Story Archives 2005

by David Rosenzweig LA Times Staff Writer

Dessie Robinson, a 55-year-old welfare recipient who suffers from a heart ailment, diabetes and ulcers, had just finished showering in her room at a
downtown homeless shelter early one morning in July when she heard a loud knock at the door.

Throwing on some clothes, she opened the door and was confronted by half a
dozen armed federal agents who proceeded to arrest her on a misdemeanor
charge of cheating the government out of $746.10, the monthly payment she
receives under the federal program to aid the blind, disabled or elderly
poor.

Robinson was among 21 people arrested at gunpoint that week during a sweep
targeting individuals who said they hadn't received their monthly
Supplemental Security Income checks, but who allegedly cashed the original and the duplicate checks, according to prosecutors.

Most of those taken into custody were physically or mentally disabled and
frightened out of their wits as they were handcuffed and hauled off to
court, according to lawyers from the federal public defender's office.

Several were schizophrenic. One was blind and in a wheelchair. Another had given birth the previous week. One man was taken to court dressed only in his undershorts. All those arrested, with one exception, were freed several hours later after being arraigned by a magistrate judge.

Federal public defenders, who represent most of the 21 defendants, have denounced the arrests by agents from the Social Security Administration's inspector general's office as an outrageous abuse of authority.

Lara Bazelon, a public defender, said the agents who carried out the arrests "acted like they were on some kind of glorified mission, like they
were arresting terrorists from Al Qaeda instead of frightened physically
and mentally disabled people, none of whom reasonably could be perceived as posing a threat to anyone."

The arrests were a departure from standard procedure at the U.S. attorney's
office. Normally, prosecutors send a summons to a defendant accused of a
nonviolent misdemeanor, but that practice was scrapped during this
operation.

More puzzling, many of those arrested had previously reached accommodations
with the Social Security Administration and were making restitution by
having money deducted from future SSI checks, according to court papers.

All were African Americans, a fact that public defenders cited as an
indication of possible racial discrimination.

In a gesture considered rare for a prosecutorial agency, U.S. Atty. Debra
W. Yang two weeks ago apologized for the arrests in a letter to Christopher
Prince, president of the John M. Langston Bar Assn., an African American
lawyers group. Prince had written her expressing concern about the roundup.

Summonses were not sent, Yang said, because some defendants had criminal
records and Social Security Administration investigators believed they would not appear in court voluntarily.

"All this aside," she wrote, "I agree with you that, in retrospect, in some
of these cases we made a mistake and should not have proceeded as we did."

Though the arrests were legally valid, she added, prosecutors should have
allowed defendants who did not pose a flight risk to appear voluntarily.
She promised to return to the standard practice in future cases.

On Friday, Robinson's public defender filed a motion to dismiss the
criminal charge against her, contending that she and the others were victims of selective enforcement, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's
equal protection clause.

The motion by Deputy Federal Public Defender Reuven Cohen accused
prosecutors of acting with "an evil eye and an unequal hand" by threatening
to ratchet up the charge against Robinson to a felony unless she agreed to plead guilty on their terms.

"Like other African Americans caught up in the government's sweep," he wrote, "she has been told in no uncertain terms" that she will face felony charges in the event that she exercises her right to a public trial, files
any pretrial motions or pleads without accepting a plea agreement dictated
by the prosecution.

Under that proposed agreement, the prosecution would not ask for any jail
time provided that Robinson offered to perform 500 hours of community
service, something that white defendants in similar circumstances have not
been required to do, according to Cohen. He said the prosecution's terms
were "condescending and paternalistic" and that Robinson and many of the others would not be able to perform community service because of their disabilities.

Except for the 21 defendants, Cohen wrote, his office has been unable to identify any other defendants who have been arrested and prosecuted in the same fashion in the federal judicial district that includes Los Angeles.

Though not specifically accusing the government of singling out the defendants because they were black, the motion said that race was a likely factor. The defense reserved the right to raise the issue as it gathers more evidence in the case.

Responding to the allegation of selective enforcement, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said Friday that "race never plays any role in our
charging decisions, and that certainly applies to the case against Ms.Robinson and the others."

David Butler, special agent in charge of the inspector general's Western regional office, declined to comment, referring all questions to the prosecutor's office.

by Lynda Carson

Oakland CA--The Bush Administration has recently
shattered America's 30 year commitment to assist
low-income families in keeping a roof over their heads
through the HUD funded Section 8 housing voucher
programs that assist the disabled, elderly and the
poor.

Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) across the nation have
been informed that reimbursements from HUD for fiscal
year 2004 would not be based on actual current voucher
costs, and instead the payments would be based on the
cost of vouchers under lease on August 1, 2003,
adjusted for inflation.

The announcement sent shockwaves throughout the
country when the PHAs discovered that the regulatory
changes created huge budget shortfalls for fiscal year
2004, because they would only receive funding at the
fiscal year 2003 level.

These disastrous changes went into effect when
President Bush signed the current budget into law in
January, 2004. On April 22, HUD issued the guidelines
spelling out details of the new budget and, public
housing agencies across the nation have quickly fallen
into a crisis due to the funding shortfalls.

THE CRISIS SPREADS

The crisis has already spread from coast to coast. New
York City faces a $55 million shortfall to fully fund
118,000 housing vouchers that are already in use for
fiscal year 2004.

