Brownsville Senator Sees Movement On Bill To Help Parents Pay For Diapers

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — State Sen. Roxanne Persaud, who represents East New York and Brownsville among other east Brooklyn neighborhoods, has introduced a bill that would help struggling parents pay for diapers.

The bill, S1318, would give an allowance every three months of $80 per child to eligible parents. The children must be two years old and under.

The piece of legislation is now being reviewed by the Senate's Committee on Children and Families.

Diapers cost at least $936 per year, according to a commonly cited study of 877 pregnant and parenting women published in Pediatrics in 2013. Nearly one-third of the women interviewed said they couldn't afford sufficient diapers for their babies.

Brooklyn's poverty rate in 2014, the latest year for which city data was available, was 21.9 percent, according to the NYC Center of Economic Opportunity. In that context, poverty meant a two-adult, two-child family made $31,581 per year or lower. That means 21.9 percent of Brooklynites in a two-adult, two-child family are spending at least 6 percent of their yearly income on diapers.

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