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NAACP Outraged By Move To Suppress The Poor Vote
In The News--The NAACP Is Outraged By Efforts To Suppress The Poor Vote, Plus Links To The Human Rights Report Which Details How Hundreds Of Thousands Of Poor People Are Deprived Of Housing For Petty Crimes Or For Only Being Arrested, But Not Convicted Of Anything!
Roll Back The Rents
rollbacktherents-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
Bond wants to keep HUD money out of election activities
BY BILL LAMBRECHT Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
November 18, 2004
WASHINGTON
An effort by Republican Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond of Missouri and Richard Shelby of Alabama to prohibit housing authorities from using federal money for election-related activities is coming under fire this week.
An NAACP memo accuses the senators of attempting to disenfranchise public housing residents by inserting a provision in the pending Department of Housing and Urban Development spending bill that would bar the use of public housing money for efforts such as voter registration.
At the urging of Shelby, the language was put into the spending bill before the Senate passed it this year, but the provision didn't get much attention until this week, when House and Senate conferees are meeting to iron out differences on the bill. Congress is expected to approve the spending bill this week or next.
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington office, said his organization and its allies are lobbying to remove the wording because it would curtail efforts on behalf of elderly people and others who need voting assistance.
"It is outrageous that senators from Alabama and Missouri would do something like this to make participation in elections harder for our most vulnerable citizens," he said.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56272.html
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From the Human Rights Watch:
U.S.: Broad Range of Offenders Denied Public Housing
Housing Exclusions Do Little for Public Safety, But Increase Misery of Poor Americans
(New York, November 18, 2004)—Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of poor people have been denied access to public housing because they have criminal records, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. They have been excluded for often minor and long-ago offenses that have no bearing on public safety, which is the goal of strict admission policies.
Based on research across the country, the 101-page report “No Second Chance” is the first examination of “one strike” policies in public housing. Established to protect housing developments from potentially dangerous tenants, these policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records. Unfortunately, the criteria for exclusion are needlessly overbroad and can exclude certain offenders for life—regardless of evidence of their rehabilitation.
The report details many of the unreasonable and needlessly punitive aspects of federal and local housing policy.
Click below for; No Second Chance Report...
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa1104/
Click below for full Human Rights Watch --Press Release...
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/11/18/usdom9691.htm
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(HUD Funding Bill/Section 8)
NAHRO Experts Available for Comment on VA/HUD Appropriations
November 19, 2004
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Executive Director Saul Ramirez and President Jim Inglis are available for comment on FY 2005 funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The VA/HUD appropriations bill, which is currently under debate in Congress, will determine funding for HUD and the local public and affordable housing programs it funds.
HUD funds local housing programs administered by NAHRO's 21,000 members including homeless assistance programs, Section 8, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), HOME and HOPE VI. Decision making on funding levels for these programs will have serious implications on local housing agencies' ability to meet demand for affordable housing and their ability to engage in community development activities.
For example, a recent NAHRO analysis of the FY 2004 administration of the Section 8 program, which serves nearly 2 million families, revealed a $93 million funding shortfall. Dispersed nationwide, that shortfall has caused agencies to: increase household rents; stop re-issuing turned in vouchers when families no longer need them; recall vouchers from families looking for housing; and terminate vouchers for currently assisted families. For the full analysis, visit http://www.nahro.org/pressroom/2004/ 200410renewalstudy.pdf.
Finalization of the bill is expected before the Thanksgiving holiday. To set up interviews, contact Liz Hennessy at 202-289-3500 ext. 280 or lhennessy(At)nahro.org
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WOMEN-U.S.: LARGE CUTS IN FEDERAL HOUSE AID EXPECTED
By Melinda Tuhus for WomensEnews
IPS-Inter Press Service
November 18, 2004
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Nov. 17, 2004
Jackeline Cruz isthe mother of three boys, 11, 10 and 3, one of whom has adisability.
She recently graduated from a training program as a childdevelopment associate, but so far has been unable to find a job.She's scraping by now with disability payments for her son, foodstamps, some child support and her $ 1,200 monthly rent subsidizedby the federal Section 8 housing program. With cuts to Section 8already put in place this year and more proposed, she is extremelyworried about having to come up with more money for rent.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56244.html
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New York Times:
NYTimes.com > Opinion
Voters in Public Housing
Published: November 21, 2004
To the Editor:
Senator Kit Bond accuses the San Francisco Housing Authority of "outrageous tactics" by paying for "partisan electioneering" ("Diverted Housing Funds,'' letter, Nov. 6).
In September 2002, the authority contracted with the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a chartered nonpartisan organization. The Department of Housing and Urban Development reviewed the contract and declared it legal before it was signed.
The institute was contracted to coordinate community events in the most challenged neighborhoods. These events, which included basketball tournaments for at-risk youth, incorporated activities to register voters. As a result, voting from large public housing locations increased by 244 percent.
It is unfortunate that this expired contract is now unfairly used to support an agenda that will ultimately harm a severely disenfranchised population.
Gregg Fortner
Executive Director
San Francisco Housing Authority
San Francisco, Nov. 16, 2004
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Lawsuit challenges ticketing of homeless
Lawyers say S.D. police are violating Constitution
By Ronald W. Powell
STAFF WRITER
November 19, 2004
San Diego police officers are violating the U.S. Constitution by ticketing or arresting homeless people for sleeping in public, a group of volunteer lawyers contends in a class-action lawsuit filed yesterday.
The suit, filed in San Diego federal court, said tickets and arrests for illegal lodging under the California Penal Code violate the civil rights of homeless people, as well as their constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The lawsuit was submitted on behalf of nine homeless people who were issued illegal-lodging tickets this year on nights when social service agencies had no shelter beds available. The plaintiffs represent about 4,500 people who are homeless in the city, according to the lawsuit.
"The issue is whether being homeless is a status crime – whether homeless people are being prosecuted for existing," said Tim Cohelan, one of the lawyers representing those cited for illegal lodging, a violation of California Penal Code 647j.
Cohelan and the other lawyers are seeking a federal court order to stop police from issuing the tickets unless the city provides a safe zone where homeless people can sleep without fear of being cited.
