Poor People's United Fund's Voice Today

In Memory of Kip

2011-09-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

You are invited to use this blog space to leave messages for Kip's family and friends, or to write about your experiences and memories.

2011-05-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Roseanna Means presenting a quilt to Kip. The quilt was made by women at various shelters in appreciation of Kip's life-long commitment to homeless women.

2011-05-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well – how many times have we been through this in the 31 years we have been writing to you? How many demonstrations? Fasts? How many call your Congress person campaigns? Today, we find ourselves waiting yet again to learn the exact impact the cuts Congress will heap upon those least able to absorb the them.

Many programs that were put in place to alleviate the suffering of poor people, those living with disability or mental illnesses and the elderly have already been severely cut. Any further cuts will be devastating.
Some examples:
Federal
According to Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post “although the housing crisis is far from over, HUD (Dept of Housing and Urban Development) will have about a billion dollars less to spend on homelessness and housing programs in FY 2012 than it did the previous year. The Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness will receive an increase in funds that will allow it to assist approximately 78,000 new homeless families, but funds will be slashed for housing programs for seniors and the disabled, as well as for the Community Development Block Grant Program, which builds and rehabilitates affordable housing.
Jeremy Rosen, policy director for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty said “I think it’s a rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic, so to speak, because we’re saying, ‘Okay, we’re gonna provide a little bit more money to people who are homeless by taking it away from housing programs that stop people from falling into homelessness,’” he said. “We’re obviously in a housing crisis, so a budget that cuts a billion dollars is not going to really make meaningful steps toward addressing that.”
One program that was completely left out of HUD’s 2012 budget, the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, was already having trouble keeping up with demand in 2010, according to a recent National Low Income Housing Report.
The program, which helps keep people in their apartments by subsidizing their rent, will likely run out of money in most states before the end of 2011 without additional HUD funding.
Locally we are looking at enormous cuts as well.
• $23 million for emergency homeless shelters
• $21.4 million for mental health hospitals, children’s community flexible supports and clubhouse programs (DMH)
• $15 million for employment services programs (DTA)
• $14.4 million for community services for the blind and turning 22 programs and services (MCB)
• $14 million for family respite services (DDS)
• $11.5 million for clothing allowance paid for families receiving TAFDC (DTA)
• $8.3 million for residential services for detained or committed populations (DYS)
• $8 million for early intervention services (DPH)
• $6.6 million for group care services (DCF)
• $6.5 million for health promotion activities and newborn hearing screenings - eliminating these programs (DPH)
• $4 million for services for children and families (DCF)
• $2 million for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and services (DPH)

The cuts that are being proposed to community programs, Medicare and Medicaid will increase the gap between the rich and the rest of us. The net result of which will make our country weaker not stronger! [See graphic from Center for Budget and Policy Priorities right] It tells the story pretty well.
USA Today says, “The U.S. ...has the greatest (income)disparity among Western industrialized nations.

We stubbornly refuse to let go of a vision of justice. With your help PPUF helps to lend flesh and blood to a vision of justice that says the rich should not get richer while the poor get poorer. It sounds straight forward enough... but when setting spending priorities it’s those with the biggest voices ($$$$$) that get heard. These days those voices are louder than ever.
As frustrated as we may get we cannot afford the luxury of cynicism- we must continue to push against the tide of money and indifference. The well being of millions of people -the most vulnerable among us - is on the line. We must make our voices heard! So here we go again!!!Call those Congressmen and women and State legislators!

In struggle and hope,
Your friends at PPUF

Undocumented Save Wall Street

2010-06-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

by Georgia Mattison

The Massachusetts Senate on May 27 approved “a series of measures to tighten immigration enforcement.” (New York Times) The same proposal failed in the Massachusetts House of representatives earlier by six votes. The measure according to a May 25 Boston.Com article, “would require that adults applying for public benefits supply proof of legal residence, such as a state driver’s license. Otherwise, they must produce an affidavit saying they are here legally and be checked through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement program, or SAVE.” Massachusetts benefit programs including TANF (Welfare) and Unemployment Assistance already run checks on applicants, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that runs the program.

