A few weeks ago I read an article in the New York Times Magazine about an anti-poverty program in Mexico called Oportunidades. This program is attempting to address and break the culture of poverty by paying parents when their children attend school and are taken to regular health check-ups, for example. It is interesting to note that New York City has implemented a pilot program called "Opportunity NYC." Inspired by the Mexican program ( which is currently being practiced in a number of other countries) New York Mayor Bloomberg ignored the recommendation of his own Commission on Economic Opportunity ( created to find ways to help poor New Yorkers) and began the program in 2007 with private donations.

Critics argue that “if Opportunity NYC goes large scale it will further break down the moral obligation to care for one’s child and adopt the repertoire of parenting behaviors the middle class takes for granted. It will replace that with the expectation that I’m only going to do it if you pay me. ... living in the present is the central cause of poverty and echoes his skepticism that government can help. What government cannot do is create personal responsibility and drive in individuals." (Heather MacDonald, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute).

Supporters say that "change is usually generational, produced by education." They see Oportunidades as an investment in the future.

"Linda Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, agreed. 'We know
that education and health as children are key to getting out of poverty as
adults,” she said. 'You can have an endless, circular debate about why people
don’t do things. This program is less focused on the why and more focused on
whether a different approach can have an impact in a way traditional approaches
have not.' "

I have attached various articles from the New York Times, however, after a Google search I found many more links to articles and studies about the Oportunidades program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/magazine/21cash-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Oportunidades&st=cse


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17tues4.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=oportunidades&st=cse


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/nyregion/25antipoverty.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=oportunidades&st=cse


http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/opinion/15talkingpoints.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=oportunidades&st=cse

NPR has a program that is aired every holiday season called Radio Lab and one of the topics covered this year is "Race." It reminded me of our conversation at last week's staff meeting about how to address the intake question regarding race. I wouldn't recommend DNA mapping to get this question right every time but you might be surprised at what the journalists have to say about race and DNA, race and medicine and whether or not you can "see" race. As Leigh alluded to in her staff meeting report on this ethical issue, it's not as easy at it seems. I have attached the link here - I would recommend listening!



http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/11/28

Article re: Capitol Striving to Define Homelessness

I recently read a New York Times article discussing the possibility of the Capitol redefining our nation’s current definition of homelessness. As of right now (and the past 20 years) it stands as “people living in the streets or in shelters.”

The House and Senate want to include in the definition people who are “doubled up with friends or relatives or living day to day in motels, with money and options running out.”

Still further, the House is debating whether to include in the definition of ‘homeless’ people fleeing their homes due to dom. Violence and people who are going to lose their housing within 14 days.

Also, The Senate is proposing a bill to include people forced to move three times in one year or twice in 21 days.

The issues that arise when proposing change of the definition of homelessness to include more people is that no additional funding is planning to be allotted to support theses proposed changes. This is a major issue considering our current economic slump.

The Education Department’s definition of homelessness includes ‘children in families that are doubled up with other families or in motels.’ During the ’06-’07 school year 688,174 children were identified as homeless based on the definition of the Education Department but only 32% of the children were eligible for services because the rest did not qualify according to HUD’s definition.

While I believe we should help everyone we can, I do not believe I support the proposed change. It is a very sad and devastating decision to keep the definition at status quo and neglect others who are in need, but if we spread what resources and funding we have too thin, we will be not serving anyone well. If people are doubled up with other families or relatives it might not be the most comfortable situation, but at least they are not living on the street, and I believe people living on the street or in shelters should be our first priority in serving.

As representative Barney frank said, “When there is not enough money to cover ‘all of the above’ you have to do priorities.”

What do you guys think? I would love to read your comments/thoughts.

(Leigh)

I was listening to a report yesterday on NPR about using coupons when grocery shopping (I can't seem to find the link). I personally am not a coupon clipper - actually, I do sometimes clip coupons but I always forget to take them with me to the store. I also find that many of the coupons I find are not brands I use, or products in which I'm interested. I found the latter to be true when I looked into one of the websites (www.coupons.com) recommended in the report.

I'm wondering about your experience with coupons? Is this something you suggest to people accessing food services? Do you think it would actually save our clients money if they clipped coupons regularly?

Add your comments!

For those fans of The West Wing you might remember an episode that had a secondary story line about the way the federal government determines the definition of poverty. In 1963 Mollie Orshansky came up with a formula that was based on the amount families spent on food and we've been using it ever since. I thought you might be interested in reading these two articles, even if you're not a fan of the WW.



