UJA Federation of New York >> Matthew Desmond speaking at UJA-Federation's Tackling Poverty Today conference in Manhattan.
Matthew Desmond speaking at UJA-Federation's Tackling Poverty Today conference in Manhattan.

Picture this: You and your children are evicted. You apply for 80 different apartments. Every landlord rejects you.

Picture this: You get accepted to the college of your dreams, but go hungry every day because you can’t afford to buy food.

Picture this: Your wife gets breast cancer, she becomes too ill to work because of her treatments. Without her income you get behind on your mortgage, face foreclosure, and buying groceries gets tough.

Hardships like these are a reality for 1.7 million people now living in poverty in New York City, and 565,000 Jews in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island who live near or below the poverty line.

That’s why UJA-Federation of New York convened Tackling Poverty Today, on May 8th in Manhattan, a conference to address poverty in the greater New York community. Philanthropists and leaders in the nonprofit and public sectors came together to foster collaborations and share strategies to affect real change.

“Eviction in our country used to be rare,” said Matthew Desmond, keynote speaker at the conference, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, and professor of sociology at Princeton University. But over the last two decades housing costs have soared and now often exceed 30 percent of household income, which is the standard for affordability, he explained.

“Eviction is a cause of poverty, not just a condition [of it],” Desmond said, and added that unless our communities and the country address housing, we can’t fix poverty. He called for bold leadership to create the dream of affordable housing.

While housing is a critical issue, housing, alone, will not solve the many needs of people living in hardship.

“We can’t just address one platform of poverty,” noted Larry Robbins, chair of Robin Hood, and moderator of a conference panel discussion on hunger. He said that effective responses for food insecurity, housing, education, and jobs need to be interwoven.

Other panel discussions shared creative ideas for developing jobs and providing new housing solutions. A special presentation by Alphonso David, counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo, highlighted New York State’s community-driven programs to reduce poverty and create more economic opportunities.

Centennial Anti-Poverty Initiative

Through our Centennial Anti-Poverty Initiative, UJA-Federation has already taken innovative steps to help impoverished people in our communities. This year, we piloted a digital choice food pantry system with our nonprofit partners that uses touch screen technology so people can choose the food that best fits their needs.

The initiative will also build two community resource hubs in Queens and Brooklyn – areas where Jewish poverty is most dense – with our nonprofit partners Central Queens Y/Samuel Field Y and Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. The hubs will offer a broad range of social services, including benefits screening and enrollment, financial counseling, legal services, employment training, a digital pantry, counseling, and more.

“No one agency standing alone can address poverty,” UJA CEO Eric Goldstein said. “We have to come together to find a better way forward. We need to bring more people from crisis to stability.”

UJA’s Centennial Anti-Poverty Initiative is poised to make lasting and systemic change. To find out how you can be part of this solution, contact Ariella Goldfein at .