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Edited on Tue Mar-20-07 10:46 AM by Sapphire Blue
(Email from the Coalition on Human Needs...) TODAY- MAKE YOUR FED. BUDGET CALLS!Senate Budget Debate Starts Tuesday, March 20. House Budget in Committee later this week.
A few minutes on the phone can mean billions in funding for human needs. Okay - think of it as dialing for dollars. But really, this is about how many people will get health coverage, nutrition aid, housing, education...Call TODAY to prevent cuts and provide the extra push needed to serve more who need help. Don't call?
That makes it more likely amendments will restrict child health coverage and siphon off billions into still more unaffordable tax breaks. Please call. 800-459-1887, toll-free Tuesday, March 20.Step 1: Call 1-800-459-1887 and ask the Capitol Switchboard operator to connect you to your member of Congress' office. (If you don't know your Representative's or Senators' names click here) Step 2: Make 3 calls - one to your Representative and two to your Senators. Deliver this message to the staffer that answers the phone: Please put First Things First and work to pass a budget resolution that includes a significant spending increase for pressing needs that have been neglected for years, such as (Mention examples that mean the most to you, such as, housing, child care, services for senior citizens, education, Head Start, Food Stamps, children's health coverage, child support collections…). Our nation needs these investments - we don't need billions in tax cuts for the wealthy. Please reject any amendments that cut back on child health or other services. Why your calls make so much difference:The Senate Budget Committee just approved a budget resolution that makes some progress, but not enough, in placing First Things First. It adds about $7 billion over this year's spending (only 1 percent beyond inflation). Within a $2.9 trillion budget, that's not enough. We must regain lost ground - 150,000 fewer children with child care help; Food Stamps worth only $1 per meal; 150,000 fewer rental vouchers; services stripped from Head Start - meeting these and other critical needs must be a national priority. The Senate Committee did some good things, too - for example, they made a commitment to cover eligible children through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). For more information about what the Senate Budget Committee did, click here: http://www.chn.org/pdf/2007/senatebudget.pdf . The budget goes to the Senate floor on Tuesday, March 20. Your calls to senators will help to beat damaging amendments and to support good ones.
This week, the House Budget Committee will work on its budget resolution. There is a genuine chance for the House to include more funds for human needs - your calls can turn that chance into reality. For talking points about:The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee. AFSC welcomes groups to circulate and use the toll-free number in support of non-partisan budget goals and without linking the alert to a website soliciting donations or actions which may be used to support partisan lobbying or work. ============================================== Please forward this e-mail! Do not reply to this email. See our contact information at http://www.chn.org/about/staff.html to contact us directly. If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for CHN emails at http://www.chn.org/signUp.jsp. The Counting is Done; Let the Housing BeginWASHINGTON: On Wednesday, February 28th, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a report to Congress on homelessness in America. The report included both a “point-in-time” count, which measures the number of homeless individuals on a given night, as well as a count collected over a three month period using the Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS). HUD reported that on any given night an estimated 754,000 persons will experience homelessness throughout the U.S. Resulting in about 300,000 more people then shelter beds in the U.S. HUD’s staggering finding is an indictment of the previously absent political will to end homelessness. This report confirms the need for both emergency response legislation, such as the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (H.R. 840), to double federal dollars in homeless assistance programs, as well as the need for a comprehensive response to the affordable housing crisis in our nation. This includes the passage of the Bringing America Home Act (to be reintroduced in the 110th Congress), the establishment of a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and significant increases in existing federal housing programs. While the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) supports HUD’s efforts, any attempt to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness is limited by time and practical restraints, whether in one night, three months or over the course of a year. Additionally, homeless counts are based on individuals living on the streets, in shelters or transitional housing facilities. By using HUD’s current restrictive definition of homelessness, the counts fail to include many homeless persons, especially those living in suburban and rural areas where doubling up or living in motels is common place. More expansive definitions, like that used by the U.S. Department of Education, would include these individuals, allowing a more accurate estimate of the homeless population. NCH stresses that ending homelessness requires long term far-reaching action to both house those currently facing homelessness, as well as to prevent those at immediate risk of losing housing and becoming homeless. This cannot be done without the establishment of increased affordable housing, livable incomes, educational and vocational training, universal health care, and the assurance of protecting homeless peoples’ civil rights. In response to the report, Michael Stoops, acting executive director of NCH, says “It's okay to count homeless people. But we need to make sure that we're working at housing homeless people and not just gathering statistics." Please click here to read the report: http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/ahar.cfm Information by State: http://www.hud.gov/local/index.cfm http://www.nationalhomeless.org/housing/hudprmarch.html Without Housing, the Poor Will Perishby Janny Castillo  "Wet Night On Sutter Street." In this painting by Christine Hanlon, a homeless person sleeps outside a fancy clothing store on a rainy night while well-dressed mannequins are dry and warm inside."The government pegs homeless persons as dysfunctional human beings in need of rehabilitation. This report says, 'I don't care how many life-skills trainings you give me; if I don't have a place to live, I am going to be