At the Community Meal on April 14th people from all walks of life will sit around the table together, inside one of the three oldest churches in Brooklyn. Together they will enjoy a healthy, diabetic-friendly West Indian-inspired meal — without charge. Anyone who wants to know more about healthy cooking can join in the preparation before the meal, or take away recipes to prepare at home.  A wonderful, Jamaican-born dietician we’ve been working  with will share her advice on eating healthier at home. Brooklyn Jubilee staff and volunteers will be on hand to talk to people about food stamps, the Flatbush Farm Share, and how they might have better access to fresh food.

We’ve had a great response so far, but we’d still welcome volunteers on Saturday the 14th to help prepare and serve the meal, and clean up afterward. If you’re interested, you’d be needed from around 9:30am until 1:30pm.  If this event is successful, we may continue hosting these meals every six weeks or so in partnership with Sustainable Flatbush, and others who share our vision. We’re excited about meals that bring the whole community together, while teaching about healthy eating.

Interested in volunteering on Saturday, or in the future? Email Christel at development@brooklynjubilee.org.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Executive Director

The dark side of being a rent-controlled tenant is the constant, often accurate, sense that your landlord is desperately trying to get rid of you. It may seem like paranoid delusion, until you realize that Mr. B’s rent is maybe 10% of what many tenants in his neighborhood are paying. By now you may be feeling bad for the landlord, but consider this — the rent control law was put into effect by our government after World War II for a reason, to keep rents from becoming so high that people were priced out of their communities. In most of New York City, that unfortunate scenario has played out over and over again in the last couple of decades. But Mr. B has been able to stay in place, in his home, in his community. That is a good thing for Brooklyn. Consider also that Mr. B’s dirt-cheap rent is, in fact, just about 30% of his meager disability check. 30% is a fairly universal standard for “affordable” rent in our country.

Doesn’t it make you feel good to know that some laws were put in place by our government to help seniors and the disabled stay in their homes, in the communities they’ve lived in their whole lives, even as rents are rising and neighborhoods are gentrifying all around them? But rent-controlled tenants like Mr. B are in constant danger of losing their homes. He has withstood years of attempts by his landlord to evict him one way or the other, including false accusations that he doesn’t live there or has illegally sublet the apartment. He lives with shockingly bad conditions. There are repairs his landlord just refuses to make, in hopes that he’ll just give up and go away. Our client has an unusual amount of fortitude, and a solid understanding of his legal rights. We’re proud to stand beside Mr. B in his struggle to stay in his home.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8-9

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Executive Director

Owen was raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which, in the ‘80s and ‘was ravaged by poverty, drugs, and violence. Owen’s father is the founding pastor of Graffiti Church, an evangelical church with a special heart for the poor, so Owen grew up around Graffiti’s homeless services and other needs-based ministries. He learned early that seamlessness Christian ministry seeks to simultaneously meet spiritual, physical, and emotional needs — an idea central to Brooklyn Jubilee’s holistic ethos.

In the fall of 2010, in his last year of law school, Owen contacted Sandhya Reju Boyd, Brooklyn Jubilee’s Director, having heard about the organization from several people, and excited by the way we provide legal services as part of our holistic ministry.

Owen’s is dividing his time between legal ministries work for Brooklyn Jubilee and getting the new  Brownsville Graffiti center up and running.

We are delighted to have onboard Owen and his faith, his gracious, generous heart, keen legal brain, and desire to serve his neighbors. He has already proved invaluable in one very complex case. “God brought me and Brooklyn Jubilee together,” he says. Owen shares Brooklyn Jubilee’s holistic vision, “I believe in the transformation of neighborhoods, through people coming to faith, having a change of heart, being able to work, and having peace and stability.”

Serious health issues forced Jane to leave her job, where she had worked for 22 years. Ever since, she and her children have been struggling to make ends meet on Public Assistance.

