A Class Divided-Part I: Poverty and Violence in New Orleans Public Schools

from Red Orbit

By Maloney, Stephen

A TWO-PART SERIES LOOKING AT THE TWO MOST SIGNIFICANT FACTORS INFLUENCING

NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS: POVERTY AND VIOLENCE

When Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas was preparing to take over state-run New Orleans public schools in June 2007, the career educator sought the advice of experienced local leaders on how to approach his new job.

Having run the Chicago and Philadelphia school districts, which have many students living in poverty, Vallas expressed confidence in his ability to handle his new job with former New Orleans Mayor Maurice "Moon" Landrieu.

"I went over to his (Landrieu's) house one night and someone asked me to compare school districts and I talked about the poverty rates being comparable," Vallas said. "Moon turned to me and said, 'There's poverty and then there's Southern poverty -- deep poverty.'"

With more than three quarters of Louisiana's public school students classified as low income, the specter of poverty is casting a dark shadow across the state's educational landscape. Educational leaders say poor economic conditions severely limit student performance, creating a domino effect that can drag down a state or region's economy.

"On every major demographic and educational indicator, low- income students start behind, stay behind and fall behind," said Steve Suitts, Southern Education Foundation vice president. "As a nation, we still haven't really come to grips with this problem and what it means for education."

In the South, the number of low-income students has ballooned in the past four decades: 54 percent of the region's 50.1 million public school students are now classified as low income, according to a new SEF report, "A New Majority, Low Income Students in the South's Public Schools."

According to federal regulations, a family of two with an annual income of less than $14,000 lives below the poverty line and qualities for the free or reduced lunch program.

Low-income students are two to three times as likely to drop out of high school as more affluent students, Suitts said, wreaking havoc on the economy as unskilled dropouts hit the job market.

"There's nothing that will be more decisive in forecasting the economic health of Louisiana and the other Southern states than how well the states meet the challenge of educating this new majority," he said.

Vallas said more than 85 percent of the RSD's student population qualifies for the federal free or reduced lunch program, a major indicator of a student's economic status.

"The higher the concentrations of poverty the greater the challenges," Vallas said. "In part, it certainly puts an added burden on the school systems that do not necessarily have the means to meet that burden."

Addressing the issue of student poverty has been one of the RSD's most important tasks, Vallas said.

The key to winning the battle against poverty in the classroom is early intervention, he said.

"There's no more effective way to attack the challenges of poverty than universal early childhood education," Vallas said.

Providing low-income students with the same level of education as more affluent students has to happen early and that extra effort must be maintained throughout a student's career for the negative effects of poverty to be cancelled out, Suitts said.

One of the underlying problems preventing adequate help from getting to impoverished students is the difficulty teachers can have determining the exact needs of each student, S.J. Green Charter School principal Tony Recasner said.

Ninety-eight percent of Green Charter's 325 students qualify for free lunch, but no two students have the same set of economic challenges to overcome, Recasner said.

"A lot of what happens is a function of the parent, typically a mother," he said. "The child's behavior and achievement in school is largely related to mom's aspirations and mom's circumstances."

A single mother working more than one job to make ends meet will more often than not have difficulty getting her child to school on time every day, resulting in a gap in the student's education, Recasner said.

In addition, the same overworked mother will seldom have time to help her child with homework or with a difficult assignment, further limiting classroom achievement.

"The way we best understand a student's achievement and behavior in school is really by getting as good an understanding as we can of their mother's circumstances," Recasner said. "Socioeconomic status is probably the biggest factor in determining the school success of children."

Link to full article. May expire in future.

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Panel backs poverty fight

from The Advocate

Lawmaker: Issue affects everyone

* By SARAH CHACKO

The state could be required to reduce child poverty by 50 percent under a bill easily approved by a Senate committee Wednesday.

Senate Bill 660, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, would create the Child Poverty Prevention Council of Louisiana. Its sole purpose would be to pursue programs to reduce child poverty in the state by 50 percent over the next 10 years.

How much it would cost to reach the goal was not discussed.

Nevers said it is time for the state — among the worst in the nation when it comes to child poverty — to do something about the problem, which is affecting children’s performance in school and costing the state money in the long run.

“I don’t know of any issue that’s more dire than the poverty of our children in this state,” Nevers told the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare Wednesday, adding that Louisiana has a 28 percent child poverty rate, the second highest in the nation.

“It’s just something we cannot allow to continue,” he said.

Through the measure, the council would be able to seek private funding for public fund matches to support child poverty initiatives.

The council would find grant funding for local governments, nonprofit agencies, faith-based organizations and other community-based groups to directly serve the parishes with the highest rated of child poverty.

SB660 also would create the Child Poverty Prevention Fund for grants and projects aimed at reducing child poverty.

In the state, there are already agencies — such as the Children’s Defense Fund, Agenda for Children, and Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations — that work toward the goal of reducing child poverty.

But Martis Jones, vice president of the Community Solutions Institute within the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations, said the bill puts the state’s lawmakers at the helm of the initiative.

She said legislators have considered poverty to be a social issue, not addressing the ripple effects the issue has on education, work-force development and the economy.

“It’s everybody’s situation,” she said.

