Providing housing in Central New Jersey when it’s needed most
Luce Foundation Funds New Brunswick Theological Seminary Collaboration to Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic and its Effects
June 15, 2020
Thanks to generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation, New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS), in partnership with Reformed Church of Highland Park Affordable Housing Corporation (RCHP-AHC) and Rutgers University-New Brunswick, has launched a project to address the problem of housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This new initiative offers a rapid response to a pressing question for some of the most vulnerable people in the wider community: In an age of pandemic, what does it mean to shelter in place when you have no shelter?
Through its Theology Program, the Luce Foundation has awarded $150,000 to NBTS for the immediate launch of the SHELTER project. Seventy-five percent of the awarded funds will be directed to RCHP-AHC to rapidly secure housing and provide ongoing wrap-around services for families and individuals whose housing and other basic needs, such as the purchasing of food and medicine, have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These individuals and families are variously experiencing challenges related to undocumented or immigration status, recent release from parole or incarceration, HIV and other medical needs, and other social services needs that make them especially vulnerable during the COVID crisis.
By fostering existing community partnerships and directing funds to support the urgent responses of service providers doing the work of social justice, this project advances the Seminary’s explicit commitments to promote justice in society. Although the current emergency is all too immediate, when the pandemic fades, “shelter” will still be an elusive goal for many; the aim of our partnership is to create a long-term relationship not only with RCHP-AHC but with the individuals and families who are receiving services. The Reverend Seth Kaper-Dale, Executive Director of RCHP-Affordable Housing Corporation expressed excitement for “the potential of this project to help a pandemic be not a moment for further rejection and isolation but rather a moment where we stop, listen, and participate in creating ‘home’ for already susceptible populations.”
The remaining twenty-five percent of the grant funds will be directed to public humanities and public arts projects. Recognizing the ongoing challenges with respect to the broader social, economic, and political conditions that leave people without housing, deny opportunities after incarceration, detain those seeking refuge and safety, and provide inadequate services for those who are ill, this portion of the project aims to consider these conditions affecting our neighbors and promote understanding. Led by Nathan Jérémie-Brink, Feakes Assistant Professor of the History of Global Christianity at NBTS; Colin Jager, Director of the Center for Cultural Analysis and Professor of English at Rutgers; Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan, Coordinator & Instructor of Public History at Rutgers, and Producing Director Dan Swern of coLAB Arts, this portion of the project will involve masters-level students at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, undergraduates at Rutgers University, and local artistic communities. Project leadership hopes that engagement in this task of finding homes for vulnerable people encourages our institutions and community more broadly to address underlying social refusals of shelter, sanctuary, and dwelling.
The goal of these innovative public engagements is to encourage the seminary and the University to serve and think together, and develop new ways to reimagine our community engagement that enfolds artists and social advocates in the work of this grant. Swern notes that coLAB Arts’ “creative engagement work predicated on a rigorous awareness of community needs and positionality, particularly when considering vulnerable populations,” will help facilitate the creative work of the project’s innovative partnerships “in service of real systems change.”
NBTS President Micah McCreary, PhD remarked that “this project reflects NBTS’s commitment to ‘act justly’ in our response to this pandemic, and foster partnerships that promote critical thinking about the complex economic, socio-psychological, and racial factors that leave people without homes.” He applauded the Luce Foundation’s emergency response funding and the SHELTER project’s “amazing group of researchers, professors, pastors, and community activists committed to provide persons impacted by COVID-19 with safe spaces and needed resources for recovery and survival.”
As NBTS and partner institutions respond to this crisis and the range of needs of those who need a safe place to call home, this project also hopes to listen to our neighbor’s experiences and ensure that our community also makes place for their voices.
The Henry Luce Foundation’s Response to COVID-19:
The Luce Foundation is committed to supporting our partners and the communities that they serve.
The Foundation’s Board has authorized the President to approve the reallocation of grant monies in cases in which grant recipients experience serious adverse effects as a result of the pandemic. In addition, the Board has authorized the awarding of up to $5 million in new urgent-needs grants in support of long-time partners, or communities and sectors, that are suffering from the pandemic or efforts to control it. Such grants—up to $250,000 each—will be awarded on an as-needed basis, outside of the regular grants calendar.