ahdaysog at ced.berkeley.
04-28-1995, 05:49 PM
** General Interest Community Development News
** summaries of articles from newspapers across the country
Week of April 18-27, 1995
VIGNETTES ON THE FACES OF POVERTY
Major newspapers across the country recently ran stories
on the increasing inequality in income in our country.
The wealthiest one percent of American households,
reported the New York Times on April 17, owns "nearly 40% of the
nation's wealth." One percent of the households own almost half
of the country's wealth!
Serving as a backdrop to this national focus on inequality
is the Republican "Contract with America." The Contract is a plan
to eliminate or drastically reduce federal welfare programs.
The fear is that, without federal welfare programs,
poverty will increase. An indiciation of its increase is in the
fact that 20% of the American households control only 6% of the
nation's after-tax income, according to the New York Times.
But the related issues of income inequality, welfare
reform or poverty are about more than what statistics tell. These
issues are about people -- real, live, warm-blooded, thinking,
feeling individuals.
People like Appalachian residents Ada Combs and her friend
John Carter. He says that the poor gamble their welfare checks
away. "Most of these people don't gamble welfare away," retorts
Ada, who owns a diner. "They got six and seven kids and they got
to feed 'em" (source: Philadelphia Inquirer, "Welfare debate afire
in poor Kentucky region", by J. Fleishman. 4/23/95).
A former welfare recipient who now waitresses at Ada's
diner says that even the poor living in low-cost regions such as
rural Kentucky can not live off of welfare, especially if they
have children. "[E]ven working I can't afford to be on my own,"
said Cindy Stacy. "I live with my parents and they were on
welfare all my life."
But in the blue grass of Kentucky some become seething red
at mention of welfare reform. "[W]e need it," said Gillous
Felter, a retired citizen of London, Kentucky. "There's a lot of
abuse."
Diane Tabor, who works for a collection agency, said,
"Heck, a lot of the men around here don't do a lick of nothing."
"My blood pressure boilds," says Vivian Templet of
Donaldsville, La, an owner of a small business. "If they would
just get off their butts and do the job. It just doesn't make
sense to support them." (source: Washington Times, "Welfare Reform
strikes a chord deep in Dixie: Many express resentment at flawed
system", by Nancy Roman. April 17, 1995)
Another part of the country that just might as well be
another world is also grappling with the issue of poverty and
welfare. The Arizona Republic reports that poverty is as
persistent and widespread as ever among Native Americans in
Arizona. And not because they choose to be poor either.
"There are many traditional people who would like to have
plumbing, who would like to have heat, and who would like to pick
up the phone and dial '911' instead of travsersing a muddy wash to
get help," the Arizona Republic quotes Valeria Taliman as saying.
She is the spokeperson for the Navajo Nation, the largest U.S.
tribe (source: The Arizona Republic, "Poverty, not tradition,
dictates Indian reservation lifestyle, report says", Adrianne
Flynn [Dallas Morning News, 5/16/95]).
So inadequate is reservation infrastructure that their
quality of life resembles if not lags behind standards found in
the Third World. "Nationally, 20 percent of reservation
households have inadequate facilities, while less than 1 percent
of the nation as a whole has the same problem," according to the
Arizona Republic.
The face of American poverty betrays many aspects. On the
one hand, it is as sympathetic as Ada Combs; it can be angry like
Diane Tabor or Vivian Templet. The face of poverty is proud,
similar to the bearing of Native Americans whose "spiritual ways
and customs" preserve a semblance of dignity amidst material
deprivation.
But in the end, it may be the like of Louisianna's Cynthia
Davis who best reveals the most common aspect of the face of
poverty: confusion.
Ms. Davis has never heard of Newt Gingrich or the
Republican "Contract with America", and she simply doesn't
understand how (or why) the government wants to take away what
little she receives from it. "They give all this money away to
foreign people, and they can't take care of their own", she says
(source: Boston Globe, "Debate bewilders poor in La.: In poverty-
stricken parish, a sense of dread and despair", by Curtis Wilkie.
March 24, 1995).
