irt poverty/homelessness + alcohol use (esp with @butchfeygela‘s tags on my post)- people really underestimate the function that substance use/alcohol use can have for someone who is unhoused. being unhoused is boring, cold, painful, + lonely. substances can allow the 8 hours panhandling to get the $45 you need for a motel to fly by. alcohol reduces your perception of the cold + can knock you out whben you can’t sleep. substances can help you cope with the physical deterioration from malnutrition, constant stress, + sleeping outside. substances can provide social connection with others who you would otherwise not enjoy or help you cope with being alone.

not only that but- many unhoused people are stuck in a seemingly inescapable position. the pathway to financial stability or even housing is difficult or even impossible. in the wake of that hopelessness, the downsides of substance use start to seem insignificant. arrest? you’re getting arrested anyway for sleeping outside, peeing outside, standing in the wrong place, etc. physical danger? you’re already beat the fuck up, anyway, right? loss of relationships? you’ve lost most people already. inability to keep a job? nobody will hire you + you can’t stay employed, anyway, because you have no car + no shower.

perhaps for you or me, the cons of heroin use or binge drinking nightly greatly outweigh the pros. that isn’t the case for everyone. if we are really serious about ending overdose/addiction, we need to start looking at giving people lives worth recovering into instead of shaming them for their own hopelessness.

Greedy landlord refused to return deposit for renovated apartment

So this happened around 4 years ago and I haven't told anyone about this out of fear of someone linking my username to me IRL.

At the beginning of my junior year of college, I moved out of my parents house and into an quadplex (old house turned into 4 apartments). My parents weren't helping me out and I had a minimum wage job, so the apartment was the best I could do.

It was in the middle of an old downtown neighborhood and this house was originally built in 1906. The wooden floors had large slopes, the walls were cigarette yellow, the large sliding door in the middle of the place was off the hinges, the drop ceiling in the kitchen was missing, and the ceiling in the bathroom had a tile completely taken over by black mold.

That's not all. The kitchen had no cabinets, their was a birds nest somewhere(never found it), the backdoor had a large gap at the bottom and had 2 complete holes from carpenter bees, the toilet had a permanent black ring, there was no central air and heating, and if you plugged up too many things at once, the breaker would blow. It got so cold some nights, that the water in my glass would freeze into a solid ice cube. To top all of that off, the lady above me was a hoarder and had 20+ cats. There was a MAJOR flea infestation that had spilled over into my apartment.

The landlord was pretty upfront about everything. He didn't really care about the state of the apartment and priced it really low to get someone like me who would deal with it. I was a kid and it was my first place, so I didn't realize what I was getting myself into. I was just grateful to have shelter.

So I moved in and got permission to renovate the place with expenses being reimbursed. I cleaned/painted the walls, fixed the 15 ft sliding door, replaced the drop ceiling(the black mold was really disgusting), flea-bombed the place twice, fixed the bathroom up as best as I could, replaced the backdoor, sealed all of the holes everywhere, replaced outlets, the whole 9 yards.

It went from being a miserable pile of trash to a fairly livable apartment. After about 11 months, I decided that I could not deal with the intense winter nights and made a deal with my landlord to find replacement tenants to move in(since I signed a 12 month lease). I found a nice couple who really liked the place and the landlord allowed them to take over the lease.

Here is where shit hit the fan: When I asked for my $400 deposit back, the landlord straight up REFUSED. He said because I was a couple of days late on paying rent a few months ago, that my deposit had covered the late fee charges. There was never any agreement about late fees and he never told me there was a problem when I would let him know that the rent might be a little late. I was FURIOUS. All of the hard work I put into this place just to be told that I wouldn't even be getting my deposit back?!?!

We went back and forth for a few minutes before I said to him "You don't want me living in this place for another week knowing that I wont be getting my deposit back." He responded by letting me know that he has recent pictures of the apartment that shows the current state of it and that if I damaged anything, he would be taking me to court and making sure there was an eviction on my rental record. He also thanked me for texting him that so he could have proof in court when he sued me.