The council would consist of 14 members representing state departments, legislative committees, business associations and nonprofit agencies.

Judy Watts, founding director of Agenda for Children in New Orleans, said poverty underlies many of the problems seen with children and families.

Watts said 13 percent of Louisiana children live in extreme poverty, defined as a family of three earning less $17,600 annually. Half of the state’s children live in low-income families, defined as a household of three earning less $35,000 annually, she said.

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Living poor in Louisiana

from The Advocate

Fiscal realities make it tough to break poverty cycle

* By PATRICK COURREGES

Living poor is not the same as living cheap. People living in — or near — poverty and the people and agencies who work with them say that the add-on costs of poverty take a brutal toll on individuals and families who are just hoping to break even.

Breaking even is a growing concern throughout Louisiana and the United States as high-and-rising gasoline prices continue and people at all income levels brace for an economic downturn.

Higher fuel prices have driven up prices for other staple goods and services, and families are also dealing with increases in health and property insurance, as well as more-expensive housing.

The increased cost of living for everyone adds particularly to the strain on poor people, who already pay more for basic needs than their better-off fellow citizens.

The latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show Louisiana has the second-highest poverty rate in the nation (behind Mississippi), with about 19 percent of people in the state below the poverty line.

The Census Bureau determines the poverty line by estimating the essential financial needs of a hypothetical family based on the size and composition, and comparing that needed amount to income.

If the income is less than the need, the individual or family is below the poverty line.

With Louisiana’s population of about 4.2 million, that translates into more than 800,000 people in poverty.

Studies and information from people who work to help low-income families every day show that the poor pay more than their higher-income counterparts for many things — including interest rates on cars and homes, groceries and cashing paychecks.

Lorna Bourg, executive director of the Southern Mutual Help Association in south Louisiana, said the extra costs that go with poverty are real and serious.

“Poor people absolutely, in my experience, in every inch of the way, pay more for everything,” she said.

Bourg, whose organization is based in New Iberia, said poor people are not unwilling to work or help themselves.

“Most poor people that I know are working poor,” she said.

While Bourg’s group works mostly with the rural poor, Judy Watts, president and CEO of the New Orleans-based Agenda for Children, deals the poor in a more-urban setting.

Watts said, urban or rural, many problems are the same for both groups — such as access to the low-priced necessities, such as groceries.

“Poor people don’t have a way to get into big grocery stores, so they shop at the corner stores,” she said.

Bourg’s organization works to educate people in poverty about financial realities and helping them access affordable housing — which she says is a key to financial stability.

Watts said work has been more plentiful and better-paying in New Orleans as the city and state rebuild from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, but the scarcity of housing and the resulting increased cost have added problems that far outstrip the boost in job prospects.

Bourg said that home ownership is not a complete solution to poverty.

She recalled one person the association helped who had managed to buy a home but went to a rent-to-own business to buy a refrigerator because she did not have the money to buy it outright.

“By the time she was through paying for that refrigerator, she’d paid about $5,000,” Bourg said.

Rent-to-own businesses operate by leasing furniture or appliances for a set period, usually a year or more, after which the customers own the furniture or appliances.

Consumer advocates question the rent-to-own business model because customers end up paying much more in such a transaction than they would in a direct purchase.

Paying more for basic necessities is a constant in the lives of the poor, said Valerie Keller, director of Lafayette’s Acadiana Outreach Center.

The center works with homeless people to help return them to self-sufficiency.

Keller said the problem is not a hard one to see: “Drive down a low-income neighborhood, think about what you’re going to see, as compared to what you’ll see on a middle-income street,” she said.

Commercial sections of a middle-income district will feature such things as banks, furniture stores and big-box department and grocery stores, Keller said.

“If you drive down a low-income street, instead of banks you’ll see a payday-loan place,” she said. “Instead of a furniture store, you see a rent-to-own. You have a small grocery store, which has a higher price for basic food items.”

Beyond that, Keller said, people living in poverty who manage to pull enough money together to finance a home or car generally pay higher interest rates and higher insurance rates because their credit rating tends not to be good.

Living in the trap

Clement Mire, a 25-year-old father of three, knows about the extra load people in poverty bear because he’s gone all the way to homelessness and is now trying to work his way back up.

He is working with the Acadiana Outreach Center in Lafayette to learn to better manage his money and keep himself out of financial trouble.

But Mire said he remembers traps he has fallen into and knows he still has work to do.

“We barely get by,” Mire said.

He said that, in the past, he had been unable to open a bank account, forcing him to go to check-cashing companies that charged a portion of his paychecks to cash them, paychecks that already had plenty of calls on the amount.

“It’s outrageous,” Mire said.

He said that he looked to a rent-to-own business for a refrigerator once, and found that, while the down payment was only $150, the addition of $90-a-month notes for 18 months meant he would have to pay a total of more than $1,700.

Mire said other options to pay for needed household items were slim, however.

“My credit was so bad it was like I couldn’t go to the bank and get a loan,” Mire said.

He said he and others in similar straits must sometimes turn to payday loans to borrow small amounts of money, despite dangerous short term and relatively high interest of such loans.

Payday loans are short-term loans with no credit check, usually payable in full — plus interest — within about two weeks.

