Heat Wave Hammers Mid-Atlantic, East & Southern States: Elderly & Homeless Most Vulnerable

Lives in danger as many seek refuge from extreme heat

People in a huge swath of the United States are being urged to seek out shelters as needed on Sunday as a historic heat wave continues to bring sizzling temperatures -- including to some who have lost power.

Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States.

Twenty states were either partially or entirely under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were expected in much of the Southeast.

New York City was among the sites in the Northeast facing heat advisories.

The National Weather Service said the advisory would be in effect from noon until 7 p.m. ET for the city, with temperatures expected in the mid-90s. When combined with humidity, it could feel like 100 degrees.

Over the past week, nearly 1600 high temperatures have been broken -- including 140 all-time highs, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Statistics for Saturday, when more records were broken, were not yet available.

Meanwhile, a derecho -- or massive storm -- that moved across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast on Friday left 12 people dead and millions without electricity.

Many remained without power on Sunday.

Some residents in the affected areas, particularly between Chicago and Washington, were likely to see high temperatures in the 90s or even 100 on Sunday, said CNN Meterologist Sarah Dillingham. "Even with areas seeing temperatures in the 80s to low 90s, no air conditioning will still pose a major threat."

"Residents who have no air conditioning are urged to find local cooling shelters or other air conditioned establishments to keep cool. It is imperative people do anything they can to try and beat the heat."

Cities throughout the affected regions opened cooling shelters and sites offering water.

"I'm very concerned with the problems created by the combination of power outages and severe heat," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said it could take up to a week to get the power back up to everybody in the state.

Kasich also called out the Ohio National Guard to check on and help the state's most vulnerable, primarily the elderly and the ill.

While crews worked around the clock to restore power, hundreds of thousands of customers remained without electricity on Sunday.

FirstEnergy said four of its utility companies combined still had well over 300,000 customers without power Saturday night. AEP Ohio said it had more than 500,000 customers without power Saturday night.

BGE said Sunday morning it had more than 300,000 customers in Maryland still without power.

The deaths from Friday's storm stretched from Ohio to New Jersey. Most were the result of downed trees and power lines, according to officials.

The destruction prompted state of emergency declarations by governors of Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.

"This is not a one-day situation; it is a multiday challenge," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who called it the largest power outage unrelated to a hurricane in the state's history.

In West Virginia, power outages forced the closure of a large number of gas stations after pumps were rendered inoperable.

Brian Duckworth waited in line for gas for nearly two hours in Vienna, along the West-Virginia-Ohio border.

"I wouldn't even be here because I have plenty of gas in my truck," Duckworth told CNN affiliate WTAP. "But I have to get gas for my generators and some backup gas."

The storm also affected Amtrak service, including shutting down service between Washington and Philadelphia on Saturday.

Those most inconvenienced were aboard a train that ended up grinding to a halt Friday night in Prince, West Virginia, after trees blocked tracks both in front of and behind it, Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said.

By late Saturday night, the 232 passengers -- who stayed aboard the Chicago-bound train, which had air conditioning and food -- had been taken off and put on buses so they could reach their final destinations, according to Kulm.

The storm's deaths included six in Virginia and two children in New Jersey, cousins who huddled with their families in a tent in Parvin State Park when strong winds felled a pine tree, crushing them.

Their relatives all survived relatively unscathed, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.

In Washington, a couple was electrocuted after they went outside to check on downed power lines. The husband was killed while the wife -- who is in critical condition at a local hospital with burns -- is expected to survive, said police spokesman Araz Alali.

Emergency rooms in Prince George's County, Maryland, filled up over the weekend by people looking to escape the heat, said Fran Phillips, deputy secretary for the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

She noted that libraries and community centers across the state would stay open late to act as cooling centers.

Even in places where power was not disrupted, people with no air conditioning were advised to spend the day in a library, a cooling center or some other such place to avoid heat exhaustion.

In Atlanta, where temperatures hit a record-breaking 106 degrees on Saturday and were projected to hit 103 degrees on Sunday, cooling centers were ordered open across the city.


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Sources: CNN, McClatchy Newspapers, Google Maps

Charlotte's Elizabeth Community Wealthy Residents vs Low Income Housing (Another Battle?)

Low income housing hoping to move in to Elizabeth


People who build low income housing want to move into Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood.

The proposed development would be right behind a school and next to a park, so neighbors want to make sure the apartments will be a good fit.

Elizabeth is considered one of the Queen City's hidden jewels, and neighbors want to keep it that way.

“It’s pretty much the closest I think you can be to a small town in Charlotte,” said Beth Haenni, the Vice President of the Elizabeth Community Association.

“We have an eclectic neighborhood, smart, and lots of people who are thinking hard about this project and want to know a lot more details about it before we'll blindly support it.”

The new project is low income housing that would be built right near Elizabeth Traditional Elementary School. There’s already a similar complex on North Davidson Street.

“Residents come here, they lease an apartment, they are able to stay as long as they want and we wrap supportive services around them to help them be successful,” said Pam Jefsen with McCreesh Place.

It’s called permanent supportive housing. People at risk for homelessness pay 30 percent of their income to live here and get a one bedroom apartment.

We are very selective about who can come here and live in a community like this one,” Jefsen added.

Jefsen says crime is a non-issue.

NewsChannel 36 checked and found very few calls for service to the facility.





Elizabeth Area Plan Moves Forward


The tree lined streets, the beautiful old homes, the walkability to bars and restaurants. Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood is one of just a few of its kind in the Queen City.

There are many stakeholders, from the residents to the nearby hospitals to the colleges to the businesses. Many have the same goal: growth. "We said we need to take a step back and make sure that we've got an overall picture for the community that we wanna push forward in the next 25 years," says Andy Misiaveg, the president of the Historic Elizabeth Neighborhood Foundation.

This week, the Elizabeth Area Plan was adopted by Charlotte city council. It's been in the works for four years. Its focuses include preserving residential areas close to busy streets and promoting the commercial development of Elizabeth Avenue. That's good news for Mike Dawson, co-owner of Crown Station Coffee House. He says, "A lot of things are directed toward Uptown businesses and it's nice to see them take care of the businesses on the outskirts of the Uptown area."

Independence Park is another important part of the Elizabeth Area Plan. Community leaders want to enhance the green space and protect it. Misiaveg says, "We feel like the park is in a pretty precarious position between the Elizabeth Avenue development, the hospital, CPCC, all encroaching right around the park land."

Leaders will try to secure a historic preservation designation for the park to permanently protect it from development.

Elizabeth Community Association President Monte Ritchey says the entire 25 year plan is a model for other Charlotte neighborhoods, as this area tries to grow responsibly but maintain it's unique identity. He says, "We still tend to get nipped away at year after year at the edges, we lose 2, 3, 4 structures a year."

Another priority in the Elizabeth Area Plan is pedestrian improvements along 7th street, especially after the recent deaths of people trying to cross the busy road. For starters, they want to add more cross walks ASAP.


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Sources: Charmeck.org, Fox Charlotte, WCNC, Google Maps

Charlotte's "Moore Place" Offers HOPE For The Homeless

A walkthrough of Moore Place, Charlotte’s first real solution to homelessness

Billy Joe Shaver, 59, spent seven years on the streets of Charlotte, living in makeshift camps, most notably his “semi-permanent” home, a dwelling he constructed out of warehouse pallets and lived in for four years.

