Metropolitan New York Synod (ELCA) Bishop Stephen Bouman, president of LDRNY, spoke at a news conference on May 13 in New York City that asked elected officials to build more affordable housing for those in need. Jennifer Singer of LDRNY also attended the event.

Bishop Stephen Bouman, president of LDRNY, and Jennifer Singer, LDRNY coordinator, in front of the symbolic house that was built at City Hall Park.

The two joined dozens of religious leaders, community activists, and elected officials from throughout New York City to build an eight-foot high house at City Hall Park that was constructed with “policy planks” detailing ways that government can take the lead in working with nonprofit groups and businesses to end chronic homelessness in the City. The event was sponsored by the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing.

In a prepared statement, Bishop said:

"For twenty years as a parish pastor I answered the door bell of the churches I served and confronted the human face of homelessness. Today, two and one half years after the September 11 tragedy our pastors, imams and rabbis are still opening the doors to confront the growing crisis in employment and housing. When you open the door and see the faces you will find substance abusers and those mentally unstable, trying to slug it out in the toughness of every day life. Others demolish the stereotypes. They work, but minimum wages leave them and their dependents hungry or without a home. They are seeking employment. They take the bus or subway to job interviews. Programs of our church provide addresses, facilities for fax, phone cards, subway cards for the often futile search for the dignity of a job. Our food pantries are chronically empty. Those who knock at our doors are disabled or widowed or abandoned by their spouse. They are immigrants, thousands of them Fujianese around the corner from us. I am haunted by the faces, like those on father’s day when I led worship at a shelter for men in the Bronx. They are the human price paid for unaccountable greed-the engine driving the rebirth of our city, and of lower Manhattan.

Bishop Stephen Bouman speaks at the news conference, while the Rev. John Heimstra of the City Council of Churches of New York City, listens, left,

We are advocating for specific proposals and policies which will begin to get at the massive need. I am speaking for a set of proposals which would raise the Federal and State Minimum Wage and City Living Wage laws, expansion of opportunity and training for jobs, rent subsidies and adequate funding for Section 8 rental assistance. But underneath the specific proposals what we really need is a new vision and new partnerships. We need to create a fabric of proposals and initiatives and mutual community which speaks for the seriousness of our compassion and love for every child of God who is our neighbor, especially those most vulnerable.

I remember well the concerted effort at Ground Zero to rescue, then recover the remains of our loved ones. We were together with common purpose. I remember the respect and reverence for human life when someone would be found. How the “pile” would become quiet, how hearts and love would go out to the remains of those lifted out from the rubble. Can we recover that same sense of human dignity for those among us who are still alive and sinking under the weight of poverty, hunger and homelessness? Can we recover the same sense of urgency at these Ground Zeroes we have missed?

Today the religious communities are asking our public servants: will you work with us to rebuild all of the city? Can we extend the holy respect for life and heroic effort of Ground Zero to our entire metropolis? What spiritual values will be expressed in this year’s NYC budget? Will you join us in seeing human faces and not just the bottom line?"

To read the news release, click here.

Bishop Stephen Bouman and the many speakers.

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