From June 2002 to July 2003, police arrested or ticketed 2,641 people for illegal lodging downtown, according to the lawsuit. Over that same period, 3,884 people were turned away from shelters that were full, the lawsuit contends.
The Regional Task Force on the Homeless estimates that 4,458 homeless people stay in the city, but only 2,019 shelter beds exist.
Cohelan, one of the lawyers, said he has studied the illegal-lodging law for several months, along with attorney Scott Dreher and lawyers from the Volunteer Lawyer Program. He said homeless-rights advocate Larry Milligan prompted the lawyers to sue. Milligan went on a 19-day fast last month outside City Hall to protest the tickets and the shortage of shelter in the city.
Click below for full story...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041119/news_7m19nohome.html
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Homeless eyed for protection
Bangor Daily News - Nov 19
AUGUSTA - The question of whether homeless people are entitled to the same human rights protections as women, ethnic or religious groups will be probed next week when a series of hearings authorized by Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe gets under way in Portland.
Click below for full story...
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=103934
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Judge rules that state can’t force county to pay for housing juveniles
19 Nov 2004
By Marvin G. Cortner News-Gazette Staff Writer
Osceola and 13 other Florida counties have prevailed in a lawsuit that challenged a state law requiring counties to pay for housing juvenile offenders awaiting trial.
Leon County Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom in Tallahassee ruled Nov. 12 that the state’s shifting of costs to the counties was unconstitutional, essentially because the legislature enacted the law without providing the counties a way to pay for it.
The cost shift called for counties to spend more than $90 million the first year to house and feed juvenile offenders, representing 17 percent of the state Department of Juvenile Justice’s total general revenue budget.
Click below for full story...
http://www.osceolanewsgazette.com/index.php?option=sports&task=viewarticle&sid=9603
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Feds say Sarasota agency is 'troubled'; The housing authority fails to meet federal standards, says an audit.
By LISA RAB lisa.rab [at] heraldtribune.com
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
November 20, 2004
The Sarasota Housing Authority ranks among the worst public housing agencies in the country.
Its poor financial condition and deteriorating apartment complexes fail to meet federal standards, according to a government report released Thursday.
Those flaws landed the authority on a list of "troubled" agencies -- a distinction given to less than 4 percent of the 3,400 authorities in the country.
The label will bring increased scrutiny and tighter control from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It's also an indictment of the authority's leadership.
For its HOPE VI grant application, the authority used $437,000 that had been reserved for a rental assistance program. Later, when the federal government reduced its funding, the authority had to consider cuts to the program.
The authority "does not currently appear to have the ability to operate the agency in a financially sound manner," the report states.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56636.html
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Homeless experience opens eyes to hardship
Press-Citizen - Nov 19
She thought she would start by finding a bed for the night. That seemed to be the most important thing Thursday for Amanda Currier, a 20-year-old Iowa City resident who battles substance abuse, cannot keep a job, does not have a photo ID, owes more than $1,000, and has never had a place of her own.
Click below for full story...
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041119/NEWS01/411190310/1079
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(Hope VI program demolishes public housing)
Renaissance in the Barrio
Will mixed-income housing revitalize Boyle Heights? Or just chase out the poor?
November 19
Local - Los Angeles Weekly
By Gloria Ohland LA Weekly Writer
"Public housing built in the 40s now sits on prime urban real estate, once again attracting the attention of redevelopers, both public and private. In such places contradictions intertwine: abandonment and dreams, construction and demolition, utopia and dystopia. These immense places are themselves provisional, and the upheaval that brought them into existence will also characterize their demise, as the next generations utopia gains force . . ."
—from The Provisional City, by Dana Cuf
Call it magical realism. Along what is now called Gabriel Garca Mrquez Street in Boyle Heights, a new neighborhood is being raised where the largest and most dangerous public-housing project west of the Mississippi once stood.
During the past decade and largely without media attention, HOPE VI has invested $5 billion and leveraged billions more in private funds to demolish and rebuild public housing in 25 cities —
It cant be ignored that the number of public-housing units for the poorest residents in the new housing projects has been reduced by more than half — in the midst of what is an acute affordable-housing shortage. Tenant organizers estimate that only 250 to 300 of the 1,200 families that used to live in Pico-Aliso have come back.
Tenant organizers charge that the way demolition was handled caused so much fear and confusion that it seemed a deliberate disinformation campaign.
"HOPE VI is just an excuse for the federal government to deconstruct and reduce housing for poor people," argues tenant organizer Leonardo Vilchis of Union des Vecinos (Union of the Neighbors), who worked with tenants displaced by the reconstruction of Pico Gardens, and now with those displaced by Pueblo del Sol. "HOPE VI funding was for demolition, not repair. If the intent was really to help poor people, then there would have been one-for-one replacement of demolished units.
"Im not a big fan of concentrating poverty," says Dreier. "But nobody really knows what happens to the residents who get pushed out of the HOPE VI projects to make room for the affordable and market-rate housing.
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/laweekly/20041119/lo_laweekly/58562
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Ashland cool to homeless camp idea
Council members are concerned about liability and fear the city could become a mecca
The Mail Tribune - Nov 19
ASHLAND — While acknowledging there is a local homeless problem that needs fixing, the City Council — including its more liberal incoming members — expressed near unanimous doubt that the potential liabilities and safety questions of a proposed permanent homeless camp could be overcome.
Click below for full story...
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2004/1119/local/stories/07local.htm
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Audit rips Housing Authority
Agency accused of misspending millions
By David Siders
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, November 19, 2004
STOCKTON -- The San Joaquin County Housing Authority awarded about
$3.3 million in bad contracts and misspent some $5.5 million earmarked for low-rent housing, according to a federal audit report released Thursday.
Money the Housing Authority improperly spent making no-interest loans on nonfederal housing programs could have been spent repairing the "crumbling façades" of Sierra Vista and other housing projects, according to the report, compiled by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General.
"The Authority used its Low-Rent Housing program's bank account as its designated check-writing account to pay for all of its program expenses," according to the report.
