stimulus
Red, White and Blue Diversity
Published May 22, 2009 @ 05:06AM PT
Diverse people make up America, serve and protect America, die for America's ideals, challenge America and govern America. We breathe the same air, drink the same water, and walk on the same earth in our unique but similar ways.
Merriam-Webster dictionary describes DIVERSITY as "1 : differing from one another : unlike <people with diverse interests> 2 : composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities <a diverse population>"
On Memorial Day we, in our diverse ways, remember the diverse soldiers who suffered and died for our freedom--freedom we often take for granted. Those who have been in war, as military or as innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, know the real price of freedom purchased by blood and death. The rest of us only think we know. We could all benefit by increasing our understanding.
Credit Card Legislation Passes in Senate
Published May 19, 2009 @ 01:26PM PT
The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to put new restrictions on the credit card industry, passing a bill whose backers say will make card-issuers spell out their terms in fewer words, using plain English, and treat customers more fairly.
This follows a similar House bill. After the differences between the two are worked out, a final bill goes to Obama for signature.
Frankly, I'm surprised it passed so quickly. This must be the give-away legislation for voters so as to distract us from the on-going bank bailouts and inadequacies in the housing rescue bills and stimulus. Not to mention the potential taxpayer subsidy behind this as well.
First, Principles
Published May 16, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Of all the lessons from our economic downturn, the first, most basic one has not really changed: unless and until we do something to solve the home lending and foreclosure mess, we can’t really hope to climb out of the hole we’re in.
Everybody knows that… right?
Of course, there’s knowing and there’s doing… and unfortunately, while the knowing we have a problem part seems a given, the doing is not so clear.
Inequality Makes People Cruel
Published May 11, 2009 @ 12:02PM PT
Discuss.
Fellow blogger Alana (h/t) comes to that conclusion, with the aid of a Twitter survey (Twurvey?):
...that explains the people on the bottom end of the pyramid forced into cruel actions and cruel choices, and the people on the top end, so far from poverty that poor people and their problems no longer seem real to them. It’s easy to be cruel when you can’t see your victims. Or when you think their problems are inevitable and can’t be solved. Or when you think poor people make themselves poor or even aren’t quite human. Inequality creates the kind of distance that makes that happen.
Or when you're motivated by greed or entitlement.
What's missing here b/w these poles is the middle-class countries like ours possess; what is their role here? I'd venture ignorance or worse, indifference. To be blind to how our world works, or for failing to advocate for change, whether at a micro, personal level or at a collective macro level.
What do you think? It's an interesting discussion in light of recent global survey findings and the increased importance of the federal (central) government right now:
Are non-profits set to spend stimulus weatherization $$?
Published May 11, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The state-run Weatherization Assistance Program for low-income families was singled out for big stimulus spending partly because it had worked the same way for nearly 35 years and didn’t need adjustments. But governors in some states are proposing brand new approaches that critics say could derail the tried-and-true home insulation program. [snip]
Targeted for hefty stimulus funding, weatherization has been attacked by members of Congress and taxpayer groups who say the local agencies that run the program won’t be able to spend the windfall fast enough to generate much needed jobs.
This is a fascinating article, because it gets at something I've mentioned here before: so much of our government and social sector infrastructure has been devastated in the last 8 if not 25 years. Now that we've got $$ to spend, we're worried the small but steady non-profits we've counted on to deliver these programs for years aren't up to it.
That's a legitimate point, in my opinion.
Tax Credits for Affordable Housing Dry Up
Published May 08, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
And another limit to market-driven affordable housing production is revealed:
"Mr. Brandt’s experience is being mirrored throughout the nation, demonstrating the shortcomings of a financing vehicle that was conceived more than two decades ago to inject market discipline into the development of income-restricted housing. The theory was that investors would support only those projects likely to be successful.
Many developers are finding themselves either unable to sell tax credits that they have been awarded or short millions of dollars because the price that investors are willing to pay for a tax credit has tumbled from $1 or more to less than 75 cents today.
Today, the total amount of tax credit equity available for low-income housing has shrunk to $4 billion to $4.5 billion, down from about $9 billion in 2007, Frederick H. Copeman, the national director of tax credit investment advisory services at Ernst & Young, said in an interview in his Boston office."
Despite our frequent hand-wrangling over that eyesore public housing, in reality the majority of subsidized housing today is tax-credit financed and produced by private sector developers, for- and non-profit. Yet, the limits to this approach fuel calls for state and federal affordable housing trust funds, to again prioritize the needs of the lowest-income Americans that public housing filled starting in the 1960s.
MS state-wide recovery needs a healthy, affordable Gulf Coast
Published May 06, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
According to the state's insurance commissioner. And the missing ingredient thus far? Affordable housing!
Efforts to rebuild affordable housing and make homeowner’s insurance affordable in Mississippi’s Gulf Coast counties must become a priority if those three counties are ever to fully recover from Hurricane Katrina, State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says.
“If the Coast doesn’t come back, the rest of the state won’t come back,” Chaney said on Monday.
Chaney, addressing the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday, noted that 16 percent of the state’s population lives and works in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, and little has been done since the initial year following Katrina to make substantial progress in rebuilding the communities in those counties.
“There is very little that has been done on the Coast since the initial year of cleanup,” said Chaney.
A major problem is a lack of affordable housing and the necessary insurance policies homeowners need, Chaney said.
Somebody get this guy on the Poverty in America lecture circuit! Finally, a genius in elected office! (Appointed office?)
I'm flying home from TN today. Diane's got my back this afternoon. Consider showing her non-profit HEAR US some love so she can keep criss-crossing the country as an advocate for homeless kids and families.
