FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 28, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 19
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De Blasio must reauthorize emergency funding for hungry New Yorkers
BY COREY JOHNSON, DAVID
GREENFIELD AND SHEENA WRIGHT
New York City will be hurting for a long
time. We have lost family, friends, neighbors
and loved ones in the fi ght against
COVID-19 and its many rippling devastations.
Millions of New Yorkers are out
of work. Our seniors are homebound and
isolated. Children are out of school, and
away from friends and teachers, as their
parents struggle to put food on the table.
We want to rebuild a city where all
New Yorkers can thrive, but right now
New Yorkers are hungry and struggling
to aff ord basic needs. Th e Council has led
the way calling for re-authorizing the $25
million in emergency food pantry funding
distributed last May. Mayor de Blasio
must act again. Millions of New Yorkers
still need this support.
As we plan for our fi scal future and
the healing this city will need for years
to come, it’s crucially important that we
don’t forget the millions of New Yorkers
hurting right now and the role our food
pantries play in helping them put food
on the table.
Last May, the city, responding to calls
from a united City Council, acted boldly
to get $25 million in emergency funding
for food providers who knew their
communities best. Th e challenges caused
by COVID-19 were unprecedented and
wide-ranging. Th e pandemic forced pantries
and soup kitchens to close; disrupted
supply chains; caused shortages of staff
and volunteers due to quarantine; and
forced pantries to make signifi cant changes
to their operations to meet new safety
and social distancing protocols.
Fortunately, the availability and fl exibility
of the city’s emergency funding helped
avert a larger hunger crisis in New York
City, enabling providers to open additional
pop-up sites, purchase PPE and needed
equipment, and do whatever it took
to ensure that those in need could access
nutritious food.
With the funding organizations that
serve the hungry received, they provided
millions of dollars’ worth of food, direct
fi nancial support and technical assistance
to the food pantries in their networks.
Th is provided healthy and nutritious
meals to New Yorkers in need.
letters & comments
Th e three-way partnership between the
de Blasio administration, City Council
and leaders of New York City’s emergency
food system was key to its success.
Met Council and United Way of New
York City worked closely with the Mayor’s
Offi ce of Food Policy, City Council members,
Catholic Charities, City Harvest,
Food Bank for New York and other organizations.
Th ese organizations met regularly
to assess needs and develop a coordinated
funds distribution plan.
Th is enabled decisions to be made by
organizations directly working in our
communities in need, but also facilitated
coordination to avoid overlap,
ensured equitable distribution in priority
neighborhoods, and maximized
the reach of the city’s funds for emergency
food. Th is benefi ted the entire
ecosystem of emergency food providers,
ensuring no community was overlooked.
Demand has never been so immense or
the situation so dire. Parents are reducing
their own meals to feed their children.
Th ere are thousands of elderly New
Yorkers, including Holocaust survivors
and people with disabilities, who are
homebound, and vulnerable to COVID-
19. Th ere are cab drivers and college students
who need support, as well as small
business owners who went under in this
challenging economic and social environment.
Families who have lost a provider
at home, especially among Black
and Brown communities, are struggling
fi nancially. New Yorkers who are undocumented
and have been left out of federal
relief depend on emergency food providers
for meals. Millions of New Yorkers
rely on assistance from Met Council,
United Way for New York City and others
to provide them with safe, reliable access
to healthy meals and groceries. Th ese are
our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers
and our family.
Th ere is so much to do. While hope is
on the horizon, we cannot forget or abandon
those hurting right now as more and
more New Yorkers rely on food pantries
for survival every day.
Corey Johnson is the City Council speaker;
David Greenfi eld is Met Council CEO;
Sheena Wright is United Way of New York
City President & CEO
GAS OUTAGES ARE NOT
‘INCONVENIENT’
As QNS reported last week, at least one building at
Woodside Houses has been without cooking gas since
Nov. 5 of last year. In their response to a press conference
and rally held last week, NYCHA noted that they
“understand gas service interruptions are inconvenient.”
