and domestic violence services, to name a few.
City officials familiar with internal budget discussions noted the law would require very large cash outlays early in the fiscal year. City Hall did not provide a specific dollar amount, but Michelle Jackson, executive director of the Human Services Council of New York City, estimated it would cost $3.5 billion to advance the required 50 percent to as many as 700 nonprofits covered under the law.
“Providers want to work with the Mayor, but not getting paid would certainly stretch already thin budgets,” said Jackson, whose organization represents more than 180 nonprofits potentially impacted should Mamdani decide to delay or reduce the advance payments due next month. She said nonprofits have already made plans — for instance signing leases or hiring staff — based on the expectation that money would be forthcoming.