The loans are normally for $300 or less, with the interest on the payback in the $40 to $50 range.

Watts said the problem with payday loans is that they don’t necessarily stop after one paycheck.

She said that someone taking out a payday loan of about $255 can routinely end up paying back more than $850 before breaking the cycle.

Bourg said payday businesses are a example of “predatory lenders” — companies that offer loans that not only have higher interest than mainstream loans for people with shakier credit, as “subprime” lenders do — but loans with interest rates that, projected over a year could mean paying back the amount of the original loan several times over.

Representatives of payday-style lenders have argued that the claims of high interest are misapplied to what is essentially a two-week loan, and that the service, used responsibly, helps people with short-term cash needs.

Bourg said payday loans often get rolled over, meaning that customers continually re-borrow the original amounts and pay the interest fees because paying the loans back would take a large part of those paychecks, leaving insufficient money for other bills.

“That’s a bad cycle. They like to roll over people’s loans,” she said. “It goes on and on, so they never get out of it.”

Watts said that the Legislature has acted to restrict payday lenders and the interest rates they can charge, but enough loopholes still exist to make payday loans a continuing problem for people who get caught in that cycle.

Mire said that, even though he’s learned the pitfalls of payday loans, he still has had to use them when he’s in tight financial spots.

Bourg said there are few options available to people without good credit who need $100 or $200 just to get through a month’s bills.

“Where do you get $150 or $250? There’s almost no bank you can walk into and get such a small loan,” she said. “When people are desperate they do desperate things.”

Keller said the payday loan cycle is part of a broader problem of the poor: pushing more debt forward so they can meet short-term needs.

“It can seem like an overwhelming spiraling downward cycle,” she said. “At some point you’re not living paycheck to paycheck, you’re living payday loan to payday loan. It seems like there’s no way to get out.”

That frustration can lead to despair and sometimes to drug or alcohol abuse, Keller said.

“You end up with people who feel they can never get ahead,” she said.

Taking a toll

Keycia Manuel knows about working hard to hold on to the little she has had.

Manuel, 33, is raising two sons on her own and has worked two jobs to keep them fed and housed.

Even doing two jobs did not cover all costs, when such things as gas for transportation and day care were factored in, she said.

“I was still living paycheck to paycheck,” Manuel said.

She said she was living so close to the edge that she once had to take out an anticipation loan on her federal tax refund to get the money for an overdue tune-up to keep her car running.

Manuel said she was charged $250 for that loan.

Manuel said when she bought the used car, her credit was not good, and she had to put up a hefty down payment. Even so, that down payment did little to cut the interest rate she paid.

That increased the pressure to manage the costs of living and raising her children.

John Milton, a Lafayette attorney who often deals with clients on the lower end of the economic scale, said he’s seen clients who have dealt with the scenario Manuel describes in trying to get transportation — including one client who ended up paying 31 percent interest on a used-car loan.

He said he also sees clients drawing Social Security who are so deep into the payday loan cycle that they sign over almost their entire Social Security benefit to loan companies every month.

“I have had some clients who have borrowed from seven or eight different payday loans at one time,” Milton said.

He said one client had only $40 to $50 left each payday after paying off the loans.

“The poor keep getting poorer,” Milton said. “So many people don’t have bank accounts. People with poor credit can’t even open bank accounts.”

He said that leaves such people at the mercy of check-cashing operations that charge a percentage to cash them.

“How are we going to get out of this rut when the number of people in poverty is staggering?” Milton asked. “We’re not talking about people who are not working. We’re talking about people who are working every day and just can’t make ends meet.”

He said the working poor fall farther and farther behind and see no way of making good on their debts and obligations.

Milton said many people judge poor people who have made bad financial decisions from an outside perspective. These people have the advantage of distance and knowledge of the likely long-term results of poor short-term money decisions.

He better-off people should learn to see the decisions people in poverty make from the perspective of the people making the choices.

Single mothers barely paying the bills still dream of giving their children the nice things they see others have, Milton said.

“When they do get a break and she can give her children something she knows they’ve been longing for, it’s irresistible,” Milton said. “The pressure that’s on a mother who is impoverished is great, and it influences the propensity to make bad financial choices. It’s not just about whether I can afford it. It’s also about the pressure of ‘I want to provide for my children.’”

He said better-off people tell poor families to save, but that’s tough when so much of a family’s income already has calls upon it.

“It’s so hard for the poor to save 10 percent of their income,” Milton said. “How do you say that to a person who never has enough to pay the utility bills?”

Wider impact

Keller said she also deals with people for whom saving the rule-of-thumb 10 percent of each paycheck seems beyond their capacity.

“It’s not easy to do when you’re so far behind you can’t imagine saving,” Keller said.

Keller said that saving and general financial literacy — the understanding of the pitfalls and advantages — are the cornerstones of helping people out of poverty.

They need to know not only the effects of giving in to bad choices but what programs and agencies are available to help, she said.

“There are loan programs, government programs, that go underutilized,” Keller said. “Some of the solution goes to making the connections.”

Bourg’s organization deals both in financial literacy and working to help low-income families use home ownership as a building block to financial stability.

She said battling the situations in Louisiana that promote poverty is crucial for more than just the poor. Bourg said the high poverty rate hurts the state’s ability to compete for business expansion and relocation to the state.

