Allegan County grant helps create program for low-income pregnant women

An Allegan County Grant will focus on opening an Early On Head Start Center in Plainwell and creating program openings to enroll kids in existing daycare centers. Program officials also will work with the Even Start program, which offers low-income parents of young children the opportunity to earn their high school degree.


The two-year program annually will provide services to 78 pregnant women and children from birth to 3 years old, said Cathy Weirick Farnsworth, assistant director of Allegan County Resource Development Committee. The services range from child care to early-education for infants and toddlers.

The federal grant is one of 600 awarded nationwide through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Congratulations to our partner Cathy Farnsworth in Allegan on her work towards this project.

Read the full story here

Making the Neighborhood Family: Kalamazoo's Peace House

National NPR reporter Kyle Norris covered a story on the Kalamazoo Peace House, which is located on Phelps street on the Eastside Neighborhood. Jerry Berrigan, Molly Mechtenberg, and Mike and Jen DeWaele combined their efforts to merge two neighborhood houses into the "Peace House." The DeWaeles are Quakers, whereas Molly Mechtenberg and Jerry Berrigan are Catholic Workers.

From the Article:
(Listen to the report)

The couples have devoted their lives to building community and helping poor and underserved people and they picked the Eastside because it was one of the most underserved areas of Kalamazoo.

All four adults run The Peace House, which is actually two houses. The couples raised $60,000 from family and friends and got a $20,000 grant from the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Kalamazoo. They used the money to help buy the two old houses.


They're focusing their efforts on helping local kids. Each day after school, the Peace House provides tutoring for kids. Peace House regularly throws barbeques and parties and bike repair workshops. This summer, Peace House hauled-out decades of trash from the backyard, then built a huge jungle gym and a garden.

Both Quakerism and the Catholic Worker movement encourage simple living. The two families live without cable and cell phones, and for Jerry Berrigan, without health insurance. They grow a lot of their food, and cook and eat their meals together at the table

he Catholic Worker movement started in the Great Depression. There are about two-hundred houses world-wide. Michigan has Catholic Worker houses in Detroit, Saginaw and this one in Kalamazoo.

One of the goals of the movement is to help the poorest of the poor by living with them and serving them. Berrigan says he, and the Catholic Worker movement, find inspiration in faith.

"If we take seriously the notion that God is our parent, then we have to take seriously, maybe even literally the notion that we are kin to each other. And that that should actually mean something, that we should try to treat each other that way."

Berrigan says living this way is a small, modest, meaningful alternative to the huge issues of poverty and war and starvation.

Tonya Pratt has lived in the neighborhood for thirteen years and her kids love hanging out at Peace House. She says Peace House has made a big difference in the neighborhood.

"They try to get the neighborhood as a whole. They want the neighborhood to just be one person, just not everybody as just neighbors, they just want to be a big family I don't know of they've got a big family or not but I take it as they my family."

Pratt says if you go over just a few blocks, there are fights and drugs and problems. But she says this block is quiet and calm, because of Peace House. She also says people at the Peace House helped her talk through a problem she was having with another neighbor, and they helped her find a peaceful solution.

The four adults who own Peace House say they're not really the owners. They say they're caregivers. Right now they're trying to figure out the legal work involved in turning PH over to the neighborhood.

It’s Time for a Better Poverty Measure

The way we measure poverty is critical in determining both our understanding of what poverty is and what resources and methods we use to combat it. The current poverty measure is an outdated reference on what poverty was in 1960's and does not give a clear insight into the struggles that those in poverty face today.

The current poverty measure was based off of a 1960's agricultural report that stated food comprised about one-third of a person's budget. So the poverty measure is basically the cost of the lowest cost nutritional diet multiplied by three. Today we know that food only consists of about one-sixth of a person's budget, juxtaposed to the costs of rent, transportation and healthcare which have skyrocked since the 1960's. The poverty measure also does not take into consideration resources such as tax credits and food stamps.

Where is in one way it understates the poverty level by not providing an accurate budget-cost analysis, it also overstates poverty by neglecting to include the many resources families receive that allow them to operate on a functional level above poverty.

