Cobble Hill 4th Graders Tell De Blasio 'Please Help' The Homeless

COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN — Mayor Bill de Blasio will soon be getting a different kind of plea for policy changes in his mailbox — a collection of handwritten letters by Brooklyn fourth graders.

Students from P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill recently wrote their own personal messages to the mayor, along with a petition with more than 300 signatures, asking for his help with the city's homelessness crisis.

The letters and petition were the result of a 12-week project through the organization Service Learning Project, which helps students develop an action plan for addressing an issue through service or activism.

Monica Salazar-Austin, the students' teacher, said the project sparked a sense of activism in her students, who've become committed to "using their voices as agents of change."

"This project was incredibly rewarding for our class," Salazar-Austin said. "It's important that students understand that their voices matter!...They rose to the challenge and used creative thinking to add their voices to others who are working to address this issue daily."

(Alicia Johnson)

The project started by having an SLP facilitator, Alicia Johnson, join the class in coming up with issues in their school, neighborhood or the city that they wanted to help solve. Students separated into small groups and "pitched" which issue the class should choose, Salazar-Austin said.

The class ultimately decided to focus on homelessness and started learning as much about the issue in New York City as they could.

Johnson brought the class an affordable housing petition developed by House of Future NY, which asks for 24,000 new affordable apartments and preservation of 6,000 more to help homeless New Yorkers.

"They were excited to join the petition and bring this issue to the forefront in conversation around homelessness in the city," Salazar-Austin said.

(Alicia Johnson)

Finally, students used their research to start canvassing for signatures to their petition. They practiced speeches and let potential signers know the facts, including that homelessness has reached its highest levels in New York since the 1930s and that 130,000 people slept in the city's shelter system in 2017.

The petition was sent to de Blasio along with the personal letters from the students.

"Every day I walk to school (and) I see homeless people fighting for their lives," one students wrote. "I walk by and Just wish at least one wish that wish would be to save them. Please help!"