114 Calhoun County Families Will Lose Cash Assistance Benefits in a Month

With more than 100 local low-income families preparing to lose state cash assistance in the next month, Calhoun County nonprofits are skeptical of their ability to fill the need.

State lawmakers approved new four-year limits on Michigan's cash assistance program last week. The changes mean 114 cases in Calhoun County and 11,162 around Michigan will lose welfare benefits starting Oct. 1, according to the Michigan Department of Human Services.

"It's just going to add more pressure to our system, that's for sure, and things are already challenging," said Bob Randels, executive director of the Food Bank of South Central Michigan.

So far this year, the food bank's distributions are already up 22 percent from a record-breaking 2010, Randels said.

Nancy MacFarlane, CEO of Community Action, which helps low-income families in Calhoun and three other counties, said the organization simply won't be able to take on the extra need.

"We help people until we run out of money," she said.

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110831/NEWS01/108310306/114-Calhoun-County-families-lose-cash-assistance

Son's Drug Bust May Make Mom Homeless

Sandy Douglas said she has no idea where she will be living after this week. Douglas, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, and her 11-year old daughter won't be able to afford the apartment they've lived in for several years. They've lost their government housing subsidy, commonly called a Section 8 grant after the part of the law that created it.

They lost it because of what Douglas' 20-year-old son did.

He was convicted of cocaine posession. Because he was on the lease for her apartment, the Grand Rapids Housing Commission - which administered her rent subsidy - revoked it because her son was busted for drugs.

"I kept saying, 'I'm not responsible for my son. He's 20,'" Douglas told Target 8 investigators.

But the Housing Commission takes a hard line on drug offenses. "Anybody on the lease, if caught, would automatically be terminated," Director Carlos Sanchez said. "We are mandated by the federal government not to serve people involved in drug-related activity."

Son's drug bust may make mom homeless: woodtv.com

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities Report: TANF and How Well Does It Provide Income Support for Poor Families?

President Clinton signed the 1996 welfare law 15 years ago today, creating the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. We’ll present a series of posts this week that provide a closer look at how welfare reform has played out over the last 15 years. Today’s post focuses on TANF as a source of income support for poor families.

TANF’s early years witnessed unprecedented declines in the number of families receiving cash assistance — and unprecedented increases in the share of single mothers working, especially those with less than a high school education. But since then, nearly all of the employment gains have disappeared, and TANF caseloads have responded only modestly to increased need during this deep and long downturn.

As the following charts make clear, TANF remains an important source of income support for a small, but vulnerable group of families. However, because relatively few families receive TANF and benefits are very low, TANF plays a much more limited role in helping families escape poverty or deep poverty (i.e., income below half the poverty line) today than AFDC did.

www.offthechartsblog.org/tanf-at-15-part-i-how-well-does-it-provide-income-support-for-poor-families/

Economic Slow Growth Leads to Rapid Growth in SNAP

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to release its latest update on the food stamp program. It's an important indicator of the nation's economic health — and the prognosis is not good.

Food stamp use is up 70 percent over the past four years and that trend is expected to continue.

The spike began in late-2008 and early-2009 when the worst of the recession was triggering massive layoffs and home foreclosures. Although the economy has been growing since mid-2009, the pace has been too slow to absorb the nearly 14 million people without jobs. Nearly half of those have been out of work more than six months.

As a result, the number of people seeking federal help with groceries has been soaring. At this time four years ago, before the recession hit, about 27 million people were using food stamps. Today 46 million get help through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — what most people call food stamps — which is roughly 15 percent of the population.

www.npr.org/2011/08/28/139968385/slow-growth-economy-spikes-food-stamp-reliance

A Tale of Two Schools: A Cautionary Tale on School Rankings

The following opinion is my own and not the opinion of anyone else affiliated with One Southwest Michigan, One Community:

The Michigan Department of Education recently released rankings of all schools in the State of Michigan, nearly 3,800 of them. School rankings sometimes reduce complex educational problems into overly simplified tables. Local newspapers have described the methodology behind the rankings as: "approved by the US Department of Education," not a very thorough explanation.

Similarly, Consumer Reports (CR) reviews and ranks the best and worst automobiles in the country. In order to prepare these rankings, CR performs their own thorough tests of vehicles as well as surveys thousands of vehicle owners throughout the country.

