New York’s Public Housing Isn’t Getting Better
Reports from a federal monitor and residents suggest the city needs a new approach to fixing a crisis for hundreds of thousands of residents.  NY Times Editorial with key quote by Metro IAF leader Bernard Smith here.
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• “Stark! Cologne” goes after gyms that discriminate and empty city apartments

               Mon Jul 29, 2019 -DICO

• Summer Action of the Berlin Community Organizations: Important Victories, Challenge to the Politicians to Build Housing in Berlin
  Mon Jul 29, 2019 -DICO
• GCC Action Walks Neighborhood to Identify Blighted Properties
  Mon Jul 29, 2019 -Greater Cleveland Congregations
• Community Health Worker Poster Wins People’s Choice Award
  Thu Jun 27, 2019 -BUILD

Keisha Krumm speaks at a news conference at City Hall in 2015 at which Nationstar Mortgage announced it would contribute $30.5 million to help Sherman Park homeowners recover from the foreclosure crisis. Photo courtesy of Common Ground.
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Milwaukee is a city that does not strengthen the hand of the poor. It seems, instead, to be satisfied with kind gestures of charity toward the symptoms of unfairness. Pope Pius XI said, “Charity will never be true charity unless it takes justice into account…. Let no one attempt with small gifts of charity to exempt themselves from the great duties imposed by justice.”

My over eight years in Milwaukee as Common Ground’s Executive Director and Lead Organizer has been dedicated to building justice with and for those left behind in this city. Common Ground has created controversy and tension, including pushing big banks and billionaires to recalculate their civic interest in broader terms. I am proud that we have had the moral courage to demand more than just charity for neighborhoods, education, health care, and housing.    Keisha Krumm's Full Op Ed in Urban Milwaukee here.
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Keisha Krumm has been organizing over 17 years with the IAF, including 8.5 years as the Lead Organizer for Common Ground, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She can be reached kmkrumm@gmail.com
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From the Washington Post:
One person who recognizes this disparity is Mike Gecan, senior organizer at Metro Industrial Areas Foundation based in Chicago. In something of a unique social experiment, Gecan is attempting to address obstacles faced by populations who are disadvantaged by residing in far-off areas of the map.  Opinion piece here.
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Angry seniors today raise hell against a mayor who a year ago made them a promise to build $500 million in new affordable senior housing, then turned his back and flew to Iowa to sell his brand of progressivism on the national market.

​We echo the frustration of the men and women of East Brooklyn Congregations and Metro Industrial Areas Foundation as today, at the end of their ropes, they call for Mayor de Blasio to “step up or step down."

NY Daily News Editorial
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In a spirited community forum on Sunday, May 19, 2019, Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) obtained commitments from the Democratic Party contenders for Chairman of the Board of Supervisors on a range of important local issues, to include millions more dollars in County funding for affordable housing projects, and an expansion of the legal defense fund for local immigrants who are in the country illegally.

​“VOICE can be the difference in this election,” VOICE leaders told people at the packed-out Bethlehem Baptist Church of Gum Springs, which hosted the event.  “We can get more done together than we can apart, and we will apply pressure.”   Hunt Herald story by Lori Ostrow here.
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Story in Townhall

EBC leader Tita Concepcion Confronts de Blasio
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Two women flew to Iowa, courtesy of the organization East Brooklyn Congregations, to confront him on deteriorating conditions in the New York City Housing Authority. They also pressed him on his stalled promise to build more housing for senior citizens on underused NYCHA lots.

“We have been in New York; we have been trying to speak with him,” said resident Tita Concepcion. “All we get are stories from him. He doesn’t listen. He dodges us whenever possible.”
Politico story.
Great background in CrainsNewYork.com here.

CT Post story HERE.
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Tawana Myers, a community activist from Brooklyn who lobbied the mayor for senior housing for years with the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, said the city should simply honor its promise. 

“We fought for this money,” she told The Times, recalling years of rallies. “We came out in the rain, in wheelchairs.”

​It’s distressing that Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Johnson misled older, low-income New Yorkers, 200,000 of whom are on a waiting list for affordable housing.  Story here.

NYCHA tenants and other leaders with South Bronx Churches marched, Saturday from 389 E 150th St. t a vacant lot owned by NYCHA at East 152nd St. between Courtland and Melrose. As they marched, they called for Mayor de Blasio to keep his promise to spend $500 million to build affordable senior housing on vacant or under-used NYCHA land. April 27, 2019. (Gregg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
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​Angrily denouncing Mayor de Blasio over what they call a broken $500 million promise, tenants and church leaders marched in the South Bronx on Saturday to demand more public housing for seniors.  Story.
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Speaking at CONECT’s press conference was Rev Anthony Bennett and Rick DelValle, a former drug addict who now operates five recovery houses for addicts in New Haven.
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“This important legislation will help level the playing field for Connecticut’s racial minorities,” said Rev. Anthony Bennett of Mt. Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport and Co-Chair of CONECT. “Despite important gains in criminal justice reform here in Connecticut, racial minorities are still far more likely to have a criminal record, even surpassing national averages. That’s just unacceptable here in Connecticut.”  Story.
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