When Banks Become an Obstacle to Lending

Sandra Hines tells the story of her painful foreclosure in the Applied Research Center’s Race and Recession Report. “They busted up my mother’s antique furniture, our belongings that we had accumulated for 40 years. We lost the home our parents bought,” she said. “Now we’ve lost all of it.” Soon after the family moved into a rental, their landlord’s foreclosure forced them out of yet another home. Sadly, the Hines family is only one of many that are suffering from the result of years of predatory lending. Together with the recession, the negative impact on communities of color is spiraling out of control.

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Changes urged to state criminal records law

Legislators, government officials, and community organizers called today for changes to the state's criminal records law that they said would help ex-offenders reenter society, including shortening the waiting period to seal records and a simplification of the sealing process.

Supporters of the changes to the Criminal Offender Record Information law, speaking at a State House rally, argued that revisions to the law would help people released from prison to find jobs and housing, reducing recidivism.

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New affordable housing opens for seniors

Frances Pacheco is coming home to a place that she can afford on her fixed income.

The 69-year-old retiree is one of the first tenants to move into Legacy Senior Residences at 1005 N. Elma, Casper’s newest affordable senior residence.

Pacheco retired in Las Vegas from jobs “doing all the hard work,” like cleaning houses and working in laundries. She wanted to return to Casper to be with an extended family that includes eight brothers, eight sisters and grandchildren, great and great-great grandchildren.

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Web Site Launched To Help Low-Income Families

South Dakotans who need help with food or paying their bills usually stop into their local health and human services office to see if they qualify for assistance. Although it can be embarrassing for many, a new Web site is helping those get the information they need without waiting in line.

It's probably a sign of the times we're in, but more South Dakota children live in low income households than ever before.


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ACES Bill Will Help Create Jobs for Low Income Families

The American Clean Energy and Security Act will help spur $150 billion in clean energy investments, which will create 1.7 million good-paying jobs throughout the United States.

Clean energy jobs are labor intensive, and clean energy investments create more jobs across all skill and education levels than comparable investments in fossil-fuel energy sources.

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Big jump found in Indianapolis family homelessness

NDIANAPOLIS -

The number of homeless families in the state’s most-populous county grew by 78 percent this year, an official count shows, but the actual number is several times higher, an advocacy group said Wednesday.

The Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention said a federally required homeless count on Jan. 29 turned up 1,454 people, including 213 families, living in emergency shelters, transitional housing or on the street in Indianapolis.

The total was down 5 percent from 1,524 counted in January 2008 and 22 percent from the 1,868 in 2007. The count tallied 120 homeless families in 2008.

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'Hunger Doesn't Take a Summer Break'

If Montgomery County weren't handing out free lunches this summer, Ariana Rodriguez might have gone hungry yesterday. But the bright-eyed 8-year-old walked through the Rolling Terrace Elementary School cafeteria clenching an apple in her teeth before she sat down to a meal.

Ariana was one of 13 students at the Takoma Park school to literally taste the fruits of the county's expanding summer lunch program. Like others across the country, the Montgomery school system is attempting to ensure that children from low-income homes receive nutritious food over the summer. Ariana's mother, Maria Rodriguez, said the difficult economic situation leaves parents with dire choices. Even if they feed their children, they can't always afford nutritious food.

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Chinatown land trust helps low-income housing

Just a few years ago, floor boards popped up as Ji Jian-guang walked across his cramped Chinatown apartment.

Jian-guang Ji laughs as he sits on his new couch he bough...Ru Mei Peng, a longtime resident at 53 Columbus in Chinat...The Columbus United Cooperative at 53 Columbus is
His wife, Ru Mei Peng, washed vegetables in a sink the size of a shoe box. Their two adult sons - along with a daughter-in-law and grandbaby - shared a bedroom split by a bookcase.

Though cramped, 53 Columbus, Room 108, was home. For nearly a decade, the Jis feared they would lose it to encroaching developers.

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