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Day of Service Against Hunger

On Saturday, Jackie Sherman, Caron Atlas and I did our Day of Service a couple of days early, joining the NYC Coalition Against Hunger in a weekend-long series of events.  We spent three hours doing food stamp outreach at the Associated Supermarket in Starrett City. There are about 700,000 New Yorkers who are eligible for food stamps but who have not signed up to receive them ... leaving them without a critical lifeline for healthy food.

It felt like smart service, a credit to the Coalition Against Hunger.  I'm thrilled in general that so many people are getting involved in service this weekend, and hopefully some will continue and deepen their involvement.  But of course one problem with one-day service activities is that they don't generally provide any longer-term solutions.  In this case, if just a handful of people sign up for food stamps as a result of our outreach, they'll have a long-term benefit that will help them have enough to eat for years to come.  Its exactly the kind of combination of effective public program and private philanthropic action that I had in mind in my earlier post.

NYC Coalition Against Hunger director Joel Berg has recently written a fantastic book in which he outlines an even longer-term solution to the scandal of hunger in America.  With an eminently reasonable public policy, we could have a United States of America where no one went to bed hungry.  

On this weekend of tremendous inspriration, I'm hoping that we'll build on our energy and service and hope to make that hunger-free American a reality, and soon.      

A few thoughts on service

Updated on January 5, 2009

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth. -- Shirley Chisholm

A few thoughts -- and actions -- on service for this holiday season, as we are inspired not only by the spirit of the season, but by President-elect Obama's "call to service."  I am thrilled to see him building on the incredible energy of his campaign to encourage people to continue to come together with others in service, in pursuit of our goals of a society that offers genuine opportunity and comfort to all.    

A few days before Christmas, several volunteers and I helped serve a Christmas meal at CHIPS, on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope (thanks to Jackie Sherman for organizing our participation).  CHIPS serves lunches and operates a food pantry for homeless, men, and children.  On Chistmas, they provide not only food, but gifts, a mass, and music.  When I was the director of Fifth Avenue Committee, we helped them renovate their (then-vacant) upper floors to provide transitional housing for 10 homeless, pregnant women during the months before and after they give birth.  CHIPS is run by Sr. Mary Maloney, one of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, an international congregation committed to service, that first came to Brooklyn in 1864.

The night before, I attended Hanukkah parties at the Metropolitan Jewish Health Service, and Ohel Children's Home and Family Services, which provides services to kids and family members with developmental disabilities.  In both cases, the Hanukkah party went beyond service, to truly integrate young and old, people with and without disabilities, into a shared celebration.  Then on New Year's Day I had the honor of serving meals at Masbia, a kosher soup kitchen in Boro Park (where they took the slightly embarrassing picture of me in a chef's hat, above ... luckily I did not have to wear the hat the entire time).

All of these religious organizations rely on a profound mix of (1) volunteer service, (2) charitable and philanthropic contributions, and (3) government support.  Its easy to get into an either/or (see below), and the balance can get complicated.  But none of these organizations could do without any one of those three kinds of support, and what they do with the mix borders on miraculous -- and does indeed seem to me like the "rent we pay" for the privilege of living here.

At dinner on Christmas Eve, I met a high school student involved with the New York 2 New Orleans Coalition, www.ny2no.org.  NY2NO is a youth-led organization that works in solidarity with community-based groups in New Orleans, not only to provide help in rebuilding, but to learn together and confront the barriers of racism and economic inequality in both cities.  Service here is not an end-in-itself, but a bridge to shared learning about why the levvies failed, and why poor people of color live disproportionately in the flood plain.  Service in this case begins as the rent-we-pay, and also becomes a lesson in economics and politics, and in how to bring about change. 

Unfortunately, the NYC Department of Homeless Services doesn't seem to appreciate the call to service of thousands of volunteers in 100 churches and synagogues. Although there are more homeless families in New York City shelters this winter than ever before, DHS wants to end a nightly shelter program offered by this coalition of religious congregations.  DHS wants to centralize the homeless shelters (most of the shelter beds are provided in larger shelters, like the Park Slope and Bedford Armories), to make the system more "efficient." 

Providing refuge and service isn't all about efficiency.  Not all homeless men and women are ready to enter the shelter system.  And our city is made far better when our religious congregations and volunteers partner with the City to help people in need.  The volunteers, churches, and synagogues don't only provide a place sleep.  They form an education and advocacy network that pushes for more affordable housing and health care, and that nurtures the soul of our city.

