Heastie names Cymbrowitz to anti-poverty panel
Assemblymember Steven Cymbrowitz, who is the chairman of the Committee on Aging, has been tapped by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to serve on a new panel that will look into the causes of poverty.
Heastie appointed Cymbrowitz (D-Sheepshead Bay-Brighton Beach) to the Anti-Poverty Work Group, a 13-member panel made up of assemblymembers from various committees, who will be charged with examining what officials call the drastic increase of New Yorkers living in poverty.
“Nearly 1.4 million people in this state currently live in conditions of extreme poverty. There are unacceptable rates of poverty among New York’s children, elderly, women and minorities,” Heastie said in a statement announcing the creation of the panel. “We need to find ways to break the vicious cycle that forces people to focus on getting by and never allows them to focus on getting ahead.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15.3 percent of New York state residents are living in poverty.