Help End Hunger and Reduce Recidivism: Support AB 828!

No one should go hungry. However, people with former drug offenses and their families often do. Research demonstrates that CalFresh benefits are critical for successful community re-entry and self-sufficiency.

By being denied these benefits, individuals who have already paid their debt to society are unable to provide food, improved nutrition, and a crucial part of the re-entry safety net to their families.

Supporting AB 828 would help end hunger by allowing California to “opt out” of the lifetime Federal ban on CalFresh assistance for persons with a former drug offense.

37 states and the District of Columbia have already restored nutrition benefits to this vulnerable population.

Click HERE for more information. Click HERE to sign a support letter for AB 828.

…And Justice for All Awards

On October 2, 2010 LA CAN hosted its 1st Annual ..And Justice for All Awards in San Pedro, CA. The award celebration was held at the home of longtime LA CAN supporter Diane Middleton and proved to be the perfect venue. Breathtaking views of the ocean served as the perfect backdrop and the weather, which earlier in the day had threatened rain,  was sunny and bright.

Friends, family members, and other LA CAN supporters gathered to pay homage to the inaugural awards recipients. Recipients were honored for their work and commitment to LA CAN’s human rights projects.  Collectively they represented 25 years of work to bring equity, dignity & respect, and justice for residents in Downtown and South Los Angeles.

The Housing Awards were presented to:

1. Barbara Schultz, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, 8-year LA CAN Commitment
2. Steve Diaz, Community Organizer, 7-year LA CAN Commitment

Steve and Barbara accept their awards

The Civil Rights  Awards were presented to:

1. Jim Evans, Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., 4-year LA CAN Commitment
2. General Dogon, Community Organizer, 5-year LA CAN Commitment

Jim Evans and General Dogon accept their awards from Pete White

Press Release: Downtown Residents and Faith-Based Groups Protest Increasing Criminalization and Harassment, Human Rights Abuses, and Four Years of Financial Waste

September 29, 2010

Contact: Pete White

Los Angeles

Community Action Network

(213) 228-0024 Ext. 201

Downtown Residents and Faith-Based Groups Protest Increasing Criminalization and Harassment, Human Rights Abuses, and Four Years of Financial Waste

On Thursday, September 30^th, Skid Row residents and faith-based supporters took action all day long to highlight both long-standing and new tactics of criminalization of homelessness and poverty.

Last week, Mayor Villaraigosa touted his purported efforts to end homelessness in Los Angeles by holding a dog and pony show at the New Genesis project in downtown LA.  Yet he failed to acknowledge that his permanent supportive housing program hasn’t funded any new units in more than a year while at the same time the Mayor has refused to end his expensive, failed policing initiative on Skid Row, which has already cost local taxpayers hundreds of millions.

There has been no relationship between crime rates and police resources on Skid Row, where in 2006 former Chief Bratton added 50 extra uniformed officers and as many undercover cops to police a 50-square-block area that’s home to only 15,000 people, most of them poor and black.

Recently, Chief Beck and Councilmember Perry escalated Safer Cities policing to a new low, establishing new “criminals” in faith-based groups distributing free food and other basic necessities in Skid Row.  After more than 35,000 arrests and tens of thousands of citations under Safer Cities, LAPD is not just targeting poor and homeless people but also the people that provide much needed relief to them.

And now this model will be exported — this devastating enforcement strategy was just unveiled last week as a solution for homelessness in Venice.  Criminalization does not end homelessness or poverty – it only exacerbates it.

Hot Off the Press: Community Connection #37

[enter here to read real stories of Angelenos making history] community connect 37FINAL

It is that time again, Community Connection time! This edition will highlight the Los Angeles Right to Housing Collective’ response to the May 21, 2010 melee in City Council. We will take you to the Mayor’s Mansion and LA Council President Eric Garcetti’s home where residents let him know “that we shall not be moved!” We will also bring you news from Northern Cali where executives of Amerland Group, headed by Ruben Islas, have been arrested and charged with manslaughter in connection to faulty fire systems in one of their affordable housing for seniors projects [search back-issues of the CC and read more about Amerland's failures to adequately serve low-income families and individuals].  These are but a few of the stories that are just a mouse click away, join us as we connect communities locally and abroad.

Long Awaited “Shame of the City” Report Released

SHAME OF THE CITY – THE SEQUEL
SLUM HOUSING: L.A.’S HIDDEN HEALTH CRISIS
Enhancing Community Health by Improving Housing and Health Practices,
Aligning Government Priorities and Increasing the Power of Tenants

slum_paper_v10. 4.14.10

[please click on the link above to read report]

Getting Ready for Action in San Francisco

Lets get ready to rumble! Join LA CAN and our West Coast allies as we converge on the Federal Building in San Francisco, CA. Our demand, making housing and not the criminalization of poverty the national priority.

To get involved contact LA CAN at (213) 228-0024 and ask for Pete White, or simply go to wraphome.org to get the latest action updates.

Agonize or organize in 2010 that is the question.

SCI Anniversary Report Back & Thank You’s

Unity in the Hood

We wanted to express our sincere thank you for your strong showing of solidarity against the Safer Cities Initiative over the past two days – and a special thanks goes to those of you who are on our Safer Cities Committee.  Please also share with your friends, colleagues and members that joined us that we are not reaching with this email.

Your participation embodies the bold resistance needed to swing the pendulum of change in our direction, far left of center. Your insistence that the creed, “…and justice for all”  be truly recognized for all regardless of economic status, race, or gender affirms that a better day is coming. Your bravery in speaking truth to power on our terms is commendable.  We and all of our members recognize and value your commitment to justice.

