Local Summit: How Can We Help Each Other in Economic Crisis?

by Harold Wolfson; photos by John Gitlitz

(October 23, 2008) How can community residents help themselves and each other during the current economic crisis?

This was the question Local Summit’s speakers addressed at the organization’s October 21 meeting at the Nautilus Diner.

Answers fell into two categories: specific pragmatic advice and steps of moral imperative.

Offering practical advice were: Cindy Goldstein, a local attorney, accountant and veteran community activist (shown at left); Robbie Seidman, assistant director of the Community Counseling Center; Jeremy Ingpen, director of the Washingtonville Housing Alliance and Ernie Odierna, trustee in the Town of Mamaroneck.

Presenting ideas of why and how we should help each other as a moral imperative were Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman of the Larchmont Temple and Rev. Bill Crawford of the Larchmont Ave. Presbyterian Church.

Cindy Goldstein prefaced her remarks by telling her audience to “take a deep breath ---it will help and it's free. Don’t worry that you are uneasy. You’re not alone. Everyone is affected by the crisis. None of us, including the experts, can predict what will happen. And we suspect it was the experts who got us into this.”

Ten Tips for Financial Sanity

Ms. Goldstein then offered the following:

• Don’t take money out of the bank and put it in your mattress.
• If you do take money out put it in a fire-proof home safe.
• Make sure the money you leave in the bank is in an FDIC insured account and not all in one bank.
• Work down your credit card balance and then, if you need to, put your credit card where you can’t use it, like the freezer.
• Take a hard look at your expenses and get rid of some of the services you pay for monthly, like your cell phone, land line, direct line computer service or extra cable.
• If you need to raise case, sell things you don’t need or get a second job.
• If you leave money in the stock market, make sure it is diversified and in multiple asset classes.
• Ease up on watching stock reports. It doesn’t do your portfolio any good and does you harm.
• Raise your insurance deductibles.
• Talk to your children about finance. They should understand what’s happening and why it’s smart to live beneath your means.
  

Job Loss Can Cause Emotional Injury

Robbie Seidman said that financial crises create special stresses caused by perceived shame of job failure, “particularly in our community where upward mobility is of such great value.” She noted that the financial situation will impact everyone and threaten the stability of their lives. For this reason, she asked her audience to be attentive to the spoken and unspoken signs of emotional injury among family members and neighbors and to help them get counseling.

Jeremy Ingpen commented that the full brunt of the financial crisis is yet to be felt locally, but he believes it is sure to come. He reviewed several areas of assistance for housing, winter fuel and utility needs that his organization can provide and noted there were many other organizations offering additional services.

(Later, Lynn Reichgott said that copies of the comprehensive Community Services Directory, published by the Summit and the local United Way, are available to the public by phoning her at 833-0774, or Margaret Tramontine at 834-7018.)

Mr. Ingpen cautioned that many peculiar and unusual problems can occur in the current climate. He told of a Chappaqua doctor whose mortgage had been sold, sliced, resold and resliced. A loan-servicing agency down the line lost track of the doctor’s premium payments for mortgage insurance and claimed his property should be foreclosed because of unpaid annual insurance premiums of $12,000.

Borrow Rather Than Buy

Ernie Odierna, speaking as an audience member, reported that he and his wife recently had need of a cane and a wheel chair. He soon found that wheel chairs and related equipment were expensive. Then he discovered that Mamaroneck Town had a “loan closet” operated by its human services group. There he found “ten to twelve wheel chairs to choose from and more than that number of canes.” He raised his cane in proof.

Individuals from the audience then mentioned that both Westchestser County and the United Way similarly have supplies of donated medical equipment that can be borrowed.

Help is More Than Money

From the moral imperative camp, Rabbi Sirkman (shown at left) said that in this difficult time it was important to remember we each have an obligation to help one another, particularly the less fortunate. He said it was more about helping than about money. He recited the adage that “You come into the world with nothing. You leave the world with nothing. In between only your good deeds are left.”

“The current setback is a good time to revisit our values," said Rev. Crawford. "I don’t invite calamity, but we have been seduced by recent good times and have focused on ourselves. This is wake-up call for sharing.”

As the meeting neared its end, three comments were notable. Mariana Boneo, executive director of the Hispanic Resource Center, stressed that to maximize resources in this recession, helping organizations need to specialize to avoid wasteful duplication.

State Assemblyman George Latimer reminded everyone that the state budget gap was presently $2 billion, rising daily and everyone in the community should be prepared for major cuts to programs and services.

Carol Cauley of the Food Pantry told the audience to get the word out that students at the French-American School were preparing a public Thanksgiving dinner to be held in the cafeteria of St. Vito’s Church.

Harold Wolfson is on the board of The Local Summit, which hosted the meeting and is an informal community council working to make the community a better place to live for everyone. Its regular public meetings are held at 7:45 a.m., the third Tuesday of the month at the Nautilus Diner.

Front Page

Print This Page
Email this page