Two Women: (A Poem Upon the Conclusion of Another Year of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance)

On the last day for taxes
two women arrive
after we are packing up boxes
to close the end of another season.

Picking up stray papers
and stacks of tax forms,
I hear the first woman crying
sitting next to her preparer.
Somehow having her taxes completed
forces her to re-think
all of the tough times
she faced this past year:
the spousal abuse,
subsequent divorce,
and stalking by an angered male
and his friends.
I don't remember
her income or her taxes.
I just remember her tears.

The second woman comes just
as the first's return is being reviewed.
She lives solely on her supplemental security income
of $674 per month
and is in arrears on property taxes
and other bills
of which she has a shoe box full.

These are my memories
of a tax season coming to an end:
an abused woman forced to relive her abuse
by the simple filing
of an annual tax return
and a poor woman
who struggles to pay for a home
without enough income
to do so.

Memories of
two women.


P.S. A song from Billie Holiday:

Lady sings the Blues

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCIsMeA8eY&feature=fvwrel

First Aid for Families in Need

At the next Project Connect, the Homeless Relief Campaign Iniative (HRCI) is bringing something new to Kalamazoo County Residents. For the past month they have been involved in a fundraising program called Operation Give a Kit. This involves selling First Aid kits which will be donated to individuals and families that attend Project Connect this May. Their goal is to sell 200 First Aid Kits and they're already getting a lot of support from the community. On Tuesday, the WMU Red Cross Club held a fundraiser on campus where they collected a total of over $161 in just a few hours, which has helped them reach nearly 10% of their goal. The Western Herald published an article on this effort.

This is a unique fundraiser which is helping HRCI to pay for their non profit filing status and is giving back to the community. First Aid supplies are important to health and they are something that many families who struggle to put food on the table could not otherwise afford. This program also makes it easy for people to help as they can give online: http://www.operation-give-a-kit.com/pages/eLink.html?idev_id=108


To find out more information, you can contact:
Scott Spicer- scott.spicer@myrightresponse.com or
LaShana Jones shana_jones@hotmail.com

Gun Lake Tribe Constructs Nine New Homes

With the completion of a block of nine homes, the Gun Lake tribe has begun bringing its tribal elders home.

An open house March 31 unveiled the homes of “The Settlement,” built in Bradley on a cul-de-sac off 128th Avenue west of 6th Street with nearly $2.5 million in grants.

Tribal housing director Melissa Brown said the homes will first be offered to tribal elders—members older than age 50—who now live throughout west Michigan but may lack the means to live where the tribe has called home for more than a century.

The 400-member tribe has approximately 80 elders.

The tribe, also known as the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band, settled in Bradley in 1838 near Gun Lake. According to the tribe, the tribal settlement was then called the Griswold Mission, overseen by an Episcopal church. The tribe was formally recognized by the federal government Aug. 23, 1999.

“This is exciting,” Brown said of the project’s completion. “We worked hard to get here.”

The bulk of the funding came from 2009 federal stimulus money, through the Native American Housing Block Grant. The Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomie Indians were one of 104 tribes and Alaskan native villages that won grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development nationwide; 327 applied.

The Settlement is the tribe’s first housing project. The two- and three-bedroom homes on 33 acres include some “green” features, such as geothermal heating systems, efficient windows and on-demand water heaters.

To accommodate some needs of the elderly, the homes contain no stairs and have wheelchair-friendly door frame widths.

www.allegannews.com/articles/2011/04/14/local_news/4.txt

Michigan's 7 Catholic Bishops' Letter to the Governor and Legislature on Behalf of the Poor

Dear Governor Snyder and Legislative Leaders:

We, the Roman Catholic Bishops of the seven Dioceses in Michigan, take this opportunity as proposals are being advanced by our legislators to craft the state budget, to call on you, our executive and legislative leaders, to carry out your responsibilities with greater attention to the needs of the poor, the unemployed and other vulnerable persons who make up a large part of the citizens of Michigan. It is a well-known fact that a very clear indicator of the moral strength of any society is in the way its neediest citizens are treated. As such, budget priorities reflect significant moral choices. As moral leaders of the citizens of our state, we have reasonable cause for serious concern based on the Fiscal Year 2012 and Projected Fiscal Year 2013 Executive Budget Recommendation, along with proposals that are currently under consideration in the Legislature.

Various policy proposals addressed in committee and others that have been put forward, if enacted, would adversely impact the state’s destitute and working poor population and will likely create additional hardships for those for whom we are collectively responsible – you as elected leaders, and we, the spiritual leaders, of the people of this state...

For the full letter, see:

www.micatholicconference.org/assets/files/statements/bds_20110411-EITCLetter.pdf

In Some States (including Michigan), Working Poor Could Pay More Taxes

Several states want to scale back or eliminate a tax credit for the working poor, as they try to balance their budgets. Anti-poverty groups say some of these same states also want to cut taxes for businesses.

Governors say they're trying to balance the need to promote jobs with deficit reduction. But advocates say the poor are being asked to bear an unfair share of the burden.

The tax break is called an earned income tax credit, or EITC. About half the states offer residents an EITC on top of a similar credit available from the federal government.

