tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146753112024-03-07T10:18:49.658-08:00Social Solutions to Poverty WeeklyA place for student, faculty, and civic engagement.
If you would like to be a guest author, contact Scottscott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.comBlogger172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-33677249790121371222010-08-28T09:44:00.000-07:002010-08-29T11:46:15.272-07:00Email Secretary Mabus: “One Gulf, Resilient Gulf"Friends,<br />
<br />
The Gulf Coast still needs your support. <br />
<br />
Five years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and the New Orleans levees failed, the city is on the rise thanks to the fierce determination and spirit of its residents. Yet there is so much work to be done, and so many who still want to return home. Now, the BP oil disaster is devastating communities and the livelihoods of countless more Gulf Coast residents, many of whom are still rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav. <br />
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<br />
As you might know, President Obama has appointed Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to develop a Gulf Coast Recovery plan. This week, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, along with its partners Oxfam America, Trouble the Water, the Gulf Coast Fund, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, and over 100 other groups at the forefront of Gulf Coast recovery, have released a blueprint for the long-term recovery that calls on community-based, democratic, equitable and green solutions to the ongoing crises in the region.<br />
<br />
<strong>Act Now.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong><u>Please send an email</u> asking Secretary Mabus (<a href="mailto:restoreourgulf@gmail.com">restoreourgulf@gmail.com</a>) to include the recommendations of “One Gulf, Resilient Gulf" into the Obama Administration's plan for Gulf Coast recovery.</strong> <br />
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You can also send an email through Trouble the Water's website at <a href="http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/page/speakout/onegulf">http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/page/speakout/onegulf</a><br />
<br />
thanks, scott<br />
<br />
<br />
* The report can be accessed at <a href="http://www.oxfamamerica.org/onegulf">http://www.oxfamamerica.org/onegulf</a>. <br />
Please feel free to post the attached file or link.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-39180285854840775392010-08-27T11:32:00.000-07:002010-08-29T11:38:55.053-07:00Broken Promises of a Just Recovery in the Gulf Coast Five Years After Katrina/Rita**INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES & KEY FACTS**<br />
<br />
<br />
"[W]e have to have a president who understands the reality that people in New Orleans were being neglected prior to the hurricane. And there are potential Katrinas all across the country that have been left unattended."<br />
<br />
--Sen. Barack Obama (PBS Televised Presidential Debate, July 28, 2007)<br />
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NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the fifth anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita approaches, Gulf Coast residents are still trying to rebuild their lives after years of broken promises and government neglect.<br />
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The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, the bill intended to fund reconstruction efforts that would have provided hundreds of thousands of jobs for displaced residents, languishes in Congress. Affordable housing eludes both survivors in New Orleans and those displaced by the storm. After the devastating oil spill that has wreaked havoc on the local economy, the Obama administration has failed to take substantive action against British Petroleum on behalf of Gulf Coast residents and small businesses. British Petroleum's real liability goes far beyond the $75 million cap imposed by the cowardly Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Why shouldn't they be held fully responsible for their criminal negligence? It's not for Congress and the administration to negotiate a number that works for BP, erasing the real cost of this disaster in the process.<br />
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Unfortunately, the only thing that is abundantly clear is that our government failed in protecting the residents of the Gulf Coast during the storm and it has failed them yet again by breaking the promise of a just recovery. <br />
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Without a doubt, coverage of the anniversary of the storm will generate plenty of discussion regarding individual stories of survival and triumph, of which there are many. But for far too long, the story of a rights-based recovery has been neglected. Residents of the Gulf Coast region have long called for real solutions to address the disparities exacerbated by the storm, including: an adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement(1) and a demand that no more federal tax dollars be used to fund post-Katrina development projects that result in racial disparities in housing, healthcare, education, employment and environmental protection. <br />
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What is most frightening is the reality that Gulf Coast residents still have little to no federal policy in place to ensure sustainable change and recovery. The vast majority of funds and temporary practices connected to Katrina/Rita recovery are discretionary -- not permanent. Washington is playing a political game with the livelihoods of Gulf Coast residents. It's not fair and it's time for decision makers to take real action. <br />
<br />
The fifth anniversary of this disaster provides our country with the opportunity to investigate the policies at work in preventing a just recovery. The solutions that would enable such a turnaround in the Gulf are clear. It's now our turn to look toward implementing them so that Gulf Coast residents might have a chance to take back control of the future of the region. <br />
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The Katrina Information Network (KIN) is a collaboration of groups in the Gulf and across the country to build power for change. For the next 30 days, we will feature a dozen actions that anyone, anywhere can do to support Katrina recovery work. For more information about the 30 days of solidarity and our current campaigns for just recovery, please visit our website: http://www.katrinaaction.org<br />
<br />
KATRINA INFORMATION NETWORK<br />
<br />
INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE<br />
<br />
KIN has compiled a list of expert residents who are actively working for a just recovery. From community organizers to environmental attorneys, the people listed below are working on tirelessly to not only rebuild New Orleans, but to create a community that cares about all its residents. To schedule interviews, please contact Mervyn Marcano at 917-553-1001 or Mervyn@ThePraxisProject.org.<br />
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<strong>Monique Harden (Advocates for Environmental Human Rights):</strong> Co-founder and Attorney of AEHR, a public interest law firm dedicated to upholding the human right to live in healthy environments. Has worked with dozens of local community organizations on Katrina-related environmental issues.<br />
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<strong>Stephanie Mingo (Survivors Village):</strong> Lived in public housing. Her building was demolished, but not by Katrina, by the city of New Orleans. She fights actively for the right of residents to return home.<br />
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<strong>Adren O. Wilson (Equity and Inclusion Campaign):</strong> A nonpartisan coalition of local, regional and national organizations and community members confronting persistent poverty and inequity across the three Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.<br />
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<strong>Norris Henderson (Voice Of The Ex-Offender - VOTE):</strong> New Orleans native working to address the stark rise in police abuse, criminalization of residents and criminal justice spending post Katrina.<br />
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<strong>Upenda Glover (Katrina Commemoration Foundation):</strong> Organizers of annual march to commemorate lives lost. National hip-hop artists, legislators, and advocates will attend commemoration events all weekend. <br />
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KATRINA INFORMATION NETWORK<br />
<br />
FAILED RECOVERY FACTS<br />
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<strong>Overall population:</strong> Five years after Katrina, the most liberal estimates are that 141,000 fewer people live in the metro New Orleans area.<br />
<br />
<strong>Displaced People:</strong> Louisiana residents are located in more than 5,500 cities across the nation.<br />
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<strong>Lost Housing:</strong> More than 1 in 4 residential addresses in New Orleans is vacant or blighted-- by far the highest rate in the U.S. More than 5000 families are on the waiting list for traditional public housing and another 28,960 families are on the waiting list for housing vouchers -- more than double what it was before Katrina.<br />
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<strong>Rebuilding:</strong> At least 19,746 applications for rebuilding homes that are eligible for funding have not received any money from the Road Home Program grant program.<br />
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<strong>Economic Health:</strong> The metro area has 95,000 fewer jobs than before Katrina, down about 16 percent. Black and Latino households earn incomes that are $26,000 (44 percent) and $15,000 (25 percent) lower than whites. New Orleans has a poverty rate of 23 percent more than double the national average of 11 percent.<br />
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<strong>Public and Private Education:</strong> The number of students in public schools in New Orleans, which are over 90 percent African American, has declined by 43 percent since Katrina. New Orleans now has more charter schools than any other public school system in the country. Of the 89 public schools in New Orleans, 48, more than half, are charter schools.<br />
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<strong>People Receiving Public Assistance:</strong> Over one-third of Social Security recipients who lived in New Orleans have not returned. Medicaid recipients have declined by 31 percent. Supplemental Security Income recipients are down from pre-Katrina 26,654 to 16,514 -- a 38 percent decline. <br />
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<strong>Public Transportation:</strong> Total ridership declined down 65.7 percent. From more than 33 million in 2004 to about 13 million projected for 2010.<br />
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<strong>Oil Damage:</strong> There have been at least 348 intentional fires set in the Gulf of Mexico, controlled burns they call them, since spill. About 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant have been dumped into the Gulf, more than a million on the surface and about 750,000 gallons sub-sea.<br />
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(1)The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement apply the basic human rights to life, health, freedom from racial and gender discrimination, adequate housing, and other rights to protect people who are forced to flee their communities in times of disaster. Furthermore, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement establish the duties of national governments to ensure recovery and the rights of people displaced by a disaster to recover with dignity and justice.<br />
<br />
<br />
SOURCE: The Praxis Project/Katrina Information Network<br />
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RELATED LINKS <a href="http://www.katrinaaction.org/">http://www.katrinaaction.org/</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-33007237242617079412010-06-22T00:35:00.000-07:002010-06-22T00:35:32.485-07:00Regional Task Force Calls for Executive Order to Establish Gulf Coast Civic Works ProgramFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br />
<br />
<br />
Contact: David Gauthe, (985) 438-1609, mybisco@yahoo.com.<br />
<br />
<strong>Regional Task Force Calls for Executive Order to Establish Gulf Coast Civic Works Program</strong><br />
<br />
Houma, LA – June 17 – A Regional Task Force of Gulf Coast advocates is calling on President Obama to establish a new civic works program to bring jobs to the Gulf Coast, through an executive order. Over 200 regional and national organizations, as well as 50 leading religious officials and faith-based organizations, support the creation of a Gulf Coast Civic Works program.<br />
<br />
Over the past six weeks, BP has failed to deal adequately with the economic, environmental, and health crisis that they have caused. The Gulf Coast Civic Works program would help restore the economic and environmental health of the region by creating thousands of jobs to rebuild essential infrastructure and protect the environment. Under the proposed Executive Order, the federal government would also take control of training and hiring workers to respond to the Oil Disaster. <br />
<strong>Civic Works jobs and training include:</strong><br />
<ul><li>Restoring wetlands, coastal areas, fisheries, estuaries, and barrier islands;</li>
<li>Creating a Civic Conservation Corps for youth to safely help with the clean up, repair and maintain state parks, plant trees, and conduct urban greenery projects;</li>
<li>Completing the backlog of shovel-ready county projects (i.e., repair and maintenance of the roads, trees, etc.);</li>
<li>Implementing green jobs (e.g., weatherization, solar panels).</li>
