Arise for Social Justice – Summer, 2012
THE CITY WANTS TO MAKE POOR AND HOMELESS
PEOPLE INVISIBLE
PEOPLE INVISIBLE
We asked the director of Open Pantry, Alison Maynard, what role that pressure from the City of Springfield played in Open Pantry’s decision to break up the community that has existed at Christ Church Cathedral, and her answer was no pressure at all—but you know what? We don’t believe it! The Springfield Museum and Library Association certainly hasn’t been happy with having poor people so close to their headquarters; they’ve been pressuring the mayor, the mayor has been pressuring Open Pantry, and Open Pantry caved to pressure. Let’s stop pretending that this is anything but an attempt to hide Springfield’s poor and homeless people. The more affluent don’t want to have to see us!
Arise has been asking the mayor to create a housing task force that is 50% low and moderate income people, but he is refusing. He told us that the City of Springfield has done “more than its fair share” to provide for people like us. Meanwhile, the city is condemning housing where the poorest people live and making no plans to replace that housing.
If you’re tired of being pushed around, tired of being treated as if you’re not good enough, then get in touch with Arise at 734-4948. We’re having a series of meetings RIGHT NOW to plan how to fight back and make life better for all of us.
Rhode Island just passed a Homeless Bill of Rights into law on June 21, making it the first state in the US to do so. With so many states making laws against the homeless it is wonderful to see a state that values human rights and dignity; a state that understands that being homeless doesn’t make you any less of a human being. Other states need to take notice, as the foreclosure crisis continues, wages remain stagnant, and the job outlook remains bleak the number of Americans finding themselves homeless will continue to increase.
The Rhode Island Law guarantees that homeless individuals:
¨ Have the right not to face discrimination while seeking or maintaining employment due to lack of a permanent mailing address or a mailing address that is a shelter or social service provider;
¨ Have the right to use and move freely in public spaces (sidewalks, public parks, public transportation, public buildings) in the same manner as any other person and without discrimination on the basis of housing status;
¨ Have the right to emergency medical care free from discrimination based on housing status;
¨ Have the right to vote, register to vote and receive documentation necessary to prove identity for voting without discrimination due to housing status;
¨ Have the right to protection from disclosure to law enforcement agencies without appropriate legal authority any records or information provided to homeless shelters and service providers and the right to confidentiality of personal records and information in accordance with limitations on disclosure established by the Federal Homeless Management Information Systems, the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Federal Violence Against Women Act;
¨ Have the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy of personal property to the same extent as personal property in a permanent residence.
¨ Have the right to equal treatment by all state and municipal agencies, without discrimination on the basis of housing statute.
Do you have a story or a poem to share? Want to report on the goings-on with poor people around the city?
Get in touch at 734-4948 and be in our next edition!
but a way of life
(written for Resist Newsletter)
Most of the time, poor people will go out of our way to avoid the police and any occasions that might lead to our arrest, because like dominos standing in a row, an arrest can lead to the toppling of our precariously balanced lives.
Most poor people are forced by necessity to commit civil disobedience We crowd extra people into our apartments, trade some of our food stamps for gas for our cars when we have them, drive cars without insurance and put our utilities in other people’s names so we don’t live in the dark.
And as more and more of our behavior is criminalized, like the laws that forbid sitting or lying on public property, we find we break even more laws, because we really are living under the occupation of capitalism, where poverty is a crime.
And the only answer to that is civil disobedience.
For the past twenty-five years, demonstrations, pickets, non-violent direct action, and more recently, civil disobedience is how we have made our lives visible to the community. It is how we have put pressure on the powerful to, at the very least, acknowledge our demands for social justice.
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Going on the offensive took time to develop. In our early years, we developed the art of the picket line, picketing the welfare office and the Dept. of Social Services for their removal of children from poor families. With other poor people’s organizations across the state—and sadly, most of them don’t exist anymore—we would pack the State House, carrying cardboard coffins to illustrate the effect of budget cuts on our families. In 1990, one of our members, after showing ID at the State House, was picked up on an old warrant and spent the next five years in jail. We learned to talk to people before they put themselves at risk of arrest.
