ACORN News July 22, 2004
colist at comm-org.utoledo.edu
colist at comm-org.utoledo.edu
Mon Jul 26 19:54:59 CDT 2004
[ed: this is one of the regular ACORN updates.]
From: "Camellia Phillips" <acornnews at acorn.org>
ACORN News: July 22, 2004In This Issue
Voter Registration Update
1. New York State Legislature Passes Minimum Wage
Increase
2. New Jersey Wins $10 Million State Rental
Assistance Program
3. Florida Turns in 957,000 Signatures to Put Minimum
Wage on the Ballot
4. HUD Reinstates Houston's Emergency Home Repair
Program
5. Paterson Secures $130 Million in Construction Jobs
for Local Workers
6. Massachusetts Anti-Predatory Lending Bill Passes
State Senate
7. Los Angeles Fights Illegal Trash Dumping
8. Louisville Wins Meeting with Sewer District
Director
9. Kansas City Increases Police Accountability
ACORN News July 22, 2004
Voter Registration Update: Over 560,000 Voters
Registered!
Nationwide, ACORN in partnership with Project Vote
has now registered 561,869 voters since July 2003! At
the one-year mark, the campaign has surpassed the
halfway point in our overall goal to register 1.1
million voters before the November 2004 registration
deadline.
ACORN is also encouraging voters to register to vote
online through our campaign at:
http://www.registrationbyworkingassets.com/ACORN
New York State Legislature Passes Minimum Wage
Increase
The New York Working Families Party, working closely
with New York ACORN, won a huge victory on July 21
when both houses of the state legislature passed a
statewide minimum wage increase. The law raises the
state minimum wage floor by $2.00 per hour over two
years, from the current $5.15 to $7.15. An estimated
1.2 million workers throughout the state will benefit
from the increase. To pass the legislation, over the
last several years the Working Families Party, New
York ACORN, and other allies held demonstrations,
lobby visits, flyering days, letter-writing
campaigns, door-to-door canvassing, and candlelight
vigils, and published op-eds and research reports.
For more information, contact Bertha Lewis at
nyacornbrk at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
New Jersey Wins $10 Million State Rental Assistance
Program
On June 24, the New Jersey legislature approved a
bill to create a new state housing rental assistance
program modeled on the Section 8 program, with an
initial $10 million in funding allocated. ACORN
members throughout New Jersey, in coalition with the
Affordable Housing Network and other allies, have
been organizing over the last several months to build
support for the measure. The new state program will
provide housing assistance vouchers for an estimated
1,200 additional low-income families each year.
Low-income residents in New Jersey have been facing a
mounting housing crisis. The cost of housing in New
Jersey is among the highest in the nation, and there
are an estimated 65,000 qualifying Section 8
applicants on waiting lists around the state. To draw
attention to the issue, ACORN members recently
organized two community meetings in key legislative
districts attended by state legislators and over 700
community members each. ACORN members are now
organizing to increase funding for the new state
rental assistance program, and fight the withdrawal
of federal Section 8 vouchers in a number of cities
as a result of federal budget cuts. For more
information, contact Kate Atkins at njacorn at acorn.org
or 973-645-1377.
Florida Turns in 957,000 Signatures to Put Minimum
Wage on the Ballot
ACORN members and organizers gathered
signatures throughout Florida to put a minimum
wage increase on the ballot.
On July 2, Florida ACORN turned in the last of the
over 957,000 petition signatures that ACORN and
allies gathered across the state to place an
initiative on the November ballot that would raise
the state minimum wage by one dollar, to $6.15 per
hour. In another victory, the Florida Supreme Court
ruled last week that the minimum wage measure is
constitutional and may appear on this fall's ballot,
despite attempts by opponents to argue otherwise. The
campaign's only remaining hurdle to being placed on
the ballot is the Secretary of State's certification
of 488,000 valid petition signatures by August 3. As
part of the minimum wage campaign, ACORN has also
registered 97,000 voters throughout Florida. To check
in on the status of the ongoing signature
certification process, link to
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/initdetai
l.asp?account=37732&seqnum=1. For more information,
contact Brian Kettenring at flacornho at acorn.org.