homeless." -- Paul Boden, WRAP Executive Director "Until this government invests billions of dollars more a year in housing for the poor, homelessness will increase and deaths will increase." -- Terry Messman, Street Spirit editor According to a U.S. Department of Education report, more than 600,000 identified homeless students attended public schools in the 2003-2004 school years. These children are invisible. They will not be seen on rooftops in flood waters, trapped and afraid. Their desperate faces are not plastered across our televisions, moving the country to do something, anything, to help. They are survivors of a different and more subtle catastrophe than Katrina. On November 14, 2006, a group of homeless advocates met in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco to announce the release of a report written by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) entitled, "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures." Juan Prada, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, organized the event. The 80-page report documents 25 years of federal housing cuts that have resulted in "a new and massive episode of homelessness." "Those on the front line of homelessness -- homeless people and the providers who serve them -- are drowning in a sea of blame," said WRAP Executive Director Paul Boden. "We have joined together to speak the truth. Until federal affordable housing programs are restored and expanded, homelessness will continue to grow." Continued @ http://www.thestreetspirit.org/Dec2006/nohome.htm NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS CORRELATION BETWEEN HISTORIC CUTS TO FEDERAL HOUSING PROGRAMS AND CONTEMPORARY MASS HOMELESSNESS Communities call for the new Congress to take a new approach to addressing and ending the national crisis of homelessness(Excerpt) " Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures,” documents the correlation between these trends and the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in the 1980s which continues today. It particularly focuses on radical cuts to programs administered by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), which administers funds for rural affordable housing. Available online in PDF format, the report also demonstrates why federal responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed. Created in partnership with five other organizations, the report uses federal budget data and other sources to document that: HUD’s budget has dropped 65% since 1978, from over $83 billion to $29 billion in 2006.
The Emergency Shelter phenomenon was born the same year that HUD funding was at a drastic low point. In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion, the same year that general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide.
HUD has spent $0 on new public housing, while more than 100,000 public housing units have been lost to demolition, sale, or other removal in the last ten years.
Federal housing subsidies are going to the wealthy. In 2004, 61 percent of these subsidies went to households earning more than $54,788, while only 27 percent went to households earning under $34,398.
More than 600,000 identified homeless students went to public schools in the 2003-2004 school year, according to the US Department of Education.
Federal support helps homeowners instead of poor people. In 2005, federal homeowner subsidies totaled more than $122 billion, while HUD outlays were only $31 billion – a difference of more than $91 billion. According to Paul Boden, executive director of WRAP, “The Administration’s current ‘Chronic Homeless Initiative’ is just the latest in a series of inadequate flavor-of-the-month distractions from the real problem. It does nothing to address the huge cuts to federal affordable housing funding that caused mass homelessness. Housing is a human right, which a democracy should advance, not restrict. Those on the frontline of homelessness – homeless people and the providers who serve them – are drowning in a sea of blame. We have joined together to speak truth to power: until federal affordable housing programs are restored and expanded, homelessness will continue to grow.” http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/press_release_wrap.html Universal Declaration of Human RightsArticle 25:
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
SOCIAL JUSTICE vs. CHARITY THROUGH OUR FINGERS Ronald Stanley, O.P. "Two men were fishing in a river. Late in the afternoon they started cooking some of the fish they had caught. Suddenly they heard the cries of a man being swept down the river. Immediately the men jumped into the river, swam out to the man, and were gradually able to pull him ashore. As they were on shore catching their breath, they heard the cries of a woman being swept down the river. They jumped back into the water, made their way out to the woman, and slowly brought her to shore. They were exhausted but happy to have saved both people. Then they heard to cries of a child being swept downstream. One of the men started back into the water to get the child; the other held back. "Aren't you going to save the child?" asked the first. "You go get the child," responded the second, "I'm going to go upstream to find out why so many people are falling into the river." Charity is happy to spend all day pulling victims out of the river. Social justice asks: why are so many people falling into the river? Is there a pathway or a bridge in need of repair? Is there someone throwing people into the river? When there is a pattern of people repeatedly falling victim, social justice seeks to discover and remedy the root causes of the problem. Charity does the important work of meeting the immediate needs of suffering people, for food, clothing, housing, medicine, etc. Most everyone today approves and praises charity. Social justice, on the other hand, dares to ask troubling questions: if the earth's resources are meant to meet the needs of all the earth's children, why are 20% of the world's population consuming over 80% of the earth's resources, leaving 80% of the world living in misery? Isn't it only just that the privilege few live more simply, so that the masses might simply live? (snip) Our politicians smooth the pathways and bridges of the privileged, to the neglect of the poor. Little wonder then that so many of the poor keep falling into the river. Their falling is not simply an accident. They are not "falling through the cracks." They are falling through our fingers. Continued @ http://www.ramapo.edu/studentlife/ministry/catholic_Ministry/Articles/social_justice.htm
In the name of Justice, please call your Senators & Representative now!
Thank you!
Sapphire Blue
Resident DU Fanatic Beggar
:hug: :loveya: :grouphug: :loveya: :hug:
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