</ul>The Task Force also calls for increased community input on all aspects of the clean up through Local Advisory Boards. It is vital for the federal government to partner and hear from the true experts on the needs of the Gulf Coast – the community-based organizations that have led recovery efforts since the 2005 and 2008 hurricanes.<br />
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The Gulf Coast Civic Works program follows in the proud American history of using public works to alleviate poverty and create economic growth during the toughest times. In the 1930s, when the nation faced an unemployment crisis, more than 800,000 public workers were hired in two weeks and 4 million were hired in two months. Just as civic works projects helped to alleviate the sweeping unemployment crisis during the Great Depression, so too can the Gulf Coast Civic Works program help solve the economic and environmental crisis facing the Gulf Coast today.<br />
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###<br />
If you are a part of any other networks, please feel free to forward this email along to them, as well as your media contacts.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-37127301782053402842010-04-13T02:36:00.000-07:002010-04-13T02:37:40.349-07:00Social Innovators Speaker Series, San Jose, CA<strong>Scott Myers-Lipton's address to the Social Innovators Series</strong>.<br />
<br />
I would like to thank Working Partnerships for hosting this event, and PG&E for sponsoring it. I also want to thank the co-sponsors: Assembly Member Jim Beall, Catholic Charities, CET, PACT, Sacred Heart Community Services, and Somos Mayfair.<br />
<br />
Today, I am going to address 4 issues: First, I will address the economic and infrastructure CRISES facing the United States. Second, I will discuss how Civic Works is a SOLUTION to both of these crises. Third, I will explore how the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act is pilot project for a public works initiative. And fourth, and finally, I will discuss what LESSONS the New Deal and GCCW has for an American Civic Works Project.<br />
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First, the Current Economic Crisis: Today, there is growing consensus among social scientists and policy experts that the deregulated market is at the center of our economic crisis. Even the architects of the conservative philosophy that guided our nation these past 30 years have admitted that this aspect of free-market ideology was flawed.<br />
<br />
At a congressional hearing in October 2008, Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve stated, “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.” <br />
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This “flaw” in Greenspan’s thinking and conservative ideology about markets, regulation, and the limited role of government has led to the almost collapse of our economy, with the working people of the U.S. paying heavily for this mistake. To date, this “flaw” has cost the American tax payer $3 trillion dollars to bailout the banks and insurance companies, while at the same time, it has led directly to the loss of 8 million jobs, leaving our unemployment rate at 9.7% overall, and at 12.6% for Latinos ad 16.5% for African Americans.<br />
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Importantly, our economic crisis is connected to our infrastructure crisis, since it was the same conservative philosophy that deregulated the markets that also limited social spending on public projects. Because of this conservative belief in the limited role of government, US spending on infrastructure has declined by 50% since 1960 as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.<br />
<br />
Today, the US spends about 2% of its GDP on infrastructure, in comparison to Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, which spends about 5% of their annual GDP on infrastructure, and India and China, which spend 8% and 9% respectively on infrastructure. <br />
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Our crumbling infrastructure can be seen in our structurally deficient bridges, weak levees, poorly maintained dams, and dilapidated schools. <br />
<br />
Let me give a few examples: Today, 157,000 bridges are deemed structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Not surprisingly, the I-35W bridge, which is on the cover of my book, was rated structurally deficient by the federal government.<br />
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Another example of our crumbling infrastructure is with our levee and dams. Today, almost 150 levees are in serious risk of failing. Remember, it was the levees which caused the drowning of the Big Easy, as the levees broke in 53 places. In addition to our weak levees, 4,095 dams have been deemed deficient, with 1,819 dams considered to be of high hazard of failing, with 687 of these high hazard dams in California.<br />
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At the same time, our transmission grid system is in need of modernization, so as to avoid “bottlenecks” and blackouts, like the one experienced in the Northeast in 2003, where 3,700 square miles lost power affecting 55 million people. And as many in this room know, our K-12 schools are in desperate need of new construction, additions, and renovations.<br />
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Each year, the American Society of Engineers releases a “report card” rating American infrastructure, and in 2009, it gave the U.S. an overall rating of a “D”, and they estimated it would cost $2.2 trillion during a 5-year period to repair our public infrastructure.<br />
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Surely, most Americans can agree that the U.S., the richest country in the world, should have a public infrastructure that is worthy of a great power. Our nation’s economy depends on having good roads, efficient airports, an effective power grid, and well-maintained schools. And our nation’s health and well-being depend on clean water and good public parks. It is time to Rebuild America!<br />
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The solution I am suggesting to do this is Public Works, or what I am calling, Civic Works. First, let me say that public works is an American solution that has been used for over 100 years to deal with economic crisis. It was used in the 1880s by city governments to alleviate unemployment, and of course, it was used by the federal government to alleviate unemployment during the Great Depression.<br />
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In the 1930s, the US created such public works programs as the CWA, PWA, WPA, and CCC. This alphabet soup of programs injected $336 billion in 2008 dollars into the economy and hired over 10 million people. <br />
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In combination with other New Deal initiatives, unemployment was cut from 24% in 1933 to 14.6% by 1940, and if the unemployment statistics included public works jobs, the unemployment rate would have been 10%. This decrease in the unemployment rate was one of the greatest decreases in American history. <br />
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In addition to reducing unemployment, New Deal public works built or repaired over:<br />
• 2,500 hospitals <br />
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• 9,000 parks <br />
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• 43,000 schools<br />
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• 125,000 bridges<br />
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• 1 million miles of roads<br />
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• they stocked 1 billion fish into our rivers<br />
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• and they planted 3 billion trees <br />
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Public works literally built the infrastructure we utilize today.<br />
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Fast forward to 2006: A year after Hurricane Katrina, a group of students and I watched Spike Lee’s film, When the Levees Broke. We saw how 1,830 people died, 250,000 houses and 320 million trees destroyed, and 500,000 people displaced as a result of Katrina and the broken levees. And we saw the failed response by the government and the lackluster recovery efforts that followed.<br />
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After seeing Spike Lee’s video and studying the positive impact of public works, my students and I humbly proposed a modern-day “civic works” project to rebuild the Gulf Coast. We renamed public works “civic works,” since the body politic didn’t seem to be working for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi. And with the leadership of Congress member Zoe Lofgren, the GCCW Act was introduced in 2007 and again in 2009.<br />
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Today, 43 Congress members and over 250 regional and national organizations are advocating for the GCCW Act. House Resolution 2269 would create 100,000 green and prevailing-wage jobs and training opportunities for Gulf Coast residents and displaced citizens to rebuild public infrastructure damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and restore the wetlands.<br />
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<strong>The principles guiding GCCW are: democracy, equity, green jobs:</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>1st: Democracy:</strong> The GCCW Act allows for citizen participation in Local Advisory Boards so that residents are involved in the decisions about what gets built in their community.<br />
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<strong>2nd: Equity:</strong> HR 2269 supports equitable economic development by providing first source hiring, 20% apprenticeable jobs, and the protection of people of color, women, and immigrant.<br />
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<strong>3rd: Green Jobs:</strong> HR 2269 would rebuild infrastructure in an environmentally sustainable manner utilizing green building technologies.<br />
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Importantly, we see HR 2269 as a model for the rest of the nation about how to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs by using a bottom-up model of community development.<br />
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This idea of Civic Works is catching on. Recently, Assembly Member Jim Beall introduced the “California Civic Works Act,” or AB 2004, into the Assembly. AB 2004 is a great first step. As with HR 2269, it calls on counties to support pre-apprentice and apprentice programs, and it encourages them to create civic works jobs. Assembly member Beall will address the specifics of this bill after my remarks.<br />
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So Where Do We Go From Here?: The economic and infrastructure crises we now face are bigger than just the Gulf Coast and California. It is nation-wide. Therefore, I see the next step as the development of a large-scale “jobs creation” bill….an American Civic Works Act.<br />
<br />
But I am not naïve enough to think that this policy proposal has a chance of moving forward without a movement of working people pushing hard for it. As I see it, the only way an American Civic Works Act has a chance to be enacted is that there is overwhelming pressure on Congress and the President to act.<br />
As I was preparing my remarks for this talk, I read this past Monday the following headline: “White House Braces Unemployed for Slow Job Rebound”.<br />
<br />
So I guess the question for us is: should we be doing this? Is this the right strategy for working families? To brace ourselves for a slow job recovery….or in another words a job less recovery? I say no! I say, we create a movement to pass an American Civic Works jobs bill that gets people back to work REBUILDING AMERICA.<br />
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Now as you know….the devils in the details. From my research on the New Deal and my work in the Gulf Coast, I would suggest these details for a jobs bill: First, include in the bill the principles of the GCCW Act, which are democracy, equity, and green jobs.<br />
<br />
Second, create both a contract model of public works, where private businesses can bid on contracts, but also develop a “public option” hiring model. If we look back at the history, the government hiring model was much more successful at hiring large numbers or workers. For example, during the New Deal, the contract model (PWA) averaged about 221,000 workers a year, while the government hiring model hired on average close to 3 million a year.<br />
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Third, the jobs bill needs to be large enough to match the unemployment and infrastructure crisis. Remember, the need is over $2.2 trillion dollars and over 15 million jobs. Of course, people will ask where will we get the money? But this money will come back several-fold as workers use their pay checks to buy goods and services, and pay taxes.<br />
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Fourth, expand the notion of civic works to include such areas as child care and elderly care.<br />
In conclusion, the US can do better than just “brace” for a jobless recovery. Why is it that when the banks and insurance firms need a bailout, it is given within days, but when the working people need a bailout, we are told to “brace for a slow recovery.”<br />
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Seventy-five years ago, when we were faced with another unemployment crisis President Roosevelt created through Executive Order, three of the four major public works projects of the New Deal. In 2 weeks of signing an Executive Order, 800,000 Americans were hired. In just 2 months, 4 million were hired….and they did this without computers! <br />
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Why not ask President Obama to be so visionary? <br />
