Last Thursday, Peter Brest, the Chief Operating Officer of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty came to our school to talk with us. We learned a lot, specifically about the next steps in our process. Mr. Brest was able to inform us not only about various statistics and problems, but also about the ways in which our group can begin to make a difference. Peter stayed at LREI for 45 minutes. We were also able to confirm doubts for fallacious statistics. This includes the 2015 poverty eradication goal that is false.

We also learned about an important issue that we had not yet thought about. We now understand that, “Ending poverty is not about giving people money, it’s about employing people.” We have more insight into the idea of New York’s poverty and why the wealthy who move into New York are making it harder for the poor and homeless to pay for their basic needs. Affordable housing is completely gone because the people who developed houses that were targeted at the low-income understand that it is more profitable to target the wealthy.
From Peter, our social justice group was able to capture the idea of developed housing for low-income families and the problems that housing development poses in the modern world. Developers know that they can make more money if they target high-income families. We were also able to understand the issues with minimum wage in New York and other big cities. It is not possible to rent the smallest home in New York, while earning on minimum wage, let alone buy food, or clothing for yourself or a family. Therefore, everyone living on minimum wage in New York can’t rent their own homes.