"If they would provide us some type of jobs, we would be
all for [welfare reform]", says Isaac Fields, Jr., the city clerk
who lives in the same town as Ms. Davis, Lake Providence, La. But
since the only work available in his part of Louisianna is
seasonal, Fields says that welfare reform will devastate his area.
People will have no assistance, and there will be no permanent
employment.
The progress promised by the likes of Republicans during
the 1980s and even now has bypassed the bayous, backhills and the
reservations of America, to somewhere else. Yet places like these
will face the brunt of the cuts in programs for the poor, making
poverty even more persistent, pronounced, and, as always,
personal.
-- Tony Daysog
(source: The Arizona Republic, "Poverty, not tradition, dictates
Indian reservation lifestyle, report says", by Adrianna Flynn.
April 16, 1995; Boston Globe, "Debate bewilders poor in La.: In
poverty-stricken parish, a sense of dread and despair", by Curtis
Wilkie. March 24, 1995; Philadelphia Inquirer, "Welfare debate
afire in poor Kentucky region," by Jeffrey Fleishman. April 23,
1995; Washington Times, "Welfare Reform strikes a chord deep in
Dixie: Many express resentment at flawed system", by Nancy Roman.
April 17, 1995)
FEDS WATERDOWN CRA?
According to the Chicago Sun Times, community activists in
the Windy City renown for its community reinvestment activity say
that federal revision to the CRA "water down the intent and may
eventually scuttle the landmark lending assistance to mid- to
lower-income neighborhoods."
Among other things, federal regulators dismissed a
proposal to require lenders to list the race and gender of small
business borrowers. With this data, activists would be able to
determine the extent to which lenders made loans to minority or
women-owned businesses, the operations of which are essential to
revitalizing low-income areas.
Currently, lenders are required only to identify the race
and gender of home mortgage loan applicants and borrowers.
Significant changes institued by federal regulators
include the replacement of 12 criteria by which regulators
determined if a lender was meeting its CRA obligations, with 3
broad criteria.
Despite the changes, Gale Cincotta, community activist
extraordinaire and one of the original proponents of CRA,
reportedly said that the changes were not all that bad.
(source: Chicago sun times, "New Lending Rules Get Mixed
Reaction", by Lisa Holton and Francine Knowles. April 20, 1995)
...from the Federal Register
*** On April 26, the Federal Reserve published for comment a
proposed amendment (60 FR 20436) to Regulation B (Equal Credit
Opportunity). The proposed amendment would eliminate the general
prohibition on collecting data relating to an applicant's race,
color, sex, religion, and national origin, giving creditors the
option to ask applicants to provide the information on a voluntary
basis. This amendment would allow data collection only; creditors
still would be prohibited from considering an applicant's race,
color, sex, religion, and national origin in their credit
decisions. For more information, call Jane Gell at 202/452-3667.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 27, 1995.
*** On April 18, The Violence Against Women Program Office, Office
of Justice Programs (OJP), which is within the U.S. Department of
Justice, published a final regulations governing the
implementation of the STOP (Services . Training . Officers .
Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula and Discretionary
Grants Program, hereafter referred to as the Program, authorized
by Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
of 1994. For more information, call Kathy Schwartz at
202/307-6026.
*** The Department of Labor's Glass Ceiling Commission issued a
notice describing the criteria and application process for the
National Award for Diversity and Excellence in American Executive
Management, on April 20, 1995. For more information, call Rene A.
Redwood at 202/219-7342.
*** On April 21, the Treasury Department issued a proposed rule
and notice for public hearing on the subjecy of "lease term" and
"exchanged of tax-exempt use of property." The proposed
regulations also provide guidance regarding certain like-kind
exchanges among related parties involving tax-exempt use property.
This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these
regulations. For more information, call John Aramuru at
202/622-4960.
*** The Health and Human Services department announces the
availability of financial assistance to establish or increase the
availability of comprehensive child development services in or
near Public/Indian Housing developments. This announcement doesn't
allow funds to be used for child care services in Section 8
programs. For more info, call 1-800-351-2293 and ask about the
April 21 notice called 60 FR 19921.