The National Academy of Sciences recommends that there should be a logical relationship between how poverty thresholds are constructed and resource-counting rules. Specifically they suggest:

• Poverty thresholds should be calculated by using current data about how much families actually spend on food, clothing, and shelter, with an adjustment for “a little more.” Operationally, the NAS panel recommended using an amount somewhere between the 30th to 35th percentile of family costs as measured in the Consumer Expenditure Survey, along with a multiplier of 15 to 25 percent for other necessary expenses.
• Thresholds should vary geographically to reflect variations in the costs of meeting the needs in the thresholds.
• All resources available to meet the needs in the thresholds should be counted, including tax credits, food stamps, the value of subsidized housing, and other benefits that can meet those needs.
• Funds that are not available to meet the needs in the thresholds—because they are used to meet tax liabilities, pay child support, or pay out-of-pocket medical costs or work-related expenses—should not be counted as resources.

How exactly would these new measures affect the poverty thresholds?

• Poverty thresholds would be higher than under the current measure. For example, in 2007, the official poverty threshold for a two-parent, two-child family was $21,027. For that year, according to the Census Bureau, an NAS-style threshold would have been in the range of $23,465 to $27,744, depending on how home mortgage principal and medical costs were treated. In New York City, the threshold for a family of four calculated under an NAS approach was $26,138 in 2006, as compared with the official threshold of $20,444.
• Poverty rates would be higher. In 2007 the official rate was 12.5 percent, but the census experimental work suggested that the poverty rate would have been in the range of 15.1 to 16 percent under the approaches most similar to the NAS recommendations. Under New York City’s calculations, the poverty rate for the city would have been 23 percent in 2006 under an NAS approach, versus 18 percent under the official measure.
• Elderly poverty would go up. How much it would go up would particularly depend on how households without mortgage costs were treated, but it seems clear that elderly poverty would rise, both because thresholds were increased and because medical expenses were given consideration.
• Extreme poverty—having an income below 50 percent of the poverty line—would go down, because the measure would count noncash benefits such as SNAP and housing assistance.
• Immigrant poverty would likely go up because of the higher thresholds and counting of work expenses, and because immigrant households are less likely to participate in some of the counted benefits programs than are other comparably poor households.
• Poverty would likely go up in high-cost urban areas relative to other areas, all else being equal, though it doesn’t follow that poverty rates would necessarily go down in other areas, given the NAS thresholds and resource-counting rules.

The Measuring American Poverty Act’s approach

The Measuring American Poverty Act, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) in the House and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) in the Senate, would direct the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics to adopt a “modern” measure of poverty drawing from the recommendations of the NAS. Among the bill’s key provisions:

• Thresholds: The Census Bureau and BLS would be required to adopt thresholds along the lines recommended by the NAS. The bill would also provide for geographic variation, and provide authority to further develop the thresholds to better reflect the needs of children, including young children. The bill would provide for lower thresholds for households owning their homes free and clear, and authorize additional threshold development for other subgroups if reliable data indicated substantial variation in the amounts of money needed by the subgroups to purchase similar quality shelter.
• Resources: The bill would adopt the NAS approach of counting tax credits, noncash benefits such as food stamps, and housing subsidies if they are available to households to meet the needs in the thresholds. At the same time, per the NAS, the bill would provide for subtracting expenditures for health care, necessary work-related expenses, and child support paid.
• The historical measure: The bill would treat the current official poverty measure as the “historical” measure, and require that calculation and reporting of poverty rates should be done for both the modern and historical measure.
• Use of the new measure: The bill would specify that adoption of the modern measure would have no automatic effects on program funding formulas or eligibility rules that currently use the official poverty measure. Instead, Congress could over time make whatever adjustments it considered appropriate on a program-by-program basis.
• Decent Living Standards and Medical Care Risk Measure: The bill would direct that new National Academy of Sciences panels make recommendations for Decent Living Standards and Medical Care Risk measures. The Decent Living Standard would be defined as “the amount of annual income that would allow an individual to live at a safe and decent, but modest, standard of living,” that is, an amount intended to be above that of the poverty thresholds. The Medical Care Risk measure would calculate the extent to which individuals are at risk of being unable to afford needed medical treatment, services, goods, and care, taking into account both uninsured and underinsured statuses.
• Calculation of relative measure: While the bill would not mandate reporting of relative poverty measures using percentages of median income, it would require that public online tools be made available to allow members of the public to calculate poverty using alternative approaches, including calculations based on 50 and 60 percent of median income

Invisible People: Video blog shows faces of the homeless

A blog called Invisible People demonstrates the faces and voices of the homeless all across the United States. Its use of personal video interviews really demonstrates the power of the narrative in creating empathy with those who have lost their places of habitation.