A housing agency in Warrenton, Oregon, had to cut off
funding for 110 families during the first week of May,
2004. The agency is presently short of $59,000 or
more, and another 50 families could be cut from the
voucher programs by June 1.

The PHA of Alameda, California, sent out letters on
May 14, to 1,659 families and over 600 landlords to
inform them that the new regulations created a $3
million shortfall and that there may not be any rent
money for the month of June. Tenants and landlords are
being advised to use the security deposits to pay the
rent and to negotiate a way for the renters to repay
back the spent security deposits.

Massachusetts housing officials are set to mail
termination notices to about 650 tenants due to a
shortage of $550,000, and are working with state and
federal officials to come up with a solution to avoid
the termination of many housing vouchers in their
state.

Minnesota has a voucher crisis and 2,000 families may
lose their assistance by June. According to John
Gutzmann, an executive of the St. Paul, PHA, his
agency alone faces a $30,000 shortfall or more.

The PHA of Fargo, North Dakota, has indicated that
they may have to terminate the housing vouchers for 46
out of 1,100 families from their existing housing
voucher programs.

Under the current Bush administration's budget
proposals, estimates already have been calculated by
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for fiscal
years 2005 through 2009, and it appears that the
current disaster taking place is only the tip of an
iceberg.

The proposed reductions in voucher subsidies for
fiscal year 2005 may result in a huge source of
homelessness locally and across the nation for years
ahead if the Bush administration's proposals are not
reversed.

On a local level, during fiscal year 2005, it's
estimated that reductions to Berkeley's housing
voucher programs may result in the elimination of 223
families out of 1,841 families unless the city imposes
an annual rent increase of $1,545 spread across the
board to each of the families using the existing
housing vouchers.

Oakland faces a reduction of $17,380,757 for fiscal
year 2005 under the current budget proposals, and may
be forced to eliminate 1,303 families out of 10,754
families from their voucher programs or raise the
rents annually for all by as much as $1,582 per
family.

For fiscal year 2005, San Francisco faces a reduction
by as much as $15,257,319, and may have to eliminate
876 families out of 7,229 families from it's voucher
programs or raise the rents on all families by as much
as $2,066 annually.

Outrage Across The Nation

From across the nation, Congressional Democrats claim
that thousands of families could be either forced to
pay more money out of their own pockets or lose their
housing, and according to House Minority Leader, Nancy
Pelosi, she says, "The Bush administration is breaking
a 30-year promise to help low-income families, the
elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe
housing."

Democrats, housing activists, and advocacy groups
argue that HUD is misinterpreting the budget and that
voucher costs should be updated every three months so
that the cost-of-living increases may be assessed on a
continual basis.

In a statement released by the National Leased Housing
Association, it reads, "NLHA has voiced its opposition
to HUD’s interpretation of the FY04 formula and along
with other industry groups is pressing Congress to
affirm its intention that all vouchers in use (and
authorized) be funded at their current cost."

In a different statement released by the Consortium
for Citizens with Disabilities, it reads, "The Bush
Administration’s FY 2005 HUD Budget proposal calls for
deep cuts in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher
Program. The budget also would radically alter the
fundamental design of the program by converting it to
a block grant administered by Public Housing Agencies
(PHAs) for the benefit of higher income households.
The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing
Task Force (CCD Housing Task Force) is strongly
opposed to the Administrations budget proposal which
would cut more than $1 billion from current funding
levels. We are also strongly opposed to the
Administration’s ill-conceived proposal to convert the
program to the Flexible Voucher Program a
block-grant type approach which would eliminate many
of the critical protections people with disabilities
have under the current Section 8 program."

In response to the Bush administration's budget cuts,
Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) has introduced H.R.
4263 in an effort to resolve the situation, and he
already has 85 cosponsors or more supporting the bill.
The intention of the bill is to amend the FY04 VA-HUD
Appropriations Act, in order to fully fund the Section
8 vouchers as based upon the agency's per unit cost,
as originally intended by Congress.

Housing activists are calling on as many people as
possible to call their member of Congress at the
Capital Switchboard (toll free number) to insist that
the cuts to the housing vouchers are totally
unacceptable.

Dial 1-888-818-6641 to reach your Congressional
Representative.

Housing activists request that you;
1) Insist that HUD must withdraw the April 22 notice
changing the way housing vouchers are funded, because
the change is leading to funding cuts across the
country.
2) Insist that HUD must fully fund all housing
vouchers in 2004, as Congress intended.
3) Insist that vouchers are based on their actual cost
according to the latest available data.

************

SECTION 8 -THE NATIONAL REPORT

The Bush Administration's Proposals To Cut The Section
8 Programs By 40% Is Wreaking Havoc Across The Nation!

Officials Fight Planned Housing Aid Cuts

Los Angeles officials joined Wednesday in protesting
proposals to change the federal government's Section 8
housing program, which they said could result in
13,000 Los Angeles families being without homes.

At a City Hall rally, Hahn urged people to call on
Congress to resist efforts to change the Section 8
program, which provides rental vouchers to 44,000
households a year in the city and 2 million
nationwide.

http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/26447.html

**********

Voucher Shortfall Concerns

It is estimated that more than one third of the 2,600
PHAs that administer Section 8 vouchers will face
funding shortfalls as a result of this policy change.
According to the CBPP, the national funding shortfall
for FY 2004 could total hundreds of millions of
dollars. PHAs have until July 15 to file appeals with
HUD.