Now is time for the revenge.

I wanted to destroy the place like he anticipated, but I didn't want to tarnish my rental history so early on in my life. I was also afraid of being sued(even though now I know that it is illegal to not return a renters deposit for the reason he had). So I brainstormed for a bit and decided that since he had pictures, I had to do something you can't see.

I went to the freezer and pulled out a giant bag of Tilapia that I had bought from Costco. I cut all 15(ish) of them into 5 pieces. I went through the apartment and placed the fish in the ceiling, behind wall sockets, behind light switch covers, in the unused floor vents, at the top of the closet. I even undid all of the doorknobs and placed the fish INSIDE of them. I then got my cats litter box and brought in the bag of cat poop that I had just thrown out and dumped it evenly in the floor vents. I then got black construction paper and placed it evenly on top of the litter to disguise it so you couldn't tell.

I moved out the very next day and got into a much better apartment. A week later, I went to drop off the keys in the mailbox, but curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to 'sea' my masterpiece. I opened the door and I was greeted by a giant wave of something I could only describe as the most foul smell that has ever assaulted my nasal cavity. I quickly closed the door back, dropped the keys in the mailbox, and left.

A few weeks later, the landlord had came to my new apartment and was banging HARD on my door. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! YOU THINK THIS IS OVER SMARTASS??" With a giant smile, I said "looks like it" and closed the door on his face. Still makes me smile when I think about it.

​

TL/DR: Landlord screwed me out of my deposit even though I fixed up his trashy apartment. Turned newly renovated apartment into fish filet.

(source) story by (/u/006ahmed)

The Unintended Consequences and Risks of Forbearance

New Post has been published on https://www.creconsult.net/?p=115703

The Unintended Consequences and Risks of Forbearance

  The Unintended Consequences and Risks of Forbearance

To stop the spread of Covid-19, communities are coming together, staying home, washing hands and social distancing to protect the most vulnerable. A similar level of cooperation is needed in the commercial real estate industry among tenants, owners, lenders and the government to prevent a cascade of bankruptcies. In the words of one commentator, we are “too connected to fail.”

For example, the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) allows multifamily property owners who hold federally backed mortgages to request forbearance on their loans. The policy is intended to prevent a wave of multifamily loan defaults and potential foreclosures by giving owners some relief in the event tenants fail to pay rent. Though the forbearance provision is well-intentioned, many believe adjustments need to be made to better align the interests of tenants, property owners and lenders, and avoid dire consequences for the entire system. For example:

Landlords who seek forbearance can’t evict tenants, charge late fees or issue negative credit reports for those who fail to pay rent. While this is appropriate for people who have lost their jobs due to Covid-19, the policy covers all tenants, even those whose incomes have not be affected.

Many believe the Agencies should require tenant relief to be predicated on direct impact from Covid-19. Those whose employment can be documented should be subject to business as usual. This is particularly important as unemployment rises over time. A Wall Street Journal survey of 57 economists suggests that 14.4 million jobs will be lost in the coming months, and the unemployment rate will rise to a record 13 percent in June.

    Though the forbearance provision is well-intentioned, many believe adjustments need to be made to better align the interests of tenants, property owners and lenders, and avoid negative consequences for the entire system.

Servicers are working on a case-by-case basis to help property owners, but since major modifications require Special Servicer sign off, we expect the bigger deals to be subject to significant fees. Meanwhile the Special Servicers may not have the bandwidth to address smaller deals, which may be ignored.

The good news is that we see evidence of owners, tenants and lenders across the commercial real estate spectrum coming together to avoid irreparable damage to the system. Most apartment residents understand that their rent payments are crucial to running a safe and livable property. The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) found that 84 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by April 12, up 15 percentage points from April 5, based on a survey of 11.5 million units of professionally managed apartments across the U.S.

