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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We're going to finish up in our last 15 minutes on this Monday morning by asking those of you who attended religious services of any kind over the weekend if there was any mention of the migrant crisis in your house of worship? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Not just if there was any mention, but is your religious community involved in helping the asylum seekers who've come to our area? We're looking for stories of anybody involved in a religious community, and it doesn't matter if you attended church yesterday, synagogue on Saturday, mosque on Friday, whatever it was, whether or not you attended services, tell us how your religious community is involved, if it is, in helping the asylum seekers who've come in such numbers to New York and vicinity, or if your religious denomination's leadership is trying to stay away. 212-433-WNYC. That's why we ask if there was a mention in your house of worship this weekend. We had a couple of calls last week when we talked about the migrant crisis where several people said, well, the city government is doing a lot looking for temporary housing and everything in all these places. What about the religious community? Isn't this traditionally the responsibility, at least in part, of churches, to the extent that these folks are Christian, voluntarily church community stepping up, churches stepping up, offering shelter, offering sanctuary in the literal sense? 212-433-WNYC. Tell us about your religious community in this context here on this Monday morning. 212-433-9692.

As we know, the city keeps fighting to house many of the asylum seekers. They're talking about erecting tent cities in the public parks in some cases. That is drawing a lot of pushback.

A judge on Friday did say in court that the state needs to do more to keep the city from violating the right-to-shelter mandate that is in place, but the federal government, as we've heard repeatedly from the Adams administration and others, is not coming through with the aid that the city wants. Earlier this summer, the city announced that 50 churches and other houses of worship had agreed to take in small groups of asylum seekers, about 1,000 in total out of the almost 100,000 who've come in the last year, and they're reimbursed, I've read, at something like $65 a night. Is your church participating in that program? Call us at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or you can text a story to that number as well, or your synagogue or your mosque participating in this. Most of the people coming are Christian from Latin America, Christian of one kind or another. A lot of Catholics, some Pentecostal, some others, not all, but most are Christian. Does your Christian church of whatever denomination feel a responsibility in this respect? Or, if you don't have Spanish-speaking or Latino community members in your church, perhaps do they feel a part from this and that it's not their responsibility? Call in and tell us on this Monday morning if you heard anything from the pulpit in church yesterday if you went to services or anything else that your religious community is or is not doing to help the asylum seekers, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We'll take your stories right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls on whether or not there was any mention of the migrant crisis from the pulpit if you were at church on Sunday, Synagogue on Saturday, mosque on Friday, and anything your religious community is or is not doing to help the 100,000 almost migrants who are here. Let's start with Mark in Yonkers. You're on WNYC. Hi, Mark.

Mark: Hi, Brian. Thanks for doing this segment. I listened to your segment last week that mentioned faith community involvement with the refugee crisis, and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to share a little bit. I'm with the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing. We work broadly with faith groups all over the city and where I'm working with a project to try to identify 50 faith sites to provide up to 19 beds per night for 365 nights a year throughout the city. So far, 200 congregations have come forward wanting to help. Many of them don't have the capacity, but it's very exciting to see the outpouring. I know that there are many other congregations that are doing other things that are not well known. I think that faith community wants to help and would like to help as much as possible, and sometimes, they just need the resources, but they really are coming forward. Something else I wanted to mention that these spaces require sprinkler systems, which is the biggest hurdle, because it could be $60,000 if you don't have them, and they also require showers. Trinity Church has come forward to offer hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide showers to these spaces with the understanding that when the refugee crisis abates, they will convert to homeless outreach shelters.

Brian Lehrer: Mark, thank you very much. Jesse in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jesse. Jesse, are you there? Do I have [crosstalk]--

Jesse: Yes, I'm there.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, there you are. Hello.

Jesse: Yes, hi. I am Catholic, and I go to a church in Brooklyn, and they are doing a closed drive for babies up to 12 years old. It's starting, and it's up to the month of September.