“Companies don’t like to open up businesses in a state where such poverty exists, because they know the tax bills will be high,” she said.

Watts said a final trap exists for people and families trying to break away from poverty in the state — one that she and her colleagues call “the cliff.”

The “cliff” is the sudden drop-off of financial and medical benefits families hit when they improve their circumstances and lose eligibility for such programs all at once.

Watts said that some people and families can actually find themselves worse off financially when benefits drop away faster than pay rises.

She said that programs such as food stamps and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families — formerly known as “welfare” — drop benefits entirely when an individual or family begins earning more money.

“If you get a job, you’re cut off,” Watts said.

She said her group is fighting at the state level not only to make that drop-off in aid more gradual, but also to find tax relief and other breaks that would allow poor people to hang on to more of their money.

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Hunger problem ‘urgent’ for state

from The Advocate

* By JOE GYAN JR.

The Louisiana Food Bank Association and its five regional food banks, including the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, are preparing to ask state lawmakers for $15 million to fight an “urgent’’ problem exacerbated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita: hunger.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana is experiencing an 80 percent increase in the need for food in the 23 southern Louisiana parishes it serves. The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is seeing a 65 percent rise in need in the 11 parishes it covers.

“Many of these citizens represent the new face of hunger in Louisiana and are evacuees who may be displaced here permanently or for years to come,’’ said Michael Manning, president and chief executive officer of the Baton Rouge area food bank.

State association President Natalie Jayroe, president and CEO of the Second Harvest food bank, said the number of Louisianians living in poverty appears to be close to pre-storm levels.

“The cost of living has skyrocketed, and the country faces a recession. Thousands of families who have lost everything and are struggling to rebuild, and who may never have needed our help before, deserve our help now,’’ she said.

The association asked the Legislature for $15 million last year — the first year the group sought money from state lawmakers — and received $5 million, an amount Jayroe said the association was “extremely grateful’’ to get.

That $5 million allowed the association to purchase more than 9 million pounds of food — from Louisiana farmers, fishermen, vendors and wholesalers — and provide more than 7 million meals, she said, adding that the association reached more than 400,000 of the 850,000 people facing food insecurity in the state.

“The problem of hunger remains urgent in Louisiana,’’ Jayroe said, stressing that hunger is “an everyday emergency.’’
Manning said the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank distributed 6.6 million pounds of food in 2004, 10.6 million pounds in 2006, and about 10.9 million pounds last year.

“We already had a poverty situation in our area. This (the 2005 hurricanes) just exacerbated things,’’ he said.

If the state association’s $15 million request is granted, the group would be able to buy 20 million pounds of food, she said. The association will appear before the Legislature during the regular session that begins March 31.

Faith-based organizations in southern Louisiana that are struggling to recover from damage to their facilities while dealing with the extraordinary level of need are supported with food from the food banks, as are other nonprofit groups.

Since September 2005, the month after Katrina hit southeastern Louisiana and the month that Rita struck southwestern Louisiana, the association’s food banks have distributed more than 100 million pounds of food to people in need throughout the state, Jayroe said. Second Harvest quadrupled the size of its operation overnight and continues to distribute food at almost twice its pre-Katrina and pre-Rita levels, she said.

Jayroe said that federal nutrition assistance to the state has been cut by 30 percent because of population numbers that food bank officials are not sure are correct. She also said that America’s Second Harvest — the nation’s food bank network — has spent more than $20 million it raised for disaster relief to purchase food for people in Louisiana, but those funds have been exhausted.

“Our sources of food are drying up,’’ Manning said.

Jayne Wright, executive director of the Food Bank of Central Louisiana, said her agency could distribute an additional 3 million pounds of food to meet the need in the 11 parishes the Alexandria-based food bank serves if the bank could find food resources.

Jim Butler, who heads up the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana, said the Shreveport-based agency has experienced a 20 percent increase in need because of shifting populations, on top of the 27 percent unmet need that it has been working to fill in its seven parishes.

The Monroe-based Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana would have to increase its distribution 300 percent to enable the agency to deliver some level of service to all the needy in its 12 parishes, Executive Director Richard King said.

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Saving children with food

from 2 The Advocate

Ghanian tells BR groups how food program rescued him

* By MARK H. HUNTER

In his remote village in Ghana, Africa, Awiapo likely faced a similar fate if not for a Catholic Relief Services program that provided snacks and lunches at a nearby school, he said.

“I wouldn’t be here today,” concludes Awiapo, a CRS senior program officer in his home country and a proud father of three, well-fed children.

He is on a nine-state U.S. tour during the Lenten season thanking American Catholics for their participation in Operation Rice Bowl.

He came to Baton Rouge last week, speaking to more than 200 youths and adults at St. Paul the Apostle Activity Center and another 200 students at Catholic High School. The Catholic High students pledged to raise $10,000.

Operation Rice Bowl, begun in 1975 as a response to an African drought, has raised more than $160 million for worldwide food programs, according to Catholic Relief Services.

At St. Paul the Apostle, Awiapo stood beneath a poster declaring “Starvation is not an option,” drawn by the students of Sacred Heart of Jesus School.