Click below for full story...
http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/111904/news/articles/111904-gn-2.php
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National Nursing Home Companies Step Up to Support Medicare 'Pay- for-Performance' Proposal; First-of-its-Kind Legislation Ties Medicare Payments to Quality Care in Nursing Homes
11/19/2004
To: National Desk and Medical and Health Reporter
Contact: Rebecca Reid of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, 410-267-1128 or 410-212-3843
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Fifteen of the nation's largest providers of nursing home care voiced support today for watershed legislation that would tie Medicare payments made to nursing homes to the quality of care they provide by financially rewarding top performing facilities and penalizing the lowest performing facilities. The legislation, S. 2988 and HR. 5393, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and in the House by Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) respectively, for the first time creates a direct relationship between Medicare payments and the level of quality delivered to beneficiaries.
Click below for full Press Release...
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40007
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(Hungry Households)
New Report Shows More Than 36 Million Americans Unable To Purchase Adequate Food; Number of Hungry and Food Insecure Americans Increases for Fourth Year
11/19/2004
To: National Desk
Contact: Ross Fraser of America's Second Harvest, 312-263-2303 ext. 127 CHICAGO, Nov. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As many families rush to long grocery store lines this weekend in preparation for Thanksgiving, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released today shows 36 million Americans -- including 13.3 million children -- are food insecure. The report, based on Census Bureau surveys, demonstrates an increase in the number of hungry and food insecure Americans for the fourth straight year.
In 2002, the number of people living in food insecure households was 34.9 million -- including 13.1 million children. The report found Black and Hispanic households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity at double the national average.
Of the 36 million food insecure Americans, 23 million are adults, and more than 9 million of the individuals are living with hunger. On average, households living with food insecurity or hunger experience this condition in eight or nine months out of the year.
Click below for full Press Release...
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40015
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City, Housing Authority inspectors to cooperate
Mandy Rorrer
Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
November 19, 2004
mandyrorrer [at] wvgazette.com
Charleston's building inspectors are going to work more closely with Charleston Housing Authority inspectors to clean up city houses rented with federal subsidies, city officials said Thursday.
On Thursday night, most of the city councilors representing the West Side met with building department director Tony Harmon and George Rodriguez, director of the Charleston office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Most of the landlords, she said, don't take care of their houses. That hurts the property values of neighboring homeowners. Some landlords also rent to people who are responsible for shootings, drug dealing and prostitution in the neighborhood, she said.
Councilors learned that HUD-subsidized houses aren't inspected by city building inspectors. The Charleston Housing Authority, which distributes HUD money to landlords to subsidize the rent of low-income people, inspects the houses once a year.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56539.html
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Shelter looking for funds, support
Gwinnett Daily Post - Nov 19
By Shelley Mann
shelley.mann [at] gwinnettdailypost.com
DULUTH — The county’s first planned emergency homeless shelter now has a name — The House of Joy — but still needs a lot of community support.
Those in charge of the project, which grew out of the nonprofit Love in Action Outreach Ministries, are slowly overcoming the obstacles that come along with building a homeless shelter. They’ve found a building, gotten the zoning permit, formed a board of directors and worked up floor plans with a contractor.
But they’re still trying to drum up the funding they’ll need to purchase the building, transform it from a warehouse into a shelter and get the program off the ground, said Love in Action founder Bobbi Pack.
Click below for full story...
http://www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/GDP/archive/
article265CE7C77B7C47298AA1A690E85AF2B3.asp
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Sawyer County tops state's hunger list
Lauri Perlick
Sawyer County Record
Wednesday, November 17th, 2004
As the saying goes, it’s good to be number one. There are times however, when that distinction is not such an admirable thing.
A survey of participants in the Wisconsin Infant and Child Program reveals that Sawyer County reported the highest percentage of households that are food insecure with hunger. With a rate of 25 percent, Sawyer County placed first out of 72 counties. The statewide percentage was 19 percent. Sawyer County also placed second in the state for the number of households that are food insecure.
Click below for full story...
http://www.haywardwi.com/record/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=187506
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Conference busts myths on poverty
Poughkeepsie Journal - Nov 18
The Rev. Al Twyman, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Poughkeepsie, sporting purple wire-rimmed glasses, clerical collar and straight black mustache, calls himself a "night walker." He seeks out the "back alleys and crevices of poverty," and reports that it's "alarming."
Click below for full story...
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/columnists/stories/co111904s2.shtml
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Housing authority chided for restrictive admission policy
Friday, November 19, 2004
By Mike Bucsko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A human rights organization has singled out the Pittsburgh Housing Authority for criticism among 4,000 public housing agencies because it has one of the most restrictive policies in the country concerning people with a criminal history.
The Housing Authority's admission policy exceeds guidelines from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and fails to take into account the possibility of individual rehabilitation and review of applicants on a case-by-case basis, according to the report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch called "No Second Chance: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing."
Pittsburgh was joined by housing authorities in Austin, Texas, and Sarasota, Fla., for what the author of the report termed policies of "blanket denials."
"These policies lead to more desperation among people who can't get into public housing," said Corinne Carey, a researcher in New York for Human Rights Watch's U.S. operations who wrote the report.
In some cases, people have been denied public housing because of convictions for misdemeanors that are 10 or 20 years old or because of an arrest that did not result in a conviction, according to the report.
Click below for full story...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04324/414256.stm
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Thursday, November 18, 2004
Violence, discrimination against homeless subjects of inquiry
By GLENN ADAMS
AUGUSTA, Maine — Amid reports of homeless Mainers being beaten, denied stable housing and ripped off by store clerks, Maine´s attorney general is launching a series of public sessions to hear from homeless victims of discrimination.
The first hearing will be held Monday in Portland, Attorney General Steven Rowe said. Follow-up hearings will be held Dec. 3 in Bangor, Dec. 7 in Alfred and Dec. 14 in Lewiston.
Rowe´s study stems from legislative inquiries last session into whether Maine needs to amend its human rights or civil rights acts to include protections from violence and discrimination for people who are homeless or perceived to be homeless.
