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March/April 2003
Freedom Bus Heralds Poor People's Rights by Cheri Honkala Poverty is but the worst form of violence.
On November 10, 2002, members of the Poor People's Economic Rights Campaign set out on a month-long nationwide bus tour to document economic human rights violations occurring in the United States of America. The bus tour ended on December 10th at the United Nations. There tour members joined in the United for Peace rally of religious leaders who celebrated International Human Rights Day by bearing witness to the poverty and suffering of the people both in Iraq and here at home. We remembered Dr. King's connection of poverty, war, and racism as interrelated and inseparable. On American television, discussion of going to war in Iraq continues to keep most Americans diverted from the growing crisis of poverty and homelessness. The blinds are drawn. But wherever the Freedom Bus went, every day for an entire month poor and homeless people listened to stories of hurting families in America. Here are some of their testimonies. Cleveland, Ohio: Professionals without safety nets Dawn Barbie is a freelance sign interpreter in the Cleveland area who is currently contracting out with four different agencies. Meanwhile she is working toward a masters degree, attending school full-time at night. Dawn is considered a regular staff member by her primary employer of seven and a half years, Deaf Services of Cleveland. However, due to the small size of the agency, interpreters working up to thirty-five hours a week are not eligible for even minimal benefits. Dawn has chosen not to contract as full-time staff with one agency because, much as with substitute teaching, it would mean waiting around the entire day for the agency to call. She would not have the option of turning down jobs, leaving her schedule no flexibility. Instead she prefers to freelance. But this means that when she does get jobs, she doesn't always get paid. The agency that contracts her is employed for jobs with other agencies, and occasionally invoices are lost or misplaced. Dawn is still waiting to be paid for jobs back in 2001! Dawn testifies that even when she does get paid, her income barely covers
her rent. Signing is much like a career in home healthcare: though there
is a shortage of signers, the vast majority of these professionals are freelancing
part-time without social safety nets. Ironically, sign interpreter schools
in northeastern Columbia Park,
Trailer park residents are at high risk given the instability of their lease agreements. While they often own their homes, they have to rent the land beneath. And while trailer park owners collect rent from their "tenant homeowners," they deny responsibility for grounds maintenance such as snow shoveling or driveway repair. The residents of This year, rent alone was raised by $15 a month, while the seniors' social security income was raised by only $8 a month. Residents testified that the rent hikes "totally changed my life." They have to choose between paying for their rent and paying for their medicine. Deaf resident Leathian Trivanovich testified "my budget is so tight now there is nothing left for me. I just found out about the water fees, and now I’m really worried." The financial burdens on this community of elderly and disabled have become so great that the Columbia Park Home Owners and Tenant’s Association have set up their own food bank to help one another make ends meet as they struggle to win recognition of their rights. Chicago, Illinois: Public housing under attack Marie Taylor, Building President at Rockwell Gardens Public Housing Unit, told us: "We’re struggling over the demolition of our building. Already three buildings have been demolished, one on either side of me. We’re fighting to stay in our building because elsewhere, we’re not safe. We fear the drugs and gunfire. "They're threatening us that we have to move out within 180 days with a temporary Section 8 voucher. But landlords will refuse Section 8 from women with children. That will leave us homeless.
"I've been living here since 1959, when I was four years old. And I am still not going nowhere until they build me a new place to live. I’m not taking a Section 8 voucher. I've had two Section 8 vouchers. First I couldn’t find anything with my children. I couldn’t find anything with my grandchildren the second time." Background: In recent years CHA has demolished thousands of units with the promise of rebuilding mixed income housing. The new units have yet to be built, and there is little indication that they will be. CHA was created in 1935 following the Public Housing Act. Its mission was "to improve people’s lives by building subsidized housing for low income families unable to obtain decent, safe and sanitary dwelling units within their income paying ability." In 1996, the US Congress repealed the Public Housing Act and suspended the one-for-one replacement law that demanded equal housing for all demolished units. Of the new units proposed by CHA, only one-third will be for low-income families. Among other "admissions" requirements, resident applicants will be required to pass a credit check before they can qualify for entrance into the new units. (www.limits.org/cpph) Salt Lake City, Utah: From shelter to shelter Sadie Ivie said, "My daughter and I have lived in a shelter for one year. We were living in low-income housing, but we had to pay $832 a month rent. They promised us that half of that rent was going to an escrow account so that we could eventually buy a house. They were lying. I sued them [the housing company], and during the court proceedings, I was evicted. The judge ordered the money returned to me, but they are refusing to pay it. "Before moving into the shelter I currently live in, me and my daughter lived in four different shelters in four months. We could only stay thirty days in each shelter and I cannot save enough money for a house or apartment because I must also pay for my older son to live in a group home—he was molested by my ex-husband, and when I divorced him, I had to pay for my son’s group home." While we work to bring peace to Iraq, let us work to bring peace at home. Join us in August 2003 as we retrace Dr. King's Poor People’s March from Mississippi to the seat of power in Washington, DC. We must put an end to the violence of hunger and homelessness here at home, before more people die or are denied a future. Cheri Honkala is national spokesperson for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia. Box 80678, Philadelphia, PA 19132.( 215) 203-1945. www.kwru.org.
©2003 Fellowship of Reconciliation |
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed into existence in 1948.
It guarantees the right to the necessities of life including food, clothing,
affordable housing, quality healthcare, and free education. The United States
is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This country
is supposed to be bound by it.
In northeast 
"The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is lying about
building apartments for us. They say they're building new units within ten
years. They want us
to take temporary Section 8 vouchers. Already 130,000 have moved out with
temporary Section 8 in the last three years, but not one of them has moved
into new housing. There is no guarantee that the new units will ever come.
We want the new units now. We want them to build first, build now, build
more. We’re not moving.