Jennings on Trump's Proposed Cuts to CACLV

Donald Trump's proposed budget, which is DOA, does more than gut Special Olympics. According to CACLV Exec Director Alan Jennings, Trump also wants to eliminate all spending for his community action committee. Below is Jennings' response:

The president of the United States has defined himself, once again, by the actions he has taken. In order to fund a wall that won't work, a defense budget the Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't seek, and a tax cut the people who benefitted most didn't need, Mr. Trump has proposed a federal budget that turns its back on tens of millions of Americans. If we interpret a budget as a reflection of the priorities of the individual who proposed it, this president, once again, has made it clear that he has lost any claim on a moral compass. Lacking that compass, the president can stake no claim on right versus wrong. It would be wrong to shut down the largest shelter for homeless families with children in the region. It would be wrong to shut down our revitalization of neighborhoods. It would be wrong to shut down a weatherization program that reduces heating costs, wrong to shut down programs that teach people to help themselves, wrong to stop saving homeowners from foreclosures, wrong to look someone in the eye and tell them they don't matter. The contrast between right and wrong has never been so clear.

In dramatically reducing and, in some cases, eliminating funding of such programs as the Community Services Block Grant, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the Community Development Block Grant, the Weatherization Assistance Program and others, the president's budget, if adopted by the Congress, would shut down the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley. CACLV has stood up on behalf of those who have been knocked down for more than five decades. And, while barely 20% of our funding comes from federal funding, this funding is key to the agency's ability to leverage other funding.

We look forward to the support of the majority in the Congress, both Republican and Democrat, and yearn for the day when Americans relearn the lesson that we are only great when everyone has access to opportunity, the ability to pursue that opportunity and a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Great countries do not turn their backs on those whose skills are of limited value in the marketplace or those too old or too young to work. Great countries invest in themselves, learn from the past, improve on the present and build a future that leaves no one behind.

Mr. Trump has, yet again, divided our country. There is not a single person who has gone down in history admired as one who divided people, pitting them against each other, turning a deaf ear to their cries or a blind eye to their suffering. The great, admired, respected people throughout history have always been those who stood up to injustice, fought back against oppression and lifted up those who fell down.

CACLV operates a wide range of programs designed to improve the quality of life for low-income people in the region. They include the Second Harvest Food Bank, the Sixth Street Shelter, housing initiatives like home ownership counseling and foreclosure mitigation, rehab and new construction. The agency operates entrepreneurial programs that make loans and offer small business training. It also does extensive neighborhood revitalization work in downtown Allentown, south Bethlehem and the Slate Belt, ranging from façade improvements and creating pocket parks to planting trees and streetscaping. Only 20% of its budget comes from government funding.

Anonymous Benefactor Offers Help to Stolen Car Victim

Yesterday, I told you the story of a single mother in Allentown whose car was stolen from outside her home as she slept. Though Whitehall police recovered her car, she was stuck with a $242 towing and storage bill. Unable to afford to keep the car in storage for a few more days, police will make no effort to investigate the theft because they can't check for fingerprints inside an impound lot. Though she had insurance to cover tows, Whitehall's contracted tow operator refused to accept it. Though the car was in storage for less than two full days, she was charged for three. That's how the system works for people who live from paycheck to paycheck. If you have a good job and steady income, a nicer car and collision policy is a given. If you have no job at all, the government steps in and gives you everything you need. But for our growing class of working poor, there really is no safety net, other than medical insurance for children (CHIP). So you can go hungry, have no funds to send your loved ones to school and have no nest eggs as you grow older.

In response to my story yesterday, an anonymous benefactor called, and offered to help. To be honest, I'm not sure his kind offer will be accepted. These people may be poor, but they are also proud. I offered some money myself, and was shot down pretty quickly. That's probably because I'm in the same boat myself. Either that or they think I'm a maniacal stalker who kicks pigs. But I was allowed to speak to the tow operator for them, which was probably the biggest mistake they could have made.

I'm a graduate of the Michael Molovinsky School of Diplomacy. He told me I'm a natural. But I came up short yesterday with the tow operator.

First, I got lost trying to find his place. The GPS on my iPhone kept sending me to a volunteer fire station on Pine Street for some reason. So I had to talk to the guy by phone.