Shaver managed his basic needs to the best of his ability, despite bouts with mental illness and difficulty managing his medications. He found solace everyday at the Urban Ministry Center, where he would get a hot meal and an occasional shower.

It was there that Shaver became acquainted with Joann Markley, case manager for Urban Ministry Center’s Housing Works program providing housing and supportive services to chronic and disabled homeless individuals.

Markley recognized Shaver to be a perfect candidate for the program, which was launched in May 2008 to test the “Housing First” approach, a philosophy that says every person has a fundamental right to housing no matter their condition, physical disability or addiction.

Housing First offers permanent supportive housing to the chronically homeless meaning there is no time limit on residency and individuals receive supportive services to assist with their conditions.

Billy Joe Shaver moved into his permanent home September 2010 and still resides there 16 months later. He receives on-going case management and assistance with his mental health appointments, including transportation to pick up his prescriptions, help with paying his bills and regular check-ins by Markley.

Shaver says he was “spellbound” when he was first told that he would no longer have to live on the streets and describes the services he receives as “invaluable.” Today, he enjoys taking a shower whenever he wants, watching television (his favorite show is the Price is Right) and having the ability to wash his clothes on site.

The bigger picture is that Shaver is no longer part of the 10-20% of Charlotte’s chronically homeless who drain 50% of the available resources and valuable tax-payer money. Shaver along with 24 other individuals who participate in the scattered site program (formerly called Homeless to Homes) are a living testament to what homeless people need most, a home.

More than that is the combination of a permanent housing option coupled with supportive services.

As Markley puts it, “Chronic homelessness is a different animal, there is a wide chasm of transition, much like culture shock” that must be tended to.

In Charlotte, the issue of homelessness is old hat and the conversational path well-worn. For over a decade now, key organizations and agencies have collaborated, brainstormed, task forced and thrown a myriad of services at Charlotte’s growing issue.

Caroline Chambre, Director of Housing Works at the Urban Ministry Center comments on the longstanding problem, “There are great agencies doing good work, but emergency shelter and transitional housing are not a solution for the chronic population.”

Overflowing shelters and rising taxpayer costs, despite new services and strategies, are a clear indication of the persistent problem.

Until now, the ultimate solution, a home for the homeless, has been elusive, a white rabbit darting just out of reach.

Zoning issues, a weakening economy and political opposition paired with an antiquated perspective that the chronically homeless need to be “housing ready” before they are worthy of housing have contributed to the city’s inability to effect visible change.

On January 29, Moore Place opens to become Charlotte’s first permanent supportive housing complex to use a “Housing First” model and the first in Mecklenburg County to target the chronically homeless. Located off North Graham Street, Moore Place represents an important beginning toward visible change in the city’s housing landscape.

More importantly, it is home to 85 previously destitute individuals.

The complex sits on a 2-acre lot and boasts 85 individual apartments along with on-site case management where residents will have access to services and a supportive community.

The new development follows a model for housing that has already been implemented successfully in cities such as New York, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City and Richmond. Data shows that the taxpayer cost reductions are staggering.

The average daily cost for an individual housed in a residential unit at Moore Place is $29.50 compared to a night in jail which costs taxpayers $110 per night or a visit to the emergency room which carries a price tag of $1,029 per visit.

Moore Place enters the housing scene nearly six years into Charlotte’s 10-year Plan to End Homelessness which set a goal to have 500 permanent supportive housing units by 2016. Although the development barely scratches the surface of the number proposed in October 2006, Moore Place is the pioneering first step toward the achievement of that goal.

To Caroline Chambre, who has nurtured this project for close to 2 years along with an incredible community of dedicated and talented individuals and organizations, the development of Moore Place gives Charlotte a chance to affirm that homelessness is a solvable problem, that permanent supportive housing is a viable solution worth replicating.

“Housing First honors people for who they are, where they are,” says Chambre. “It is a just and compassionate solution to homelessness. With this approach, chronic homelessness is a solvable problem.”

For the city of Charlotte, Moore Place is revolutionary progress. For Charlotte’s homeless, it is hope.

Moore Place will hold a community open house on Sunday, January 29 from 3:30 to 5 PM. Contact Katie Church at 980-224-9256 for details.





New housing helping to eliminate Charlotte's homelessness

Charlotte took a big step forward in the effort to help the homeless get back on their feet.

The Urban Ministry Center held its grand opening Saturday afternoon for Moore Place.

The facility is located in northwest Charlotte and offers 85 efficiency apartments. Those apartments will be used for permanent housing for homeless men and women in the community.

It also offers on-site case management and other support services.
Stephen McQueen explained “...case manager... full-time nurse... all the services they need to transition from the streets into housing,” said McQueen.

Residents will pay 30 percent of their income for rent and utilities. They’ll also be responsible for their own cooking and cleaning of their homes.

Officials tell NewsChannel 36, the first resident is expected to move in on Wednesday.


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Sources: Charmeck.org, Clt Blog, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps

Female Veterans Kicked To The Curb & Homeless

How We're Failing Our Female Veterans


June Moss, 39, maneuvered a Humvee around charred corpses and still smoking shrapnel in Iraq in 2003. The Army driver and mechanic once watched a Black Hawk helicopter mow down insurgents a few hundred yards away. But when she called her father to tell him how tough things were, he didn't get it. "He was kind of like, 'Oh, well, you just fix the trucks.

You don't have to worry about nothing,' " she recalls. "I don't know where people get the idea that women aren't out there, they don't see anything, they're just support."

At home, after she was discharged from the military but before she was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the single mother couldn't find a job that paid enough to support her and two children.

In 2005 her house went into foreclosure, and the next year she and her kids became homeless — a predicament made more painful by the fact that of the nearly 500 community homeless shelters funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), only seven provide accommodations specifically for families. That year, Moss tried to kill herself.

Some of female veterans' health care needs — pap smears, mammograms, etc. — are more obvious than others. Treatment for mental-health issues, autoimmune disorders and even high cholesterol can be hampered by a doctor who is not accustomed to female patients.

To increase clinical staff's proficiency in women's health, the VA has trained more than 400 health care providers in the past two years through mini-residencies featuring 2½ days of presentations from women's-health experts. Last year the VA finished installing a full-time women's veteran program manager at each of its 144 hospitals.

The VA is also starting to ramp up women-only treatment centers like the one Moss frequents in Menlo Park, Calif., and to add all-female therapy groups, especially for sexual-assault survivors.

A bill spearheaded by Washington Senator Patty Murray — and signed into law in May — goes even further, authorizing, among other things, a report to Congress on the effects the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on female veterans' physical, mental and reproductive health. "Women veterans have earned their stripes. They have earned their benefits," says Murray. "They shouldn't have to feel like they're asking for a handout."

In July the VA will hold a forum at Arlington National Cemetery to discuss the quality of care for female veterans and ways to improve access. For now, too few women have figured out how to navigate the byzantine system.

Moss is one of them. She works in chaplain services at a VA hospital near the clinic where she sees a therapist once a week. She says she no longer feels, as she did when she first got home from Iraq, "like a shell of a person." She hugs her kids again. She enjoys what she calls "me time" at the hairdresser.