Please join me in sending a message to DHS Commissioner Robert Hess to urge him to continue to work with our churches and synagogues, as a partner in service.

As we move toward the historic and inspirational inauguration of a President grounded in a call to service, I hope we can build a city and a nation where that call resounds in the challenging years ahead.  We are going to need it.

Check out our online survey

Originally:  December 15, 2008.

Although city elections are months away, I am getting started early – by asking community members what our priorities should be. We face difficult challenges for which there are no easy solutions. But I believe government does best by listening to the voices of those it is supposed to serve. 

So I'm asking community members to share your thoughts with me.  We're mailing surveys to thousands of likely voters in the district this week.  If you're interested, you can take a look at the mailing, our first of the campaign. 

I believe local democracy matters – and that it can still work. But only if politicians listen to the people they represent. So I’m starting my campaign by listening.  And as the campaign heats up, I won't stop. 

We’ll be posting the results of the survey online after January 15th, so check back in.

Repeal Vacancy Decontrol

Originally:  November 20, 2008

The most important thing we can do to preserve affordable rental housing in New York City is simple: repeal vacancy decontrol (or, more specifically, so-called "high-rent vacancy decontrol").  This is the loophole that lets landlords remove units from regulation, and from any semblance of affordability, if they can push the rent upon vacancy over $2,000.  This may not be as exciting as building new affordable housing.  But it matters to 1 million families who live in rent stabilized housing ... about 100,000 of which are on the verge of elimination.

We did not always have this rule.  Before 1994, regulated units remained under rent stabilization.  Landlords can charge a bit more each year, but they could never pull their units totally out of the system, keeping them affordable for low, moderate, and middle income tenants.  But in 1994 and 1997, Albany changed the rules.  Since then, we have lost several hundred thousand units.  Go figure.

This is why we worked hard to elect a Democratic majority in the State Senate.

But we can't pause here. We must make very clear to Senate Democrats and Governor Paterson (the Assembly passed a vacancy decontrol repeal bill last year, and probably will again this year) that this is why we elected them. 

Join a thousand tenants and allies on December 9th in calling on our state elected officials to end vacancy decontrol and preserve rent-regulation.

Learn more about the rally and about the issue.

Save Long Island College Hospital

Originally: November 10, 2008 

I testified tonight at Borough Hall at a well-attended hearing (over 200 people, and nearly every elected official from local, state, and federal levels) about the crisis facing Long Island Hospital, urging that we find a way to save LICH as a full-service community hospital. 

As co-chair of the Human Services and Housing Committee of Community Board 6, I have heard from so many people over the past few months about how critical LICH is to our community – people whose children were born or cared for there, who have relied on LICH in times of great need. My own son Marek was treated there for bronchiolits when he was just one year old, referred to LICH by our pediatrician after we first went to the emergency room at another local hospital.

I am especially disturbed by two features of the current crisis: 

1. Continuum does not seem to feel it has a responsibilit to be a community hospital. For generations, community-serving hospitals have engaged in a balance, with those services that make the most helping to cover the cost of those services that are needed in the community, but are not as profitable. But Continuum seems to believe it is an acceptable solution to eliminate services that serve the community, and to focus only on profitable services.
2. Neither Continuum nor, perhaps more importantly, the NYS Department of Health has given our community a sufficient voice in this process. Continuum has consistently presented its decisions to end vital services – obstetrics, pediatrics, dental, and the rape crisis program – and lay off staff as a “done deal. And our public agency, the NYS DOH, has not made an effort to hear from or work with our community either. DOH should hold a public hearing in the community, at which members of the public have the opportunity to testify. 

I join with many others in this community in calling upon the New York State Department of Health to do everything in its power to save LICH as a community hospital. Many creative solutions have been put forward in recent months, by the medical staff and others. I firmly believe that with the right leadership, there is a pathway to address debt and lead to a successful recovery. Many hospitals have endured and emerged from financial difficulties, often in communities with far fewer resources than we have.

LICH has persevered for 150 years, and we cannot let Continuum dismantle it after 10 years in their network. I am confident, with real leadership, we can insure that LICH can both serve our community and prosper financially. 

You can read my full testimony here.