Fw: Can your org support low income Gulf Coast families rebuilding resilient communities, eco-systems?
Tracy
Louisiana Bayoukeeper, Inc
P.O. Box 207
Barataria, LA 70036
504-689-8849 Office
504-689-7686 Fx
bayou...@cox.net
Dear Tracy,
Can we sign Louisiana Bayoukeeper, Inc on to the letter below? Sorry if you have received this request already, but we’re trying to ensure as broad of support as possible for this pressing campaign.
It urges Gulf State US Senators to support for a plan for reallocating $2.8 billion in unspent, unobligated Katrina-Rita recovery funds towards Civic Works-like job-creating projects led by AL, MS and LA community and faith-based organizations, local governments and disadvantaged small businesses restoring natural flood protection, rebuilding affordable housing, utilizing alternative energy sources, and retrofitting homes of low income families for energy efficiency and with hazard mitigation techniques to protect families from the effects of climate change and future storms and bring down electric and insurance costs. See full policy memo at: https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5107/images/GCCWCReallocationMemo.pdf.
The proposal promotes programs targeting the unmet needs of the region’s most vulnerable communities (low income, minority and immigrant communities and residents with disabilities), continuing the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign’s efforts to push the Congress and Administration for policies to create jobs building more equitable and resilient communities across America’s Gulf Coast. And it gives the federal government a way to address the region’s post-Katrina-Rita-Gustav-Ike needs without having to appropriate additional funds.
So far 80 leading coalitions and environmental, community, faith, social justice and human rights organizations from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have signed this letter, as well as a number of prominent national supporters.
Can Louisiana Bayoukeeper, Inc join them? Email jeffreyr...@gmail.com to add you organization’s name to the list. Originally we had aimed to close the letter for sign-ons today, but we are extending the final day to sign on to Monday March 1st COB.
Thanks for considering.
Jeffrey Buchanan
Information Officer, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 463-7575 x241
The Honorable Mary Landrieu
328 Hart Senate
Building
United
States Senate
Washington, DC
20510
Dear Senator Landrieu:
Four years and a half after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, the slow pace of recovery, persistent poverty, coastal land loss, and climate change have created a crisis across America’s Gulf Coast that demands a powerful response from our elected officials. Our federal response has yet to properly protect the well-being of America’s most vulnerable people and places through recovery policies which rebuild lives, restore the environment, mitigate future hazards, and respect human rights. Since 2005, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have witnessed four major regional disasters- Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike- which have caused over $150 billion worth of damage, destroyed over 300,000 homes, killed more than 2,000 Americans and left tens of thousands of families still displaced and unable to return to their communities.
As we look across America’s Gulf Coast today, we see:
- Millions of residents vulnerable to internal displacement or mass relocation due to future deadly storms, coastal land loss, and climate change;
- Homeowners insurance costs sky-rocketing in coastal communities;
- Homelessness and rental housing costs rising as affordable housing projects grinding to a halt with the crash of financial markets and thousands of blighted and storm-damaged properties remaining unrepaired; and
- Too many families unable to access proper training and living wage work to pay for life’s necessities and find pathways out of poverty.
To begin to address these challenges, we urge the President to request and Congress to grant the reallocation of $2.8 billion in existing budgetary federal authority towards competitive grants partnering with local governments, non-profits, and faith-based organizations on projects creating green jobs building more resilient coastal communities. The U.S. Congress has appropriated billions of dollars in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita which have yet to reach the ground. As of June 30, 2009, almost one third of the total funds granted by the U.S. Congress to federal agencies ($39.4 billion) has yet to be spent. Of this, $19.4 billion has not even been obligated to specific projects. The attached memo outlines how a portion of these unused funds could be repurposed to allow the federal government to begin to partner with local stakeholders to meet this incredible national challenge. We would request that funding appropriated to address the region’s continuing affordable housing crisis not be considered for reallocation.
Gulf Coast residents have expressed frustrations in the federal governments' inability to address the long-term needs of people impacted, particularly among vulnerable populations, including residents with disabilities, elderly, low income, women, immigrant, and minority communities. Recent studies show America’s Gulf Coast to be home to some of the most vulnerable communities in the country to the threat of climate change and natural disasters. The roots of this vulnerability include a combination of economic, social and environmental challenges, each of which have been inadequately addressed by federal recovery policy to date. Additionally, national economic interests along the Gulf Coast, including energy, shipping, and commercial fishing, also remain under threat without significant action to thwart coastal land loss and protect Gulf Coast ecosystems.