In addition, many landlords are being compassionate and flexible, offering modifications that can be paid back incrementally over the life of the lease when the crisis abates. Owners tell us they are communicating with tenants to find out who is facing hardship, and reaching out to elderly residents in particular who may lack a support system. Others say they are focused on maintaining staff and operations, as supporting tenants is the right thing to do and will have significant upside for the property’s reputation over time.

Finally, in this uncertain economic landscape, lenders are like doctors. They need to manage borrowers like a physician working to help cure a patient. To that end, we are seeing many banks, and some life companies, allowing shortfalls to be tacked on to the back-end balloon payment. Lenders also need to make allowances for this unprecedented situation and recognize that even the most stable borrowers may require forbearance and remain excellent candidates for future financing.

FHFA, RBS reach nearly $99.5 million MBS settlement

Contents

Curve florida foreclosure defense attorneys allege

Years housing permits

Crippled housing market. highest

Jarvis 0 comments contents

Mortgage fraud rising most in low-downpayment loans Mortgage fraud rising most in low-downpayment loans. Mortgage fraud is slightly on the rise right now, so it’s an area industry experts say needs a close watch because it takes a long time to uncover.Capital Bank launches Capital Bank Home Loans PHH Home Loans adds Steve Majerus as western regional executive PHH Home Loans, a joint venture between phh mortgage (phh) and realogy holdings corp (rlgy), announced the appointment of Steve Majerus to the role of regional executive for the western region of PHH. PHH Home Loans, a joint venture between PHH Mortgage and Realogy Holdings Corp , announced that the company promoted Kevin McGarrity into the.Capital Bank Reviews & Info. Capital Bank is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland is a Maryland chartered commercial bank that offers commercial and consumer banking services to clients in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, alongside two nation-wide lending brands; Capital Bank Home Loans, a mortgage division that lends in all 50 states, and OpenSky a credit card division that offers and.

RBS Could Pay $7.7B To Settle MBS Suit With FHFA. By Andrew Westney.. the FHFA announced that it had reached a $99.5 million settlement with RBS Securities Inc. of a separate suit in New York.

RBS rose Wednesday after saying it has reached a settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency over allegations of fraudulent conduct in the financial crisis sale of mortgage backed securities.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc ( RBS ) has reached a settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – the conservator of.. RBS, FHFA Reach $99.5M MBS Settlement – Analyst Blog.

