These posts provide information and education about important issues facing our communities and opportunities to be involved in action and advocacy

Homelessness

Since April, DHS has relocated thousands of its homeless shelter residents into hotel rooms to stem the spread of the virus, anticipating the Federal Emergency Management Agency will help pay the bills. But those accommodations weren’t available for the estimated 3,600 men and women who sleep in the city’s streets and subways — among them the 30 currently lodging in the crowd-funded hotel rooms. As time dragged on, the $200,000 in campaign funds were evaporating, and the women and men supported by Homeless Can’t Stay Home risked ending up back on the streets. “They weren’t listening,” Moore said of city officials. “And kept saying ‘No, no, no.’”
From - Homeless People Sheltering From the Street Secure City Pledge to Fund Hotel Stays

We need to continue to advocated and call for fair housing, adequate housing and transitional housing, supportive services and safety for our houseless brothers and sisters

Homeless Can’t Stay Home initiative
You can support the work at Recovery House of Worship buying care kits for those they serve as part of their community shower, food and clothing services

NYCHA residents

On a recent June afternoon, an ambulette crew dropped off 68-year-old Jacquelyne Pierre at her building in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman Houses after she’d finished an exhausting session of dialysis. But there was one problem — or rather, two. Both elevators were out of service and Pierre, who uses a cane, lives on the ninth floor. The ambulette driver and a helper initially stayed with Pierre, still strapped to a stretcher, as tenants frantically called NYCHA to send repair staff. But nobody came, and after an hour, the ambulette team transferred her to a folding chair, put a white sheet over her legs, and left her in the lobby.
From - Elevator Service’s Pandemic Plunge Strands Elderly NYCHA Residents

Our more than 470,000 public housing neighbors need continued support, advocacy in calls for adequate funding and improvements for their residences. Find your government officials HERE and ask them what they are doing to support our NYCHA neighbors

Policing in the United States

There have been ongoing and necessary calls for changing the way our communities are policed. These are some of the stories about how communities are planning for and calling for change

“Some people in the neighborhood are hoping that choosing Anderson, a Black man, to lead a police precinct that encompasses a majority Black neighborhood will make for a more understanding and compassionate way of policing.”
From - Brownsville Leaders Got Their Pick Of Police Commander. But Can He Change How The NYPD Does Business?

“This center is how we combat gun and gang violence, this center is how we occupy the block, this is how we stop the shootings and save lives, by taking this critical step forward.”
From - East Flatbush to Get New Community Center Funded by Cuts From NYPD Budget

And these are some of the stories of why the advocacy and activism must continue

While waiting for the intake process, Mr. Pappas said he saw several officers come in and out of the station house, high-fiving and fist-bumping each other. They called out numbers to each other, he said, joking about how many arrests each officer had recorded that night. He said he was taken to a holding cell with 16 other protesters. It was around 85 degrees, he said, and the group was given two small bottles of water to share. Few others besides Mr. Pappas were wearing masks.
From - They Were Arrested During the Protests. Here’s What Happened Next

Despite all the limitations, some officers still have multiple allegations against them that have been substantiated. According to the records, 303 officers still working at the NYPD have had five or more substantiated allegations against them. The data we have only shows the briefest of descriptions of alleged abuse. Usually just a few words. But they add up: There are nearly 5,000 allegations of “physical force,” nearly 2,000 of “frisk” and more than 600 of “gun pointed.”
From - We’re Publishing Thousands of Police Discipline Records That New York Kept Secret for Decades

You can get more involved in this conversation and in greater advocacy by joining the Bring the Heat movement, a national faith-based coalition calling for the radical re-imagining of policing in the United States

Thinking Long-Game About Justice Work

If you’ve followed to the end, you have read and learned there are a lot of issues and injustices our communities and our neighbors are facing. The reality is that there have been folks laboring long and hard to see these issues be addressed and it often can come at great cost to their health.

"Sometimes you can have depression, and sometimes it's this very real feeling of hopelessness," said Cher Weixia, an associate professor of legal studies, social justice and human rights at the School of Integrative Studies at George Mason University. "All of this adds up together to a chronic phenomenon of activist burnout."
From - Black Activist Burnout: 'You Can't Do This Work If You're Running On Empty'

Here are some resources to help us and others in self-care