Going on the offensive took time to develop. In our early years, we developed the art of the picket line, picketing the welfare office and the Dept. of Social Services for their removal of children from poor families. With other poor people’s organizations across the state—and sadly, most of them don’t exist anymore—we would pack the State House, carrying cardboard coffins to illustrate the effect of budget cuts on our families. In 1990, one of our members, after showing ID at the State House, was picked up on an old warrant and spent the next five years in jail. We learned to talk to people before they put themselves at risk of arrest.¨ In 1995, we knew we wouldn’t win any friends with the local police or the FBI when we decided to share office space with the Latin Kings and Queens as they tried to reclaim their political roots. We didn’t know our office would be constantly under police surveillance, but we dealt with it, and we rallied and marched together. In the end it didn’t work out and we had to ask them to leave, but none of us regretted giving it a try.
¨ We got our first taste of organized civil disobedience in 2001 when we joined with peace groups to try to stop the Iraq War We formed an affinity group called “Arise Arachnids.” We learned about the theory and practice of civil disobedience through AFSC workshops, reading and discussion, and roleplays. When our affinity group was arrested at the Westover Air Force base, we had woven ourselves together (like a spider) with yarn, requiring that the police use blunt-nosed scissors to untie us before we could be arrested!
Not being able to stop the war through demonstrations and civil disobedience was a bitter disappointment but it was shot through with the sweetness of new knowledge and new colleagues.
¨ In 2003, the city of Springfield forced the closing of one of the few homeless shelters in the city. Sitting around the table in our office with a dozen homeless people who had been forced to leave the shelter the night before, we came up with the idea of a sanctuary. We scrounged up camping equipment and set up tents on the lawn of St. Michael’s Cathedral (explain why the Cathedral)! By the end of the week, more than forty tents dotted the lawn, as people who’d been sleeping on the riverbank moved up to “Sanctuary City” for safety and solidarity. In the face of intense pressure from the city and the church, we held our ground for six months, into a chilly November, until the shelter finally reopened. The city learned that it had to take homelessness seriously and it hired a coordinator to help people find affordable housing.
¨ In 2004, Springfield had the 11th highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the country. We led a campaign to get a needle exchange program approved as a pilot project after the Commonwealth of Massachusetts authorized twelve such programs. When our cowardly city council backed out of its agreement, we did what we had to do and hosted our own needle exchange program. We distributed on the streets and out of our office. Our exchange was one of the best known secrets in the city; sometimes police officers would bring women to Arise, saying that the women needed to look through our second-hand clothes, have a bowl of warm soup, and take advantage of whatever else we could offer them. We operated for a year, until a hotline tip that could not be ignored brought the police to our doors with batteriing rams. (We just opened the door for them instead.) Charges against two of our members we eventually dropped in exchange for our agreement not to do it again. Around the same time, a statewide campaign to allow needles to be purchased from a pharmacy succeeded, and the need for an underground exchange diminished, or I’m not sure what we would have chosen to do.
¨ Sometimes we act in solidarity with other organizations to stand up for our rights. Three of our members occupied the Bank of America last November with Springfield No One Leaves (a new RESIST grantee) members, an anti-foreclosure campaign.
¨ Our Peace and Anti-Violence organizer, Ellen Graves, is a member of the Shut it Down Affinity Group, working to close the nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vermont which is less than 60 miles north of our office. In the last three years, Shut It Down members have been arrested numerous times in blockades of the plant, most recently this month.
¨ For the last three years we’ve been fighting to keep a biomass incinerator from being built in our poor beleaguered city, which has twice the asthma rate as the rest of the state. We’ve mobilized public opinion, moved city council from approval of the project to disapproval, and appealed every state-issued permit—but we’ve also turned out huge numbers for rallies, picketed the governor’s office taken over the city clerk’s office. We’ve already agreed to chain ourselves to the entrance to the plant if all else fails.
On June 1 of last year, Springfield was hit by a tornado that damaged or destroyed many single family homes and rental housing. Two of the most heavily damaged neighborhoods also have the highest concentration of renters and poor people. Some of us knew, almost immediately, that the city would use rebuilding as an excuse to move those neighborhoods towards a more ‘mixed income’ approach, which would be acceptable to us if affordable housing were to be developed elsewhere. But we knew that wasn’t going to happen.
