Government
G20 Countries Take On Economic Inequality
Published September 28, 2009 @ 04:43AM PT
G20 leaders are heralding their progress last weekend in Pittsburgh as a sign of a new world order, in which they will collaborate as "permanent stewards of the world economy for the first time," monitored and evaluated by the International Monetary Fund to ensure that "economic policies of G20 countries are consistent with 'sustainable and balanced trajectories for the global economy'." This plan lacks any enforceable power - it is a strategy of global goodwill, embarrassment and peer pressure to avoid on-going boom and bust economic cycles - but there is talk of imposing a tax on financial speculation (e.g., derivatives) to curb "excessive risk-taking."
This is a positive if amorphous development for the world and the US. It signals that we are eager to return to a more cooperative stance in the world, and it is a more overt, collective acknowledgment by nations of the uneven outcomes of globalization that I've seen before. But what next? Unsurprisingly, the U.S. is loathe to take on Wall Street, and the rift between the developing world's need for better access to markets and less onerous trading conditions and the developed world's desire to protect their unfair advantage in our "free" market economy persists.
Our Broken Child Support System
Published September 25, 2009 @ 05:05AM PT
My morning coffee discussion with a friend went from scoffing about an upcoming wedding of a friend's nephew that was going to eat up $100k to the fact that at least 50% of marriages end in divorce to the hot topic of the child support system. My take is that it's broken. Many, on both sides of the system, will agree, with differing opinions on who's to blame.
This week in rain-soaked Atlanta is a premiere of a documentary, "Support? System Down," focusing on
the fundamental flaws in America's Family Courts regarding the Divorce and Child Support System. The film explores the problems through over 38 interviews with both custodial and non-custodial parents and the attorneys, judges and county employees on both sides of the paradigm.
The system's failures can spill out in violence, as in a recent fatal shooting in a trailer court in GA allegedly over child support. Hopefully the film will generate attention on a hot, neglected, issue--one that causes poverty and homelessness, often for moms and kids, but sometimes dads too.
NYC to Get FRESH Supermarkets
Published September 24, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
In the spirit of National Food Desert Awareness month, yesterday morning, the New York City Department of City Planning voted unanimously in favor of an initiative that will bring fresh fruits, vegetables and other all-too-rare perishable goods to some of the city's most under-served residents.
The Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (or FRESH) program will give various zoning and tax incentives to retail companies that open supermarkets in designated communities throughout the five boroughs.
For example, new stores that meet the FRESH eligibility requirements will be given sales tax exemptions, real estate tax reductions and be required to provide less parking than is mandated for other retail food operations by the city's zoning laws.
NYT Stands With Mississippi
Published September 23, 2009 @ 01:27PM PT
Last April, we featured a campaign here called "I Stand With Mississippi," started by the MS Center for Justice, to protest Governor Barbour's plan to decline federal stimulus funds. Yesterday, the NY Times stood with Mississippi - expending editorial capital on the almost four-year fight by social justice advocates to compel the MS government to to appropriately and fairly spend federal disaster recovery funds on affordable housing for affected low-income populations.
The STEPS Coalition, an umbrella group of MS-based advocates such as the MS Center for Justice, is named in the editorial for a report it released at the anniversary of Katrina, documenting the state's poor performance in rebuilding destroyed affordable housing relative to its post-storm projections and compared to Louisiana. We've documented here the most egregious example of Barbour's misplaced priorities - taking $600M allocated for housing redevelopment and using it to expand the port of Gulfport. Only 20% of all the money meant for low-income households has been spent on them; 50% has gone to wealthier homeowners.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, and a state with poverty and inequality so dire that even Louisiana, hardly a progressive bright spot on the map, easily surpasses them in affordable housing recovery. This post is sort of meta... it seeks to highlight the on-going progress and battle the STEPS Coalition and others are waging to bring all affordable housing back on-line to the thousands of state residents still displaced - in trailers and out-of-state. But it also highlights the coverage this struggle is finally getting - national attention it's long deserved. It's like someone on the NYT editorial staff finally had a chance to read that random Katrina report someone recommended last month.
Show your support for housing and social justice advocates in Mississippi: Check out the MS Center for Justice, the MS NAACP, and the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, the STEPS Coalition, and their allies. There is a tremendous amount of social justice work happening and a tremendous progressive community in the U.S. South. Get involved today.
(Photo of farmers' market at Point Cadet Plaza in Ocean Springs, MS, a few weeks before Katrina hit in August 2005; Taken by Ken Roberts Photography)
Target Takes Food Stamps
Published September 21, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
So many Americans are now using food stamps that more and more chain stores have begun accepting them, rather than lose these customers to economic hardship. New or expanded recipients include Target, CVS, 7-11, Costco, BJ's and Sam's Club.
Food stamp use was up 22% this summer from 2008, with more than 35M Americans using them. Food stamps now come on a card identical to a debit or credit card, offering discretion and privacy for Americans self-conscious about relying on public assistance. For businesses, Costco finds that food stamp users spend an additional $50 or so on purchases not covered by the benefit.
There's a message in here about economic hardship becoming mainstream, becoming normal. I'm trying to generalize it to an ideal world where one is not punished for being poor, where a low-income parent can stand in line at the grocery store without a sense of shame - that she's even at the better grocery store rather than an overpriced bodega or food bank is an accomplishment. (Of course, see the original link above to understand transportation issues.)
Expanded food stamp acceptance at more stores is one of these situational responses that becomes permanent. From the sound of it, businesses have to invest in some degree of technological or process change to accept these cards. These are likely not upgrades that will be rolled back once the recession really lifts. As anti-poverty activists, we should be thinking about emergency services and about long-term changes we can push through during moments of crisis. Yes, we've got to expand eligibility for food stamps so all the many million more bellies don't go hungry, but if there was ever a moment to update the poverty measure to reflect the costs of housing, health care or decline in wages - It's Now.
Bush Years Lost Economic Decade
Published September 17, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
There's been a great deal of coverage of the latest census data on the increase in poverty in 2008. The bottom line? Bush stole all your money, and your health insurance is short-lived.
Fortunately, there's a growing push to modernize the poverty measure, which is based on 1955 data on the cost of food, calculated in haste in the 1960s. Back in the day, food costs were a third of a family's budget. Now they're one-seventh. Exactly - you don't even know how much that is, but it's relatively nominal compared to the expense of housing, medicine, clothing, etc.
Here's a quick round-up of coverage - the infuriating and the promising - you don't want to miss.
Housing Choice in Crisis
Published September 12, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
My organization, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), recently released an audit report about discrimination against Housing Choice Voucher holders (“HCVP” or “Section 8”) in the Greater New Orleans rental market. Our study revealed that landlords refused to consider voucher holders as tenants 82% of the time. Preliminary results also suggest that, due to intentional discrimination and program dysfunction, voucher holders end up relegated to a small, isolated, and likely low-resourced segment of the rental housing market. This is particularly problematic, since one of the stated goals of the Housing Choice Voucher Program is to promote race and class integration.
Audits in other areas of the country have turned up similar findings and point to the need for serious reform in federal housing policy. We recommend 10 actions to make housing policy more inclusive, fair and effective.
Our study demonstrates that while 75% of landlord refusals were outright rejections, 7% of the time, landlords added additional terms and conditions for voucher holders that were tantamount to a denial.