CoreLogic to add 500 jobs in North Texas Hong Kong-based Nine Dragons, one of the world’s largest producers of cardboard boxes, has invested $500 million over the past. noting new or expanded plants in Texas, Pennsylvania, California and.Valuation Partners adds Denise Neely as vice president Washington D.C. fails in terms of home affordability Charleston ranks low for affordability, due to wages that fail to keep pace with rent and home prices, but has the highest livability score of the 75 metros studied. Affordability concerns keep other pricey coastal metros such as Washington, D.C.Wells Fargo Q1 Profits Packed with Accounting Gain FICO warns mortgage, student loan delinquencies may rise Bank of America set to write down principal on California mortgages Auction.com improves foreclosure outcomes for lenders and servicers Lenders often tell borrowers to apply for a loan modification when a borrower falls behind on mortgage payments. In California, when a borrower falls behind, a lender cannot move forward with foreclosure unless they first try to contact the borrower and suggest options that might help save the home.Short Sale Incentives Coming in 2010, Treasury Says Reverse Mortgage funding expands payment options on proprietary reverse product Is your mortgage business safer now than before the crash? ‘That was chilling’: ten years since the financial crash. –  · Ten years ago the then chancellor, Alistair Darling, was on holiday and had walked to the shops to buy bread rolls for breakfast. He picked up a copy of the Financial Times. It stopped him in his.Reverse mortgage funding expands payment options on proprietary reverse product Reverse Mortgage Funding is expanding the payment options on its proprietary reverse mortgage – the Equity Elite – to include term payments. previously, Equity Elite borrowers could withdraw up to $4 million in their home’s equity in a lump sum only at closing.Senate Bank Chair weighs sweeping GSE, mortgage lending overhaul Is your mortgage business safer now than before the crash? This mortgage goes further than. epic crash? "In the short run, over the next half decade to decade, it’s going to be extremely unlikely, virtually impossible for that to happen because all the.ConsumerAffairs.com readers regularly write in with complaints. Read your financial statements, including your credit card statements, checking account statements, mortgage and auto loan statements.In 2004, conservative nonprofit organization Citizens United brought a complaint to the Federal Election Commission regarding Michael Moore’s film fahrenheit 9/11, a documentary that discussed the events of September 11, 2001 from a perspective unfavorable to George W. Bush.Wolters Kluwer warns TRID brings steep learning curve florida foreclosure defense attorneys allege ‘rocket docket’ abuses Florida Foreclosure Defense Blog is the Blog of Foreclosure Defense department of Shuster and Saben, LLC a law firm of six attorneys with offices in Miami, Florida and Plantation, Florida. We defend homeowners facing foreclosure in South and Southwest Florida, Central Florida, and in the Treasure and Space Coast.Obama Signs First-time homebuyer tax credit extension Short sales and foreclosures equally degrade FICO scores A short sale is better over time as long as you don’t have a deficiency judgment for the loss that the bank took with the sale. "FICO said homeowners with short-sales and foreclosures on their records ended up with similar credit scores, assuming their scores were similar as distressed homeowners (see illustration below)."Wilshire Bancorp acquires Bank of Manhattan’s mortgage business Treasury to Announce New Program to Avoid Foreclosure LPS Announces new Tool for Fannie Mae’s SMDU Interface – Lender Processing Services (LPS) has release a new tool for mortgage servicers that the company says. consistent workout solutions in a user-friendly format that helps more borrowers avoid.The words "Valley," the "Company," "we," "our" and "us" refer to valley national bancorp and. Our commercial bank operations include branch office locations in northern and central New Jersey and.Report: Alt-A Delinquency rate nearing 18 percent short Sale Incentives Coming in 2010, Treasury Says If it was a RENTER that received this – yes I’d say it is taxable but why on earth would a renter be receiving moving assistance from the bank? If it is the owner that received this – I’d say it is not taxable and is part of the short sale incentive which will end up in a loss.The nation’s overall delinquency rate was 4.4 percent. alaska was the only state to show an annual increase in the overall delinquency rate. In the wake of Hurricane Florence, some metro areas in the Carolinas logged annual increases in their overall delinquency rates. In September 2018, 4.4.RISMEDIA, November 9, 2009-President Barack Obama has approved the first-time homebuyer tax credit extension which will extend the tax credit until April 30, 2010. The extension is part of a $24. · Restoring your credit scores after filing for bankruptcy. Kentucky First Time Home Buyer Loans . Apply Here Free! Kentucky First Time home buyer loan programs for FHA, VA, KHC, USDA, Mortgage Loans in Kentucky for 2019. Down Payment Assistance Loan from Kentucky Housing Corp or KHC and the Fannie Mae Home Path HUD $100 Down Mortgage Program.Analysts Badly Split Over AMD Earnings Results: What You Need to Know. Investment banker Wells Fargo, which has an outperform rating on AMD stock, quickly hailed the results as proof that AMD.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group agreed to pay $5.5 billion to settle the second of three major U.S. mortgage-backed securities probes the government-owned lender must overcome before it can fully return to the private sector.. RBS to pay $5.5B in FHFA mortgage-bond settlement Published. July 12.

The percentage of our net interest income derived from guaranty fees on loans underlying our Fannie Mae MBS. worked with FHFA to resolve certain claims related to our PLS investments. We entered.

[UPDATE 1: clarifies settlement is for $99.5 million not nearly $1 billion] Continuing its strings of lawsuits, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as a conservator of Freddie Mac, announced its.

FHFA, RBS reach nearly $99.5 million MBS settlement Small housing inventory may push rental demand for years housing permits, starts both fall in January builders began work on fewer homes last month than they did at the end of 2014, underscoring the stop-start pace of housing’s recovery.