On April 2, while we were waiting for the report to be released, we held a rally and march against the criminalization of poverty and homelessness in conjunction with the USA and Canadian chapters of the International Alliance of Inhabitants and the Western Regional Advocacy Project. We were honored to be in the company of seventeen other cities who used this day to organize. Speakers, poets and musicians talked about what it was like to be homeless, the impact of HUD cuts on housing and the displacement of tornado victims.
At the end of our rally, a hundred of us marched on the Mayor’s office and presented him with a letter outlining our concerns about the rebuilding process and making only one demand: we want him to create a housing task force that consists of at least 50% low and moderate income people. Smaller groups of us have occupied the hallway outside the mayor’s office, several times since, bringing oriental rugs, camp chairs, art for the walls, kazoos and food. On the anniversary of the tornado, 40 of us lined both sides of a church entrance where the mayor was sponsoring an interfaith service, carrying signs saying, “What about us?” and “Left out of the plan.” Not only do we want our voices to be heard, we want action.
June 1 marked the one year anniversary of Springfield’s tornado. Mayor Sarno has announced an Interfaith Prayer Service for 4 pm on that day. We’ve decided to gather outside the church at 3 pm. with signs asking, “What About Us?” and demanding we be included in decisions made about our lives. Then we will join the service.
What we will do in the months to come is not fully decided. We know we won’t give up. And we know we will need to become even more visible and more vocal than ever. But our lives are at stake, and that makes us bold.
We have nothing to lose.
S.U.N.N.
50% of the people in Springfield live in rental housing.
The on June 1, 2011 destroyed more multifamily housing that single housing units.
Are you tired of property owners being the only ones the city listens too?
….of having to live in substandard housing because it’s the only thing available?
How do we fix it? WE ORGANIZE!
Give Arise a call and see what we can do together!
Ask for Liz or Michaelann 413-734-4948
DO YOU NEED TO DO COMMUNITY SERVICE? FOR THE COURTS, SNAP OR TAFDC? YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME AT ARISE!
CALL RUBEN, LIZ, ELLEN OR MICHAELANN AT 734-4948 FOR MORE DETAILS.
Top 5 Tips for Families
Applying for Emergency Shelter at DHCD
1. You have a right to file an application for Emergency Assistance(EA) shelter at any time.
· You should not be sent away without having your application taken, even if DHCD says you are not eligible and even if you had another application denied in the past few days, weeks or months.
2. You have a right to receive a written notice of approval or denial of your application.
· DHCD should not send you away by just saying you are not eligible.
· The only way you can “appeal” a denial is if you get a written notice.
- DHCD has the right to ask the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to do a visit to verify that you cannot stay where you have been staying.
- The DCF workers who do these visits are not the same people who remove children for abuse and neglect, so do not let DHCD scare you out of applying for EA shelter if you need it.
- DHCD sometimes tells parents that if they have no place to stay they will call DCF to come and take their children. This should not happen; DCF is supposed to provide shelter to the family if lack of shelter is the only reason a child would otherwise be taken into state custody.
- If DHCD threatens to call DCF to come and take your children, you may want to call the head of Housing Stabilization at DCF, Amy Mullen (617-748-2375) and Alvina Brevard at DHCD (413-858-1382).
- If your application is denied for reasons you think are wrong, you can file an appeal by faxing a copy of the denial notice with the appeal form filled out to 617-573-1285.
- You can put as the reason “I disagree with the decision.”
- But it can take weeks to get a decision on an appeal, so you may be better off reapplying (see #1), particularly if you have gotten advice on how to improve the chances of having your application approved.
- If you are denied shelter, you may call Mass. Justice Project (413-533-2660) for advice. Arise for Social Justice (734-4948)
Top 5 Tips for Families in EA Motels/Hotels
1. The rules for staying in EA motels/hotels are very strict. If you break any of these rules only 2 times, your family can be thrown
out of shelter and barred from returning for 1 full year.
· The Hotel/Motel rules are on the back of this flyer. Do not break these rules!
· You also cannot have any “appliances” not provided by the motel, including blenders, toasters, electric skillets, etc.
· Do your best to get along with your F.O.R. Families worker, other hotel guests and hotel management. If you don’t, you could be found to have violated a rule and it is hard to prove you did not.