Awiapo, with a British accent, enthralled the audience with personal stories of his youth mixed with heartbreaking statistics of African poverty.

Snapping his fingers in a one-two beat, he sang a ’60s-era Jesus movement song, “We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord, and we pray that our unity will one day be restored, … and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

While Ghana doesn’t have many natural disasters, Awiapo said, “We cried when we saw Hurricane Katrina on television. We called all the dioceses in our country to donate to Katrina services. It wasn’t much, but it is in times of tragedy that the whole world responds together.”

Each week about 155,000 people die of starvation in Africa, 6,000 people die each day from HIV/AIDS and 3,000 children die each day from malaria, Awiapo said. “That’s every single day!”

He reported that thousands are being killed in wars and other armed conflicts, especially in Kenya and the Sudan. “The victims are usually the children,” Awiapo said.

“They don’t even know why. They have no idea what the politics is about.”

“We have a saying in Africa, ‘When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers,’” Awiapo said.

“The children don’t care who wins or who loses but they are the ones who pay the price.”

He told of growing up in a village where electricity was unknown. “We had moonlight. When the moon comes up we would beat the drums, sing songs and tell stories. You guys miss a lot,” he said to ripples of laughter.

They also did not have fresh water and had to carry it from a river several miles away. “We had to compete with the animals,” Awiapo said. “You didn’t need a microscope to see the germs.”

After his two younger brothers died and Catholic Relief Services came to his village, he began attending school and eating on a regular basis. He eventually graduated from college in Ghana and came to the United States where he earned a master’s degree in public administration from California State University in Hayward.

At the university, he said, the other students all carried bottled water and warned him not to drink from the fountains. “They told me ‘You’ll get sick,’ but I told them, ‘The water here is 100 times cleaner than where I grew up. American germs cannot do anything to me!’”

He saddened the group when he told of how his daughter, Loretta, 12, used to ask him about his parents and he couldn’t tell her, “because they died when I was so young. It used to make me cry when she asked. But there are millions of children in Africa today who never know what it is like to have parents.”

He said he is glad that he can provide for his wife Felicia, daughter and two sons, Kalvin, 8, and Melvin, 6, but it is only because he was fed at school and got an education.

“Today, I can provide that snack; I can provide that lunch,” Awiapo said. “Education is the only tool that can break the chains of poverty and suffering.

“I thank God for all of you in this room that you don’t have to go through the experiences I had to go through,” Awiapo said. “Thank God you don’t have to wonder where your next meal comes from or where your water comes from.”

The audience gave him a standing ovation and afterward students crowded around him to ask questions and have their pictures taken with him.

“He was amazing,” said Celeste Baker, a junior at St. Michael the Archangel. “His point of view — from there — is inspiring. It shows how we take everything for granted.”

Samantha Traigle, a junior at St. John’s in Plaquemine, said Awiapo’s talk “was really moving. When he said he came over here, I didn’t think he would be so happy for us and be glad we have so much — we take everything for granted.”

David Dawson, ninth-grade English and Religion teacher at St. John’s, said Awiapo’s presentation “puts things into perspective for the students to show them that instead of feeling guilty that they are well off — they should feel they are blessed which empowers them to share with people who are suffering.”

Operation Rice Bowl
For 33 years Operation Rice Bowl, a Lenten Catholic program, has called participants to pray with their families and faith communities; fast in solidarity with those who hunger; learn about the global community and the challenges of poverty overseas, and give sacrificial contributions to those in need.

n Operation Rice Bowl has raised more than $160 million to improve access to food around the world and in diocesan communities in the United States.

n More than 14,000 faith communities across the United States participate as a way to respect human dignity and foster solidarity with the poor around the world.

n In Baton Rouge, $37,530 was collected for Operation Rice Bowl last year. Of that, 25 percent stayed for poverty programs through Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, formerly known as Catholic Community Services.

n U.S. Catholic bishops offer two agencies for relief work. Catholic Relief Services generally ministers in foreign countries while the network of Catholic Charities works in U.S. dioceses to address poverty and meet needs.

n Catholic Relief Services works in 98 countries and provides assistance on the basis of need, not creed, race or ethnicity.

n Gifts to Operation Rice Bowl may be made through the parish churches or the Catholic Charities Office, 1900 S. Acadian Thruway.

Source: Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

On the Internet: http://www.ccdiobr.org/

http://orb.crs.org/

http://crs.org/

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Accident Changes Plans For SJSU Poverty Protest

from KPIX

As part of a demonstration of the extreme poverty many victims of Hurricane Katrina still face, a FEMA trailer was to be displayed on the campus of San Jose State University. But those plans have been canceled after the trailer was involved in an accident while in transit to San Jose.

Some students at the university were hoping the installation would reminded their peers of the poverty New Orleans residents continue to struggle with.

The trailer was the same type of unit that federal employees have been banned from entering due to toxic levels of formaldehyde. Despite the health hazard, some 150,000 Katrina victims are still living in the structures.

The situation is unacceptable, even discounting the toxins, according to Rashell Jackson with the Gulf Coast Civil Response Team.

"They are pretty small and tight and cramped spaces and they are falling apart and some of them only have the plumbing and don't have electricity," Jackson said.

