REACH News May 2022 Housing is a Human Right

Notes from the Board

Our Tiny Homes Feature in the Democrat and Chronicle The Board was delighted with the Democrat and Chronicle’s coverage of our Tiny Home Village plans and the link this has to our Shelter experiences.

Thanks to Board member Patrick Tobin for getting together with Democrat and Chronicle reporter Brian Sharp to make this happen.  This photo shows one of our guests, David Dorch, who said he is grateful for the room he had in the temporary housing on West Main Street as part of the REACH Advocacy program. David is seen here packing his things to move to another shelter as colder weather ends.  You can read the whole story here.

REACH Advocacy’s Annual Meeting This year's Annual Meeting will be held on September 12th at 720 W. Main Street. The highlights of this meeting will include: 4:30 p.m. - Brief business meeting 5:00 p.m. - Presentations by a former guest and a Board member 6:00 p.m. - Refreshments and tours of our building along with plans for future development

Shelter Committee Updates

REACH Shelter 2021-2022 closed on Friday, April 29th. It is always bittersweet, but we are proud of our accomplishments. Although it was challenging to staff and supply separate sites, our guests were able to have their own room, providing the dignity and privacy not usually afforded in a shelter. As a result, there were several people who would typically only stay a few days that stayed almost the whole season and began to think about permanent housing. It also enabled our caseworkers to work more closely with them on the issues they are facing. Now that shelter season has concluded and with the cooperation of the whole REACH Board, the Shelter Team will begin visioning the future use of the building at 720 W Main St. We hope to develop 3-, 6- and 12- month plans, with the ultimate goal being a long-term plan of up to five years. We will also canvas the neighborhood to help us determine the types of services they would like to see from REACH.

We are looking at how we can be involved with street outreach this summer in the Jefferson Ave area. We look at it as an opportunity for the neighborhood to become familiar with us, and a way to involve the Shelter Team members when the shelter is closed. Last year we provided lunches and hygiene items for the outreach team to pass out and some fun items for Kid’s Day, including backpacks. The REACH Team hosted a fun and successful Celebration Picnic on Saturday, April 30th, to thank all our staff and volunteers. We've included some photos from the picnic and the staff and volunteer members who joined us. More staff attended this year than ever before, as well as interns, guests, friends, and board members. We are looking forward to sharing our next steps with you and involving anyone interested in our upcoming projects.

Tiny Home Village News

The Tiny Home Village Has a New Name: Based on neighborhood pride and feedback during our recent community engagement event, we chose Edgerton Meadows, A REACH Advocacy Community. Hiram Edgerton was an early 20th Century Mayor who lived in the neighborhood which bears his name. Among other public works projects he spearheaded, Edgerton repurposed the first in the Country children’s prison into what today is Edgerton Park. The Stardust Ballroom is the only remaining building.

Construction update: We received the second draft of the initial site plan. The team will review it and make final adjustments before submitting it to the City in the next few weeks. Site update: Thanks to the single-handed efforts of John Curran, a founding member of REACH Advocacy and a member of the Tiny Homes team, 90 contactor bags of trash, vegetation, and dead trees have been removed from the property and picked up by the City. The neighbors have noticed. They reported the property hasn’t looked this nice in 20 years. If you would like to help with the clean-up, please contact us at [email protected]. Most work is done by hand, but we could use someone with a chainsaw to remove dead vegetation.

Funding update: We thank everyone who donated to the Tiny Home Village in the past. All donations help us move forward toward funding the building of the project. We are currently working on several $100,000 grants. Each will build one tiny home. This level of funding allows the donor to attend our press events, and we will place a permanent plaque on the home recognizing the contribution. If you or someone you know would like the honor of building one of our tiny homes, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

Advocacy Committee

What we've been up to:

The Advocacy Committee met with Council President Miguel Meléndez, and Council Member Mitch Gruber for over an hour to talk about housing vulnerable tenants in our city.

We were joined by our ally from the City-Wide Tenants’ Union, Liz McGriff. We wanted to learn more about why they could not support the proposed “No Fault Eviction” bill.  It was a good conversation and we learned that they did see a connection between the way the current Certificate of Occupancy is administered and the frustration of tenants who are dealing with unscrupulous landlords. Both Council Members are requesting a larger budget to increase the number of building inspectors.

We were encouraged to speak with Commissioner Dana Miller and members of his staff to ensure that if more funding is made available, they have a program for creative recruitment and training of additional inspectors, especially from younger city residents. We have asked for such a meeting. Peter Peters is working with the Urban League’s Powerbrokers’ Housing Subgroup to see how we can help to track the RASE Commissions’ recommendations (see 5B) and invite collaborators to join in working on these recommendations. What has worked:

A New Era for Low-Income New Yorkers Thanks to over a decade of advocacy by Empire Justice, welfare mortgages are being abolished in New York State. Read the story here.

What we're planning: Our committee is meeting every other Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. on ZOOM.  If you would like to join us, please contact Rudy Rivera at [email protected]. We are also exploring ways in which we can help to support a Statewide No-Fault Eviction bill. More to come! We will be joining the Poor Peoples’ March 0n Washington, on June 18th. We hope you'll consider joining us. For details, click here.

What we're reading: Tenant Times – the City-Wide Tenant Union’s new newsletter and zine! Read it here. Pay to Play: How Big Real Estate Money is Leaving New York Tenants in the Dust.  Published by Housing Justice for All. Read it here.

Thank you to our readers! We are grateful for your continued support of REACH Advocacy, Inc.