In September 1943, a “New York Church Committee for Japanese Work” – headquartered at 150 Fifth Avenue – issued an appeal to the city’s Christian churches to support this W.R.A. program by arranging jobs, housing and church affiliations. The Federal Council of Churches created a similar entity, a “Committee on Resettlement of Japanese-Americans,” and other faith-based groups stepped forward. In April 1944, the American Baptist Home Mission Society and the Church of the Brethren announced they would open New York City’s first W.R.A.-approved hostel for Japanese-American evacuees, in a three story building at 168 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights. The New York Japanese American Hostel opened on May 10, 1944, housing an Arizona family of three – the father a gardener, the daughter a social worker, and the son about to be inducted into the army – without incident.