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With a movement encouraging President Obama and Congress to create an American Civic Works Jobs Bill, we could once again hire millions within weeks….and begin the process of Rebuilding America. <br />
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Thank you very much!<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-11323259328885806312010-03-02T22:41:00.000-08:002010-03-02T22:44:27.870-08:00Students, Faith, & Community Groups to Hold Rally at Rep. Miller's OfficeFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br />
<strong>Contacts:</strong><br />
<strong>Ysenia Sepulveda, GCCWP student organizer,</strong> <br />
(510) 828-5503, <a href="mailto:isyjsepulveda@att.net">isyjsepulveda@att.net</a><br />
<strong>Eric Acedo, GCCWP student organizer,</strong> <br />
(408) 710-7092, <a href="mailto:cireodecamah@aol.com">cireodecamah@aol.com</a><br />
<br />
<strong>Students, Faith, & Community Groups to Hold Rally at Rep. Miller's Office, </strong><strong>Groups Call for Action on Human Rights Crisis in the Gulf Coast <em>Friday, March 19th at noon</em></strong><br />
<br />
<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHoYqf_1JINfd1il9vIomkNBFro_OB9k6HxmNVzXkk1GQGhyQCFWq6-9pCZ2MqqKm9X6w6jQcaZEXDRdm6aq-83eKEC5gDTRAjXp2gPSMB3QZqnnLwzBkU1AHV6jdLflMEWS-/s1600-h/ScreenHunter_02+Mar.+02+21.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHoYqf_1JINfd1il9vIomkNBFro_OB9k6HxmNVzXkk1GQGhyQCFWq6-9pCZ2MqqKm9X6w6jQcaZEXDRdm6aq-83eKEC5gDTRAjXp2gPSMB3QZqnnLwzBkU1AHV6jdLflMEWS-/s200/ScreenHunter_02+Mar.+02+21.36.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">SAN JOSE, CA – FEBRUARY 19 – The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, the national student movement to pass the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269), along with the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, the Bay Area Katrina Solidarity Network, and faith-based groups from the East Bay, will hold a rally in front of Rep. George Miller's office (<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1333+willow+pass+road+concord+ca&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1333+Willow+Pass+Rd,+Concord,+Contra+Costa,+California+94520&gl=us&ei=tPeNS6rGK5D-tQOV3KHaCA&ved=0CAcQ8gEwAA&ll=37.96961,-122.052612&spn=0.009524,0.021093&t=h&z=16">1333 Willow Pass Road, Suite 203, Concord</a>) on Friday, March 19th at noon.</div><br />
<br />
The goal will be to highlight the continuing human rights crisis in the Gulf Coast. As a response to the crisis, 43 Congress members and 250+ organizations are calling on the passage of HR 2269, which is a federal bill to create 100,000 jobs for local and displaced residents to rebuild infrastructure and restore their environment. <br />
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The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act was first introduced into Congress two years and four months ago, where it was sent to the Education and Labor Committee, currently chaired by Rep. George Miller. Since then, its supporters have waited patiently for a hearing on the bill. However, almost 2 and 1/2 years later, no action has been taken on the HR 2269.<br />
<br />
As HR 2269 languishes in Committee, the human rights crisis in the Gulf Coast continues, as housing, schools, and hospitals have been slow to return, thus making it very difficult for residents to return to their homes. For example, in New Orleans, 69,727 residential addresses are unoccupied, 71% of the schools are still closed, 57% of child care centers are closed, and 44% of the hospitals are closed. In Mississippi, there is a lack of affordable housing to absorb the 1,000s of households in FEMA temporary housing programs. The good news is that there is $19 billion of federal money not obligated and unspent that could be used for GCCW projects.<br />
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What we are asking from Rep. Miller is this: (1) to include HR 2269 in the upcoming Congressional jobs bill or (2) commit to hold a hearing for HR 2269 in the spring/summer.<br />
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Support continues to grow for the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. Most recently, the Biloxi City Council, passed a resolution in support of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. This action by the Biloxi City Council follows the decision by New Orleans, Lafouche, and Terrebonne Parishes, three Louisiana parishes that have passed similar resolutions in support of HR 2269.<br />
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<strong>####</strong><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-65459464162999057982010-02-24T23:24:00.000-08:002010-03-02T23:28:40.553-08:00GCCW Campaign Letter to Sen. Landrieu, Feb. 24, 2010The Honorable Mary Landrieu<br />
328 Hart Senate Building<br />
United States Senate<br />
Washington, DC 20510<br />
<br />
Dear Senator Landrieu:<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Four years and a half after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, the slow pace of recovery, persistent poverty, coastal land loss, and climate change have created a crisis across America’s Gulf Coast that demands a powerful response from our elected officials. Our federal response has yet to properly protect the well-being of America’s most vulnerable people and places through recovery policies which rebuild lives, restore the environment, mitigate future hazards, and respect human rights. Since 2005, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have witnessed four major regional disasters- Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike- which have caused over $150 billion worth of damage, destroyed over 300,000 homes, killed more than 2,000 Americans and left tens of thousands of families still displaced and unable to return to their communities.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>As we look across America’s Gulf Coast today, we see:<br />
<ul><li>Millions of residents vulnerable to internal displacement or mass relocation due to future deadly storms, coastal land loss, and climate change;</li>
<li>Homeowners insurance costs sky-rocketing in coastal communities;</li>
<li>Homelessness and rental housing costs rising as affordable housing projects grinding to a halt with the crash of financial markets and thousands of blighted and storm-damaged properties remaining unrepaired; and</li>
<li>Too many families unable to access proper training and living wage work to pay for life’s necessities and find pathways out of poverty.</li>
</ul><br />
<div> </div>To begin to address these challenges, we urge the President to request and Congress to grant the reallocation of $2.8 billion in existing budgetary federal authority towards competitive grants partnering with local governments, non-profits, and faith-based organizations on projects creating green jobs building more resilient coastal communities. The U.S. Congress has appropriated billions of dollars in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita which have yet to reach the ground. As of June 30, 2009, almost one third of the total funds granted by the U.S. Congress to federal agencies ($39.4 billion) has yet to be spent. Of this, $19.4 billion has not even been obligated to specific projects. The attached memo outlines how a portion of these unused funds could be repurposed to allow the federal government to begin to partner with local stakeholders to meet this incredible national challenge.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Gulf Coast residents have expressed frustrations in the federal governments’ inability to address the long-term needs of people impacted, particularly among vulnerable populations, including residents with disabilities, elderly, low income, women, immigrant, and minority communities. Recent studies show America’s Gulf Coast to be home to some of the most vulnerable communities in the country to the threat of climate change and natural disasters. The roots of this vulnerability include a combination of economic, social and environmental challenges, each of which have been inadequately addressed by federal recovery policy to date. Additionally, national economic interests along the Gulf Coast, including energy, shipping, and commercial fishing, also remain under threat without significant action to thwart coastal land loss and protect Gulf Coast ecosystems.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Faced with these inter-related challenges residents, volunteers, and social innovators from non-profit and faith-based organizations have led some of the most successful efforts for promoting recovery and resiliency. Despite developing cutting-edge models for rebuilding safer, more energy efficient homes, protecting wetlands, training workers and revitalizing communities, their efforts have often lacked in scale due to limited funding. By reallocating federal funds towards partnerships with community leaders, we could begin to address priorities including:<br />
<ul><li>Creating jobs restoring natural flood protection, including wetlands and barrier islands;</li>
<li>Retrofitting homes to withstand flooding and winds and promoting energy efficiency to bring down energy and homeowners insurance costs for low income families;</li>
<li>Helping families immediately threatened by coastal flooding to relocate voluntarily;</li>
<li>Promoting community economic development and affordable housing, including repairing or rebuilding blighted, storm-damaged properties;</li>
<li>Creating supportive housing for the chronically homeless and residents with disabilities;</li>
<li>Training local workers for high demand, high wage skilled trades work, including cutting edge green building, coastal restoration and disaster mitigation technologies;</li>
<li>Promoting local business development in cutting-edge green industries; and</li>
<li>Helping local small businesses obtain Surety Bonds to compete for federal contracts.</li>
</ul><br />
<div>We urge you to support attaching a request to reallocate these funds in either the Jobs Bill now being debated in Congress, other upcoming supplemental appropriations legislation, or the FY 11 Appropriations Process. Such a plan would allow the Administration and the U.S. Congress to fulfill their campaign promises of building stronger, safer and more equitable communities across America’s Gulf Coast without increasing the national deficit. Together, we can work to put in place policies to ensure that we rebuild more resilient and equitable neighborhoods, restore the environment, and empower our brothers and sisters to lift themselves from poverty and overcome devastation.</div><br />
<div> </div>Sincerely,<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Roberta Avila<br />
Executive Director, Steps Coalition<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Julia Beatty<br />
Program Officer, The Twenty-First Century Foundation<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Eugene Ben<br />
Director, Benroe Housing Initiatives<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Peg Case<br />
Director, TRAC<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Mona Gobert-Cravins<br />
Assistant Administrator, 232-HELP/Louisiana 211<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Mary Fontenot<br />
Executive Director, All Congregations Together (ACT)<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Sharon Gauthe<br />
Executive Director, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO)<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Mary Joseph<br />
Director, Louisiana Office<br />
Children’s Defense Fund<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Rev. Ken Booker Langston<br />
Director, Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Lan Le<br />
Executive Director, National Alliances of Vietnamese American Service<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D.<br />
Co-Founder, Gulf Coast Civic Works Project<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Eva Paterson<br />
President, Equal Justice Society<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Glenda Perryman<br />
Executive Director, Immaculate Heart Community Development Corp<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Marcia Peterson<br />
Director, Desire Street Ministries/CDC 58:12 Inc.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Marie Thompson<br />
Executive Director, Dando la Mano<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Lisa Richardson, PhD<br />
Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES)<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Sandy Sorensen<br />
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries<br />
Washington Office<br />
<br />
Bill Stallworth<br />
Executive Director, Hope CDA: Hope Community Development Agency<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed,<br />
National Director<br />
Office for Interfaith & Community Alliances<br />
Islamic Society of North America<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Rev. Romal J. Tune<br />
CEO, Clergy Strategic Alliances, LLC<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Jay A. Wittmeyer<br />
Executive Director, Global Mission Partnerships<br />
Church of the Brethren<br />
<br />
<div> </div>Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.,<br />
National Chair, National Congress of Black Women, Inc.<br />
<br />
<div> </div>John Zippert<br />
Director, Rural Training and Research Center<br />
Federation of Southern Cooperatives<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-50861477146673009742009-11-11T11:07:00.000-08:002009-11-11T11:50:10.720-08:004th Annual "Poverty Under the Stars" 11/12/09 7PM at SJSU<span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Lofgren, Community Leaders to Address the Great Recession Green, Living Wage Jobs Called for through Civic Works</strong></span>
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">
<br />San Jose, CA – November 11: This Thursday, Rep. Lofgren, Assembly member Beall, and many of Silicon Valley's civic leaders will gather to discuss the effect of the Great Recession on our nation and community.