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/2F441FA6C68B57A8862574BB00143E2E?OpenDocument



http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080906/OPINION01/809060257



Also, here's the information about the book Mark mentioned in staff on Thursday. If you click this link you can read an excerpt from the book.



http://www.amazon.com/White-Mans-Burden-Efforts-Little/dp/0143038826/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220963081&sr=1-1

Half in Ten: From Poverty to Prosperity

If you are reading this blog because of an interest in the issue of poverty, here is something that may interest you. We'll be keeping an eye on it here at CAH:

Half in Ten is a new campaign, spearheaded by former Senator John Edwards and supported by a number of national anti-poverty advocacy organizations, to cut poverty in half within ten years.

The campaign has three primary goals:
(1) Elevate and sustain a focus on the situations facing the poor and middle class today
(2) Build and strengthen an effective constituency to demand legislative action on poverty and economic mobility
3) Advance specific legislative and policy proposals that will deliver real benefits to struggling American families

For more information on the Half in Ten campaign, check out the campaign's website at www.halfinten.org
The campaign is linked closely to the work of the Center for American Progress, which has published a report entitled From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half. This report can be accessed at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_report.html.

Let us know if you have an interest in getting involved in efforts such as this. We'd be very interested in hearing from you.

People as Infrastructure

It’s been a couple weeks now since the Holland area vote on the Tulip City Airport millage. Few subjects have generated the level of interest this issue has, and few other community issues have generated as many letters to the editor. As I read the numerous letters in the Holland Sentinel, on several occasions my thoughts strayed to the more general question of what constitutes the essential infrastructure of a community. Many of those expressing support for the millage proposed that the Tulip City Airport, even though it is used almost exclusively by businesses and private users, is a critical component of the community’s infrastructure. I found myself generally agreeing that in Holland’s case, a viable airport of a certain quality provides a necessary ingredient of our community’s essential infrastructure.

In my opinion, infrastructure deserves to be thought of as all those essential elements and services that allows for a community and all of its individual members to be able to function in a healthy and productive manner. Most of us, but certainly not all, see the collective value in funding street and sidewalk repairs, public safety, K-12 education, libraries, parks and public transportation, even though not everyone utilizes or directly benefits from each of them to a similar extent. Even so, each of these is generally understood as being important to the health and functioning of a community. We learned last week that the majority (by a fairly narrow margin) feel similarly about enhancements to the airport.

But what about the individuals and families that make up the community? Shouldn’t the people also be considered as part of the community’s infrastructure? They certainly make up an essential component. A community may have first class streets, top notch public safety and a well-stocked library, but these have diminished value if there are families and individuals who lack the ability to benefit from them due to, for instance, family conflict or economic distress. A community that values all of its members as essential ingredients of its infrastructure will do what is reasonable to address the issues that prevent certain members from either contributing to the functioning of the community or from benefiting from all that a community has to offer. When parts of its infrastructure are found to be lacking, it seems prudent and reasonable for the community to invest its resources in building them back up. The City of Holland does this through a relatively small proportion of its budget by investing in services such as food pantries, homelessness prevention, homeownership education, employment assistance, youth development, senior services, and so on. City funds are used to fill in critical gaps left by state and federal funding, or to provide the necessary “match” dollars to allow other grant funding to come into the community. The likely dividends of such investments are many and varied, but in the end they amount to people being given the opportunity to overcome their challenges but also to feel as though they matter and are an important part of the community.

I’m concerned with thoughts I hear from time to time, such as I recently read in a guest editorial in the Sentinel written by a local township official, that the City of Holland’s financial support for social services is an example of it’s inability to “live within [its] means,” and suggestive of the city’s need to join a 12-step program to battle its spending addiction. If we allow ourselves to think of the people that make up the community as essential parts of its infrastructure, we will recognize that the city’s support for social services is not simply a nice thing to do but is in actuality a critical investment, one that is of equal importance to repairing potholes and keeping the library well-stocked. Everything’s connected. It all fits together as working for the common good.

(Mark Kornelis)

How To Do

I heard the following poem read by the author, Cornelius Eady, on NPR's Fresh Air (May 5, 2008) and thought it was blog-worthy. The poem, "How To Do," can be found in a newly published collection of poems by Eady, titled Hardheaded Weather. Cornelius Eady is the director of the Creative Writing program at the University of Notre Dame.


How To Do

It embarrasses my niece to think of her mother
walking the streets with a cart
picking up empties
for their deposits,
but my sister knows how to do,
which was all our mother asked of us.

She's learned how to do,
which is both a solution and a test,
so I stand in line with my sister
at the supermarket.

