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This month Citigroup became the latest major bank to conclude a multi-billion dollar settlement with the US Department of Justice, agreeing to pay $7 billion to settle charges over the sale of flawed mortgage securities. The settlement includes $2.5 billion to be spent on relief for underwater homeowner and lending activities designed to help communities hard hit by predatory lending rebuild.
As Richard Eskow of the Campaign for America’s Future wrote, the settlement probably would not have happened at all without public pressure: “The Obama administration is clearly feeling the heat about its treatment of Wall Street. Otherwise the rhetoric wouldn’t be quite as stern and the settlement figures would probably be lower.”
While the Citigroup settlement contained more detailed language about getting the promised relief to hard hit communities than past settlements, the Home Defenders League, a grassroots coalition and membership organization of homeowners affected by the mortgage crisis continues to press the fact that past settlements have not delivered as promised, especially in communities of color that were targeted for predatory lending. As the Wall Street Journal reported:
Some activists are still skeptical of the government’s settlements with the financial industry. Kevin Whelan, national campaign director for the Home Defenders League, an activist group representing homeowners, said there’s been no noticeable impact from last fall’s J.P. Morgan settlement.
“We haven’t seen any evidence that they’ve done anything at all,” Mr. Whelan said.
Just days before the Citigroup settlement, Home Defenders League members and partner groups delivered thousands of petition signatures and letters demanding greater oversight and accountability for settlements the Justice Department to U.S. Attorney’s offices in ten cities. US Attorney Callahan of Missouri and US Attorney Walsh in Colorado agreed to contact Attorney General Holder directly with the community’s concerns.
The actions and a simultaneous “#ShowUsTheMoney” twitter rally brought attention the plight of families still reeling from the mortgage crisis, many of them featured on the “100 Stories of What Wall Street Broke” blog.
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Communities United for Police Reform and Local Progress will co-host a two day National Convening on Police Accountability. In September, CPD partner organizations, elected officials, funders and other local leaders from across the country will gather in Manhattan to envision police reform campaigns that shift local policy, alter relationships between law enforcement and residents of impacted communities, and highlight and mobilize the growing power of immigrant communities and communities of color to stay the tide of ineffective, dehumanizing and discriminatory policing.
The convening will translate the interest and excitement of communities across the country working on issues related to discriminatory policing into a coordinated effort to increase police accountability through changes to state and local policy. In recent years, the hard work and creativity of organizers and advocates from across the country, has elevated the issue of discriminatory policing and the need for responsible, respectful and effective approaches to law enforcement. CPD’s work in coalition with Communities United for Police Reform is a powerful example of this: the New York City coalition has leveraged the expertise of its members—base-building groups, legal services organizations, policy advocates and researchers—to pass the Community Safety Act, a groundbreaking package of police accountability policies.
The National Convening on Police Accountability will focus on documenting and disseminating the lessons learned in NYC, and in cities across the country, among organizers, politicians and community leaders who are eager to see more responsive, respectful and effective law enforcement approaches implemented in their communities. By helping to deepen relationships among partners, elected officials and other stakeholders the convening will be an important contribution to the movement for respectful and responsive policing.
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), our state partner organization in Hawaii, helped score a big victory for Hawaii voters on June 30 with the state’s enactment of Same Day Registration (SDR). Beginning in 2016, Hawaii voters who miss the state’s 30-day, pre-election voter registration deadline will no longer lose their right to vote. Instead, they will be able to both register and vote at early voting locations. Same Day Registration will be expanded to every precinct polling places in 2018. Hawaii now joins 12 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing SDR.
Voter advocates and progressive policy makers around the country have championed Same Day Registration as one of the most effective means of increasing voter turnout, particularly among youth and others with historically lower levels of political participation. Hawaii had the lowest voter turnout in the nation in the 2012 general election. With SDR, experts predict that turnout will rise in the state by almost 50,000 votes. Young people stand to benefit the most, with a nine percent increase in voter turnout.
The Hawaii victory was the culmination of a long, multi-year struggle, principally led by Hawaii Common Cause. FACE helped push it over the edge this year by engaging local communities in the legislative campaign, while CPD organized national voting rights groups to pressure wavering legislators.