Brian Lehrer: Good. Thank you. A couple of texts coming in. Listener writes, "Hey, Upper East Side New York City churches, what are you doing with your no tax dollars to help the influx of homeless people?" Another listener writes, "When the Bible /Torah speaks about taking care of the sojourner or our neighbors, there are no stipulations about the neighbor's religious affiliation. We should just care for folk." I guess that's reacting to what I said in the intro about most of them being Christian coming up from the southern border and wondering if Christian churches, in particular, Christian religious organizations, would be taking an interest. Sort of to that point of it going across religious lines, Pat in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Pat.

Pat: Hi. There's an organization called [unintelligible 00:07:50], which is an Orthodox Jewish organization in Brooklyn that sponsors more than one soup kitchen, and they feed everybody. I heard yesterday that they're feeding the migrants. I can give you the address if you want. They're located at 1272 54th Street in Brooklyn and also somewhere on MUL or MUI. That can be looked up by people who are trying to help. It's a voluntary Orthodox Jewish organization that feeds everybody. They're really terrific.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Thank you very much for calling them by their name. Joe in Northport, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joe.

Joe: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: What you got?

Joe: Thank you for taking my call. I am a Episcopal. I did attend Catholic services yesterday. There was no mention of migrants. Usually, the homily is centered around the reading, so there was nothing to do with that, but I am involved with an organization sponsored by the sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, obviously, Catholic, called Long Island Immigration Clinic. What we do is we help recent migrants to this country, asylum seekers, fill out their paperwork, specifically a 589 and other documents, and help them get their packages together so they can apply for asylum. They're doing great work in helping the asylum seekers come into this country.

Brian Lehrer: Joe, thank you very much. Here's another Long Island one. Mary-Jane in Balwdin, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mary Jane.

Mary-Jane: Hi. I'm from the First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin, and we did mention caring for the sojourners in the sermon yesterday, but I think what Mark in Yonkers said has a lot to do with where we're at. We're a small congregation as most congregations are. Historically, yes, church has helped the immigrants, but there also were a lot more people attending church on Sunday and claiming membership in the church. We're part of the Presbyterian Church USA, which is talking about Matthew 25, and there's a lot more work on immigration issues there, but we've got a congregation of people about 40, 50 people, and we're all older and nobody's speaking Spanish.

It's really limited what we can do, but we do have a house that usually a minister would live in and we're not using it right now, so we're sponsoring a refugee family. We're collecting furniture and everything in order to help a family get a foothold in the United States. It's only one family, but when we have this small capacity, we're doing what we can to help where we can.

Brian Lehrer: Mary-Jane, thank you very much. Nice story. Kim in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kim.

Kim: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for asking this question. It's so easy to get disillusioned living in New York and fearing what will happen to the homeless, but there's so many people out there doing good work, and you're right, it's the responsibility of religious communities. If we say Jesus is with the poor, then we should be helping the poor. I haven't been [inaudible 00:11:32] in a long time. I host a meditation group house. I went down to St. Luke in the fields in the West Village yesterday, and they're doing a lot. They do a community [unintelligible 00:11:43] on Saturdays and they said most of the people coming through are migrants. They need volunteers, but they also [inaudible 00:11:50] your time, they have an Amazon wishlist that you can go through and see what they need most for the migrants, and actually, just go ahead and buy it for them. I also wanted to shout out the Father's Heart in the East Village that do a soup kitchen every morning of unlimited breakfast. They believe in restoring the dignity of the homeless and the migrants, and they do groceries. They feed up to 600 to 800 people every Saturday morning. There's about 200 volunteers every morning. There are people out there doing good work. Thank you for asking the question.

Brian Lehrer: That is great. Thank you for that story, Kim. In response to a number of listeners last week when we were talking about the asylum seekers who said what are the churches, what are the other religious organizations doing, so we've been giving you the opportunity to answer that question, and of course, it could spark a new conversation in your religious community if they aren't doing much like why aren't we doing anything? What could we do? What could we do that's at least something even if our community is small? Last one on text message, listener writes, "A neighbor in my local Buy Nothing group has been volunteering to help migrants through Catholic Charities in lower Manhattan and has been collecting items from people all over Ditmas Park. There you go. Thanks again, listeners. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum and Briana Brady today. Thanks, Briana. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen handles our daily politics podcast. We have had Sheyna Stengstock at the audio controls. Stay tuned for All of It.

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