Taking deep breaths is hard work for Jane, even sitting talking on a bench in the library requires effort. When a friend text messages her, Jane holds her ancient cell phone less three inches from the thick lens of her spectacles and squints hard at the screen through one eye. Severe arthritis forces her to use a walking stick, but I’ve seen her lean on that walking stick, throw her head back, and roar with laughter. This is a strong and vibrant woman, with an education, a loving family, and a supportive church community. Even so her biggest hope for financial stability is to be found eligible for Disability benefits, which would mean enough money for her family and an end to the ceaseless round of forms and appointments that maintains her eligibility for Public Assistance.

After paying for food, utilities, and clothes for the two kids that are still growing, there is less nothing left. Even so, due to an error made by the city, Jane and her children were without even that pittance for the last six months of 2010. The kids only had Christmas presents because Brooklyn Jubilee publicized their situation and a kind donor showed generous compassion.

Acting as Jane’s attorney, Sandhya has been able to convince a judge to make the city restore Jane’s Public Assistance, including back payments. Without Brooklyn Jubilee’s involvement in Jane’s case, Public Assistance would not have admitted their error or restored Jane’s payments. She and her children have become yet another homeless family shuffling through the New York’s shelter system.

“Brooklyn Jubilee,” says Jane, “has been a real God-send.”

Mary is a single working mother, who, thankfully, lives in a subsidized building. That means her rent is supposed to be based on her annual income, but because her work income fluctuates, and the landlord’s staff took only a small sampling of pay stubs to calculate what her rent should be this year, they were overcharging her quite a bit. She’s now facing eviction for unpaid rent.

It’s these kinds of very human errors — coupled with very human pride and unwillingness to acknowledge the errors — that lead to evictions.

We’ve provided all the documentation to the landlord’s attorney to show that they haven’t calculated Mary’s income correctly. Remarkably, we haven’t been able to get them to even read our papers explaining their error. So, we were in court again recently. This time they offered us a new rent, that was, once again, miscalculated. Although the landlord’s attorney was willing to listen to what I had to say (to some extent) it seemed that he mostly wanted the case resolved without it taking too much of his time. My client and I were both getting yelled at by the landlord’s representative almost as soon as he arrived on the scene. I shudder to think how things would have gone for Mary if we weren’t involved! We’ve adjourned the case once more, in hopes of resolving the differences, but if we can’t, we’re prepared to put everything in front of the judge, and I’m confident the judge will agree with our calculations, thus finally resolving the question of how much her rent should be.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

With another lawyer on staff, we’ll now be able to do more for our clients, such as “Jane” who’s case I’ve told you about in recent posts. Owen’s place on our staff comes through our new partnership with Graffiti Ministries, which has been serving New Yorkers since the 1970s, with programs in Manhattan and the Bronx. Expanding now to Brooklyn, Graffiti’s latest project will offer free legal services, as well as GED training, and other programs, in the Brownsville neighborhood.

When Graffiti asked us to partner with them in establishing their new program, we gladly agreed to join their efforts. Brooklyn Jubilee will join Graffiti in helping to establish a program to provide free legal services at partner venues in Brownsville. Owen will split his time between Graffiti’s new sites, and Brooklyn Jubilee’s current sites. Welcome aboard, Owen!

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

While advice on healthy eating is abundant (and, sometimes, conflicting), there is little tailored to West Indian cuisine. How do we tap into existing knowledge in the community and come up with recipes for meals that are healthy, nutritious and affordable?

We set out to answer that question in three groups, which included Brooklyn Church of the Redeemer attendees, as well as, Brooklyn Jubilee staff, volunteers and clients. The professional chef in the house, Lauren Pilgrim, had laid out the ingredients and prepped three recipes –rice and peas (beans); sweet potato and vegetable curry; and Jamaican slaw–for us to make.

Also at hand were Leisa Bryant, a dietician, and Michelle Pink, a family nurse practitioner, to offer their expertise on nutrition and health. However, it was evident that the non-professionals knew more than a thing or two about cooking and eating well!

More than just prescriptive, the recipe handouts and nutrition guides served as prompts for exchanging knowledge. As they chopped, measured and stirred, participants shared their own cooking stories, demonstrating that there are a myriad ways of personalizing dishes–such as varying the mixture of spices (a great taste substitute for salt) in the curry to one’s taste.