One way to think of the CR rankings is that they take a look at what auto companies do with the raw materials they are provided (i.e., steel, plastic, and rubber) and try to assess the quality of the finished product. The results can be surprising: The lowly and moderately priced Chevrolet Malibu is a much more highly rated vehicle than the over priced Cadillac Escalade, and for that matter higher rated than all other Cadillac models. Personally, I would rather drive a Chevy Malibu than a Cadillac, but I wonder if most Americans would feel the same way.

I would guess that most of the journalists doing the reporting on the recent release of the Michigan Department of Education rankings, and for that matter the readers of the articles, have no idea what criteria or methodology were used to rank the schools as the “best” or the “worst”.

Let me give you an example. Let's call it "A Tale of Two Schools."

East Grand Rapids, aka, Cadillac Escalade, and Hartford High School, aka, Chevrolet Malibu. East GR is one of the wealthiest communities in West Michigan. Lots of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals call East GR their home. There are lots of million dollar homes in East GR. Not so many in Hartford. Here is some data on the two schools:

% of Children Who are Poor (i.e., qualify for lunch program)

East G.R. = 9%
Hartford = 70%

% of Schools Which the School Outperforms

East G.R. = 62%
Hartford = 47%

+ Increase or - Decline in Performance from the District's Middle School

East G.R. = -33%
Hartford = +25%

East GR's middle school is in the top 5% of the state in academic performance. On top of that, all of East GR's elementary schools are in the top 10%, one of them Wealthy Elementary, is in the top 1%. 95% of the schools in the State have more poor children than East GR. So basically, East GR High School takes kids from lower grades who are in the top 10% of achievement in the state, living in one of the wealthiest suburban communities in the state (as measured by free/reduced lunch counts), with some of the best school facilities in the state on the banks of Reeds Lake where they win lots of state athletic championships, and turns them into average achievers at their high school so that their parents with all of their political connections can then spend lots of money to send them to the nation's Ivy league and other premier colleges.

Why is East GR High School not on the list of poorly performing schools? The “raw materials” they receive from lower grades tell me that they should be performing much better than they are.

On the other hand, Hartford High School in rural Michigan and one of the poorer communities in the state, takes kids from lower grades, who admittedly should be doing better, and turns them into students who achieve nearly as well as East Grand Rapids students: average for the state. And since Hartford parents don't have the resources and political connections of their Kent County counterparts, my guess is that Hartford kids go on to achieve excellence at schools that are not for U.S. News and World Reports Ivy League elite, i.e., schools like Western, Grand Valley, and Michigan State. And I would bet that right now Hartford teachers and administrators are working diligently to improve the educational opportunity for all kids, not just a rich elite few.

The moral of the story is that a good Chevy is always better than a crummy, over priced Cadillac.

My kudos to Hartford High School for achieving nearly as well as East GR with far fewer resources. Hartford High School far outperforms its peers in improving educational achievement for its students. You make all of us Chevy owners proud!

Finally, I wish journalists would dig a little deeper into a story about educational achievement to understand and explain how the rankings come about. The simple statement that it is a system of ranking “approved by the US Department of Education” is not a very thorough explanation.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Training Tuesday in St. Joseph

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berrien and Cass has scheduled an In-Service Training Meeting for its Big Brothers and Big Sisters, both community-based and site-based, on Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Lakeland Regional Medical Center’s Community Meeting Room at 1234 Napier Ave. in St. Joseph.

The staff will present the Child Safety and Youth Protection Guidelines and Ground Rules, guidelines which will help the mentor volunteers develop a healthy relationship with their Littles and will help them teach the children in their care about appropriate boundaries as well as how to build skills which will protect them from violence while allowing them to recognize and trust the caring adults in their lives.

BBBS also welcomes prospective volunteers to this training, as long as they preregister by calling 684-1100 ext. 3 or e-mailing info@bbbsofbc.org.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a United Way-funded program.

To learn more about mentoring opportunities available for volunteers at BBBS, go to

www.bbbsofbc.org

The above article originally appeared in the Niles Daily Star at:

www.nilesstar.com/2011/08/25/big-brothers-big-sisters-training-tuesday-in-st-joseph/

ABC's hunger at Home: Crisis in America Report

ABC News is focusing on hunger and poverty in the United States. This report discusses the 14.7 million children in poverty:

Ain't Tina Turner Classical Music?: Benefit Performances for Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen

The Box Factory for the Performing Arts in St. Joseph, Michigan will be hosting a performance for the benefit of the Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen.

