the REFUGE

PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS VERY POSITIVE VIDEO BY SEKAJIPO, artist frequently played on Overnight Underground. HERE IS site: SONG is called “HARD TIMES”, www.youtube.com/welcometotmvmt. THANKS, BRUCE This video has a very strong emphasis on Justice for the Poor and Homeless

Published on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by The Media Consortium
Save Affordable Housing, Help Revive America’s Middle Class

by Zach Carter

Over the past decade, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transformed themselves into some of the worst-run companies in recent history. But contrary to current talking points, the firms’ failings had almost nothing to do with their programs for low-income borrowers. As policymakers debate what should be done with the mortgage giants, a battle is now beginning in which the very availability of affordable housing for the middle class may be at stake.

A history of affordable housing

As Tim Fernholz emphasizes for The American Prospect, before the U.S. government created Fannie Mae in 1938, mortgages were very pricey 5-year loans, so expensive that only very wealthy Americans could ever hope to own a home. Fannie Mae changed all that by rolling out the 30-year mortgage, which lowered monthly payments for borrowers by providing a government guarantee against losses for banks. It worked.

But as Fernholz notes, without some kind of government involvement in the housing market, home ownership will revert to its pre-Depression status a privilege reserved for elites. Policymakers will have to implement significant changes in the mortgage finance system to ensure stability in the U.S. housing market, but whatever changes may come, a robust role for the government in housing will be essential.

Fannie and Freddie have been justifiably but inaccurately maligned in the aftermath of the mortgage crisis. In recent years, their executives ran the firms like out-of-control hedge funds, lobbied Congress like arrogant Wall Street banks and did nothing beyond the bare minimum required by law to help low-income borrowers. But Fannie and Freddie did not go headlong into subprime mortgages-the primary source of their losses came from loans to relatively high-quality borrowers.

The terrible mortgages that crashed the economy were issued by banking conglomerates and Wall Street megabanks-Fannie and Freddie were almost entirely divorced from that line of business. The problem with Fannie and Freddie was largely structural- investors and managers saw the potential for big profits from taking on loads of risk, but believed (accurately) that the government would eat losses if those risks backfired. So Fannie and Freddie ramped up risk, taking on as many mortgages as they could while keeping as little money as possible on hand to cushion against losses. Eventually the strategy destroyed them.

Fixing the mortgage system

Exactly how the government stays involved in the mortgage market is still open to debate, as Annie Lowrey emphasizes for The Washington Independent. Nearly every member of the private sector who testified at a recent housing forum sponsored by the Treasury Department endorsed some kind of government backing for the housing market. This was a meeting of private-sector bigwigs-no community groups or affordable housing advocates were invited to speak at the meeting. Proposals ranged from scaling back government support for some types of mortgages, to the full nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Fannie was a nationalized entity for the first 30 years of its existence).

In other words, the government is going to have to keep subsidizing housing, but it will have to find new ways to do it. The old Fannie and Freddie model didn’t work, but the private sector will be unable to get the job done by itself. Private-sector banks and mortgage brokers, after all, were the source of all the predatory loans issued during the subprime crisis, and the source of all of the most offensive loans that drove the economy off a cliff.

Inefficient and often predatory players on Wall Street are still causing problems today. As Ellen Brown highlights for Yes! Magazine, the mortgage system is so bizarre that banks are finding themselves unable to document their right to foreclose on properties-and courts are (fortunately) refusing to let them do it.

It’s a rare situation in which borrowers may actually hold the higher legal ground against powerful corporations. About 62 mortgages are registered through an electronic documentation system called the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), which helps banks with the foreclosure process. But MERS has repeatedly been unable to show proper documentation assigning a mortgage to a specific bank, and courts are now challenging its right to foreclose on behalf of big banks.

That’s good news, Brown notes, because MERS’ shoddy documentation has made it very difficult for borrowers to figure out who actually owns their loan. If you don’t know who owns your mortgage, it’s impossible to modify it if you find yourself unable to pay it off.

As Shamus Cooke argues for Truthout, even successful innovations like the 30-year mortgage are beginning to look a little outdated in an era of heavy, chronic unemployment. Many people can no longer expect to be gainfully employed for three decades on end. If the government refuses to repair our damaged jobs infrastructure, even simply maintaining the status quo in housing could become impossible.

