Episcopal Press and News
Council Applauds Housing Project
Episcopal News Service. November 20, 1986 [86250]
NEW YORK (DPS, Nov. 20) -- As Executive Council members boarded the bus that waited outside the Episcopal Church Center here to take them to see the work of the Nehemiah Project, a woman walking her dog stopped to ask "Are you going to Atlantic City?" When several people answered no, she shrugged and said, "Oh, I was going to say 'I hope you are all winners'". She was right, in a way, since, all those connected with the project Council was going to see are winners.
The Nehemiah Project -- named for the 5th Century B.C. prophet who led the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Exile -- is changing the face of the devastated Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, filling it with neat, two- and three-bedroom brick homes at prices affordable to the lower middle class and even some working poor. Low interest loans are provided by the state.
The force behind the Nehemiah Project is a multi-ethnic, interdenominational group of some 50 local churches called East Brooklyn Churches working with the Industrial Areas Foundation. Strong backing for the group, both in terms of participation and finances, has come from the Episcopal Church: the Ven. Michael Harris, archdeacon of Brooklyn, and St. Thomas Church, Bushwick, Brooklyn, of which he is rector, active members of the Coalition, and grants have come from various Episcopal sources, including the Astor Fund; Trinity Church, Wall Street; the Episcopal Church Foundation -- and a $1 million interest-free loan from the Diocese of Long Island.
There are currently about 1,100 homes built, planned or under construction. Plans are also underway to expand the project both in Brownsville and in other ravaged areas of Brooklyn -- and requests for information and assistance with similar projects have come from places such as Washington D.C. and Ireland. Project officials estimate that by the time they are through, they will have rebuilt 50 percent of Brownsville.
Council members heard from Stephen Roberson, an Industrial Areas Foundation organizer who works with East Brooklyn Churches, Harris, and I. D. Robbins, the civic activist and builder whose ideas served as a basis for the project. They heard of the struggles to make the project a success: for funding, for enough land to make it economically feasible, for the necessary city and state political support. And they heard how the project is branching out into finding guaranteed Jobs for high school graduates to combat the area's 80 percent dropout rate and into successfully pressuring police to close local drug "supermarkets".
Members were then given a tour of a model home, and, having been driven through the wasted surrounding areas to get to the Nehemiah Project, they were given a walking tour of some of the streets transformed by it. At one point they paused, with a panorama of houses complete, houses under construction and a block where ground was just being broken for foundations. A number of Council members commented on the pride evident in the well-kept lawns and gardens, the grillwork and brightly colored awnings of the homes.
Following the tour, Council members returned to the project's office for a few moments to wait in its warmth for the bus back to the Episcopal Church Center. As they left, some of them noticed a sign on the wall near the door: "St. Paul to the Ephesians: 'We struggle not against flesh and blood but against systems and powers... and against spiritual wickedness in high places. "