<br /></span>
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This year's 4th Annual "Poverty Under the Stars" event, which is sponsored by the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project and the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, <strong>will take place at the Tommie Smith and John Carlos Statue Garden on the campus of San José State University</strong>. </span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>On November 12th, at noon</strong>, community organizations (e.g., Step Up Silicon Valley, Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, etc.) and campus organizations will set up tents around the Smith/Carlos statues that will be decorated with placards and pictures of the Great Recession.
<br /></span>
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>At 7-9 pm,</strong> there will be a forum at the Smith/Carlos statues that will feature Silicon Valley leaders, including:</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><ul><li>Congress member Zoe Lofgren </li><li>Assembly member Jim Beall</li><li>Jeff Moore, NAACP Silicon Valley </li><li>Theresa Iacino, Step Up Silicon Valley </li><li>Todd Madigan, Sacred Heart Community Services</li><li>Sabuhi Siddique, Ahmadiya Muslim Community, Milpitas </li><li>Aaron Nankin, Jewish Federation, Young Adults Division</li><li>Sakura Kone', Community Activist, New Orleans </li><li>Sandra Huerta, SJSU GCCWP Student</li></ul><p>As a part of the event, civic works will be discussed as a solution to the Great Recession. </p>The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, which was created at SJSU, helped to develop the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (House Resolution 2269). Rep. Lofgren introduced HR 2269 as a way to create 100,000 green jobs for hurricane survivors to rebuild affordable housing and infrastructure, restore wetlands, and promote energy efficiency.
<br />
<br />And very soon, a <strong>California Civic Works Act</strong> based on HR 2269 may well be introduced in the Assembly to address the unemployment crisis here in the Golden State.
<br />
<br /><strong>Finally, from 9PM - 7AM, students will sleep out</strong> to be in solidarity with the people who are being impacted by the Great Recession.
<br />
<br />Here are some of the facts about the Great Recession that will be discussed at "Poverty Under the Stars":
<br />
<br /><strong>UNEMPLOYMENT</strong>
<br />15.7 million unemployed (10.2%) in U.S.
<br />27 million (17.5%) unemployed, underemployed or stopped looking for work in U.S.
<br />2.2 million unemployed (12.2%) in California
<br />104,400 unemployed (11.8%) in Santa Clara County
<br />
<br /><strong>HOUSING</strong>
<br />623,852 homes lost to banks in 2009 (so far)
<br />937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter in third quarter, 2009
<br />69,727 unoccupied residential addresses in New Orleans
<br />415 Santa Clara County homes foreclosed in September, 2009;
<br />4,131 homes in process of foreclosure in Santa Clara County
<br />
<br /><strong>POVERTY</strong>
<br />40 million (14.6%) in poverty in U.S.19% of American kids in poverty, with 33% of black children in poverty; this latter figure expected to rise to 53% in coming years.
<br />
<br />12 million American kids face hunger and food insecurityTwo poorest states in Union: Mississippi (22%) and Louisiana (19%);
<br />
<br />California (13.3%) is ranked #20
<br />
<br />In Santa Clara County, 25% of households do not earn enough to meet the minimum standard for self-sufficiency
<br />
<br /><strong>EDUCATION
<br /></strong>71% of New Orleans schools still closed compared to pre-Katrina levels
<br />California reduced K-14 funding by $3.7 billion (6.3%) in 2009-10;
<br />$584 million cuts to CSU; CSU student fees up 30% in '09
<br />California ranks 47th in nation in K-12 per pupil spending
<br />
<br />In 1980s, 17% of the California budget went to higher education and 3% went to prisons. Today, 9% goes to universities and 10% to prisons.
<br />
<br /><strong>BANK BAIL OUT vs. INVESTMENT
<br /></strong>$2 trillion in bailout funds given to banks & financial institutions
<br />$2.2 trillion needed to rebuild the crumbling U.S. infrastructure
<br />
<br />Infrastructure funded by American Investment Act: $150 billion
<br />Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase are set to hand out $48.9 billion in bonuses, which on average is more than $250,000 a person
<br />
<br />New Orleans received the least amount of 2009-10 stimulus dollars of 435 congressional districts
<br />
<br />30% of California’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and 69 of our 1,247 dams are in need of rehabilitation</span>
<br /></span></span>
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Contact: Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, San José State, (510) 508-5382, </span><a href="mailto:smlipton@sjsu.edu"><span style="font-family:verdana;">smlipton@sjsu.edu</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-68249139563918441002009-10-16T23:26:00.000-07:002009-10-17T13:48:33.857-07:00GCCW press release picked up by Politico.com and Washington TimesPresident Obama: We will rebuild this region -<br /><br /><a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28341_Page2.html" target="_blank">http://www.politico.com/news/<wbr>stories/1009/28341_Page2.html</a><br /><br />Obama makes first presidential New Orleans visit -<br /><br /><a href="http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/obama-makes-first-presidential-visit-new-orleans/?feat=home_headlines" target="_blank">http://washingtontimes.com/<wbr>news/2009/oct/15/obama-makes-<wbr>first-presidential-visit-new-<wbr>orleans/?feat=home_headlines</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-12674981183079194142009-10-16T23:16:00.000-07:002009-10-16T23:18:27.530-07:00Release: Interfaith Leaders urge President Obama: Make Poverty, Climate and Coastal Restoration Priorities in Gulf Coast Communities<b><i><span style="font-family: times new roman,serif;">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span></i></b> <i><span style="font-family: times new roman,serif;font-size:85%;" ><b><span style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;"></span></span></b></span></i> <div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">SOURCE: </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;"></span></b>Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign<br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">CONTACT:</span></b> Mary Fontenot - ACT (504) 495-5338 <a href="http://us.mc306.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=act_nola@yahoo.com" title="http://us.mc306.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=act_nola@yahoo.com" target="_blank">act_nola@yahoo.com</a><br />David Gauthe - BISCO (985) 438-2148 <a href="http://us.mc306.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mybisco@yahoo.com" title="http://us.mc306.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mybisco@yahoo.com" target="_blank">mybisco@yahoo.com</a></span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Over 50 Christian, Jewish, Muslim Leaders Urge President Obama:<br />Make Poverty and Environment Priorities with Civic Works Jobs for Gulf Coast Communities</span></b></span></span></p> </div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;"><br />New Orleans, LA, October 15, 2009 –</span></b> As President Barack Obama arrives in New Orleans for this first visit since his historic election, over 50 leading religious officials and faith-based organizations are urging the President for robust long-term hurricane recovery policy to tackle poverty, coastal erosion and climate change. The signers include Rabbi Steve Gutow, Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, National Council of Churches; Sayyid M. Syeed, Islamic Society of North America; Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Bishop Charles E. Blake, Church of God in Christ; Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, The Episcopal Church; Dr. Joel C. Hunter; Nancy Ratzan, National Council of Jewish Women; Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners; and Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, Christian Church.<div><div><br /><br />The letter explains, “Four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck and the levees were breached, the slow pace of recovery, persistent poverty, climate change and coastal land loss have created a moral crisis across the region that demands a powerful response from people of faith and our elected officials.” Organized by Louisiana-based interfaith groups All Congregations Together (ACT) and Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO), the letter urges President Obama to look to a bipartisan bill, HR 2269, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, as a model for resident-led recovery policy to “ensure just and sustainable recovery for all Gulf Coast communities”. HR 2269 would create 100,000 green jobs for hurricane survivors rebuilding affordable housing and infrastructure, restoring wetlands and promoting energy efficiency and climate change resiliency.<br /><br />The letter was written in coordination with “Fighting Poverty with Faith” (<a href="http://www.fightingpovertywithfaith.com/" target="_blank">www.fightingpovertywithfaith.<wbr>com</a>), an interfaith week of action October 14th-21st, 2009 focused on urging elected officials to make poverty-reduction a key goal in the nation’s transition to a new green economy.<br /><br />ACT and BISCO are co-founders of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign (<a href="http://gccwc.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://gccwc.wordpress.com</a>), a nonpartisan partnership of community, faith, environmental, student, and human rights organizations in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi and their national allies advocating for federal legislation based on HR 2269 the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act.<br /><br />[TEXT OF LETTER]<br /><br />President Barack Obama<br />The White House<br />1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW<br />Washington, DC 20500<br /><br />Dear Mr. President:<br /><br />We applaud your decision to travel to New Orleans to witness the state of recovery of the Gulf Coast. We also welcome the emphasis of this Administration on solving the bureaucratic struggles which hamper hurricane recovery funding from reaching the ground. Still, we are hopeful that after hearing from local leaders and hurricane survivors during your trip, you can return to Washington with a renewed understanding of the significant gaps that remain towards fulfilling the federal government’s promises of rebuilding stronger, safer and more equitable Gulf Coast communities. Four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck and the levees were breached, the slow pace of recovery, persistent poverty, climate change and coastal land loss have created a moral crisis across the region that demands a powerful response from people of faith and our elected officials.<br /><br />Our national response to these natural and man-made disasters has yet to protect the well-being of the Gulf Coast’s most vulnerable people and places through long-term recovery policies which restore the environment, rebuild lives and respect human rights.<br /><br />As communities of faith, we are grounded in a shared tradition of justice and compassion and we are called upon to hold ourselves and our nation accountable to the moral standard of this tradition. As we look across America’s Gulf Coast, we see:<br /><br />Ø Thousands living in toxic FEMA trailers as they struggle to rebuild their homes;<br />Ø Tens of thousands of displaced survivors unable to return home with dignity and safety;<br />Ø Homelessness and rental housing costs rising while affordable housing projects grind to a halt with the crash of financial markets;<br />Ø Insufficient access to health care facilities, particularly in the areas of mental health where needs for these facilities and services have grown substantially for survivors; and<br />Ø Many more unable to access proper training and living wage work to pay for life’s necessities and find pathways out of poverty.<br /><br />At the same time, Gulf Coast communities see deadlier storms, rising sea levels from climate change, and a majority of our nation’s coastal erosion occurring each year along the Gulf of Mexico, further threatening the future of our communities.<br /><br />This means that four years after our nation’s largest disaster the survivors of these storms remain vulnerable; leaving a spiritual wound open across the region, one felt in God’s creation and every community across this country. We must act now to target the challenges facing our most vulnerable communities; rebuilding more resilient and equitable neighborhoods, restoring God’s creation and empowering our brothers and sisters to overcome the devastation and lift themselves from poverty.<br /><br />While you visit New Orleans, faith communities across the country are engaging in an interfaith week of action “Fighting Poverty with Faith,” October 14th-21st, 2009, in order to urge our elected officials to make poverty-reduction a key goal of the transition to a new green economy. Surely, no part of the country presents a greater need and opportunity for environmental restoration and economic revitalization than America’s Gulf Coast.<br /><br />Members of diverse faith communions have already responded generously to these disasters, volunteering thousands of hours to rebuild lives across Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas and giving millions in charitable donations. Faith groups have formed powerful new partnerships with local community leaders, non-profits and other denominations, to lead some of the most successful efforts in the recovery.<br /><br />We have learned that acts of faith and mercy alone, no matter how profound, cannot provide everything needed for a just recovery. Gulf Coast families deserve a federal government that recognizes their human rights and needs by partnering with them to rebuild and sustain their communities.