------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Will You Find True Love? Will You Meet the One? Free Love Reading by phone! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Deo18C/zDLEAA/Ey.GAA/tOsolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: CPPH_Info-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are 5 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Junteenth Celebration and Sleep-In From: Grant 2. HUD freezes some Miami funding - cites environmental regs From: Grant 3. HOPE VI quarterly progress report data through 12/31/2001 From: Grant 4. Mayors prepare to meet in Madison From: Grant 5. National Housing Trust Fund-Call to Action From: Grant ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 06:58:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: Junteenth Celebration and Sleep-In >  For immediate release: June 12, 2002   Contact: Rene Maxwell, Coalition to Protect Public Housing, Ph: 312-280-2298 Junteenth 2002: Celebration and Sleep-In In the United States, June 19 is the day for commemorating the freeing of the slaves. The Coalition to Protect Public Housing is holding a special Junteenth Celebration with live music, singing, and speeches, on Wednesday, June 19 at 2:30PM at the Ida B. Wells projects, 39th and Langley, one block west of Cottage Grove. After the event, an overnight tent/cardboard box city Sleep-In Protest will follow. People should bring sleeping bags or blankets if they want to join in the Sleep-In. The Sleep-In will be consist of people living outside in cardboard boxes or tents on the grounds of the Ida B.Wells project. The purpose is to show the world what Chicago will look like if it continues to destroy public housing without adequately and promptly providing replacement housing. There is a crisis in Chicago because of the lack of affordable housing, which hits displaced public housing residents particularly hard, but also affects other poor people, the working class, and even middle class people. Says Rene Maxwell of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, "If people are being forced out of their own residences and pushed around, if people don't have the right in live in their own home in their own neighborhood, then they are not free. There is still an element of slavery here. The masters are telling us how to live, where to live, and what to do whether they be politicians, policy wonks, bureaucrats, real estate developers, or property tax assessors. We are for freedom, democracy, and liberation. That is what America is supposed to be about. All are invited to come and show their solidarity with us." -00- __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 07:17:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: HUD freezes some Miami funding - cites environmental regs The Miami Herald June 11, 2002 HUD PUTS OUT ORDER FOR FREEZE ON FUNDING OSCAR CORRAL, ocorral@herald.com The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has ordered the city of Miami to freeze $10 million in federal funding, destined for land acquisition and infrastructure projects, because the city has failed to comply with environmental regulations. The agency also scolded city officials for failing to keep environmental records, saying they ``violated compliance with numerous federal laws.'' The announcement was made in a May 23 letter sent to City Manager Carlos Gimenez. HUD based its assessments on an April inspection of the city's Community Development Department by environmental specialist Linda Poythress. She decided that Community Development had ignored HUD's warnings from last year that they were not in compliance with environmental requirements. ``Despite the technical assistance provided in the past, the review of the environmental records indicates a number of violations in the city's compliance,'' the HUD letter states. HUD's order is the latest in a series of embarrassments for the city's Community Development department, which is in charge of distributing federal grant money to programs designed to help the city's poor. Gimenez said he knew about the order, and had directed his staff in Community Development to address the problem. ``I'm not happy about it,'' Gimenez said. ``I want to know why we did not comply with HUD's past requests.'' Gwendolyn Warren, who was director of Community Development until April and is now the director of the Model City Homeownership Trust, could not be reached for comment. Gimenez said Warren never told him about past HUD warnings despite a letter she received in December warning her to comply with HUD regulations immediately. The Model City Homeownership Trust is one of the two agencies that has temporarily lost funding because of the environmental missteps, according to the letter. Model City has lost access to $6.6 million that had been slated to acquire property to build affordable homes because they had not been conducting environmental studies required by HUD, the letter said. The city's Community Redevelopment Agency has lost access to about $3.4 million for infrastructure improvements, city officials said. Environmental reviews are conducted by the city's planning department, and are done so the city can gauge the impact demolition and construction will have on the surrounding area, said Barbara Gomez-Rodriguez, assistant director of Community Development. ``We are not going to be acquiring any more properties until we do the environmental studies,'' she said. ``I don't think anybody knowingly did anything in violation of HUD codes.'' She said the city is now scrambling to complete the necessary environmental reviews so it can free up funding for property sales and projects that have been put on hold. City records show more than 40 closings on property sales in the Liberty City area are on hold. The freezing of funds has angered some of the property owners who had signed contracts to sell land to the city. The closing date on properties slated to be sold has been pushed back indefinitely until the situation is resolved. ``It's frustrating,'' said Malcolm Wiseheart, a lawyer representing several property owners. ``It could have been put together months ago and it wasn't.'' Wiseheart said some of his clients signed contracts to sell the city their property seven months ago and they still had not closed. ``The value of the property has gone up in the meantime,'' Wiseheart said. HUD said the city partially ignored two prior notices of violation following inspection visits in January and December of 2001. ``These visits were followed by letters outlining the city's failure to comply with the