The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

 

Ten years ago, Sabrina Cardoza heard about Part of the Solution (POTS) through her grandmother. She was having some legal trouble and needed information about how to access support services. However, she didn’t use POTS at first. It wasn’t until five years had elapsed that she decided to seek help from the nonprofit, which is located at 2759 Webster Avenue in Fordham Manor.

 

“I was completely homeless,” Cardoza told the Norwood News. “I was staying in the street. I had nowhere to turn to.” It was around this time, Cardoza recalled, that POTS gave her the courage to go to a homeless shelter. The nonprofit also helped her with her public assistance case and allowed her to use its mailing address so she could receive benefits. Cardoza is just one of the many people whose lives have been transformed by the organization over the decades.

 

This year marks the 40^th anniversary of POTS, an anti-poverty and food insecurity nonprofit organization that seeks to address these issues through different programs. POTS is a daycare center and does not offer shelter services. However, many of its clients experience homelessness. Last year, POTS served the social needs of 35,943 people, and provided 2,860,901 meals to its clients. By contrast, in 2008, when it first started compiling data on its services, it found that it had served the social needs of just 7,505 people and provided just 285,978 meals.

 

POTS representatives acknowledge that it has been a remarkable journey for the organization since its origins. In its earliest days, POTS´ founders heeded the call to address the food insecurity of the most vulnerable members of the neighborhood by opening a soup kitchen. It would be the first of many services to be provided over the years. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, its founders, Rev. Ned Murphy, Timothy Boon, and Sr. Jane Iannucelli, were working together in homeless services, and were interested in creating a place where the community could come together.

 

 

Christina Hanson, executive director of POTS, explained, “They conceived of the idea of having a soup kitchen which is a place where people could gather and communicate with one another.” She added, “The original idea was creating this community by listening to people and hearing what was going on in their lives.” According to its founders, POTS formally opened its doors on Jan. 6, 1982, with the mission of becoming a loving community. Inspired by the drive and commitment of its founders, POTS´ leaders, board members and staff have been listening to the community ever since.

 

At the time the nonprofit launched, Hanson said most of its clients were people experiencing homelessness who were living on the street. He said due to the downturn in the economy during the late 70s and early 80s, New York City faced great challenges when it came to addressing homelessness. Not much has changed.

 

Currently, there are more than 15,600 people from The Bronx who currently experience homelessness, and who live in transitional housing facilities in areas all across the City, according to New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS). This agency coordinates this housing service under the umbrella of NYC Department of Social Services (DSS).

 

The housing program is designed to assist those who are transitioning out of a situation where they may have previously been living in different shelters but are moving into a more stable setting. An additional 14,300 people experiencing homelessness live in actual shelters across The Bronx itself, according to DHS-DSS. Shelters are more akin to emergency accommodation and clients may sometimes be obliged to move from one shelter to another, depending on availability. This can be problematic, particularly for families who wish to stay together. DHS reported that as of Feb. 10, there were 45,273 people living in shelters across New York City, of which 14,578 were children.

 

Jack Marth, director of programs at POTS, first got involved with the organization in 1982 when he was a freshman at Fordham University. He had heard about the organization through a student group on campus called the Hunger Action Committee. When he had time during his academic schedule, he would volunteer at the original POTS soup kitchen, which was on Fordham Road in the University Heights neighborhood.

 

Since 2011, Marth has served as director of programs at POTS, and has seen first-hand how the nonprofit has evolved. “Early on, it was clear that we were living hand to mouth,” Marth said. “There was no guarantee the resources that were needed for the next day would come. Over time, POTS began to put all the things in place that were needed if the organization would survive.”

 

When it comes to funding, Marth recognizes how important it was to receive financial support in the early 90s from The New York Foundation, which offers grants to nonprofits which support community organizing and advocacy. “One of the biggest grants we got in our early years was to support an AIDS education program, which was something that was a big change for us,” Marth said. “The City was looking for organizations, at the grassroots level, who were meeting people who were marginalized to do the important work of educating them about preventing the spread of HIV. I wrote the grant proposal, collaborating with others, that got us one of our biggest grants ever. I think it was $250,000 per year.”

 

In the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic became the number one threat to public health. POTS offered help to those who needed it, without judgment. During this period, POTS officials said they also adapted to provide shelter to members of the community. Later, as New York City began implementing new housing initiatives to respond to homelessness, the nonprofit took a stance to advocate for the most vulnerable in The Bronx.

