NY SWIMS initiative.

NY SWIMS will invest in expanding swimming access across the State, focusing on underserved communities and areas prone to extreme heat. NY SWIMS will deliver $150 million in grant funding for localities to build out 10 new landmark public swimming pools in areas most in need, drive innovation in pool designs, and deploy pop-up above-ground pools to combat extreme heat.

As New York State Parks celebrate their Centennial in 2024, NY SWIMS will reverse decades of disinvestment to ensure public parks offer new, state-of-the-art swimming facilities which can serve thousands of daily visitors.

New York State will also partner with New York City to bring the vision of +Pool, a filtered floating pool which can sit in New York’s rivers, to life by jointly funding a demonstration project which will ensure this innovative model can safely provide access to swimmers.

Disparate access to safe and convenient opportunities for swimming has denied far too many New Yorkers the chance to engage with the water and learn foundational water safety skills. Drownings in New York State have reached record highs in recent years, claiming the lives of 230 New Yorkers in 2021 (the last year data is available) and more than 1,000 New Yorkers from 2017 to 2021. Drowning now ranks as the leading cause of death among children aged one to four years old in the United States, and it is the second-leading cause of death for children aged 5 to 14. Without equitable and widespread access to safe swimming opportunities, fewer people will develop foundational swimming and water safety skills, more people will swim in unsafe waterways without lifeguards, and more preventable drowning deaths will continue to occur each year.

Building Out Municipal Pools in High-Need Areas
NY SWIMS, overseen by State Parks and administered by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), will create a competitive $60 million grant program to facilitate the renovation and construction of pools in high-need neighborhoods across the State. Through NY SWIMS, local municipalities can apply for grants for public pool projects. NY SWIMS grants can be used to fund the design and construction or renovation of swimming pools along with other related capital expenses, including site infrastructure, splash pads, diving boards and slides, bathrooms and changing rooms, concessions, land acquisition, and other features that create value for local communities.

Reimagining How New Yorkers Engage with Rivers and Lakes
To help reimagine how New Yorker’s can engage with the water, including rivers and lakes, New York will create pathways and funding opportunities to encourage real innovation in swimming infrastructure. Governor Hochul will provide $60 million in competitive grant funding to municipalities for the deployment of innovative, floating pools that can allow New Yorkers to safely swim in natural bodies of water. To help ensure floating pools meet all appropriate public health standards, the New York State Department of Health will provide guidance that will allow organizations to test the feasibility of innovative swimming pool designs within the state’s natural waters.

New York State and New York City will collaborate on launching +Pool, a state-of-the-art swimming facility which would float in the waters surrounding New York City. Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams announced that the State and City would jointly fund a +Pool demonstration project which will be tested in the summer of 2024 and opened to the public in the following year.

Deploying Pools in Urban Environments
To combat hotter summer temperatures and help directly integrate swimming opportunities into urban environments, the State will create a $30 million innovative municipal grant program to fund small, mobile, pop-up swimming pools. These pools would be movable or temporary facilities that could be dispatched to block parties, parks, events, or open spaces.

As recommended by New York State’s Extreme Heat Action Plan Work Group, access to outdoor cooling opportunities and recreational resources such as parks and swimming areas is vital for disadvantaged communities and high-risk populations that do not have access to indoor cooling. Improving access to locations like pools that can provide temporary relief from extreme heat can offer added refuge for affected communities.

Pools could range in size from larger installations, like the larger-scale temporary pools and facilities that have operated over the past five years at Brooklyn Bridge Park, to smaller “container”-type pools, which can sit on surface streets.