environmental regulations,'' the letter said. HUD also found that the city: * Has not been able to gauge the impact of its projects on neighborhood environments because of poor organization; * Failed to cite in writing that projects were exempt from environmental reviews before spending HUD funds, and * Began demolition and construction in certain projects before completing the environmental review. The agency also cited three major homeownership projects in which construction began before environmental reviews were completed, including Latin Quarter, Miami River Park apartments and Rayos Del Sol Condominiums. But Gomez-Rodriguez said HUD had approved funding for those projects and they will not be affected. ``We're correcting the deficiencies,'' Gomez-Rodriguez said. ``We're in the process of working it out.'' __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 07:32:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: HOPE VI quarterly progress report data through 12/31/2001 If the attachment doesn't come through and you want me to forward you a copy please feel free to ask. This shows total relocations, evictions, demolitions, and replacements built. It is pretty valuable basic data --- Wayne Sherwood wrote: > > Attached are selected data from the HUD quarterly > progress report on HOPE > VI through December 31, 2001. > > Wayne > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com [This message contained attachments] ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 07:20:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: Mayors prepare to meet in Madison Check out their Agenda --- Wayne Sherwood wrote: MAYORS HOPE TO MAKE HAY FOR THE MEETING HERE THEY HAVE AN AMBITIOUS AGENDA Wisconsin State Journal , Sunday, June 9, 2002 Dean Mosiman City government reporter Edition: ALL , Section: FRONT , Page: A1 Madison's popular bus system is rooted in efforts of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. So are low-cost apartments for older adults at Capitol Centre Downtown and the Southwest Bike Path. And so are the extra 47 police the city has hired with federal financial help in the past eight years. Now, the conference comes to Madison with an ambitious agenda that could again affect the lives of people from New York to San Francisco for decades. "We're going to talk about housing, education and homeland security -- the issues that affect people in America," new conference president and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said by phone last week. The discussions will produce policies that will be shared with the White House and Congress. The conference meetings, expected to attract more than 200 mayors and their guests, federal Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, other VIPs, national media, and perhaps President Bush, is set for Friday through June 18 at Monona Terrace. The mayors will consider a series of proposals on an affordable housing "crisis," including a new home ownership tax credit, a housing trust fund and employer-assisted housing. Also on the agenda: * Securing billions for federal homeland security. * A focus on cancer prevention. * More child-care funding in upcoming welfare legislation. * Opposition to construction of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada until safety and transportation concerns are resolved. * Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. * Mayor Sue Bauman's proposal to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, based on a recent Madison City Council resolution. The mayors also will discuss "best practices" on everything from petting zoos to AIDS prevention, executive director J. Thomas Cochran said. But the meetings are also inspiring an alternative issues forum, parade and protests from those who question the relationship between the mayors and corporations. The conference is part of a neo-liberal blitz involving the World Trade Organization and others seeking to remove government intervention from economic matters, said the local group Creative Peoples' Resistance, which is calling on the Internet for nonviolent actions and demonstrations. "It is time we made the connections between the struggles occurring in our communities against police brutality, racist policies, urban decay and greed to the larger struggles going on globally," the group said. The conference is an "excellent" concept, but has sold access to corporations and shut out the public, said Juscha Robinson, a spokeswoman for Cities for People, which is sponsoring an alternative forum and parade. To get more voices heard, Madison pro-marijuana and First Amendment activist Ben Masel fought for and won permission to stage protests near Monona Terrace. Criticism has disappointed supporters of the conference, which was born in the Great Depression and has seen itself as a leading voice for reform on issues from civil rights to the environment. "I feel hurt and saddened by some of the things they're saying," said former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, a liberal with his own long protest record. "It's not fair. It's disingenuous." In the thick of big debates During the mass unemployment and soup lines of the Great Depression, mayors demanded help and Congress created a $300 million assistance program, the first time the federal government had delivered direct relief to cities. Ever since the conference charter was signed on the eve of Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration in 1932, the organization has had a "special relationship" with the president and has been at the forefront of the nation's most pressing issues, executive director Cochran said. The conference, now with a $13.6 million annual budget, is the official nonpartisan organization of the nation's nearly 1,400 cities with populations of 30,000 or more. And it's been in the thick of the nation's biggest debates, Cochran said. It championed civil rights legislation in the 1960s and supported the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in the early 1970s. And it supported the Equal Rights Amendment, the fight against AIDS and an urban development program that transformed Baltimore's inner harbor from a blight to a showcase. In the 1990s, it successfully pushed for a federal Community Oriented Policing Services program, called COPS, that has been credited with adding tens of thousands of new police officers nationwide. The initiative put 600 more officers in Boston and "reduced the crime rate to the lowest in 40 years," conference president and Boston Mayor Menino said. The conference also fought for a federal law to stop unfunded mandates. It's produced a report on homelessness for the past 17 years and pushed for federal legislation to create more housing. And it championed "brownfields" legislation that delivered money for cleanup of polluted urban sites. But critics are unconvinced. The COPS program and federal grants for upgrades in police crowd-control weaponry, for example, are part of a "law-and-order remilitarization" of cities that leads to more violence and insecurity among citizens, Creative Peoples' Resistance says. The conference isn't perfect, said Soglin, the former Madison mayor. It should have been more forceful in opposing the Reagan administration and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich when they moved to dismantle aid programs to cities, he said. Security issues at forefront As in the past, the mayors' discussions on housing, public schools, homeland security and other issues this week will help set national policy, Cochran said. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, mayors were first to demand federal responsibility for airport security and are now pushing for billions of dollars in federal assistance to cities for their roles as first responders, he said. Nationally, cities are expected to spend an additional $2.6 billion on security between Sept. 11, 2001, and the end of 2002, a conference survey shows. Meanwhile, Bush has moved homeland security to the forefront by proposing a new federal department to coordinate activities. But the emphasis on security is stealing resources from other needs and threatening basic civil liberties, critics say. In Madison, major players including Ridge, Transportation Security chief John Magaw, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh and others will discuss the issue with mayors, Cochran said. "Homeland security is on the agenda," Cochran said. "On 9-12, the role of mayor became totally different." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 5 Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 14:00:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: National Housing Trust Fund-Call to Action --- Janet Smith wrote: Can you pass this on? Thanks ________________________  From: Harry Lawson  Greetings all, There is an exceptional opportunity at hand. A markup of H.R. 3995, Housing Affordability for America Act of 2002, is scheduled for June 20 in the Full Financial Services committee and H.R. 2349 (National Housing Trust Fund) will be announced as an amendment. We are asking you to activate your networks to call in to the members of the Financial Services Committee from your states and encourage them to either sign on to the Trust Fund and/or vote in favor of the amendment to include H.R. 2349 to Representative Roukema's bill, HR. 3995. At the end of this message text, you will find a Call to Action that includes a complete list of the members on the Financial Services Committee. In addition, the Call to Action that should be circulated within your network(s) is attached as a Word document. We have also developed a more narrow mobilization plan that includes contacting the remaining Democrats that have not signed on to the Trust Fund Campaign and a key group of Republicans that also sit on the Financial Services Committee. We are asking those of you who are represented by this select group of Representatives, activate your colleagues, partners, members and others to call in to the offices of these members and ask them to first, sign on to the Trust Fund and second, vote in support of the Trust Fund (H.R. 2349) as an amendment to Roukema's bill, H.R. 3995. The following is the list of targeted Representatives on the Financial Services Committee:  DEMOCRATS  *Bentsen (TX) *Sherman (CA) *Sandlin (TX) *Hinojosa (TX) *Lucas (KY) *Shows (MS) *Ross (AK) *LaFalce (NY) * *REPUBLICANS (co-sponsor to shore up) *Shays (CT) *Capito (WV) * *REPUBLICANS *Leach (IA) *Castle (DE) *King (NY) *Kelly (NY) *Grucci (NY) *Ney (OH) *LaTourette (OH) *Tiberi (OH) *Biggert (IL) *Green (WI) *Hart (PA) *Toomey (PA) *Bereuter (NE) CALL TO ACTION For Endorsers of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Votes needed in the House Financial Services Committee to support H.R. 2349 as an amendment to H.R. 3995, Housing Affordability for America Act of 2002 Financial Services Full Committee meets June 20 Representative Bernie Sanders will introduce his low-income housing production bill, H.R.2349, as an amendment to, H.R. 3995, Housing Affordability for America Act of 2002, which will go before the full Financial Services Committee for markup on June 20. If passed, this legislation will create a trust fund that will support the production of rental housing units for the lowest income families. This is an exciting time and a real opportunity to pass the National Housing Trust Fund legislation this year!! The Trust Fund as an amendment to H.R. 3995 will not pass without votes in the Committee. It is crucial that the members of the Financial Services Committee that have already cosponsored the bill be reminded that now is the time to VOTE in favor of the Trust Fund. It is also the time to get those remaining members who have not cosponsored to cosponsor H.R. 2349 and VOTE for the amendment. Since Representative Sanders plans on introducing the amendment, possibly this week, it is critical that we contact the Committee Members' offices now. NHTF supporters are asked to take the following actions: 1. If your Representative has not signed on as a co-sponsor to date, CALL 1- 866-864-NHTF and ask to be transferred to your Representative's office. 2. Ask to speak to the housing staffer of your Representative and explain the housing situation in your community and the need for resources to address these issues. Ask whether a faxed letter from your group would be helpful in making a decision. Ask when your organization can expect a decision on co-sponsorship and whether they will vote in favor of the amendment at the markup. OR 3. If your Representative has already signed on as an endorser, CALL 1-866-864-NHTF and ask to be transferred to your Representative's office. Ask to speak to the housing staffer and inform them that H.R. 2349 will be introduced as an amendment to H.R. 3995. Encourage them to continue to support the National Housing Trust Fund by voting in favor of Representative Sander's amendment. 4. Report the results of your calls and letters to bpaul@nationalhomeless.org or harry@nlihc.org 5. Email or fax this call to action as many groups and individuals as possible! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/