One church’s dogged determination to construct a 174-unit affordable housing project right next door

NEW YORK — The Rev. Patrick O’Connor, the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, which hosted the “Connection to Transformation” conference last weekend, is in his 33rd year serving the famed and historic church. “The members here will tell you we all work hard together for God,” he said on Friday. “I am proud to stand here and represent them.”

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After completing studies at the University of the West Indies, United Theological College, Yale University and the Columbia Business School. O’Connor came to FPC in 1992 as “the first Black person to be in any kind of leadership.”

“I am Black and educated, but I was considered ‘less than,’” he said. “More than 30 years later, it’s still a work in progress. The people have been generous and we have grown together.”

Have they ever. O’Connor helped lead the development of the Tree of Life project adjacent to the church, a $74 million affordable housing development offering 174 rental units, a Federally Qualified Health Center and other community spaces.

One-third of renters in the nation’s largest city spend more than half their income on rent. The Tree of Life project began with a seminary intern who created a survey for the neighborhood. Even though the survey took 12½ minutes to complete, 1,200 neighbors assented to doing just that. “Amazing!” O’Connor said.

“Then our folks started to dream. They had this idea that First Presbyterian Church should contribute something to the neighborhood,” O’Connor said. “If you leave the building, you’ll hear some of the stories you need to hear. If you’re in the building, you’ll never hear them.”

Many, many pieces fell in place to help the project to completion. O’Connor met Carol Rosenthal, a top land-use attorney “who in her heart and soul wants to make a difference,” O’Connor said. “She has never given us a bill in 18 years. She helped navigate the land-use for us.”

O’Connor serves on a board that includes several wealthy people. “I call myself ‘the conscience’” he said with a grin. He told one board colleague the project needed a $2 million boost, “and to get there, I need your help.” Soon, three bankers came to O’Connor and said, “Mr. X’s business is important to us, and he asked us to speak to you.”

“This was 2008 [the depths of the Great Recession}, when a church shouldn’t have gotten a loan,” O’Connor said. “God made a way.”

Then the people of FPC “did something remarkable,” he said. “We don’t have extremely wealthy people here, but our members pledged $1 million to support Tree of Life. The largest pledge was $20,000. It was a statement this vision meant something to them.”

Church members began taking prayer walks around the parking lot. “It was like walking around the walls of Jericho,” O’Connor recalled.

Tree of Life “is one of two really affordable buildings in the neighborhood because we fought for it,” O’Connor said. “Families need three bedrooms, and you can’t find those in the neighborhood.”

Completing the project “has taught me about partnerships and relating to people in the neighborhood and across the city. It’s taught me to work with others and how to pray,” he said. “When you pray, you can imagine that bigger things are possible because we serve a God who gives us big things.”

Excellence “is never an accident. It’s always a result of high intention, sincere effort and intelligent execution,” O’Connor said. “It represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

“The contribution I’d like to make is to the other pastors who want to join the fight to ensure the church remains as the church, and we fight for the downtrodden, forsaken, the broken, those who need homes, health care and food — and a reminder that God loves them.”

During a question-and-answer session that followed his talk, O’Connor told the story of the last-minute discovery of the church’s incorporation papers, just two days before Tree of Life’s closing. “A lawyer who’s a history buff went to the Queens Hall of Records. He found a hand-scribbled note of our incorporation in 1748, and so we could close,” O’Connor said.

“Everyone has the chance to do something,” he told the 90 or so people who registered for the conference, offered by the Synod of the Northeast. “It will look different in every neighborhood in every state.”

“If you believe in what God has called you to do,” he said, “go fight for it.”