*** The Justice Department announced on April 25 the availability
of the solicitation for an impact evaluation of operation weed and
seed, the poorly named anti-crime effort involving community
development-type solutions. For more information, call Laurie
Bright at the Department of Justice.
*** Federal Register 60 FR 20360 of April 25 describes the
criteria for approval by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) of national, regional, and multi-state nonprofit
or public organizations as housing counseling agencies and sets
forth the application approval process.
All organizations wishing to participate in HUD's FY '95
housing counseling program must first receive HUD approval as a
housing counseling agency. Although HUD has an established process
for approving local counseling agencies, FY '95 will mark the
first year that HUD will approve national, regional, and multi-
state organizations for participation in its counseling program.
National, regional, and multi-state nonprofit or public
organizations that apply for HUD approval under this Notice are
not necessarily guaranteed HUD housing counseling funding for FY
'95. However, the HUD approval process outlined in this Notice is
a prerequisite to the application for FY '95 funding by national,
regional, or multi-state nonprofit or public organizations. The
NOFA announcing the availability of FY '95 funds is expected to be
published at a later date. For more information, call Marion
Connell at 202/708-0740.
** Food For Thought
** Washington's Republican governor, Mike Lowry, on block grants:
** Block granting federal funds means less money to states
** because,
***** "[t]he more broadly defined the use of a grant, the less
***** support it has among identifiable constituencies...That's
***** why a lossely defined education block grant decreased by 6
***** percent...the rise in funding for Head Start cut into the
***** money available for other education programs, which were
***** all included in the same block grant."
- Seattle Times, April 25, 1995
** The Community Development News is brought to you by Tony
** Daysog, of the National Economic Development and Law Center.
** Pass it around!
** HANDSNET: hn0186; internet: hn0186@handsnet.org
** If you are on HandsNet, puh...puh...puh...pleez join
** the listserve called $LSPCOMDEV...it makes it easier
** for me to send this to you. Thanks
Sent: April 28, 1995 1:35 pm PDT Item: R007T2b
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
** summaries of articles from newspapers across the country
Week of April 18-27, 1995
VIGNETTES ON THE FACES OF POVERTY
Major newspapers across the country recently ran stories
on the increasing inequality in income in our country.
The wealthiest one percent of American households,
reported the New York Times on April 17, owns "nearly 40% of the
nation's wealth." One percent of the households own almost half
of the country's wealth!
Serving as a backdrop to this national focus on inequality
is the Republican "Contract with America." The Contract is a plan
to eliminate or drastically reduce federal welfare programs.
The fear is that, without federal welfare programs,
poverty will increase. An indiciation of its increase is in the
fact that 20% of the American households control only 6% of the
nation's after-tax income, according to the New York Times.
But the related issues of income inequality, welfare
reform or poverty are about more than what statistics tell. These
issues are about people -- real, live, warm-blooded, thinking,
feeling individuals.
People like Appalachian residents Ada Combs and her friend
John Carter. He says that the poor gamble their welfare checks
away. "Most of these people don't gamble welfare away," retorts
Ada, who owns a diner. "They got six and seven kids and they got
to feed 'em" (source: Philadelphia Inquirer, "Welfare debate afire
in poor Kentucky region", by J. Fleishman. 4/23/95).
A former welfare recipient who now waitresses at Ada's
diner says that even the poor living in low-cost regions such as
rural Kentucky can not live off of welfare, especially if they
have children. "[E]ven working I can't afford to be on my own,"
said Cindy Stacy. "I live with my parents and they were on
welfare all my life."
But in the blue grass of Kentucky some become seething red
at mention of welfare reform. "[W]e need it," said Gillous
Felter, a retired citizen of London, Kentucky. "There's a lot of
abuse."
Diane Tabor, who works for a collection agency, said,
"Heck, a lot of the men around here don't do a lick of nothing."