<br /><br />Billions in Congressionally appropriated funds remain un-obligated or unspent and could potentially be used to address unmet recovery needs in a pilot project for promoting innovative partnerships with local governments, faith-based and community organizations. A framework for accomplishing these goals already exists and continues to be embraced by a growing bi-partisan coalition of grassroots and elected leaders across the Gulf Coast. We urge your Administration and leaders in both parties of Congress to support policy based on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269) to:<br /><br />Ø Provide targeted training and hiring of residents and hurricane survivors for jobs;<br />Ø Rebuild affordable housing and vital community infrastructure;<br />Ø Restore natural flood protection, including barrier islands and wetlands;<br />Ø Promote energy efficiency and resiliency to future disasters and climate change;<br />Ø Make contracting and subcontracting opportunities accessible to local businesses; and<br />Ø Work with community and faith-based non-profits and local governments to plan and implement recovery projects to target the needs and ensure the rights of vulnerable populations, especially women, residents with disabilities, low income, minority, and immigrant communities.</div></div></span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We look forward to working with your Administration to ensure just and sustainable recovery for all Gulf Coast communities.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Mary Fontenot<br />Executive Director<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>All Congregations Together (ACT) of New Orleans<br /><br />Sharon Gauthe<br />Executive Director<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO)<br /><br />Rabbi Steve Gutow<br />Executive Director<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>The Jewish Council of Public Affairs<br /><br />The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon<br />General Secretary<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>National Council of Churches USA<br /><br />Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed<br />National Director<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>Office for Interfaith & Community Alliances<br />Islamic Society of North America<br /><br />The Most Rev. Charles E. Blake<br />Presiding Bishop<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>Church of God in Christ<br /><br />The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori<br />Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church<br /><br />Simone Campbell, SSS<br />Executive Director<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby<br /><br />Charlie Clements<br />President and CEO<span style="color:navy;"><span style="color: navy;">, </span></span>Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)<br /><br />Ruth Flowers<br />Legislative Director, Friends Committee on National Legislation<br /><br />Dr. Raymond B. Goldstein, International President; and<br />Rabbi Steven C. Wernick, Executive Vice President and CEO<br />United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism<br /><br />Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt<br />Co-Chair Special Commission on the Just Re-building of the Gulf Coast</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">National Council of Churches<br /><br />Dr. Joel C. Hunter *<br />Senior Pastor, Northland – A Church Distributed<br /><br />Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo<br />Executive Minister of Justice and Witness Ministries, United Church of Christ<br /><br />Shelley Lindauer<br />Executive Director<br />Women of Reform Judaism<br /><br />Rev. Michael E. Livingston<br />Co-Chair Special Commission on the Just Re-building of the Gulf Coast </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">National Council of Churches<br /><br />Sr. Gayle Lwanga, RGS<br />National Coordinator, National Advocacy Center</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sisters of the Good Sheppard<br /><br />Rev. LeDayne McLeese Polaski<br />Program Coordinator, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America<br /><br />Stanley J. Noffsinger<br />General Secretary, The Church of the Brethren<br /><br />Nancy Ratzan<br />President, National Council of Jewish Women<br /><br />Dr. Meg Riley<br />Director, Washington Office, Unitarian Universalist Association<br /><br />Rabbi David Saperstein<br />Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism<br /><br />Dr. H. Eric Schockman<br />President, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger<br /><br />Dr. Ronald J. Sider<br />President, Evangelicals for Social Action<br /><br />Dr. Ann E. Smith<br />President, Gamaliel Foundation<br /><br />Rev. Jim Wallis<br />CEO and President, Sojourners<br /><br />Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins<br />General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)<br /><br />Jim Winkler<br />General Secretary, The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society<br /><br />Bishop John F. White<br />Ecumenical and Urban Affairs Officer, African Methodist Episcopal Church<br /><br />Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III<br />Executive Director, National Ministries<br />American Baptist Churches USA<br /><br />Rabbi Shawn Zevit<br />Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rt. Rev. Charles E. Jenkins<br />Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rt. Rev. William W. Hutchinson<br />Bishop, Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rt. Rev. Morgan Ward<br />Bishop, Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Roberta Avila<br />Executive Director, STEPS Coalition<br /><br />Dianne Aid<br />President<br />Episcopal Network for Economic Justice<br /><br />Dr. Abed Ayoub<br />CEO, Islamic Relief USA</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Quo Vadis G. Breaux<br />Executive Director, Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal<br />New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Center<br /><br />Rev. Carol Burnett<br />Director, Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative<br />Director, Moore Community House</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rev. Al Carter<br />Chairman, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO)</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rev. Alan Coe<br />Minister for Disaster Recovery, S.C. Conference, United Church of Christ<br /><br />Rev. Tyronne Edwards<br />Founder/Executive Director, Zion Travelers Cooperative Center, Inc. Phoenix, LA<br /><br />Dr. Alice Graham<br />Executive Director, Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force<br /><br />Sharon Hanshaw<br />Executive Director, Coastal Women for Change<br /><br />Dr. Frederick Haynes, III<br />Senior Pastor<br />Friendship West Baptist Church<br /><br />Rev. Jacob Jang<br />General Secretary, Korean Presbyterian Church in America<br /><br />David C. Jehnsen<br />Founder, The Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dr. Matthew V. Johnson<br />National Director, Every Church a Peace Church<br /><br />Trinh Le<br />Community Empowerment Coordinator, Hope Community Development Agency (Hope CDA)<br /><br />Glenda Perryman<br />Executive Director, Immaculate Heart Community Development Corp., Inc.<br /><br />Marcia Peterson<br />Director, Desire Street Ministries/CDC 58:12 Inc.<br /><br />Rev. Gilbert Scie<br />Pastor, Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church of New Orleans<br /><br />Rev. Cory Sparks<br />Chair, Commission on Stewardship of the Environment,<br />Louisiana Interchurch Conference<br /><br />Bill Stallworth<br />City Councilmember of Ward 2 Biloxi, Mississippi<br /><br />Sister Mary Turgi<br />Director, Holy Cross International Justice Office<br /><br />Rev. Jim VanderWeele<br />Senior Pastor, Community Church Unitarian Universalist of New Orleans</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">* Organization listed for purpose of identification</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> ###</span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-58554602173623137882009-10-09T22:48:00.000-07:002009-10-09T23:13:46.572-07:00Assemblymember Beall calls Public Works to Solve Unemployment Crisis<p> <b></b><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dear Friends,<br /><br />Unemployment is hitting record levels in California, costing working families not only their income but their health coverage. We must get people back to work. One way is to get started fast on important public works projects that can generate hundreds of thousands of jobs - repairing our fragile levees and building the high-speed rail project. These bond-approved projects represent our state's own stimulus plan. <b><a href="http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a24/News_Room/E-Newsletters/200910AD24Enews.aspx" target="_blank"><i>Read more...</i></a></b><br /><br />If you have a question or an issue with a state agency or department or need assistance, please contact my office by visiting my <a title="http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a24/" href="http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a24/default.aspx?utm_source=email&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_campaign=Beall_Oct2009_enewsletter" target="_blank">Assembly website</a>.<br /><br />Best regards,<br /><br />Jim Beall, Jr.</span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-63315275241622140422009-10-06T22:44:00.000-07:002010-03-02T22:33:24.983-08:00Dr. Myers-Lipton's lecture at the Dean's Symposium, "Poverty: Problems and Solutions," San José State University, October 6, 2010<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>How to Solve the Unemployment Crisis and End Poverty<br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dean Hegstrom, distinguished colleagues, students.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It is an honor to speak at this symposium, and to address one of the pressing social issues facing our nation, which is our extremely high rate of poverty, and how it is possible to end this scourge.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Without much notice, our already high rate poverty has been inching up to record levels at the rate of 1 million people each year for the past decade, so today, we now have 39.8 million people living in poverty. What this means to our families is that 19% of our children are growing up in poverty, which to me, and I hope you, is a moral outrage.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In addition to this increase in poverty, inequality has also increased to record levels, as the gap between rich and poor has increased.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And more recently, unemployment has increased to 15.1 million people. There are more people unemployed today than during the Great Depression. Clearly, America is in crisis.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">We don’t have time today to discuss the reasons for this poverty and inequality crisis….suffice it to say that it has a great deal to do with:</div><ul><li><div style="text-align: left;">globalization and the outsourcing of jobs;</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">a dual economy that produces both high-end jobs, as well as low-end jobs;</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">a conservative philosophy that has dominated U.S. politics for the past 30 years, with its goal of keeping minimum wage low and limiting social programs;</div></li>
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><li><div style="text-align: left;">and a relentless attack on labor unions.</div></li>
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></ul><div style="text-align: left;">Now, we are living in a unique time, as the nation recently suffered through Hurricane Katrina, one of the great disasters of our history—killing 1,874 people—the majority of which were over 65, destroying 250,000 homes and 320 million trees. In addition to the destruction that Hurricane Katrina brought, it exposed to nation and world our poverty crisis.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">For a brief moment in time, all the world had a chance to see that the USA was not paved in gold, but rather, it showed how America is in fact the leader in industrialized world when it comes to poverty rates.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Yet, poverty has NOT just plagued this generation, but rather has been a defining issue, from the founding right up to today. Unquestionably, we pay a price for our high rate of poverty, as it damages the individual and the larger society.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Our poverty has led to:</div><ul><li><div style="text-align: left;">high rates of infant mortality, crime, violence, divorce, and lead poisoning,</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">it has also led to lower test scores in school and lower life expectancy.</div></li>
</ul><div style="text-align: left;">So what to do about reducing, or even ending poverty?? I would like to highlight two of the ideas that have been the most successful in our nation’s history. Both of them are based in work. The first idea creates living wage jobs, while the 2nd idea makes sure that work is rewarded.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The first recommendation to reduce poverty is public works. During the New Deal, the USA reduced poverty for millions during the Great Depression by providing them with jobs. The New Deal public works of the CWA, PWA, WPA, and CCC—this alphabet soup of programs--injected $336 billion in 2008 dollars into the economy, hired over 10 million people, and in combination with other New Deal initiatives cut unemployment from almost 24% in 1933 to 10% by 1940.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">This 13.6% decrease was the single greatest drop in the unemployment rate in U.S. history. In addition, reducing unemployment and poverty, New Deal public works built or repaired over:</div><ul><li><div style="text-align: left;">2,500 hospitals</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">9,000 parks</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">43,000 schools</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">125,000 bridges</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">almost 1 million miles of highways & roads,</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">they stocked 1 billion fish</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">and planted 3 billion trees.</div></li>