"The first priority of the settlement should be to keep people in their homes," said Kelly, who is now facing imminent eviction by JPMorgan Chase and Freddie Mac, which operates under the FHFA. "JPMorgan Chase refused to work with me after I fell behind on a predatory loan, even though I had paid for my home five times over.

Bankrate: Loan Closing Costs Jump 36.6% Year-Over-Year JPMorgan battles falling refi volumes Contents Million keywords delaware Bankruptcy? aaron foley.. july crippled housing market. highest total assessed Real estate: $6.15 billion. According to the Zillow Q2 Real Estate Market Reports, set to release next week, the detroit metro began its turnaround in November 2011, after falling 52% from its peak.Bankrate: Loan Closing Costs Jump 36.6% Year-Over-Year jarvis 0 comments contents 8.. branch offices 7.1 percent year Assist real estate Including lender origination Estate marketing ideas. english ( Throughout the year, BBVA allocated 2.73 billion euros. cost-effective growth, a new

RBS, FHFA Reach $99.5M MBS Settlement. Zacks Equity Research June 20, 2014.. UK-based bank will pay $99.5 million to FHFA to compensate its faulty mortgage practices between 2005 and 2007. It.

FHFA, RBS reach nearly $99.5 million MBS settlement. One of the top financial ratings firms, Fitch Ratings, is blowing the whistle on texas’ hot housing market. home sale prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are at record levels this year and fitch ratings warns that Texas home prices are about 11 percent overvalued.

The post FHFA, RBS reach nearly $99.5 million MBS settlement appeared first on Mortgage Broker Plano Texas.

https://ift.tt/31xUl8Z

Residents share struggles of trying to return to Bay County after hurricane

Hide caption

PANAMA CITY — Bay County may still be a storm-torn county, but to thousands displaced from the area, it is still home.

Three months after Hurricane Michael, many residents — stunted by financial troubles, legal issues, and lack of housing options — are still desperately struggling to return.

Here are four stories of families struggling to return home.

GRACE HALL

Grace Hall, a lifelong citizen of Panama City, was 36 weeks pregnant when Hurricane Michael swept the county on Oct. 10. When she began having slight contractions a week following the hurricane, Gulf Coast Medical Center recommended she travel to Tallahassee to give birth.

Hall has been unable to return to Panama City since due to lack of housing. Her former home, which she was renting, is no longer livable. Even in Tallahassee, Hall struggled to find someone willing to rent to her due to an eviction on her record placed after the hurricane, which she has been unable to fight because she can’t return.

Initially, Hall received some assistance from FEMA, which she planned to use to travel back home. However, she estimates about 90 percent of the funds have already been used up on hotels, food, and diapers for the new baby during her housing search, until she was finally accepted into a women’s home that had a space for her and her baby.

“The most challenging part of everything is leaving everyone I know after the storm,” Hall said.

Despite now living in a women’s home, Hall has a case of survivor’s guilt, knowing she is taking hot showers while loved ones at home are struggling without utilities and a shortage of food.

Still, Hall wishes to return to Panama City, which is her home and has been her entire life.

“It’s where all of my memories are,” she said. “I know every road like a Google Map in my brain. It’s home.”

Hall has also had to send her 14-year-old son to Texas. Though Hall’s partner was able to be there for the birth, he has since had to return to Panama City, as he cannot stay with her in the all women shelter. Following the return to Panama City, he slept in his truck for weeks before he was able to find space in his brother’s home.

Now with a 2-and-a-half-month-old, the hurricane has left her with no transportation, no income to find housing and no family.

SHERRY COTTERMAN

Sherry Cotterman was renting a home in the Callaway area with her three family members prior to Hurricane Michael.

“We did decide to stay for the storm, which is my biggest regret in all of this. We went to bed for the night on the ninth of October thinking that it wouldn’t be too bad,” she said.

