Benefits help covers SNAP (food stamps), cash assistance, Medicaid, SSI and SSDI, plus help managing money once income starts. You can apply for SNAP and cash assistance through the city's HRA, online through ACCESS HRA or in person.
Tip: apply as soon as you're home. SNAP benefits are generally counted from the day you apply, not the day you're approved, so waiting can cost you money.
Many citywide organizations also have their main offices in Manhattan, so a short subway ride can widen your options.
22 services based in Manhattan, plus 70 citywide
Runs the NYC Financial Justice Hotline, providing free legal assistance to low-income NYC residents on financial justice issues such as debt collection, credit reports, unfair banking practices, and predatory lending.
Free advice and legal representation for reentry barriers in employment, licensing, housing and civic engagement, plus health insurance, financial and income support help.
Offers webinars and one-on-one help on budgeting, saving, investing, avoiding scams, and college financial planning. Its Budget and Credit Coaching program gives ongoing help with debt problems, and its Medicare Counseling covers enrollment, coverage, and drug plan costs.
Helps low-income New Yorkers with unemployment insurance and SCRIE/DRIE rent freeze benefits. Benefits hotline 347.521.5720.
Reentry services for people released from NYS facilities: on-site Medicaid/SNAP enrollment, clothing, HSE classes, resumes, substance use treatment, counseling; pays for lost birth certificates and NYS ID.
Crisis Intervention Program: help getting emergency shelter, benefits and permanent housing; referrals to treatment, job training and eviction prevention. Does not run shelters.
Provides free in-court legal help to people being sued by creditors for credit card or other debt in New York County Civil Court, including document review, advice, and limited-scope representation for self-represented litigants during court appearances.
Free civil legal services and financial counseling: benefits, tenants' rights, consumer protection, immigration, family and employment law.
Food pantry Tue-Fri 9-1 (arrive by 12:30), free casual clothing and professional attire, and emergency assistance for people in crisis.
Offers free vocational services, academic counseling and tutoring, and mentorship for anyone who has had involvement with the criminal legal system. Also provides anger management, substance use treatment and counseling, Narcan training, child support payment reduction assistance, HIV/HCV/STI testing, a food pantry, a clothes bank, and enrollment help for health insurance and SNAP.
Community outreach program of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine offering food assistance and other community support services.
Runs three programs for people impacted by incarceration: the Reentry Assessment Program connects currently incarcerated or transitional-housing residents to service providers; the Reentry Educational Program supports access to higher education; and the Family Assistance Program connects families of impacted individuals to clothing, food, mental health, and healthcare providers. Also runs a Comic Books for Justice literacy initiative in correctional facilities and NYC public schools.
Emergency food, housing help, immigration services and case management; serves all faiths.
Benefits and health insurance help, housing help and advocacy run by and for people with disabilities.
Provides veterans and their survivors facing systemic barriers in NYC with pro bono legal assistance on issues related to their claims for benefits from the VA. Veterans and their survivors may call to have their cases screened and, as appropriate, invited to a monthly legal clinic.
Assists in finding employment for developmentally disabled people. Must have Medicaid and Office for People with Developmental Disabilities eligibility.
Provides free legal services to indigent deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing New Yorkers on a range of civil matters, including housing, family, public benefits, student loans, immigration, and asylum cases.
A directory of LGBTQ+ organizations and programs available in NYC. Write to request a printed copy.
An organization fighting for the end of violence against South Asian people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. Specializes in working with survivors of South Asian descent, but services are open to all.
Provides near-comprehensive healthcare services to eligible military veterans at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country, along with several non-healthcare benefits including disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance.
Customer-choice food pantry with benefits screening on the Upper West Side.
A nonprofit workers’ rights organization that specializes in helping people who have been denied unemployment insurance. Also conducts trainings for unions and other organizations about unemployment insurance rules, including recent important changes in law, and the hearing process.
These serve people from every borough, often by phone, online or at more than one office.
Offers free one-on-one help finding and using health insurance and care, including resolving medical billing and debt problems, disputing coverage denials, accessing hospital and prescription financial assistance programs, and understanding health insurance tax credit forms.
Free civil legal services in housing, benefits and immigration, plus representation for conviction-history employment discrimination.
Provides free legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers on housing, civil rights, disability rights, aging rights, bankruptcy, tax, consumer, employment, government benefits, and kinship care matters, including advice, counsel, and representation to help people with past criminal records re-enter the workforce.
Help with child support orders, license suspensions, lowering or eliminating child support debt owed to the government, paternity, DNA testing, mediation, and free financial counseling.
Screens eligibility and guides applications for 40+ city, state and federal benefits (food, cash, housing, internet, childcare).
Free legal information, assistance and referrals from trained non-lawyer volunteers supervised by an attorney: benefits, employment, housing, family, immigration, health, divorce, domestic violence.
Helps income-eligible New Yorkers age 65 and over supplement out-of-pocket costs for their Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.
Provides guides listing nonprofit, state, and local agencies that help resolve consumer issues, and takes complaints about identity theft, scams, unwanted telemarketing or spam, and fraud.
Publicly funded health coverage for low-income people; apply online or order an application kit.
Provides free phone counseling for people with financial or credit problems, including advice on foreclosure, mortgage, bankruptcy, and student loans, along with help preparing a budget.
Enrollment for state public health insurance: Medicaid, Child Health Plus, Essential Plan and other plans.
Free one-on-one financial counseling: budgeting, credit repair, safe bank accounts, debt and student loans, accessing government resources.