She's even getting married in August, to a former Marine who, as she puts it, "understands PTSD." "It's not just being brave on the battlefield," she says of being a veteran. "You have to be brave in civilian life too."


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Sources: CBS News, TIME, Youtube, Google Maps

L.A.'s Only Homeless Public Official "Skid Row Mayor" Jeff Page

Amid Skid Row Bedlam, Activist Makes a Difference


Jeff Page barely walks half a block along Skid Row's teeming streets before he's waved down by someone with a problem ---- taco trucks parked in front of a restaurant, drug dealing in a residential hotel or just a case of hard-luck blues.

In this neighborhood awash in woe, there's no shortage of tasks for Page, better known as "General Jeff" ---- Skid Row's go-to-guy who's made it his mission to turn the squalid, square-mile neighborhood into a decent place to live.

"The bottom of the barrel doesn't have to be that deep," said Page, whose 6-foot-4 frame makes him easy to spot as he strides down the sidewalk, where's he constantly stopping to greet people with a knucklebump and a "how ya doin,' brother?" "We're trying to get people to see this is a community, that people are putting down roots."

Fashioning a community out of chaos and neglect is no mean feat.

Skid Row houses the nation's densest concentration of homeless people, mostly addicts, parolees, the mentally ill and disabled. Some 700 people bed down nightly on trash-strewn sidewalks that stink of urine while thousands of others pour into rescue missions, seedy hotels and transitional apartments.

During the day, the street is their refuge. A man slashing himself with a knife, a woman baring her chest and and people spewing epithets into the air pass for normalcy. Police maintain a heavy presence.

For Page, who speaks animatedly with emphatic hand gestures slicing the air, that's the "broad stroke" of Skid Row. Behind the bedlam, he said, lies a vibrant community of people who have made the destination of last resort their home.

Page, 44, is one of them. A former South Los Angeles rapper who now lives on disability for mental and physical illness, he landed at the Union Rescue Mission three years ago after falling on hard times. "I thought, 'How can human beings live like this? I'm not going to be here long'," he recalled.

That was before Page found new purpose by transforming "General Jeff" ---- a nickname dating to his high school basketball days ---- into the man that many say is the de facto "mayor of Skid Row."

Dressed in a tie and suit vest with velveteen slippers and the ever present cap on his head, Page patrols the neighborhood, jotting down broken street lights, clogged storm drains and trash piles. Then he fires off e-mails to city agencies on computers borrowed around town. He gets not only answers, but action.

When the city first fixed lights and drains after his complaints, he was amazed ---- and empowered ---- to press on. "That was pretty big," he said.

Now everybody, it seems, knows General Jeff, from city officials to those who sleep on the sidewalk next to their shopping carts. "There are three shifts here ---- day, night and midnight," said Page, who never seems to run out of energy. "I make it my business to know the people on every shift."

A man approaches asking Page to intervene on behalf of tenants who want to use a community room in their building, a woman asks him to help her cut red tape to see her kids in foster care. He listens without judging ---- many Skid Row residents are entangled with the law or social welfare agencies.

"She's not good with her words," Page explains. "So I help her out. There are a lot of things in the system that frustrate people and lead them to escape to drugs and alcohol."

Page weaves through the crowd lining up for a meal at the Midnight Mission and bounds by a building owned by the Skid Row Housing Trust, which runs small apartments for the homeless. Earlier this year, he intervened for a group of residents who wanted the trust to waive overnight guest fees. The trust is trying out the new policy on a trial basis, said Molly Rysman, special projects director.

He hasn't been as successful with other projects. He points to horse droppings on the street from police mounted patrols. He's written letters asking the cops to clean up the street or diaper their horses, but it was no go. "They said it's just hay and water," Page said, rolling his eyes.

Page launched his civic action by taking charge of security at the apartment building for the homeless he moved into, then joined a project to clean up Skid Row's Gladys Park, a smidgeon of greenery shoehorned into a block corner like an afterthought.

Page got Nike Inc., the LA84 Foundation and the city to revamp the park with a basketball court, bleachers and equipment, as well as exercise bars, chess tables and water fountains.

The park project led to Page's election as a Skid Row representative on the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council with 35 votes ---- more than his three challengers combined, he noted with obvious pride. The council, one of 88 throughout LA, distributes $50,000 a year for community projects.

Page has extended that role to be a Skid Row advocate at public meetings ranging from a hearing on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plan for a downtown rail extension to a Los Angeles school board session on educating homeless kids. He's got a beeline into City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district encompasses Skid Row. "I like working with him," Perry said with a chuckle.

Page ends his day at Skid Row karaoke night. A ragtag crowd packs a church community room, some decked out in their best duds, others barely dressed at all. They take turns wailing into a microphone as others sing, twirl and gyrate.

It's not long before Page gets a call: a resident of a homeless apartment building says employees are dealing drugs to tenants. Page snaps closed his cell phone. "This is not a sprint. This is a marathon."



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Sources: CNN, NCTimes, Google Maps

Anthony Foxx Crowned Charlotte's Mayor: Watch His Actions, Not His Words

Anthony Foxx takes handoff from Pat McCrory


A crowd of hundreds watched as Anthony Foxx was sworn in as Charlotte's new Mayor Monday night, after which Foxx gave a solemn speech noting the city's tough economic climate and the need to create jobs.

Foxx mentioned some of the city's struggles, such as the region's 12 percent unemployment and "even higher levels of unemployment." He talked about the region's declining home values and high rate of foreclosures.

Foxx listed a number of proposals he wants the Charlotte City Council to enact, such as changing a small business loan program to target new businesses in fields such as finance and green energy.

He also issued a call to help the city's Homeless population.

"Charlotte has always had a conscience," Foxx said during a speech after he took the oath of office. "We have to address housing ... in particular, homelessness. We live in a city in which, in any given night, 3,000 young people wake up not knowing where they will go to sleep at night."

Foxx is the city's first Democratic mayor in 22 years. He takes office with a council dominated by Democrats, who hold an 8-3 majority - the biggest advantage one party has had on the council since the late 1970s.

Democrats Patrick Cannon and David Howard also became new at-large council members Monday night.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center was flooded with an estimated 700 onlookers, who not only filled the council's chambers, but the lobby and at least three conference rooms, where they watched the ceremony on television.

Much of the night was introspective - as former Mayor Pat McCrory and council member John Lassiter were honored for their service.

McCrory served as mayor for 14 years, and was first elected to the council in 1989. Lassiter, who lost the mayoral election to Foxx, served six years on the council. He also served on the Board of Education.

Democrat Susan Burgess, who was unanimously chosen by her colleagues as Mayor Pro Tem, thanked McCrory for his service, and then gave him a collection of DVDs from the television show "24" - a joke about McCrory noting during Monday night council meetings that he was missing the show.

McCrory, who occasionally choked up, told a story about President George W. Bush visiting the city earlier this decade.

McCrory said the Secret Service had mistakenly taken him for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, and asked if he needed a ride to the airport. Not wanting to turn down a ride in the presidential limo, McCrory said yes.

When they arrived at the airport, McCrory remembers the president walking up the stairs to Air Force One and Burr leaving in another car to his plane.

