By Maya Washburn, Palm Beach Post
More than 1,000 people, some of whom rode buses from as far away as Belle Glade and Boca Raton, crammed into a Jupiter church sanctuary for hours on Monday, April 7, demanding action from local officials in the name of God.
The PEACE ministry — with members from 25 Christian and Jewish congregations — filled nearly every available seat at JupiterFIRST Church with its annual Nehemiah Action Assembly, pressuring officials about housing costs, traffic stops, immigration crackdowns and mental-health resources.
Responses came from Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, two county commissioners and a ranking official at the Florida Department of Children and Families.
It was a setting where a choir sang songs in front of a pulpit, the parking lot was packed and people prayed throughout. Spanish-speaking attendees scrambled to find translation instructions before the event started. The choir sang “All Together We Have Power” to the tune of the hymn “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” as people flooded in.
The assembly, now in its 34th year, is named for the Old Testament figure who led the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and who organized a meeting to pressure money lenders to show borrowers mercy when they were unable to repay them after a drought.
Members also pointed to a verse in the Book of Micah, saying they feel a call to “do justice” and try to right the wrongs they see in the county.
“We believe God has a different story for our community, a story not of scarcity or fear or division, but one of hope, abundance and, most of all, love,” said the Rev. Cori Olsen, director of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lake Worth Beach.
Attendees were mostly satisfied with answers they received at the event, which in years past took place at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. However, one official received only silence from the audience — PEACE’s signal of disapproval — for his stance on an affordable housing plan.
PEACE has affordable housing plan. One Palm Beach County commissioner opposed it.
Between telling stories about people who work full-time jobs but can’t afford housing in Palm Beach County, PEACE members asked county commissioners Bobby Powell and Gregg Weiss to support a plan the ministry put together to build more homes for people earning $62,000 a year or less.
The plan would create a county ordinance requiring developers to build some affordable rentals with any residences they want to build. If not, they must pay a fee and the county would use those funds to build affordable housing. A similar plan is in place in Broward County.
Palm Beach County already requires some workforce housing to be included in all developments in the county’s unincorporated areas — or the developer can pay a fee in lieu of that.
Members stressed the difference between workforce and affordable housing. Workforce housing is only available to people who make at least the area median income, which as of that night was $62,400. Affordable housing would be an option for anyone who makes below that.
The ministry also asked Powell and Weiss to support allocating $50 million into a county affordable housing trust fund. They both agreed, but only Powell said he would support the housing program that PEACE developed.
“I can’t support that because the cost of developing affordable housing would just make all the other units much more expensive,” Weiss said about the program.
Weiss said the county has a requirement for developers to build 10% to 25% of workforce housing homes for each project, but that has made it difficult for them to “make the numbers work.”
The assembly met his remarks with silence. One ministry member said they met with commissioner Maria Sachs last week and that she told the group she would bring their proposal before the board Tuesday.
PEACE had said commissioner Joel Flores had committed to attending the gathering but he was absent. An attempt to reach him for comment was not immediately successful.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw addresses traffic stops, immigration crackdown
Traffic stops — when a police officer pulls over a driver and questions them — have long been a point of concern for PEACE. It has said the stops raise the issue of racial profiling.
Annie Ruth Nelson, a team member at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, asked Sheriff Ric Bradshaw to track all data on traffic stops in the county to analyze any racial disparities.
“As a Black woman with Black men in my family, I have seen what the lack of trust between the police and the community can do,” Nelson said.
She said her family members have been pulled over for minor things, like a dim license plate or failing to stop behind the white line at a stop sign. Once stopped, they were asked questions like “Why are you in this neighborhood?” or “Whose car is this?”
“Loving one another means Black and brown people in our community should be able to live, work and play without fear of those who are sworn to protect and serve,” Nelson said, invoking Jesus’ commandment in the Gospel of John.
Bradshaw said his agency is tracking the data on traffic stops and has contracted with a Northeastern University professor to analyze the data. Bradshaw agreed to meet with PEACE over the summer to share the findings.
Bradshaw also shared his immigration protocol, which he has spoken about in other public settings. The sheriff’s office will not do “immigration sweeps,” but will arrest someone who is undocumented and has an existing criminal warrant and then contact the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if that person is not a legal immigrant. He has called this strategy “targeted deportation.”
“I’m not coming to your house to knock on your door,” Bradshaw said. “I’m not going to your business to find out who is working there. I’m not going to the agriculture area west of here to find out who is working in the fields.”
The Rev. John D’Mello of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Juno Beach spoke about a moral obligation people should have to treat strangers and immigrants as they would treat God.
“Jesus was a migrant who traveled, preached and was welcomed into nearby villages,” D’Mello said. “The immigrant living in fear of deportation is our neighbor.”
‘Why is our community left behind?’: PEACE wants more mental health staff in Palm Beach County
PEACE wants better mental health services in the county. It says the services available now are not enough to address the massive need.
The Rev. Gerald Kisner of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church spoke of a rampant “treat and street” pattern, when people with mental health issues get caught in a cycle of crises, hospitalizations and incarcerations without proper follow-up with solutions.
The ministry says that the Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network — which DCF funds — has “severely understaffed” teams of psychiatrists, nurses and social workers assigned to Palm Beach County.
Its members asked Asta Trinh, Florida DCF’s director of regional operations and initiatives, to investigate the situation and try to fix the problem if she finds that the teams are understaffed. Trinh committed to doing so and sharing the investigation results with PEACE on June 1.
“Why is our community being left behind?” Kisner said. “We cannot accept underperforming mental health services while precious lives are at stake.”
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