Despite the accident, organizers were planning on going forward with other events to raise awareness about issues of poverty. They were calling for a Gulf Coast Civic Works Project that would create some 100,000 jobs in Louisiana.

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Workshop plans to address poverty

from The Daily Advertiser

Poverty affects everyone, but too few have stepped up to the plate in Louisiana to do anything about it.

That's according to Don Cravins Sr., Opelousas mayor and former District 24 state senator. Cravins is one of several speakers scheduled to address the Poverty: Are You Aware? workshop, presented Saturday by the Lafayette Roman Catholic Diocese Justice & Peace Office.

The workshop will be held in Fuselier Auditorium inside Immaculata Center, the diocese's central office complex on Carmel Drive. Admission is free and open to the public.

Panel discussions throughout the day will focus on the key areas of education, hunger, housing and community health care. Cravins, scheduled to speak later in the day, will focus on "The Challenge for Each of Us."

"It's a collective problem. Poverty is not a problem that only exists in poor neighborhoods," Cravins said. "We never declared war on poverty in Louisiana. We missed that whole war."

Cravins will focus his attention on what the state as a whole has not done to date and what it still is not doing to address such a "huge issue."

"We are not talking about it and tend to ignore it as long as we're OK," he said. "There are campaigns all over the state right now. We've heard little real discussion about poverty and possible solutions. It's as though we would like to ignore it, that if we ignore it enough it will go away."

Awareness is the first challenge on the road to a possible solution. With awareness comes knowledge and discussion, said Cravins, who grew up in a poor neighborhood.

"One of the key players in creating awareness and developing a solution ought to be the church," he said. "The church has an audience that has the resources - mentally, physically and financially - to deal with the problem."

Education is a key component toward a solution, he added. Nearly 20 percent of Louisiana's population lives below the federal poverty level. Many of those residents do not have a high school diploma or GED.

"Educate the people. Feed their minds. Train them out of poverty," Cravins said. "It has to be a comprehensive plan all of us put together. The government, obviously, is not going to do it on its own."

Cravins spent 15 years in the state Senate, so he readily admits government is only one component. Churches, community groups, nonprofit agencies and individuals must be involved to turn the statistical tide that keeps the state in the worst rankings in poverty, education and crime.

"It's not going to be easy, especially in a high school state with a dropout rate hovering near 50 percent," he said. "If kids can't read they will not be able to perform."

Una Hargrave with the Lafayette Diocese Justice & Peace Office said she hopes the workshop will "challenge people to see what they can do about these issues. We need more advocates for the poor."

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Group seeks solutions to local poverty

from The Daily World

By William Johnson

St. Landry Parish is the poorest rural parish in the nation. The newly formed St. Landry Parish Solutions to Poverty group wants to change that.

"That is my driving force," Chairperson Anita Phillips said of that disturbing statistic. "I've lived here 30 years. Something has to give."

Her committee, currently made up primarily of representatives of local public housing, health care providers, educators and others already involved in the fight against poverty, is all about looking for solutions.

One of those solutions is expanding the current committee. Phillips invited everyone interested in the fight to come out and get involved.

"Anyone who is interested; they are the ones who know what is needed," Phillips said.

With this being an election year, Derrick Robertson, who grew up on Ina Clare Drive in Opelousas but now works with the governor's Solutions to Poverty Campus Outreach Campaign, said citizen involvement is

critical.

"We need to keep (Solutions to Poverty) going no matter who is in office. They will if they see the people are behind it," Robertson said.

He was on hand to talk about the Working Families Protection Act.

"This is going to be our premiere legislative agenda for 2008," Robertson said.

The goal of the program is to reduce childhood poverty by 50 percent over the next 10 years. To achieve that goal, the act seeks to regulate pay-day loan programs, rent-to-own practices and IRS refund loan programs.

"These programs all involve huge interest rates. They are predatory lending that is taking advantage of the working poor," Robertson said.

Other aspects of the program include:

# Increase the Louisiana Individual Development Account Program, which helps low income individuals get into homes of their own, by $10 million a year for three years.

# Increase the state's earned income tax credit from 3.5 percent to 7 percent.

# Develop a Child Care Facilities Fund to help build quality childcare centers.

# Expand Freedom Schools - summer programs in the New Orleans area where children can build their reading skills - to all 64 parishes.

# Increase funding for Early Head Start and more.

He admits it is an ambition agenda but believes it can be done.

"This movement acknowledges that Louisianans living in poverty have a complex array of needs that threaten their basic security," Robertson said.

On the local level, the committee has more limited goals focusing on two main areas - building a working transportation system and helping people get greater access to the many programs that already exist.

Charles Tate with the governor's office said transportation is key to many poverty-related problems. Without adequate, affordable transportation, the poor can't get access to educational opportunities, can't get to work, can't get access to health care - in short, can't break out of a cycle of poverty.

Towards this goal, the committee has reached an understanding to work with the Parish Council to research local options.

"We are working with local mayors on a memorandum of understanding. We need the blessing of the powers that be to continue the work that has already begun," said Lessie Handy, Opelousas Director of Community Development who has been spearheading the drive for a parishwide bus service.

Tate said state and federal help to create such a transportation system exists but "someone on the local level has to drive it, someone has to spearhead it."