"I get out, and the stairs pull away and the limo drives off," McCrory said. "I'm stranded on the runway by myself. You are in the arena, you are in the car ... and then you are out of the car."

McCrory later said he's proud that Charlotte isn't confused any more with Charleston and that people don't have to refer to it as Charlotte, North Carolina.

"We're known as Charlotte throughout the world," McCrory said.

Lassiter, a fellow Republican who has known McCrory for more than two decades, said:

"He has a knack for complicated issues and long-term issues. His legacy will be in transportation and hospitality and tourism."

McCrory presented Lassiter with an award named for former Mayor Richard Vinroot, which honors people who have given years of public service to the city.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Charmeck.org, Google Maps

New York City's Affordable Housing Program (Work In Progress)...Mayor Bloomberg's 5-Yr Plan

As New York City Adds Housing for Poor, Market Subtracts It


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is closing in on a milestone: building or preserving 165,000 city-financed apartments and houses for low-, moderate- and middle-income families, the goal of a $7.5 billion housing plan he announced in 2002 and expanded in 2005.

It has already financed the creation or preservation of 94,000 units, including 72,000 for low-income households, city officials say.

But those efforts have been overwhelmed by a far larger number — the 200,000 apartments affordable to low-income renters that New York City has lost over all, because of market forces, during the mayor’s tenure.

The shrinking supply of these apartments, highlighted by researchers at New York University, illustrates not only the increasing strain that housing costs have had on this city of renters, but also the limits of the mayor’s success in providing the city’s poor with reasonable places to live. While the mayor’s plan has put thousands of low-income families in new or rehabilitated buildings and helped stabilize neighborhoods, it has been nearly drowned out by the twin waves of gentrification and rent deregulation.

“We’re losing units even with additions to the stock under the mayor’s housing plan,” said Victor Bach, a senior housing policy analyst for the Community Service Society, a nonprofit antipoverty group, and a member of a panel that advised the Bloomberg administration on housing in 2002. “I’m not knocking the plan. I’m just saying it hasn’t done much to stop the hemorrhaging of lower-rent units across the city.”

Including public housing, the number of apartments considered affordable to low-income households — those earning less than 80 percent of the city’s median income, or less than $37,000 — decreased to 991,592 from 1,189,962, a drop of nearly 17 percent, from 2002 to 2008. About 42 percent of the city’s households fit in that income category in 2008.

The data were supplied by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, which analyzed the city’s Housing and Vacancy Survey from 2002, 2005 and 2008. The center and other housing experts consider an apartment affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of a family’s income, or about $925 a month for a family earning $37,000.

Although the numbers present a gloomy picture, they did contain a glimmer of hope. The worst years were between 2002 and 2005, when the city lost affordable apartments at the highest rate of the mayor’s tenure. In the next three years, as the mayor’s plan took hold, the city actually gained about 8,000.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished, but we’re also not satisfied or done,” said Rafael Cestero, the city’s housing commissioner. “We can’t undo what happened between 2002 and 2005, but what happened during those years is exactly why we created the largest municipal housing plan in the nation’s history. What the data suggests is that the response is working.”

A majority of the 200,000 units in the Furman Center data — 137,000 apartments — had been part of the rent regulation system but were deregulated. In most cases, they became market-rate once their rent topped $2,000 and they became vacant, as allowed by the rent regulation system. Thousands of others had been in the state Mitchell-Lama or federal Section 8 programs, but were taken out of those subsidy programs by their owners and converted to market-rate apartments.

The affordability of all of the city’s 2.1 million rental apartments is of course beyond the control of Mr. Bloomberg and the city’s housing agency, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

But housing experts and tenant advocates say that the mayor has been far from powerless, and that his housing policy has suffered from a kind of tunnel vision, by focusing energy and resources on his 165,000-unit target rather than the larger pool of existing housing.

Tenant advocates have been pushing state legislators to make it harder to remove apartments from rent regulation, a move strongly opposed by landlords and the real estate industry. The mayor has been virtually silent on the issue, though he appoints the members of the Rent Guidelines Board, which decides the annual rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments. He proposed state legislation in 2003 that would prevent the loss of Mitchell-Lama units, but the measure failed and has become a low priority for the mayor, tenant advocates say.

“There needs to be a focus on preservation at the same level of intensity that there is for new development,” said Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a nonprofit Brooklyn-based affordable housing and community development group. “It’s not as though things aren’t moving in the right direction. It’s that advocates have a different sense of urgency.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign said that the mayor intends to expand the housing plan by investing an additional $965 million, which will help preserve 10,000 more units of Mitchell-Lama housing than originally planned and stabilize apartment buildings that are overleveraged, meaning their debt is unsupportable by the income generated by rents, a widespread problem that has led to the physical and financial deterioration of many buildings.

The Housing and Vacancy Survey showed that in 2008, 29.4 percent of all renter households in the city paid more than 50 percent of their income toward rent, an increase from 25.5 percent in 2002. Experts call those families “severely rent burdened.” (The city’s median income in the Furman survey differed slightly from that in other recent surveys.)

The financial squeeze has a spillover effect. It leads to overcrowded conditions and illegally partitioned rooms. It contributes to the record number of homeless families in city shelters. It fills the halls of the city’s housing courts and fuels residential evictions, which have risen slightly to 25,027 in 2008, from 23,669 in 2006. And it causes many people to move out of the city.

A study prepared for the Bloomberg administration by the polling firm Harris Interactive found that 64 percent who moved out of the city cited housing costs as a major reason. The 2006 study was obtained by the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group.

Before the recession, James Hadden was earning up to $1,000 a week cutting hair at a Harlem salon, but more recently he has taken home $400 to $700. So he has fallen behind on the $1,300-a-month rent on his one-bedroom apartment, a fourth-floor walk-up on Lenox Avenue. His landlord began asking him to pay weekly. “I’m going to go pay this man’s rent so he’ll stop calling me,” Mr. Hadden, 42, said Tuesday.

He said he was happy to be only 16 blocks from work; closer to the salon, on Fifth Avenue at 116th Street, rents are even more expensive. But he said he sometimes heard gunfire outside his building on Saturdays. “My family comes to visit me and I’m embarrassed to show them where I live,” he said.

Despite the net losses of affordable apartments, experts in the field are quick to praise Mr. Bloomberg on much of his housing record. The mayor’s plan has suffered only one major setback since it was unveiled in December 2002: Mr. Bloomberg’s goal of creating or preserving 165,000 units by 2013 was pushed back one year in late 2008 because of the recession.

Mr. Cestero, the housing commissioner, said the plan was on schedule and no further delays were expected. He said the preservation of existing affordable housing was the agency’s “No. 1 priority,” and he said the agency would “engage in the discussion” about rent regulation at the right time.

The plan relies on the rezoning of underused manufacturing areas, including the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods in Brooklyn, that allowed developers to build larger buildings if they set aside some apartments as low-cost units. New units have also been created through the city’s Housing Development Corporation, which issues bonds and uses its corporate reserves to finance low-cost mortgages to affordable housing developers.

“I think the city has done an extraordinary job, more than any other place in America,” said Jerilyn Perine, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council and the former city housing commissioner who helped create the mayor’s original plan in 2002. “You have to go to Europe to find another city that has this kind of robust, sustained housing policy and housing investment.”

