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Community nonprofits request discretionary and capital funds for legal, housing, youth and social‑service programs
Summary
Dozens of Queens nonprofits used the borough budget hearing to request discretionary and capital funding: requests included legal referral support for immigrant children, capital for community centers, supportive‑housing renovations, workforce development, food access and mental‑health residency funding.
A wide array of Queens nonprofit providers presented expense and capital funding requests during the borough’s FY26 preliminary budget hearing.
Sierra Craft, executive director of Eyecare (a coalition providing free legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children), requested an $5,000 expense allocation to support a centralized legal referral program Eyecare says serves more than 500 youth annually. “Without an attorney, young immigrants only have about a 15 percent chance of winning their case. With the support of Eyecare attorneys, their success rate exceeds over 90 percent,” Craft said.
Sonia Sisodia, executive director of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), requested $5,000,000 toward land acquisition and construction for a new Elmhurst community center the group estimates will cost $20,000,000 in total; Sisodia told the board SAYA has never received capital funding and serves about 4,000 young people per year.
Women for Afghan Women requested $2,200,000 (capital plus expense) for a community center to support Afghan and other immigrant New Yorkers; the organization said it provided more than 3,500 case management and legal services to 1,100 clients in 2024.
Other requests included Rising Ground ($265,000 capital to consolidate leased floors in Jamaica), New York Irish Center ($1,300,000 capital request to renovate exterior/lobby and a $25,000 discretionary request), Garden of Hope (youth ambassador and program funding), Share Cancer Support (discretionary funding to support multilingual patient navigation), the New York Blood Center (expense funding to open a donor center in Forest Hills), and multiple workforce and housing development organizations seeking operating or capital support.
Several social‑service providers emphasized rapid needs tied to migration and immigration policy: the Libertas Center for Human Rights and the Center for the Integration and Advancement of New Americans (CIANA) both asked for funding to expand legal and case‑management services for newly arrived asylum seekers and survivors of torture; CIANA requested $50,000 to expand immigration legal services capacity.
These nonprofit presenters indicated they will pursue borough discretionary dollars and apply to council and mayoral funding streams. No formal allocations were made during the hearing.