"My blood pressure boilds," says Vivian Templet of
Donaldsville, La, an owner of a small business. "If they would
just get off their butts and do the job. It just doesn't make
sense to support them." (source: Washington Times, "Welfare Reform
strikes a chord deep in Dixie: Many express resentment at flawed
system", by Nancy Roman. April 17, 1995)
Another part of the country that just might as well be
another world is also grappling with the issue of poverty and
welfare. The Arizona Republic reports that poverty is as
persistent and widespread as ever among Native Americans in
Arizona. And not because they choose to be poor either.
"There are many traditional people who would like to have
plumbing, who would like to have heat, and who would like to pick
up the phone and dial '911' instead of travsersing a muddy wash to
get help," the Arizona Republic quotes Valeria Taliman as saying.
She is the spokeperson for the Navajo Nation, the largest U.S.
tribe (source: The Arizona Republic, "Poverty, not tradition,
dictates Indian reservation lifestyle, report says", Adrianne
Flynn [Dallas Morning News, 5/16/95]).
So inadequate is reservation infrastructure that their
quality of life resembles if not lags behind standards found in
the Third World. "Nationally, 20 percent of reservation
households have inadequate facilities, while less than 1 percent
of the nation as a whole has the same problem," according to the
Arizona Republic.
The face of American poverty betrays many aspects. On the
one hand, it is as sympathetic as Ada Combs; it can be angry like
Diane Tabor or Vivian Templet. The face of poverty is proud,
similar to the bearing of Native Americans whose "spiritual ways
and customs" preserve a semblance of dignity amidst material
deprivation.
But in the end, it may be the like of Louisianna's Cynthia
Davis who best reveals the most common aspect of the face of
poverty: confusion.
Ms. Davis has never heard of Newt Gingrich or the
Republican "Contract with America", and she simply doesn't
understand how (or why) the government wants to take away what
little she receives from it. "They give all this money away to
foreign people, and they can't take care of their own", she says
(source: Boston Globe, "Debate bewilders poor in La.: In poverty-
stricken parish, a sense of dread and despair", by Curtis Wilkie.
March 24, 1995).
"If they would provide us some type of jobs, we would be
all for [welfare reform]", says Isaac Fields, Jr., the city clerk
who lives in the same town as Ms. Davis, Lake Providence, La. But
since the only work available in his part of Louisianna is
seasonal, Fields says that welfare reform will devastate his area.
People will have no assistance, and there will be no permanent
employment.
The progress promised by the likes of Republicans during
the 1980s and even now has bypassed the bayous, backhills and the
reservations of America, to somewhere else. Yet places like these
will face the brunt of the cuts in programs for the poor, making
poverty even more persistent, pronounced, and, as always,
personal.
-- Tony Daysog
(source: The Arizona Republic, "Poverty, not tradition, dictates
Indian reservation lifestyle, report says", by Adrianna Flynn.
April 16, 1995; Boston Globe, "Debate bewilders poor in La.: In
poverty-stricken parish, a sense of dread and despair", by Curtis
Wilkie. March 24, 1995; Philadelphia Inquirer, "Welfare debate
afire in poor Kentucky region," by Jeffrey Fleishman. April 23,
1995; Washington Times, "Welfare Reform strikes a chord deep in
Dixie: Many express resentment at flawed system", by Nancy Roman.
April 17, 1995)
FEDS WATERDOWN CRA?
According to the Chicago Sun Times, community activists in
the Windy City renown for its community reinvestment activity say
that federal revision to the CRA "water down the intent and may
eventually scuttle the landmark lending assistance to mid- to
lower-income neighborhoods."
Among other things, federal regulators dismissed a
proposal to require lenders to list the race and gender of small
business borrowers. With this data, activists would be able to
determine the extent to which lenders made loans to minority or
women-owned businesses, the operations of which are essential to
revitalizing low-income areas.
Currently, lenders are required only to identify the race
and gender of home mortgage loan applicants and borrowers.
Significant changes institued by federal regulators
include the replacement of 12 criteria by which regulators
determined if a lender was meeting its CRA obligations, with 3
broad criteria.
Despite the changes, Gale Cincotta, community activist
extraordinaire and one of the original proponents of CRA,
reportedly said that the changes were not all that bad.