Today is the best day of the week
to bring the bottles in.
It is a poor people’s science,
a concept that works until someone
with power notices it works
and then it doesn’t.

CSM Editorial: FOOD FOR AMERICA'S FAMISHED

The following editorial comes from the April 22, 2008 edition of the Christian Science Monitor, typically not a paper to inflate the issues:

Americans are a generous sort but not as much in a weak economy with food prices climbing more than 5 percent a year. Donations to private food banks are off by 9 percent. A CNN poll finds nearly 1 in 3 people already cutting back on food. Hunger, once again, is rising in America.
Some food banks and pantries have closed their doors for lack of supplies and because of higher prices for such staples as macaroni and cheese (up 86 percent a carton). Inflation for some basics such as milk, eggs, and bread have risen by double digits over the past year.
Worldwide, food price inflation is being driven by government subsidies for corn ethanol, higher fuel costs to transport food, and more meat eaters who command more farmland for feed grain. And because food costs usually take up more of a poor family's budget, higher prices usually force them to eat less. While the average American family spends about 7 percent of its income on food at home, those at or below the poverty line spend as much as one-third.
Many poor nations have seen food riots and rising instability over "ag-flation" (see related opinion piece on Haiti). The food crisis in the United States has yet to explode into public view – although it's visible in longer lines at soup kitchens and other charities. "Our food bank members across the country have reported tremendous increases in the number of people seeking help to feed their families in the past several months," says Vicki Escarra, head of America's Second Harvest.
The Food Bank for New York City says the crisis is the worst in 25 years, with donations off by half. One reason is that more food is imported. Foreign producers are not as inclined to give to the needy as US companies do and don't have a tax incentive to do so.
And the federal government's donations of food to these groups is down more than 75 percent in the past four years as it is buying less surplus food from farmers.
Beyond receiving private food charity, more of America's poor are enrolling for government food stamps. A record 28 million are expected to receive benefits in the next few months. Still, the program doesn't quickly index benefits to food inflation, and doesn't index certain eligibility requirements. This forces many recipients to absorb the rapid price hikes of recent months. That can mean cutting back on meals well before the end of the month and a drop in nutrition for poor children.
Fixes to the food stamp program as well as more federal donations to food banks are included in a major farm bill currently stalled in Congress. The political deadlock is over farmer subsidies, not the nutrition programs such as food stamps. And there's a chance that lawmakers may simply extend all current programs for another year.
That would leave many more stomachs growling with hunger.
If Congress can't soon pass a farm bill that President Bush will sign, then it should pass the nutrition programs separately. Tying such food assistance to farmer subsidies may help create a coalition between rural and urban lawmakers, but such linkage shouldn't come at the expense of the poor.
More than 1 in 10 Americans live with what the Census Bureau calls "food insecurity" – they're forced to skip meals. Now is not the time for other Americans to skip out on their usual generosity.

The Cost of Eating

I’m frequently asked by friends and others I meet whether Community Action House has seen an increase in need over the past few years due to the economic downturn. The short answer is always “yes,” but I usually struggle a bit to explain with clarity the extent to which the increase in demand is related to local economic issues. We know the dots connect, just not exactly how directly. To be sure, there have been ways that the economic downturn has impacted all of us, yet if you haven’t actually lost your job, there’s a chance you’ve been able to weather the downturn up to this point without a dramatic effect on your lifestyle and consumption patterns.

But now that’s changed. Substantial inflationary increases in basic needs, in particular food, but also gasoline and other essential commodities, have hit all of us, but especially those already struggling to make ends meet. A recent AP article run in the Holland Sentinel (“Shoppers face reality of rising food prices,” April 4, 2008) mentions that we are experiencing “the worst case of food inflation in nearly 20 years … The average price of a loaf of bread has increased 32 percent since January 2005. In the last year alone, the average price for a carton of eggs has increased almost 50 percent.”

Families who were already struggling to pay for basic needs – groceries, gas to get to work, rent, utilities, and so forth, will be hit by these price increases the hardest. Families that already relied on food stamps and perhaps a food pantry visit on occasion will be hard pressed to find a way to absorb any increase in food expenses. The USDA estimates that a family of four will be spending an average of $80 more per month for groceries than one year ago. Some low income families may be able to find a place to cut elsewhere to find that $80, but a good number won’t, and Community Action House is committed to providing help to those families. (Coincidentally, $80 is about the retail value of the food a family of four is provided when they receive food pantry assistance at CAH.)

I anticipate that I will continue to be asked frequently about whether we’ve been busier lately at Community Action House. I have little doubt my answer will continue to be “yes,” but it will now be easier to connect the dots in explaining why this is the case.

