Con Ed Gives $500Gs to Group That Helps Insulate Manhattan Houses of Worship From Climate Disasters
New York Disaster Interfaith Services has gotten $500,000 from ConEd to foster “climate resiliency” in houses of worship citywide. Some of that money will certainly end up going towards Manhattan spaces, a rep for the organization told Straus News.
A nonprofit based out of Manhattan, New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS), has gotten a grant from Con Edison that will partially go towards helping shore up the borough’s houses of worship against extreme weather caused by climate change. The $500,000 in funding comes from a citywide pot of $4 million being distributed by the power utility.
The NYDIA grant will be oriented towards “climate justice,” which means that it has to go towards houses of worship located in neighborhoods particularly vulnerable to catastrophe.
In an interview with Straus News, NYDIS Executive Director & CEO Peter B. Gudaitis said that he expected some of the money will go towards houses of worship on the Lower East Side and Harlem as the funds begin to be disbursed next year.
The nonprofit helps oversee an audit program that helps houses of worship determine if “they’re vulnerable to things such as urban flooding, and whether or not they are energy efficient,” he said.
”Within the funding are sub-grants, which will help congregations make improvements that are necessary to harden their facilities against climate events,” he said. It’s the largest amount of funding that NYDIS has ever received for such a program, which is necessary considering that they do work in other boroughs as well.
Gudaitis said that Hurricane Ida, which battered Manhattan in 2012, was the “worst example” of flooding hitting houses of worship “to date.” He added that this was because “New York never planned for sea-level rise, and you have storm drains that can’t handle increased water volume. Even the high-volume pumps that the city has in the subway system are not adequate enough. This is a problem in houses of worship too, as they were never required to put in backflow valves.”
“When you have a surge of water going through the city’s sewer system, these houses of worship don’t just flood from the exterior, they flood from the interior,” he explained. “Most of these buildings are built with their mechanicals in the basement, unless they’re high-rise buildings. They’re vulnerable to having their boiler, hot-water heater, and even their elevator mechanicals wiped out.”
In a time of disaster, such as Ida, this flood damage has greater knock-on effects than merely rendering a house of worship nonfunctional for a congregation. It also directly imperils disaster recovery for the broader community, Gudaitis noted. Many of these same basements contain soup kitchens or food halls, which means that Manhattanites are “losing food access in food desert neighborhoods.”
Outside of mitigating flood risk, Gudaitis said that the money could be disbursed to congregations in neighborhoods at risk of extreme heat events, due to having “low tree canopy count.” Some houses of worship in Manhattan may end up being eligible for the funds based on these metrics.
Gudaitis believes that these infrastructure improvements are so important that they will be greatly expanded beyond this grant, “because it isn’t just about energy efficiency and lowering fuel bills, it’s really about the social safety net that congregations provide to the poorest neighborhoods in New York City.”