The play is entitled:

"Ain't Tina Turner Classical Music"

The play was written by South Haven native Linda LaRocque and is a play about homelessness and the unshakable human spirit. The production tells the story of three homeless people and their abilities (and inabilities) to cope with daily life. Despite shame, guilt, fear, and adversity, the bountiful human spirit continues to march forward.

Performances are tentatively scheduled for Saturday, November 19 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 20, a 2:00 p.m. matinee.

The Soup Kitchen's web site which has preliminary information to be updated is at:

www.soup-kitchen.org/-/

And just to get you in the mood:

Student Loan Debt Has Grown by 511% In a Decade

You think the housing bubble was enormous? Meet the education bubble. On Wednesday, an (in The Atlantic) by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus explained the debt crisis at American colleges. But some startling statistics will help to make their analysis a little more tangible. The growth in student loans over the past decade has been truly staggering.

Here's a chart based on New York Federal Reserve data for household debt. The red line shows the cumulative growth in student loans since 1999. The blue line shows the growth of all other household debt except for student loans over the same period.

This chart looks like a mistake, but it's correct. Student loan debt has grown by 511% over this period. In the first quarter of 1999, just $90 billion in student loans were outstanding. As of the second quarter of 2011, that balance had ballooned to $550 billion.



www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/chart-of-the-day-student-loans-have-grown-511-since-1999/243821/

Pokagon United Methodist Fills 25 Backpacks a Week with Food For Dowagiac Elementary Students

Pokagon United Methodist Church fills 25 backpacks a week with food to feed Patrick Hamilton Elementary School students in Dowagiac during the school year.

PUMC’s backpack ministry began last spring through elementary counselor Lisa Armijo, Shari Bradke said Wednesday evening as the Youth Adventure pre-teen K-7 group demonstrates how their assembly line works for replenishing the washable blue bags, which they then pray over.

“It costs $6 a backpack,” Bradke said. “We deliver the backpacks on Friday so they can take them home” over the weekends. “They bring them back on Monday, or sometimes it’s Tuesday or Wednesday. We haven’t not gotten a backpack back yet.”

Bradke said, “We work through the counselor. She’s the one who gave us the names of the kids. There are approximately 200 kids in the Dowagiac school system who could use backpacks,” which is why PUMC plans a holiday bazaar fundraiser for the ministry Nov. 12 at Dowagiac Lions Club.

“We’re trying to contact other churches and organizations to see if they would give us donations, or if they would take on a backpack program so more kids can be fed,” said Bradke, who can be contacted at (574) 309-0260.

www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/08/17/pokagon-umc-fills-25-backpacks-a-week/

Second Impressions in Kalamazoo will Give Away Leftover Summer Clothing on Friday Morning

People in need in Kalamazoo will have a chance to get their hands on free clothes Friday morning.

Second Impressions, 3750 S. Westnedge Ave., will be offering its entire leftover stock of used summer clothes from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Friday for Kalamazoo residents who can't afford it otherwise.

Customers who stop by will be able to take as much clothing as they want for free.

www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/08/second_impressions_in_kalamazo.html

Poor often don’t know benefit of banks: Study by U Mass Dartmouth

Low-income families use costly check-cashing and loan services not because they lack access to banks, but because they lack knowledge of banking options and their advantages, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

For example, the study found that about one in four low-income residents in the New Bedford area do not have a bank account because they believe they cannot afford it - although most community banks and credit unions offer low-cost or free accounts as required by state law. In addition, the study found, even low-income residents with bank accounts still use check-cashing establishments more than their banks...

...On average, low-income people without bank accounts spend about 5 percent of their income, about $800 to $1,000 a year, on fees from check-cashing services, according to Bank On, a San Francisco program that aims to remove banking barriers for people with low incomes. That adds up to about $40,000 over a working life.

articles.boston.com/2011-07-06/business/29744008_1_bank-accounts-convenient-hours-and-locations-check-cashing-services

How to Change This? Tests Scores in Schools Closely Follow School Poverty Rates

The debate over how to fix Michigan’s education system often boils down to arguments over budgets, benefits, teacher tenure and class size.