At one point, a debate ensued on whether it was better to go with the high calorie content of real mayonnaise or the fat-free “fake stuff” kind in the slaw. The real stuff won out, although there were strong proponents for using olive oil and lemon juice as healthier substitutes.

The teenage participants, accompanying their mothers, also displayed a general ease in the kitchen, whether cultivated from helping out at home or from restaurant work experience. A couple of them showed some really decent knife skills, which were further sharpened that morning. Here is Chef Pilgrim imparting a handy tip on how to avoid accidents on the cutting board: curl and tuck the fingertips of the hand that’s holding the vegetable steady, using your knuckles instead to guide the blade, like this:

After a morning of learning, sharing and making, participants were able to take home a healthy meal of their own making. Addressing immediate and long term needs, the first Cooking Club meeting was an encouraging start to a ministry that hopes to build on the knowledge of the community it aims to serve.

—  Fiona Lee

Please pray that Jane’s healthcare is straightened out right away, by the end of the week, so she and her children can see a doctor before Christmas. Please also pray that the rent issue gets straightened out right away, before her landlord decides he needs to take Jane to court forcing her and her children to risk eviction.

We’re very thankful they have their food stamps back, and that they will have plenty of food on the table for Christmas.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

Most working people think that once you get sick in this country our support systems will take care of you, but the truth is the disability system completely fails many very sick people. About half the people applying for disability get rejected. That’s an actual statistic, not an exaggeration. Those who have the courage to push forward and appeal often wait two years for a hearing. Again, not an exaggeration.

Jane’s chances of success on appeal are very good, and knowing her situation, I think she’s sure to win. But how does she survive in the meanwhile? Public assistance is her only option, but her benefits were cut off earlier this year, because they claim she missed an appointment of some kind, which she denies. This means her landlord hasn’t gotten any rent in months now, and Jane has no funds to buy basics like subway tickets or new shoes for her kids. When Public Assistance started the process to cut Jane’s benefits, they didn’t even send the warning notice to the correct address, so any opportunity to prevent the cut off was missed because of their mistake. She took the matter to a fair hearing (an administrative process to protest agency decisions) and even though she had no attorney to fight for her, she won the case. Remember I said she was very articulate? What’s more, Public Assistance agreed it was wrong, and was ordered to repay all of her lost benefits, reopen her case, pay all the back rent and cash that had not been paid.  Remarkably, Public Assistance still hasn’t done so, months after Jane’s winning decision was issued. That’s when we spoke to her. At this point, there was little choice but to file a lawsuit, asking a court judge to compel Public Assistance to simply comply with the order and pay the back benefits. So two weeks ago, we filed a case on her behalf. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud to file a case, and so angry that I had to. I’m confident the matter will be resolved within the next couple of months once the city attorneys see our papers, but it is a crime and a tragedy that it had to come to this.

We’ll keep you posted, and, Lord willing, will have good news for you in a month or two. In the meanwhile, please keep Jane and her two children in your prayers this holiday season, that they’d have all the food, shelter, and healthcare they need to be safe and healthy.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

Kristin, therefore, brings a wealth of expertise and a heart for service to the table. The Brooklyn Jubilee board position is an almost perfect marriage of her pastoral experiences in college ministry and big picture, organizational and policy issues — particularly with regard to the healthcare needs of low-income populations.

Kristin thrives on working with clients, “I have been able to work with and for people who have experienced significant poverty and oppression,” she says, “and to be a part of them finding the voice they need to make a change in their lives. It’s amazing to see God’s vision of the world more clearly, and to work for justice, and I’m thrilled to be able to do more of that through my involvement with Brooklyn Jubilee.”

Much of Kristin’s experience has been in a setting where medical care is directly tied to housing, nutrition and public benefits — as well as emotional and spiritual health. These holistic connections are ones Brooklyn Jubilee sees as crucial, and is pursuing with its new healthcare ministry. Welcome aboard, Kristin! We’re excited to have you.