Preble Street´s advocacy director, Donna Yellen, said she has seen an increasing number of cases of violence and discrimination against homeless people in the past year.
"In the summer of 2003 we started seeing more and more people coming through our doors ... with black eyes, broken wrists, with stories of being assaulted," Yellen said.
"And it seems like the only reason why they were being targeted, harassed and sometimes assaulted was because they were homeless, because they had a backpack, because they were walking by themselves in a park at night, because they were sitting in front of the library on a Sunday night," said Yellen.
National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness: http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/pdfs/publications/Legal_Remedies.pdf
Click below for full story...
http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D86EHNBG0-322.shtml
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Affordable housing vote and funding crisis By Jim Kravets
Point Reyes Light - Nov 18
County supervisors last week unanimously agreed that the seven cottages already built in the Point Reyes Affordable Housing project can be sold at prevailing real estate-market rates instead of "affordable prices."
With the proceeds from the sale of some or all of the cottages, EAH hopes to subsidize construction of the rest of the project, which includes 27 apartments with rents affordable for low- and moderate-income households.
EAH directors last month told county planning commissioners that steadily rising costs have forced them to seek an amendment to the project’s masterplan to allow the cottages to be sold at market rates.
Click below for full story...
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/stories/nov18_04/afford_housing.html
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Posted on Thu, Nov. 18, 2004
In death, a place to call home
SHELTER TO HONOR HOMELESS WHO DIED IN PAST YEAR BY ADDING NAMES TO MEMORIAL
By Janice Rombeck
Mercury News
Friends, relatives and care providers gathered Wednesday to remember those who died in the past year lacking what most in Silicon Valley take for granted -- a permanent address.
But this year's memorial to honor Santa Clara County's deceased homeless emphasized more than just 34 names on coroner's reports. The event at the Boccardo Regional Reception Center in San Jose also was a celebration of how their lives made a difference in the community.
Speakers Gil Hernandez and Matt Pendo reflected on three of those honored in the courtyard of the area's largest homeless shelter.
Jose ``Roy'' Hernandez was a polio survivor who made other homeless people happy with his songs. Nick Alvarado, 60, overcame debilitating illnesses to make his family the center of his life. Al Collins, 66, suffered with diabetes, but had a great compassion for others and ``was totally incapable of self-pity.''
Most of the 200 people in attendance didn't know the 34 honorees, whose names were called out by representatives of local care providers. But to former shelter residents such as Shelby Flater, they were friends who shared common struggles.
Click below for full story...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/
local/states/california/the_valley/10212361.htm
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Mother sues County
Friday, November 19, 2004
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The mother of a man shot to death by a Pittsburgh Housing Authority police officer in 2002 in the Hill District filed a federal wrongful death suit last week in U.S. District Court.
Joyce M. Rogers, mother of Bernard Rogers, said Officer Tonyea Curry violated her son's constitutional protection against excessive force when he shot and killed Rogers on Nov. 15, 2002, at the Bedford Dwellings housing complex in the Hill District.
Click below for full story...
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04324/414341.stm
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Polk shelters lack beds for half of homeless
The Des Moines Register - Nov 18
An advocate hopes people are moved to offer aid to the needy this Thanksgiving. At last count, 5,097 homeless people live in Polk County, but local shelters have beds for only half of them, advocates for the homeless said Wednesday.
Click below for full story...
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041118/NEWS08/411180416/1001/NEWS
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Poisoned by poverty
EPA proposes to test pesticides on poor children
by Tiny and Laurence Ashton
Poor News Network
Wahumph ... wahumph. Every day the oil rig would bite into the tired earth under my cousin’s apartment window in the City of Industry in LA.
Ooooh, pssss, gulp. Every day my cousin would try to breathe with asthmatic lungs through the thick blanket of toxic air emanating from the dozens of chemical and oil processing plants that circled her family's two-room apartment.
Click below for full story...
http://www.sfbayview.com/111704/poisoned111704.shtml
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Security fencing moves local hub of homeless
Arlington Heights Post - Nov 18
Standing near a brand new chain-link fence under the Kennedy Expressway, CTA Bus Driver George Gonzalez points to an empty space where tattered sleeping bags, cardboard boxes and people once filled the area.
Click below for full story...
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/
localnews/current/ed/11-18-04-435114.html
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Bringing attention to Cape's invisible population
SEMissourian.com - Nov 18
Junked-out cars, cardboard boxes, a highway overpass. Anything can pass for a house if you're desperate enough. Ask Mike and Virginia, who declined to give their last names. They're some of the lucky ones, they'll tell you: They have their own van to live in.
Click below for full story...
http://www.semissourian.com/story.html$rec=150498
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Housing authority urged to auction off program
Herald Standard - Nov 19
A Uniontown man urged the Fayette County Housing Authority on Thursday to auction off its 100-unit State Housing Program because it unfairly competes with private landlords.
Click below for full story...
http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?
newsid=13397582&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6
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Survey Finds Housing Prices Fueling California Exodus
News 10 Sacramento - Nov 18
According to a new report, one out of every four Californians is discouraged enough by high housing prices to consider moving elsewhere. The survey by the Public Policy Institute found that only 49 percent of California renters have confidence that they will someday be able to purchase a home.
Click below for full story...
http://www.news10.net/storyfull.asp?id=8581
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Public housing residents get more transition help
Chicago Sun-Times - Nov 18
Public housing residents will get more help transitioning into communities throughout Chicago thanks to a big bump in funding from the CHA.
Click below for full story...
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cha18.html
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BOYNTON TO PAY FOR RESIDENTS' MOVES
By WILL VASH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 18, 2004
BOYNTON BEACH
Ever since hurricane winds hurled a tree through her apartment roof, 72-year-old Frances Williams has been living in something close to squalor.
"My bed, mattress looked like this dirt here," Williams said, pointing to a mound of wet sand in the parking lot at Boynton Terrace Apartments, where she has lived for four years. "I got to move, but I don't have the money. Everywhere you go you have to sign something."
For Williams' family and the other renters at the private, federally subsidized housing complex, the wait for assistance might finally end.