In a letter to HUD expressing concern over the new
policy, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) estimated that 2,000
voucher holders could be terminated as early as June.
According to Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), a shortfall of
$550,000 in Massachusetts may lead to 600 voucher
holders losing their vouchers.

http://www.ucp.org/ucp_generaldoc.cfm/1/8/33/33-12227/5511

**********

Alameda Ca, Housing Authority still short $700,000 for
June Section 8 rents.

In order to make the June Housing Assistance Payments
(HAP), the Housing Authority will have to use its own
reserves. In spite of this, the Housing Authority is
still about $700,000 short. As such, the Housing
Authority does not know if we can pay the full HAP on
June 1. We know that we can pay at least 50% and we
would commit to paying the balance within 90 to 120
days.

http://www.alamedahsg.org/public_notice.htm

**********

Portland protests voucher shortfalls/see comments at
end of story.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/05/288707.shtml

**********

Voucher Shortfalls In Vermont

May 21, 2004/Vermont

Sanders made this comment in reaction to proposed cuts
in Section 8 administration by HUD between 13 and 19
percent. For the Vermont State Housing Authority, the
cuts represent 14.4 percent of their Section 8
administration budget or $262,000.

The voucher cuts would have had a wide ranging effect.
Funding for the vouchers could have been cut by 12
percent, impacting more than 700 families in Vermont
and thousands more nationwide.

Vermont has almost 6,100 voucher holders, representing
almost 13,000 household members. The average voucher
payment nationwide is about $ 500. In Vermont, the
average voucher payment to landlords is $ 348, with
the average tenant contribution at $ 270.

Seventy percent of Vermont voucher holders have an
average income of $ 11,000 a year.

Roll Back The Rents, urges that the Public Housing
Agencies "roll back the rents on the landlords,"
rather than raise the rents on poor tenants where
funding shortfalls occur.

The funding shortfalls can be resolved by rolling back
the rents!

For Updates On The Section 8 Housing Voucher Crisis
And Other Tenant/Housing News, Join Roll Back the
Rents! Post Housing News From Your Area!

To Join, Just Send an e-mail to:
rollbacktherents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

by ABBY GOODNOUGH

MIAMI, May 18 - At 16, Yusimil Herrera won a suit against Florida's child welfare agency for churning her through foster homes where she said she was beaten, slapped, kicked and sexually abused from the time she was 2. At 19, Ms. Herrera, a plucky young woman with dark, thick curls, had not seen any of the $2.2 million jury award and had drifted in and out of homelessness.

On Sunday, Ms. Herrera, now 20, was arrested on charges of severely beating her own young daughter in their North Miami apartment. Eight months pregnant with her second baby, she stands accused of the same cruelty that plagued her own childhood and made her a compelling symbol of the system's deepest failings.

The police found Ms. Herrera's daughter, Angel Hope Herrera, 3, lying unresponsive in the hallway outside her mother's apartment Sunday afternoon, with black and blue marks on her stomach, chest, arms and legs, according to the police report. She was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead Tuesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ms. Herrera, now charged with first-degree murder, was being held without bail at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention Center.

Peter Coats, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services, said only that the department was "deeply saddened" by the "very tragic situation," that it was cooperating with the police investigation, and that he could not provide details of the case. But a state official said the agency's child abuse hot line had received two recent calls about Ms. Herrera - one in February, alleging that she had stopped taking medication for her bipolar disorder and another in March, alleging that she was hitting Angel.

The official said that in late March the agency asked Judge Sarah Zabel of Circuit Court for permission to take Angel into protective custody. But the judge rejected the request. A spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Circuit Court declined to comment on the case.

Karen Gievers, the lawyer who represented Ms. Herrera in her lawsuit against the state, said in an interview that Angel was "a beautiful, healthy, happy" child despite her mother's hardships. She said that Ms. Herrera had recently married though was not living with her husband, and that she had appeared to be doing well when they last spoke in March.

"Nobody knows what she's been through," Ms. Gievers said of Ms. Herrera, who was placed in foster care at age 2 after her mother abandoned her and her older sister in a park, according to the suit. "She was beaten, sexually molested, battered with psychiatric medications that did who knows what to her brain. She was never given a complete education, never given independent-living skills classes that would have given her a smooth transition into adulthood. The state never gave her a family."

Minose Georges, who lives in the apartment next to Ms. Herrera's, said Tuesday that Ms. Herrera was extremely moody, did not get along with her daughter and rarely let her go outside.

"I saw her Saturday, like around 2 or 3, and she had blood all over her mouth," Ms. Georges, 22, said of Angel. She said that the child was telling her mother, "Mommy, I'm going to be good."

Ms. Georges said that when she asked about the blood, Ms. Herrera told her the girl had been biting her own lips. "Then she told Angel to wash her mouth," Ms. Georges said. "That's when Angel told me, 'I miss you, Minose.' "

According to the suit that Ms. Herrera and her sister filed in 1995, they were separated for most of the years they were in foster care, and Ms. Herrera was shuffled through 14 foster homes and institutions. The suit, in which the sisters were identified as "Two Forgotten Children," charged that the state had not done nearly enough to get the girls into good permanent homes or to prevent them from suffering abuse in unfit foster homes. Both were intermittently suicidal, it said.