</ul><div style="text-align: left;">Public workers literally built the infrastructure that we still utilize.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Today, with our unemployment and poverty rates at record levels, public works can once again help to solve our social problems. Here at San José State University, I have been working with my students for the past 3 years on this idea of public works.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, my students and I proposed a modern-day civic works projects for the Gulf Coast. We renamed public works “civic works,” since the body politic didn’t seem to be working for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Today, 35 Congress members and over 250 regional and national organizations are advocating for the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269), HR 2269 would create 100,000 green and living-wage jobs and training opportunities for Gulf Coast residents and displaced citizens to rebuild public infrastructure damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and restore the wetlands.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In addition to creating living wage jobs, Civic Works is a powerful tool for poverty reduction as it:</div><ul><li><div style="text-align: left;">1st: Allows for citizen participation in Local Advisory Boards so that regular people are involved in the decisions about what gets built in their community</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">2nd: Supports equitable economic development (first source hiring, 20% apprenticeable jobs, and the protection of people of color, women, and immigrants)</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">3rd: Provides job training and hiring of local contractors and non-profits for long-term development</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">4th: Focuses on environmentally sustainable, green construction jobs, and expands public works to include child and elderly care, teaching, and public health projects</div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">5th: Provides a dynamic, hybrid model of federal oversight and local control</div></li>
</ul><div style="text-align: left;">Importantly, we see the GCCW Act as a model for the rest of the nation about how to reduce poverty and rebuild infrastructure by using a bottom-up model of community development. Plans are already in the works for a <i>California Civic Works Act</i> based on HR 2269.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The 2nd idea I want to recommend to decrease poverty are income transfer payments in the form of Earned Income Tax Credits. Income transfers were used successfully during the War on Poverty, as they played a major role in decreasing poverty from 36 million or 19% of the total population in 1964 to 24 million people or 12% in 1969.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">This 7% cut in poverty, which came as a result of income transfers through Social Security and welfare, was one of the greatest decreases in poverty in the history of the nation. More recently, President Clinton expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, so it now provides $36 billon a year to low-wage workers, and it reduces poverty by 5 million people a year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">To make work pay, I would advocate that the EITC would be expanded again, but instead of the average payment being $1,050, I recommend that it is targeted at the middle class, so it truly lifts people out of poverty. The idea is that if you work, you should not make a poverty wage, but rather a living wage, and the government would in essence provide a tax rebate to reward work.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">You might ask, where would we get the money for Civic Works and the Earned Income Tax Credit? I would argue that if we, the American tax payer, can bail out banks and mega-firms to the tune of $2 trillion dollars, we can surely spend much less to end poverty in America.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">For me, reducing, and someday ending poverty, is not just a sociological exercise, but it is a moral imperative! It is immoral to have 40 million people in poverty in the richest country in the world…and it is immoral that the US has 1 in 5 children living in poverty.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It must be stopped, and Civic Works and the Earned Income Tax Credit targeted at the middle class can help to end this scourge of poverty.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-11110601627824529042009-10-02T14:16:00.000-07:002009-10-02T14:21:52.348-07:00Alabama Hurricane Katrina Survivors Go to WashingtonFifty-five (55) hurricane survivors and advocates from Louisiana to Alabama braved a nearly 40 hour round-trip bus ride to lobby 2 days for The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, HR 2269 which would create 100,000 prevailing wage jobs for the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina to rebuild their devastated maritime/seaport communities, and coastal wetlands environment. http://www.solvingpoverty.com/<br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.alarise.org/dctrip.htm">here</a> to read the whole article.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-50484863249070535632009-10-01T14:08:00.000-07:002010-03-02T22:31:51.405-08:00Congressional Tri-Caucus Sponsors Briefing on HR 2269<div align="left" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></div><div align="left" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></b><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Four Years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita:</strong></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Human Rights and Green Jobs for America's Gulf Coast </strong></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269): <br />
Stronger, More Sustainable and More Equitable Communities</strong> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" style="height: 197px; width: 582px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="padding-bottom: 0.75pt; padding-left: 0.75pt; padding-right: 0.75pt; padding-top: 0.75pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div></td><td style="padding-bottom: 0.75pt; padding-left: 0.75pt; padding-right: 0.75pt; padding-top: 0.75pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">A Congressional Briefing Sponsored by<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In conjunction with the</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Congressional Black Caucus, and </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Congressional Hispanic Caucus.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tuesday, September 22<sup>nd</sup> 2009</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Noon-1:30pm </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Refreshments will be served starting at 11:30a)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cannon Caucus Room, 345 CHOB</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div align="left" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Four years after our nation's largest disaster, Gulf Coast communities, especially residents with disabilities, poor, elderly, minority and immigrant communities, continue to struggle. <b><b><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269)</span></span></b></b> builds on the success of innovative resident-led community and faith-based non-profits to rebuild lives and neighborhoods. The Act would create 100,000 green, living wage jobs rebuilding infrastructure and affordable housing, restoring natural flood protection, and promoting energy efficiency. This legislation would allow the federal government to directly partner with municipal officials, non-profits and community agencies to tackle the biggest remaining recovery challenges and ensure hurricane survivors' right to return with dignity and safety and participate in the recovery of their communities. It is supported by over 240 local and national community, faith, environmental, and human rights organizations. Over 100 diverse survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will travel to DC September 22-23 to attend this briefing and discuss the legislation with Congressional staff. </span></span></div><div align="left" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Speakers</span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">:</span></span></strong></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Vicky Cintra, </span></span><i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Organizing Coordinator</span></span></i></i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">, Gulf Coast Office, Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance</span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">David Gauthe, </span></span><i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Program Director</span></span></i></i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">, BISCO - Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">(Thibodaux, LA)</span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Trinh Le</span></span><i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-weight: bold;">, </span></span></i></i><i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Community Empowerment</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-style: italic;"> </span></span></i><i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Coordinator,</span></span></i></i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> Hope Community Development Agency (Biloxi, MS)</span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Shakoor Alujawani, </span></span><i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Organizer,</span></span></i></i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Louisiana Episcopal Community Services (New Orleans, LA)</span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Moderator: Stephen Bradberry, </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">2005 RFK Human Rights Award Winner and Nat. Campaign Coordinator, ACORN </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;"></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Co-Sponsoring Organizations:</span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-weight: bold;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights - Oxfam America - ACORN - Alabama Arise </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">All Congregations Together - Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America - BISCO - Boat People SOS </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Gulf Coast Civic Works Project - - Hope CDA - Louisiana Episcopal Community Services </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">LA Interchurch Conference, Council on Environmental Stewardship </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance - MS Coast Interfaith Disaster Taskforce </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">MS Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">- NAACP - National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies</span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">National Council of La Raza - Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">South Bay Communities Alliance - STEPS Coalition </span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Turkey Creek Community Initiative - Unitarian Universalist Service Committee</span></span></div><div style="color: #3333ff; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">United Church of Christ, Justice & Witness Ministries -U.S. Human Rights Network</span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-70064371928594256472009-09-30T14:02:00.000-07:002009-10-02T14:06:04.053-07:00Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign Applauds Creation of Long-Term Recovery Working Group<p style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><b><span style="font-size:100%;color:black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-weight: bold;">For Immediate Release <wbr> September 30, 2009<br /> </span></span></b><span style="color:black;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="color:black;"><span style="color: black;"> <u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Contact</span></u>: Jeffrey Buchanan<span>, (202) 257-9048</span></span></span><span style="color:black;"><span style="color: black;">, </span></span><span style="color:black;"><span style="color: black;"><span></span><a href="http://us.mc306.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=buchanan@rfkmemorial.org" title="http://us.mc306.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=buchanan@rfkmemorial.org" target="_blank">buchanan@rfkmemorial.org</a></span></span></p> <span style="font-family: times new roman,serif;font-size:85%;" ><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </b><br /> </span> <div style="text-align: center; font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gulf</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Coast</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Civic Works Campaign Applauds<br /> Creation of Long-Term Recovery Working Group</span></b></span></span><br /></div> <p style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Washington, DC September 30th, 2009—</span></b></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign welcomes President <span>Barack Obama</span>'s decision to create a federal working group to examine our nation’s long-term recovery policies in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to extend the mandate of the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Recovery.