"What's this I hear about you refusing to accept the insurance for the tow?"

----- "I'm sorry sir, but I have bills to pay, too."

"Why the hell are you charging three days storage when you haven't had the car for two?"

----- "I'm sorry sir, but I go by calendar days, and my contract with Whitehall allows me to do that."

"This has nothing to do with your contract with Whitehall. It has to do with your contract with this woman, who has no money to begin with. You were at home all weekend, sitting on your ass, and you're charging her. Are you telling me you can't give her a break on $30?"

----- "I'm entitled to take weekends off, too."

"We'll see what you're entitled to when I sue your ass."

At this point, the tow operator hung up on me and kicked the woman off his lot.

"Now, you're not going to get the car at all. Get out of here!" is what I'm told he said.

In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to have me talk to the tow operator. I probably need a refresher course on my diplomacy skills.

Eventually, the tow operator relented and gave the woman her car, with no breaks on the original price. When she got it back, she learned that thieves took everything, from her cash and credit cards to even her son's social security card. She has to get a new registration card, which means even more money.

This situation, in my view, illustrates the shortcomings in our Democratic and Republican ideologies. On the one hand, we have a social welfare state that gives people no incentive to better themselves and provides little or no assistance to those who degrade themselves by working. On the other hand, we have a limited government mantra in which people are supposed to rely on family, churches and charities. People are told they should be more responsible and keep an emergency stash of cash, with absolutely no understanding that the working poor need every penny they earn to meet current expenses, and even that is sometimes inadequate.

Local government officials are too busy hobnobbing with the JB Reillys and Mark Jaindls to notice the people who are actually paying for the tax breaks they dispense. Those are the people who should be heard.

CACLV Executive Director Alan Jennings likes to say that he speaks for those who have no voice. Actually, there is a chorus of voices speaking for those who are dependent on government services.

But who speaks for the Abe Lincoln poor? Those who are willing to and do work? Unfortunately, no one. They are the backbone of America, and are daily becoming a serf class to both the very poor and very rich.

Criminal Justice System Fails Allentown's Working Poor

On Thursday morning, 2:30 AM, a single mother's car, an old Honda Civic, was stolen from outside her home on the Allentown side of the Fullerton exit. She discovered the theft when she got up for work. Inside her locked car, she had stowed away her purse, with what little cash she had, as well as her bank and credit cards. Along with the car, her purse was gone, too. Because the car is quite old, she had long ago dropped collision and comprehensive from her insurance policy. So essentially, the theft stranded her and her son without a car or money. Though police did respond to her theft report, her low-income status probably means that the thief will never be caught. Our criminal justice system fails the people who need it the most - our working poor.

Allentown police took a theft report and promised to help find the car. The car was found, on Saturday, by the Whitehall police, and this is where the system breaks down.

Whitehall police called APD and asked them to contact the victim so she could retrieve her vehicle. There would be a happy ending. But Allentown police failed to pass the word along for several hours, perhaps because they had more pressing matters. After waiting an hour by the car, Whitehall police had it towed. When word finally reached the victim, the car was already impounded.

When the victim asked whether her purse, money or credit cards were in the car, they did not know and told her she would have to wait until Monday to find out.

When she called impound, she learned that she'd have to pay to get her own car back. The tow would be $137. The storage fee, $35 per day, would be another $105. No matter how early she arrives on Monday, she'll have to pay a full day storage. She could not pick up the car Saturday because she was unable to get the title to the impound before it closed.

So after the indignity of a theft, there's the insult of spending $242 to get her own car back, without even knowing if it will roll off the lot. The storage operator did tell her he'd be happy to keep the car without charge, so long as she brought him the title.

The icing on the cake is a subsequent call from APD.

If she wants them to investigate who stole her car, she's told she'll have to let it stay in impound for a few more days until they can get their fingerprint team to go to work.

Never mind that a neighbor, just a few doors down from this single mother, actually saw the theft as it occurred and probably can provide a description.

This is similar to the situation that confronted an Easton single mother in May, when her car, set ablaze on a random act of criminal mindlessness, had to be towed. She faced a much higher towing fee - $365, which was ultimately paid by an anonymous benefactor.

