Pastor David K. Brawley is making a name for himself by tackling the affordable housing crisis in Brooklyn, after noticing that Black members of his congregation are leaving the area, according to The New York Times.
Brawley, the pastor of St. Paul Community Baptist Church in the East New York area, noticed how more and more Black families are leaving due to the lack of affordable housing for his congregation members and the community’s residents. The 56-year-old took notice of how it’s hard to lead his flock if people are leaving noticeable numbers, calling it “an unspoken grief” each time one of his congregants announces they can no longer keep up with the cost of living.
The 56-year-old says, “There’s a part of your soul that gets affected” when long-time residents are being priced out of communities they helped build and have influence over.
Some St. Paul members hope to stay in the neighborhoods they’ve called home for decades, allowing them to remain close to their home church; however, limited resources hinder their ability to achieve this goal. However, its faith-based leaders, like Brawley and others, are working together to make that dream a reality. According to The Brooklyn Eagle, organizations across the Big Apple are teaming up with initiatives like the New York Land Opportunity Program (NYLOP) to leverage their properties for housing.
The New York Housing Conference website labels the program as “first-of-its-kind” to assist mission-driven organizations in finding partners willing to develop affordable housing on underutilized land. In addition, St. Paul is recommending public housing parking lots throughout the city as the perfect location to host 15,000 units for seniors like Linda Boyce, who was recently named an elder at St. Paul after being a loyal member for 50 years, so they aren’t pushed out of their homes.
As members of the congregation—and others across the country—express concerns about the rise of groceries like eggs that used to cost as much as $1.99, Boyce encourages those in the church to be a little more optimistic and look to higher powers outside of City Hall.
“The work gets harder, the work gets heavier,” the elder said. “We can do it because we are people of God.”
Leaders like Brawley stepped up because it’s difficult to depend on city leaders when specific rules and ramifications are in place. The idea of affordable housing for the Brooklyn borough includes a 51-story residential building on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Units in the luxury building opened for lottery with eligible income ranging from $64,766 to $227,500.
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