Protect the safety net and fight for jobs on MLK Day

“The existence of poverty in the US should not be accepted as a necessary evil or an insoluble problem, but should be considered a crisis requiring emergency measures. It is a matter of will and priorities, not a matter of resources.”

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This MLK Day, join Statewide Poverty Action Network in Olympia rallying and advocating with lawmakers to protect our safety net. Sign up at www.povertyaction.org.

The annual Seattle celebration of Dr. King focuses this year on unemployment and jobs. A workshop on “Jobs: Where Are They?” starts at 9:30 am at Garfield High School at 23rd and East Jefferson. For more details go to the event facebook page.

Lettuce Link joys, challenges and new directions

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the Lettuce Link blog.

Welcome to 2012! On these gloomy January days (when we are rather glad to be warm and dry indoors instead of out in the garden), it’s a good time to pause and take stock of where Lettuce Link has been and where we’re going.

So, without further ado, here are a few of our accomplishments in 2011, made possible by the help of our generous volunteers (over 9,329 volunteer hours!) and financial supporters:

• Provided seeds, plant starts and gardening information for 3,695 food bank clients at 23 different locations.
• Supported gardeners at 49 P-Patches to grow and share over 17,000 pounds of organic produce for food banks and meal programs (with only half of the gardens reporting).
• Distributed seeds, starts and resources to 13 community gardens at schools, low-income apartments, food banks and churches.
• Despite a chilly spring and summer, grew 18,594 pounds of organic produce in the Lettuce Link Giving Garden at Marra Farm to donate to the Providence Regina House and Beacon Avenue food banks.
• Helped develop and provided seasonal vegetables for South Park’s first Community Kitchen.
• Held community meetings and garden classes (in five languages); built a shed, fences and tables; and planted, tended and grew 3,023 pounds of vegetables for the Rainier Valley Food Bank and community work-trade participants in our inaugural season at the Seattle Community Farm!
• Taught nutrition, organic gardening and ecology at the Seattle Community Farm and Marra Farm, reaching over 170 children.
• Harvested 4,605 pounds of local fresh fruit for food banks and meal programs across the city, food that would otherwise have gone to waste.
• Held events to raise $20,000 in needed funds. Thank you Friends of Lettuce Link!
• Partnered with Clean Greens, Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, Just Garden Project, Seattle Tilth, UW Department of Urban Design and Planning, Seattle Works, King County Food and Fitness Initiative, the Community Alliance for Global Justice and many others on projects that will increase access to healthy foods for everyone.

And yet, as we catch our breath this winter after a busy year, we’ve found ourselves at a bit of a crossroads. Fewer grants, budget cuts and belt-tightening measures provide an opportunity to reassess our work: What are our program’s strengths? What do we do that’s unique? How can we continue to grow and change our program to meet community needs, provide wrap-around services for Solid Ground participants, and further our anti-racism work?

These are not easy questions, but we’re committed to working through them with your support. Here are a few exciting projects to keep an eye out for in 2012:

• Building an overhead structure at the Seattle Community Farm, which will allow protection from the elements and make the space more conducive to community gatherings.

• Continuing our work with the Healthy Foods for South Park project, partnering with the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Eat Better Feel Better and Concord International Elementary to develop and implement school wellness policies.

• Expanding our CSA project at Marra Farm, to both raise funds for our program and offer a sliding-scale subscription to our neighbors.

• Advocating for just food policies on the city, state and federal levels. Watch the Lettuce Link blog for details in the next few days!

Thank you for your time, resources and support both this past year and as we boldly stride into 2012 – pushing a wheelbarrow and wearing our rainboots!

The Lettuce Link team – Michelle, Sue, Scott, Robin, Amelia, Mariah and Blair (with much gratitude to Molly, Kate, Andrea, Sophie and Alice – our staff, AmeriCorps volunteers and interns who have moved on to new adventures).

Why Seattle became home to us

Editor’s note: This first person account was submitted by Michelle Armstrong, who worked through our JourneyHome Rapid Re-housing program to gain stability through a challenging time in her life.

Micah

Several years ago, my son, Micah became chronically ill with an unknown disease (diagnosed two years later as Crohn’s with Perianal Disease). As a single mother, I was facing a lot of unknowns and had a frightened child to comfort.

I made a lot of mistakes during the first year of his illness. I had graduated from college with a B.A. and changed jobs a few months prior. His dad was not in the picture, nor had he been since Micah was a toddler. Suddenly, I not only had a student loan, mortgage payment and larger utility bills, but also looming medical bills.

I had to make choices that were very difficult, and those choices always caused an inner conflict. I wanted to be there for my son 24/7 but couldn’t, because I had to make a living as well.

My supervisor was such a warmhearted person, having gone through severe medical issues himself. He allowed me to work extra long days so I could do Micah’s treatments. But his boss said this was unproductive, so eventually I was laid off.

I had already fallen behind on our mortgage payments in order to purchase medical supplies and pay high deductibles out of my pocket. We eventually lost our home and, still without a diagnosis and now without medical insurance, I had to make some fast decisions.