Of the 94,000 units the administration counts as gains, fewer than half, about 35,000, are new. The rest are apartments that City Hall says it has preserved as affordable, by providing low-interest loans to rehabilitate them or keep them from leaving rent-subsidy programs..

Some housing experts say the loss of affordable units is evidence of the city’s economic vitality and a natural consequence of demand for affordable housing exceeding supply. As Ms. Perine wrote in the housing plan, there has never been a time in the city’s history when all of its population’s housing needs have been met with safe and affordable housing.

“I don’t think there’s a serious crisis in this area,” said Magda L. Cruz, a lawyer and an owner representative on the Rent Guidelines Board. “I do believe a big problem is employment, and salaries just not being high enough to sustain cost-of-living increases. That’s something the mayor plays a part in, but it doesn’t have to do with building new housing.”

Affordable housing is in such demand that most new apartments are awarded by lottery. Alan Ceballos, 30, said he was grateful to have won his two-bedroom apartment, costing $839 a month, in a new building on University Avenue in the Bronx.

Mr. Ceballos, who earns about $33,000 a year as a sales associate at a car rental agency, won the spot three years ago, allowing him to move out of a one-bedroom that cost $794. He and his wife had two children then, and now have three.

He said that traffic often speeds down the street and that people who hang out in a park by the building sometimes smash car windows; his own windshield has been broken. But he is happy with the building itself: its cleanliness, security, price and size.

“Before, it being a one-bedroom, it did not have enough closet space,” said Mr. Ceballos. Besides the extra room he now has, “the kitchen is bigger, the living room is bigger, so it’s adequate space now.”



View Larger Map


Sources: NY Times, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte's Project H.O.P.E. (My Original Idea) Receives Stimulus Funds For Housing Grants ...I Receive Zero Credit & No Thanks

5 counties to get stimulus money for housing aid



An initiative to help people facing a housing crisis in outlying counties has received $1.4 million in federal stimulus money.

Charlotte-based Community Link will oversee the project, which focuses on both the homeless and struggling renters in Cabarrus, Davidson, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties. All but Union have unemployment rates higher than Mecklenburg, with Rowan the highest at 12.8 percent.

Floyd Davis, president of Community Link, says aid should start by mid-November. The money, awarded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is expected to help at least 150 individuals and families annually for the next three years.

"We have many people today who find themselves unemployed, not because they weren't a good worker, but because the business they worked for closed or they were laid off," said Davis, who applied for the HUD grant through the state in September.

"This program is to help them maintain housing and support services until they can get back on their feet. ...We can pay for their entire housing costs for up to 18 months."

Community Link will divide the recipients into two categories: 45 of them each year will be homeless who need housing; and 105 will be tenants who can't keep up with rent and utilities. They can stay in the program for no more than 18 months. Those who qualify will be given a case manager and other support, Davis said. Community Link, which helped 7,000 struggling people find affordable housing last year, will add two staffers for the program.

To find candidates, Community Link is partnering with six agencies in the five counties, all of which meet needs ranging from emergency shelter to help with utilities and rent.

One of those partners, Rowan Helping Ministries, runs a shelter in Rowan County. It recently saw a good candidate for the new assistance program in a family of six.

"The parents lost their jobs, lost their home, and had no place else to go," said Penny Bowman, program director for the ministry. "They stayed in our shelter for six months, until the dad did get a job."

Stanly County, where unemployment is 11.9 percent, just got its first emergency housing shelter in September. It has eight beds and was started by Homes of Hope, a partner in the new housing effort.

"We have a lot of average people in this county who are about to be homeless and if we could just find a way to get them through this next year, they could make it back," said Executive Director Skeet Ayscue.

In Cabarrus, the new program could put a dent in the estimated 240 families a month that face a housing crisis, said Ed Hosack, executive director of Cooperative Christian Ministry in Concord, another of the groups participating.

"We have three foreclosures a day and over eight eviction notices served a day," said Hosack. "We do not have the shelter and transitional housing facilities to respond to that. We know this program can have a tremendous impact in keeping some families in their homes, and helping others get back into a place rather quickly."

Cabarrus' problems with unemployment go back years, he says, citing the closing of Pillowtex in 2003, which wiped out 4,000 jobs in Cabarrus and Rowan counties.

The HUD money comes from the same federal pool that helped launch Project Hope in Charlotte in August. That $2 million project is crafted as a long-term solution for homelessness, proposing to pull Mecklenburg families and individuals from shelters, put them in apartments and stabilize their lives over 18 months.

Davis sees Community Link's program as a regional extension of the goals championed by Project Hope.

"It makes much more sense in my mind to help people stay in housing, as opposed to letting them become homeless and suffer all the disruption to their lives in a time of crisis," said Davis.

"I'm happy that HUD is finally looking at prevention, and I think it will be more efficient and effective."





Strategy goes beyond housing Homeless


Project Hope – a groundbreaking program that could change the way Charlotte deals with homelessness – is expected to be unveiled tonight as part of a Charlotte City Council vote to back the project with nearly $2 million in federal stimulus money.

Crafted to be a long-term solution rather than a quick fix, the program calls for pulling families and individuals from local shelters, putting them in rental apartments, and stabilizing their lives over 18 months with education, job skills, counseling and support from social workers and teams of volunteers.

The start-up plan calls for 100 families to be helped over the next three years. However, organizers predict hundreds more could be recruited if plans for another $2 million in stimulus money from the state fall into place in the coming months. Steps are also being finalized for a campaign to raise further money from local donors.

“It's a very exciting time,” says Roxianna Johnson, head of the Homeless Services Network, a coalition of 37 nonprofit, government and faith-based programs devoted to ending homelessness in Mecklenburg County.

“These dollars have created an opportunity to try things that we've talked about for years, things that we know work, but we never had the funding to implement on this kind of scale.”

The council will vote to contract with Crisis Assistance Ministry and the Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing (WISH). Those groups will manage Project Hope on behalf of the Homeless Services Network. A small portion of the stimulus money will also go toward short-term homeless prevention, including help with rent.

How the participants will be chosen is still being worked out. But the goal is reaching the most vulnerable of the homeless.

“Lives will be changed,” says Carol Hardison, director of Crisis Assistance Ministry. “They'll move from the fear of sleeping in a car or on a cot, to having an opportunity for financial stability.”

The ultimate goal, she says, is to keep participants from returning to homelessness once their time in the program ends.

That is the basic philosophy of WISH, which has helped 70 homeless families (including 130 children) work toward financial stability since being launched 18 months ago.

Sarah Covington, 28, is among them – and an example of what WISH hopes to accomplish in Project Hope. She lost her job last year as a certified nurse's assistant and spent the winter in a homeless shelter with her daughter. WISH found her a home, helped her find a job, and gave her a chance to enroll in college to become a registered nurse.

Better still, she says, the program showed her how to save for a down payment on a car, eliminating six hours a day riding the bus to work and school.

“If I keep working hard, everything is going to come through for me,” she says. “I was at a low point, worrying about where my child would lay her head at night. But I was truly blessed to get into this program.”

The Salvation Army's Center of Hope, a homeless shelter near uptown, will direct families and individuals to Project Hope. Center director Deronda Metz has already identified a few dozen families that she hopes will qualify. The center currently has 310 women and children, some of whom have been homeless for more than a year.