"Nobody cares," the suit quoted Ms. Herrera as saying at 6, after being separated from her sister.

Ms. Gievers said that while a jury awarded each girl $2.2 million in 1999, four years after the suit was filed, an appeals court panel here overturned the verdict. Ms. Herrera settled with the Department of Children and Family Services last year, getting $260,000, Ms. Gievers said. But she ended up collecting only $80,000 after repaying the state for medical care she had received.

At a news conference sponsored by a children's advocacy group last June, Ms. Herrera spoke out about the difficulties that teenagers leaving foster care face. She criticized a new state law meant to help former foster care children succeed as young adults, saying it did not go far enough. She described attending eight high schools and said she had no job skills or home, according to an article about the news conference in The Sun-Sentinel.

The law, which required children to leave foster care at 18, provided a $900 monthly stipend to those who stayed in school and maintained good grades.

Gov. Jeb Bush has taken steps to improve the child welfare system, especially since a 4-year-old named Rilya Wilson vanished from her foster home near Miami in 2001. In particular, he has tried to reduce child abuse investigation backlogs and speed adoption of foster children.

"But we are still a long way from where we need to be," said Gerard Glynn, executive director of Florida's Children First!, the group that held the news conference last June. "So when we don't succeed with other efforts, we need to make sure we provide older foster youth with support to make sure they transition successfully into responsible adulthood. That was clearly missing in this case."

by Tiny/PNN

"Since Bush has been in office I have had to work 50-60 hours per week to help my daughters and sons raise their children," Words of knowledge poured out of the mouth of Dorothy Harris as she spoke at a hearing on Saturday, May 22nd on the state of welfare in light of the severe budget cuts facing California and the nation in 2004, she ended with the poignant, "They are trying to break our spirit, I won't let them break our spirit.."

As Ms. Harris spoke the bitter truth to representatives of John Burton, Jacki Spear and Nancy Pelosi who were present on this cloudy Saturday morning to listen to the concerns of the community, tears filled my eyes. My son was squealing in the background and I had to bring him with me today because I, as a very low-income working mother, and former welfare recipient couldn't afford child care, rent or much of anything else for that matter and in many ways Ms. Harris, a hard-working mother and grandmother spoke for all of the poor mothers in the room.

"The state of welfare today is dismal at best, how much more can you take from someone that doesn't have anything? " Marie Harrison, activist, writer and mother who moderated the event, summed up the pervasive feeling of the day, " Somebody has got to answer that question - and these politicians need to stop sending their aides and come themselves so we can actually get the people who make a difference to be accountable to the people who put them in office

The event was called to revisit what those of us on welfare call Welfare (de)Reform, and the impact that the Governors budget cuts will have on the already horrible situation of welfare for poor families including reducing basic cash grants, cuts to child only aid given to families who have been sanctioned or timed off, and for many, the worst cuts of all, cuts to the already meager child care subsidies.

After a short introduction from event organizers John Wilson and Bianca Henry from the Family Rights and Dignity project of the Coalition on Homelessness, Marie introduced the panel of aides who showed up to speak to the crowd beginning with Sharon Johnson from Senator John Burton's office, " Before I get started I want you all to know, in 1975 I found myself divorced with 5 children and had to enroll in AFDC, now look at me, if you raise your voices like you are doing today anything is possible", Ms. Johnson went on to explain that when the governor rolled back the vehicle license fee the counties budgets were severely harmed and that those funds haven't been replaced. She also tried to give us a view of Senator Burton's view on the current situation facing Calworks "Calworks is one of John's biggest concerns in the budget, and there is one thing that you can count on him to work on, that there will not be a budget that is balanced on the back of the poor, seniors, and disabled - and even though Schwarzenegger is rather obsessed with getting the budget out on time He (John) believes it would be more important to pass a credible budget rather than a budget on june 15th.

Dan Bernal - deputy district supervisor for Nancy Pelosi related the fact that there is a Republican congressman from California, by the name of Wally Herberg in control of the welfare reform reauthorization who proposes changes that would increase the number of welfare recipients that would be forced into work activities if the counties caseload doesn't decrease, but in the tradition of other republican mandates doesn't include any extra funding for increased costs to do that, as opposed to Democrats who are proposing changes like employment credits that would reward the states for moving people off welfare into real living wage jobs. He ended with a quote from Pelosi "until we provide people with economic opportunity to lift people out of poverty welfare reform is doomed to fail."

Paula likens from senator Jacki Spears office explained the budget process and how the Governors May revisions still need to go to the assembly and senate to be passed and that we as conscious and impacted citizens have the unique opportunity to get our voices heard by contacting legislators in Sacramento by phone, email, write and letting them how this budget is going to affect you. She ended with a statement by Ms. Spiers, " I will not abandon women, children and low income families, I will not allow the forces in sacramento to put the interests of prison guards over the interests of families.."

Julie Brown from People Organized to Win Employment Rights informed us of a pending lawsuit in San Francisco, demanding a living wage for Calworks training and workfare payments and how that is currently being fought in the courts as well as her dissatisfaction with our "democratic" mayor Newsom's approach to local welfare and poverty policy.

The statements by the representatives were followed by several poor mothers relating scholarship on issues ranging from the illogic of spending more money on the prison industrial complex rather than the support of poor families to the overspending by Child Protective Services for the taking of children from families rather than the restoring of families. At which point Marie reiterated a crucial point, " Let's be clear what we are hearing from these representatives today, "San Francisco will not win this ourselves, we have to reach out to our friends, family and legislators all across California and just as important we have to hold these politicians accountable for all their promises.