In the area of existing services, Pamela Kreyling with the state department of health and hospitals, said many services exist but very few people know about them. Even fewer know how to access them.

An easy solution exists. Just as there is a 911 phone number for emergency services, there is a 211 phone number for people who need assistance. The same assistance is also available through 232-HELP (337-232-4357).

A local program is available in Lafayette but covers 10 parishes, including St. Landry, Acadia and Evangeline parishes.

"If you need to know who to go to for assistance, they will tell you," Kreyling said. "They will tell you if there are qualifications requirements, they will help you negotiate the system."

What the program wants to do is publish a booklet that can be widely available to let people know about this free service.

"The problem is money. We have no funding," Kreyling said. She hopes to be able to at least have a half-page flier about the program available for a local job fair set for Oct. 25.

"Something they can take home, something they can distribute in their neighborhood. It's a baby step but its a start," Kreyling said.

The parish being the poorest in the nation means the need for the committee's work is great. But that same poverty means the funds just don't exist to address many of the issues.

"The big problem is resources," Phillips said.

To learn more or volunteer to help, call Phillips at 945-8890.

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Louisiana policies concentrate poverty

from The Times Picayune

Report: Subsidized housing not spread out
By Bruce Eggler

Post-Katrina housing policies at the state level are reconcentrating subsidized housing, and therefore poverty, in Orleans Parish instead of trying to distribute it across the metropolitan area, according to a recent report by the private, nonpartisan Bureau of Governmental Research.

"For decades, experts in urban policy have recognized the ultimate futility of dealing with poverty and affordable housing issues within the confines of the core city," the report says.

Instead, it says, experts have advocated spreading housing for poor people throughout a metropolitan area "to provide greater opportunities and quality of life to low-income households, to connect housing strategy and job opportunities, and to create a more equitable sharing of the costs of poverty."

Unfortunately, says the report, "Cementing Imbalance: A Post-Katrina Analysis of the Regional Distribution of Subsidized Rental Housing," the state's "current approach to low-income housing does little to alleviate -- and to some extent perpetuates -- the region's imbalance."

As a result, it says, "New Orleans, a city with a reduced population and severe disinvestment and destruction, is left to struggle with the social and economic costs of poverty. The wealthier suburban parishes remain relatively insulated from them. Low-income households, meanwhile, remain disconnected from the areas with the greatest job opportunities."

The BGR report mentions only in passing the reality that most suburban residents, and their political leaders, would prefer that poor people remain in the center city, which many suburbanites fled to avoid poverty-associated problems such as poor schools and high crime rates.

Post-Katrina changes

The BGR report looks mainly at the distribution of subsidized rental housing in the New Orleans area and the changes brought about by post-Katrina housing programs.

The programs include $1.7 billion worth of GO Zone low-income housing tax credits for the construction or rehabilitation of rental housing and almost $900 million in Community Development Block Grant money for the repair of small rental properties. Both programs impose rent and income restrictions on units they finance.

Because the state sought to distribute tax credits and rental repair money in proportion to the damage suffered by rental properties in the various parishes, the report says, the lion's share of the credits and rental repair money was allocated to projects in New Orleans.

The programs try to deconcentrate poverty within Orleans Parish, the report says, but "they do little to alleviate the regionwide imbalance of low-income housing."

Report's findings

The report says:

-- Before Katrina, New Orleans had one-third of the region's population but two-thirds of the subsidized rental households. Post-Katrina, its share of the subsidized units will hold steady, despite its sharp population loss. Jefferson Parish, the most populated parish in the region, will have 20 percent of the subsidized households. St. Tammany Parish, with a population comparable to New Orleans', will have just 6 percent.

-- The pre-Katrina distribution of very low-income subsidized households throughout the region will also hold steady. The government defines very low-income families as those making less than $22,800 for a four-person household. The BGR report projects that, if current housing plans come to fruition, New Orleans will have 65 percent of the region's very low-income subsidized households, compared with 70 percent pre-Katrina.

-- Subsidized households as a percentage of all households in Orleans Parish will rise from 10 percent in 2004 to 19 percent by 2012. The increase will result from both a decrease in the total number of households and an increase in the number of subsidized households.

-- If the post-Katrina housing programs' targets are achieved, however, the number of very low-income families living in subsidized housing in the city would decline by 25 percent from the pre-Katrina level. Such families then would account for less than half of all subsidized households in New Orleans, compared with 83 percent pre-Katrina. On the other hand, New Orleans' share of those households would increase significantly if Congress passes HR 1227, which would require the reopening of more public housing units than is now planned.

Success limited

The state, in structuring its post-Katrina housing programs, recognized the danger of clustering very low-income households in the city, the report says. It took steps to encourage mixed-income development, including the redevelopment of several of the city's large public housing sites.

However, the report says, the state achieved only limited success with mixed-income developments, which account for just 18 of the 72 projects awarded GO Zone housing tax credits. The remaining 54 projects are entirely for low-income people, and 42 of these have a very low-income component. Many of the developments are clustered together or located near other subsidized housing.

Despite many political, legal and practical impediments, the report says, the state should begin to address issues such as concentrated poverty and affordable housing on a regional basis.