Deficit reduction is not a cure-all

That brings us to another favorite conservative bogeyman, the federal budget deficit. The deficit and jobs generally stand in direct opposition. Creating jobs costs money, and spending that money expands the deficit. Cutting the deficit, by contrast, means cutting support for jobs.

As Steve Benen emphasizes for The Washington Monthly, conservative lawmakers are still harping on deficit reduction as a cure for everything that ills the nation, when the real solution to our problems is a serious jobs bill.

Even if the deficit were a huge problem, trying to cut important social services in the middle of a deep recession is not a good way to go about solving it. Drastic cuts to government spending in a recession result in lower tax returns for the government, which can often be self-defeating, especially in the face of expanding joblessness. The resulting push for deficit reduction-known in economic circles as an “austerity policy,” is better understood as the active pursuit of economic decline. As economist Robert Johnson notes in a New Deal 2.0 piece carried by AlterNet:

Deterioration of government services is bad enough, but imposing austerity due to lack of trust in a time of high unemployment and slack resources is tragic. It is a means to accelerate the decline of living standards of those who have taken a beating since 2007. Double dip or stagnation is too subtle a distinction. We are amidst an unfolding collective choice to pursue a downward spiral.

The government has taken several dramatic steps to repair the nation’s financial system, but it has done almost nothing to help troubled borrowers and not nearly enough to create jobs. Some of this is due to misguided policies enacted by President Barack Obama, and much of it is due to cynical obstructionism. But we cannot repair the economy without fixing jobs and housing. Both are still in a full-blown crisis, and policymakers should feel an urgent need to deal with them.
© The Media Consortium, 2005 – 2010
Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger

oday, the State of Florida has before its legislative branch of government two adjoining bills that will provide the state’s courts and judges with the ability to assess risk factors for a potential parental child abduction. Collectively, this is known as the CHILD ABDUCTION PREVENTION ACT.

Tragically, there are over 370,000 child abductions in the United States alone each year. The majority of these are parental child abductions. Thousands of children are stolen across international borders each year. Too many of them do not come home. They can’t. They are gone forever.

Please show your sign of support for Senator Eleanor Sobel’s bill now before committee (SB1862), and Representative Rouson’s adjoining House of Representative Bill (HR787).

We urge all parents and children who have experienced abduction to share your stories (they will be submitted to the various Senate and House committees) at www.floridachildabductionpreventionact.info

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS ARTICLE THAT SPEAKS TO A VERY FASCIST ANTI-HUMAN RIGHTS RULING BY A FAR RIGHT FEDERAL ACTIVIST JUDGE. THE JUDGE IN QUESTION, IS STEVEN MERRYDAY, WHO IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST JUDGES IN THE UNITED STATES. ONE THINKS OF JUDGES WHO RULED IN FAVOR OF THE GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY IN THE 1930′s. IS THIS JUDGE SUPPORTING A POGRAM OF THE CITY AGAINST THE POOR? WE AT THE REFUGE(WWW.REFUGESTPETE.ORG) AND THE POOR PEOPLE’S ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN WILL NOT STAND BY IDLE. WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE POLICE AND THE CITY GOVERNMENT TO HAVE FREE REIGN TO HARASS AND MISTREAT THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY. HOMELESSNESS IS NOT A CRIME!!!!! FOR MORE INFO. CALL 727 278 1547