Cotterman, a native of Florida, said her prior experience with hurricanes misled her into believing the family would be safe even as Hurricane Michael barreled toward the coast. On the morning the hurricane made landfall, four more family members and one coworker joined them to hunker down in the brick home.

As the second half of the storm tore though the town, the family’s kitchen window finally blew in. Cotterman’s children were placed in the bathroom, an interior room, until water began leaking through the light fixtures. Then, the ceiling in each room began caving in.

One of the adults in the house grabbed the kids and ran to the neighbor’s house, who let them stay inside until the winds finally died down. That night, the family slept in their cars.

Cotterman, her partner, and their children spent the next week living in a hotel in Destin, then hopped to a friend’s home in Panama City Beach for the next two weeks as they fervently searched for a new place to stay.

“We would drop our kids off every day to my sister’s and drive to real estate companies who were still open, and apartment complexes. All of them were either destroyed or had no openings or were so expensive,” she said. “Most of the places we looked at were asking upwards of $2,500 a month for a house smaller than what we were previously living in.”

After no luck finding a suitable place in Panama City, the family began a search in the surrounding areas. They were able to find housing immediately in Fort Walton Beach.

“I want to return to Panama City so bad,” Cotterman said. “Panama city is the only home I’ve ever known up until hurricane Michael. I wanted to raise my children in Panama City like I was.”

Though the family continues to search for a place in town, Cotterman says it looks more and more like they will have to stay in the Fort Walton Beach area for at least another year before they will be able to come home.

“The most challenging part of this ordeal has been completely starting our lives over in a place where we know no one. Sure, it may only be an hour and a half to two hours away, but we can’t go visit everyday,” she said. “We never thought any of this would have happened to us.”

Cotterman’s partner still works in town, where he drives two hours each way to work as a general manager of a restaurant. The rest of Cotterman’s extended family is still living in Panama City.

Even after donations were given to the family, plenty of small expenses have eaten away at the family’s funds after losing everything. The family was denied FEMA assistance due to having renters insurance, but when the insurance money finally came in, the family was shocked by how little they received.

“You don’t realize all the small things you have lost until one day you’re doing something as simple as trying to cook dinner and you realize you don’t have a measuring cup,” she said. “All of those little things have added up tremendously.”

ALISSA PELHAM

Panama City has been home to Alissa Pelham for 25 years.

Nine years ago, she moved into a rental in the Cove with her husband, Sean, near her family.

“The possibility of upheaving our lives to go anywhere else, is a tough pill to swallow. Our support system is here in Panama City and in the Panhandle,” Pelham said. “We are currently commuting from the west end of the beach and that is exhausting.”

In the early hours of Oct. 10, Alissa, Sean, and their 5 and 3-year-old girls, Hannah and Sophia, scrambled to the shelter at Rutherford High School for safety.

Alissa Pelham described the shelter conditions as deplorable, with people using buckets in the hallway as toilets when the bathrooms became unusable. However, she has no regrets about evacuating to the shelter because she is certain their vehicles would have been destroyed in the storm, had they stayed.

The family hurried back into the Cove as soon as they could, driving as close to their home as possible before dozens of fallen oak trees blocked their way.

“Our home was destroyed in the storm, but we were able to salvage most of our belongings and move them into three storage units,” she said. “Two in Niceville and one in Miramar.”

The winds of Hurricane Michael suctioned the roof off the home, allowing water to pour inside. After only three days, mold blanketed the interior walls of the rental.

The Pelhams were also spread far and wide, first staying in a Pensacola hotel for three days and then a bit closer to the city by moving into an Airbnb in Miramar Beach, graciously provided by Alissa’s company.

“I was able to work from the rental and we enrolled my oldest daughter in daycare through the holidays,” Alissa Pelham said. “We kept an eye on the rental market and even homes for sale in Panama City. We had considered buying a home before the storm, but now we are very weary.”

The family has finally been able to move into the west end of the beach, but are hoping for a more permanent solution soon, in part because the family has had to foster their two cats until they find suitable housing.

