The Affordable Connectivity Program, which offered up to $30 a month towards broadband service for low-income and other eligible households, ran out of funds early this summer.

Adi Talwar

Barbara Coleman in the East Village community garden where she volunteers. She’s among the roughly 1 million city households previously enrolled in the now-defunct Affordable Connectivity Program, which helped her pay her monthly internet bill.

Barbara Coleman, 67, considers herself a “digital dinosaur,” but she uses the internet just about as much as the average millennial. Whether she’s doing exercise classes via Zoom or attending virtual job fairs, Coleman’s internet access is an essential part of her world.

“It’s the number one priority. I mean, I have to pay rent, yes. But you know, in order to pay rent, to make extra money, I need to be able to be online,” Coleman explained. “And it’s not like I’m socializing on Facebook. I am communicating with even just Social Security, I have to access it via the internet.”

She is one of nearly 2 million New York State households—including 1 million in the five boroughs—who lost their internet subsidy when the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) ran out of funds early this summer. The program, launched in 2021 and funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, offered up to $30 a month towards the broadband service of low-income and other eligible households, and up to $75 for those on tribal lands.

A bill calling for an extension of the program has not managed to pick up enough bipartisan support to pass and is now in limbo, while former recipients seek out alternative resources to pay for their Wi-Fi bills and avoid falling victim to the digital divide.

Few places in the country benefited from the program as much as New York City, particularly its low-income communities, a report by the Center for an Urban Future found. Out of the five boroughs, Brooklyn had the highest number of enrolled participants, followed by the Bronx, which had the highest concentration of enrollees. 

The data further suggests that the program was successful in bridging the digital divide: in 2019, 46.9 percent of all households in East Harlem had home broadband access; by 2022, after the program’s launch, that number rose to 62.7 percent.

Larissa Larrier, a digital navigator at Brooklyn Public Library, was part of a team that helped an estimated 2,500 people sign up for the ACP across 10 different library branches. Their work began with outreach to specific neighborhoods that were known to lack significant broadband connection, and continued with helping people to assemble their documents and complete the enrollment process, either in person or on the phone. 

“The affordable connectivity program was a huge benefit to so many people,” Larrier said. “Having (internet) access in your home, that’s like a necessity of having water run through your pipes in your kitchen and in your bathroom. And I think sometimes it’s taken for granted that a lot of people don’t have that.”

Larrier said that between the subsidy and the discounts offered by select internet providers, some people were able to get their Wi-Fi service without paying out of pocket at all.

The ACP’s eligibility criteria allowed for a diverse group of beneficiaries, with applicants needing to fall into one of four categories, including those earning an income less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($62,400 a year for a family of four).

People receiving the Lifeline benefit, parents whose children attended New York City public schools and recipients of other government assistance programs all qualified for it, easing one financial burden in a city where the cost of living is notoriously high. 

“Instead of paying $30 on internet, you’re able to pay $30, not so much on luxury, but on necessities,” Larrier said. “$30 might not sound like a lot to people who are in a better situation financially. But it’s still something.”

Before getting the ACP subsidy, Coleman recalled having her internet bill overdraw her bank account. Now, having lost the subsidy in June, she’s afraid the same thing could happen again. Yet she is entirely dependent on internet access to find enough part-time work to cover her monthly expenses.

City Limits met up with Coleman at the East Village community garden where she spends much of her downtime, a hideaway from the stress of making ends meet. She is proud of having served as president of the garden for two years, even starting a program to teach children about the intersections of food and technology: how to reduce their global footprint, recycle rainwater, make compost, or use solar energy for cooking. 

The types of jobs she has been able to get—at after school programs and summer camps, or occasional contracts with the Board of Elections—do not offer pensions, and the pay isn’t enough for savings. Health problems have further limited her mobility and the amount of manual labor that she can do, but Coleman remains optimistic, scouting the web for new gigs.

“It’s really essential to be able to be connected, to upgrade my skills, to look for work, and to be an advocate. I mean, we have an election coming up, so I’m not going to be quiet,” she chuckled. 

Coleman is a member of Congressman Dan Goldman’s district—which spans Lower Manhattan as well as certain western Brooklyn neighborhoods—where one in four households had been enrolled in the ACP. Goldman told City Limits that continuing the program was one of the most important issues for his constituents: His office logged 11,431 calls and emails expressing their support for it. 

While Republican and Democrat representatives alike are backing an extension of the program, preferences on its scope and source of funding differ along party lines. Goldman, a Democrat, accused Republican members of Congress of not doing enough to get the bill passed. 

“This is a program that actually goes to help the poor and the working class,” Goldman said. “Republicans have consistently shown that they have no interest in helping working Americans, to lift them up and allow them access to the American dream.”

City Limits reached out to the offices of several New York Republican members of Congress for comment. The press secretary for Congressman Brandon Williams, who represents the 22nd District in upstate New York, provided a list of Williams’ efforts toward promoting affordable connectivity. This included a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson urging consideration of an extension of the ACP program, and a broadband subsidy for Syracuse residents. 

Most notably, Congressman Williams introduced a bill aimed, he said, at improving the Affordable Connectivity Program while “imposing no additional burden to the taxpayer.” 

His bill would require the use of a national verifier to confirm a participant’s identity, limitations on eligibility based on enrollment in low-income programs, and a reduction of the overall number of households that can qualify for the assistance.

Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, meanwhile, had previously introduced a bill to extend the ACP program by allocating $7 billion in funding through 2024 and beyond. Under her extension act, the original eligibility criteria would be maintained. 

Goldman said Republican members are refusing to sign a discharge petition which would lead to a vote on Congresswoman Clarke’s extension act, effectively stalling its viability. Williams’ office told City Limits that a discharge petition is unfavorable, as it provides no room for the discussion of reforms to the existing program that Republicans would like to see.

The ACP’s renewal is uncertain, and at the very least would entail a measure of compromise from elected officials.

“We have tried all of the mechanisms that we can here in the Capitol,” Congressman Goldman said. “And so now the only recourse we really have is to take this to the public and ask the public to put pressure on their members of Congress who are in the Republican Party to actually take action on this bill.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Anastasia@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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