Lori and Savanna from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Words from the Author of the blog:

I once heard a story about a homeless man on Hollywood Blvd who really thought he was invisible. But one day a kid handed the man a Christian pamphlet. The homeless guy was shocked and amazed, “what! You can see me? How can you see me? I’m invisible!”

It isn’t hard to comprehend this man’s slow spiral into invisibility. Once on the street, people started to walk past him, ignoring him as if he didn’t exist… much like they do a piece of trash on the sidewalk. It’s not that people are bad, but if we make eye contact, or engage in conversation, then we have to admit they exist and that we might have a basic human need to care. But it’s so much easier to simply close our eyes and shield our hearts to their existence.

I not only feel their pain, I truly know their pain. I lived their pain. You’d never know it now but I was a homeless person. Fourteen years ago, I lived on Hollywood Blvd. But today, I find myself looking away, ignoring the faces, avoiding their eyes — and I’m ashamed when I realize I’m doing it. But I really can feel their pain, and it is almost unbearable, but it’s just under the surface of my professional exterior.

For years I’ve used the lens of a television camera to tell the stories of homelessness and the organizations trying to help. That was part of my job. The reports were produced well and told a story, but the stories you see on this site are much different. These are the real people, telling their own, very real stories… unedited, uncensored and raw.

The purpose of this vlog is to make the invisible visible. I hope these people and their stories connect with you and don’t let go. I hope their conversations with me will start a conversation in your circle of friends.

After you get to know someone by watching their story, please pause for a few moments and write your thoughts in the comments section, or maybe email them to a friend and link back to this vlog . By keeping this dialog open we can help a forgotten people.

The invisible guy didn’t intend to become homeless. I didn’t plan on living on the street. Everyone on the streets has their own story, some made bad decisions, others were victims, but none of them deserve what they have been left with, and it is a reflection of our own society that we just leave them there.

Please always remember, the homeless people you’ll ignore today were much like you not so long ago.

Kalamazoo's Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in Review

The week before Thanksgiving, a partnership of over 20 organizations led by the Poverty Reduction Initiative and the Affordable Housing Partnership presented Kalamazoo's Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week to bring light to these issues before the Holiday.

Though Kalamazoo had hosted the week in the past, this year was significant because of the scale of the amount of events and partners involved. In fact, it received praise from the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness Director Jason Weller as one of the most ambitious plans in the state of Michigan.

So what can we take from this week that will help us in coordinating events such as this in the future? I want to look into a few of the particular areas where the week succeeded, as well as others where it could improve upon in future.

Scale of Events
Pro's
One of the greatest successes of the week was the number and variety of events that were coordinated throughout Kalamazoo. The week boasted tours of multiple shelters, a poverty simulation, a candlelight vigil and a film fundraising event. It gave residents a variety of events to participate in and become engaged. Events such as the poverty simulation, candlelight vigil and film boasted strong attendance and proved a worth while experience.

Con's
From what I've been hearing, many shelter tours saw poor and/or limited attendance during their time slot. Was this a lack of awareness on part of the organizations or simply a lack of interest in the public? It probably depends upon the event. Each organization was responsible for promoted their own event, and several may have simply not grasped that point.

In addition, there was a disconnect with events hosted by the Habitat For Humanity Student Group at Western Michigan University. Instead of having a synergy with this group and incorporating them to the week, they planned their own events without any communication to other organizations participating. This can probably be attributed to a lack of awareness of both PRI/AHP and the student group.

Media Coverage
Pro's
The press conference attracted several strong media outlets, including reporters from Channel 8, WKZO and WMUK who composed stories on the event. Channel 3 also also aired a story leading up to the week. The Kalamazoo Gazette promoted specific items in its events section.