Inconvenient?
Gas outages are not inconvenient, they are an emergency,
and NYCHA needs to come correct.
A gas outage aff ects a household’s ability to access food.
During a gas outage, when one’s stove and range do not
work, households are given one hot plate on which they
are expected to feed their families. A hot plate makes
preparing food and feeding yourself and your household
intensive — especially fresh, healthy food. Anyone imagining
doing this within the context of their own life realizes
that. In fact, many community members have, and
have stepped up to provide prepared food to neighbors.
However, depending on ad-hoc formations of neighbors
is not a sustainable, long-term solution, it is a temporary
fi x. NYCHA and the city should be fi lling this
need, and given the regularity of these outages across
the city, should have plans in place that automatically
respond until broader repairs can be made.
A gas outage also places more stress on household budgets.
In eff orts to keep up with feeding their families adequately,
some tenants report buying prepared food more
regularly, driving up costs for households as well. At the
same time, tenants are STILL paying for the gas that they
don’t have. Utility costs are factored into tenants’ monthly
rent, and without a bill like the Utility Accountability
Act, there are no formal avenues for compelling NYCHA
to deduct the costs of a service they are not providing
during an outage. And let’s be clear, NYCHA is not lax on
tenants’ rent when their household income changes, and
many tenants complain of overcharges.
Another issue with NYCHA’s response to outages is
that tenants are given little if any information about what
is going on and when the problem might be addressed
— for months. Th is is something we’re hearing from tenants
across the city, not just at Woodside Houses. And
the only thing that seems to be getting NYCHA’s attention
are loud, collective eff orts by tenants that make the
media and surrounding neighbors aware of the issue, and
shame NYCHA into action.
Even then, we get responses like this, where NYCHA
frames a major disruption to tenants’ lives as “inconvenient,”
and tenants are essentially told to “calm down.”
Th is is gaslighting on an institutional scale. Th ese eff orts
aim to downplay utility outages and absolve NYCHA of
the responsibility to care for tenants. For tenants, this is
experienced as violent and abusive — physically, mentally
and emotionally. Th is can not be tolerated, and must be
called out and addressed.
As tenants asserted repeatedly at the press conference,
these tenants pay rent; they are holding up their end of
the bargain. NYCHA, like any landlord, is expected to
uphold theirs, but instead they are fl agrantly skirting
their responsibilities — at Woodside and across the city.
Th is is consistent with their long history of harm and disrespect
toward tenants, and if they don’t turn that ship
around soon, they are going to fi nd more and more tenants
who think it is “inconvenient” to pay rent.
Kristen Hackett, Th e Justice for All Coalition
NE QUEENS IS NOT A
TRANSIT DESERT
Recent newspaper stories revealed that the nonprofit
Samaritan Village will be opening a 75-bed facility for
homeless senior women. It would be located at the old
Pride of Judea Community Services building located on
243-02 Northern Blvd., two blocks east of Douglaston
Parkway.
I don’t disagree with the concerns raised by local residents
and members of Community Board 11 about the
lack of consultation on the part of City Hall for this facility.
I do, however, disagree with one argument that some
opponents are using, claiming that the neighborhood is
“a transit desert.” Th e facts do not bear this out.
Th ere is frequent service on the Q12 City Line bus running
along Northern Boulevard. Th is travels from the
City Line to the Main Street Flushing subway station. Bus
stops are within a block of the proposed facility site. Th e
Douglaston LIRR station just off of Douglaston Parkway
is a fi ve-minute walk away. Th e Nassau Inter County
Express (NICE) N20G bus drops off people westbound
traveling toward Flushing and picks up passengers eastbound
toward the Great Neck LIRR station.
You should always question anyone who refers to
northeast Queens as a “transit desert.” It is simply not
true.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
RELAXING VIEW IN FLUSHING MEADOWS CORONA PARK //
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY RACHEL DONNER
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