ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Community members and leaders gathered on Tuesday to advocate for a higher living wage, housing security, and the establishment of a public bank in Rochester. The Community Outreach Forum aimed to create a concrete plan to address poverty in the city.

“Power concedes nothing without demand. Never has and never will. We have to make a demand that we want to end poverty in Rochester,” said Jalil Muntaqim of Citizen Action of New York, quoting Frederick Douglass.

Muntaqim’s organization is focused on tackling poverty in Rochester, which he described as the third worst city for poverty in New York state.

Roxana Siacam from the Worker Justice Center of New York emphasized the importance of higher wages. “We know that the cost of living here for just a single person to just sustain is at around $23 an hour. So one of the things that I’m proud to be a part of is bringing actual, tangible solutions. One thing that we know solves poverty is more money for people,” said Siacam.

Jeal-Paul Klem, an attendee, shared his personal experience with the current minimum wage.

“I’ve lived on that, $15 an hour. And essentially the reason I’m back in Rochester, the reason I’m not in my apartment where I was, was because a roommate situation fell through and someone had to move out because of a thing for school and something else. And then eventually, the apartment that you’re living in is just sort of bleeding what little money you have dry, and you’re sort of staring down the barrel of what are we going to do?”

Michael Marshall of the Immanuel Baptist Church highlighted the struggles faced by many in the community.

I met a mother the other day of four who takes care of her mother, and she is a nurse and actually got laid off because of an injury making $250 in workman’s comp a week, and she was taking advantage of our food cupboard. And that’s just a mutual aid aspect. What we focus on here at the church is community coalition and working with organizations such as Citizen Action that works to support actions and activities that are going to enhance the quality of life for individuals in the city,” said Marshall.

Local leaders are also pushing for New York state to adopt the Working Families Tax Credit, which would provide families up to $1,600 per child annually.

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