Had this been a more wealthy person with a better car, there'd be insurance. Had this been a person with nothing, she'd need no car to get to work because she could rely on government handouts.

We have county governments that pays for a drunks' taxi ride home from the DUI processing center if they can't get a ride, but when an innocent crime victim's car is towed by police to an impound, she has to pay money she does not have to get a car back.

Our criminal justice system fails the working poor.

We'll see what happens today.

LV Poverty & High Taxes Go Hand in Hand

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission routinely collects data about the demographics in this area. Its most recent study was released to members at a meeting last night, and contains some interesting findings.

What areas in the Lehigh Valley have the highest tax rates?

If you guessed Allentown and Easton, you'd be right.

Now, what areas in the Lehigh Valley have the highest poverty rates?

Once again, it's Easton and Allentown, according to a member who tells me one out of every five Easton residents lives below the poverty rate.

Now, is there a correlation between those high taxes and poverty rates?  It seems they go hand in hand. When I get the nitty gritty details, I'll post them.

If this is what happens on a local level, what happens nationally?  A massive tax hike was set to go into effect last January, but LV Congressman Charlie Dent voted with a majority to prevent that from happening.

A Strident CACLV Joins the Blogoshere

Alan Jennings, Executive Director at CACLV, gets right to the point in his new blog, Poverty's Edge:

"Humanity has made a mess of things. Let’s clean it up. Stand up for what is right. So what if you can’t figure it all out? You know what is right and what is wrong.

"Don’t be patient. Patience is not a virtue. It is the luxury of the powerful, the comfortable, the affluent. Too many people who are none of those things need you.

"So we’re joining the fray of the blogosphere. Count on us to weigh in. Count on being exposed to CACLV attitude. Strap yourself in – this is sure to be a wild ride."

I am really looking forward to insights from a committed activist who cares.

Can You Help Glenn Kranzley Help People in Need?

Hellertown resident Anne Schaeffer has had MS for the past 23 years. Unable to work since 1999, she needs constant assistance. She'd like a wheelchair. Paul Hetrick, who lives in Quakertown with his wife and three daughters, was in a coma for 15 days after being broad-sided in a driving accident last August. He's suffered severe brain-trauma and stroke-like symptoms, and needs help with basic every day tasks.

This could be you. It could be someone who just left you a few minutes ago. It could be any of us.

Schaeffer and Hetrick are just two of the lives touched by Community Outreach Benefit, which has raised more than $280,000 for 24 recipients. Those burdened by serious medical conditions and unaffordable costs (beyond their resources and insurance coverage), have been helped.

It all started eight years ago in St. John UCC, a small Coopersburg church that's lucky if it has fifty or sixty people in the pews on any given Sunday. Annual summer block parties helped raise a lot of this money. Along the way, several other Solehi area churches and school community groups have become involved, too. At this time, there are around 300 active volunteers.

One of them is Glenn Kranzley, former comments page editor at The Morning Call. He was always very good at whittling my 7,000 word essays to a sentence, and his absence is probably felt most by those who are still at that beleaguered newspaper. In Glenn's words, "Nothing is closer to my heart than what my church is doing to help the Solehi, Saucon Valley and Upper Bucks communities."

This year, in addition to the annual block party, there will be a benefit concert by the Craig Thatcher Allstar Review at Zoellner Arts Center on May 22, 7 PM. (You can read about it and get your $20 tickets here.) Proceeds will benefit the church in general. As explained by Glenn, this "enables us to put so much of our energy in the the Community Benefit."

St Johns' incidentally, is an active member of the Lehigh County Conference of Churches, sends volunteers every month to its soup kitchen, supports Phoebe Home, Bethany Children’s Home and Turning Point. It is home to the Coopersburg Neighborhood Senior Center and two Girl Scout troops.

How could such a good church have ever admitted a journalist? Glenn must have told them he's a politician.

4 of Every 10 Single Moms at or Below Poverty Level

The latest poverty rate, 13.2%, is at its highest level since 1997. But according to the Institute for Public Accuracy, single moms are hit hardest. 38.9% of them are living below the poverty level. No bailouts for them. If they get hungry enough, they can just eat their kids.