Overview:
In response to Mayor Eric Adams's call for a unified Haitian agenda, community leaders express both agreement and concern regarding the city's accountability in meeting its responsibilities, especially in honoring long-delayed contract payments affecting Haitian nonprofits. Critics point out the lack of representation in recent roundtable discussions, suggesting that broader collaboration and inclusion are needed to address the community's diverse needs effectively.
NEW YORK — Responding to Mayor Eric Adams’ recent statements about Haitians, some community leaders said they can agree with the mayor about the need to develop a unified agenda. However, they said, the lack of an agenda should not excuse the city’s failures to honor its responsibilities, particularly the long-delayed contract payments that have left numerous nonprofit organizations scrambling to cover the needs of Haitian families.
Several said the makeup of a recent roundtable, which was not representative of the community’s leadership, may be coloring the mayor’s views.
“I agree, 100%. Coming off the roundtable about not having a community agenda,” said longtime activist Rev. Dr. Samuel Nicolas, senior pastor of Evangelical Crusade of Fishers of Men. “[But] it can’t be blamed only on one side.”
“The onus is on the people who are in City Hall to know who the players are in the community,” Nicolas said. “Don’t bring people to the table who don’t understand politics, who don’t know the community.”
On May 3, Adams met with about 50 Haitians at City Hall, just before the Haitian Times interview, where Adams spoke at length about the broader need for a collective Haitian agenda and other matters. During the roundtable meeting, Adams addressed concerns raised about minority and women-owned business enterprises, houses of worship, employment opportunities for asylum seekers, English as a second language classes, affordable housing for older adults, support for Haiti and resources for the city’s Haitian residents.
In the Haitian Times interview afterward, Adams said Haitians must have a clear, unified agenda of five to 10 items to present to elected officials across local, state and federal bodies. He also suggested that the city’s nonprofit groups, not only Haitian nonprofits, start to consolidate and that Haitians turn to their Haitian American elected officials who may have discretionary funds to fill financial gaps.
“I don’t take away from the fact that there’s a need. But we have to do an analysis and say, if we combine, our dollars go better. Instead of taking that piece of the pie and trying to break it up into small crumbs,” Adams said. “Everybody can’t have a nonprofit.”
Mayor’s roundtable “difficult” for some participants
Mullery Jean-Pierre, senior pastor of the Beraca Baptist Church in Canarsie, attended the mayor’s Haitian roundtable.
“He did say that we need to get it together, which is true,” Jean-Pierre said. “In that sense, I agree with the mayor because at that meeting, everyone had their own little agenda that they wanted to craft for their community. It was difficult for me.”
Jean-Pierre said questions for the mayor should’ve been better compiled, adding, “They should’ve helped us organize better for the mayor.”
Several participants went further, saying the fellow Haitians present who asked pre-screened questions did not seem well-prepared. While the group included Haitian New Yorkers from various sectors, many of the community’s long-time leaders either did not speak or sat in chairs at the back of the table. Among those who did speak, most asked about items deemed “low-level,” such as parking on a Brooklyn street.
Gina Faustin, a Queens-based entrepreneur and nonprofit consultant at the roundtable, said that because the participants who asked questions were mostly nonprofits and clergy members, the mayor would hear those concerns overwhelmingly.
“The mayor may not be fully aware of what goes on, what we face in our community,” Faustin said. “The majority of the questions went to people we’ve never heard of or never seen.”
In response to that criticism, the mayor’s office said attendees were asked if they had a question for the mayor as they walked in.
“Everyone who had a question was called upon to speak,” the mayor’s spokesperson said. “Attendees represented several community-based organizations that work with the Haitian community. Their questions reflected a wide range of issues that are important to Haitian New Yorkers, including additional resources for the community in New York City as well as support for the people of Haiti.”
Accountability concerns raised
Still, for some participants, seeing who spoke raised concerns those views might impede or exacerbate challenges Haitian groups face.
“Unfortunately, the fragmented perception of our community can serve as a tool against us, especially when we’re already overwhelmed, underserved, and underfunded,” said Elsie Saint Louis, executive director and CEO of Haitian Americans United for Progress, the 46-year-old service group facing $1.9 million in unpaid contracts, 80 percent of them city agreements.
“This unfair situation often leads to a lack of accountability among leaders,” she said.
Faustin and Nicolas said the issue remains that many groups cannot meet needs because of backed-up payments and technical systems bureaucracy.
“The major struggle that I’ve seen is that they have a budget that is not being paid, and their work has tripled with the arrival of so many people,” Faustin said.
“They can’t compete,” Nicolas said. “You tell them to ask for discretionary funds. But these organizations don’t have the $2,000 to $3,000 to register in the PASSPort system [for payment].”
To Jocelyn McCalla, a long-time New York-based community advocate, it sounded like the mayor wasn’t meeting his administration’s responsibilities regarding settling adequately on the city budget, advocating consistently on a national scale for Haiti, and expediting the processing of back pay.
“This silliness about too many nonprofits seeking assistance, that’s a cop out,” said McCalla, currently a senior policy adviser to the Haitian American Fund for Democracy. “You’re obligated to provide contracts. That is something the Mayor of New York City can easily solve that he has done nothing about.”
As for pointing to struggling groups to the Haitian American elected officials for discretionary funds, McCalla said those elected officials “are not hogtied to the Haitian community.”
“They’re very proud of being Haitian Americans that have made it in their own lives,” he said. “But the constituents that get the funds are not Haitians, and perhaps those groups are simply better organized.”
Agenda-setting efforts, collaborations underway
Across New York, some insist, many Haitian-led community groups do collaborate.
Recently, HAUP and five other groups – Diaspora Community Services, Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, Haitian American Community Coalition, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees and Life of Hope – recently launched a $10 million fundraising initiative to support Haitians arriving in New York.
In mid-April, Jean-Pierre brought together a small group of Haitians to discuss the Haiti crisis with U.S. House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. Community members and elected officials present asked key questions and provided recommendations, including the call that the diaspora be involved.
At the city level, he said, New York’s Haitians can take a similar approach. However, he acknowledges, the downside is officials like Adams may be “hearing from too many people.”
“There’s a wide swatch of Haitian leaders. We are priming the pump and then we’ll invite more people to come into it and speak up,” Jean-Pierre said.
Nicolas said while there are people building an agenda, “everybody has been doing it in their own little shell.” He cited an array of faith-based coalitions and initiatives, such as Theo Fayette’s “Haiti Premiere Classe.” On Tuesday, Nicolas suggested that the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON) convene an effort to bring the agendas together.
“There needs to be a broader sense,” Nicolas said. “We need to put petty differences to the side and see common ground.”
Read about the Mayor’s call for a unified Haitian community agenda.