(source: Chicago sun times, "New Lending Rules Get Mixed
Reaction", by Lisa Holton and Francine Knowles. April 20, 1995)
...from the Federal Register
*** On April 26, the Federal Reserve published for comment a
proposed amendment (60 FR 20436) to Regulation B (Equal Credit
Opportunity). The proposed amendment would eliminate the general
prohibition on collecting data relating to an applicant's race,
color, sex, religion, and national origin, giving creditors the
option to ask applicants to provide the information on a voluntary
basis. This amendment would allow data collection only; creditors
still would be prohibited from considering an applicant's race,
color, sex, religion, and national origin in their credit
decisions. For more information, call Jane Gell at 202/452-3667.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 27, 1995.
*** On April 18, The Violence Against Women Program Office, Office
of Justice Programs (OJP), which is within the U.S. Department of
Justice, published a final regulations governing the
implementation of the STOP (Services . Training . Officers .
Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula and Discretionary
Grants Program, hereafter referred to as the Program, authorized
by Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
of 1994. For more information, call Kathy Schwartz at
202/307-6026.
*** The Department of Labor's Glass Ceiling Commission issued a
notice describing the criteria and application process for the
National Award for Diversity and Excellence in American Executive
Management, on April 20, 1995. For more information, call Rene A.
Redwood at 202/219-7342.
*** On April 21, the Treasury Department issued a proposed rule
and notice for public hearing on the subjecy of "lease term" and
"exchanged of tax-exempt use of property." The proposed
regulations also provide guidance regarding certain like-kind
exchanges among related parties involving tax-exempt use property.
This document also provides notice of a public hearing on these
regulations. For more information, call John Aramuru at
202/622-4960.
*** The Health and Human Services department announces the
availability of financial assistance to establish or increase the
availability of comprehensive child development services in or
near Public/Indian Housing developments. This announcement doesn't
allow funds to be used for child care services in Section 8
programs. For more info, call 1-800-351-2293 and ask about the
April 21 notice called 60 FR 19921.
*** The Justice Department announced on April 25 the availability
of the solicitation for an impact evaluation of operation weed and
seed, the poorly named anti-crime effort involving community
development-type solutions. For more information, call Laurie
Bright at the Department of Justice.
*** Federal Register 60 FR 20360 of April 25 describes the
criteria for approval by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) of national, regional, and multi-state nonprofit
or public organizations as housing counseling agencies and sets
forth the application approval process.
All organizations wishing to participate in HUD's FY '95
housing counseling program must first receive HUD approval as a
housing counseling agency. Although HUD has an established process
for approving local counseling agencies, FY '95 will mark the
first year that HUD will approve national, regional, and multi-
state organizations for participation in its counseling program.
National, regional, and multi-state nonprofit or public
organizations that apply for HUD approval under this Notice are
not necessarily guaranteed HUD housing counseling funding for FY
'95. However, the HUD approval process outlined in this Notice is
a prerequisite to the application for FY '95 funding by national,
regional, or multi-state nonprofit or public organizations. The
NOFA announcing the availability of FY '95 funds is expected to be
published at a later date. For more information, call Marion
Connell at 202/708-0740.
** Food For Thought
** Washington's Republican governor, Mike Lowry, on block grants:
** Block granting federal funds means less money to states
** because,
***** "[t]he more broadly defined the use of a grant, the less
***** support it has among identifiable constituencies...That's
***** why a lossely defined education block grant decreased by 6
***** percent...the rise in funding for Head Start cut into the
***** money available for other education programs, which were
***** all included in the same block grant."
- Seattle Times, April 25, 1995
** The Community Development News is brought to you by Tony
** Daysog, of the National Economic Development and Law Center.
** Pass it around!
** HANDSNET: hn0186; internet: hn0186@handsnet.org
** If you are on HandsNet, puh...puh...puh...pleez join
** the listserve called $LSPCOMDEV...it makes it easier
** for me to send this to you. Thanks
Sent: April 28, 1995 1:35 pm PDT Item: R007T2b
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list