FUNDRAISER FOR TOMORROW HAS BEEN POSTPONED . . . .
You may have read the article in the paper about the mother who is going to lose her section 8 because her son, who is in jail, was is facing charges that he was involved in a shooting. As a result, she is going to lose her housing assistance, even tho he will not be returning to the household any time soon. There’s also a follow up article. (The fact that these are just charges and not a conviction really bother me, but that is the subject of another post.)
This post is mostly taken from several emails to listserves but rearranged, and edited . . .
BACKGROUND/INTERESTING FACTS
1. The purpose of the section 8 program is to help low income families access decent housing, not to look “tough on crime”. CDA’s trajectory of more rigid application of “one strike” policies will disproportionately impact people of color due to the shameful racial disparities in our criminal justice system. And people of color are already overrepresented among the homeless in our community, as noted by this statistic in the Housing is a Human Right resolution passed by the city council.
Whereas, homelessness impacts a disproportionate number of people of color in Dane County, with 71% in shelter identifying as non-white [people of color] and African Americans the largest minority group; 83% of families, 64% of single women, 54% of single men and 48% of unaccompanied youth identified as non-white [people of color].
CDA’s hard-line approach will only exacerbate this unacceptable situation. (By the way, the CDA has an obligation to affirmatively further fair housing).
2) CDA is not required to terminate the family from the section 8 program.
3) By its own policy, CDA is required to consider individual circumstances of this case, including: the seriousness of the case, the extent of participation or culpability of individual family members (whether other family members are innocent), mitigating circumstances related to the disability of a family member, and the effects of termination on other family members who were not involved in the violation. One of the alternatives to termination that the CDA’s policies provide as an option is excluding the household member charged with the program violation.
4) Ms. Mays and her 2 teenage daughters had nothing to do with the incident leading to the criminal charges against Ms. Mays’ son. The incident happened miles away from Ms. Mays’ subsidized home. Ms. Mays’ son is disabled. Other members of the household, including Ms. Mays, have disabilities. The remaining family members are all dealing with an incredible amount of stress due to this incident and the potential homelessness. Ms. Mays’ son is incarcerated and has been since he was arrested after the incident in August. Ms. Mays has requested he be removed from the section 8 household and taken off the lease. The property manager in charge of Ms. Mays’ unit, who has rented to Ms. Mays for years, supports Ms. Mays keeping her section 8 and said she has had no problems with her household (and explained this to the CDA at Ms. Mays’ hearing). Ms. Mays would not be able to afford to stay at their home without section 8 and they face homelessness. Ms. Mays came to Madison seeking safety and refuge from extremely brutal domestic violence which caused lasting damage to her physical and mental health. Ms. Mays’ health problems make living in a shelter or on the streets very problematic. Ms. Mays’ character and dedication to her children has been commended by many people who have worked with her family over the years. She is recognized as a woman of incredible courage, perseverance, and responsibility.
4) CDA should be a community leader (or at least partner) in reducing homelessness, not an agency which further burdens our over-burdened and under-resourced homeless services agencies by needlessly kicking innocent and vulnerable people off of section 8.
5) See below. If you know Ms. Mays personally and can make favorable comments regarding her character, that would also be helpful.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Here are a few ways you can help.
Contact the CDA
Tell them you disagree with their decision to kick this innocent family off the section 8 rent assistance program. Agustin Olvera is the Housing Operations Director and approved of this decision and Natalie Erdman, the Executive Director, is Mr. Olvera’s supervisor.
Mail:
Community Development Authority of the City of Madison
Attn: Ms. Natalie Erdman, Executive Director, Rm. 12
Madison Municipal Building
215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Madison, WI 53703-3348
Mr. Olvera is in the same building, but in Rm. 120.
E-mail:
Emails for the CDA staff are available here
Or contact the committee members
CDA Housing Operations Committee
Contact the media
Second, letters and other communications to local media in support of Ms. Mays would be helpful. As you are probably aware, the Wisconsin State Journal first reported on this story, but other publications may be interested as well.
Fundraiser
Third, Sabrina Madison is organizing a fundraiser to take place on Saturday February 11 11 – 4 at the East Madison Community Center, which we expect to involve poetry, spoken word and a DJ. The purpose of the fundraiser is to raise money for Ms. Mays’ household expenses because the CDA’s last section 8 payment was sent in January and Ms. Mays will be responsible for the difference while the court case is pending.
If you can’t attend the fundrasier but want to help, feel free to contact me and I will get you contact information to get the money to the family.
http://www.themic921.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?podcast=thepeoplesmic&selected_podcast=02-08-12_THE_PEOPLES_MIC_1328745979_12838.mp3 here’s more coverage of the case. Ms. Mays and I on Doug Cunningham’s show this past Weds. Thank you for your continued support!
Interesting that this situation was not mentioned once at the 2/7/12 Homeless Services Consortium meeting. I find it hard to believe that no one in the room of around 30 folks knew about this. The City of Madison keeps pretending that we are not rife with poverty, thus we do not have enough resources to help folks avoid homelessness, and get back on track with their goals and activities of daily living. Why make another single Mom and children cope with homelessness? Madison can’t even guarantee that there will be a shelter available to them! An eviction from CDA is a significant bruise on all future rental applications– aaaaaaaaaaah!
Kinda awkward when our funder, one of the main conveners is married to the head of housing operations. But I don’t think that was the issue. Somehow, that group seems so disconnected from reality and the outside world. This issue and many, many, many more should be addressed but my attempts to have any of these discussions go no-where. It’s like people are just waiting to leave the meeting. And of course, you saw the response to my question about what Porchlight would be doing when the Don Miller site closes – they aren’t planning on trying to keep any day shelter open, or even trying to extend it or provide any services to the people there – it was almost as if they felt this was a waste of time this winter because it wasn’t cold enough for anyone to freeze to death. I’m not even sure the group has even discussed strategies to deal with the people hanging out at the City-County Building. And attempts to talk about what happens when the capital and library closes were met with – they have other places to go, it’ll be fine. That group drives me nuts. I could go on, I’ll spare you.
ALERT – FUNDRAISER HAS BEEN CANCELED. Hopefully it will be rescheduled sometime in the near future, but it will unfortunately not go forward as originally planned on February 11, 2012. If you’re interested in helping the Mays family please contact me at 608-333-3676 or heidimayree@gmail.com. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you!