The measure according to the Massachusetts and Immigrant Advocacy Coalition MIRA “would mandate that all employers contracting with the state utilize E-verify, a federal database to ascertain work authorization of all employees. This is costly for employers, particularly small businesses. The system according to the Social Security and Government Accountability Office has a high error rate.”

Senator James B. Eldrige, Democrat of Acton said, “these measures could create new delays for the elderly and others who do not carry driver’s licenses or other traditional forms of identification.” In 2006, Colorado passed this exact bill, but less than a year later after spending more than $2 million dollars did not save money (by finding any adults who were not eligible for benefits) according to the Massachusetts Law Institute MLRI who had produced an analysis of this measure.

So if checks are already in place to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving benefits and an exact same measure cost money but found no one getting benefits that they shouldn’t why the popularity and deep support for this measure. The issue is what is happening to those who support this measure and not if an undocumented immigrant somewhere may be receiving benefits.

Banks have been bailed out from an economic catastrophe that they were in large part the cause. The rest of us are suffering from a persistent high unemployment rate of 10%, 20% if you include those who have stopped looking or have been reduced from full time to part time work. (Bureau of Labor Statistics) Government job creation has slowed down or stopped. Private sector job creation is erratic. (New York Times, June5, 2010) All of the aspects of a deep recession continue, loss of housing, foreclosures, loss of income, more and more income inequality with less and less markers of hope.

“Violence is more common in societies with less income equality” writes Wilkenson and Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level, Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger?

One strategy of violent reaction is to focus against what caused this loss of security. Punish the Government for not doing enough against Wall Street, through protests and /or elections. The other aided and abetted by elected officials and politicians is to focus on those perceived to be exempt from this freefall and anxiety for survival, the poor who are receiving benefits, but especially the undocumented who might possibly be getting benefits. The undocumented have saved Wall Street again.

2009-06-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

End words from Kip:

Thanks to all of you who have responded to our three day fast of moral witness at the continuing cruelty visited upon our poorest citizens in Massachusetts. Thanks to all of you, our cup runneth over! This is our third fast in twenty years, always for the same reasons: for atonement, for redemption, for repentance, for resistance, for forgiveness of the poor for what we as taxpayers have allowed state legislators to do in our name.

2009-06-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

More Day Three speakers:

Fran Froehlich, Co-Director of PPUF and Director of Community Works spoke about how important small organizations are in pursuit of social justice and how important it is to support their work. Community Works raises money for thirty-one small social justice non-profits that serve folks who have always been at the end of line when the goodies are being handed out. Fran spoke of the catastrophic increase in need that these agencies are coping with.

Marie Turley, Director, City of Boston Women's Commission reported on the proposed budget cuts to services for victims of domestic violence.

Jim Green, director, City of Boston Emergency Shelter Commission spoke about the proposed budget cut that would deny families with income between 100% and 130% of the poverty line access to shelter.

2009-06-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Lew Finfer, long time activisit talked about his concerns at the elimination in the state budget of youth violence prevention and job training programs. Massachusetts has a three billion dollar budget deficit due to corporate tax breaks and lack of state income tax increases.

Pat Maher, Nurse for Cambridge Health Care for the Homeless spoke about the lack of comprehensive services for homeless women.

Boston Globe Article about Kip's Fast

2009-06-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Please read this article!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/03/still_striking_at_hunger/

2009-06-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

Roca young people gave performances and testimony about how the programs had helped them, Stuart Herrara, Chino Kan, Mercedes Pagan, and Jennifer Gonzales.

Mary Quinn, Rene Scott Gray, Laurie Taymor Berry talked about the struggles for equal justice for poor women at the Boston Women's Fund and Survivors, Inc.

Diane Sullivan, Homes for Families talked about the 2700 families living in shelter, 700 in motels where she had lived not being able to feed her families. The voucher program has not been funded and would result in more families becoming homeless.

2009-06-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Day three of Kip's Fast was opened with a message from Pat Baker, Chair, of the Massachusetts Food Stamp Coalition. "Our work continues today in honor of and inspired by Rosie's Place founder Kip Tiernan. She seeks to raise awareness of the continued growth in homelessness and hunger facing the Commonwealth, and to call on elected leaders to own their responsibility to appropriate the funds needed to ensure the Commonwealth meets these most basic human needs."

