This report is the first product of the Community Service Society's Economic and Social Monitoring Unit which analyzes and forecasts the status of the poor in New York City (NYC). The report documents the following major findings: (1) nationwide, there are now fewer elderly and more minorities and women among the poor; the trends in New York City are the same, but the city has a higher poverty rate than the nation as a whole (24% for the city, 15% nationwide); (2) NYC's poor are dominated by women and children; (3) NYC has concentrations of poverty in selected neighborhoods; (4) as the rate of poverty has increased in NYC, relatively fewer of the city's poor have received Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Home Relief; (5) declines in the numbers of manufacturing and retail jobs account, in part, for the increase in poverty; (6) there are high rates of unemployment among Black and Hispanic teenagers and these groups have relatively low rates of labor market participation; (7) NYC has a growing cohort of young adult poor with few job skills and little experience; minorities are overrepresented in this group; (8) population projections through 1990 indicate that there will be proportionately more female-headed households and more minority youth in the future; and (9) since these vulnerable groups will be growing in number and since the city's job opportunities and economic growth will probably not keep pace, it is projected that by 1990 more than one in every four New Yorkers will be living in poverty. These findings are elaborated upon throughout the report and supported by statistical data. Each section includes a bibliography. (CG)