“We had a resident meeting on Wednesday and I grabbed the mic and I surprised them with the news on Project Hope, and they cheered and applauded,” said Metz. “One lady started crying. She said, ‘I didn't think anybody was listening.'”

Organizers say one of the most innovative parts of the project is the partnerships from all segments of the community. In addition to Crisis Assistance and WISH, Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services will assign three social workers to the project, more if the additional money comes through. The nonprofit Foundation for the Carolinas has worked behind the scenes to organize regular meetings of the partners.

Also key is an endorsement by the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association, which is encouraging apartment companies to participate on a case-by-case basis.

WISH Director Darren Ash believes a key to the program's success will be in matching homeless people with teams of volunteers.

“Social workers are there to lay out a path and hold people accountable, but what creates significant change is … when these families bond with people who have a different past,” Ash says. “They break away from other role models to a new set of role models.

“One of the biggest gifts Charlotte has is a sense of volunteerism, and this is a model that takes advantage of that.”




Charlotte City Council Uses MY 2007 Project H.O.P.E. Idea To Eliminate Homelessness & Win 2009 Elections (Here are the forwarded e-mails as proof.)


PROJECT CHARLOTTE H.O.P.E. PROPOSAL / Please also forward to Mr. Rodney Hood and Mrs. Sarah Stevenson
Tuesday, May 8, 2007 2:10 PM
From:
"Laurel
Add sender to Contacts

To:
malachigreene@gmail.com, gdunlap@bellsouth.net, sjohnston@tueforumclt.org, TueForum@tueforumclt.org, jennifer.roberts@mecklenburgcountync.gov, phelms@helmshenderson.com, dan@danramirez.com, karen.bentley@mecklenburgcountync.gov, normanam@aol.com, 2woodard@bellsouth.net, dumontclarke@mvalaw.com, dan@votedanbishop.com, wjames@carolina.rr.com, ddixon@pridecommunications.net, SBurg346@aol.com

Cc:
FoxxCharlotte@aol.com, JamesDistrict2@aol.com, patmumford@bellsouth.net, 71170.3036@compuserve.com, dwlochman@yahoo.com, district3_turner@yahoo.com, Lassiter@bellsouth.net, pkinsey@carolina.rr.com, adulin1@carolina.rr.com, barnesdistrict4@aol.com

Bcc:
yvonne.m.evans@nccourts.org, malachigreene@gmail.com, Charlied@ncleg.net, superintendent@cms.k12.nc.us, Maurice.Green@cms.k12.nc.us, washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org, actso@naacpnet.org, youth@naacpnet.org, torrey@pridecommunications.net, ncnaacp@gmail.com, RThames@charlotteobserver.com

Message contains attachments
project hope REVISIONS 1.rtf (67KB)
(Please also forward this e-mail to Mr. Rodney Hood
and Mrs. Sarah Stevenson.)


May 08, 2007

Dear Charlotte-Mecklenburg City/ County Officials and
Fine Citizens:

It was a pleasure meeting most of you during the Tuesday
Breakfast Forum this morning. I look forward to
perhaps speaking with you again in the future.

Thank you in advance for taking the time out of your
busy schedule to read this COST EFFECTIVE,
SELF-SUPPORTING Project Proposal that I am presenting
to you.

This COST EFFECTIVE, SELF-SUPPORTING Program is
designed to:

Help ELIMINATE POVERTY in Charlotte, STOP Gang
Activity, IMPROVE CHARLOTTE-MECK's ECONOMY, improve
Charlotte's DIVERSITY dynamics, Help to eliminate
Homelessness and improve the QUALITY OF LIFE FOR
CHILDREN living in this region.

This program can also be used to REPLACE the
MECKLENBURG COUNTY WOMEN'S COMMISSION EMPLOYMENT and
TRAINING PROGRAM, which appears to be NO LONGER
effective.

We should ALL want to help improve the Quality of
lives for our Children/Youth and help Low-Income
people to become productive citizens in this
community.

I hope this Project will provide answers for some of
the problems that are currently plaguing
Charlotte-Mecklenburg AND that this Project will be
the Catalyst for change needed to make Charlotte, NC a
UNIQUE, WORLD CLASS CITY.

(Please notify me if the attached document wasn't
accessible when you try to open it.)(The Attachment IS
Virus-free.)

THANKS and God Bless:)


Regards,



From:
"Laurel
Add sender to Contacts

To:
gflack1@bellsouth.net
Message contains attachments
project hope REVISIONS 1.rtf (67KB)
May 08, 2007


Dear Dr. Foloke:

It was a pleasure meeting you during the
Breakfast Forum this morning. I look forward to
perhaps speaking with you again in the near future.

Thank you in advance for taking the time out of your
busy schedule to read this COST EFFECTIVE,
SELF-SUPPORTING Project Proposal that I am presenting
to you.

I only request that the people for whom this project
is truly intended are the ones who are ACTUALLY
helped.

This COST EFFECTIVE, SELF-SUPPORTING Program is
designed to:

Help ELIMINATE POVERTY in Charlotte, STOP Gang
Activity, IMPROVE CHARLOTTE-MECK's ECONOMY, improve
Charlotte's DIVERSITY dynamics, Help to eliminate
Homelessness and improve the QUALITY OF LIFE FOR
CHILDREN living in this region.

This program can also be used to REPLACE the
MECKLENBURG COUNTY WOMEN'S COMMISSION EMPLOYMENT and
TRAINING PROGRAM, which appears to be NO LONGER
effective.

We should ALL want to help improve the Quality of
lives for our Children/Youth and help Low-Income
people to become productive citizens in this
community.

I hope this Project will provide answers for some of
the problems that are currently plaguing
Charlotte-Mecklenburg AND that this Project will be
the Catalyst for change needed to make Charlotte, NC a
UNIQUE, WORLD CLASS CITY.

(Please notify me if the attached document wasn't
accessible when you try to open it.)(The Attachment IS
Virus-free.)

THANKS and God Bless:)



"THE CHARLOTTE H.O.P.E. PROJECT": (TO BE UP AND OPERATIONAL BY 2008.) ONLY SERIOUS APPLICANTS NEED APPLY!

(CHARLOTTE Helping Others Progress Excellently) FOR SINGLE PARENTS/ ALL ELIGIBLE LOW-INCOME CITIZENS

(THIS IS A SHORT-TERM PROGRAM (12 TO 30 MONTHS/ CASE-BY-CASE BASIS) THAT REQUIRES EACH ELIGIBLE APPLICANT TO FULLY COOPERATE AND BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL RESULTS.)

“There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”
Albert Schweitzer

“The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.”
Albert Einstein

“It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun; All I can do is reach for it myself.”
Joyce Maynard


I. PROGRAM OBJECTIVE:

A Pilot Project COMMITTED to assisting Single Parents/ Low-Income Citizens in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, into becoming realistically, totally self-sufficient within a 12 to 30 Month period, on a Case-by-Case basis.

The program will be mainly funded by grants as to request very minimal financial assistance from the city budget and will operate with GREAT ACCOUNTABILITY in order to prevent wasting of precious funds and abuse by participants.