Before we ended yesterday, Gabriella Snyder Stelmack spoke about the 24% increase in need at the Bread of Life food program in Malden. She reported that the director Tom Feagley was fasting in solidarity with Kip.

Debbie Socolar from the Boston University school of Public Health spoke about the importance of nutrition and safe housing being included in the definition of health care.

2009-06-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

Susan Mortimer and Betty Reid Mandell from Survivor's, Inc. talked about the humiliation visited on welfare recipients by case workers and legislators. Both talked about trying to mobilize the fight against poverty and injustice and not against poor people. "The only war we need to win is the war that intends to deny what we all witness each and every day: The injustice of Poverty and Hunger." ( from a poem read by Mary Woodman Amato)

2009-06-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

Molly Baldwin, Director, Reaching Out to Chelsea's Adolescents ROCA which does gang intervention, health care, tutoring and prisoner outreach read a letter from a prisoner who is fasting in solidarity with Kip. Ray Champlain delineated in his letter the cuts in rehabilitation services for prisoners and the increasing acts of violence towards prisoners.

2009-06-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

Former Director of the City Mission Society David King talked about his greatest fear that we really don't want to solve the problem of hunger and homelessness. Bigger and more shelters and food warehouses for food pantries seem to announce that this problem will always be with us, that it must be institutionalized.

Jane Zerby from the Unitarian Universalist church in Jamaica Plain talked about the increasing numbers of people waiting in line for two hours for a bag of groceries at their newly founded food pantry. Jane and Bob Golden among many who have brought in food volunteered to take the donated food to this new pantry.

2009-06-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

LIVE form OLD SOUTH Church ---- Kip Ternan's hunger fast -6-2-09

Rosie's Place Founder Fasts For Homeless

Reporting
Kate Merrill

BOSTON (WBZ) ―

Click to enlarge: Kip Tiernan
WBZ

She is a hero among the homeless. And now 82-year-old Kip Tiernan is putting her health at risk to help again.

The founder of Rosie's Place is on a three day fast to raise donations and awareness for poverty and homelessness. "We love what were doing and love what has to be done and we're never gonna stop," says Tiernan.

Inside the Old South Church in Boston Tiernan, along with others from the Poor People's United Fund will not eat for three days. It is not easy, but they say it has never been so bad for the needy. "Our children are suffering, our old ladies and men and dying and they are looking at canned dog food, but even that's too expensive," says Tiernan.

Her friends and supporters say Tiernan is amazing. "She is very courageous. For anybody to go on a fast is something… for her to do it after all these years is really something" says her friend Mark Harvey.

They have had calls of support and e-mails from people all over the country who say they are fasting for the cause as well. "We felt like we had to say something. We couldn't stand by anymore," says Fran Froehlich with the Poor People's United Fund.

From WBZ TV
http://wbztv.com/local/kip.tiernan.strike.2.1027282.html

2009-06-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Live from Old South---
Georgia Mattison of PPUF talked about how frustrated she was to learn there were resources available to assist hungry people thru an expansion of the Food Stamp program but no resources to admininster the application process! When she talked with Kip about it --- Kip responed by initiating the idea of holding a fast to highlight this problem.

The Notifiers, a singing group from Brookline High School students sang a rousing 'Stand By Me' and 'We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest'.

2009-06-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Rev. Nancy Taylor of Old South Church opened the Fast with a Prayer written by Father Michael Quoist called "Hunger." I have eaten. I have eaten too much, I have eaten because others did. Because I was invited, Because I was in the world and the world would not have understood: And each dish, each mouthful, each swallow was hard to get down. I have eaten too much, Lord, when ten, a hundred, a thousand unfortunates though out the world at that very moment twisted in pain and died of hunger before their despairing families.

2009-06-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

Ann Withorn, professor of social policy at UMASS Boston.... comments not exact words...
We can't talk about the middle class if we can't talk about poverty.
Poverty makes people scared then we see an increase in violence at home and on the streets.
It's the over privileged we need to worry about- not the underprivileged.
Thank you Kip for bringing us together to stand up for the things we care about.