City commissioners are poised tonight to approve $50,000 in federal block grant money to relocate the families by providing security deposits and moving expenses. About 20 families live in the long-neglected complex.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56198.html
rollbacktherents-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
Bond wants to keep HUD money out of election activities
BY BILL LAMBRECHT Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
November 18, 2004
WASHINGTON
An effort by Republican Sens. Christopher "Kit" Bond of Missouri and Richard Shelby of Alabama to prohibit housing authorities from using federal money for election-related activities is coming under fire this week.
An NAACP memo accuses the senators of attempting to disenfranchise public housing residents by inserting a provision in the pending Department of Housing and Urban Development spending bill that would bar the use of public housing money for efforts such as voter registration.
At the urging of Shelby, the language was put into the spending bill before the Senate passed it this year, but the provision didn't get much attention until this week, when House and Senate conferees are meeting to iron out differences on the bill. Congress is expected to approve the spending bill this week or next.
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington office, said his organization and its allies are lobbying to remove the wording because it would curtail efforts on behalf of elderly people and others who need voting assistance.
"It is outrageous that senators from Alabama and Missouri would do something like this to make participation in elections harder for our most vulnerable citizens," he said.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56272.html
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From the Human Rights Watch:
U.S.: Broad Range of Offenders Denied Public Housing
Housing Exclusions Do Little for Public Safety, But Increase Misery of Poor Americans
(New York, November 18, 2004)—Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of poor people have been denied access to public housing because they have criminal records, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. They have been excluded for often minor and long-ago offenses that have no bearing on public safety, which is the goal of strict admission policies.
Based on research across the country, the 101-page report “No Second Chance” is the first examination of “one strike” policies in public housing. Established to protect housing developments from potentially dangerous tenants, these policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records. Unfortunately, the criteria for exclusion are needlessly overbroad and can exclude certain offenders for life—regardless of evidence of their rehabilitation.
The report details many of the unreasonable and needlessly punitive aspects of federal and local housing policy.
Click below for; No Second Chance Report...
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa1104/
Click below for full Human Rights Watch --Press Release...
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/11/18/usdom9691.htm
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(HUD Funding Bill/Section 8)
NAHRO Experts Available for Comment on VA/HUD Appropriations
November 19, 2004
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Executive Director Saul Ramirez and President Jim Inglis are available for comment on FY 2005 funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The VA/HUD appropriations bill, which is currently under debate in Congress, will determine funding for HUD and the local public and affordable housing programs it funds.
HUD funds local housing programs administered by NAHRO's 21,000 members including homeless assistance programs, Section 8, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), HOME and HOPE VI. Decision making on funding levels for these programs will have serious implications on local housing agencies' ability to meet demand for affordable housing and their ability to engage in community development activities.
For example, a recent NAHRO analysis of the FY 2004 administration of the Section 8 program, which serves nearly 2 million families, revealed a $93 million funding shortfall. Dispersed nationwide, that shortfall has caused agencies to: increase household rents; stop re-issuing turned in vouchers when families no longer need them; recall vouchers from families looking for housing; and terminate vouchers for currently assisted families. For the full analysis, visit http://www.nahro.org/pressroom/2004/ 200410renewalstudy.pdf.
Finalization of the bill is expected before the Thanksgiving holiday. To set up interviews, contact Liz Hennessy at 202-289-3500 ext. 280 or lhennessy(At)nahro.org
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WOMEN-U.S.: LARGE CUTS IN FEDERAL HOUSE AID EXPECTED
By Melinda Tuhus for WomensEnews
IPS-Inter Press Service
November 18, 2004
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Nov. 17, 2004
Jackeline Cruz isthe mother of three boys, 11, 10 and 3, one of whom has adisability.
She recently graduated from a training program as a childdevelopment associate, but so far has been unable to find a job.She's scraping by now with disability payments for her son, foodstamps, some child support and her $ 1,200 monthly rent subsidizedby the federal Section 8 housing program. With cuts to Section 8already put in place this year and more proposed, she is extremelyworried about having to come up with more money for rent.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56244.html
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New York Times:
NYTimes.com > Opinion
Voters in Public Housing
Published: November 21, 2004
To the Editor:
Senator Kit Bond accuses the San Francisco Housing Authority of "outrageous tactics" by paying for "partisan electioneering" ("Diverted Housing Funds,'' letter, Nov. 6).
In September 2002, the authority contracted with the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a chartered nonpartisan organization. The Department of Housing and Urban Development reviewed the contract and declared it legal before it was signed.
The institute was contracted to coordinate community events in the most challenged neighborhoods. These events, which included basketball tournaments for at-risk youth, incorporated activities to register voters. As a result, voting from large public housing locations increased by 244 percent.
It is unfortunate that this expired contract is now unfairly used to support an agenda that will ultimately harm a severely disenfranchised population.
Gregg Fortner
Executive Director
San Francisco Housing Authority
San Francisco, Nov. 16, 2004
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Lawsuit challenges ticketing of homeless
Lawyers say S.D. police are violating Constitution
By Ronald W. Powell
STAFF WRITER
November 19, 2004
San Diego police officers are violating the U.S. Constitution by ticketing or arresting homeless people for sleeping in public, a group of volunteer lawyers contends in a class-action lawsuit filed yesterday.
The suit, filed in San Diego federal court, said tickets and arrests for illegal lodging under the California Penal Code violate the civil rights of homeless people, as well as their constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
The lawsuit was submitted on behalf of nine homeless people who were issued illegal-lodging tickets this year on nights when social service agencies had no shelter beds available. The plaintiffs represent about 4,500 people who are homeless in the city, according to the lawsuit.
"The issue is whether being homeless is a status crime – whether homeless people are being prosecuted for existing," said Tim Cohelan, one of the lawyers representing those cited for illegal lodging, a violation of California Penal Code 647j.
Cohelan and the other lawyers are seeking a federal court order to stop police from issuing the tickets unless the city provides a safe zone where homeless people can sleep without fear of being cited.
From June 2002 to July 2003, police arrested or ticketed 2,641 people for illegal lodging downtown, according to the lawsuit. Over that same period, 3,884 people were turned away from shelters that were full, the lawsuit contends.
