the REFUGE

Subject: [usacai.sc] Media Paints Picture of Violent Section 8 Crowd: What is Really Going On?

Dear Friends and Allies:

On July 21st, several news channels in Dallas covered what they referred to as a “riot” or, better yet, a “stampede” for rental assistance vouchers. Estimates ranged from hundreds to thousands of people running desperately once the local housing office was open simply for the chance to fill out an application. Prominent were images of this mass of running people and interviews with those who had been injured. “Rental assistance at what price?” asks Ron Corning of Dallas, Texas’ WFAA News 8.
What story is the mainstream media telling? With words like “riot” and “stampede,” one might think they were talking about a violent, crazed and criminal group. The reality involved poor and hard working family desperate to keep or put a roof of their heads. Criminalizing people simply because they are poor is not new, however, in media or in policy. Families that receive rental assistance live under the constant threat of “one-strike” rules and are required to do monthly community service, whereas wealthier families that receive “rental assistance” through the mortgage interest tax deduction (“MID”) do not).
This is the first time in 5 years that the City of Dallas has opened its Section 8 rental assistance vouchers wait list. 15,000 families were expected to apply for roughly 3,500 newly available vouchers. Yes, families. 40-50% of recipients of rental assistance are families with children; 15% are seniors; 19% disabled. While budgets are slashed on the backs of working and middle-class people, and banks get bailed out in the trillions, people who are in need of rental assistance are set against one another in the struggle to survive with only enough assistance to house 1 in 4 of them, and that’s IF they are eligible based on an ever-narrowing set of criteria.
Put another way, we have one of the most severe human rights crisis in many decades, particularly around the human right to housing, and our government stands by mutely while families are forced to participate in a foot race for ever shrinking resources. Yet, this is not an issue of resources; it is an issue of values and whether we are committed to being an equitable society. Low-income housing programs receive less than $4 billion, while subsidies for wealthier homeowners, such as the MID, cost the government over $150 billion. Simply through equitable reforms of federal housing finance policy, rental assistance for those who need it most could be available as an entitlement and we would be one large step closer to protecting housing as a human right. Rather than forcing families to race in desperation, we should be racing to create human rights based solutions that are equitable and ensure the dignity of all our communities.

–
Brittany Scott, Campaign Coordinator
Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights
National Economic & Social Rights Initiative
90 John St., Suite 308 + New York, NY 10038
Tel: 212.253.1710 x318 + Fax: 212.385.6124

restorehousingrights.org
nesri.org

As a Christian Minister and someone who is committed to Jesus and his call for a Kingdom built on Justice and Love for all humanity, I must wrestle with how this must be done. There has been a call to action to bring about a revolution to end the Corporate Plutocracy that is dominating the US and the world. It is my belief that we must actively pursue this option and commit ourselves to revolutionary change. The October2011.org call the occupying Freedom Square in Washington DC is one such way to do this. It is in fact, what I believe, to be the best action that we can take at this time. The scriptures say “WOE, to you who make unjust laws to deprive the POOR of their Rights….” ISAIAH 10 and JESUS SAID, “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, FOR THEY WILL BE CALLED CHILDREN OF GOD” and “WHEN YOU DO IT TO THE LEAST OF THESE, YOU DO IT TO ME”.  So, let us join this nonviolent, direct action movement!!             Rev. Bruce Wright

Refuge Ministries and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is Proud to Announce and Support:

PROTECT YOUR POWER TO VOTE
Voter Empowerment Rally
with
World Renowned Civil Rights Leader
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

“Help STOP Vote Suppression”

Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: 34TH Street Church of God
3000 N. 34th Street, Tampa, FL 33605
For Info: 813-248-6548
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride your back unless it is bent. “
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

PLEASE JOIN THIS RALLY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, JUSTICE, PEACE, AND ENDING POVERTY! WE MUST UNITE TOGETHER TO FIGHT THE MACHINE. THANKS, REV. BRUCE

Freedom Plaza
Washington, D.C.
Starting October 6, 2011
Join the October2011 Coalition, groups who advocate for peace and social, economic and environmental justice, in a sustained occupation and nonviolent resistance to
Stop the Machine! Create a New World!
What is the machine? Corporatism and militarism.
What new world is possible? One in which people’s needs are more important than corporate profits,
in which we unite our struggles for jobs, education, housing, healthcare and human rights,
in which we are freed to implement solutions for a peaceful, just and sustainable world.
Visit www.October2011.org
Learn more about it and take the pledge
Then spread the word!
History is knocking. Will you answer the call?
Contact: info@October2011.org

POLITICAL ATTACK ON FLORIDA MINISTER
by Sandy Perry

“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” – Proverbs 29:7.
Cities all across Florida are stepping up repression in anticipation of the 2012 Republican National Convention. St. Petersburg is proposing anti-feeding laws as well as other draconian anti-homeless ordinances designed to literally sweep the poor off its streets. It has also launched a media and political campaign against one of its most effective homeless organizers, Rev. Bruce Wright.
I have worked with Rev. Wright in numerous national conferences and actions in support of Christian non-violence and the rights of the poor. He has ministered to St. Petersburg’s homeless and organized them to fight for housing for twenty years.
Rev. Wright was targeted by Secret Service visits earlier this year and now a coordinated media campaign. Channel 10 recently attacked him for receiving an $1100 a month salary from Refuge Ministries for his tireless service and advocacy. While claiming his salary was outrageously high, it also attacked him because it was too small to keep current on his child support payments. Its coverage included a gratuitous political attack on him by Mayor Bill Foster.
Channel 10 apparently went so far as to tip off police that he was driving without a license in order to stage an arrest at a time when they could film it for the news.
Rev. Wright is an ordained minister with a doctorate who could earn a salary of $70,000 a year serving a conventional congregation. Instead he has dedicated his life to serving as a spokesperson for the rights of the poor. The Secret Service and media have not seen fit to investigate other local non-profit directors earning $200,000 a year or more.
Rev. Wright has not been deterred, and intends to continue his ministry. Together with Food Not Bombs he is participating in statewide vigils by the homeless every first of the month.