HUD Reinstates Houston's Emergency Home Repair
Program
HUD Secretary Alfonso Jackson, left, tours the
home of Houston ACORN member Ms. Waddle,
center.
On June 30, HUD Secretary Alfonso Jackson visited the
home of Houston ACORN member Ms. Waddle to announce
HUD's commitment to reinstate its Emergency Home
Repair Program in Houston. The home repair program,
which assists seniors with critical home repairs, had
been shut down in Houston since November 2003 after
millions in HUD funds were paid to contractors who
left seniors' homes in worse shape than they were in
to begin with. ACORN members have been organizing for
several months to win more city and federal funding
for home repairs, including holding press tours of
ACORN members' houses to demonstrate the need for
assistance programs. On June 22, ACORN also won a
commitment from the Mayor of Houston to provide $3
million in local funds for home repair assistance for
seniors. When HUD Secretary Jackson toured Ms.
Waddle's home on June 30 as part of his announcement,
he was so moved by what he saw that he committed to
making sure that hers would be the very first home to
be fixed. For more information, contact Ginny Goldman
at txacornhoro at acorn.org or 713-868-7015.
Paterson Secures $130 Million in Construction Jobs
for Local Workers
Building upon an ordinance ACORN passed in 2003 to
ensure construction opportunities on city contracts
for local workers, on July 13 Paterson ACORN
successfully lobbied to ensure career opportunities
for local workers on a $130 million development
project in the City of Paterson. The City of Paterson
is planning a $130 million Center City downtown
revitalization project which includes a $15 million
dollar publicly funded parking garage. While the law
ACORN worked to pass last year requires that the $15
million in city-funded work will go to union
contractors that have certified apprenticeship
programs and hire their 20% apprentices from locally
based training programs, the developer for the
project had not agreed to use the same provision on
the privately funded portion of the project. ACORN
has been organizing aggressively in the last few
weeks to ensure that the remaining $115 million in
construction work will be held accountable to the
same standards. To secure the deal, ACORN members
held a public meeting with the developer, met with
the Mayor's office, and turned out to City Council
meetings regarding the project. On July 13, the City
Council voted to certify the developer, the final
step in the city's approval of the project, after the
Developer's Agreement was amended to include the
agreement ACORN had negotiated with the developer.
For more information, contact Julie Roberts at
njacornparo at acorn.org or 973-517-9993.
Massachusetts Anti-Predatory Lending Bill Passes
State Senate
On July 13, the Massachusetts state Senate passed
strong anti-predatory legislation, S 2431, adding two
of Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's amendments to
significantly improve the bill from the version that
passed the House on June 23. The bill, which was
sponsored by House and Senate Banking Committee
Co-Chairs Andrea Nuciforo, Jr., and John Quinn,
provides a basic set of protections to borrowers
being offered home loans with large fees and/or very
high rates. ACORN members have been organizing for
four years to build support for state legislation,
including protesting at the offices of predatory
lenders, filing predatory lending complaints with
state regulators, working with Boston city elected
officials to reduce predatory lending in the city,
and building a broad coalition of allies to support
state legislation. ACORN's allies in the campaign
have included MassNOW (National Organization for
Women), Center for Responsible Lending, National
Consumer Law Center, Citizens Housing and Planning
Association, Massachusetts Affordable Housing
Alliance, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil
Rights. The House and Senate are now working out a
final version of the bill to be sent to Governor Milt
Romney, who has publicly talked about the need to
combat abusive lending practices. For more
information, contact Chris Leonard at
maacornns at acorn.org or 617-436-7100.
Los Angeles Fights Illegal Trash Dumping
ACORN members are joined by City Councilwoman
Janice Hahn to announce new measures to fight
illegal trash dumping in the Watts
neighborhood.
