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Q&A

Thomas-Henry asks about identifying low-income communities for community hiring

New York City Council · Jun 26, 2026 · starts 1:06:12 · 37 sec

Thomas-Henry asks how low-income communities are identified for community hiring targeting. Perry explains it's rooted in state legislation targeting zip codes where 15%+ of the population is below federal poverty guidelines, plus NYCHA housing, and the city publishes a list of qualifying zip codes.

Shanel Thomas-Henry

And how are you identifying which low-income communities or residents for these contractors to target?

Shanel Thomas-Henry

Are you doing it by zip code, project area?

Shanel Thomas-Henry

How is that working?

Douglas Perry

Yeah, so community hiring is rooted in state legislation.

Douglas Perry

And so the state legislation has pretty prescriptive requirements.

Douglas Perry

So for a construction contract, it's zip codes in which 15% or more of the population is below the federal poverty guidelines.

Douglas Perry

And so we publish a list of all of those zip codes.

Douglas Perry

It also includes NYCHA housing as well.

Douglas Perry

So the goals on construction projects are based on those low-income regions, both on the zip code level as well as NYCHA housing.