</span></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This announcement comes after 60 survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, joined by <span>national human rights</span> and faith-based advocates, spent two days last week in <span>Washington</span><span>, DC</span> urging <span>the Administration and Congressional officials to take </span>a new approach to <span>disaster recovery</span>. The group met with<span> </span>senior officials at the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as Members of Congress and staff in over 40 Congressional offices. During these visits the partners of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign urged the <span>Administration</span> to form an inter-agency working group bringing together federal officials and local community leaders to develop solutions for tackling remaining recovery challenges.</span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">“As someone who works in Louisiana’s rural communities rebounding from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike, threatened by poverty, <span>climate change</span> and coastal land loss, I welcome this Administration’s renewed focus on Gulf Coast recovery,” said Sharon Gauthe, Executive Director, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO). “As this new team begins its work, I would encourage the Administration to look to the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269) as a way to incorporate the lessons learned from the 2005 and 2008 hurricanes and to fulfill the federal government’s promise to create stronger, safer and more equitable communities.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 12pt; font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">“In the <span>aftermath of Hurricane Katrina</span>, non-profits and <span>community organizers</span> stepped up to fill the gaps left by the federal government to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people and places, both in the immediate response and now in the recovery phase,” said Councilmember Bill Stallworth of the Biloxi City Council and Executive Director of HOPE CDA. “As the Obama Administration composes its new plan in the Gulf Coast and for future disasters, we believe policy like HR 2269 could help to leverage the passion, innovation and knowledge of community and faith-based organizations to help restore not just neighborhoods but lives.”</span></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Monika Kalra Varma, Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights<span>, said “The RFK Center along with the partners of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign </span>welcome the Administration’s commitment to <span>improving our national recovery efforts</span>. Strong policies are needed to ensure the fundamental human rights of displaced and low-income <span>survivors</span> to participate in recovery, <span>to </span>return home with dignity and safety, and to find <span>decent work opportunities</span>. <span>Meeting these</span> challenge<span>s</span> for the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita <span>will set </span>an important <span>precedent</span> for <span>how we deal with </span>future disasters.”</span></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> The Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign helped develop HR 2269 based on meetings with leaders and community members across the region. The resulting bipartisan legislation builds upon the success of community and faith-based organizations to tackle recovery challenges while fighting poverty, restoring the environment and promoting resiliency. The Campaign has grown to a coalition of 250 local and national organizations advocating for a renewed partnership between <span>Gulf</span><span> Coast</span><span> communities</span> and the federal government. The Campaign continues to advocate for polic<span>ies</span> based on HR 2269, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, as a pilot project for human rights-based disaster recovery to create jobs, rebuild and sustain vulnerable neighborhoods. </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center; font-family: times new roman,serif;" align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">###</span></span></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-9190442979851188962009-08-27T22:49:00.000-07:002009-08-27T22:50:39.095-07:00SPECIAL REPORT: Obama, Congress get "D" grades from Gulf advocates for Katrina recovery effortsThe Institute for Southern Studies has just released this report card entitled “Grading the Katrina Recovery: How Gulf Coast leaders rate the President and Congress four years after the storm, and it is based on a survey of over 50 grassroots advocates, community, environmental and faith based organizations leaders around the Gulf Coast, on how those working on the ground feel about federal efforts in 2009 as a follow-up to their acclaimed series of annual reports on Gulf Coast recovery.<br /><br />This information shows a very different side of the recovery story as of 2009 than what has been coming out in the media and what has been stated in recent press releases from DHS and other agencies and really gives credence to our local and national partners efforts to urge Congress and the Administration to continue working to make good on their promises and obligations to the people of the Gulf Coast.<br /><br /> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span><b><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/08/special-report-obama-congress-get-d-grades-from-gulf-advocates-for-katrina-recovery-efforts.html" target="_blank">http://www.southernstudies.<wbr>org/2009/08/special-report-<wbr>obama-congress-get-d-grades-<wbr>from-gulf-advocates-for-<wbr>katrina-recovery-efforts.html</a><br /> </span></span></b></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span><b><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;">SPECIAL REPORT: Obama, Congress get "D" grades from Gulf advocates for Katrina recovery efforts</span></span></b></span></p> <p><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For many people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the election of President Barack Obama to the White House last November brought a sense of renewed hope -- or at least an opportunity to change the course of the region's stalled Katrina recovery.<br /><br />But <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/ISSKatrina%204YearReport.pdf" target="_blank">a report released today by the Institute for Southern Studies</a> [pdf] finds that, so far, many Gulf Coast advocates give the administration low marks for their Gulf recovery -- and they don't think Washington has lived up to its promises to make rebuilding a priority.<br /><br />The report also includes a "Katrina Recovery Index" with 80 indicators on housing, health care, coastal protection, hurricane readiness and other measures of Gulf recovery.<br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />PROMISES TO THE GULF</span></b><br /><br />President Obama had made the federal government's obligation to Gulf Coast rebuilding -- and the Bush administration's failure to fulfill that promise -- a centerpiece of his campaign and agenda. As <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/KatrinaFactSheetFinal.pdf" target="_blank">Obama said on a campaign stop</a> [pdf] in New Orleans in August 2007, "Let New Orleans be the place where we strengthen those bonds of trust, where a city rises up on a new foundation that can be broken by no storm."<br /><br />Obama <a href="http://blog.nola.com/editorials/2008/11/south_louisianas_recovery_goin.html" target="_blank">repeated his commitment</a> in New Orleans in February 2008: </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The broken promises did not start when a storm hit, and they did not end there ... I promise you that when I'm in the White House I will commit myself every day to keeping up Washington's end of this trust. This will be a priority of my presidency. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But the <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/ISSKatrina%204YearReport.pdf" target="_blank">Institute's new report</a> [pdf], based on surveys with over 50 Gulf Coast community leaders, reveals ongoing frustration with the scope and pace of federal initiatives.<br /><br />Survey respondents included leaders from faith, community and environmental groups working in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. They were asked to grade the president and Congress in eight key areas -- and many expressed belief that, to date, little in Washington has changed:<br /><br />* <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gulf</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Coast</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> leaders give the Obama administration's recovery efforts a grade of "D+."</span></b> The only area where Obama ranked higher than a "D" was in the administration's willingness to "publicly acknowledge the challenges facing recovering Gulf Coast communities," which earned a "C-."<br /><br />* <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Obama administration scored lowest on tackling some of the biggest recovery priorities,</span></b> scoring only a "D" for efforts to help displaced families return home, revitalizing infrastructure, increasing coastal hurricane protection and creating living-wage jobs and business opportunities.<br /><br />* Surprisingly, <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gulf</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Coast</span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> leaders didn't report much improvement over the previous administration:</span></b> The Obama's grade of "D+" was only slightly higher than the "D-" grade for President Bush.<br /><br />The Obama administration, which has been submerged in policy battles over economic stimulus and health care, argues <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/08/post_1.html" target="_blank">it remains committed to the Gulf Coast</a>. Officials point to "shaking loose" $1 billion in appropriated federal funds, moving people out of temporary housing and creating an arbitration panel to handle disputes that have hamstrung rebuilding projects.<br /><br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">LESS STIMULUS FOR THE GULF</span></b><br /><br />But Gulf Coast advocates view the president's $786 billion stimulus bill passed this spring as another missed opportunity. <a href="http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/_4309291_doug_odell_advised.html" target="_blank">According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune</a>, the White House announced before the Congressional vote that the bill "would create or preserve fewer jobs in Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District than any in the nation, chiefly because the calculations were based on the district's storm-depleted population."<br /><br />Congress and the president also passed on proposals for a <a href="http://www.solvingpoverty.com/" target="_blank">Gulf Coast Civic Works program</a> for "shovel-ready" green rebuilding, and <a href="http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/_4309291_doug_odell_advised.html" target="_blank">a recommendation from President Bush's Gulf Coast advisor</a> to inject $1.5 billion into stalled Gulf projects.<br /><br />This may help explain this report's findings that the current Congress receives similarly low grades from Gulf advocates:<br /><br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">* The current 111th Congress received a "D" grade for Gulf recovery</span></b> -- the highest grade (a "D+") again earned only for members' willingness to "publicly acknowledge challenges."<br /><br /><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">* The "D" grade awarded to the current Congress is almost identical to that given to the previous (110th) Congress,</span></b> which also scored a "D."<br /><br />Clearly, many Gulf Coast leaders believe that -- whatever the reasons -- the current leadership in Washington has not lived up to its pledge to strengthen recovery efforts in the region.<br /><br />If the President and Congress are to keep their promise -- and regain the confidence of community leaders -- they must signal a more focused commitment to renewal in the still-struggling Gulf Coast. </span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-57406103300676733352009-08-25T15:24:00.001-07:002009-08-25T15:24:29.712-07:00Obama Addresses the Gulf CoastThe president, who last visited New Orleans <a linkindex="1" href="http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/crowd_packs_obama_rally_many_l.html">18 months ago</a>, is not expected to come this week to mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the nation's costliest disaster after the failure of federally built floodwalls.<br /><br />Read the whole article <a linkindex="2" href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/08/post_1.html">here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-24092761248330521752009-08-23T13:34:00.001-07:002009-08-23T13:36:45.263-07:00Open Letter To Speaker Pelosi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7p5zABpfL1zOVwKOi46dkWO9LtvK6iW7pU3v3LgGvqV7cBq8Dvkr2DRRCRWRsl_6_jHG6p2S2rkRKXkol2-8et9O8ttdVrah4UjcKh_sUAK9ijNqK5FEEqqivgZtQ3m4WIGak/s1600-h/Open+Letter+to+Speaker+Pelosi-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7p5zABpfL1zOVwKOi46dkWO9LtvK6iW7pU3v3LgGvqV7cBq8Dvkr2DRRCRWRsl_6_jHG6p2S2rkRKXkol2-8et9O8ttdVrah4UjcKh_sUAK9ijNqK5FEEqqivgZtQ3m4WIGak/s200/Open+Letter+to+Speaker+Pelosi-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373260577034139602" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFSyqCDMhFqhH1Wf_8_pSS_4PvYGyxugrEHsgjPUWmZabg3mKdgd_vpibu774239BqckMEGDdBR1V3VRbf9RCeYXfHjNOTzcT_-AdfbOBzDBe8LAcXo_Qrcg5MKy2K2oAA2CD/s1600-h/Open+Letter+to+Speaker+Pelosi+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFSyqCDMhFqhH1Wf_8_pSS_4PvYGyxugrEHsgjPUWmZabg3mKdgd_vpibu774239BqckMEGDdBR1V3VRbf9RCeYXfHjNOTzcT_-AdfbOBzDBe8LAcXo_Qrcg5MKy2K2oAA2CD/s200/Open+Letter+to+Speaker+Pelosi+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373260694639364098" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-89430713076264698472009-08-23T12:59:00.000-07:002009-08-23T13:01:45.269-07:00YOU ARE INVITED - Gulf Coast Rally To Demand Speaker Pelosi Take Action on the 4th Anniversary of Katrina<div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">YOU ARE INVITED!!