2. If you get a “warning” notice saying you broke a rule, and you think you did not break the rule, file an appeal within 21 days, even if the notice does not say you are being terminated.
· If you don’t appeal this notice and are found to violate 1 more rule, you will be terminated.
· If you don’t appeal this “warning” within 21 days, you cannot challenge the warning at a later termination hearing.
· File the appeal by faxing the notice with the appeal form filled out to 617-573-1285.
3. If you get a notice saying you are being terminated for a reason you think is wrong, file an appeal ASAP and at least within 10 days.
· You must file the appeal within 10 days of the date on the notice to be able to stay in shelter while your appeal is being decided.
4. How do you appeal?
- File an appeal by faxing the notice with the appeal form filled out to 617-573-1285.
- As a reason for the appeal you can just say “I disagree with the decision.”
- Arise for Social Justice 413-734-4948 or
- the Mass. Justice Project 413-533-2660.
IF PEOPLE WERE BURNING DOWN YOUR HOUSE, WOULD YOU TRY TO STOP THEM?
HOW ABOUT IF THEY’RE BURNING DOWN THE PLANET, ALONG WITH YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE?
If something happens all at once, we notice it…if it happens gradually, we might not notice it at all….but climate change is real. We got the following email from a Massachusetts advocate, giving some examples of how we can pay attention to how climate change affects poor people.
Summer has its delights but it's also a difficult season for a lot of people. Heat waves and power failures are big problems. The death rates and hospitalization rates rise for low-income people. In particular, it's the very young and the very old who suffer. Ethnic and racial minorities are the most likely to be caught outdoors in difficult jobs like trash removal, landscaping, roofing, etc. The rich stay indoors in air conditioned areas.
At the New England Summit on Environmental Justice, we talked about the problems of extreme heat and the need for "energy justice." Think about climate change.
What's possible for community groups that are concerned about environmental justice?
1) Identify the health and safety problems that hit your community during the summer. The list includes heat waves, power failures, hurricanes and other storms. Dehydration is a big concern. Occupational health and safety problems - for example, heat exhaustion - are big concerns for many working people. A heat wave can kill far more people than a tornado. (Although the big storms get the headlines.)
2) Do outreach and educational work to help your community "beat the heat." Big concern: The fuel assistance season ended in late March and many families are struggling to pay for utility bills. Families need electricity for home lighting, for refrigerators, and for fans and air conditioners, in homes that have fans and air conditioners. Home medical equipment often requires electricity. Help families to get what they need.
3) What happens in your community during a heat wave? Does local government provide "cooling rooms" or special services for the very old and for families with young children? What happens after a tornado or a hurricane hits? (Do local agencies help people who don't speak English? What happens to immigrants?)
4) Summer is also the right time to start preparations for the cold weather season. Let people know about fuel assistance programs and other energy programs that help low-income people.
Climate change? Some people talk about climate change as if it were a problem that, maybe, will happen at some point in the future. "Climate change plans" usually focus on the topics that interest the big energy corporations and the Audubon Society. The immediate needs of low-income people are usually ignored. In reality, heat-related problems have already arrived in some neighborhoods. Look around in your town in August.
For environmental justice advocates, the question remains, "How do we care for marginalized and oppressed groups when the weather starts to change?' With best wishes in every season, Bob Murphy.
PALMER “RENEWABLE” ENERGY – STILL FIGHTING BACK, BUT SO ARE WE!
Most of you know that Arise, and the group we created, Stop Toxic Incineration in Springfield, has been fighting to stop the construction of a biomass plant in Springfield. We’ve held off construction of the plant for more than three years, and we’re not done yet. The City Council pulled the plant’s special permit, and the Zoning Board overturned PRE’s building permit. We’re appealing the issuance of an air permit by the state. PRE, however, hasn’t given up, and is suing City Council for taking the courageous stand we lobbied them to take. Mayor Sarno still supports the plant’s construction.
But the biggest reason we’re against this plant is that our poor community can’t TAKE any more pollution. Our asthma rate is TWICE as high as the state asthma rate. Almost one in four of our kids have asthma. Let’s get real! Even a LITTLE new air pollution is TOO MUCH! Want to get involved in this fight? Call us!
