New York City welfare cash payments hit $2.6 billion in 2025

New York City disbursed more than $2.6 billion in cash assistance to residents in 2025, a 71% increase from 2022 and the highest level in three decades. The payments reached a record 864,999 recipients. When combined with SNAP benefits, total welfare outlays to city residents exceeded $7 billion in 2024.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a new "pied‑à‑terre" tax on luxury secondary homes worth over $5 million, targeting wealthy owners who do not live full‑time in the city. Billionaire hedge‑fund manager Ken Griffin publicly condemned the mayor’s video promoting the tax, calling it "inappropriate" and "creepy." Mamdani dismissed concerns that high‑income residents might leave New York as "imagined." The city’s $126 billion budget earmarks about $14.6 billion for the Human Resources Agency, which oversees these social‑service programs.