Mayor Eric Adams:
Good afternoon. I am Mayor Eric Adams and I am really proud today to talk about the hearings on seven childcare bills that provide support for working parents, mothers, and caregivers and families. These bills are so important. It's something that we have been advocating for so many years and we see that there are real possibilities to finally make in-roads. COVID-19 has hit so many working families hard and we see it every day with the outcomes. They have lost wages and childcare, while their cost of living has increased throughout this entire city. They are struggling to balance caring for their children and holding down a job. Raising their family in the city shouldn't be hard and it should provide the support that's needed from our agencies that are part of the entire village of raising our children. We know that nothing holds back opportunities or success to employment more than lack of childcare in this city.
I know how difficult that is being raised by a mother raising six children and childcare was a major issue in her advancements. Thousands of New Yorkers experienced this every day. We are here today to say to working mothers and families that you are not alone. These bills seek to support mothers and make children more accessible and – childcare, I should say, more accessible to New Yorkers.
Intro. 242, this bill requires the creation of a Marshall Plan for Moms Task Force to study and develop recommendations regarding how to support working mothers, parents, and caregivers. If we're going to get it right, we need to know the right questions to give the right answers, and this bill will allow us to do so.
Intro. 477-A, this bill will establish a childcare task force to study how to make childcare more affordable, how to make it more accessible for families in the city and how to provide support and funding to childcare.
Intro. 485-A, this bill will require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to coordinate the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to create and maintain an online website on portal with a directory of childcare programs in the city. The average parent, when you ask them about where childcare locations are, they have a struggle of identifying the right locations. We seek to change that.
Intro. 486-A, this bill would establish a childcare advisory board, which would be responsible for conducting studies on and issuing reports related to childcare in the city.
Intro. 487-A, this bill would require an agency or office designated by the mayor in collaboration with the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication, and any other relevant agency or office to create and maintain a publicity accessible online portable regarding childcare subsidy - that should have been a publicly accessible.
Intro. 488-A, this bill will require an administering agency designated by the mayor to establish a three year childcare grant pilot program by July 1st, 2023.
Finally, Intro. 489-A, this bill will require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to develop guidance for owners of real property regarding the facility requirements for a childcare program and make such guidance available on its website.
So I want to thank the speaker, Adrienne Adams, Council Member Hudson, Council Member Julie Menin, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Now I invite the public to comment if there are any comments from the public. Seeing none. I want to thank all who have participated in these bills and I will sign these bills at a later date. Thank you very much.