The Regional Task Force on the Homeless estimates that 4,458 homeless people stay in the city, but only 2,019 shelter beds exist.
Cohelan, one of the lawyers, said he has studied the illegal-lodging law for several months, along with attorney Scott Dreher and lawyers from the Volunteer Lawyer Program. He said homeless-rights advocate Larry Milligan prompted the lawyers to sue. Milligan went on a 19-day fast last month outside City Hall to protest the tickets and the shortage of shelter in the city.
Click below for full story...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041119/news_7m19nohome.html
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Homeless eyed for protection
Bangor Daily News - Nov 19
AUGUSTA - The question of whether homeless people are entitled to the same human rights protections as women, ethnic or religious groups will be probed next week when a series of hearings authorized by Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe gets under way in Portland.
Click below for full story...
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=103934
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Judge rules that state can’t force county to pay for housing juveniles
19 Nov 2004
By Marvin G. Cortner News-Gazette Staff Writer
Osceola and 13 other Florida counties have prevailed in a lawsuit that challenged a state law requiring counties to pay for housing juvenile offenders awaiting trial.
Leon County Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom in Tallahassee ruled Nov. 12 that the state’s shifting of costs to the counties was unconstitutional, essentially because the legislature enacted the law without providing the counties a way to pay for it.
The cost shift called for counties to spend more than $90 million the first year to house and feed juvenile offenders, representing 17 percent of the state Department of Juvenile Justice’s total general revenue budget.
Click below for full story...
http://www.osceolanewsgazette.com/index.php?option=sports&task=viewarticle&sid=9603
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Feds say Sarasota agency is 'troubled'; The housing authority fails to meet federal standards, says an audit.
By LISA RAB lisa.rab [at] heraldtribune.com
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
November 20, 2004
The Sarasota Housing Authority ranks among the worst public housing agencies in the country.
Its poor financial condition and deteriorating apartment complexes fail to meet federal standards, according to a government report released Thursday.
Those flaws landed the authority on a list of "troubled" agencies -- a distinction given to less than 4 percent of the 3,400 authorities in the country.
The label will bring increased scrutiny and tighter control from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It's also an indictment of the authority's leadership.
For its HOPE VI grant application, the authority used $437,000 that had been reserved for a rental assistance program. Later, when the federal government reduced its funding, the authority had to consider cuts to the program.
The authority "does not currently appear to have the ability to operate the agency in a financially sound manner," the report states.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56636.html
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Homeless experience opens eyes to hardship
Press-Citizen - Nov 19
She thought she would start by finding a bed for the night. That seemed to be the most important thing Thursday for Amanda Currier, a 20-year-old Iowa City resident who battles substance abuse, cannot keep a job, does not have a photo ID, owes more than $1,000, and has never had a place of her own.
Click below for full story...
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041119/NEWS01/411190310/1079
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(Hope VI program demolishes public housing)
Renaissance in the Barrio
Will mixed-income housing revitalize Boyle Heights? Or just chase out the poor?
November 19
Local - Los Angeles Weekly
By Gloria Ohland LA Weekly Writer
"Public housing built in the 40s now sits on prime urban real estate, once again attracting the attention of redevelopers, both public and private. In such places contradictions intertwine: abandonment and dreams, construction and demolition, utopia and dystopia. These immense places are themselves provisional, and the upheaval that brought them into existence will also characterize their demise, as the next generations utopia gains force . . ."
—from The Provisional City, by Dana Cuf
Call it magical realism. Along what is now called Gabriel Garca Mrquez Street in Boyle Heights, a new neighborhood is being raised where the largest and most dangerous public-housing project west of the Mississippi once stood.
During the past decade and largely without media attention, HOPE VI has invested $5 billion and leveraged billions more in private funds to demolish and rebuild public housing in 25 cities —
It cant be ignored that the number of public-housing units for the poorest residents in the new housing projects has been reduced by more than half — in the midst of what is an acute affordable-housing shortage. Tenant organizers estimate that only 250 to 300 of the 1,200 families that used to live in Pico-Aliso have come back.
Tenant organizers charge that the way demolition was handled caused so much fear and confusion that it seemed a deliberate disinformation campaign.
"HOPE VI is just an excuse for the federal government to deconstruct and reduce housing for poor people," argues tenant organizer Leonardo Vilchis of Union des Vecinos (Union of the Neighbors), who worked with tenants displaced by the reconstruction of Pico Gardens, and now with those displaced by Pueblo del Sol. "HOPE VI funding was for demolition, not repair. If the intent was really to help poor people, then there would have been one-for-one replacement of demolished units.
"Im not a big fan of concentrating poverty," says Dreier. "But nobody really knows what happens to the residents who get pushed out of the HOPE VI projects to make room for the affordable and market-rate housing.
Click below for full story...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/laweekly/20041119/lo_laweekly/58562
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Ashland cool to homeless camp idea
Council members are concerned about liability and fear the city could become a mecca
The Mail Tribune - Nov 19
ASHLAND — While acknowledging there is a local homeless problem that needs fixing, the City Council — including its more liberal incoming members — expressed near unanimous doubt that the potential liabilities and safety questions of a proposed permanent homeless camp could be overcome.
Click below for full story...
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2004/1119/local/stories/07local.htm
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Audit rips Housing Authority
Agency accused of misspending millions
By David Siders
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, November 19, 2004
STOCKTON -- The San Joaquin County Housing Authority awarded about
$3.3 million in bad contracts and misspent some $5.5 million earmarked for low-rent housing, according to a federal audit report released Thursday.
Money the Housing Authority improperly spent making no-interest loans on nonfederal housing programs could have been spent repairing the "crumbling façades" of Sierra Vista and other housing projects, according to the report, compiled by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of the Inspector General.
"The Authority used its Low-Rent Housing program's bank account as its designated check-writing account to pay for all of its program expenses," according to the report.