Those issues may affect the way children learn in school, but U.S. Census figures hint at a single, overriding factor: Poverty.

Estimates of poverty and income show school districts with the lowest reading and math scores are often those with the highest poverty rates.

The pattern is clear both locally and statewide.

Across Michigan, such districts as Muskegon Heights, Flint Beecher and Benton Harbor have high poverty rates and low test scores.

The state’s wealthiest districts — including Bloomfield Hills, Northville, East Grand Rapids and Dexter — have median family incomes above $100,000 and very high test scores.

www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/school_achievement_closely_tra.html

P.S. For full disclosure, as of August 2011 I started working as an Interim Financial Officer for the Benton Harbor Schools.

Michigan Begins Notifying Families that Welfare Benefits are Running Out

Michigan has begun notifying some families receiving welfare benefits that their federal assistance is running out.

The move could affect nearly 14,000 families who had secured an extension on the 5-year federal limit to receive benefits, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Letters began going out Tuesday that include contact information for caseworkers who will try to help families find other assistance programs. They also encourage recipients to call United Way's referral service for help getting additional assistance, if needed.

"I'm concerned" about the families, said Michigan Department of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan, "but we're here to help them make that transition - to fulfill the intent of the law and to get them to self-sufficiency."

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110810/NEWS04/108100334/Michigan-lets-some-families-know-welfare-aid-running-out

St. Joseph Church-Kalamazoo to Host Kenyan Priest on 9/11 to Raise Awareness and Funds for Drought Stricken Horn of Arfica

Yes, I know that our 401k and 403b retirement plans are in the dumpers because of what is happening in the U.S. and global stock markets. Yes, the American government in Washington during the debt ceiling debate has just gone through a period of what can at best be considered ineffectual.

Still, thousands of miles away in the Horn of Africa there is a severe drought. So, I am including this article from the Kalamazoo Gazette as a reminder of the many who are less fortunate than we are who live in the U.S.

According to the article:

"An estimated 29,000 Somali children younger than 5 have died as a result of the drought, U.S. officials said last week, and the U.N. estimates more than 600,000 children are acutely malnourished."

The Gazette further states,

"When Maureen Metty visited Kenya this summer, it was easy for her to see that things were not looking good.

There was dry land where rivers and lakes once were, and locals told her it had been some time since rain had fallen in the African country's northwest.

“They told me at that point that they probably had about two hours of rain in a year and a half,” said the nun from Kalamazoo’s Sisters of St. Joseph.

For further details, see:

www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/08/kalamazoos_sisters_of_st_josep.html

Berrien County's Self-Help Legal Resource Center is doing brisk business

For years Debra Williamsen felt out of luck, powerless to collect the share of property she claimed was hers under a 1999 divorce settlement. Living on disability payments and unable to afford a lawyer, the Hagar Township woman heard from a friend that help was available for people who want to represent themselves in court.

Williamsen dropped in at the Self-Help Legal Resource Center in the Berrien County Courthouse and learned how to file for a new court judgment.

On a recent day Williamsen was back at the center with her longtime friend, Etta Little, filling out the paperwork to seek a lien on the property, which is being sold. Williamsen said she's confident she will get the $39,000 she was supposed to receive 12 years ago.

Without the center's help in providing forms and instructions, "I would just be out in the cold," she said.

Little previously had success handling her own case, which involved enforcement of a settlement for money. She said the center helped her through the process.

"If you don't have the resources to get things done, this is where to come," said Little, who is also disabled.

Jennifer Willhite of Coloma, visiting the center on the same day to complete paperwork for a child support matter, first used a self-help legal facility while living in Las Vegas. "They've been great here," she said. "They do a great service."

Willhite said she contacted a lawyer about representing her in the support case but could not afford the $1,500 fee.

"That's two house payments," she said.

Without the information she gets at the center, Willhite said she would have had to go to court unprepared, perhaps hurting her chances.

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/08/07/local_news/5727533.txt

PBS Religion & Ethics Addresses: What is a Fair Tax System?