Soon, Alissa Pelham said, the family will likely move into her parent’s two bedroom, one bathroom home until something opens up. While the housing situation will be a tight squeeze, the family says renting a place at the rates they are finding, in addition to the cost of childcare, is simple unaffordable.

“We have no other choice. The thought of buying a home has really been taken off the table,” Pelham said. “No matter what, we know insurance rates will be going up and property taxes will also rise due to the debris cleanup bills in the city and county.”

Every day, Pelham fears when a future storm inevitably as strong as Hurricane Michael, and every night her daughter Hannah prays for the trees to regrow.

“Now that things have settled and we don’t have that adrenaline/survival mode to aid us, the hardest part is making decisions, both short term and long term,” she said. “Looking at the market now, we can’t find any rentals that are even slightly comparable in standards of living and price. Everything is over our budget, and we don’t foresee anything going down for a long time.”

LAURA JOHNSON

By the time Laura Johnson’s family realized they needed to evacuate, it was too late — with only an hour until landfall and less than a quarter tank of gas, they had no choice but to hunker down.

Johnson’s family lived in an apartment complex before the storm. Though her unit in particular was relatively unscathed, the rest of the complex sustained major damage, which forced all occupants to leave their units.

Formerly a resident of Lynn Haven, Johnson spent two weeks searching for housing to no avail before transferring to Dothan, AL.

Still struggling to find permanent housing, Johnson is about to give birth in as little as seven weeks.

“The biggest struggle has been medical,” she said. “The most challenging part of everything has been finding a place to stay and getting everything transferred over.”

Now the rising cost of housing, combined with the lack of housing, is keeping the Johnsons from their return.

Living in Dothan has forced Laura to job hunt simultaneously to make ends meet.

“Panama City is home. Our family is there, and I personally have dreams of my children growing up and experiencing the things I experienced when I grew up,” Johnson said. “We want to go home badly but it’s just not possible soon.”

The Johnsons have been impacted financially in a huge way. Because Johnson has been unable to work, the family has almost completely depleted their disaster assistance funds and is paying double the rent they were in Panama City.

“It has all just put us in a financial mess.”

Johnson hopes to refocus on returning home once their main concern is no longer on having a healthy birth.

“I understand that most people believe that Panama City is fine now, but it’s not,” she said. “Panama City and surrounding areas are still struggling to get their lives back together.”

Source Article

The post Residents share struggles of trying to return to Bay County after hurricane appeared first on 0745HL.

Learn More At: http://www.0745hl.com/residents-share-struggles-of-trying-to-return-to-bay-county-after-hurricane/

Inspiring speeches from Oregon Walks award winners

View from the stage. (Photo: Steph Routh)

As I alluded to last week, volunteer activism is at the foundation of Portland’s livable streets movement. At Oregon Walks‘ annual Weston Awards fundraising party on Friday night, two of the award winners epitomized that fact: citizen activist Steve Bozzone and the Brentwood Darlington Neighborhood represented by Meesa Long, Lesley McKinley and Chelsea Powers.

With an impressive crowd of advocates, electeds, city staffers, and fellow citizen activists looking on, Bozzone and McKinley shared memorable acceptance speeches that are worth sharing.

Long, McKinley and Powers were up first. This amazing trio led an effort that garnered over $5 million in grants to improve streets in their southeast Portland neighborhood. That’s a big number for a grassroots campaign! And in the process they set records for highest public participation Metro had ever seen by rallying their fellow residents to send in hundreds of postcards, fill in online comment forms, and sign petitions (over 1,000 signatures total).

From left to right: Oregon Walks Executive Director Noel Mickelberry, Lesley McKinley, Chelsea Powers, Meesa Long. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

With a chance to address many of the people who hold city and regional pursestrings, McKinley’s comments were brief; but fierce.

When she said, “We just got two streets of sidewalks [funded],” everyone broke into cheers, but she quickly stopped them and added, “That’s it. I mean, no, don’t clap for that because it’s not enough!”