For more information on the family rights and dignity project call (415) 346-3740.

by Iris Biblowitz (c/o Michael Lyon)

Dear Joan Ryan:

Your columns give me hope that you will write a balanced account of a
complicated story: how cuts to public health will affect vulnerable
San Franciscans.

The public face of Mayor Newsom's budget is one of minor
inconveniences and shared but manageable pain for all. This is not
true. Please investigate and publicize the details of the devastating
effects budget cuts to the Department of Public Health (DPH) will have
on our community, especially people who are homeless, poor, and
undocumented.

All the neighborhood clinics are being cut. Attached below is a fact
sheet specifically about Tom Waddell Clinic, a block from City Hall,
where I work as a nurse. Tom Waddell Clinic sees about 70,000 patients
a year. They are divided among urgent care, primary care, and
community sites such as shelters, hotels, and the Day Labor Program.

We are the main clinic for people who are homeless, and our urgent
care clinic functions like a small emergency room. Open six days a
week, it is a huge safety net for the entire city, especially for the
most marginalized, vulnerable people. Urgent care at Tom Waddell also
provides a more cost-effective alternative to the swamped ER at San
Francisco General Hospital.

There is so much PR around Care Not Cash, but we are the frontline
clinic that serves people who are homeless, and DPH Director Dr. Mitch
Katz has proposed completely cutting urgent care at Tom Waddell and
severely diminishing our ability to give care in our primary care
clinics. These cuts will lead to more than simply minor
inconveniences.

We're one of the main entry points for patients to get into detox. How
will they get into these programs now? Many of our patients have major
mental health problems. How will they navigate the system? Who will do
all the TB and STD screenings now performed at Tom Waddell? Our clinic
does critical outreach for the HIV, homeless, and transgender
communities.

All this translates into not only decimating care for the poorest
people in San Francisco but also into creating great risks to public
health in general. Many of our patients would have gone without care
and died were it not for our urgent care clinic.

The reporting about DPH cuts has given the impression that
neighborhood clinics would remain intact and that cuts would mostly
affect administration. Many nurses will be cut, and clinics throughout
the city will be in tatters. Please help us get the truth out.

I hope you will contact me and some of my coworkers. I can give you
names and contact information. Thank you for your patience in reading
this long letter.

Sincerely,

Iris Biblowitz, RN

415/285-4536

c/o ftaylor@cmp.com

by Tiny and Joseph Bolden

Over 200 poor people, mostly Black, redlined out of property and
>business ownership, shot at, harassed and profiled by cops and private
>security, homeless due to illegal evictions, condo conversions,
>demolitions, redevelopment and wide-spread gentrification, denied jobs,
>drug treatment, and mental health services stood together in San
>Francisco city hall plaza.. the first gathering of an all out class war?
>No. Just a peaceful barbeque.

A barbeque in resistance. In resistance to the implementation of one of
>the most flagrantly racist and classist legislations to come around in
>San Francisco for a long time; Care Not Cash aka Gavin Newsoms mayoral
>platform.
>

Modeled on the Rudy Giuliani/New York program - which effectively makes
>it illegal to be alive without a home and makes you pay for your shelter
>bed- instituting slave labor programs (i.e. workfare) sanctioned by the
>Welfare departments which have you work everyday just to make enough to
>pay for the shelter bed, your food and your "utilities". Care Not Cash
>lays the groundwork for Homelessness in the 21st century; the
>privatized, shelter. Government grants, private money and the sweat of
>the poor mix to create the ultimate cash cow for huge poverty pimps and
>developers; aka the modern day pauper's prison
>

"They are trying to starve poor people and people of color out of San
>Francisco - we got to fight to maintain the Bayview, the Tenderloin, the
>Fillmore, the Mission, the people who built the wealth of this city.
>

Listening to the scholarship of Julie Brown a member of People Organized
>to Win Employment Rights (POWER). I reflected on the almost two years
>and 200 or more protests, actions, committee meetings, hearings and
>finally a lawsuit challenging the legality of Care Not Cash, which
>delayed its implementation for several months. Last week the legal
>challenge was overturned by another court, giving the go ahead for our
>new mayor and the Department of Human Services to go forward with this
>dreaded legislation. Julie continued "We got to take back city Hall from
>this rich kid. The Getty's don't know what people need."
>

"If Newsom was homeless he wouldn't do this to his family," Naomi, also
>from POWER shouted angrily into PNN's mike
>

On this warm day in May, POOR staff stood in a line with all the other
>powerful poor folks waiting for our share of a tasty barbeque outside
>San Francisco City Hall. The event was organized by houseless folks and
>advocates to once again make it known that we are resisting the lies put
>out by Department of human Services, the Mayors office and the
>mainstream media (see SF Chronicle May 4, front page) As we stood there
>we pondered the concerted effort by Willies' boy Newsom to effectively
>get all the poor folks out of San Francisco.
>

"Displacement is a big part of Care not Cash - they are talking about
>outreach teams. Every mayor for the last twenty years has talked about
>outreach teams., why should those displace all the people who have
>followed the rules, worked through the system and are now in line for
>their housing, which is what this will do, just to make this mayors
>outreach team idea look good," LS Wilson from the Coalition on
>Homelessness detailed the specifics of the implementation.
>

