Budget for the Refuge:

Expenses:
-Salary
-Gas
-Cell Phone
-Benevolence
-MISC.

Income/Donations:
-$800 from Donor per mth
-$50 from Donor per mth
-$100 Misc. donors per mth
-$2000 from anonymous donor every other month
TOTAL IS $1950 per month

Disbursement:
$1250 per month salary, including $650 housing allowance
$340 per month GAS/Transportation for volunteer drivers, bus transportation and other transportation
$110 per month Cell phone for 4 cell phones, 2 of which are used to help people in need that have no phone
$250 per month benevolence to assist financially to those in need with electric, water, housing, etc.
$50 per month Misc.
Total is $1950 per month

OUR MAILING ADDRESS FOR THE REFUGE APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC CHURCH IS 7813 N. Nebraska Ave. , Tampa, Florida 33604

Press Release from Anonymous
october2011.org
This just in from

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2011/09/occupywallstreet-begins-and-improvises/

Nathan Schneider
Editor, Waging Nonviolence

http://wagingnonviolence.org

Many of us – especially people outside the beltway – are asking ourselves, “What just happened?”

People who follow what goes on in Washington, D.C. have been watching an ugly debate over federal spending, taxation, and borrowing. On the news, it’s been commonly referred to as the “debt ceiling” debate. For now, that debate is over, to be resumed at a later date.

There are plenty of people commenting on who got the better of whom; today I’ll try to cover what the “debt deal” could mean for homelessness.

First, a quick summary of the debt deal. It cuts federal spending in two ways:

•First, it sets maximum levels for discretionary spending (spending that is set each year through the appropriations process, including virtually all targeted spending for homelessness programs) for the next 10 years. The impact of the debt deal comes mostly in the later years. For the 2012 fiscal year that begins in October 2011, discretionary spending is set at $1.042 trillion, $7 billion less than FY 2011 funding levels and $98 billion less than the Obama Administration’s budget request for FY 2012.
•Second, the debt deal cuts spending through additional across-the-board reductions to most domestic and defense programs, this time including not only discretionary spending but also some entitlements like Medicare. These will begin in 2013, with the total cuts over ten years to be $1.2 trillion. Some programs for low-income people (Medicaid, for example) would be exempt from the automatic cuts, but others, like Section 8, would not be exempt, which could mean that thousands of families lose their housing. Instead of allowing these cuts, Congress can pass a bill proposed by a “super-committee,” reducing federal debt by at least $1.2 trillion through some combination of spending cuts and revenue increases. But the super-committee has to do that by the end of the 2011 calendar year.
So how will this affect homelessness? No decisions have been made on the details, but there are two ways this deal could have an impact.

First is the impact of the maximum levels set for discretionary funding. This could impact funding for targeted homelessness programs, especially the Emergency Shelter Grants and Continuum of Care run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In his original budget for 2012, tthe President proposed an increase of $471 million for HUD’s homeless assistance to implement the HEARTH Act, as well as 10,000 new HUD-VASH vouchers, and 7,500 targeted rent vouchers for the Housing and Services for Homeless Persons demonstration. In light of the high rate of joblessness and the struggling economy, all those new resources are desperately needed for homeless and at-risk people. But now we know that overall discretionary spending for FY 2012 will be nearly $100 billion less than what the President’s budget proposed which could jeopardize the creation of these new resources.

Secondly, the work of the “super-committee,” carried out under intense time pressure, creates many dangers in the long run. While entitlement programs for low-income people are exempt from the automatic cuts that take place if the super-committee does nothing, they are not exempt from a super-committee proposal. Roll-backs in Medicaid or TANF, for example, may be tempting for the members of the “super-committee” when they’re overwhelmed with the task of finding cuts to the federal budget. But we know that such cuts would be devastating for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and rely on federal programs.

In this context, protecting federal homelessness programs will require a lot of work. And the work will only get harder in succeeding years.

Fortunately, the effectiveness of these programs, the vulnerability of homeless people, and the bipartisan history of the work provide a strong case, but the case has to be made. Increased funding remains eminently doable, but only if people in Congress know that it is important back home.

That’s where you come in. The Alliance’s grassroots efforts have always proved effective. The Alliance works to connect passionate citizens with their Members of Congress so that lawmakers can hear, first-hand, the needs and concerns of their constituents. This is the most effective way that we, as everyday people, can best affect policy change.

To find out what you can do to protect homeless assistance programs, please contact us. You can learn more by visiting our website.
Policy and Legislation

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

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.

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

“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.