Interview, Fireside Chat
How Robin Hood CEO Rich Buery is addressing NYC’s rising poverty rates
- Poverty in New York City is projected to rise sharply over the coming period due to expiring pandemic benefits and increasing living costs, building on a seven percent growth observed in the last two years.
- The Robin Hood Foundation intends to fund research to identify high-impact interventions and scale successful models with government partners, including plans to expand the CUNY ASAP program from a private pilot serving hundreds to public support for nearly 30,000 students.
- A similar "ACE" program for four-year colleges is planned as a private pilot with expectations of future city and state investment, while the foundation will launch an "AI Poverty Challenge" to select three winners in education, workforce development, and financial inclusion for $1 million each.
- The organization acknowledges a significant risk that AI technology could widen economic inequality without intervention, aiming to counteract this by including individuals with lived experience of poverty in decision-making processes.
- Corporate partners, led by Goldman Sachs, are expected to leverage their influence to advocate for public investments in safe and affordable childcare, asserting that a thriving economy requires such support.
- Long-term investments in early childhood education for children from birth to four years old are forecasted to yield approximately nine dollars in societal benefits for every dollar spent, addressing a current gap in guaranteed care compared to the existing pre-K program for four-year-olds.
- Personal public policy engagement includes chairing the city's charter revision commission, serving on the state's child poverty reduction advisory council, and working to close Riker's Island.
- Poverty reduction is viewed as achievable, though progress is anticipated to be jagged with potential periods of retrenchment rather than following a straight trajectory.