Nassau County Legislators Kevan Abrahams, Siela Bynoe and David Denenberg have all co-sponsored two legislative measures to ensure that recently found unclaimed funds and funds that might present themselves in future are spent solely for youth board and social service programs.
According to the legislators, most of the unclaimed funds, approximately $570,000 in total, are due to former prisoners leaving money in accounts and not returning to claim them.
One of the legislative initiatives directs the recently found $570,000 of unclaimed funds to be transferred from the County’s general fund to be allocated to the Nassau County Youth Service Board to “benefit the County’s young people including after school programs, guidance-oriented programs, recreation, tutoring, employment, HIV/teen pregnancy, runaway and homeless youth and counseling programs.” The other establishes a special social services revenue fund for unclaimed funds that will be found in the future by any county agency or department.
The legislation was praised by Andrew Malekoff, executive director of the Roslyn Heights-based North Shore Child and Family Guidance.
“I am gratified to hear about the bill that is being introduced to invest unclaimed funds in youth services,” he said. “These essential services protect vulnerable children and teens, prepare them for successful futures and offer respite and relief for parents during the non-school hours.”