Federal Judge dismisses much of claims in homeless lawsuit

By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer

Published Thursday, March 11, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — Federal Judge Steven Merryday tossed out nine allegations in a federal lawsuit that accuses St. Petersburg of violating the rights of homeless people by enforcing a series of punitive ordinances, scoring what appears to be a major victory for the city.
Merryday also denied class action status for the lawsuit, meaning the scope of those making the allegations is limited to Anthony Catron, Michael Lile, Jo Anne Reynolds, Raymond Young and William Shumate, a popular homeless leader in downtown St. Petersburg known for repairing bicycles.
Essentially, Merryday upheld the city’s right to arrest people for sleeping during the day in downtown public rights of way and storing personal property on public land. The city also has the right to ban people from city property if they had committed crimes there before.
Assistant City Attorney Joseph Patner called the rulings significant, saying it showed the ordinances that were alleged to be unconstitutional were appropriate.
Merryday wrote in his ruling Wednesday that individuals don’t have a constitutional right to store personal belongings on public land. The city’s ordinance, he wrote, gives people 36 hours to remove items before confiscation and allows them a month to reclaim seized property.
“The risk is exceedingly low that an individual will be unjustly deprived of personal belongings,” Merryday wrote.
Banning those previously arrested from public buildings and parks was legal, Merryday wrote, because government has a right to control the use of public land “for its own lawful nondiscriminatory purpose.”
Three groups represent the five homeless plaintiffs: the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, out of Washington, D.C., and the Southern Legal Counsel and Florida Institutional Legal Services out of Gainesville.
Catron was cited in 2006 and 2007 for trespassing and is banned from city parks. Young got a warning for having too much property, which included two suitcases, bags, clothes, groceries and other belongings. He was told the city’s limit was two bags, a backpack and one blanket. Reynolds was removed from public property because she had too many belongings. Shumate had his property confiscated three times. Lile was arrested for public urination, and served five days in jail in 2008.
“We’re obviously disappointed with the court’s decision,” said Catherine Bendor, an attorney with the National Law Center. “We’d prefer that the city devote its resources to alternatives to criminalizing homelessness. We’re considering our options at this point with respect to this litigation.”
Last month, Kirsten Clanton, an attorney with Southern Legal Counsel, told the Times that St. Petersburg’s ordinances were exceptionally onerous.
“They make it difficult for people to move out of homelessness by putting them in jail for just trying to live,” she said. “It costs more to put them in jail then it does to actually address the problem.”
Two allegations remain: that police have no right to ask homeless people for identification and that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to arrest people for public urination when restrooms aren’t available. Patner said the city will file a motion asking for those to be dismissed as well.
More litigation may be ahead, according to city attorney John Wolfe. He told the City Council on Thursday that the same legal groups are expected to challenge the panhandling ordinance.
Bendor said her office wasn’t pursuing a legal challenge.
Wolfe has told city officials not to talk publicly about the suit or even discuss the general issue of the homeless.
“My concern is that something they say may be misconstrued” and affect the lawsuit, he said.
As a result, the city is in something of a holding pattern in dealing with a problem that most say is growing worse by the day. Council members can only discuss it privately, as they did Feb. 11 in a closed attorney-client meeting.
Mayor Bill Foster is limited in explaining how he will tackle the issue, which he said would be a priority in his administration. In December, he said he’d consider building permanent bathrooms at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul South Pinellas.
But now, with the litigation, those bathrooms are “off the table,” Foster said Thursday.
Michael Van Sickler can be reached at (727) 893-8037 or mvansickler@sptimes.com.

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REFUGE NEWSLETTER AND UPDATE FOR MARCH 2010

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I hope and pray that all is going well for you. So many good things are going on for the Refuge, as well as challenges. This includes several new outreaches. Just recently we opened the Refuge Thrift Store. It is a thrift stores designed to not only support the work of the Refuge financially, but it will also be a source support to needy individua ls and families in attempting to get resources for their residences. We will be offering a voucher program for poor families to get furniture and other household goods, including clothes. We are also looking for financial sponsors and donation of items for the store. The store is located at 510 49th st. North, in St. Petersburg. If you want directions or to make donations, please call 727 278 1547 . The store hours are Tuesday 11 – 5 pm, Thursday 11 – 5pm, Friday 11 – 5pm, Saturday 10 – 5pm, and Sunday 1 – 5pm.
In addition to this, we now have case management for clients that are homeless or in need of services. This includes helping clients navigate their way through the system. We also have another outreach happening with our bread outreaches. We are now distributing to needy families and to a local community center. We continue to do our regular outreaches, as well as planning for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign’s Poor Peoples march this spring and summer (go to www.economichumanrights.org).
In closing, we are asking you to continue to pray and keep us in your thoughts. We are in a campaign attempting to raise support on a monthly basis. We are trying to encourage 50 people to give $25 a month in new giving or current giving. We are also in immediate need of $750 within the next days. We especially need that within the next 24 hours. If you can help, please call me at 727 278 1547. You can send gifts to The Refuge 1818 29th Ave. North, St. Petersburg, FLorida 33713. You can also go to pay pal at www.refugestpete.org and hit pay pal option. If you can help with immediate need of $450, please call me. Thanks, Bruce PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN NEED IS URGENT