BK Reader: Brooklyn Leaders Talk Housing, Safety, and Mental Health at BRIC Town Hall

PUBLISHED IN: BK READER

On Wednesday evening, a panel of Brooklyn City Council members and local nonprofit leaders gathered at BRIC to discuss the borough’s most urgent challenges—from the rising cost of living to mental health and public safety.

The event, hosted by Brooklyn Org, featured Council Members Crystal Hudson, Lincoln Restler, Rita Joseph, and Shahana Hanif, alongside nonprofit leaders Kendra Chiu (North Brooklyn Angels), Ligia Guallpa (Workers’ Justice Project), Chino Hardin (Center for Nu Leadership), and John Leyva (Save 63 Tiffany). The conversation was moderated by Dr. Jocelynne Rainey, President & CEO of Brooklyn Org, BKO Coro Fellow Sada Connel and Wes Jackson, President of BRIC.

Drawing on results from Brooklyn Org’s People Pulse Survey, moderators framed the evening around community concerns. According to the survey, 84% of respondents believe the city is in a mental health crisis, and 66% say they feel unsafe riding the subway at night. The high cost of living emerged as the central concern throughout the evening.

Opening the discussion, John Leyva questioned the priorities behind new housing development:“If we’re just building what the developers want, whatever makes them the most profit and not what serves our community needs, then who is this new Brooklyn for?”

Council Member Lincoln Restler, who left early to care for his child, pointed to his negotiations with developers in Boerum Hill, securing 50% affordable units, and emphasized reducing parking mandates to cut construction costs.

“Generating more housing, maximizing the affordable housing—the truly affordable housing—and strengthening protections for tenants, that trifecta will make a difference,” he said.

When asked by Kendra Chiu how the city could better support nonprofits, Council Member Rita Joseph urged that nonprofits receive 40–75% of their discretionary funding up front to allow them to begin their work immediately.

Hudson recalled how responsive the city was during the pandemic and questioned why that efficiency disappeared:“Then all of a sudden we forgot how to do it.”

On public safety, Hudson criticized current spending priorities:“We have robots out here, police dogs, roaming the streets and people can’t eat, people can’t find a place to live,” she said. “So there’s an imbalance with how we’re actually investing in certain systems and agencies.”

Council Member Hanif added that cuts to federal restorative justice programs make local action more critical than ever:“It’s going to take a contingent of the local council members, the local community to show up.”

But not all attendees left satisfied. Dori Fern, a Crown Heights resident concerned about food insecurity, said she wanted more than discussion:“They definitely talked about issues, but who’s gonna solve them? What we can do. I’m not sure I got that and maybe I would have liked it a little bit more.”