I researched hospitals and found one two states away. I sold everything, including the wooden fence around our yard, so we could afford to move. I found a job in Nashville, Tennessee. But, still facing the same demands to respond to Micah’s condition, it was difficult to maintain steady employment. However, the blessing was a diagnosis and new treatments for Micah.

Michelle continued to prioritize Mikah’s care over everything else, which led to a number of moves. In 2010, they came to Seattle Children’s Hospital for treatment.

Merri Ann

As soon as we arrived in Seattle, Catholic Community Services was so attentive and gracious to help us. They then placed us in the hands of one of the most wonderful people I have ever met, Merri Ann Osborne with Solid Ground.

When I met Merri Ann, we were homeless. I still needed a job and Micah was still being seen at Children’s. Merri Ann was such a ray of sunshine. She helped us believe in hope again.

We were able to move into an apartment of our own. She then connected me with an amazing program to help people in need of employment.

During the summer, Micah had a successful surgery. Micah’s health improved so much in such a short time. Micah felt like he had a new lease on life. He had friends. I was meeting people and networking. It seemed things were heading towards “normal” again.

However late last fall, circumstances changed in our lives, and I made a decision that I have learned from but still regret. I had not found a job, and discovering problems at the apartment complex where we were living, my old fears returned.

We decided to move to Kansas City where there were job prospects. There were other determining factors, such as family being somewhat closer, but even my mother was not keen on the idea of us moving away from Seattle.

In any case, Merri Ann and Solid Ground advocated for us to terminate our lease early because of the problems with our apartment. The property management company had not been clear about some issues. They agreed to let us out of the lease early without penalty.

I remember crying as we drove out of Seattle, feeling like I was making the biggest mistake in my life. However, we left Seattle with something that we did not bring: a new lease on life.

Merri Ann, Solid Ground and Brigid Cabellon (with King County Career Connections) showed us that there was hope. They helped me rediscover myself, believe I was valuable as a human being, know that I was intelligent and –  despite all of the odds we had faced – know that I was still sane.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Tenant Tip: Changes to state law – Receipts for Payments

receipts

RCW 15.18.063 of the Washington State Residential Landlord-Tenant Act was changed to require landlords to give tenants a receipt when they pay rent in cash. Previously a landlord was only required to provide receipts if the tenant asked for one.

Under the new law, tenants still need to ask for receipts if they pay with methods other than cash, such as check or money order. It is generally a good idea to ask for receipts to be dated and signed or stamped by the landlord or the management company.

You may also want to print out bank statements detailing rent payment and save them along with other documents related to paying rent. By keeping an organized folder with documents related to your tenancy and payment activity, a tenant can better protect themselves from a landlord who may claim that rent was not received on time or is missing.

This issue comes up more often with management companies that have high employee turnover. Additionally, tenants are sometimes faced with having a new property manager claim that a previous manager did not document a rent payment.

Bookkeeping errors can also be reason enough for a landlord or an apartment manager to claim that the tenant may not have paid rent. In these situations, it is much easier to present the landlord with a receipt that proves payment than it is to challenge the bookkeeper. Without proper documentation and receipts, a tenant may have to double pay for previous months’ rent and face unnecessary confrontations with the landlord.

It is also a good idea to save receipts for utility payments, especially where the tenant is provided with a third party utility bill from the landlord. While the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act does not cover utility billing, tenants can still take proactive steps by documenting their payments for utilities. An example of a situation where saving receipts can be helpful is when a utility bill is drastically higher than previous ones.

RCW 15.19.063’s receipt requirement is for any payment the tenant makes to the landlord, which can include paying the landlord for third party utility billing. In some cases the tenant has made no changes to their daily habits, and electricity or water usage has not increased, however the landlord may be asking for a much higher amount in utility payments.

This is especially important in cases where the utility bill increases for the tenant due to a repair issue that the landlord needs to address, such as a leak in water pipes. In these situations having a “paper trail” of receipts and documents may also be helpful. In addition to receipts, tenants can also take proper steps in addressing the repair with the landlord.

For information on repairs, tenants can review a previous Tenant Tip on Requesting repairs from your landlord as well as visit the Tenant Services Repairs webpage.

The tenant information contained in this article or linked to the Solid Ground Tenant Services website is for informational purposes only. Solid Ground makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to its website. Solid Ground cannot act as your attorney. Solid Ground makes no representations, expressed or implied, that the information contained in or linked to its website can or will be used or interpreted in any particular way by any governmental agency or court. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing provided here should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel. Solid Ground Tenant Counselors offer these tenant tips as generalized information for renters. People with specific questions should call our Tenant Services hotline at 206.694.6767  Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm.

A message of thanks to our supporters

During the past year, you have helped Solid Ground expand efforts to end poverty for local families and individuals and move them toward stability. You helped us:

Brettler Family Place

Open Brettler Family Place…
providing 51 formerly homeless families with permanent housing and supportive services. Brettler Family Place is now a vibrant community of over 120 children and their parents. It is a place of stability, security and hope. We break ground to build an additional 54 homes in 2013!

