Health & Healthcare
Visualize Whirled Peas
Published June 02, 2009 @ 06:03AM PT
Closed. Gone. Kaput. Favorite businesses of mine, ones I've patronized for years, have fallen like timbers in a tornado.
That's bad enough, but Diane, the Contrarian, wonders...what happens to the employees of these ma-pa businesses that have blown away like barns in a twister's path? Sure, some get better jobs. But, in today's job market, with piles of "dime-a-dozen" employees, I suspect some go job hunting and some try to turn to what's left of welfare.
Myth-buster: Some 'Haves' Have Not...
Published June 01, 2009 @ 11:59AM PT
Much of the talk about the "haves" tends to overlook a little secret: Some "haves" have-not.
Talking with the fire chief of a fairly well-to-do Chicago area community recently, he inquired about my work. When I replied that I educated people about the existence and plight of homeless families, he nodded his head knowingly. As we both agreed that this latest economic melt-down was tough on a lot of people, he went further than I expected in the conversation.
CA to become first state with no public assistance?
Published May 31, 2009 @ 08:28AM PT
Obviously, as long as government exists, it will provide some level of public benefit to us all. But Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts in California are so deep that they would outright eliminate temporary assistance to needy families (TANF, or "welfare"):
Ending cash assistance for 1.3 million impoverished state residents, for example, would make California the only state with no welfare program.
"Every single first-world nation has a safety net program for children," said Will Lightbourne, Santa Clara County's social services director. "This would return us to the era of Dickens — you'd have to go back to the 19th century to find a comparable proposal."
Dickensian. You know you're living through hard times when your governance is compared to the abject poverty and exploitation of 19th century England. That's rough.
The Governator's not the only bad guy here. Voters rejected ballot proposals last week to balance the budget via tax increases, borrowing and basically moving $$ around to plug holes. California's "direct democracy" has proven so dicey that for the first time in 150+ years, Constitutional reform might actually be in play. But will the state close all its parks, and drop welfare and healthcare and tuition assistance for low-income youth to make this happen? I shudder at the thought.
Photo of a mural from LAMP Community on Skid Row in Los Angeles, taken by lewisha1990. Can Californians come together for economic recovery? How many new households will end up on Skid Row?
Race and the Recession
Published May 29, 2009 @ 11:30AM PT
Photo of murals under I-10 at Claiborne Ave in New Orleans. On Claiborne was a thriving black business district in Treme in New Orleans that was destroyed by the development of highway I-10. Urban renewal and federal highway projects repeatedly destroyed thriving black neighborhoods throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Race & the Recession is the title of a new report out by the Applied Research Center, subtitled "How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules." I find it especially timely to cover here given the conversation on race, racism, right-wing politics and Reagan unfolding below. I'd also recommend hightailing it over to Ta-Nehisi today, who is just repeatedly nailing this topic with eloquence and erudition, not an easy thing to accomplish.
Race and the Recession mixes stories and data to demonstrate the disproportionate impacts on people of color in this recession. This does not mean that whites/Anglo-Americans are not also suffering - what it means is that given our respective demographic populations in the US, we are likely to see outsized numbers of stories of layoffs, foreclosures, low-wages, lack of health coverage, etc. among non-white Americans. The report details the way disparities in lending, in wealth accumulation, in hiring and employment practices, in wages, etc. create cumulative, downward effects on people of color that makes recessionary periods especially difficult to weather and overcome.
After the jump are highlights from the report, and the policies we need to reduce this inequality - recommendations include universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, updating decades old community investment policies, assessing the racial impacts of proposed policies, and expanding our emergency relief for the time being.
Access Denied
Published May 27, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
In a post from several weeks ago, Leigh helpfully reminded us all that “disablism” is an issue for anti-poverty advocates to keep front and center in our struggle for equal housing opportunities. Last week, my organization released the results of the first audit study on disability discrimination in New Orleans housing since Hurricane Katrina.
Access Denied: An Audit of Housing Accessibility for People with Physical Disabilities in the Greater New Orleans Rental Housing Market demonstrates that 100% of the twenty-two complexes investigated (all built within the past five years) were inaccessible to people with physical disabilities according to the standards set forth under the Fair Housing Act as amended in 1988. Violations included a lack of curb cuts that would allow access from a parking lot to units or common areas, bathroom walls that are not reinforced to allow for the installation of grab bars, and kitchens/bathrooms that are impossible for a wheelchair user to navigate.
These results amount to illegal discrimination against people with disabilities but are disturbing for several additional reasons when we consider context.
Taking Care of our Returning Soldiers
Published May 25, 2009 @ 06:18PM PT
While never forgetting those we've lost.
"Homelessness, family strains and psychological problems among returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will persist in the U.S. for generations to come, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.
"This is not a 10-year problem. It is a 50- or 60- or 70-year problem," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a lunchtime audience at the Hudson Union Society, a group that promotes nonpartisan debate.
Mullen said he was particularly disturbed by the emergence of homelessness as a problem among war veterans.
Disturbed is right. Suicide rates are up, homelessness is "returning" (for those who remember the domestic aftermath of Vietnam), and we're trying to put back together a broken VA system as our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan continues for the foreseeable future. The stimulus included one-time payments of $250 to disabled vets, though we've yet to fully accept the widespread existence of PTSD among soldiers.
And here you thought I was just going to let you slide out of a lovely Memorial Day weekend with only happy thoughts!
Well, I am, mostly. I just wanted to acknowledge Memorial Day's passing by recognizing all that we owe our veterans as men and women who serve our country and as fellow Americans. I encourage you to get to know the work of organizations that serve veterans, such as the 52 agencies who are members of the Coalition for Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans, which works together to strengthen support systems for veterans and their loved ones.
My fellow Change bloggers have some thoughts and recognition of Memorial Day as well. I hope you'll check 'em out.
Preserving Small Family Farms
Published May 21, 2009 @ 06:12AM PT
That's the crux of this interesting piece in the Hartford Courant this week about the growth of community-supported agriculture (CSA) in Connecticut. As family-owned farms have struggled to make ends meet in this day and age, many of them have begun selling shares to local households in exchange for weekly bushels of fresh produce.
My boyfriend and I are experimenting with something similar here in Boston this summer - a half share in a Cape Ann fishery that gives us about 1 pound of fish per week through the summer. Our main impetus for this is to eat healthier, trying to phase out the red meat and phase in more fish. We purchased a half share mainly because of the upfront cost, which is $180 for 9 or 12 weeks (I forget).
The sample shares in the Courant story gave me mild sticker shock too, even as I understand the exponential benefits to buying locally, eating more veggies, getting to know your local agricultural system, etc. etc. It makes me wonder, how does CSA address issues of poverty and hunger - beyond stabilizing the farms? (No small accomplishment, of course.)