It says the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency will have an opportunity to do that in reallocating GO Zone housing tax credits that are returned to the agency because some projects previously awarded credits will not go forward because of higher construction and insurance costs.

"The state's post-Katrina housing programs have sought to encourage work-force housing development and avoid concentrations of poverty within the city," said Poco Sloss, chairman of the BGR board. "But the city still has much of the region's subsidized housing, and residents have limited access to employment and other opportunities. The state should begin reviewing ways to distribute low-income housing more broadly and strategically throughout the region."

Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3320.

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Life in 70802: Churches expand to fight poverty

from WBRZ

To combat poverty throughout the vast 70802 ZIP code area, the Christian Outreach Center is operating on a higher level with expanded space and services in a new location.

“We offer life skills and new opportunities for the poor that we were unable to offer in the past,” said the Rev. Chris Andrews, pastor of First United Methodist Church and chairman of the center’s 10-member board of directors. “It’s a hands-up rather than a handout approach.”

The 15-year-old joint ministry formerly known as the Downtown Christian Outreach Center continues to be supported by downtown churches: St. Joseph Cathedral, First Baptist, First United Methodist, First Presbyterian and St. James Episcopal as well as St. Agnes Catholic, which joined the efforts two years ago.

However, the center has moved from St. Joseph’s to a new building at 1142 Convention St., and since Sept. 1, has been underwritten by God’s Meeting Place Ministries, which provides regular income through a nonprofit resale shop, The Purple Cow, at Jones Creek and Tiger Bend roads.

God’s Meeting Place, through its executive director, Frank Loughran, also manages the outreach center, replacing the Volunteers of America, though that organization continues to support the center also.

The center’s new location, a 2,800-square-foot renovated building built in 1940, offers a receptionist’s area and space for offices, a large meeting room, a kitchen and bathroom.

Downtown was dropped from the name to reflect the broader ministry focus of the 70802 area bordered by Choctaw Drive to the north, West Roosevelt to the south, Plank Road or North 22nd Street to the east and the Mississippi River to the west.

“We liked having the ministry on our campus,” said the Rev. Gerard Young, pastor at St. Joseph’s, but he recognized the new location offers new opportunities.

The center stays open until 6 p.m., instead of closing at noon, and has more space, staff and programming, he said.

“The original center was never intended to do more than meet the emergencies,” Young said. “The expanded work is great.

“Nevertheless, the homeless continue to come every day to the cathedral (including weekends), and they will probably never stop coming since we are a church of ministry to the poor and homeless,” he said.

The center continues its same services, helping clients with portions of utility and rent payments in order to avoid eviction or disconnection.

Clients are referred to other sources for food, clothing and medicine.

The center helps provide needed identification through the state Motor Vehicle Division for those who do not drive.

Toiletry kits and lunch bags are provided. In addition, it offers Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course, a 13-week evening class.

“We have a great network, and each of the downtown churches has its role,” Andrews explained. “St. James Episcopal has a food kitchen; the Baptists, clothing, and all of the sponsoring churches give money and volunteers to keep the center going. There is the Food Bank, St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy and shelters in the area — and, more importantly, we have the love of Christ that motivates us to serve.”

Closure leads to expansion
The opportunity to expand the center came as another ministry was shutting down.

God’s Restoration Place, a rehabilitation mission for homeless alcohol and drug addicts, operated by the God’s Meeting Place, was closing because of financial concerns.

Geron “Gee Gee” Hargon of First Presbyterian Church and the board of God’s Restoration Place, explained the decision.

“The board included businessmen and professionals, and we analyzed and researched and knew, finally, after visiting sites across the South, that we could not sustain the mission, a vast undertaking that included housing, classes, counseling, job placement, and more,” Hargon said. “The buildings were deteriorating, the kitchen needed redoing, and, after the hurricanes, it was hard to get lumber or supplies.”

After the mission acreage was closed and the facility sold, a cash gift of $125,000 was available along with the income from The Purple Cow, started in 2004 to support God’s Restoration Place.

Hargon went to his friend Andrews, who recommended giving the money to the Downtown Christian Outreach Center.

“I saw an opportunity to increase the space and develop a pool of resources through a new revenue source,” Andrews said.
Carmen York Williams, formerly with Volunteers of America, endorsed the concept and stayed with the center as its lead social worker.

She confers with each applicant and seeks to see how the center can help improve the individual’s life situation.

From September through December, the center received 1,087 aid requests with 989 of those receiving aid.

Anyone who walks in the door can apply by filling out a form. Clients receive services, not money.

“We’re about changing lives,” said Loughran, who spent 30 years in prison ministries and knows firsthand that lives can change through the love of Christ brought into their midst. “We try to determine what the root causes are and solve them.”

Other groups with volunteer opportunities:
Catholic Community Services: (225) 336-8700.
Food Bank: (225) 359-9940.
St. Vincent de Paul: (225) 383-7837, Ext. 0.
United Methodist Hope Ministries: (225) 355-0702.
Centers of Hope for Women: (225) 293-2522.
Christian Outreach Center: (225) 751-3262.
Southeast Ministries Food Bank: (225) 924-5122.
Greater Baton Rouge Federation of Churches and Synagogues: (225) 267-5600.

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