Seattle Community Farm, June 2011

Raise our first crops…
at the Seattle Community Farm, bringing fresh organic produce to people in the Rainier Valley who did not have access to affordable, healthy produce. The Farm is pioneering a work-trade volunteer model that values the talents and contributions of the community members who receive this nutritious food.

Launch the groundbreaking Pathway to Career AmeriCorps team…
which melds our national community service model with intensive work readiness training to help disadvantaged youth overcome barriers to success.

Break down barriers to homeless prevention services…
for immigrant and other marginalized communities by building intentional partnerships with community-based organizations that enable people to access services in a direct, culturally-sensitive and efficient manner.

Lead the statewide advocacy effort to pass the Foreclosure Fairness Bill…
giving consumers a mediation tool that results in fewer repossessed houses and more people staying in their homes.

These efforts and other improvements in our programs mean that Solid Ground will help more people than ever before in 2011.

But we need to do even more to heal the traumas caused by homelessness and hunger, and stabilize our community. To that end, we are looking ahead to implementing more comprehensive wrap-around services, giving the people who come to us even more tools and resources to be successful.

We are proud of our history of taking innovative action in response to community needs. Right now, we are focusing our passion for progressive social change on strategies that will increase our impact with the people we serve, so that we can meet them wherever they are and support them until they thrive.

Solid Ground's Continuum of Care

Solid Ground envisions a more comprehensive continuum of care, connecting our program participants to resources inside our doors as well as those outside. We look forward to sharing details with you in the coming year.

Since our early days as an emergency services provider in a little northend neighborhood, we have relied on the passion, creativity and financial support of caring people to counter poverty in our community. For over 38 years, donors and volunteers like you have helped our community weather the economic storms, build upon our strengths, and bring hundreds of thousands of our neighbors and friends to solid ground.

Most importantly, you joined with us to help build a strong community by giving over 64,000 vulnerable people support and opportunities to thrive.

On behalf of everyone at Solid Ground, thank you!

You can continue to support Solid Ground through our online donation portal.

Tenant Tip: Housing barriers for people living with disabilities

Editor’s note: This post was submitted by Jennifer Valente, a case manager with Solid Ground’s Homeless Prevention Programs. Thanks also to Jeanne Winner for her help with the article.

Imagine, you have just lost your housing – not to any fault of your own, you’ve been an excellent tenant – but your apartment is being renovated. You are wheelchair bound, you have no family or friends to help you, and you’re out of resources. You need housing immediately. As a last resort, you call King County 2.1.1 and are directed to Solid Ground’s Housing Stabilization Services program. You ask for help.

Basic knowledge of social services would lead one to believe, to hope even, that between the many Fair Housing Laws and benefits of the Americans with Disabilities Act, someone in the above situation would have a number of options available to them – that they would not end up in this predicament.

Unfortunately the above scenario is far too common, and the case managers with Housing Stabilization Services at Solid Ground are often faced with trying to help clients secure housing against unfavorable odds. Specifically with regard to handicap-accessible apartments, it is not that suitable apartments do not exist – but there are too few to support the growing demand, and long waiting lists act as barriers for those in urgent need. Clients too often hear the words, “Sorry, but…” and grow frustrated and discouraged.

Indeed, an October 2011 press release describes testing that confirms discrimination does exist for people living with disabilities (as well as for African Americans) in far higher percentages than expected, and the Seattle Office for Civil Rights is taking action by prosecuting six property owners. The release states that more than half of all properties recently tested showed evidence of illegal housing discrimination.

While the battle against discrimination is ongoing, Solid Ground is committed to being an ally to those in need. By acting as a resource hub to current and prospective tenants and providing direct case management to clients like the one above, Solid Ground serves as an advocate and friend to individuals and families who have nowhere else to turn and may otherwise end up in shelters or on the streets.

Adopt-a-Family needs your help

It’s Adopt-a-Family season here at Solid Ground! If you have already joined in the holiday cheer, thank you so much! Your bright spirit and unstoppable drive has made this program a cornerstone of the year-end holidays for many families in transition! If you have not yet adopted a family for the holidays, please do!

For 25 years, our holiday Adopt-a-Family program has been a vessel through which community members like you have donated time, energy and resources to serve our families who are working to overcome poverty, homelessness and the hard-hitting effects of the economy.

Your donation amount is entirely up to you and your family; we recommend donating $25 – $50 per family member. This year we have approximately 250 families that average four people per family. The families you will sponsor are participants in Solid Ground’s JourneyHome and Family Shelter programs – all are receiving financial counseling and case management to support them on their way to self-sufficiency.

VISA and MasterCard gift cards are perfect because they can be used anywhere like a regular credit card! They are sold at banks, grocery stores, and local drugstores. Gift cards to places like Target, Fred Meyer and other department stores of your choosing are great because they have a wide variety of products: toys, clothing, food and household items. Grocery store gift cards are also needed; the families find them very helpful in being able to afford items at the grocery store that they may not otherwise be able to afford on their limited incomes. You can give a combination of gift cards as well.

We would like to have all the gift cards dropped off by Thursday, December 8 so families have enough time to do their shopping before the holidays, but we will remain flexible until all families have been assisted. Along with the gift cards, we are asking sponsors to donate stocking stuffers or wrapping paper, ribbon and bows. This will allow you to put your own family’s personal touch into your gift card donation!