2009-06-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

LIVE FROM OLD SOUTH CHURCH----------
Nancy Taylor, pastor of Old South opened the 3 day fast by saying, "We surround Kip who's fasting for the poor and hungry- those who are hungry who have been humiliated by the decisions that have been made about our common dollars."

Marjorie Clapprood followed Kip and spoke about the history of her family's struggle to make it ---day to day.

Don Wells- speaking now is talking about renewing of our moral center--- thanking Kip for being our guide over so many years.

Mark Harvey and part of his bank AARDVARK have come to contribute the spirit of music to this communal meditation.

2009-05-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Kip'sFast to begin soon! --- sounds like lots of people will be coming on Monday!
Teens from ROCA will be performing!
Nancy Taylor will be speaking as well as Matt Dumont.. many more joining the fast.

2009-05-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

-POOR PEOPLE’S UNITED FUND-

In order to bring attention to the ongoing plight of the poor, Kip Tiernan, founder of Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for women, the Greater Boston Food Bank, which distributes millions of pounds of food a year, and the Poor People's United Fund will begin a public fast at Old South Church, June 1st at noon. All are invited to witness with Kip.

I have decided to begin a public fast at Old South Church. Why? There are a number of reasons, all of which make good sense to me:

For atonement: We should atone for what we have allowed to happen to all poor people in this state, in the name of fiscal austerity or plain mean-spiritedness. We should atone for silently participating in a holocaust, by our consistent denial of reality of what really happens to poor people when we remain silent.

For redemption: I feel redemption can’t be too far away, if atonement is part of the circle of hurt. We must bring hurt into public expression. It’s the most visceral announcement that things are not right.

For repentance: We have, as citizens, much to repent for, for what we have and have not done, to ease the suffering of our sisters and brothers who have no lobby to protect them.

For resistance: I think the time is ripe for all of us who are disillusioned and who feel powerless to renew our spiritual values and come together in some kind of community of resistance, with a clear vision of how things might yet be.

For hope: It is the wellspring of all human energy. If it is true that energy comes from the embrace of the inscrutable darkness, there’s plenty out there! But together we have the opportunity to come into the light of understanding and compassion once again.

I invite those who want to support me to come and begin to share some dreams and hopes.

It is a way we can come together in some kind of thoughtful harmony, around the issues of poverty and deprivation.

There are now at least 10, 000 people per month who can’t get on food stamps because there aren’t enough case workers. We urge the state to get those 10,000 folks on food stamps now. We urge the state to find immediate housing for the thousands of homeless now. This atrocity has been going on for at least three decades. E N O U G H.

I welcome your presence with me and hope you will feel free to speak to those issues most pertinent to the health and welfare of the poorest victims of this latest onslaught.

All movements that have mattered to us have begun with a spiritual base and a need not to be isolated.

Perhaps this is a foolish gesture, but I’m committed to it. For me, it is truly a way to find hope together.

We ask you to bring a donation of food for local pantries.

2009-05-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

Join Old South Church’s Rev. Nancy S. Taylor in standing with

Kip Tiernan & Poor Peoples’ United Fund

in a

MORAL WITNESS
TO THE INJUSTICE OF
POVERTY & HUNGER

Old South Church in Boston
Boylston & Dartmouth Streets @ the Copley T

Fast with us. Pray with us. Mourn with us.
Hope with us. Rage with us. Give with us:
Bring non-perishable food items for donation to local pantries.

“We should get down on our knees and beg forgiveness of the poor
for our charity to them.” - St. Francis of Assisi

Where: Old South Church’s main sanctuary

When: Monday, June 1, 12noon -6:30p
June 2, 10:30a-6:30p
Wednesday, June 3, 10:30a-6:30p

Visit: www.ppuf.org or call 617-262-5922

2007-12-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

A Look at Economic Stability
Georgia Mattison, PPUF Staff

The current economic reality has become one of dangerous instability in terms of housing, health care, income/jobs, and social services/food.