And just as LS stated when this reporter attended the Press conference
>put on by the mayor's office that same day at the Greystone Hotel. We
>were told by one of the mayors press folks, " that (Care not Cash) will
>help homeless people because it will make housing available and
>treatment services in outreach teams"
>

In fact, as all of us dealing with the shelter system know, this
>legislation will do nothing to make more housing available, but in fact,
>just move the same meager homeless funds around, and make life more
>miserable for folks like Po poet A. Fay Hicks who reports in her last
>piece of poetryjournalism on poornewsnetwork; Barricades at the Door,
>with million dollar fingerprint imaging machines installed and
>complicated registration processes to catch the criminals of poverty if
>they dare to..?
>

Later in the day some brave warriors for the cause of economic justice
>created a civil disobedience in the mayors office demanding real
>solutions to homelessness rather than fake politician propaganda spins.
>They were arrested and released, vowing to keep up the fight.
>

As the sun bore down on our hungry bodies, a tall African descendent man
>who called himself Kelly, stood behind us in line and summed up our
>collective frustration "The man was born with a silver spoon in his
>mouth, he hates black folks, poor white folks and all folks don't have
>money, he's tryin to push everyone away.. and it jus aint right."
>

by Joe B.

He Ruined My Birthday

Looking forward to a personal milestone is all set except one lady Berkeley and a dear friend out of the country the best I can do is visit the very first love in my life, mama.

We’d take a shopping cart through a one of the warehouse supermarkets buying fresh vegetable, frozen entrée’s, and nibble on mints and cookies before paying up and going home.

But the day a pall because the 40th President, B-actor and Screen Guild President , former Governor, and President Ronald Reagan after a decade in a Alzheimer haze died.

All the hoopla about the Gipper, Great Communicator, jokester, and affable down home likable, regular, country guy.
Its all too syrupy and honey glazed for me to watch as mama turned off the radio we looked at other like…

"What a load of bull chips and horse manure. How he blamed black women as welfare queen’s while most folks on welfare are white and female, the way he fired all the airline controller’s never thing what it takes to train people for such stress laden jobs. It’s part the reason so many planes fell out the sky and many lives lost.

He may have helped free the hostages, but President Jimmy Carter deserves the nod. As for being shot he did show lots of grit for and old guy but then he was closer to Mr. Grim Reaper than most presidents.

"Shining City On A Hill" give me a break. This guy on horseback was looking backward, riding into the past while most people were heading future forward.

The Berlin Wall coming down brick by brick was not by Reagan along but other presidents, officials, and many ordinary folks help pulled that wall down it just happened on his watch.

I don’t know the guy don’t hate him in fact I wished he had gotten stem cells to regenerate new brain cell replacing old dying ones he may have died with his mind intact but when Biotechnology was slowed, delayed, if not stopped altogether could have made Reagan’s last days memorable with loved ones surrounding him before his soul divested of his body continues the ultimate journey.

I should be glad for the guy. No more suffering in a long good by of that dreadful living death of a disease.

For myself there is still wine (only for breakfast and dinner).

Women(safe sex as I wear colorful French ticklers as long as I’m not with many woman until she finds me or I her).

I don’t feel any different but then I didn’t as many of my contemporaries do much drinking,drugs,pills, or wasn’t as promiscuous as men especially Black are mythically suppose to be. The upside is my body and mind isn’t as polluted inside or exteriorly rundown as some of my contemporaries.

I intend to maintain and improve my health. I was born in June of 1954. Now either its 9 or 10 year after D-Day but certainly 10 years before the baby boom group of 1964.

So I’m in the middle generation seeing what’s ahead and the generation behind me will have even better advantages.

There are experiences I want to have as in being a graduating student of Karma Sutra, a PH. D maybe. Some travel by cruise ship or plane.

The family with picket fence, dog, cat, and gardens may have passed me buy so I decide to instruct myself in math, (have a phobia there). Electronics, Chemistry, and Quantum Mechanics.

Keep up with life extension technologies. Lastly, learn a few languages and play brain teaser games, read mysteries (by women authors).

Generally keeping mind and body busy. If I had gotten married when I was younger my life by now would have been somewhat settled if not dull and I’d have my niche helping to raise children with a loving wife.

Maybe that’s isn’t my destiny as my life is at this moment.

He nearly ruined my birthday but after a few hours I know in a few months it’ll all blow over and he’ll be remembered little as all of move quicker by jet sky, sky boards,and jet packs rather than an old dead ‘Prez on horseback.




Please send donations to Poor Magazine

1095 7th & Market Street,
S.F. Ca.94103

Snail or Email Joe at:

PO Box 1230 #204

Market St. 94102

San Francisco, CA 94102

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org ©

by Staff Writer

A spoken Word Rent Rescue Marathon (and housewarming-we just moved) on sunday, June 13th @ 4:00 pm - Youth and adult poets from the Po Poets Project, Molotov Mouths and more will be spittin words of resistance... Refreshments will be served - please come and help save our collective buts...otherwise our community will lose anotha voice of truth in a sea of corporate media lies!!!! - Take Part in the Spoken Word marathon by sponsoring yourself or your favorite poet @ $3.00 per poem

Where; 1095 Market street #307

San Francisco, (at 7th & Market)

when: sunday June 13th @4:00 pm

contact : tiny (415) 863-6306 (or cel) (510) 435-7500

cost:sliding scale - $5.00-10.00 or mo' ( or what you can afford..)

by Joe B.