She continued:

“We were annexed into Portland 30 years ago and we have just not gotten our due. And so we’re coming for you. And I think we’ve proven how absolutely skilled we are in this work. So be afraid…

This was driven by women. This was driven by underserved people, blue-collar people, of which I am one.

We’re very, very grateful, but we’re coming for your money. Do not forget these faces. We’re going to be at every meeting, we’re going to be at every budget, and we should no longer have to send 400 postcards from underserved children begging for their rights. Don’t make us do this again.”

Steve Bozzone received the Legacy Award from Oregon Walks Friday night. A member of the organization’s board of directors, Bozzone is a fixture in local activism circles and is a strong voice for social justice across many issues, including transportation. Bozzone used his opportunity to remind the room full of mostly white, mostly powerful and mostly privileged people to work harder to lift up all voices.

Legacy Award winner Steve Bozzone with Oregon Walks Executive Director Noel Mickelberry. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

After going through a list of thank-yous, he recounted his involvement with the City’s North Williams project — that began as a bicycle access update, but morphed into a much-needed discussion about racism and gentrification.

Here’s an excerpt from his speech:

One of my most memborable experiences involved representing Oregon Walks on the Williams Avenue Safety project. In the beginning of those meetings I was pleased to see a good amount of folks from the pedestrian and bike advocacy world in the room. I thought we had a slam dunk and would get to design the best active transportation corridor in Portland. I was seriously pumped.

What I am now ashamed to admit is I didn’t notice who was not in the room. In the historically black community of Albina, you could count the number of Portlanders of color on the committee on one hand. As much as I claimed to care about fair public process, I was not personally bothered by the lack of representation of residents of color.

It took the work of dedicated community leaders to help the city, the committee, and myself realize this was not OK; and it happened to be the way things have always been. My white privilege was protecting me from seeing the injustice in front of me.

Over the course of many months of listening, I learned about the history of the city neglecting the black community, displacing neighbors through the construction of I-5, Memorial Coliseum and Legacy Emanuel [hospital]. I learned about racial profiling and police shootings. I learned that these communities had their own set of priorities, if only the city would listen and act upon them. I learned that our work in transportation is inextricably linked with racial and economic justice.

I’m sharing this story with you all now, admittedly a mostly white audience, because I do not think we have fully embraced the importance of racial and regional equity in our work. It is easy to support the concept of equity while actively resisting it in our day-to-day lives. It is critical that we identify and manage equity concerns early and proactively.

There are so many opportunities to integrate this work into the public works of this city and I think everyone in this room has a role to play. What does this mean for our city and transportation advocacy?

It means looking around the room you’re in, any room, and wondering why certain folks are not there, and not being satisfied until they are. It means when frontline community of color organizations oppose cetnral city projects and demand equal investments in outer neighborhoods, we take a deep breath, listen, and come together to figure out a path forward. It means organizing real coalitions built on meaningful, trusting relationships. It means showing up for each other, even if it means our ideas get put on the back-burner. It means sometimes stepping back and creating space for others to lead. It means learning about our white privilege, and figuring out ways to use it to challenge white supremacy in our institituions, our social groups, and within ourselves.

This award is for all of the folks that have never shown up to a public meeting because they are working multiple jobs and there’s no childcare provided. It’s for those folks who cannot afford to live in Portland any longer, displaced by no-cause evictions and skyrocketing housing costs. It’s for those folks who spend half their day waiting for the bus to come. It’s for the thousands of Portlanders who are forced to sleep outside each night, who have no place to go. It’s for you and me to remember there is so much work to be done, that we must work together, and our work goes well beyond bike lanes and crosswalks.

As the author Virgina Burden puts it:

Cooperations is the thorough conviction, that nobody can get there, unless everybody gets there.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and [email protected]

Never miss a story. Sign-up for the daily BP Headlines email.

BikePortland needs your support.

The post Inspiring speeches from Oregon Walks award winners appeared first on BikePortland.org.

via bikechatter http://ift.tt/2lXvACN