Last year, some sponsors assisted several families by giving gift cards and granted items from their wish list. If you are interested in that option, we can support you, your family, group or team in making that happen. **We do not have the capacity to organize and store thousands of items our families, which is one of the reasons why we cannot accept individual gifts for every family member.

If you are a super busy person, and cannot drop by the office, your online donation is welcomed!

For more information about Adopt-a-Family, contact Indiigo 206.694.6825 or indiigok@solid-ground.org.

Nurturing a philanthropic community

While the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is known worldwide for its philanthropic leadership, on the sleepy western edge of Ballard another institution has developed as a cutting-edge incubator for the next generation of philanthropists.

Adams Elementary, Ballard's philanthropic juggernaut

For the last five years, Adams Elementary School has been cultivating young leaders and empowering them to make a difference.  In connection with Solid Ground’s Penny Harvest program, Adams students have  raised many thousands of dollars for area nonprofits. In the process, they have created a community culture of engagement.

“The whole school really buys into it,” said parent volunteer Bobbi Windus, who has coached the Adams Penny Harvest effort all five years.

“The kids really look forward to it and I really love seeing the kids develop their leadership skills.” Windus said. “Now that we have done it for several years, younger kids are really looking forward to it. [I hear things like:] ‘Oh when I am in Fourth Grade, I’m going to be on the leadership team!’ A mom emailed me at the beginning of this year. Her younger daughter had just started kindergarten and she was thrilled to death when she got her penny collection bag because she had seen her older brother do it.”

Daniel, Riahna and Roscoe carry some of Adams' 2011 harvest

This year Adams students collected 22 sacks of change, totaling nearly 700 pounds of coins, and a few hundred dollars in paper money.

Erica Slotkin volunteered to deliver Adams’ 2011 harvest to the Penny Harvest office earlier this week. A parent at the school, with a son who is now on the Leadership Roundtable and a daughter whose kindergarten coin collection jar was overflowing, Slotkin also works for Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, an environmental agency that has received support from the Adams Penny Harvest.

“It’s been really rewarding for me as a mom and as a community member,” she said. Two years running, I’ve been able to take my son to the spring Penny Harvest Youth Summit as a younger kid not yet involved. He was able to watch and get to see what was going on at that level. To be able to share what I do as my work with him was also really neat.”

The Roundtable is each school’s leadership group. They promote the coin harvest, assess what issues students are concerned about, and make granting decisions with money allocated to them by Penny Harvest.

Riahna points to Caring Cards in the school cafeteria

Every student at Adams participates in identifying issues by writing or drawing on Caring Cards that the Roundtable groups by theme. The cards are displayed in the school cafeteria.

This democratic process gives them guidance in their research of area nonprofits. In 2010 Adams granted $1,000, which was distributed among Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, PAWS and New Beginnings shelter.

Roscoe, who is now serving his second year on the Roundtable,  was a strong advocate for Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. “I really like what Puget Soundkeeper is doing, because my family has a boat,” he said. “I hate it when we go through really polluted water.”

In addition to allocating grants, the Roundtable coordinates community service projects, such as a food drive to benefit the Ballard Food Bank, or a toy drive to benefit Treehouse.

Adams students also make an annual video project to promote the Penny Harvest.

Display boards at the school promote Penny Harvest

“You have to hit the ground running, because the Penny Harvest occurs early in the school year,” said Windus. “That first year I said, ‘Guys we have to do a kickoff assembly,’ but not a single one of the students was willing to talk at the assembly. So, we came up with the video idea.”

This year’s video features Abe the Penny looking for ways to be helpful around the school. Previous videos have spoofed Star Wars and taken other lighthearted approaches to promoting philanthropy.

“It’s really become a deep part of our culture,” Windus said.

SOS: Save our Safety Net

Save our safety net. www.povertyaction.org

“My TANF grant is $562 a month. My rent is $550. I am living on $12 per month right now with three kids.” –Angela, Vancouver

Washington State’s safety net is a critical public asset that ensures our neighbors and loved ones are able to survive when they have fallen on hard times or are unable to work due to an injury, age or disability. Safety net programs help families like Angela’s avoid homelessness and provide vital support as they regain their economic security.

Over the past three years, the Governor and legislature have cut billions from programs that Angela and other Washingtonians depend on to meet their basic needs. Cuts of this magnitude have whittled our state’s safety net down to its basic foundation. Now, the state is facing yet another
$2 billion revenue shortfall. In less than two weeks, lawmakers will convene at the state capitol for a special legislative session to pass a supplemental budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Last month, Governor Gregoire released a “road map” of an all-cuts budget to guide lawmakers as they draft their supplemental budget proposals.

Milk is not a luxury.

The proposed cuts in the Governor’s road map would put Angela and her three children 76 cents away from becoming homeless. After multiple rounds of deep budget cuts, it is difficult to fathom the possibility of further stripping programs like TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), Disability Lifeline-Housing and Essential Needs, and health care. Low-income families cannot afford to absorb another round of cuts to the programs they depend on to survive!

