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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 3, 2020
Staff members at group homes need masks and other supplies to interact with residents. Eden II
Jehovah’s Witness tower to house the formerly homeless
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BY BEN VERDE
A Staten Island group
home is soliciting donations
for its staffers, who
have had to transform into
frontline medical workers
almost overnight, management
said.
“Our staff has been unbelievably
amazing,” said
Joanne Gerenser, Executive
Director of Eden II programs,
which runs a network of support
services for people with
autism on Staten Island.
According to Gerenser,
the pandemic has overturned
the daily tasks of the direct
service providers that care
for the residents of the group
homes. Eight of Eden II’s residents
have tested positive for
the coronavirus, Gerenser
said, but all have managed
to stay out of the hospital —
which has turned the residential
facilities into aroundthe
clock care centers.
“Our nurses need to receive
some kind of medals of
honor,” Gerenser said.
Staff are tasked with looking
after restless participants
and providing them with
structure for hours on end
while they are unable to go
outside — a nearly herculean
task, according to Gerenser,
a speech pathologist.
“I used to do these 30-minute
sessions, and making
sure that your session provided
structure so that your
session went well, sometimes
was really challenging,” she
said. “I sit there sometimes
at my desk and I think about
these direct care workers,
who have to now provide
structure 16 hours in a row,
in a house, often not able to
go anywhere — it just boggles
my mind.”
Direct service providers
in group homes make little
more than minimum wage
due to a decade of budget
cuts from the state that have
left most homes treading
water even before the pandemic
hit.
“They’re not paid for
the pandemic,” said Sarah
Collins, a Brooklyn native
whose brother Joey lives in
an Eden II home. “They’re
basically working as health
care providers but have not
been given any formal training
prior to this.”
The staff at Eden II have
had to dip into their own
bank accounts to replace
clothing destroyed by bleach
after disinfecting them, Collins.
said.
The fundraiser, which
has netted roughly $16,000
towards its goal of $20,000
as of April 29, aims to soften
that blow, and provide the
workers with the hazard pay
their employers are unable
to give them. They have also
received support from Fare
it Forward, a fundraising
effort that aims to provide
frontline workers with free
transit fares.
“Most of our direct care
workers are making just
above minimum wage,
and the idea that we’ve
now asked them to become
healthcare workers and put
them in really complicated
situations, it just doesn’t
feel right that we’re not able
to provide them with some
type of increased money,”
said Gerenser.
With the state budget full
of austerity measures, group
homes can only expect more
funding cuts, Gerenser said,
so fundraising may be the
only route workers have to
an increase in pay.
“The only way we’re going
to be able to get money
in the hands of our workers
and thank them for what
they are doing is through
fundraisers like this, so it’s
been very rewarding seeing
how many people are stepping
up,” she said.
As pandemic rages,
group homes seek
donations for staff
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The City Council voted unanimously
on April 22 to allow a
non-profi t developer to convert a
Downtown Brooklyn tower previously
owned by the Jehovah’s
Witnesses into housing for the
formerly homeless.
The Council’s approval of the
tower’s rezoning paves the way
for a renovation that would add
more than 500 affordable apartment
units to the 29-story tower
at 90 Sands St, said the building’s
developer.
“We’re on our way to bringing
approximately 500 much-needed
affordable units to DUMBO, one
of the most expensive neighborhoods
in the borough,” said
Brenda Rosen, the chief executive
of Breaking Ground. “We
are especially grateful for the
leadership of Speaker Corey
Johnson and Council Members
Stephen Levin and Rafael Salamanca
in championing the development
of new supportive
housing for the most vulnerable
New Yorkers.”
The Council’s vote is the last
step in the land use review process
before the rezoning application
moves to Mayor Bill de Blasio,
who is expected to back the
Council’s approval.
Breaking Ground — a nonprofi
t that already hosts some
4,000 units across the city —
plans refurbish the 1992-built
tower between Jay and Pearl
streets that once housed volunteers
for the Christian evangelist
group, adding 305 “supportive
units” for recently homeless
people and 202 below-marketrate
rentals.
The “supportive units” will
come equipped with social services
to help residents fi nd jobs,
treat their medical needs, and
transition into the housing,
while the 202 other units will be
open to households that make 30-
100 percent of the area’s median
income, which is currently set at
$96,100 for a family of three.
The 202 affordable units will
range from $504 for a studio to
$2,000 for a one-bedroom.
Breaking Ground bought the
tower from Big Apple developer
RFR Realty for $170 million in
August 2018, one year after the
Jehovah’s Witnesses sold the
building for $135 million.
All other land use review applications
are temporarily suspended
since Mayor de Blasio issued
an executive order on March
16 halting the review process in
light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The City Council approved a plan to use
the tower in Downtown Brooklyn house
the formerly homless. File Photo