Cars, Taxis, Friends’ Trucks Used to Move Stuff From Red Hook
By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BOERUM HILL — Over the last three months, the following donated items have made their way from the IKEA store in Red Hook to the YWCA of Brooklyn in Boerum Hill:
• 15 complete beds;
• Six boxes and eight large plastic bags full of bedding, comforters, pillows and curtains; and
• Six boxes of kitchenware, including dishes, cutlery and pots and pans.
The items, which were picked up by YWCA staff members and their friends — by car, taxi, U-Haul truck and even bicycle — were bound for the YWCA’s brand new affordable studio apartments. In particular, for the 17 (of the total 84 apartments) that were set aside for the formerly homeless.
“And there’s more to come,” according to Ijana Nathaniel, YWCA housing coordinator, on a tour last Wednesday to visit several apartments.
Also visiting the YWCA that day were Michael (“Mike”) Baker, manager of IKEA Brooklyn, Lorna Montalvo, public relations manager, and Reena Bolnick-Horowitz, an assistant in the public relations department.
“It is great to see our things in use,” said Montalvo. “For awhile, they were just coming to pick up the items — we saw bags and boxes going out — but there was a bit of a disconnect. This visit made it real.”
The beds were the most important thing, according to Martha Kamber, executive director of the YWCA.
“They came with basically nothing,” she said of the former. “I stalked Lorna [Montalvo] for about a year. Their policy was to donate mainly to Red Hook organizations. But I persisted and she started making donations.”
Said Evelyn Lashlie Brown, one of the two new residents who welcomed the IKEA representatives into their apartments last week, “They are wonderful. They gave me everything. Thank you IKEA.”
Commented Wendy Williams, the other new resident, “I didn’t have anything. I was literally sleeping on the floor.”
Williams, who used to live in a shelter, said the shelter people took her around to see several apartments “but when I saw this apartment, I just loved it. On August 21 I signed the lease.”
As reported in the Eagle earlier this year, 42 (50 percent) of the 84 new studios were reserved for Commmunity Board 2 residents; and 25 were reserved for the disabled and municipal workers.
All of these must be income eligible, according to Kamber, which means they must earn 60 percent of the average median income (AMI), or between $27,000 and $32,280.
The rents, which are set by the city, are $551 for the formerly homeless, $675 for the 67 income-eligible units.
“The great thing about this program is that once you’re in if the next year you earn above the AMI you don’t have to leave,” she said at the time. “But on the down side, if your income falls below the AMI, the rents do not change, they stay the same.”
Kamber also said the decision to keep the YWCA available for affordable housing was because Downtown Brooklyn was becoming so gentrified and so unaffordable.
Board member Bonda Lee-Cunningham, who is also chair of the Building Committee, echoed those sentiments in speaking of the IKEA donations.
“It’s a wonderful thing. It ties everything together from when we made the decision as a board in doing our strategic plan to include affordable housing,” she said. “The need is so great and there’s less and less of it.”
She added, “It was difficult to give up the pool and recreational activities, believe me, but the housing was a compelling need. And to have people without a home that IKEA is helping, is pretty special.”
With the 84 new units, the YWCA now has 298 apartments, including the SROs (single room occupancy) which have always occupied the upper floors.
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2009
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