Annual Homeless Count in Berrien County More Than Doubles, Most Are Children

The Homeless Resource Network, led by a Benton Harbor-based agency for homeless people, counted more homeless people in Berrien County this year than it has since it began doing the count in 2007 - and that's a good and bad thing.

The Emergency Shelter Services agency counted 594 homeless people. For the count, homelessness is broadly defined to include the absolutely homeless or people living in unsafe or temporary housing.

The annual count day was Jan. 26, a Wednesday. It was done during daylight hours.

The total is dramatically up from the 257 in 2008 and from fewer than 100 in 2009 and 2010, said the agency's executive director, Alysia Babcock. The agency operates a shelter for women and children in Benton Harbor and also offers outreach and housing voucher programs.

The 594 is made up of 158 homeless men, 73 homeless women and 363 children of school age.

The largest concentration of homeless men was in Benton Harbor. The largest concentration of homeless women was in Coloma and Watervliet.

For homeless children, the highest concentrations were in Buchanan Community Schools, with 60; New Buffalo Area Schools, 43; and Eau Claire Public Schools, 38.

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/02/08/local_news/3420830.txt

Taxes Too High? Associated Press Says: Federal taxes Lowest Since 1950

Taxes too high?

Actually, as a share of the nation's economy, Uncle Sam's take this year will be the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, thanks to a weak economy and a growing number of tax breaks for the wealthy and poor alike.

Income tax payments this year will be nearly 13 percent lower than they were in 2008, the last full year of the Bush presidency. Corporate taxes will be lower by a third, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The poor economy is largely to blame, with corporate profits down and unemployment up. But so is a tax code that grows each year with new deductions, credits and exemptions. The result is that families making as much as $50,000 can avoid paying federal income taxes, if they have at least two dependent children. Low-income families can actually make a profit from the income tax, and the wealthy can significantly cut their payments...

custom.yahoo.com/taxes/article-112061-0c8961e7-144f-45ba-920f-8df98fd4d028-by-one-measure-federal-taxes-lowest-since-1950

Kids Count: More Michigan Children In or Near Poverty

First the bad news: An annual report released today says more children in Michigan live in or near poverty at a time when many support services for kids face budget cuts.

In addition, the state saw a 25 percent jump in confirmed victims of abuse and neglect between 2000 and 2009 - most due to neglect made worse by poverty.

The Kids Count in Michigan Project found that about one in every five children in Michigan live in poverty. The rate is nearly one out of every two black kids, and more than one out of three Hispanic children.

www.mlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/02/report_child_poverty_neglect_r.html

New Film Tells the History of West Michigan African Americans' Relocation from the Deep South

Distinguished and Emmy-Award winning actress, Cicely Tyson, narrates a new West Michigan produced documentary which tells of the history of African American families who moved from the deep South to West Michigan. From the Herald Palladium:

Brothers Jim and Rod Schaub grew up in Muskegon with no knowledge of the role African Americans played in the growth of the industrial Michigan town.

"We grew up here, went to school here, but I never heard about our own rich history," Rod Schaub says by telephone from his home in Muskegon, "particularly when it came to the African American community."

After learning that a local physician, Dr. James Jackson, who is also the board chairman at the Muskegon County Museum of African American History, had been tape recording the stories of his elderly black patients, the Schaubs began to do some research of their own.

What they discovered is documented in their film, "Up From the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream," which will be shown Friday at the Box Factory for the Arts (1101 Broad Street in St. Joseph, Friday night at 7:30 p.m.)

The 58-minute documentary centers on Muskegon's role in the massive migration of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North as farming jobs in cotton and other crops began to disappear. When they journeyed north to find work in the booming manufacturing industry, their lives changed - and so did the communities to which they migrated.

Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress Cicely Tyson, "Up From the Bottoms" uses interviews from 15 Muskegon residents, old photographs and reenactments to explore the differences in culture between North and South, the racial tensions in Muskegon at the time and the individual stories of those who helped shape the community.

"When you're making a documentary you just shoot and shoot and shoot and try to make a story out of it," says Jim Schaub, who directed the film. "Our goal was to let people tell their story. So we asked a lot of open-ended questions and let them be open and honest. By letting people say what they wanted, we got a lot more emotional stories and some of the tiny details that I think make this film."

