ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Millions of dollars will be funneled into the poorest neighborhoods in our community if Governor Kathy Hochul is able to successfully push her agenda during this legislative session. 

As part of her State of the State message on Tuesday, Governor Hochul promised $50 million to aid in the fight against poverty in upstate New York. The money would be divvied up among the nine poorest zip codes in Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse.    

The four zip codes targeted in Rochester will be 14605, 14608, 14611 and 14621. Families and children in those neighborhoods are considered to be living in poverty if their income is less than $30,000 per year.  The governor says she will work with local leaders to figure out the best way to use the money to raise up families and particularly children. 

News10NBC spoke with Rochester Mayor Malik Evans about the funding on Wednesday. 

Malik Evans, Rochester mayor: “Of the top 25 poorest zip codes in New York State, five of them are in Rochester. Of the top five poorest zip codes in New York State, three of them are in Rochester. So, I’m glad it’s targeted by zip code and I’ll be advocating obviously to make sure that Rochester gets the bulk of those dollars.”

Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC: “What might you do with them?”

Malik Evans: I think, homeownership, job training, I think those are big things, those are dollars that are very important for us. Anything we can do to increase affordable homeownership, anything we can do to increase affordable living for folks in general, affordability is an issue but also workforce development.