Transcript: New Yorkers Claim $345 Million Thanks to Mayor Adams' Push for Enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit, Opens new Credit Union to Empower Local Communities

August 19, 2024

Bishop Mitchell Taylor: All right, welcome everyone to the Urban Upbound Federal Credit Union ribbon cutting and grand opening. Let's give a big round of applause for the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams being with us on today, along with Commissioner Mayuga from the Office of Financial Empowerment, and my boss is here on today, Miss Elysabeth Kleinhans. Give her a big hand on today. Thank you so much. Well, I'm just proud, I'm really proud. Oh, I see another one of my bosses here, Eric B. He's also a board member at Urban Upbound.

Thank you. I'm very proud today that you've joined and gathered with us here on Steinway Street, a historic event, Kim, because we are the first Black organization, and there's the president of the bid right there, Tony B., he'll tell you, this is the first Black organization to buy a building on Steinway. That's big time.

And I do want to thank our board, and especially Miss Elysabeth Kleinhans for her generosity in making sure that Urban Upbound is a sustainable entity in New York City. And so, I'm grateful today, and I don't want to take up too much time. I see my mother here, Miss Claudia Coger. I see Andrew. I see her mom, Letitia, here, and just so many people that are here on today. So I just want to thank you for being here, and I want to get right out the way and introduce to some and present to most the greatest mayor that New York City has ever had. I want you to put your hands together for Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Gotta bring you everywhere. You know, Bishop Taylor is just one of the unsung heroes we have in our city. I remember during COVID, I think it was about 5:30 in the morning, this brother was out at his location and delivering food, supplies to the residents of the community and driving the truck and lifting boxes. He was on the ground. And he continuously, he has a vision with his entire team and partnerships.

You know, God places people in your life for a reason, to help you reach your true purpose. And his purpose is really just giving back. His long relationship with Eric B. and others, how they stay on the ground. And he was doing this credit union work back then, and now he has become fruitful and he's multiplying. Not only here in the credit union space, being the first Black entity to purchase a building of this sort on Steinway, but also next door. As we look into the legalized market of cannabis and close down the illegal shops, it is really great to see that he's also providing a good service of a quality product that's not laced with some of the illegal items.

And so his footprint has continued to expand, but the expansion is coming because he has always done the work. He has toiled in the fields. And he was authentic in his approach of communicating with people, not looking down on them, but giving them a hand and reaching up on them. And that's what Urban Upbound Federal Credit Union is about, such an important initiative here. It's about how do you utilize your dollars?

To make it and then to lose it or not going after all the resources that are on the table for you, makes it challenging for families, particularly now, every dollar count, every dollar matter. Working people and families make life in the city possible. And we want to do everything possible to make it more feasible for them to see the affordability crisis that we are having. And we are doing this by putting more money in the pockets of New Yorkers.

We're so proud of the team and our state lawmakers and our partners. When we went to Albany to get Earned Income Tax Credit raised for the first time in 20 years. Everything was going up, but, you know, the Earned Income Tax Credit was remaining stagnant. We were able to really convince our partners to get an increase for the first time in 20 years. And it's putting money back in the pockets of low income and working class people, the money that they have earned and that they deserve has been returned to them.

Last year we put nearly $300 million additional dollars back into the pockets of New Yorkers thanks to the earned income tax credit enhancement, $300 million back into our community. And that's recycled. When you put $300 million back in the pockets of low income New Yorkers, they go and buy in their local bodegas, their local stores, hiring takes place. So it's a real ecosystem, an economic ecosystem that we're looking at. And it's not a small number of New Yorkers, 746,000 New Yorkers in low income communities, including here in Queens, received this additional money to help them get by 746,000 New Yorkers.

They were able to get this help by applying for the EITC, the Earned Income Tax Credit, at our New York City free tax prep locations. Something, Bishop, you were doing for a long time, this free tax prep, helping people know how to fill out those forms and not be intimidated with the process. And you know, the hustle is real. New Yorkers work hard. And we know that many people feel like the deck is stacked against them. We want to make sure we continue to bring that deck down. And so we're working every day to improve the lives of New Yorkers. And since day one, that's what this administration has been about. And that is what EITC is all about, putting money back into the pockets of working people.

This office here is going to provide vital credit services to the community and link clients to the city's free financial empowerment centers in New York City free tax prep. Who give economic advice to low income New Yorkers? Who give them that basic, how to save, how to invest, how to make your money work for you instead of just working for your money. And that is what this is all about, expanding that. So we really want to thank Bishop Taylor and Ms. Kleinhans and others who made this space, you know, this space possible.

We want to thank our amazing commissioner, Commissioner Mayuga and the team at the Department of Consumers and Worker Protection for their work. I mean, what she's doing in raising low income New Yorkers from the deliveristas to going after people and not paying people their right wages, you know, just single handedly. Her team over at DCWP is really looking after New Yorkers and making sure that low income New Yorkers know they have a fighter. As a working class mayor, blue collar mayor, I want to continue to look after the working class people of this city. Job well done. It's a beautiful space. Thank you so much for it. Turn it back over to you, Bishop.

Bishop Taylor: Thank you. And just before I introduce the commissioner, I want to let you know that all of the services that the mayor spoke about today, for 20 years Urban Upbound has been providing free tax preparation to New Yorkers all across the city.
We're number one in the state and we're number three in the United States of America with the most enrolled IRS agents than any other non-profit provider in the United States of America. And then of course we have a large number of one-on-one financial counselors that are experts in guiding New Yorkers through the financial melee. So this is what Urban Upbound is about. I'm proud to introduce our partner in this work, Commissioner Mayuga. Please give her a big hand.

Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga, Department of Worker and Consumer Protection: Good morning, wait, is it good afternoon now, right? Everybody, thank you so much. I'm Vilda Vera Mayuga, commissioner at the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. So proud to be under this amazing mayor. Thank you. I mean, your leadership is amazing and he's just really inspiring for all of us to carry out his mission and his vision, especially for the working people of our amazing city.

Thank you, of course, to Bishop Taylor for having us here today as we celebrate. Honestly, it's really a milestone in opening this second federal credit union branch for Urban Upbound. You've heard us say it. I think it's important to remember lack of access to banking services can really have cascading impacts in our communities and forces individuals to rely on high cost, high fee alternatives like check cashers, prepaid cards, pawn shops, and we really don't want that for our communities, right?

Based on our most recent research, we also estimate that there's over 305,000 households in New York City that do not have a bank account. That's over 9 percent of our households, okay? And that rate has actually increased slightly from 2019 right here in Queens. So places like this provide the vital services for our neighbors and can spur economic growth and opportunities in our communities.

Having access to a bank or a credit union allows people to receive direct deposits, right? Like we think that that's the norm, but it's not quite the reality for many of our New Yorkers, many of our neighbors to do it in a quick and safe way. They provide trusted spaces where our families can take steps towards their financial goals, and they really offer an opportunity for our youngest New Yorkers to start saving for their future and avoid some of the financial mistakes that we have made in our lives.

New research conducted by Junior Achievement USA shows that actually 78 percent of tweens, teens, 78 percent are stressed about money and their family's financial situation. We want them to just be teens and have a good time and enjoy, right? But it's inevitable, their minds go to this because they know the struggles of their families, of their households. I have two kids, 10 and 14. As a mother of these growing children and as a city commissioner, I really know how crucial it is to prepare our kids. I didn't have access to this type of resources. I didn't have the knowledge passed on to me because my own parents, especially my mom, who I grew up with, didn't know these things to pass on that knowledge. So this is critical.

And the services that places and partners so strong as Urban Upbound offer at the credit union branches go hand in hand, right, with our New York City free tax prep program and our financial empowerment centers. You've heard the mayor talk some numbers. I will tell you that also just the financial empowerment centers have helped New Yorkers reduce debt by more than $100 million since we opened in 2008 and save more than 11 million.

And this past season, you heard, right, our fabulous partners like Urban Upbound helped file tens of thousands of tax returns and claim those vital credits like the earned income tax credit, putting all those almost $300 million in the pockets of New Yorkers. And honestly, again, all thanks to our mayor, you take your job seriously and you really take from your own experiences, blue collar mayor, going to Albany to fight for what you believe in and seeing that impact. Because without those fights to get us to increase the city's contribution in the earned income tax credit, we wouldn't see these numbers right now.

So we really just always finishing with a call to action, urging all of the New Yorkers, clients here of Urban Upbound's credit union to make sure you book that free confidential appointment with our financial empowerment counselors and visit nyc.gov slash talk money. I like to talk money. Get that money back into New Yorkers' pockets or call in 311 and say financial counseling. Thank you so much again and I'll pass it back to you, Bishop Taylor.

Bishop Taylor: Thank you so much. Thank you, Commissioner. And just to give you just a little insight on how special this credit union will be, we are offering free secure change delivery to all the businesses on Steinway in the local vicinity. What we found out is a lot of shop owners, they run out of singles, they run out of quarters and they don't have someone to go to the bank and get change. It's always an aggravating event. So if you bank with us, we'll take that off of your hands. Call us up. We'll deduct it from your account. By secure courier, deliver your change to your business. That'll be a great feature for businesses here on Steinway.

Now, I wanna introduce someone who was very insistent that we get this credit union open as soon as possible. On the second floor, which many of you don't see right now, we have a million dollar capital investment to redo the whole second floor for our training center, offices, conference room and stuff like that.

But none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for Ms. Elysabeth Kleinhans who believes in this vision, believes in our city and believes in Urban Upbound. And I would not have any press conference or any kind of ribbon cutting at all without Ms. Elysabeth Kleinhans being here. So please put your hands together for a great visionary, Ms. Elysabeth Kleinhans. Thank you.

Elysabeth Kleinhans: Wow, I may be a great visionary but Bishop Taylor never told me I had to speak. So I am totally unprepared. Here are people with notes and everything and I have nothing.

But I have to say that this has been a long time coming. Bishop outlined his view, his vision of having a real place on Steinway Street four, five years ago. We have talked about it and talked about it for a long, long time, and finally an opportunity came along to buy this property, and I said, okay, we're going to do that. And I am very proud to be able to stand here and say this has come to fruition. We have now this property, which is going to expand the reach of Urban Upbound in a way that nothing else could.

Yes, it's very nice that he has a branch wherever that branch is, I don't know where that branch is exactly, but it's not near here, and this is visible to the people of the community, and I think that is the most important thing that we can do for the community, is to have this kind of opportunity, this kind of organization here, doing the things that Urban Upbound does so well, and helping people to reach their financial goals. So I am very proud to be a part of this, and I just want to thank everybody else who has contributed to this event, and it's just wonderful. I am just so thrilled. So thank you.

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