Con's
As a whole, the media failed a presenting the week as a whole. The Kalamazoo Gazette chose to cover regurgitated stories on the arena plans rather than to do an article highlighting the week. They did have a reporter continue a story on the poverty simulation, but it would have been effective to have had a story on the entire week. The Media did not show up to specific events during the week.

Fundriasing
Pro's
The film "Where God Left His Shoes" raised a net amount of close to $2000 that will be split between the Poverty Reduction Initiative and Affordable Housing Partnership. The Poverty Simulation also attracted close to 40 participant of who each paid a donation fee. We do not have the numbers for the canned drive or any other donation appeals.

Summary
For being the first time that our community hosted such a large scale awareness week, I would say that there is much to be proud of. The number of events, organizations and volunteers that participated showed high potential of what a community can do when motivated. It was a strong start of which we can improve upon next November. If anything, it rallied a core group of citizens who cared about these issues in Kalamazoo and gave potential for expansion in the future.

Thank you to all the organizations and individuals who participated. We look forward to our continued work in raising awareness in the future.

Alleviating Poverty in Michigan

The Commission for Community Action and Economic Opportunity has issued its long awaited report to Governor Granholm and the Michigan Legislature. The Commision which held a series of Community Forums in 2007 and 2008 and was a co-sponsor of the State Poverty Summit summarized the common threads in the Executive Summary:

Frustration: Negative, blaming or overwhlemed systems and/or caseworkers often lead to clients feeling judged and shamed. The inabiility to provide personalized customer service only compounds the challenges faced by people...

Disconnection: Disparate anti-poverty efforts among state agencies and other organizations lack a shared vision and coordinated apporach. This leaves significant gaps in services...

Over-regulation: Eligibility and other requirements-particularly more restrictive regulations-are confusing, difficult to meet, contradictory, and/or poorly explained...

Access: People frequently lack transportaion to services, as well as crucial information about what help is available...

Program shape and delivery: Services offered should reflect what is actually needed, allowing for innovative responses...

Allienation: People living in poverty are the experts on this experience, and-rather than being alienated by the system-they need to be consistently and wholly involved in the process of fixing problems...

Read the whole report at: www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-124-5460_41977---,00.html. Go to the bottom of the page for the PDF.

New Berrien Mental Health Court aims to reduce recidivism

A Mental Health Court in Berrien County which opened last January is one of nine in the state funded as pilot projects by the State Court Administrative Office. It deals with underlying mental illnesses that can keep people like Amanda enmeshed in the criminal justice system.

From the Herald Palladium:

The new court is set up to solve problems by bringing together prosecutors, probation officers and mental health professionals. They work as a team to help people convicted of crimes who have certain diagnosed mental illnesses, emotional disturbances or developmental disabilities.

The case load is small, currently 10 people, but the problems are complex, and working out solutions is a time-consuming process.

"These are challenging people," said Berrien County Trial Court Judge Angela Pasula, who oversees the program with Chief Judge Alfred Butzbaugh.

Mentally ill people can have a range of other problems - from unemployment, homelessness and lack of family support to poor physical condition and drug or alcohol problems.

"Some of these people literally don't have a place to go," Pasula said.


The new court aims to stabilize and improve the social functioning of mentally ill people convicted of felony or misdemeanor offenses.

Accomplishing those goals can mean a better qualify of life for those involved, improve public safety and reduce recidivism, officials say.

Read more

Kalamazoo's Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Media Coverage

Today is the press conference for Kalamazoo's Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. News coverage should be airing on multiple media outlets within the next few days. Here is WWMT 3's TV coverage leading up the conference:

http://video.wwmt.com/m/27366090/homeless-numbers-grow.htm

Study: Michigan crumbles under outdated tax system

From the Detroit Free Press:

California’s state finances are awful, but Michigan is among nine other states that aren’t far behind the Golden State in economic trauma, according to a new study.

The shock waves of the domestic auto industry’s decline, home foreclosures and persistent state deficits could last for decades, according to the Pew Center on the States.

The report quoted Donald Grimes, a University of Michigan senior research specialist, saying he expects new data this year will show Michigan is among the nation’s 10 poorest states.

