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Email The Community Service Society (CSS) engages in advocacy, research and direct service to champion better job opportunities to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty among low-income New Yorkers. Our work is particularly targeted toward communities of color that have been historically disadvantaged and now comprise the majority of our city. We use a variety of tools to encourage decision makers in the public and private sectors to support measures to help these hard-working New Yorkers get ahead. CSS promotes policies and programs that result in systemic change and advance the economic security of the working poor and, as a result, strengthens our city.
One-third of all New York City's voting age citizens live in a low-income household. Taken together, low-income New Yorkers constitute a sizeable voting bloc, yet politicians rarely speak to their issues and concerns.
CSS defines a low-income household as earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, or about $34,000 for a family of three. According to the most recent U.S. Census data, in 2006 there were a total of 3.3 million low-income New Yorkers – a number greater than the population of Chicago – totaling 42 percent of the city's population
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CSS's housing experts play a leading role in taking on predatory practices in the subsidized rental housing market.
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Poverty in New York