"According to a new U.N. report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which is pretty bad when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet." --Jay Leno
REGISTER TO VOTE & THEN VOTE!
Last day to register for Primary: Friday, August 17
Primary Day: Thursday, September 6
Last day to register for General Election
Wednesday, October 17
General Election
Tuesday, November 6
ELECT: President of the United States
U.S. Senators & Representatives
Massachusetts Senators & Representatives
FAMILIES FIGHT CRIMINAL INJUSTICE…AND ARISE STANDS WITH THEM!
On September 17th, 2009, Charles Wilhite was arrested as a murder suspect in the shooting death of Alberto Rodriguez that occurred October 14th 2008. On December 6th, 2010, a jury delivered a guilty verdict for murder in the first degree, sentencing him to life imprisonment without parole.
As a community, we have significant concerns about the way the case was prosecuted and the way the verdict was reached:
¨ There is no physical evidence linking Charles Wilhite to to the shooting.
¨ The testimonies presented at trial were contradictory, including the initial testimony linking Charles to the shooting.
¨ During the trial, one of the Commonwealth’s key witnesses recanted her testimony.
¨ After the trial, another key witness, immunized for his testimony, recanted his statement, including his identification of Charles. He cites police intimidation as one reason for his falsehood.
¨ Jury deliberation lasted only three hours, despite the need to examine over fifty exhibits.
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(Charles’ Aunt Vira and Rep. Ben Swan at June Teenth celebration for Justice for Charles. ) |
MUCH MORE IS HAPPENING…..We and Out Now also stand with Michael Ververis, savagely assaulted by the Springfield police on January 9…although he is the one charged with fabicated felony and misdemeanor charges…Michael is awaiting trial.
Last week, the family of Delano Walker, Jr.. filed a lawsuit in federal court against two police officers and the City of Springfield over his death in 2009. Walker, then 15, and two friends, all on bicycles, were stopped by the police on Columbus Ave. Accounts differ as to what happened next, but Walker backed into traffic and was killed instantly. For way too long, our young people have been stopped without sufficient reason by the police. Let’s hope this lawsuit can make a difference. Stay tuned.
Even though we’ve never stopped fighting police misconduct (former officer Jeffrey Asher in jail!) Arise is restaritng our own criminal justice committee. Want to be a part? Get in touch!
Poverty & Wealth
E | Y | M | O | N | O | C | E | L | P | B | A | H | S | D | E |
A | T | H | C | A | Y | R | G | I | I | B | O | N | S | I | T |
R | N | Q | J | A | A | E | H | L | U | V | O | T | P | S | U |
N | U | W | R | F | P | S | L | N | E | I | E | R | S | P | T |
I | O | E | L | U | R | I | D | L | S | S | O | A | D | A | I |
N | B | E | C | E | O | A | T | S | S | P | L | I | N | R | T |
G | W | L | N | N | N | N | E | A | E | C | S | S | O | I | S |
S | Q | W | A | C | A | S | O | R | L | E | S | D | I | T | E |
T | O | I | E | B | S | T | T | I | A | I | C | N | T | Y | D |
J | R | L | Y | O | O | Y | I | S | T | U | S | O | A | R | M |
E | U | F | P | S | K | R | E | R | L | A | M | M | R | E | A |
S | E | C | R | U | O | S | E | R | E | O | V | A | O | P | N |
I | N | E | Q | U | A | L | I | T | Y | H | W | I | P | U | S |
E | R | I | A | N | O | I | L | L | I | M | N | D | R | A | I |
F | I | N | A | N | C | I | A | L | O | S | R | I | O | P | O |
B | Z | I | Y | R | A | T | E | N | O | M | R | I | C | H | N |
ABUNDANCE | ASSETS | BILLIONAIRE |
BOUNTY | CAPITALISM | CLASS |
CORPORATION | DESTITUTE | DIAMONDS |
DISEASE | DISPARITY | EARNINGS |
ECONOMY | FINANCIAL | HOVEL |
INEQUALITY | INHERITANCE | LABOR |
LOW | MANSION | MILLIONAIRE |
MONETARY | OWNERSHIP | PAUPER |
POSSESSIONS | PRIVATION | PROPERTY |
RESOURCES | RICH | WELFARE |
YACHT |