On Monday, Nov. 21, the Governor will release her final supplemental budget proposal, and she needs to hear that people like Angela are barely making ends meet and cannot afford another
all-cuts budget.

Contact the Governor TODAY and urge her to include revenue in her final supplemental budget proposal.

For more information and to find out how else you can get involved, go to povertyaction.org.

On an upward continuum

Our November 2011 Groundviews newsletter features a remarkable young woman who is both one of the first residents in permanent housing at our Brettler Family Place and is giving a year of service through our Washington Reading Corps. To read the entire issue, visit our Publications webpage.

By serving with WA Reading Corps and living at Brettler Family Place, Penni Carter accesses services while giving back.

A year of AmeriCorps service can be challenging for anyone. Members of Solid Ground’s Washington Reading Corps, for instance, tutor children who read below grade level five days a week – and take intensive leadership development, social justice and anti-racism trainings – all while living on a subsistence stipend. For Penni Carter (not her real name), add to that the struggle of landing on her 27-year-old feet, fresh from escaping domestic violence.

“I was with her dad,” she says, pointing to her two-year-old cutie pie in a pink tutu. “And it was not a healthy relationship. I just got to the point where [I felt], ‘I can’t do this anymore and I don’t want my daughter to end up getting hurt.’ So, I packed up a suitcase and a stroller, and I literally just walked away from my life.”

Accessing support while giving back
Solid Ground provides a range of services that meet people at various stops along their life journeys. When Penni was preparing to exit her domestic violence shelter, she connected with a Solid Ground JourneyHome Case Manager who helped her apply for permanent housing in our new Brettler Family Place program. In addition to housing, Brettler provides support services and case management for formerly homeless families. People accepted to live there must have stable jobs or be moving in a positive direction in their work lives.

Penni moved into Brettler last spring. Soon after, she learned of Washington Reading Corps (WRC) through a coworker and became a volunteer in its summer program, Cities of Service. From there she applied for and was accepted to serve a year with WRC. Thus, she became both a program participant and an AmeriCorps Member with Solid Ground.

Opportunities for self-awareness & growth
Like all Solid Ground employees, Penni and her fellow WRC Members were sent to Undoing Institutional Racism (UIR) training, an intensive experience that unpacks the impacts of racism in America.

“I went to the UIR training and that was life changing,” Penni says. “Being white, you have to look at yourself. It is not them that is the problem, it is me, too. And I have mixed kids, so it really hits home. A lot of these things that people of color are expressing, my kids are going to go through, too. I’m a white woman, so it is hard to find that balance: How do I support them and not let them think that being white is bad or being black is bad?”

And Penni says the UIR training helped her learn how to talk to other white neighbors about racial dynamics and make better connections with neighbors of color.

“Talk about being an ally; Brettler is the best place to do it,” Penni says. “It is good to talk to my neighbors about white privilege, and let them know there are people out there that know it is real. It is going on and it is not OK – and you are not crazy for thinking it. It is nice to know that I can be an ally to so many people in my community that live just where I live.”

Building bridges at Brettler
Over the summer, Brettler Family Place turned from a location where 51 formerly homeless families live into a true community. Penni says, “This summer was incredible. A lot of families had just moved in, so they were just trying to get on their feet.”

One night, “Everybody was outside and I just said, ‘I really want to play kickball.’ We ended up having a big kickball game. I think the youngest kid playing was three, all the way up to the parents and everybody in between. People were sitting on the sides even if they didn’t want to play. We had wheelbarrow races and jump rope and handstand contests – just fun stuff. And all the moms got together and everybody watched everybody else’s kids.”

From this stable sense of community, Penni has started to rebuild her life and imagine her new future. “Last year during my internship, I learned so much,” she says. “I definitely want to do my second year in WRC, then I want to go back to school. I want to either be a teacher or work with DV [domestic violence] abusers or inmates, and help them go through treatment, and realize, ‘Just because you did these things, you are not a bad person – but what do we need to do to help you not fall back into that pattern?’ ” 

Raised by a single mom in Section 8 housing, Penni’s experience could have been one of succumbing to generational patterns. But a continuum of Solid Ground programs supported her in finding stable housing, establishing a goal plan, and getting employment training, community service and leadership development that will help her family thrive.

For more information, please visit:
● Brettler Family Place
● Washington Reading Corps

Left Broadview smiling

Mary Ann (not her real name or photo) and her 7-year-old son moved into Solid Ground’s Broadview Transitional Housing program under very difficult circumstances.

Her son had leukemia and was in recovery. He could not walk up stairs and he had no hair. They spent most of their time at Children’s Hospital initially. He could not go to school and could not play with other children.

After Mary Ann’s son improved, a Children’s Advocate stepped in to help him integrate into the Broadview community. They helped mom with school enrollment, and then his really big moment came: He started school and could participate in onsite activities. He attended Children’s Group and went on some field trips, too. He was so happy just to be outside with the other kids on the playground. He made friends and some of the kids came to visit him in his unit. He limps but he can climb the stairs now; he smiles a lot and he has lots of hair again.