 

Another foundation which POTS benefited immensely from is The Robin Hood Foundation. “That’s been really helpful in not only giving us money, but helping us to develop the systems and management to be a successful nonprofit,” Marth said. “They have been indispensable in that respect, and continue to be.” During the pandemic, POTS received additional funding from The Robin Hood Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. Norwood News reported at the time on some of the foundation’s early COVID-19 relief efforts.

 

Marth also points to the longstanding relationship POTS has with the Church of Resurrection in Rye, New York, as crucial to its success. “They continue, to this day, to be a huge source of financial support and volunteer support,” Marth said. “Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have a special meal for people. They basically run it. It’s the people from Rye who do all the planning and execution of that.” Norwood News recently reported on the joint efforts of POTS and the Church of Resurrection in Rye in ensuring a successful Thanksgiving celebration in late 2021.

By the 2000s, seeing success in providing holistic services to clients, POTS realized it could do more to address the complexities associated with poverty and respond to the increasing number of neighbors who were reaching out to the organization, which led to the expansion of its services and facilities.

 

Indeed, thanks to the generosity of its donors, POTS officials said it is now able to offer three programs to address the needs of people in the community. The first is food security. As part of the program, there is a dining room onsite where members of the community can go to receive a hot meal. Since the pandemic hit, Marth said the group has focused on to-go meals [to facilitate better social distancing]. In addition, POTS has a food pantry that provides groceries to people. Last year, he said 2.5 million meals were served through the pantry program.

 

The second program covers dignity & wellness. Through this program, POTS clients can use the POTS location as their mailing address. Marth said many of the individuals they serve who use this mailing service are experiencing homelessness or are unstably housed. Under the umbrella of the dignity & wellness program, there is also a shower element where POTS provides everything clients may need to take a shower.

 

The organization also offers 30 free haircuts, once a week. The final component of the dignity & wellness program is the hosting of an onsite medical clinic. POTS has partnered with “Care for the Homeless,” which operates a primary care clinic, and dental care clinic for POTS clients.

 

The final program relates to long-term stability. One component is case management, where case managers screen POTS clients to see if they qualify for things like SNAP, public assistance, social security benefits and medical insurance. Another component of this program is mentorship. “We have a group of case managers who specialize in working more in depth with our clients to do long-term planning,” Marth said. “Some people call it life coaching.” The final component is a legal clinic which is primarily focused on eviction prevention and benefits access.

 

In 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, POTS officials said they made the conscious decision to remain open and meet the increased demand for a support network. As they saw the number of clients growing dramatically and coming from more distant locations, the organization adapted yet again, ensuring that their core services would continue to be available to all.

 

Reflecting on some of the highlights of his time at POTS over the last 40 years, Marth said he remembers the time he helped a family keep its home. “I remember intervening once on Christmas Eve,” Marth says. “This young mother and child were about to be kicked out of the shelter system. We did the necessary advocacy to keep them from becoming homeless on Christmas.”

 

In 2021, POTS became instrumental once again, as reported, in facilitating a somewhat safer Christmas for its clients when, as part of an initiative undertaken in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and NYC Health+Hospitals, it was one of a number of organizations which distributed free, COVID-19, home test kits to low-income Bronxites from its Webster Avenue center on Dec. 23, amid the prevailing spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant.

 

Taina Rodriguez, associate director of food and dignity services, first came to POTS as a client. She recalls that she was 11 years old, and it was during the summer of 1993. At the time, her mom was suffering from mental health problems and drug addiction. “We were facing that we didn’t have enough food in the household,” Rodriguez said. “Somebody had suggested to her this little place on Webster Avenue where if you were hungry, you could go get some food.”

 

Her early experiences with the POTS staff left a strong impression. “The feeling of people welcoming you and delivering service that didn’t make you feel like a number, that you were less than, or making you feel guilty because you needed help….it wasn’t at the forefront,” Rodriguez said. She ended up volunteering at the soup kitchen in 1994.

 

Since transitioning to the team of POTS staff in 1996, Rodriguez has occupied many different roles within the organization. The memories she cherishes the most are some of her past interactions with clients. “The moment where the lightbulb goes off are the moment when you see somebody, and they were down, out, and hopeless, and somehow you see a spark in their eye,” she said. “You see them smiling. You see hope.”

Meanwhile, now, thanks to POTS, Cardoza also has hope. She has a job at a real estate company in The Bronx and is on the cusp of leaving her homeless shelter and getting her own apartment. “Without their support, I don’t know where I would be,” Cardoza said.

 

Anyone who may be interested in volunteering with, or donating to, POTS can visit https://potsbronx.org/english/.