<br /><br />Gulf Coast Rally To Demand Speaker Pelosi </b><br /></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><div><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Take Action</b><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"> </b><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">on 4th Anniversary of Katrina</b><br /> </div><br /></div></div>SAN FRANCISCO, CA – August 24th – Supporters of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269) will gather for a rally and press conference on the 4th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in front of Speaker Pelosi's office on Friday, August 28 at noon to demand passage of this federal bill.<br /> <br />Specifically, Speaker Pelosi will be asked to take two small, but powerful actions:<br /><ol><li>To request that she asks the five committee chairs where the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act sits to report back to her office on HR 2269 before the Congressional winter recess;</li><li>To sign on as a co-sponsor HR 2269.</li></ol><div><div>The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act—which is co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 30 Congress members and supported by more than 240 diverse regional and national student, faith, environmental and community organizations—would create a minimum of 100,000 prevailing wage jobs and training opportunities for local and displaced workers to rebuild Gulf Coast infrastructure and restore the coastal environment utilizing green building technologies.<br /><br />The rally will include:<br /><ul><li>a theatrical performance of "President Obama" and "Speaker Pelosi" announcing an important new policy on the 4th Anniversary of Katrina;<i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"></span></i></li><li>reflections from survivors of Hurricane Katrina;<br /></li><li>the reading of the names of the 1,836 people who died in Hurricane Katrina, and the planting of 1836 white flags with the names of each person and age on the flag;</li><li> the delivering of the attached open-letter to Speaker Pelosi, as well as 10,000 signed petitions in support of HR 2269.</li></ul> The rally and press conference will be held this Friday, 12 pm, at the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue on the plaza in front of the flag poles.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><u style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Contacts:</u><br /></span> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, Associate Professor, San José State University, (510) 508-5382, <a href="mailto:smlipton@sjsu.edu" target="_blank">smlipton@sjsu.edu</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Rev. Jeff Moore, NAACP Silicon Valley/San Jose, (408) 515-1114, <a href="mailto:moore2j@att.net" target="_blank">moore2j@att.net</a></span></li></ul> </div></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-51972632159754483852009-08-18T15:45:00.000-07:002009-08-18T15:47:36.011-07:00Katrina Pain Index - 2009<span style="font-family:Times New Roman, Times, serif;font-size:+1;">By BILL QUIGLEY & DAVIDA FINGER</span><div><div><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13px;"><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0. Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant – compared to 116,708 homeowners.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">0. Number of hospitals in New Orleans providing in-patient mental health care as of September 2009 despite post-Katrina increases in suicides and mental health problems.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1. Rank of New Orleans among U.S. cities in murders per capita for 2008.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">1. Rank of New Orleans among U.S. cities in percentage of vacant residences. </p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">2. Number of Katrina cottages completed in Louisiana as of beginning of 2009 hurricane season under $74 million dollar federal program.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> 33. Percent of 134,000 FEMA trailers in which Katrina and Rita storm survivors were housed after the storms which are estimated by federal government to have had formaldehyde problems.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> 35. Percent of child care facilities re-opened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. </p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">35. Percent increase of demand in 2009 at emergency food programs in New Orleans and surrounding parishes, “an increase pinned on the swelling ranks of under-employed and rising food, housing, and fuel costs.”</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">50. Ranking of Louisiana among states for overall healthcare.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">52. Percent increase in rents in New Orleans since Katrina.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">52. Percent of federal rebuilding money allocated to New Orleans that has actually been received.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">60. Percent of children in New Orleans public schools who attend public charter schools. </p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">88: Percent of the 600 New Orleans residents who will displaced by proposed new hospital complex who are minorities.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> 160. Number of units which will be public housing eligible in the new St. Bernard area after demolition and rebuilding. St. Bernard was constructed with 1400 public housing apartments. Only a small percentage of the 4000 families in public housing in New Orleans before Katrina will be allowed to live in the new housing being constructed on the site where their apartments were demolished.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">27,279. Number of Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal assistance in repair and rebuilding after Katrina who have been determined eligible for assistance but who have still not received any money.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">30,396. Number of children who have not returned to public school in New Orleans since Katrina. This reduction leaves the New Orleans public school population just over half of what it was pre-Katrina.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">63,799. Number of Medicaid recipients who have not returned to New Orleans since Katrina.</p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">65,888. Unoccupied addresses in New Orleans. This is 31% of the addresses in the City and nearly as many as Detroit, a city twice the size of New Orleans. </p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">128,341: Number of Louisianians looking for work. </p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">143,193. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center estimate of 311,853, the most recent population estimate in Orleans. </p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">9.5 Million. Dollar amount of federal Medicaid stimulus rejected outright by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal which would have expanded temporary Medicaid coverage for families who leave welfare and get a job. </p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">98 million: Dollar amount of unemployment federal stimulus dollars rejected by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal that was available to bolster the unemployment compensation funds to assist 25,000 families in Louisiana.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">900 Million: Dollar amount paid to ICF International, the company that was hired by the State of Louisiana to distribute federal Road Home rebuilding dollars. </p><p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ?. Current vulnerability to storm-related flooding. The Army Corps of Engineers continues work to provide protection from a storm surge that has a 1 percent chance of occurring any given year. However, Katrina was a stronger storm than the system under construction is designed to protect against. Because no updated indicators exist on land loss, coastal restoration and mitigation of flood risk due to human engineering, tracking recovery is, at best, challenging.</p> <p style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><b>Davida Finger</b> is a social justice lawyer and clinical professor at Loyola University New Orleans. <b><br />Bill Quigley</b> is a human rights lawyer on leave from Loyola now serving as legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. A version of this article with sources is available if you write to the authors c/o <a href="mailto:quigley77@gmail.com" target="_blank">quigley77@gmail.com.</a></p> </span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-37920453541572097872009-08-13T21:13:00.000-07:002009-08-18T15:48:24.990-07:00Katrina Anniversary Nears, and Should Evoke Truths, Both Ugly and Ennobling<span id="ctl00_mainContent_lblArticleHtml">As we approach the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, Americans should take the opportunity to learn not only the familiar lessons about economic and racial injustice, but also to embrace the responsibilities these lessons oblige.<br /><br />Read the whole article <a href="http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/19403/">here</a>.<br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-43557582815421724802009-07-18T08:43:00.000-07:002009-07-18T08:51:03.089-07:00Gulf Coast advocates push for HR 2269 in MobileGulf Coast advocates push for HR 2269 in Mobile:<br /><br /><a href="http://krvexpress.org/?p=220" target="_blank">Click here to read the press release.<br /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-44004363861390115312009-07-11T09:39:00.000-07:002009-07-16T09:46:49.163-07:00July 17th Press Conference in Mobile to Highlight GCCWAA 2pm Press Conference in Mobile on Friday, July 17 will highlight community recovery and redevelopment issues, including: Alabama’s 2-year delay of federal CDBG housing dollars intended for some 1,200 approved and deserving households; construction of sewage treatment and other vital infrastructure in environmentally inappropriate areas; the proposed Gulf Coast Civic Works Act for creating 100,000 green jobs from south Alabama to coastal Texas; and overhauling the Stafford Act before another major disaster occurs on US soil.<br /><br />Learn more details <a href="http://krvexpress.org/">here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-51468814370379213172009-06-26T15:25:00.000-07:002009-06-26T15:26:36.001-07:00NAACP Urges Congress to Pass GCCW Act<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxxKpjW5k4Qk7HtEziOMDueueC5DZjulbaC3wiFRAdA7r1uTwNeGKyMyp4YDnFAgC-htCxWEj_qwlLXQ8W1K7YOe8cFL7SuMApoSD0LcdNImrlDJiiM3MPnXLds7XUAKHYU5Dn/s1600-h/KATRINA.REBUILD.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxxKpjW5k4Qk7HtEziOMDueueC5DZjulbaC3wiFRAdA7r1uTwNeGKyMyp4YDnFAgC-htCxWEj_qwlLXQ8W1K7YOe8cFL7SuMApoSD0LcdNImrlDJiiM3MPnXLds7XUAKHYU5Dn/s200/KATRINA.REBUILD.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351766256747361874" border="0" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-64070468114338591082009-06-08T11:02:00.000-07:002009-06-08T11:03:25.551-07:00Advocates take the Gulf Coast cause to the HillToday marks the first day of hurricane season, and much is being reported on preparations happening along the Gulf Coast to prepare for stormier weather.<br /><br />But Gulf Coast advocates have also been preparing another big push to shore up Congressional support for the <a linkindex="8" href="http://www.solvingpoverty.com/">Gulf Coast Civic Works program</a>, a Gulf region recovery package that would create "green jobs" along the Gulf Coast for victims of past storms. Several hundred Gulf Coast advocates, including a coalition of civil rights groups, affordable housing advocates, and Hurricane Katrina survivors, headed to Washington, D.C. this past weekend to urge lawmakers to support the <a linkindex="9" href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:9:./temp/%7EbdR9V1::%7C/bss/%7C">Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2009 (H.R. 2269)</a>. Supporters of the act participated in congressional visits to bring attention to the continuing human rights crisis in the region and the vulnerability of residents to future disasters as the 2009 hurricane season begins.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/06/post-10.html">Click here</a> to read the whole article.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14675311.post-12231476166592503452009-06-08T11:01:00.000-07:002009-06-08T11:02:36.188-07:00The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, "Whose Katrina is this?"June 1st marks the beginning of the 2009 hurricane season, again prompting concern as to how the city of New Orleans will fare in the coming summer's weather. In recognition of this fact, the <a linkindex="42" href="http://www.solvingpoverty.com/">Gulf Coast Civic Works Project</a> (GCCWP) has gathered volunteers from across the country in Washington, D.C. to lobby for the passage of H.R. 2269, also known as the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. The bill, first brainstormed by students in San Jose and introduced to Congress in May, seeks the funding of 100,000 "green jobs" for displaced residents of the Gulf Coast to rebuild the infrastructure of their local communities.<br /><a href="http://edlab.tc.columbia.edu/index.php?q=node/2809"><br />Click here</a> to read the whole article.<div class="blogger-post-footer">www.solvingpoverty.com</div>scott myers-liptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03334457513123995498noreply@blogger.com0