Mary Ann has been looking for work and has gone on several interviews. She found permanent housing and thinks she has a job as well. Broadview Transitional Housing gave them a place to heal physically and emotionally. Mary Ann says that they feel normal now. Both Mary Ann and her son left Broadview smiling.

To contribute to the important community and support happening at Broadview, please visit our Broadview donation page.

Folk instrument’s historical connection to racism in the U.S.

Legendary musician Taj Mahal is featured in the documentary Give Me the Banjo

The banjo is a humble instrument, initially made of wood, skin and gut. Pirated thousands of miles from its African origins, the banjo has come to be the butt of countless jokes, and a symbol of our nation’s racial history.

A stunning new video documentary showcases the instrument’s musical and cultural ramifications.

PBS’ Arts from the Blue Ridge Mountains: Give Me the Banjo  debuts tonight on PBS stations around the country (in Seattle:  KCTS Channel 9) at 9pm. (It will no doubt be repeated many times and be available for rent and purchase; check your local PBS station for details.)

“Give me the banjo…When you want genuine music – music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth’s pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose – when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo!”  ~Mark Twain

Give me the Banjo is a polished, nuanced social and cultural history. It features archival footage of historic players like Gus Cannon and Doc Boggs, performance clips of modern masters like Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka (who was the project’s music director and main collaborator of writer-producer Marc Fields) and Steve Martin (who also narrates) – and a cogent analysis of the connection between the banjo’s history and racism in our nation.

“You can’t talk about the history of the banjo if you can’t talk about racism, slavery, misogyny appropriation and exploitation,” ethnomusicologist Greg Adams says early in the show. And considerable energy is spent documenting how the banjo’s ancestors came to this country from Africa, hostage to the slave trade, and how its role in the American entertainment experience represented dominant culture attitudes towards people of color through time.

In the 1700s, the banjo was the province of slaves and free immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, a handmade folk instrument that connected its players to their home culture.

In the 1830s, Joel Walker Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo, which he later turned into the featured instrument of the first minstrel shows. As Give Me the Banjo documents, the stunning rise of the black-faced minstrel show as a dominant form of entertainment “trivialized the African-American community,” according to musicologist Christopher Smith, and became an early embodiment of the appropriation that later played out in the early history of rock and roll: “white boys playing the blues.”

From Sweeney to Pete Seeger, the humble five-string manifested a fascinating journey, coming to symbolize in turn industrialized aristocrats, country bumpkins, working class revolutionaries and others. All of these plot twists and turns are lovingly presented in Give Me the Banjo, sumptuously illustrated and musically represented by the finest players. The documentary started under the working title The Banjo Project and used the grassroots fundraising tool Kickstarter to raise funds needed to complete the production. With its depth of research and deft editing, it comes off as a polished project, one that will come to be seen as a classic in the cannon of banjo literature and, perhaps, in the cannon of literature about racism as well.

Tenant Tip: Tenant Screening

Landlords typically screen prospective tenants to decide their eligibility to move into a rental unit. Often landlords hire a screening company to decide tenants’ suitability. Screeners investigate potential tenants’ credit, rental history, employment history, criminal background, previous evictions and court records. RCW 59.18.257 is the section of the Washington Residential Landlord-Tenant Act which provides information on tenant screening. The screening process can be burdensome, costly and unfair for tenants, especially if they have wrongful evictions on their record or because of their status as domestic violence survivors.

One of the main challenges is that the tenant is responsible for paying the cost of screening fees which may range from $30 to $75 per application. Even if the landlord decides not to offer a unit to the tenant, the tenant loses their screening fee. Currently, tenants can be denied for any number of reasons, causing them to pay many screening fees. Often people with poor credit or evictions on their record are faced with spending hundreds of dollars on screening fees without ever being offered a unit. These fees can prevent low-income tenants from being able to afford move-in costs and can leave tenants facing homelessness.

A report released this month by the Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR) indicates that housing discrimination based on race or disability occurs frequently in Seattle. In their investigation, nearly 70% of landlords showed some sort of race-based discrimination in which inconsistencies favored white applicants. Disability-based discrimination tests revealed that 38% of the properties used practices that created barriers for people living with disabilities to get access to housing. Read the full press release on the SOCR webpage. These issues of discrimination in tenant screening are happening outside of Seattle as well. We receive calls on our Tenant Services Hotline from all over Washington State from tenants who face housing discrimination based on race, ethnicity, criminal history and disability status.

In addition, mistakes contained in the screening reports or credit reports used to decide tenant eligibility can also cause tenants to be wrongfully denied housing. Tenants may never even see a copy of the report to find an error and dispute the inaccuracy. These inaccuracies may include wrongful evictions that were filed illegally or incorrectly. Once an eviction, or Lawsuit for Unlawful Detainer, is filed with the courts, the eviction record remains on the tenant’s public record for life. Even if the judge rules in the tenant’s favor and they win the case in court, potential landlords are still able to see the eviction on their record and deny housing.

Domestic violence survivors also face discrimination in the tenant screening process, and they are often denied housing because of a protection order on their record. Even though RCW 59.18.570 states that it’s illegal to deny housing based on an individual’s history as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, many landlords will deny housing to these people without providing a reason. Stronger protections are needed for survivors so they do not have to face discrimination in trying to meet their basic need for safe housing.

