The Challenge
WHY SO MUCH SORROW?
Over 1 million people and 350,000 children live in the cross hairs of NYCHA-NYC Public Housing Authority.
NYCHA residents are 500% more likely to be victimized by crime.
The murder rate is 16 times higher on NYCHA property.
166,870 families - 98 % single guardian households.
Overwhelmed teachers and crumbling schools.
HEALING NYCHA WILL HEAL NYC SYSTEMIC RACISM VIOLENCE POVERTY INCARCERATION
NYCHA LOCATIONS
GUN SHOTS
POVERTY/PRISON
HEAL PUBLIC HOUSING - HEAL CITIES
A critical mass of the great wounds of our cities:
Racial inequity
Mass incarceration
Disenfranchisement
Poverty
Gang violence
Drug abuse/trade
Single parenting (Fatherless generation)
Abortion
illiteracy
…are concentrated in the vortex of Public Housing.
Extraordinary racism in the form of housing discrimination, culminated in these isolated cities of despair. Many residents have heroically battled the brutal tide, but millions more have been overcome by the powerful undercurrents of despair, poverty, addiction, criminality and incarceration. Most children are lost to the vortex before they are ten years old.
THE CITIES OF JOY CAMPAIGN
ALIGNS CHURCHES AND NONPROFITS TO COMPREHENSIVELY AND COLLABORATIVELY ENGAGE PUBLIC HOUSING COMMUNITIES THROUGH HIGH IMPACT EVENTS, CONSISTENT VISITATION AND WEEKLY TRANSFORMATIONAL PROGRAMMING.
LITERACY IS TRANSFORMATIONAL
If urban kids from 3rd-5th grade are at grade level in math and reading they are very likely to go to college. If they are below grade level in math and reading they are very likely to be incarcerated.
-Rev. Ephrem Smith
“A Path to Healing”
The Tragic Problem
“Unraveled” is sadly the current state for many families and communities in our cities. Regardless of who is president or mayor, or how the economy is doing, the Public Housing communities in NYC and throughout our nation, remain places of deep pain and sorrow. Places without hope or opportunity. Places where the destiny of most children is statistically sealed before they are ten years old. The crisis for these youth and their families is urgent. Illiteracy, trauma, family dissolution, injustice and deep poverty have filled many communities with anger and despair. The depth and multitude of these sociological epidemics, breeds hopelessness in the hearts of educators and civic leaders. 2 Healing the Public Housing Crisis is critical for the healing of America’s struggling cities.
Grasping The NYC Numbers
Stats that ought to shake us…
Over 1 million people and 250,000 children live in the crosshairs of NYCHA - NYC Housing Authority.
80% of the crime and incarceration challenges in NYC are rooted in public and subsidized housing challenges.
98% of the children in these communities live in single guardian households.
85% of the juvenile offenders of our city are illiterate. 72% of illiterate children have low literacy parents.
Nearly 40% of boys from NYCHA who drop out of HS will engage in criminal behavior and face incarceration.
NYC’s murder rate is 14x higher on NYCHA property.
The devastation in NYCHA and public housing is not the result of a self-inflicted wound. The impact of slavery, post Civil War prison/labor camps, Jim Crow South, Red Lining and decades of racially motivated real estate policies, made home ownership nearly impossible for black and brown families. For well over a century, overcrowded and poorly constructed public housing was their only option. Many heroically battled the brutal tide, but thousands of families were swept away by the powerful undercurrents of despair, poverty, addiction, criminality and incarceration. Well funded, racist, collaborative forces colluded for decades to create todays public housing crisis. We see a clear path to healing our wounded communities but it must be well funded, deeply compassionate, long term and collaborative.
What Have We Done So Far To Address This Problem?
For the past 30 years our mission and theme song has been:
“to build a house of hope in a world of pain.”
We have constantly seen devastated communities experience healing and renewal when “the House of the Lord” was built. Murders stop and meaningful restoration begins. For this reason we have been serving passionately in six NYCHA communities and encouraging and equipping churches throughout the Northeast to adopt similarly vulnerable communities. Our strategic plan centers around a collaborative push to plug the “Projects/Poverty to Prison Pipeline.”
Our goals for each community are:
A. to see cohesion in young families
B. to end 3rd grade illiteracy
C. to reconnect disconnected youth
D. to build church centric, collective impact teams that shepherd entire communities towards flourishing.
Urban Hope consistently creates innovative, collaborative, low cost solutions to the daunting challenges of America’s blighted cities.
Through literacy, sports and community outreach festivals, thousands of children and youth have been meaningfully engaged and mentored. Through our Saturate NYC, Jesus Week and Cities of Joy campaigns, millions of people from over 10 cities have been visited, prayed for and blessed with loving gifts.
It has been our great joy to supply over $50MM of gifts in kind freely to churches and nonprofits to help them to bring hope and relief to troubled neighborhoods, schools and Public Housing Communities.
We have seen the amazing power of parish churches and nonprofits who commit to the long work of community restoration. By encouraging, empowering and equipping these organizations, we see the potential to transform cities that have been devastated for generations.
What Have We Learned That Guides Our Vision Now?
The most inspiring thing we’ve learned after 30 years of serving in NYC public housing is…when teams of concerned players coordinate to serve together: Plugging the projects to prison pipeline is not a pipe dream!
Meaningful coordinated engagement with the five pivotal points in the life of children from high risk neighborhoods can dramatically and positively alter their life trajectory, and that of their communities, forever:
• Family Support
• 3rd Grade Literacy
• 5th Grade Math
• Junior High School Behavior
• High School Graduation and legal advocacy.
The “Kevlar” Collective
We have also learned the vital role of the “Kevlar Team”! Kevlar is known as “the thread that stops bullets,” but it can only do so when it is tightly woven together. When our city was unravelling, we began to weave together pastors, principals, public housing leaders, neighborhood stakeholders, medical professionals, nonprofits and community police officers. At the height of the pandemic and racial crisis, when our under resourced communities were at a boiling point, we all served side by side to bring food, hygiene resources, educational assistance, encouragement and hope! Together we began to create loving, “bulletproof” sanctuaries in our struggling neighborhoods. Together we can plug the prison pipeline!