International Symbol of Distress, we are under siege!

On Monday night, about 150 people joined us throughout the evening as we claimed space and celebrated community strength on the steps of Central Division.  On Tuesday morning, after a few dozen people rallied and distributed citations around City Hall, more than 100 people gathered in Chambers to address the Council.  Councilmember Perry, acting president, promptly skipped over public comment when she saw the number of people there to speak out against SCI and her failed leadership in her district.  While her stalling tactic caused us to lose a handful of people, most everyone was able to stay.  After waiting patiently for a reasonable time, we refused to be blatantly ignored – we loudly and strongly demanded that public comment be heard and it was.

LA CAN members and staff were really energized by the two-day action.  We were able to highlight community leadership and resistance, re-activate old members and gain new ones, and stand together as a broad Los Angeles community fighting criminalization of poverty.   Also, as a result of our actions in Council Chambers, Councilmember Rosendahl called for a review of the Safer Cities Initiative. While small in some respects. this opens some new doors of possibility thus widening our opportunities to finally stop the occupation and human rights violations occurring daily in our homes and community.

Today we celebrate, tomorrow we continue the fight and we are honored to have you by our side.  End SCI Now!

P.S. Below are a couple of the news clips, and it was also covered on npr and other radio, as well as Channel 7.  This is the first year that the media covered only LA CAN and allies’ perspective on SCI, instead of solely our response to the City’s propaganda!!  We’re going to be putting pics and videos on our blog in the coming days, so check it out at cangress.wordpress.com.

LAPD, Los Angeles Poverty Department, is in the house

Unity in the Hood

LAPD, Los Angeles Poverty Department, is in the house

International Symbol of Distress, we are under siege!

Catholic Workers are in attendance

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cityhall-protest-2009sep30,0,1062625.story

http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_13444226?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com

Tent City & City Hall Action’s On September 28th & 29th

The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

Stop the SCI Marathon

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

–Frederick Douglas

Tent City at LAPD Central Division:  September 28, 2009

Meet at 7:00 PM at LA CAN office (530 S. Main Street) OR meet us at 8:00PM at Central Division – 6^th and Maple Streets

City Hall Accountability:   September 29, 2009

Meet at 8:00 AM at LA CAN office (530 S. Main Street) OR meet us at 9:00 AM at City Hall – 1^st and Main Streets

Background

For the past three years the City of Los Angeles has opted to gentrify downtown Los Angeles regardless of the financial or moral costs involved. Refusing to acknowledge the long-standing and thriving community that exists, they instead moved for total demolition of homes, culture, and life. What the city never anticipated, however, was the community building the power needed to fight back, and build power is what we did.  While we have secured many policy victories so far, we have also shouldered a stunning number of casualties as a result of the brutal and inhumane Safer Cities Initiative. This flawed war on poverty has indeed captured its share of political prisoners, prisoners that we must free.  Stop SCI now!

“It’s not abnormal for the DA to have a policy. But this policy is about targeting the homeless in that area because the city is redeveloping that area. It’s a policy to get people off the streets and into state prison, jumping right over rehab and jail.”  Public Defender—Daily Journal, January 29, 2007

Monday: Bring your tents, sleeping bags,

flashlights, and flags.

PRESS RELEASE: National Report Finds That L.A. is the Meanest City

For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Becky Dennison, Los Angeles Community Action Network, 213-840-4664

Pete White, Los Angeles Community Action Network, 213-434-1594

Casey Horan, Lamp Community, 323-252-0803

Anat Rubin, Lamp Community, 818-645-7326

Skid Row Policing Earns Los Angeles the #1 Spot

on National “Meanest Cities” List

July 14, 2009.  Los Angeles’ criminalization of homelessness and poverty is the most egregious in the country, according to a report released today by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities presents the results of research regarding laws and practices in 273 cities across the country.  The report cites the so-called “Safer Cities Initiative,” a discriminatory police crackdown that has trapped tens of thousands of poor, homeless and disabled residents in the criminal justice system, as the primary factor in the decision to grant Los Angeles the dubious honor of #1 Meanest City. A previous report, released in January 2006 before the Initiative began, ranked Los Angeles the 18^th meanest city.

The Safer Cities Initiative crackdown that pushed Los Angeles to the top brought more than 100 extra officers to a 50-square block area with relatively low rates of serious or violent crime. In the first two years of the Initiative, these officers made more than 750 arrests each month, routinely escalating charges, in a community that’s home to just 13,000 people. They have also handed out more than 1,000 citations each month for “crimes” such as crossing the street “against a flashing red hand.” When a poor or homeless Skid Row resident can’t pay the fine, the citation turns to warrant and leads to arrest.

The report also cites the racial disparities in Skid Row enforcement and escalating police brutality resulting from the initiative, as well as the city’s lack of housing and services. The city spends $6 million each year on the additional police officers on Skid Row, about equal to the amount it “invests” in homeless services for the entire year.

This report, placing Los Angeles at the bottom of the nation in constructive and effective approaches to homelessness, comes on the heels of a United Nations report released last month in which UN Expert on Racism, Mr. Githu Muigai, condemned the disparate law enforcement efforts against African American homeless persons in Los Angeles’ Skid Row.

Homes Not handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities

Hot Off the Press: Latest Edition of the Community Connection

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Click the link above to read online or stop by LA CAN for papers!