Participants will be required to follow ALL components of the program in order to remain active in the program and to benefit from the project. (NO EXCEPTIONS!) PARTICIPANTS WILL BE GIVEN THREE GRACE-PERIODS FOR FAILURE TO COMPLY BEFORE BEING TERMINATED COMPLETELY FROM THE PROJECT, WITH NO CHANCE TO RE-ENTER!
(NO EXCEPTIONS!)

ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST AGREE TO RANDOM DRUG TESTING WITHOUT OBJECTIONS.
FAILURE TO PASS A DRUG TEST WILL RESULT IN EXPULSION IN THE PROGRAM. NO EXCEPTIONS!!

THIS PROGRAM IS ONLY FOR SERIOUS PARTICIPANTS COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THEIR LIVES AND THE CHARLOTTE COMMUNITY; NOT WASTING PROJECT MONEY!!

The program will promote diversity within the community by encouraging applicants of all races/ BOTH genders to apply.

It is to be considered that only ONE to TWO HUNDRED PARTICIPANTS will be selected in the beginning stages of the project as to prevent program overcrowding and case loads that are too heavy for proper accountability.

A WAITING LIST WILL BE MAINTAINED AND KEPT CURRENT DUE TO PARTICIPANTS LEAVING THE PROGRAM VOLUNTARILY AND INVOLUNTARILY.

The time frame of 12 to 30 months is due to the fact that poverty can’t be cured overnight. It has been proven that short-term solutions have not been successful instead only creating more waste of valuable funds.

The purpose of this project is to not only assist our community in eliminating the poverty-stricken state of so many Low-income/ Single Parent homes and their children, but to also provide Low-income Single Parents with the necessary tools to become TOTALLY productive, positive members of society.

(This project can be used as guide in assisting other Metropolitan cities experiencing the same needs.)

Single parents/ Low-Income Citizens must not be treated as though they are a “thorn in the side” within the community.

However, they must also not be encouraged to continue to create more poverty by just receiving hand-outs without any real accountability. This project will also positively discourage more children from being born out of wedlock without placing a stigma on the parents or the children.

The total success of this program will require the assistance of the ENTIRE Charlotte-Meck. community as to encourage the participants, to ensure that the requirements of the program are being followed, to ensure that no funds are being mismanaged and to encourage the building of strong, non-dysfunctional families.


II. BENEFITS OF THE PROGRAM WILL INCLUDE:

A. Counseling- (Counseling (by LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS NOT SOCIAL WORKERS!) regarding self-esteem and self-image issues as to create new mindsets for the participants) (You can’t pour new wine into old wineskins.) Participants needing assistance with drug/ alcohol abuse or domestic violence counseling will be referred to programs or agencies for long- term counseling.

B. HOPE Seminars- (Required monthly seminars taught by guest speakers) that the participants must attend to remain encouraged in their endeavors

C. Mentoring- Parental mentoring/ Life Coaches and long- term Mentors for the children.

D. Life Skills training- (Parenting skills, long term financial counseling/ realistic budgeting, housing assistance (rental assistance will be allowed (if needed) only three times during the duration of their time in the program), assistance with finding safe, affordable housing, proper nutrition and menu planning, home economics (basic housekeeping/ basic cooking skills (cooking classes taught by Culinary school student volunteers (Johnson & Wales)

E. Long-term (16 weeks) Technology training- Participants will attend computer training classes for two hours every other Saturday. During the last three weeks of these sessions they will build their own PCs to take home and keep at the end of the training.
This component of the program will help to eliminate the digital divide within our community, assist the participants with completing school assignments and to assist their children with being able to pass the North Carolina Computer Competency exam in the future which is a state graduation requirement.

F. Child Care- The program will provide an on-site, five-star child care (using the CMS Bright Beginnings Curriculum) center for young children of the participants for children ages 6 weeks to 4 years. The parents of these children MUST remain active (full-time) in the program in order for their children to continue receiving care. The program will also assist with funding for off-site child care. The on-site center will include a summer program.

ALL CHILDREN WILL ATTEND APPROPRIATE AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS.
THIS INCLUDES CHILDREN AGES 12 TO 14, AS TO PREVENT THEM FROM JOINING GANGS AND TEEN PREGNANCIES.

The parents must also make time once a month (five hours) to visit and volunteer in their child’s classroom(s) whether it is in the Child Care Center or in their child's Public School classroom (this will be documented and signed by the child’s teacher). The parents must also join their child’s school PTA program if their child is in regular school (The HOPE project will provide such funding if needed). In order to receive this funding the participants will be required to provide documented, signed proof to their social worker or case worker on a monthly basis that they are in fact attending school AND passing their ALL of their classes.

The Project H.O.P.E. Child Care Center will be staffed by a highly qualified Program Director/ Assistant Director, some outside qualified candidates, qualified program volunteers and eligible program participants.
(THE CENTER WILL IMMEDIATELY STRIVE FOR NORTH CAROLINA'S CHILD DEVELOPMENT FIVE- STAR STATUS.)


G. A Love for Literacy and Creative Arts Component- The program will supply books as gifts once-a-week to the participants as to encourage the parents to spend time with their children by reading to them. Participants will attend family creative arts workshops every two months (Saturdays for one hour) with their children as to also encourage family involvement and visit the Mint Museum, The New South Museum and Discovery Place at the expense of the program or by soliciting sponsors of these trips.

H. Home Visits- The program will also require that the participants allow program social or caseworkers to make quarterly home visits for approximately one hour to further assist them in meeting their goals.

I. Transportation- The program will assist with transportation by providing participants with monthly CATS bus passes or gas assistance (no more than $30.00 to $50.00 per month by completing a mileage form listing all of their daily activity) and to award program graduates (ONLY graduates who have completed ALL components of the program including earning an educational certificate or an Associate’s degree), with a quality used car. Their contribution will only be $500.00 to be paid in Installments.
(Each Transportation Awardee must possess a Valid N.C. DL and Automobile Insurance before being allowed to drive the car.)


J. Legal Assistance- This component will assist program participants who have Misdemeanor/ Felony offenses on their records that are eligible for expungment and to make participants aware of some of their rights such as Tenant rights, Custodial Parental rights, etc.,

K. Career Planning/ Education: Participants will be allowed to take Career tests making them aware of their strengths and weaknesses before registering for any Educational programs. This component will also assist participants with up-to-date realistic, professional resume/ cover letter writing skills and interviewing skills. Participants will also be required to attend job fairs twice a year to hone interviewing skills and will receive assistance for creating a career wardrobe from the Dress-for-Success program, etc.,
APPLICANTS WHO DID NOT COMPLETE THEIR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION WILL BE REQUIRED TO DO SO WITHIN THEIR FIRST 3 TO 6 MONTHS OF ENTRY INTO THE PROGRAM. NO EXCEPTIONS!!


L. Notary Public (Optional) Component- This component will be optional, however encouraged as to assist ELIGIBLE participants in becoming North Carolina Notary Publics as to make them more marketable in the workforce.

M. An Interpreter for Hispanic Participants: The program will provide Interpreters for the Hispanic program participants.