Two Weeks And Half A Century Later

Last Saturday two American’s died both of humble origins.

One rose to prominence with a genius ear, voice, music, and lyrical talents.

The other able to make an audience suspend its belief first by his sheer voice, second by physical presence.

One becomes leader of superpower while another changes hearts and minds with his inner vision his second sight more powerful non seeing orbs.

Both gone, one way too soon, and yet both communicators to the masses in their perspective. Both belong to the ages.

Only Jesus and Angels guarding gates of Heaven or Hell can judge now it’s no longer in our frail mortal hands.

Its nearly two weeks after my 50th birthday.

So far my health is excellent, I’m a randy old goat instead of a young guy.

Funny, how women and men at certain ages are deemed dirty old men, women because they still in their hearts, minds, and physically able to show emotions of lust, love and caring for others.

I might as well keep my satyr status even in this conservative climate of sex = death climate.

I cannot even say it wasn’t planned, this is what happens when people in their youth do little or no drinking, smoking, drugs, or bed hopping.

A positive consequence is a body and mind fairly bursting with excess energy though having good genes also help.

I don’t regret not being married at this time many in my situation aren’t, some all of us are not mommy and daddy material.

If I had gotten properly hitched I would’ve stayed a Certified Nurses Assistant/ Dietary or Kitchen Helper working many overtime hours to support my family.

I would not have learned about painting, black & white photography and how to use chemicals darkroom to develop films, and later with POOR Magazine silk screening, reporting, writing columns, radio production, reading and speaking from scripts. Lots of interns entered, learned, and exited PM’s classes better informed, with multi faceted tools in the ever-changing workplace.

Deciding my direction has been difficult but its clear a 9to5 job is not I unless I am able to choose my hours.

Whether its voice over work, reading shortened sound bites of my written I-net columns on radio, or by some fluke on TV even if its cable it’d be a regular gig and who knows some cable shows get grabbed to become national.

Travel, languages, tinkering with electronics, Electro- magnetism and other pieces of lawful and especially outlawed or forbidden science.

As for the eternal mystery that is woman more intense study, learning, mental and physical contact is a given in less taking and more giving that always opaque, clouded, speaking-in-tongues earthy mother’s natural wisdom.

I know in my columns I’ve argued, was harsh, and really overstepped my bounds in the discussions of women and their multi sexual, dimensional, emotional selves.

There is only three ways to completely understand the opposite sex:

1) Share the properties of women’s connected brains in men.
2) Place our male electrochemical selves (equivalent of a soul) into the body of a woman.

3) If possible balance the male brain as female ones are balaced,it may be the last evolutionary key to both longevity and guaranteed survival of our species.

Ok,that maybe a little too far out for many folks out there.

If somehow women can think clearly through deep emotional pain for solutions while few men cannot.(Some can)

It seems logical to find out how this natural higher brain can be made to improve our species.

If it were to become reality guess what men would think before talking, be less color blind,be more independent of opposite sex and yet not worry about loneliness.

Men’s life span will be drastically increased and the only other biological limitation would be not being able to carry offspring within them.

I tell you some men then most of them after a time would be able to take the pain of giving birth.

They’ve already they are as nurturing and selfless in giving their lives for children and family as women are its just few are given the chance.

Imagine if men conceived children as women do?

Women have always said men would change all the abortion laws if they gave birth, true.

They also would fight to prove they too could give birth,nurture and raise children.

It would no longer be an uneven playing field with women saying,"Men couldn’t deal with the pain."

Women easily forget that if men were able to give birth war would be over, life more important because they’d know how precious, perilous,and tenuous without ever going to a war.

Women have their ("We create life, you just contribute sperm."

They’d never be able to make that boast in supreme superiority of ultimate power.

And what if men decided to have children without women’s wombs using their own it become academic that is the so-called superior sex.

Not that I would want to have a child but if by a miracle I was younger and given the choice.

I’d like to see if I,a man could carry a child to term.

If it came to a choice between a healthy infant and my death,then gladly dead I’d be.

I would watch over my child unable to my earthly bond until I know my child was safe and happy.

Only then would I appear to my child,her/his adopted parents and or wife/husband and happily go to my rest.

Hey ladies,this is what guys also think about too.

you’re not the only ones with deep emotional/intellectual, sensitive feelings.

Just because you express it more openly and verbally better does not mean your more open.

It just seems that way.

I’ve said enough.

What have women whatever your age have to say about it?(Will you say anything its all mute… For Now!

Please send donations to Poor Magazine


1095 7th & Market Street,
S.F. Ca.94103

Snail or Email Joe at:

PO Box 1230 #204

Market St. 94102

San Francisco, CA 94102

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org ©

by Joe B.

Health Care Organizations Unite?

Wednesday, June 4th 2004. On 1338 Mission Street between 9th and 10th Streets, time 8am. Or earlier to catch a Charter bus to Sacramento where California’s State Capital resides.

Arguing with Dee (co owner/boss of Poor Magazine).
About only having five photo ops to shoot during this all day venture results in being without a camera to shoot any film.