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/02/03/features/3391537.txt

The Luxury of Literacy

Can you read the following sentence? ||

If you’re like me, you can’t. It looks like a string of random symbols and spaces. (It is just a string of random symbols and spaces.) But pretend you’ve just gone in for a job interview and this is at the top of a form that you are required to complete. You ask the receptionist what language it is and she says it’s English. Quite a challenge! You no longer know how to read.

In this situation, however smart you are, whatever level of education you have, however highly respected in your field, you become as ignorant as a young child. This is what it’s like for many of the 44 million Americans, including 31,000 Kalamazoo County residents who cannot read well enough to complete an application. (Statistics are provided by the Kalamazoo Literacy Council and obtained from the National Institute for Literacy and the National Adult Literacy Survey.)

This is similar to how Laubach method literacy tutor training begins. Tutors become ‘ignorant’ students again and learn what it’s like to be taking those very first steps toward reading and writing with ease.

Since I began working at the Poverty Reduction Initiative in Kalamazoo County in late 2010, I have been busy learning many new languages — the language of the non-profit community, the language of my workplace, the language of our online database; and relearning ones I already knew – HTML, marketing, press release writing, film-making. I also recently completed literacy tutor training to learn how to help others learn to read and write in (American) English.

For several weeks, with all of this learning, I have not had time to write for this blog or my own personal projects, except for short bursts on twitter. Writing for pleasure is a luxury. So is reading for fun. It takes time to write and time to edit. I’m a fast thinker and slow writer. That means I make a lot of revisions. Most of us who work full time don’t have much time during the day to read or write except as required by our jobs. In the evenings we’re busy with our lives, our families, our friends, away from our computers (but not our phones!). I’m lucky that writing is part of my job description. I made the choice to be in a profession where it is. You’re fortunate to have the time, resources, and ability to read this today.

Without essential reading and writing skills, you must rely on spoken communications to make your way in the world. You must take at their word those people who interpret the strange written symbology for you, whether or not they understand what they have read. When you can read and write for yourself, you can gain knowledge from everywhere, make your own interpretation, develop your own understanding. It’s empowering.

As a society we need to ensure our children grow up as literate as possible, in as many languages as possible — including mathematics, finances, foreign languages, and computer code — to be able to read, write, and reason for themselves. Childhood education needs your support.

(On February 8 the Kids Count in Michigan 2010 Data Book is being released, which will highlight how our community supports — and can better support — kids’ academic success. PRI will be posting information on our website and social media networks.)

It’s also never too late to learn to read. If you’d like to empower someone with the gift of literacy, you can find a literacy tutor training program through America's Literacy Directory.

Michigan Catholic Conference Calls for Maintaining the Michigan Earned Income Credit for Working Poor

With the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit received by thousands of lower-income families apparently on chopping block, groups are launching an effort to save it.

Gov. Rick Snyder today unveils his “Citizens Guide to Michigan’s Financial Health,” and its release will serve as a launching pad for months of negotiations over how to close a $1.8 billion budget deficit and finance on top of that a business tax cut in the range of $1.5 billion.

Michigan’s EITC, approved in the Granholm administration with bipartisan support, provides a refundable credit equal to 20 percent of the federal credit EITC qualifying families receive. But it’s also expensive, costing some $354 million in fiscal 2011.

House Republicans say they want to repeal the credit that the Michigan League for Human Services say benefits 700,000 working parents and their children and keeps 25,000 families out of poverty.

Paul Long, president and CEO of the Michigan Catholic Conference said saving the credit is one of the group’s top legislative priorities.

“The expense of the Michigan EITC is mitigated by the amount that is spent in the local economy by those who receive the credit; therefore, the EITC has a dual purpose: to act as a barrier to poverty and an incentive to work, and as an economic boost for local communities,” said Long.

“At a time when Michigan’s unemployment rate continues to hover above 11 percent, we are urging those who craft state policy to seriously evaluate how any reform of state government will impact the elderly and frail, the poor and disadvantaged,” he added.

www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/01/michigan_catholic_group_vows_t.html

Now, let's hope some Baptists, Christian Reformed, Episcopals, Jews, Lutherans, Methodists, Muslims, and all other manner of denominations get on board.

