Childhood poverty remains a stubborn and pervasive problem across the United States, and especially in New York, where about one in five children experiences poverty each year. According to The Children’s Agenda, this issue affects every community in the state, but it is particularly acute in upstate urban centers such as Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Schenectady, and Utica, which rank among the cities with the highest child poverty rates nationwide. Pete Nabozny, policy director at The Children’s Agenda, didn’t mince words about the scale of the challenge, stating, “I’d argue it's one of the most significant challenges facing New York state as a whole and certainly families in New York state. About 1 in 5 children in New York state experience poverty in a given year.”
Efforts to tackle this crisis are underway at both the state and local levels. In New York, the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, a group of 15 members including Nabozny, has been tasked with implementing Governor Kathy Hochul’s ambitious plan to halve child poverty in the state over the next ten years. At a meeting held earlier this month in Albany, the council zeroed in on expanding the child tax credit and ensuring that eligible families are not only aware of the benefit but also able to access it. The council is also grappling with the fallout from federal funding cuts, which threaten to strip many families of health insurance and food assistance. Nabozny highlighted the urgency of the situation, explaining, “People are going to lose coverage, either health insurance coverage or the help that they need with the cost of food, and so the state has to figure out how we are going to deal with those federal cuts and what steps the state can take to ensure as many people remain eligible who need that help as possible.”
This sense of urgency is echoed by new research from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Their recent analysis, released on October 24, 2025, suggests that cities nationwide could make a dramatic dent in child poverty rates with relatively modest investments in municipal child tax credits. By offering as little as $1,000 per year to low- and middle-income families, cities like New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and a dozen others could cut child poverty by 25%. In Minneapolis, the report found, a program costing less than $30 million annually could slash the city’s poverty rate by half when combined with existing state and federal credits. To put that in perspective, the city’s overall budget recommendation for the 2026 fiscal year stands at about $2.03 billion, making the proposed investment a relatively small fraction of municipal resources.
Researchers argue that the benefits of such programs would extend beyond direct financial relief for families. The report suggests that child tax credits could boost local business demand, stabilize housing markets, and even increase municipal tax revenues—a win-win scenario for cities struggling to balance the books. “A lot of these things will either lead to the erosion of benefits over time, a loss of benefits, or kind of a decline in what families are able to receive,” said Ryan Vinh, a research analyst at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy and co-author of the study. “We don’t fully know the number yet, but we do know that child poverty will most likely increase as these program restrictions increase.”
But as promising as these proposals may sound, cities face an uphill battle. Municipal governments are already juggling a host of competing priorities, from public safety and housing affordability to climate change adaptation and the economic fallout of declining downtown activity. The financial and logistical hurdles are real, especially as federal support for safety net programs continues to shrink. The expiration of the expanded federal child tax credit in 2021, which had temporarily lifted millions of children out of poverty, led to a sobering doubling of the nation’s childhood poverty rate in 2022. At the same time, cuts to programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have left local governments scrambling to fill the gaps.
Despite these challenges, there is growing momentum—across the political spectrum—for innovative approaches to child poverty. State interest in creating or expanding child tax credits surged after the pandemic-era expansion of the federal credit, and several conservative-led states have recently explored new programs of their own. Although the most generous proposals fizzled in places like Indiana and Ohio, the debate has pushed the issue into the national spotlight. Advocates are especially keen on refundable tax credits, which provide money directly to families regardless of whether they owe income tax. These credits can be a lifeline for parents struggling to pay for groceries, medical care, or rent, and they require only that families file a tax return to qualify.
One of the big questions is how cities without their own income tax systems could implement such credits. According to the Columbia and Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy study, the experience of distributing pandemic recovery funds through basic income programs offers a roadmap. Cities could create standalone applications, leverage data-sharing agreements with the IRS, or partner with third-party administrators. “So you could use a similar sort of outreach approach, which wouldn’t necessarily be as comprehensive or systematic as a city that already has its own income tax system in place, but it’s a potential option,” Vinh explained.
Back in New York, the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council is already thinking along these lines, focusing on outreach and awareness to ensure that all eligible families benefit from the expanded child tax credit. The council is also preparing contingency plans to help those who lose eligibility for federal programs access medical care, food, and other essentials. “I think there are going to be some really harmful effects of this federal legislation. But there's also, it’s a chance for us as a state to kind of step up and take care of each other and care for our neighbors and make sure people aren't left much worse off under this,” Nabozny said.
Ultimately, addressing childhood poverty will require a coordinated effort across all levels of government—federal, state, and local. As Nabozny put it, “It’s an effort that is going to take all levels of government.” The research and policy discussions unfolding in New York and beyond offer hope that, with the right mix of political will and targeted investment, meaningful progress is possible. The stakes could hardly be higher: for the children and families affected, and for the communities that depend on their well-being.
