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.

No Room of Her Own

No Room of Her Own

For 20 years, Desiree Hellegers has been working on and off with homeless women from Seattle, bearing witness to their struggles and their strengths, and working with them to tell their stories.

The result is a newly published book that is a stunning collection of personal narratives: No Room of Her Own: Women’s Stories of Homelessness, Life, Death and Resistance.

Hellegers and a number of the women featured in the book will read from it at 2pm on Sunday, October 16 at The Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10^th Avenue on Capitol Hill. Details on the Elliott Bay website.

I’ve known Hellegers since before she began the interviews that led to this book. The work was born of her personal experience working at the old Lutheran Compass Center shelter in Pioneer Square. It is grounded in her cogent political analysis of why homelessness has become entrenched in our society.

The book gives much-needed attention to the work of Women in Black, whose regular vigils call attention to the deaths of homeless people on the streets of Seattle. And it is noteworthy not for the horror stories the women tell of their experiences, but for the strength of their personal courage, compassion, civic engagement and activism to change our world.

Published by Palgrave Macmillan, the book demands to be read by a broad community to help us move the civic debate about how we value people’s lives. It is deeply personal, startlingly political and incredibly powerful.

“Heartbreaking and inspiring stories of courageous women enduring and triumphing over adversity few of us can imagine. … They have been studied to death, but rarely do we hear their voices,” commented David Barsamian, the founder and director of Alternative Radio.

“The reality that sings out from Desiree Hellegers’ remarkable book is that women who lack a roof to sleep under at night are not lacking in competence, will-power, a way with words and a generous spirit of activism,” stated Cynthia Cockburn, noted feminist writer and member of Women in Black London.

Join Hellegers, and members of WHEEL, Women in Black and Real Change, who will share their stories in what will certainly be an emotionally and politically compelling afternoon.

WHAT: Readings from No Room of Her Own
WHEN: Sunday, October 16, 2pm
WHERE: The Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, 98122