Tougher Bankruptcy Laws: Have They Hurt More than Helped?

When tougher bankruptcy laws took effect more than five years ago, Congress wanted to raise the bar against perceived abuse of the system by ne’er-do-well debtors.

But since then?

Lawyers’ fees have more than doubled, online “credit counseling” is the norm, and the pace of personal bankruptcies is growing, nearing 2004 pre-reform levels.

“The impact was not much — other than to make it more costly and make more hoops to jump through for anyone filing bankruptcy,” local attorney David Andersen said.

... Many families have been wedged between job loss and mortgage.

“I was let go while my husband was still in the hospital with a brain aneurysm,” said Lynnette Tilton, who now works as a legal assistant in attorney David Andersen’s law office. “It was devastating.”

Before disaster struck, life was smooth-sailing, Tilton said.

“We had everything — good-paying jobs, 800-plus credit scores, a mortgage,” she said. “We were able to live comfortably.”

About four years ago, after they were laid off, the Tiltons sought help to save their Southeast Grand Rapids ranch home.

“The mortgage company granted us a couple of forbearance agreements, but they wouldn’t restate our mortgage,” Tilton said.

She and her husband lost the house, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy and took a series of part-time jobs, waiting for the local economy to recover. Today, they both work full time and are renting a home they love.

www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2011/01/5-year-old_federal_bankruptcy.html

Michigan Legislature Considers Tax Increase on the Working Poor

The idea of the Earned Income tax Credit, giving people who have low-income jobs a bit of a tax break, has been around for a while. In 1975, a Michigan Republican, Gerald Ford, signed the first federal credit into law while he was president.

Since then, the federal credit has been expanded by subsequent presidents, including Ronald Reagan. President Reagan had high praise for it as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986:

“It’s also the best anti-poverty bill, the best pro-family measure, and the best job creation program ever to come out of the Congress of the United States.”

The Earned Income Tax Credit was popular because gave people an incentive to get off welfare and go to work. Prior to the credit, a person on welfare would find it paid more to stay on public assistance because by the time taxes were taken out of the paycheck, they were worse off financially.

Alex Rosaen is a Consultant with the Anderson Economic Group. He’s written on the issue:

"The original kind of revolutionary idea with the Earned Income Tax Credit as opposed to simply providing families with direct cash aid was that it flipped things upside down; it got the incentives right instead of getting them wrong.”

So, that federal credit became a basic building block of the welfare-to-work effort.

www.michiganradionews.org/post/michigan-legislature-considers-tax-increase-working-poor

Every Kind of People: A Musical Note

Sometimes we all just need a little reminder that Southwest Michigan is One Community, One People. We try to advocate in these spaces for ALL people in Southwest Michigan, black, white, Hispanic, Native, Asian, rich, poor, those with disabilities, gay or straight, old and young, men and women.

Sometimes music can be a wonderful reminder of just that. As a former disc jockey with Armed Forces radio, I could pull from a slew of songs to make that point. However, this morning this song comes to mind.

So, as Robert Palmer sang many years ago:

"It Takes Every Kind of People To Make What Life's About"

Enjoy:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne1lkEEmRCI

Underground Railroad Society of Cass County Acquires Bonine House

The Underground Railroad Society of Cass County (URSCC) is very pleased to announce that the organization recently completed the purchase of the James E. Bonine House and Carriage House at M-60 and Calvin Center Road, with the intent to preserve and restore both properties for use as education and community centers.

The mission of URSCC is “to provide a focal point for exploration into the origins and activities of the Underground Railroad; the unique role the people of Cass County and the surrounding region played throughout its existence; and how it impacted local, state and national history.”

URSCC president and building/grounds committee chair Mike Moroz of Dowagiac said, “Acquiring these properties has been challenging. We thought we had them a year ago, and the deal fell through. We felt this was our last opportunity since the Bonine House is coming to the point of being irreparably damaged due to years of neglect. When the property came back on the market recently, everyone rallied to the cause and we were able to close within two weeks. We have a long road ahead of us, but with everyone’s help we can restore these iconic buildings to the glory they deserve.”

The properties are important for their architectural significance; as the ancestral home of the Bonine Family; and for their intimate connection to Underground Railroad activity in this area.

www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/01/24/urscc-buys-bonine-house/