Maybe keep my yap shut… nah, if one is going to a function as this more than five individual shots of film is needed besides I cannot be everywhere at once as people go on and off the bus.

This is where a digital camcorder would be handy and not just film or a human portable web cam set up (a person becomes a mobile, roving web site in real
Time as it happens.)

Bottom line there was no money, its all the equipment she and arguing on the point meant no camera unless I use my own which isn’t happening because this should be digital, the more perfect copies in digital than film the images to capture and never lose to films decomposing shelf life. The old mini tape will do minus film.

Arriving early 7am. At S. E. I .U Service Employees Int. Union, where a woman waiting waits soon doors open and people enter their language’s are Russian, Spanish, Asian, Philippine, American, and other who’s dialect I don’t recognize.
Three Charter busses are ready packed with sodas, water, lunch bags. We get in, wait a bit then begin rolling to California’s State Capitol in Sacramento to protest Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cuts in health care to mentally and physically disabled people and its effects on workers, patients, and families caring for them. The Protest/rally is called: "Quality Care Begins At Home

A stop in Oakland the first leg of protests "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Health Care Is the Way to Go."

The Highway patrol made an outer circle encircling the protestors with their ring. It almost seems a protective in a way. It’s a peaceful gathering of determined, angry, concerned, multi-lingual, culture, hued folks having our say telling Arnold –the-‘G this will not stand and he has a long fight on his hands.

We’re Here, We’re Loud…" "Arnold, Arnold Don’t you know, Healthcare Cuts Have Got To Go."

An interview within the swirl of people protesting, loud speaker’s, honking, cars, trucks, and busses makes it extremely difficult to conduct an interview let along a few.

And hour or so then to Fairfield for rest, lunch, and what’s to be done when we’re in Sacramento.

From January of 2004 to now June Governor A. Schwartzenegger has had six months to rethink his cutting the health care. For those affected work has been hard,fast,and furious to get ring the Gov’s ear have him use other means than balancing the state budget on the backs of the mentally and physically disabled. Those who’s jobs it is to help them live longer,safer,and healthier lives.

On the Capitol’lawn in Sacramento there are many eloquent public speakers. Some are health aide workers,former workers, wheel bound activist, patients,politicians,and church leaders.

All condemning the California Governor’s choice in budget cuts and balancing act.

The sun beams high, weak clouds,clear azure blue skies,need gentle breezes, water,soft drinks, sandwiches,and porta- potties insight.

My old recorder cuts in and out,my second set of batteries die making me unable to record soul stirring,heart felt speaker’s. On the bus I counted the sandwiches I’ve eaten
1 ham, 2 eggs 2 turkey, sandwiches, a diet seven up, 1 Dr. Pepper,2 potato chips and saved two apples for later at home.

It was an experience I might do again sometime.
Going home is a pleasant ride with zzzzz’s until its time to disembark.

If poor folks stopped work altogether everywhere after saving up 6 to 9 months of rent, food, medical,with support from a few who do work.

Those who have access to food,pharmacological, or other health necessities can also be of immense help. I walk to my home glad that I participated.

Thinking of my mother, if anything happened to her health how would I cope? That’s a scary thought because I wouldn’t want to spend her money down then place in a lonely old room with strangers kind people but strangers not the less taking care of her.
It’s a hard world and everyone catches their pieces of hell but it shouldn’t go on when one is the autumn of their years this is the time a rest, relaxation, and looking back, without any worries. At least that’s how I always believed about Sunset years.

And hour or so then to Fairfield for rest, lunch, and what’s to be done when we’re in Sacramento.

From January of 2004 to now June Governor A. Schwartzenegger has had six months to rethink his cutting the health care. For those affected work has been hard,fast,and furious to get ring the Gov’s ear have him use other means than balancing the state budget on the backs of the mentally and physically disabled. Those who’s jobs it is to help them live longer,safer,and healthier lives.

On the Capitol’lawn in Sacramento there are many eloquent public speakers. Some are health aide workers,former workers, wheel bound activist, patients,politicians,and church leaders.

All condemning the California Governor’s choice in budget cuts and balancing act.

The sun beams high, weak clouds,clear azure blue skies,need gentle breezes, water,soft drinks, sandwiches,and porta- potties insight.

My old recorder cuts in and out,my second set of batteries die making me unable to record soul stirring,heart felt speaker’s. On the bus I counted the sandwiches I’ve eaten
1 ham, 2 eggs 2 turkey, sandwiches,a diet seven up, 1 Dr. Pepper,2 potato chips and saved two apples for later at home.

It was an experience I might do again sometime.
Going home is a pleasant ride with zzzzz’s until its time to disembark.

If poor folks stopped work altogether everywhere after saving up 6 to 9 months of rent,food, medical,with support from a few who do work.

Those who have access to food,pharmacological, or other health necessities can also be of immense help. I walk to my home glad that I participated.

Thinking of my mother, if anything happened to her health how would I cope? That’s a scary thought because I wouldn’t want to spend her money down then place in a lonely old room with strangers kind people but strangers not the less taking care of her.
It’s a hard world and everyone catches their pieces of hell but it shouldn’t go on when one is the autumn of their years this is the time a rest, relaxation, and looking back, without any worries. At least that’s how I always believed about Sunset years.

Please send donations to Poor Magazine

1095 7th & Market Street,
S.F. Ca.94103

Snail or Email Joe at:

PO Box 1230 #204