Charity That Fights Sex-Trafficking Endangered Because NY City Slow to Pay Major Grant

Herein an interesting look at an exceptional charity doing clearly important work who’s survival may be doomed by government bureacracy. 

From the story:

GEMS a nonprofit organization involved in fighting sex trafficking:  “helped write the draft legislation for the state’s Safe Harbor Act, which recognized that young people taken in by the commercial sex industry were not criminals and required aid rather than prosecution. The law has been copied around the country. In 2022 alone, GEMS was able to provide free housing for 30 young women, and it helped find employment for 40. . . .  GEMS is a relatively small outfit with an annual operating budget of about $3.5 million, some of which is delivered by the state, some by the federal government and some from charitable contributions. For the past four years, the organization has been earmarked for an annual discretionary grant of more than $850,000 from the New York City Council. The money for these kinds of grants is promised at the end of the fiscal year, in June, and theoretically ought to be available shortly after, since the contracted agency is expected to deliver whatever services it has promised right away — shelter, addiction counseling, food to shut-ins and so on, obligations the city often cannot meet on its own. . . . 

So far, GEMS has received none of the grant money it was promised in July of last year — a sum totaling $983,000; it did not get its allocation for the previous fiscal year until September. The consequences have been grave. GEMS owes $17,000 to one landlord from whom it rents housing for the young women it serves, Ms. Lloyd told me.”

2/17/23

Philip Hackney