Faced with these inter-related challenges residents, volunteers, and social innovators from non-profit and faith-based organizations have led some of the most successful efforts for promoting recovery and resiliency. Despite developing cutting-edge models for rebuilding safer, more energy efficient homes, protecting wetlands, training workers and revitalizing communities, their efforts have often lacked in scale due to limited funding. By reallocating federal funds towards partnerships with community leaders, we could begin to address priorities including:
- Creating jobs restoring natural flood protection, including wetlands and barrier islands;
- Retrofitting homes to withstand flooding and winds and promoting energy efficiency to bring down energy and homeowners insurance costs for low income families;
- Helping families immediately threatened by coastal flooding to relocate voluntarily;
- Promoting community economic development and affordable housing, including repairing or rebuilding blighted, storm-damaged properties;
- Creating supportive housing for the chronically homeless and residents with disabilities;
- Training local workers for high demand, high wage skilled trades work, including cutting edge green building, coastal restoration and disaster mitigation technologies;
- Promoting local business development in cutting-edge green industries; and
- Helping local small businesses obtain Surety Bonds to compete for federal contracts.
We urge you to support attaching a request to reallocate these funds in either the jobs bills being discussed in Congress, other upcoming supplemental appropriations legislation, or the FY 11 Appropriations Process. Such a plan would allow the Administration and the U.S. Congress to fulfill their campaign promises of building stronger, safer and more equitable communities across America’s Gulf Coast without increasing the national deficit. Together, we can work to put in place policies to ensure that we rebuild more resilient and equitable neighborhoods, restore the environment, and empower our brothers and sisters to lift themselves from poverty and overcome devastation.
Sincerely,
Roberta Avila
Executive Director, Steps Coalition
Biloxi, MS
Julia Beatty
Program Officer, The Twenty-First Century Foundation
New York, NY
Eugene Ben
Director, Benroe Housing Initiatives
New Orleans, LA
Trupania W. Bonner
Executive Director, Moving
Forward Gulf Coast, Inc.
Slidell, LA
Quo Vadis G. Breaux
Executive Director, Center for
Ethical Living and Social
Justice Renewal
New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Center
New Orleans, LA
Penny Burbank
Director, North Gulfport Community Land Trust
Gulfport, MS
Casi Callaway
Executive Director & Baykeeper
Mobile Baykeeper
Mobile, AL
Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director, NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Washington, DC
Peg Case
Director, Terrebonne Readiness & Assistance Coalition-TRAC
Houma, LA
Phyllis Cassidy
Executive Director, Good Work Network
New Orleans, LA
Mona Gobert-Cravins
Assistant Administrator,
232-HELP/Louisiana 211
Lafayette, LA
James W. Crowell III
President, Biloxi Branch
NAACP
Biloxi, MS
Stacy Danner
Chair, Sustainable Environmental Enterprises
New Orleans, LA
Rev. Lois J. Dejean
Executive Director, Gert Town Revival Initiative, Inc.
Executive Director, Youth Inspirational Connection, Inc.
New Orleans, LA
Derrick Evans
Director, Turkey Creek Community Initiatives
Turkey Creek, MS
Rev. Tyronne Edwards
Founder/Executive Director, Zion Travelers Cooperative Center, Inc.