Tenant Advocates are working to improve laws to help tenants when going through the screening process in search of housing. The Fair Tenant Screening Act proposes to address the following issues within the screening process:

• Wrongful evictions
• Inaccuracies on screening reports
• High screening fees
• Additional protections for domestic violence survivors

In order to make these changes, state legislators need to hear from renters throughout Washington State who are directly affected by this serious issue that creates so many housing barriers. If you’d like to share your story and be part of the advocacy effort to support the Fair Tenant Screening Act, please call our Tenant Advocacy Line at 206.694.6748 and attend the Access to Housing Forum to learn more about the Fair Tenant Screening Act and how you can help.

The tenant information contained in this article or linked to the Solid Ground Tenant Services website is for informational purposes only. Solid Ground makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to its website. Solid Ground cannot act as your attorney. Solid Ground makes no representations, expressed or implied, that the information contained in or linked to its website can or will be used or interpreted in any particular way by any governmental agency or court. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing provided here should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel. Solid Ground Tenant Counselors offer these tenant tips as generalized information for renters. People with specific questions should call our Tenant Services hotline at 206.694.6767  Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm.

Tenant Tip: Access to Housing Forum

You are invited to attend an open forum to learn more about opportunities to increase access to housing, address discrimination in the tenant screening process, and work to break down other barriers that low-income renters and domestic violence survivors face in finding housing. Please join the Race & Social Justice Initiative, the Seattle Women’s Commission, the Tenants Union and the Housing Alliance for:

Access to Housing Forum

Thursday, November 10, 2011, 6:30pm
Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Ave
in the Bertha Knight Landes Room

Snacks and Childcare provided. To request childcare, please click here.

Join tenants, advocates and invited elected officials to discuss how we can break down barriers to housing.

Panelists include:

Eric Dunn, Staff Attorney
Northwest Justice Project

Linda Olsen, MA, MSW,
Housing Program Coordinator
Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Laurie Lippold, Public Policy Director
Children’s Home Society

Advocacy Alert: Tell WA legislators we want a balanced approach to the budget

Editor’s Note: This report is from Solid Ground’s advocacy experts at the Statewide Poverty Action Network.

Yesterday, Governor Gregoire released an outline of how she would close the state’s $2 billion budget deficit. Her proposal deeply cuts essential services for low-income families, children, immigrants, seniors and people living with disabilities. If implemented, these cuts would eliminate public safety net programs that thousands of Washingtonians rely on to survive, cost our state thousands of jobs, and set back our economic recovery.

Contact your lawmakers and demand that they take a more balanced approach to the budget by raising revenue instead of eliminating crucial public services!

Our communities have already endured $10 billion in cuts over the past three years. At a time when safety net programs are needed more than ever, the Governor has proposed to drastically cut and eliminate healthcare coverage, dental care, housing and food assistance, subsidized childcare, and income supports for thousands of people living on low incomes. These proposed cuts come at a time when communities across the state are just beginning to feel the deep impacts of the over $4 billion in cuts still rolling out from the 2011 Legislative Session. It is unfathomable to think that our families, friends and communities can handle more cuts to vital services during the worst recession since the Great Depression.

It is irresponsible to continue to cut programs our communities depend on while Wall Street Banks profit from unfair tax breaks. In Washington State, nearly 890,000 people now live below the federal poverty line. We need to get our priorities straight: End unfair tax breaks to fund essential services and create jobs.

Legislators can do right by our state by closing unfair tax loopholes and raising needed revenue during November’s special legislative session. And if they can’t reach a two-thirds majority in the legislature, they should let the people decide with a referendum.

Tell your lawmakers to end unfair tax breaks and raise needed revenue. New budget cuts to programs people depend on are too much for families living on low incomes to bear.

You are warmly invited to Marra Farm

Solid Ground’s Lettuce Link program invites you and yours to Marra Farm in South Park to celebrate national Food Day on Monday, October 24. We will explore the crops in our Giving Garden, learn about the rich traditions of farming and community in South Park, and discuss Lettuce Link and Solid Ground’s broader mission to end hunger, poverty and oppression in Seattle. We also will press apples into fresh cider, save seeds for next year, and lead a tour of this community-powered sustainable urban farm. In addition, students from Concord International Elementary will harvest the pumpkins they planted in the Giving Garden last spring. Please dress for the weather, as there is little covered space at the Farm.

Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life — parents, teachers and students; health professionals, community organizers and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers and eaters of all stripes — to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. Visit the Food Day website for more events and information.

What: Food Day
Date: Monday, October 24
Time: 10 am – noon
Location: Marra Farm, 9026 4th Ave S Seattle, WA  98108
RSVP: RSVPs appreciated — sign up on the Food Day registration page
Getting there: Bus routes and driving directions to Marra Farm

Tenant Tip: Holding Deposits

A holding deposit is money a landlord can ask a tenant to pay to take a unit off the market until the tenant moves in at a later time. This typically happens when a tenant sees a unit that they like but they are not able to move in right away. By paying a holding deposit, the tenant secures the unit and the landlord agrees that they will not rent the unit to any other prospective tenant. RCW 59.18.253 addresses holding deposits, and tenants can refer to this section of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RLTA) for exact language of the law including the changes that took effect in July 2011.