N. An Annual Mother’s Day/ Birthday Party Program: Each year on the Friday before Mother’s Day the participants with children will attend a MANDATORY Mother’s Day program with their children and will receive gift bags, make-overs, decorated food baskets and enjoy a meal with their children. During this event five participants of the program who have been in the program for at least one year and made substantial progress will receive Mother-of-the-year plaques.
THIS IS TO PROMOTE POSITIVE PARENTING.
ALL PARTICIPANTS WILL ATTEND AN ANNUAL PARTY TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTHDAYS OF PROJECT PARTICIPANTS.

O. Food and Clothing for Program Participants and their Children:
All program participants will more than likely be eligible to receive food stamps. However, the case worker or social worker assigned to assist each participant in achieving their goals will see to it that the food stamps benefits are NOT being abused and that nutritious foods are being purchased. Participants needing clothes will be referred to the Salvation Army or will receive Wal-Mart gift cards of no more than fifty to seventy-five dollars per quarter. Participants who receive gift cards must provide receipts of the purchases to their case worker or social workers as proof of not being sold or abused. Once a year during Thanksgiving and Christmas each family will receive dinner gift baskets. Sponsors (The Charlotte Bobcats or The Panthers) will be encouraged to “adopt” a family to assist with Christmas purchases.

P. Homeownership Component: Each participant will be required to volunteer once a year (TEN hours) in the building of a Habitat-for-Humanity home. The participants will also be strongly encouraged to participate in that program as to become “homeowner minded”.

Q. Commitment: The participants must be committed to remain in the program for the ENTIRE time frame and complete each component of the program. All participants will sign a bi-lateral agreement stating they will be committed to completing the ENTIRE program. The Project will commit to assisting them in this endeavor.


III. REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTERING THE PROGRAM:

A. Application: Each perspective program participant must complete an EXTENSIVE, COMPLETE Application which will include a signed criminal background and credit check form. (Participants with Felony offenses will be considered for program acceptance on a Case-by-Case basis, due to some Felonies NOT being expungable.)Participants with Misdemeanor offenses eligible for expungement will also be considered for acceptance into the program.

B. Interviews: The perspective participants must pass a three-stage Interview process. The first interview will be with a Case Manager or a QUALIFIED Social Worker. The next interview will be with a LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.
The last interview will be with the Program Board Members. During the LAST phase of the Interview process four to five candidates will be interviewed together in a group style setting.
CANDIDATES WITH CHILDREN WILL ALSO BE INTERVIEWED BY THE PROJECT H.O.P.E. CHILD CARE CENTER DIRECTOR AND THE AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS DIRECTORS, THEREBY COMPLETING A FOURTH INTERVIEW.

C. Skills/ Educational Placement Test: Each perspective applicant is required to complete a placement test to see what level they will need to begin to complete their educational goals.
If participants already posses an Associate’s degree and wish to complete the requirements for a Bachelor’s degree, this will be permitted as long as it can earned within the three to five year time frame.
However for those to whom this will apply EACH participant is required to earn an Associate’s degree as to ensure their marketability in the workplace.

D. Health Physical: Each participant will be required to complete a physical by a doctor however no participant will be denied due to reasonable health risks as allowed by law. (The program participants will also be required to have an annual physical to be performed by a board-certified doctor.)
PROGRAM CASE MANAGERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS WILL ENSURE THAT ALL CHILDREN/ YOUTH ATTEND REQUIRED DOCTOR VISITS FOR PHYSICALS/ UP-TO-DATE IMMUNIZATIONS. NO EXCEPTIONS!!


IV. PROGRAM FUNDING:

The program will be mainly funded by grants such as (these are all ACTUAL foundations/ philanthropists) (This is NOT a complete list of funders/ resources):

The Carneige Corporation
Bill and Melinda Gates
Bank of America
Wachovia Corporation
Soroptimist International (The Women Opportunity Awards)
The Gerber foundation
The J. Paul Getty Trust foundation
The Duke Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
The T.E.A.C.H. scholarship
The John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation
The Mega Foundation
The Andrew Mellon Foundation
The Arts & Science Council
The Joan Mitchell Foundation
The Mellon Foundation
The Morino Foundation/ Institute
The MSMS Foundation
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
The John P. Murphy Foundation
The Messer Fund
The Mustard Seed Foundation
Wal-Mart
The Charlotte Bobcats
The Charlotte Panthers
Children's Defense Fund
Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. It is supported by a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that share the Alliance's vision of ensuring that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010.
Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (CCEERC) promotes high quality research in child care and early education and the use of that research in policy making.

Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is a membership-based child welfare organization.

Children’s Defense Fund is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to Leave No Child Behind® and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

Children Now is a research organization that utilizes research and mass communications to make the well-being of children a top priority across the nation.
Docs for Tots is working to develop, support, and grow a nationwide network of doctors who can respond to the requests of child advocacy organizations and others to participate in advocating for policies and practices that improve the well-being of our youngest children. Docs For Tots was formed to encourage more doctors to fulfill their important role as active advocates for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers on the national, state and local levels.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization led by police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, victims of violence and leaders of police officer associations. The organization reviews research about what keeps kids from becoming criminals and puts that information in the hands of policymakers and the public.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the nation’s largest organization of early childhood educators and others dedicated to improving the quality of programs for children from birth through third grade.

National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) supports early childhood education initiatives by providing objective, nonpartisan information based on research.

National Center for Children in Poverty is a part of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, whose mission is to identify and promote strategies that prevent child poverty in the United States and that improve the lives of low-income children and their families.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices helps governors and their staff develop and implement solutions to challenges facing their states, including early childhood education policies.

National Head Start Association is a not-for-profit membership organization that provides a national forum for the continued enhancement of Head Start services for poor children ages 0 through 5, and their families.

Parents’ Action for Children is a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing the interests of families and young children. Parents’ Action develops parent education materials, connects parents with one another, and fights for issues such as early education, health care, and high quality and affordable child care.

Voices for America’s Children is a national organization committed to working at the state and local levels to improve the well-being of children, with member organizations in almost every state.
Etc.,

(As stated above only MINIMAL funding from the City of Charlotte/ County will be necessary.)


V. LOCATION:

The location(s) of the program must be in a central part of Charlotte in which the community(ies) demonstrates SIGNIFICANT need of the services that this project will offer.

A. Some Location suggestions are:

The Grier Heights community (off of Monroe and Wendover Rds.)
West Charlotte (Beatties Ford rd. area)
Southwest Charlotte (the Nations Ford rd. area)
North Tryon street area (near the Hidden Valley Community)
Belmont Community


VI. VOLUNTEERS:

All Volunteers including faith-based volunteers will be welcome, however ALL volunteers will be required to complete a Criminal background check and ALL volunteer names will be checked against the National Sex Offender Registry List.


VII. STAFF:

ALL STAFF WILL BE HIRED ON A CONTRACTUAL BASIS. NO EXCEPTIONS!!

ONLY CASE MANAGERS AND QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKERS WITH PREVIOUS, SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE IN WORKING WITH SUCH PROGRAMS WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS.

CASE MANAGER AND QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKERS WILL BE GRANTED FOR TWO-YEAR CONTRACTS,TO BE RENEWED ONLY WITH "EXCEEDS" EMPLOYMENT EVALUATIONS.

EVALUATIONS TO BE GIVEN ANNUALLY BY THE PROJECT H.O.P.E. BOARD MEMBERS.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Milmission.org, Black Political Buzz, Yahoo E-mail, Google Maps