--------------------------------------------------

If you’re convinced like I am that more people will need help with meeting their family’s food needs over the coming months, perhaps you’d be interested in helping to organize a food drive at your church, school or organization. Call Jim at our northside office (738-1170) and he’d be more than happy to help you set it up.

Mark Kornelis

Housing is Fundamental

Here are a few thoughts on the very fundamental role housing plays in each of our lives - the first from an academic, the remainder from a formerly chronically homeless individual who has been a good friend and volunteer at Community Action House for the past year and a half.

"Whether one is concerned with welfare reform, education, health care or employment programs, any serious social policy aimed at addressing poverty in this country must encompass a housing strategy. In a fundamental sense, housing is central to the way people live, how they feel about themselves, and their ability to develop self-esteem, be good parents and acquire the skills and stability necessary for good work." -- Rachel Brat, Dept. of Urban and Environmental Policy, Tufts University


"It's important to have shelter. To have to be out there on the streets every day is stressful and leads to desperation. It leads to wanting to give up. It leads to worrying about what you're going to do when the sun goes down."
"When I have stable housing, my mind is relaxed once again. Now all I've got to do is work and keep what I've got, and hope that others get lucky too."
"Being homeless means you're in a bad position, and you have to accept what comes at you. It's a state of stress and uncertainty."
"When in stable housing, you now have the confidence to go out and better your life. You can put your stuff down and not worry about it. You learn how to handle life better and stay focused." -- friend of Community Action House

(Mark Kornelis)

Changes likely in store for food stamp program in Michigan

Making the news across Michigan this past week has been the efforts in the Michigan House and Senate to require the state Department of Human Services (DHS) to distribute food stamps twice per month instead of once. The article in the Holland Sentinel (March 10, 2008 – see link below) explains well the two primary reasons this change is being promoted, namely to encourage food stamp recipients to spread their food spending out more evenly throughout the month and thereby purchase fresher and healthier products, and to help grocery stores better predict demand (which is currently heavily weighted during the first week of the month when food assistance benefits are distributed state-wide). If the bill becomes law, as appears likely, Michigan will become the first state in the country to institute this change.

First, on a parenthetical note, food stamps in the form of actual stamps have not existed for some time now. Michigan, like most states, instead issues EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards to eligible food assistance recipients. This card, used like a debit card, allows families to shop and pay for their purchases without the stigma of using cumbersome “stamps” that looked like play money and drew unwanted attention from others. The problem however, albeit small, is that no one has come up with a suitable replacement name for "food stamps." "Food Assistance" seems to be the best name suggested so far, but it sounds more like a descriptor than a program title and is confusing to those of us who provide other forms of food assistance.

The change to twice per month benefit allotments should indeed help families budget their assistance funds more evenly throughout the month. The person who shops with their assistance funds typically only once per month would have a difficult time buying fresh products and making those last beyond a week or so. Still, the program change has the feel of the state micro-managing people’s lives, but I don’t believe that is the intent of the bill sponsors. To me, using this change to “encourage” shopping practices that will result in improved nutritional intake while also helping the small inner-city grocer better manage their inventory outweigh arguments made against the change.

Under the current system incidentally, while some grocers experience a rush of demand during the first week of each month when EBT funds are distributed, CAH food pantries experience their greatest demand during the last week of the month when we commonly hear that "the food stamps ran out.” We too would welcome a leveling out of our pantry activity and inventory throughout the month.

While the state is right to be giving this issue consideration, I agree fully with one advocate interviewed for the AP article in the Sentinel who stated that the more important issue is that increases made to food assistance allotments over the years have not kept pace with inflation. The great majority of families receiving DHS food assistance simply do not receive a sufficient amount to meet their essential food needs for the entire month, even when factoring in available income. Families must routinely supplement these funds with other funds (money that is needed for rent, medications, etc) or resources (food pantries). Making sure families have access to the resources needed to meet their most basic needs should be at the top of the list of issues needing attention by state and national lawmakers. Nationally, the food stamp/assistance program is funded through the Farm Bill, the near-final version of which is being debated currently in the congressional conference committee. The current version on the table at present does, fortunately, include modest increases to the program, but I predict we will find when the final bill is passed and signed by the president that it will still be lacking in the eyes of our poorest neighbors who have litte choice but to rely on this vital safety net program.

What are your thoughts on the Michigan food stamp bill? Feel free to post a comment using the comment link below.

(Link to Holland Sentinel article: http://hollandsentinel.com/stories/031008/local_20080310003.shtml )

Mark Kornelis