Housing: Unregulated mortgage companies, unlike banks who are highly regulated, have given out loans to people without telling them the hidden future higher payment resulting in foreclosures linked to a depression in the global economy. One in over 500 hundred homeowners is now in foreclosure and that number is expected to rise. (NY Times, September 25, 2007) The increased size of the monthly rent or mortgage check represents the “increasing economic risk people are assuming as housing comes to represent more and more of the typical household budget.” (Jacob S. Hacker, “The Great Risk Shift”)

“Housing is insurmountable for most of our shelter residents. We are building our own affordable housing as the available stock is pretty minimal,” reports Stasia Lopopolo, Director, Sojourner House in Roxbury. Original centers of large scale affordable housing like Columbia Point in Dorchester are changing the rules little by little to exclude low-income families according to Sister Joyce McMullen of Project Care and Concern.

Healthcare: Employer- based health insurance and employer-based pensions are now part of a “bygone” era according to Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (NY TIMES, 8/1/07) Not surprisingly the number of uninsured has reached 47 million in the US. (NY Times, 7/29/07) The American Cancer Society now says the primary cause for the lack of progress in cancer cessation is “inadequate health coverage.” Much of this health care coverage that must be covered more and more by the individual remains inadequate.

Income/Jobs: “The increase in costs for utilities, rent, transportation, communication (phone, internet) child care cannot be covered with incomes of unskilled or minimally skilled work. There are few labor unions, few factories, just extreme low level skilled jobs and now even the military is not an option for unskilled workers.” (Stasia Lopopolo, Sojouner House) The median income is less than it was in 2000. While wages are up slightly it is because Americans are working more hours, not because of wage increases. (NY Times, 7/29/07)

Stasia Lopopolo’s agency, because of the paucity of publicly funded job training and job readiness programs, has made its own job training alliances with local health centers. Sojouner House must work to overcome shelter residents lack of work experience and on the job skills. The vulnerability from lack of work experience extends also into the middle class. Statia Lopopolo comments: “A lot of young men and women don’t have a skill base. It’s becoming a more and more difficult environment to have no skill base.”

The Criminal Offenders Record Information CORI is required for all formal employment and for benefit eligibility. As the CORI records all contact with the criminal justice system no matter how serious or benign and is never expunged, job opportunities are limited to family businesses or “under the table” employment. The 1 out of 236 Americans who are currently incarcerated is the highest rate in the western world. (NY Times, 5/22/06)

Social services/food: Social Services are becoming more and more limited from the public sector and private agencies are scrambling to fill in the gaps. Welfare ceased to be an entitlement program in 1996. Eligibility is now for only two years.

Other services meet clients with even less accessibility. The Boston Food Bank is building a new warehouse to double their private food distribution from 26 million to 50 million pounds a year (Boston Globe 8/20/07) as the commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to dig out from an ignominious 51st in the country in Food Stamp participation. At a recent Food Stamp Improvement Coalition meeting advocates were reporting on the almost criminal examples of illegal denials of food stamp benefits. For example military families who get paid so little that they are eligible for food stamps were being dumped off the program if a spouse were getting combat pay in Iraq. This contravenes a widely known law that says combat pay is not counted as income for benefits or taxes.

One of the terrible exclusions in the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was the elimination of welfare and other benefits for LEGAL immigrants. States can fund welfare and food stamps out of their own funds. The advocacy community is in currently another difficult restoration campaign to make legal immigrants eligible for welfare and food stamp benefits. This effort is prodded by the fact that private agencies cannot cope with the great need crisis that this exclusion causes.

Stasia Lopopolo and Sister Joyce McMullen of Sojourner House and Project Care and Concern respectively have been reporting at PPUF Board of Directors meetings the increasing violence and homicide rates where their agencies are located. Lack of safety interferes with the accomplishment of their agencies’ missions. The economic instability caused by safety problems, continuing inadequate government assistance, monitoring and accessibility, and the increasing lack employer participation in benefits and job security have put impossible pressures from families in more and more urgent need on non-profit agencies.

Poor People's United Fund's Voice Today

In Memory of Kip

Undocumented Save Wall Street

Boston Globe Article about Kip's Fast

Rosie's Place Founder Fasts For Homeless

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