If Michigan’s economy suddenly grew at the rate it did during the prosperous 1990s, it would be 2025 or 2030 before it recovered all the jobs it’s lost in the past decade, said Susan Urahn, managing director for the Pew Center on the States.

“Michigan is essentially adjusting to a new normal, where the state may just have to deal with a permanent set of pared-back services,” she said. “It is simply not one of the most prosperous states anymore.”

The report says Michigan’s population is becoming older and less affluent, and its outmoded tax system can’t support state government.

Generous tax exemptions for retirees and businesses, and the exclusion of services from sales taxes, are two reasons for persistent state deficits, according to the report.

Couples can receive up to $110,000 in pension and other retirement income without paying anything to the state.

“In 20 years, we’re going to look like Florida does now if the demographic trends continues and no one’s going to be paying taxes except those that are working,” Mitch Bean, director of the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, told Pew researchers.

Last year, the state offered $6.3 billion more in business tax breaks than it collected in taxes.

“Left with few options, Michigan is being forced to diversify its economy and confront long-neglected structural imbalances in its budget under some of the most unfavorable conditions since World War II,” the report says. “The beleaguered state is adjusting to a new normal.”

To balance its budget over the past decade, Michigan has relied on $8 billion in onetime fixes, not including the billions of dollars it received in federal stimulus money this year, the report concluded.

Joining Michigan and California on the Pew Center’s list of fiscally endangered states are Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Those states share, to varying degrees, these four troubling traits:

• Economies too reliant on single industries, such as the auto industry for Michigan.

• Persistent gaps between state spending and tax revenues.

• Limited ability to raise taxes or reduce spending.

• Inability to enact long-term fiscal reforms.

The report says the 10 states’ financial woes could result in higher taxes, layoffs, longer waits for public services, crowded classrooms, higher college tuition and less support for unemployed and poor people.

Because those states account for one-third of the U.S. population, their actions to either raise taxes or cut spending could slow the nation’s economic recovery, the report says.

The report comes on the heels of more budget tumult for Michigan. A finished 2009-10 budget is still under debate, with Gov. Jennifer Granholm locked in a bitter feud with Senate Republicans over additional tax revenues to stave off major cuts in state aid to schools.

The Pew assessment is no surprise to state finance officials. A new Senate Fiscal Agency report says tax revenues to run the state and public schools are nearly 13% less than a year ago (from November 2008 to October 2009).

September marked the ninth straight month in which tax collections were lower than previous year levels.

Precipitous drops in state aid to cities and schools have rekindled talk in Lansing of overhauling Michigan’s tax system.

Bean told the Pew researchers: “Even if we can straighten out our tax code some, I see no way around a dramatic change in government at all levels in Michigan. There’s going to be fewer services.”

New neighbors in the Historic Stuart Neighborhood

A particular relevant story was just released that really struck home for me. This Wednesday the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a house on Elm St. will commence at 1pm that will house low-income and (soon-to-be) formerly homeless persons.

Elm St. is one of the several streets that comprise the historic Stuart district, of which I am a resident. I have watched the reconstruction of this home occur over the last half a year and I am excited finally see it in use.

I drive past the house at least once a day, as it is within a couple minute walking distance from my home. It is a constant reminder to me of the successful, positive work that our community can achieve with collaboration.

Some tidbits from the Kalamazoo Gazette Article:

"VanDam & Krusinga Building and Restoration was the general contractor for the project, which involved essentially gutting the structure and replacing windows, doors, cabinets and interior trim. Work also included painting, landscaping, rebuilding the porch, making the entrance accessible to people with disabilities and providing parking.

The Elm Street project is the first to be completed with the aid of a $500,000 award from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. That grant supplements housing-trust funds contributed by both the city of Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo County.

Ten of the single-person, efficiency units will be for low-income people with disabilities who will pay no more than 30 percent of their monthly incomes for rent and utilities. The remaining one-bedroom unit was planned to house an on-site, resident manager to provide support for the tenants.

The project is part of Kalamazoo County’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, which calls for “reduced dependence” on shelters and increased emphasis on affordable, permanent housing that comes with appropriate support services."