On July 14, Watts ACORN members, joined by Los
Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, unveiled the
latest victory in ACORN's eight year campaign to stop
illegal trash dumping in neighborhood alleys: the
installation of five new 24-hour video surveillance
cameras strategically located throughout the
neighborhood. At the announcement, neighborhood
residents applauded as Q-Star Technology
representatives demonstrated how the cameras, which
are capable of photographing license plates from 100
feet away even at night, would work. When the motion
sensor is tripped, the camera says in a loud voice:
"You have been photographed illegally dumping trash
and will be prosecuted. Leave the area immediately."
Over the last several years, ACORN members have won a
series of measures to fight illegal dumping in Watts,
including expansion of a City-funded alley closure
program, the placement of large, bilingual,
reflective "no dumping" signs in over 50 problem
alleys, and the passage of an ordinance allowing for
seizure of the vehicles of illegal dumpers. ACORN
members hope that the new cameras will facilitate the
enforcement of the vehicle seizure ordinance. For
more information, contact Peter Kuhns at
caacornlaro at acorn.org or 213-747-4211x212.
Louisville Wins Meeting with Sewer District Director
On their way to protest at the house of the
Metropolitan Sewer District's director, Louisville,
Kentucky, ACORN members won an impromptu meeting with
the director himself. Louisville ACORN members have
been organizing in recent weeks to protest extremely
high fees of around $6,000, that residents have been
forced to pay to install a new sewer system in the
city - despite years of inadequate drainage and sewer
services in some neighborhoods. After inviting the
director of the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) to
several community meetings which he failed to attend,
on July 6 ACORN members gathered to fill a bus to
protest outside the director's own house. Instead, as
ACORN members were boarding the bus, the director
himself intercepted the group and met with ACORN
members for over an hour to discuss their concerns
and begin negotiations. In addition to continuing to
negotiate with MSD, ACORN members are also targeting
Republic Bank, which has been taking advantage of
residents who can't afford to pay the high sewer fees
upfront by selling them high-cost loans. For more
information, contact Lindsay Mullaney at
kyacornloro at acorn.org or 502-568-1918.
Kansas City Increases Police Accountability
On June 24, Kansas City ACORN members took over a
crime-ridden corner to draw attention to the need for
increased policing in ACORN neighborhoods. In recent
months, Kansas City has had an average of five
murders reported each week. In response to ACORN
members' vocal outcries, ACORN won the support of a
number of long-time police officers, and is now
working with the local police department to win final
City Council approval of a plan to put a temporary
trailer, to be staffed by four officers, on the
city's highest-crime corner. The trailer will add a
strong police presence to the neighborhood and marks
a critical step in increasing community safety. It
also represents a new level of police accountability
and improved communication between the police
department and the community. For more information,
contact Andrew Ginsberg at moacornkcro at acorn.org or
816-931-6611.
DONATE TO ACORN
Membership dues and chapter-based fundraising
programs pay for 75 percent of ACORN's budget. But
ACORN also needs financial support from non-member
allies, people who do not live in neighborhoods with
ACORN chapters but who support the work ACORN is
doing. For more information, link to
http://acorn.org/?4 or contact Steve Kest at
natexdirect at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now, is the nation's largest community
organization of low- and moderate-income families,
with over 150,000 member families organized into 700
neighborhood chapters in 65 cities across the
country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action and won
victories on issues of concern to our members. Our
priorities include: better housing for first time
homebuyers and tenants, living wages for low-wage
workers, more investment in our communities from
banks and governments, and better public schools. We
achieve these goals by building community
organizations that have the power to win changes --
through direct action, negotiation, legislation, and
voter participation.
Check out ACORN's website at http://www.acorn.org.
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Camellia Phillips
ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now 88 3rd Ave, Floor 3 Brooklyn, NY 11217
phone: 718-246-7900 x227
fax: 718-246-7939
acornnews at acorn.org
http://www.acorn.org
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