By: Benyamin Davidsons
Thrive NYC, the city’s mental-health program which has been largely led by First Lady Chirlane McCray, is now hiring. The news comes despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s freeze on hiring of municipal employees. Moreover, the Mayor has warned that up to 22,000 NYC employees, including frontline workers such as police, doctors and teachers, may be laid off in the absence of a government bailout by the fall. This budget deficit, however, seems to exclude the Mayor’s wife’s pet project. “The Mental Health Service Corps is hiring! Spread the word!” Mrs. McCray tweeted on Thursday.
As reported by the NY Post, the program’s workforce development division is holding a virtual job fair, recruiting social workers on July 23. It is one of several programs under the ThriveNYC plan, which got a fresh start last year despite initial corruption. Thrive NYC, launched in 2015, is expected to cost NYC a total of $1.25 billion since its inception. De Blasio has said that only COVID-19 jobs are exempt from the hiring freeze, but ThriveNYC seems to be an exception.
“Corps members are offered a three-year fellowship to deliver mental health services in high-need locations within the H+H system,” said Christopher Miller, a spokesman for the city’s public hospital system, NYC Health + Hospitals. “ThriveNYC provides programmatic oversight,” he said. “H+H is not subject to the City’s hiring freeze because it is not a city agency, it’s a public benefit corporation. H+H considers Mental Health Service Corps members to be essential health care workers and is working to fill vacancies in this program.” There are currently 54 Corps members, and now they are hiring six new staffers. H+H is offering $60,000 salaries with the addition of a “competitive benefits package”.
Despite the pandemic and its toll on the city’s finances, ThriveNYC has persevered, with just $12 million in budget cuts for the program. Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) heavily criticized the double standard. “The hiring freeze clearly doesn’t apply to the un-elected, anointed bureaucrat named Chirlane McCray.
The amount of conflicts of interest and nepotism by this mayor and his wife is disturbing, and allowing this gross abuse of power needs to end,” Holden said. Mrs. McCray is preparing to run for Brooklyn Borough President, and her success may depend on the achievements of programs she initiated such as Thrive NYC. Critics have accused her and the Mayor of using city resources to improve her chances for a future in politics. Holden and several other councilmembers had spoken up in May, censuring the Mayor’s willingness to lay off city employees before defunding ThriveNYC. “I understand it’s a pet project, but there needs to be equity across the system,” Queens Democratic Councilwoman Adrienne Adams had said then.