Click below for full story...
http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/111904/news/articles/111904-gn-2.php
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National Nursing Home Companies Step Up to Support Medicare 'Pay- for-Performance' Proposal; First-of-its-Kind Legislation Ties Medicare Payments to Quality Care in Nursing Homes
11/19/2004
To: National Desk and Medical and Health Reporter
Contact: Rebecca Reid of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, 410-267-1128 or 410-212-3843
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Fifteen of the nation's largest providers of nursing home care voiced support today for watershed legislation that would tie Medicare payments made to nursing homes to the quality of care they provide by financially rewarding top performing facilities and penalizing the lowest performing facilities. The legislation, S. 2988 and HR. 5393, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and in the House by Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) respectively, for the first time creates a direct relationship between Medicare payments and the level of quality delivered to beneficiaries.
Click below for full Press Release...
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40007
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(Hungry Households)
New Report Shows More Than 36 Million Americans Unable To Purchase Adequate Food; Number of Hungry and Food Insecure Americans Increases for Fourth Year
11/19/2004
To: National Desk
Contact: Ross Fraser of America's Second Harvest, 312-263-2303 ext. 127 CHICAGO, Nov. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As many families rush to long grocery store lines this weekend in preparation for Thanksgiving, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released today shows 36 million Americans -- including 13.3 million children -- are food insecure. The report, based on Census Bureau surveys, demonstrates an increase in the number of hungry and food insecure Americans for the fourth straight year.
In 2002, the number of people living in food insecure households was 34.9 million -- including 13.1 million children. The report found Black and Hispanic households are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity at double the national average.
Of the 36 million food insecure Americans, 23 million are adults, and more than 9 million of the individuals are living with hunger. On average, households living with food insecurity or hunger experience this condition in eight or nine months out of the year.
Click below for full Press Release...
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40015
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City, Housing Authority inspectors to cooperate
Mandy Rorrer
Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
November 19, 2004
mandyrorrer [at] wvgazette.com
Charleston's building inspectors are going to work more closely with Charleston Housing Authority inspectors to clean up city houses rented with federal subsidies, city officials said Thursday.
On Thursday night, most of the city councilors representing the West Side met with building department director Tony Harmon and George Rodriguez, director of the Charleston office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Most of the landlords, she said, don't take care of their houses. That hurts the property values of neighboring homeowners. Some landlords also rent to people who are responsible for shootings, drug dealing and prostitution in the neighborhood, she said.
Councilors learned that HUD-subsidized houses aren't inspected by city building inspectors. The Charleston Housing Authority, which distributes HUD money to landlords to subsidize the rent of low-income people, inspects the houses once a year.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56539.html
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Shelter looking for funds, support
Gwinnett Daily Post - Nov 19
By Shelley Mann
shelley.mann [at] gwinnettdailypost.com
DULUTH — The county’s first planned emergency homeless shelter now has a name — The House of Joy — but still needs a lot of community support.
Those in charge of the project, which grew out of the nonprofit Love in Action Outreach Ministries, are slowly overcoming the obstacles that come along with building a homeless shelter. They’ve found a building, gotten the zoning permit, formed a board of directors and worked up floor plans with a contractor.
But they’re still trying to drum up the funding they’ll need to purchase the building, transform it from a warehouse into a shelter and get the program off the ground, said Love in Action founder Bobbi Pack.
Click below for full story...
http://www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/GDP/archive/
article265CE7C77B7C47298AA1A690E85AF2B3.asp
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Sawyer County tops state's hunger list
Lauri Perlick
Sawyer County Record
Wednesday, November 17th, 2004
As the saying goes, it’s good to be number one. There are times however, when that distinction is not such an admirable thing.
A survey of participants in the Wisconsin Infant and Child Program reveals that Sawyer County reported the highest percentage of households that are food insecure with hunger. With a rate of 25 percent, Sawyer County placed first out of 72 counties. The statewide percentage was 19 percent. Sawyer County also placed second in the state for the number of households that are food insecure.
Click below for full story...
http://www.haywardwi.com/record/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=187506
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Conference busts myths on poverty
Poughkeepsie Journal - Nov 18
The Rev. Al Twyman, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Poughkeepsie, sporting purple wire-rimmed glasses, clerical collar and straight black mustache, calls himself a "night walker." He seeks out the "back alleys and crevices of poverty," and reports that it's "alarming."
Click below for full story...
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/columnists/stories/co111904s2.shtml
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Housing authority chided for restrictive admission policy
Friday, November 19, 2004
By Mike Bucsko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A human rights organization has singled out the Pittsburgh Housing Authority for criticism among 4,000 public housing agencies because it has one of the most restrictive policies in the country concerning people with a criminal history.
The Housing Authority's admission policy exceeds guidelines from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and fails to take into account the possibility of individual rehabilitation and review of applicants on a case-by-case basis, according to the report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch called "No Second Chance: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing."
Pittsburgh was joined by housing authorities in Austin, Texas, and Sarasota, Fla., for what the author of the report termed policies of "blanket denials."
"These policies lead to more desperation among people who can't get into public housing," said Corinne Carey, a researcher in New York for Human Rights Watch's U.S. operations who wrote the report.
In some cases, people have been denied public housing because of convictions for misdemeanors that are 10 or 20 years old or because of an arrest that did not result in a conviction, according to the report.
Click below for full story...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04324/414256.stm
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Thursday, November 18, 2004
Violence, discrimination against homeless subjects of inquiry
By GLENN ADAMS
AUGUSTA, Maine — Amid reports of homeless Mainers being beaten, denied stable housing and ripped off by store clerks, Maine´s attorney general is launching a series of public sessions to hear from homeless victims of discrimination.
The first hearing will be held Monday in Portland, Attorney General Steven Rowe said. Follow-up hearings will be held Dec. 3 in Bangor, Dec. 7 in Alfred and Dec. 14 in Lewiston.
Rowe´s study stems from legislative inquiries last session into whether Maine needs to amend its human rights or civil rights acts to include protections from violence and discrimination for people who are homeless or perceived to be homeless.
Preble Street´s advocacy director, Donna Yellen, said she has seen an increasing number of cases of violence and discrimination against homeless people in the past year.
