The latest from Mercy Home ... NYC contracts ... NYC Employment and Training Coalition

The New York City Department of Homeless Services has awarded a new contract to support homeless families with children. Brooklyn Neighborhood Improvement Association received the five-year, $5.38 million contract to run Kianga House, located at 1504 Bedford Ave., through June 2023, according to the City Record.

The William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation has awarded a $20,000 grant to Mercy Home for Children. A press release states that the money will support a stress reduction program for families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Brooklyn-based organization aims to provide support for families through the practice of mindfulness during Saturday workshops.

“With this new funding, Mercy Home will be able to provide support to parents and caregivers and give them an opportunity to rejuvenate,” said Janice Aris, executive director of the nonprofit. “It serves as a gateway to create awareness and invite the community to Mercy Home.”

Joey Ortiz, executive director of the NYC Employment and Training Coalition, has something to say about a new bill before the New York City Council that aims to shake up the city contracts process:

“We are pleased that the City Council has chosen to propose legislation to address the city's broken contracting system, and we commend Council members Rory Lancman and Justin Brannan for championing this issue. As emphasized in the op-ed NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer and I co-authored on June 13th called "Fixing the City's Broken Approach to Nonprofit Financing,” this issue is vitally important to our members and the entire workforce community. We're hopeful that legislation will hold agencies accountable and decrease the risk of nonprofits having to cut back on the indispensable services that we provide to our clients.”

So does Enrique Virgil, controller at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in the Bronx:

“Because of the late payments, we had to take out a line of credit with our bank and have had to use it on multiple occasions just to meet payroll, not even taking into account taking care of our other expenses, such as vendors/contractors. We are left, oftentimes, to only being able to use contractors with which we have excellent personal relationships that will allow us to make payments up to six months after services were rendered, simply because we're awaiting payments from our city and state funders.

“Even then, we're often left with strained relationships with the few vendors we use because they also have expenses to take care of on their end. Even our food vendors are threatening to cut off food deliveries, which is vital to our senior and youth programs, leaving us in shambles, scrambling for every penny we can find just to get in food for our youth/seniors. When we follow up with the city/state, we either get no response, or a runaround answer where they say payment is processing, and we're left waiting around for weeks for payments.

“This legislation would be extremely helpful as it would allow us to better be able to plan our finances and give vendors better timelines on payments, thus restoring our relationships with said vendors. We're hurting our reputation in our city because nobody wants to open credit lines with us as we're a nonprofit relying on city funding without an exact timeline of when we'll be able to pay them for things such as food.”

A group of nonprofits is urging unity after a racially tinged incident in Brooklyn. A fight that broke out at a nail salon earlier this month has caused tensions between African-Americans and Asian-Americans. The Chinese-American Planning Council, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, and the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families are among the organizations that signed a statement condemning the violence and calling for reconciliation among the affected communities.

“We must stand together to promote unity and solidarity, especially during a time when both communities are under attack,” the Aug. 8 statement reads. “Simultaneously, we must call out the implicit bias within our own community, acknowledge where the model minority myth makes us complicit in Black oppression and the perpetuation of racist power structures, and categorically condemn anti-Blackness, especially when it results in violence and harm.”

Read the full statement below:

Send your press releases, photos, and word of your latest happenings to reporter Zach Williams at zwilliams@nynmedia.com.