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As New York City sets forth on an ambitious task of creating 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years, the archdiocese stands as a ready, willing and able partner.
That is the message Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities, delivered to Mayor Bill de Blasio, on behalf of Cardinal Dolan, when the mayor unveiled his $41 billion joint initiative to refurbish or create new housing for middle- and low-income New Yorkers across the five boroughs May 5. Speaking at a news conference at College Avenue in the Bronx, Mayor de Blasio said the plan “will be a central pillar in the battle against inequality.” The mayor said the city would commit $8.2 million in public funds to the initiative with $2.9 billion expected in state and federal money and more than $30 billion hoped for in private funding.
In announcing his support for the mayor’s plan, Cardinal Dolan had said that creating affordable housing for all New Yorkers was nothing less than a human rights issue.
“New York City’s current crisis of housing affordability threatens the basic human right to decent housing,” Cardinal Dolan said in a statement.
Msgr. Sullivan, who was at the news conference representing Cardinal Dolan, pointed to the more than 50 years experience the archdiocese has had in creating, constructing, preserving and rehabilitating housing for the poor, working families, seniors and those with special needs.
Through its parishes and committed clergy, religious communities, and Catholic Charities and its affiliated community-based organizations, the Church has created more than 6,000 units of affordable housing for New Yorkers.
“We offer the city a number of things,” explained Msgr. Sullivan during an interview with CNY in his 11th floor office at the New York Catholic Center in Manhattan. “One of the very fundamental things we offer is our belief that every person is made in the image of God and deserves certain basic necessities. One of them is our belief that basic housing is a human right.
“Secondly, very practically, we begin from the fact that we have put that into practice by the development and preservation of housing, which requires a certain amount of commitment and expertise and requires being around for the long term. We are an organization that has been around here for centuries and, if I might say this, we plan to be around until Jesus comes again. So we’re in this for the long term. We offer the city consistency, stability, and credibility in this area.
“The third thing we offer, and the cardinal has indicated this, is we have changing use of church facilities, so that as populations shift and we don’t need some of our properties for certain things there are new possibilities.”
By way of example Msgr. Sullivan pointed to the grounds where St. Augustine’s Church used to stand on Franklin Avenue in the Bronx.
“For years it was a very large, vibrant, thriving parish,” he said. “The parish is still vibrant but it’s small and can worship in a neighboring church. That leaves a wonderful piece of property, which the Church is willing to make available for another important good…affordable housing.”
He said that as the archdiocese plans for its own future needs it opens up the possibility for more such changes in building and land use noting that the land where St. Augustine stood would still be “sacred space” because individuals and families will have a decent place to live, fulfill their potential and raise their families. “Here human dignity will be honored and this space will be held sacred,” he said.
He said a strength of the Church’s approach to housing has been its on-the-ground presence in all the communities and neighborhoods of New York City and that the services it provides, particularly in the area of housing, build upon that local presence. “For every project you need, you need to put together a board and we try to include people from the local neighborhood as part of the board in order to make sure it stays rooted in the community and meets the needs of that particular community,” he stressed. “So, as we develop each project, we’ll be developing a way to make sure that each of those projects is well run, well managed and serve the needs of the population that those units are mean to provide safety, decent and affordable housing for.”
Msgr. Sullivan underlined that the housing crisis in New York is not a future threat, but is here now. He said one sign is the increasing number of individuals and families in the city’s overcrowded shelter system. Addressing the crisis is going to take a concerted effort of multiple partners, public and private, for-profit and non-profit, working together, he said.
“Over the years, New York City has developed a very good relationship with its various nonprofit partners, including the Church,” he said. “That partnership needs to be ramped up, the resources increased, in order to deal with the depth and breadth of the crisis we face.”