Ramona Spencer is a single mother of five who lives in Lansing, Mich. The state's Republican governor, Rick Snyder, has proposed eliminating the Michigan EITC, which is 20 percent of the federal credit.

"Four hundred dollars may not seem like a lot to a lot of people," Spencer says. "But when you are already living on the bottom rung of society, you feel the difference."

www.npr.org/2011/04/11/135320299/in-some-states-working-poor-would-pay-more-tax

It's Everybody's Business to Invest in Early Childhood Development Programs

"For every dollar spent on early childhood development we save $17 on the cost of juvenile homes, jails, welfare, or remedial programs."

"Investing in our children between the ages of zero and five is one of the most important uses of our limited resources that we can make."

The United Way of Southeast Michigan has prepared the following short video on early childhood education:

Diverging Pathways: How Wealth Shapes Opportunity for Children

Racial disparities in households with young children are dramatic:

•• In 2007, 32% of white households with young children were income-poor and 14.2% had no assets. In sharp contrast, 69% of Latino and 71% of blacks were income-poor, and 40% had no assets.

Racial disparities in child outcomes start early and grow over time:

•• At nine months, all children start out with fairly similar scores on a standard child development test, but by two years of age, racial disparities emerge.

The wealth gap widened for households with children:

•• Between 1994 and 2007, the wealth gap between white and black households with children
increased by $22,000 -almost doubling from $25,000 to $47,000.

•• In 2007, black households with children held only 4% of the wealth of white households.

•• From 2005 to 2007, black households living with zero or negative net worth (debt) grew from
35% to 39% while it stayed constant at 15% for white households.

Maternal education matters, but alone cannot eliminate racial wealth disparities:

•• For every dollar of wealth owned by a white mother with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 1994
a black mother owned 64 cents. By 2007, it had fallen to 13 cents.

•• The wealth gap between white and black mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher grew five
times larger between 1994 and 2007 to an astonishing $128,000.

The above are from a new report by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The full report is located at:

insightcced.org/uploads/CRWG/DivergingPathways.pdf

Senior Health Fair in Calhoun County: "It's a Really Nice Thing"

A dozen amateur performers exchanged smiles as they filled the gym with the rumble of hand drums.

It was hardly what Cathie Davids expected when she set out for the Marshall Area Senior Health Fair on Thursday morning.

"I liked it," she said simply. The therapeutic drumming class she took part in was just one of the unique aspects of the second annual health fair at Marshall Middle School.

The morning-long, free event featured exercises and activities, 57 vendors giving out small gifts, and several local politicians, whose speeches were largely ignored by the perusing senior citizens.

A cheerful accordion player strolled among the display tables, and seniors were fed and given free health checks.

Mamie Gamble, celebrating her 84th birthday, got her blood pressure and eyes checked at the event.

"I was surprised about a lot of things," Gamble said. "They got some of everything -- food, (health) checking, and free things. I enjoy it. It's a really nice thing."

But the lighthearted, social surface of the fair didn't mask its emphasis on issues facing seniors in the county, organizers said.

"For some, physically, their capabilities for finding resources are limited," said Karin Gallagher, director of marketing for Maplewood, an assisted living community in Marshall.

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110408/NEWS01/104080312/1002/Fair-highlights-senior-health

Sitting Bull Descendent to Visit Niles Museum

The last surviving great-grandson of legendary Lakota leader Sitting Bull will make another visit to Niles.

The Fort St. Joseph Museum will host Ernie LaPointe Saturday, April 9. He will be available to sign copies of his book “Sitting Bull: His Life and Legacy” and his DVDs about the story of Sitting Bull. The book and DVDs will be available for purchase for $20 each at the museum.
Sitting Bull, a Lakota chief and holy man, is famous for his involvement at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

LaPointe’s book is unique in that it tells Sitting Bull’s story from the Native American perspective. It’s the only biography of Sitting Bull written by a lineal descendent.


www.nilesstar.com/2011/04/01/sitting-bull-descendant-returning-to-niles/

Many Low-Wage Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet Basic Needs

Hard as it can be to land a job these days, getting one may not be nearly enough for basic economic security.

The Labor Department will release its monthly snapshot of the job market on Friday, and economists expect it to show that the nation’s employers added about 190,000 jobs in March. With an unemployment rate that has been stubbornly stuck near 9 percent, those workers could be considered lucky.

But many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care.

A separate report being released Friday tries to go beyond traditional measurements like the poverty line and minimum wage to show what people need to earn to achieve a basic standard of living.

The study, commissioned by Wider Opportunities for Women, a nonprofit group, builds on an analysis the group and some state and local partners have been conducting since 1995 on how much income it takes to meet basic needs without relying on public subsidies. The new study aims to set thresholds for economic stability rather than mere survival, and takes into account saving for retirement and emergencies.

“We wanted to recognize that there was a cumulative impact that would affect one’s lifelong economic security,” said Joan A. Kuriansky, executive director of Wider Opportunities, whose report is called “The Basic Economic Security Tables for the United States.” “And we’ve all seen how often we have emergencies that we are unprepared for,” she said, especially during the recession. Layoffs or other health crises “can definitely begin to draw us into poverty.”

www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/business/economy/01jobs.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/business/economy/index.jsonp&adxnnlx=1301749382-RlNKMmQ4mdbS65HciuvKew