Phoenix, LA
Dawn Falgout -Loebig,
Executive Director, The
Old City Building
Center
Co-Founder, Louisiana Green Corps
New Orleans, LA
Leslie G. Fields
National Environmental Justice and
Community Partnerships Director
Sierra Club
Washington, DC
Kimble Forrester
State Director, Alabama Arise
Montgomery, AL
Ruth Flower
Legislative Director
Friends Committee
on National Legislation
Washington, DC
Mary Fontenot
Executive Director, All Congregations Together (ACT)
New Orleans, LA
Tiffany M. Gardner
Human Right to Housing Program Director, NESRI - National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
New York, NY
Sharon Gauthe
Executive Director, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO)
Thibodeaux, LA
Rev. Kenneth Glasgow
Executive Director, The Ordinary People Society
The Prodigal Child Project
The New Bottom Line
The National Justice Coalition
Dothan, AL
Alice M. Graham, PhD
Executive Director, Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force
Biloxi. MS
Sharon Hanshaw
Executive Director, Coastal Women for Change
Biloxi, MS
Rhonda Jackson
Director, Gulf Coast Program
Oxfam America
Baton Rouge, LA
Sam L. Jackson
Executive Director, Mayday New
Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Mary Joseph
Director,
Louisiana Office
Children's
Defense Fund
New Orleans, LA
Rev. Jennifer Jones-Bridgett
Director, PICO
Louisiana
Baton Rouge, LA
Alice Craft-Kerney, RN BSN
Executive Director, Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic
New Orleans, LA
John Koeferl,
President, Citizens Against Widening
the Industrial
Canal,
CAWIC
New Orleans, LA
Tracy Kuhns
Director, Louisiana Bayoukeeper,
Inc
Director, Fishing Community Family Support Center
Barataria, LA
Mark LaFlaur, founder
LeveesNotWar.org
New York, NY
Rev. Ken Booker Langston
Director, Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
Washington, DC
Tony Laska
New Orleans Program Manager
Conservation Services Group
Gayle Lwanga, RGS
National Coordinator, National Advocacy Center Sisters of the Good Shepherd
Washington, DC
Lan Le
Executive Director, National Alliances of Vietnamese American Service
Washington, DC
Marie Lucey, OSF
Associate Director for Social Mission
Leadership Council on Women Religious
Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach
Director of Washington Office, Mennonite Central Committee
Washington, DC
Haywood Martin
Chair, Delta Chapter
Sierra Club
Baton Rouge, LA
Rev. LeDayne McLeese Polaski
Program Coordinator,
Baptist Peace Fellowship of North
America
Charlotte, North Carolina
Shelley Moskowitz
Manager of Public Policy, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Washington, DC
Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, Gulf Coast Civic Works
Project
San Jose, CA
Paul Nelson
President, South Bay Communities Alliance
Coden, AL
Minh Thanh Nguyen
Executive Director, Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Terra Odom
Executive Director, Gulf Coast Community and State Services
Moss Point, MS
K. Brad Ott
Co-Chair, Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital
New Orleans, LA
Paul Orr
Executive Director, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper
Baton Rouge, LA
Marylee Orr
Executive Director, Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Baton Rouge, LA
Eva Paterson
President, Equal Justice Society
San Francisco, CA
Glenda Perryman
Executive Director, Immaculate Heart Community Development Corp
Lucedale, MS
Marcia Peterson
Director, Desire Street Ministries/CDC 58:12 Inc.
New Orleans, LA
Bill Quigley
Legal Director, Center for
Constitutional Rights
New York, NY
Jerry Thompson
Director of Admin. Services & Financial Affairs
New Covenant Community Ministries
Moss Point, MS
Marie Thompson
Executive Director, Dando la Mano
Morton, Miss
Mike Roberts
Executive Director, Association of Family Fishermen
Barataria, LA
Anne Rolfes
Founding Director, Louisiana Bucket Brigade
New Orleans, LA
Charlotte Richardson
Executive Director, FOCUS
Moss Point, MS
Lisa Richardson, PhD
Institute of Women & Ethnic
Studies (IWES)
New Orleans, LA
Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte
Campaign Director,
ColorOfChange.org
Washington, DC
Cynthia Sarthou
Executive Director, Gulf Restoration
Network
New Orleans, LA
Sandy Sorensen
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
Washington Office
Bill Stallworth
Executive Director, Hope CDA: Hope Community Development Agency
Biloxi, MS
Linda Stone
Policy Associate, Global Green
New Orleans, LA
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed,
National Director, Office for Interfaith & Community
Alliances
Islamic Society of North
America
Washington, DC
Rev. Darryl A. Tate
Executive Director/CEO
Louisiana Conference of The UMC Disaster Response, Inc.
New Iberia, LA
Nguyen Dinh Thang, PhD
Executive Director, Boat People SOS
Falls Church, VA
Bret Thiele
Senior Expert – Litigation, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)
Duluth, MN
Harold Toussaint
Katrina-Rita Survivor Assemblies of New York and New England
Boston, MA
Rev. Romal J. Tune
CEO, Clergy Strategic Alliances, LLC
Washington, DC
Mary Turgi, CSC
Director, Holy Cross International Justice Office
Notre Dame, IN
Jessica Venegas
Field Manager for Housing Development
UNITY of Greater New Orleans
in partnership with Common Ground Institute
New Orleans, LA
Rev. Kirby Verret
Clanton Chapel United Methodist Church
Dulac, LA
Adren O. Wilson
National Campaign Director, Equity & Inclusion Campaign
New Orleans, LA
Jay A. Wittmeyer
Executive Director, Global Mission Partnerships
Church of the Brethren
Elgin, IL
Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.,
National Chair, National Congress of Black Women, Inc.
Washington, DC
John Zippert
Director, Rural Training and Research Center
Federation of Southern Cooperatives
Epes, Alabama
Jonathan Henderson
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