The main purpose of a tax system is to raise revenue for the common good, for the public good. That’s its purpose. But it has to do so in a way that is fair, that involves shared sacrifice, because really it’s a matter of sharing the burdens of a free society and of a good society. That’s, morally speaking, what taxes are about. So unless a tax system meets the test of fairness, none of its other advantages really matter.

- PROFESSOR MICHAEL SANDEL (Professor of Government, Harvard University)

Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

CNN: Teacher Jobs Disappear

Friday's jobs report could kick off the worst quarter for state and local government jobs on record. And teachers are at the center of the bullseye.

The public sector is estimated to have shed 65,000 positions in July, according to Greg Daco, U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight. Some 50,000 are projected to come from state and local governments.

And things won't get better anytime soon. The state and local government sector could shed around 110,000 jobs in the third quarter, which would top the massive downsizing that occurred in the early 1980s.

"The sector keeps bleeding jobs," Daco said. "The third quarter could be the worst ever."

All told, the state and local government sector has lost 577,000 jobs since its peak in September 2008. Some 224,000 of those have been in education.

While teachers and other school employees are often dismissed temporarily over the summer, more are getting the ax this year because of major state budget cuts to public education. And fewer are expected to get rehired in September, leading to the grim estimates for the quarter.

"Since the state and local sector is facing a lot of tough budget decisions, it will lay off teachers it won't rehire in September," Daco said.

money.cnn.com/2011/08/04/news/economy/teacher_government_jobs/index.htm

15% of All Americans Participate in SNAP

Nearly 15 percent of all Americans participate in SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps), according to the newly-released U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) figures for May 2011. That’s a record 45,753,078 people.

While many argue that SNAP spending is “out of control,” two examples illustrate that the program is working as it should be—serving more people during economic hard times:

• As poverty and unemployment have increased, the number of participants has also gone up since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.
• The May 2011 figures include people affected by tornadoes in Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, who received benefits under SNAP’s disaster program.

notes.bread.org/2011/08/snap-participation-still-on-the-rise.html

Niles Library Rescues Salvation Army 'Feeding His Sheep' Program

The Salvation Army’s Feeding His Sheep program has been saved thanks to an offer from the Niles District Library in the 11th hour.
Last week the program, which provides weekend meals in backpacks to students in area schools during the school year, appeared to be in jeopardy due to lack of space at The Salvation Army office.

Jan Nowak, director of caring ministries and social services, told the Star last week that the program needed a 1,000 square-foot space that is heated and secure at no cost. Her prayer was answered. Library officials, after reading in the Niles Daily Star this week about the situation, contacted The Salvation Army about room in its basement.

“The library is always looking for ways to serve our community,” said library Director Nancy Studebaker. “We are a tax-supported entity and we are happy in any way we can use the resources of the library to benefit our community, especially children in need.”

www.nilesstar.com/2011/08/03/library-helps-salvation-army/

Homelessness in the Shadows of Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington

While the folks in Congress and the White House argue about national budgets, deficits, and such, a writer for the Washington Post wrote the following piece:

It’s noon, and it’s over 100 degrees in Washington. The media and others have endlessly repeated their solid, survive-the-heat advice: Stay inside, preferably near air conditioning, and drink lots of water. Good advice, unless you can’t get or stay inside or consistently access fresh water — in other words, if you’re homeless.

You can’t visit or live in the nation’s capital without recognizing that homelessness is an enormous problem here. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are more than 6,000 homeless men, women and children in the District (of Columbia) and well over 25,000 homeless people in the District, Maryland and Virginia combined. In 2009, a third of the District’s homeless could be categorized as experiencing “chronic homelessness,” meaning that for reasons including disability and mental illness, they had been homeless repeatedly or for long periods. Although only some of them were completely “unsheltered,” many shelters or transitional housing facilities don’t allow occupants to return during the day. Here in Washington, the homeless can often be found in parks, on sidewalks and in alleys during the day.

But let’s stand back from the panoramic view of homelessness in the capital, however troubling. This day is headed toward 105 degrees, and the heat index (a measure of how hot it feels) will surpass 115. Today and tomorrow and for as long as deadly heat pervades Washington and large parts of the country, homelessness isn’t a troubling phenomenon; it’s a life-and-death situation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-the-heat-hits-think-of-the-homeless/2011/07/26/gIQAT8B3hI_story.html