The following tip is general information that tenants may find useful in addition to reviewing the exact language of the law.

In order to take a holding deposit from a prospective tenant, the landlord needs to provide:

• A receipt to the tenant upon payment of the holding deposit.
• A written statement of conditions in which the holding deposit may be retained.

When the tenant moves in, the landlord must apply the holding deposit towards the tenant’s security deposit amount or first month’s rent. If a tenant chooses not to move in, for example if they change their mind and find a different place to rent, the landlord can keep the holding deposit. It is important for tenants to understand how holding deposits work before paying one to a landlord, because it can be costly to have it withheld if the tenant chooses not to move in.

Strategic Planning Update

Editor’s Note: The following update on Solid Ground’s ongoing Strategic Planning Process is from Solid Ground’s Strategic Planning Committee.

Real Time Strategic Planning, used with permission of La Piana Consulting

Dear Solid Ground Community,

We want to provide an update on our Strategic Planning process and why this work is critical to the agency and our community! The Strategic Planning Committee is made up of representatives from each department within Solid Ground, as well as members of our Board and Advisory Council. This Committee intentionally brings together multiple stakeholders at all levels to create a strong plan for this organization, one that balances our aspirations but also deals with our current realities in understanding how we can actualize those dreams. Modeled in alignment to our Anti-Racism Initiative Action Teams, we meet on a monthly basis to work towards developing shared priorities for Solid Ground and strategies to meet those priorities. We operate on a decision-making model (Fist of Five) which allows for critical dialogue to assist us in working towards collective goals.

We acknowledge the challenges facing our agency today that dramatically affect consumers of our services at every level. We also face the internal struggles we all know so well. But as Ron Chisom and Dr. Kimberly Richards of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond reminded us recently, it’s times like these when we can bring hope into changing this organization for the better!

One of our first actions in the Committee was to bring Staff, Board and Advisory Council members together at an All Staff community event on May 23. We generated ideas on what the new mission, vision and values should be for Solid Ground and then gathered feedback on the drafted mission, vision and values. We tried our best to incorporate the hundreds of voices we heard from throughout the five-month process. You can find our new mission, vision and values here.

In the past three months, the Committee also gathered information directly from constituents and key stakeholders around Washington State through listening sessions, focus groups and interviews. This, along with data collected from our staff, funders and partner organizations, will be put into a final report to help guide the Strategic Planning Committee through our October retreat. At this retreat we will develop several tools based on the La Piana Real-Time Strategic Planning model to clarify our future business model and create a Strategy Screen for decision-making in the organization. We will also develop a Big Question that Solid Ground faces right now. This Big Question will be used by the Committee to create targeted strategies and a plan to address this question organizationally and programmatically in the coming year.

At this turning point in the life of Solid Ground, the Strategic Planning Committee has extended our timeline by one month. We hope to use this time to tap into the best of all of us to figure out how we can serve our community needs with respect and human dignity at our core. We need your input, engagement and questions. We believe it is a critical piece in living up to our new mission, vision and values.

The Strategic Planning Committee’s retreat will be held Monday October 24. If you have feedback or questions, feel free to contact Ariana Cantu at arianac@solid-ground.org or 206.694.6860.

Our Mission, Vision & Values

An organization’s Mission, Vision and Values statements are its heart and soul.

Ideally, they define what we do, how we do it, and why.

And they are our DNA, the imprint that we pass on to all staff, volunteers and program participants. Want to know what makes Solid Ground unique? How are we distinguished from partner agencies? Look at our Mission, Vision and Values.

As part of an ongoing new strategic planning process, Solid Ground has just revised these statements. They move beyond addressing poverty to calling out racism and other oppressions that are fundamental contributors to poverty, homelessness and hunger.

“Our previous Mission, Vision and Values statements were written over 10 years ago and as such, did not reflect the major shifts in direction which have taken place,” says Solid Ground Board Chair, Lauren McGowan.

“The new statements speak to our strong commitment to working collaboratively in the communities we serve and to ending racism and other oppressions that keep people poor. They are a direct result of the work we have been doing at Solid Ground to undo institutional racism in our organization and in the community.”

The changes were developed through an extensive process that involved staff  at all levels of the agency, Board members and program participants.

“These new statements are the building blocks for the Strategic Plan we will complete in December,” says McGowan. “They represent both a track record of providing innovative and effective services to people in need and our aspirations for the future. As our community continues to struggle though this challenging economic climate, Solid Ground is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to food, housing, transportation and justice.”

SOLID GROUND’S MISSION, VISION & VALUES

MISSION
Solid Ground works to end poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty.

VISION
Solid Ground believes our community can move beyond poverty and oppression to a place where all people have access to quality housing, nutritious food, equal justice and opportunities to thrive.

VALUES
Solid Ground is committed to working with compassion, integrity, accountability, creativity and an anti-oppression approach to end homelessness, hunger, inequality and other barriers to social justice. We value collaboration and leadership from the communities we serve.