"In the summer of 2003 we started seeing more and more people coming through our doors ... with black eyes, broken wrists, with stories of being assaulted," Yellen said.
"And it seems like the only reason why they were being targeted, harassed and sometimes assaulted was because they were homeless, because they had a backpack, because they were walking by themselves in a park at night, because they were sitting in front of the library on a Sunday night," said Yellen.
National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness: http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/pdfs/publications/Legal_Remedies.pdf
Click below for full story...
http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D86EHNBG0-322.shtml
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Affordable housing vote and funding crisis By Jim Kravets
Point Reyes Light - Nov 18
County supervisors last week unanimously agreed that the seven cottages already built in the Point Reyes Affordable Housing project can be sold at prevailing real estate-market rates instead of "affordable prices."
With the proceeds from the sale of some or all of the cottages, EAH hopes to subsidize construction of the rest of the project, which includes 27 apartments with rents affordable for low- and moderate-income households.
EAH directors last month told county planning commissioners that steadily rising costs have forced them to seek an amendment to the project’s masterplan to allow the cottages to be sold at market rates.
Click below for full story...
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/stories/nov18_04/afford_housing.html
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Posted on Thu, Nov. 18, 2004
In death, a place to call home
SHELTER TO HONOR HOMELESS WHO DIED IN PAST YEAR BY ADDING NAMES TO MEMORIAL
By Janice Rombeck
Mercury News
Friends, relatives and care providers gathered Wednesday to remember those who died in the past year lacking what most in Silicon Valley take for granted -- a permanent address.
But this year's memorial to honor Santa Clara County's deceased homeless emphasized more than just 34 names on coroner's reports. The event at the Boccardo Regional Reception Center in San Jose also was a celebration of how their lives made a difference in the community.
Speakers Gil Hernandez and Matt Pendo reflected on three of those honored in the courtyard of the area's largest homeless shelter.
Jose ``Roy'' Hernandez was a polio survivor who made other homeless people happy with his songs. Nick Alvarado, 60, overcame debilitating illnesses to make his family the center of his life. Al Collins, 66, suffered with diabetes, but had a great compassion for others and ``was totally incapable of self-pity.''
Most of the 200 people in attendance didn't know the 34 honorees, whose names were called out by representatives of local care providers. But to former shelter residents such as Shelby Flater, they were friends who shared common struggles.
Click below for full story...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/
local/states/california/the_valley/10212361.htm
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Mother sues County
Friday, November 19, 2004
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The mother of a man shot to death by a Pittsburgh Housing Authority police officer in 2002 in the Hill District filed a federal wrongful death suit last week in U.S. District Court.
Joyce M. Rogers, mother of Bernard Rogers, said Officer Tonyea Curry violated her son's constitutional protection against excessive force when he shot and killed Rogers on Nov. 15, 2002, at the Bedford Dwellings housing complex in the Hill District.
Click below for full story...
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04324/414341.stm
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Polk shelters lack beds for half of homeless
The Des Moines Register - Nov 18
An advocate hopes people are moved to offer aid to the needy this Thanksgiving. At last count, 5,097 homeless people live in Polk County, but local shelters have beds for only half of them, advocates for the homeless said Wednesday.
Click below for full story...
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041118/NEWS08/411180416/1001/NEWS
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Poisoned by poverty
EPA proposes to test pesticides on poor children
by Tiny and Laurence Ashton
Poor News Network
Wahumph ... wahumph. Every day the oil rig would bite into the tired earth under my cousin’s apartment window in the City of Industry in LA.
Ooooh, pssss, gulp. Every day my cousin would try to breathe with asthmatic lungs through the thick blanket of toxic air emanating from the dozens of chemical and oil processing plants that circled her family's two-room apartment.
Click below for full story...
http://www.sfbayview.com/111704/poisoned111704.shtml
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Security fencing moves local hub of homeless
Arlington Heights Post - Nov 18
Standing near a brand new chain-link fence under the Kennedy Expressway, CTA Bus Driver George Gonzalez points to an empty space where tattered sleeping bags, cardboard boxes and people once filled the area.
Click below for full story...
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/
localnews/current/ed/11-18-04-435114.html
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Bringing attention to Cape's invisible population
SEMissourian.com - Nov 18
Junked-out cars, cardboard boxes, a highway overpass. Anything can pass for a house if you're desperate enough. Ask Mike and Virginia, who declined to give their last names. They're some of the lucky ones, they'll tell you: They have their own van to live in.
Click below for full story...
http://www.semissourian.com/story.html$rec=150498
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Housing authority urged to auction off program
Herald Standard - Nov 19
A Uniontown man urged the Fayette County Housing Authority on Thursday to auction off its 100-unit State Housing Program because it unfairly competes with private landlords.
Click below for full story...
http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?
newsid=13397582&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6
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Survey Finds Housing Prices Fueling California Exodus
News 10 Sacramento - Nov 18
According to a new report, one out of every four Californians is discouraged enough by high housing prices to consider moving elsewhere. The survey by the Public Policy Institute found that only 49 percent of California renters have confidence that they will someday be able to purchase a home.
Click below for full story...
http://www.news10.net/storyfull.asp?id=8581
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Public housing residents get more transition help
Chicago Sun-Times - Nov 18
Public housing residents will get more help transitioning into communities throughout Chicago thanks to a big bump in funding from the CHA.
Click below for full story...
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cha18.html
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BOYNTON TO PAY FOR RESIDENTS' MOVES
By WILL VASH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 18, 2004
BOYNTON BEACH
Ever since hurricane winds hurled a tree through her apartment roof, 72-year-old Frances Williams has been living in something close to squalor.
"My bed, mattress looked like this dirt here," Williams said, pointing to a mound of wet sand in the parking lot at Boynton Terrace Apartments, where she has lived for four years. "I got to move, but I don't have the money. Everywhere you go you have to sign something."
For Williams' family and the other renters at the private, federally subsidized housing complex, the wait for assistance might finally end.
City commissioners are poised tonight to approve $50,000 in federal block grant money to relocate the families by providing security deposits and moving expenses. About 20 families live in the long-neglected complex.
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/56198.html
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