CPD’s sights are now set on Delaware. Working closely with the Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement (DACA), our partner organization in the Diamond State, other voting rights groups and organized labor, we were able to get Same Day Registration passed in the state House of Representatives. The clock ran out on the 2014 legislative session before the state Senate could act. With a recharged new campaign next year, we expect Delaware to join the ranks of Same Day Registration states in 2015.
Women’s leaders, fast-food delivery workers, and low-wage tipped workers are demanding an end to sub-minimum wage for tipped workers in New York State. While New York’s minimum wage is scheduled to rise to $9.00 per hour by Dec 31, 2015, the minimum wage for thousands of tipped food service workers remains stuck at just $5.00 per hour
Workers and their allies rallied outside of a Manhattan Domino’s earlier this month as Governor Cuomo prepared to appoint a Wage Board charged with recommending an increase in the state’s tipped sub-minimum wage. The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) was proud to help coordinate this effort along with our partners at Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, Restaurant Opportunities Center, RaiseUpNY and others.
A Wage Order eliminating the tipped sub-minimum wage would benefit an estimated 229,000 low-wage tipped workers in New York, according to a new report by the National Employment Law Center (NELP).
"Living off tips is a grind and a hustle for me to feed and support my kids, not knowing what you will bring home. This hurts family, looking at my kids face wants me to work harder to provide for them,” said Autumn Alston, Member of ROC-NY affiliate of ROC-United.
Why It’s Time for New York to Eliminate the Tipped Sub-Minimum Wage and Guarantee Tipped Workers the Full Minimum Wage Paid Directly by their Employers:
- Fair Pay for Women: Women are hurt most by NY’s low wage tipped minimum wage, as they make up more than 70% of all tipped workers. The low tipped minimum wage contributes to the persistent gender pay gap in New York, where women are paid just 83 cents for every dollar that men are paid.
- High Poverty, Low Wages: Nationally, tipped workers are more than twice as likely to experience poverty, and restaurant servers are almost three times as likely to experience poverty, as all other workers – yet companies like Domino’s that employ tipped workers earn millions in profits every year.
- Tips Are Not Wages: Without a significant base wage paid directly by their employers, tipped workers across New York must rely on tips alone for the overwhelming share of their earnings, leaving them vulnerable to wide fluctuations in pay as tips vary substantially with each shift and each season.
We recently wrote about Mayor de Blasio’s proposal to introduce a new “City ID” card for New York City. We are thrilled to announce that today, the New York City Council has formally voted by 43-3 to approve these plans.
The "City ID" program will make identification cards available to all city residents -- regardless of citizenship status, race, or economic means and it will be accepted as proof of identity by all city agencies, as well as a number of key institutions throughout the city. The new City ID will, for instance, smooth interactions with city agencies, and likely allow thousands of undocumented New Yorkers to check out library books, sign leases and open bank accounts. It will also give many of the city’s most vulnerable residents much greater confidence when they interact and engage with city law enforcement agencies.
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) has been on the front lines of this initiative. Our recent report surveyed the results of similar programs in other municipalities. The report found that municipal ID programs play a consistently positive role in empowering and protecting vulnerable communities. The report also found that beyond their practical value, the cards hold symbolic importance in creating a sense of shared community and belonging for immigrants and other marginalized individuals.
CPD, working closely with our partners at Make the Road New York and many others, has been proud to lead a strong, diverse coalition of allies who have worked with city officials over recent months to pass this bill. We would like to express our gratitude to all those who have helped make this bill possible. In particular, we want to recognize the invaluable leadership of Council Members Danny Dromm and Carlos Menchaca, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
New York City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, quoted in yesterday’s New York Times, said of the bill: “The city is sending a strong message to its residents that we have your back.”
We couldn’t agree more.
CPD is excited to help launch a bold new campaign to demand equality for non-citizens. The New York is Home campaign is dedicated to helping nearly 3 million noncitizen New Yorkers become state citizens, and is part of a larger movement to win state citizenship for immigrants in other states.
Working in tandem with a national coalition of elected officials, advocates, experts and community members, we are capitalizing on Eric Cantor’s recent defeat in Congress by moving quickly to refocus the debate on what states can do to extend full equality to millions of noncitizen residents in the United States.
CPD helped write the New York is Home Act, which was introduced earlier this week by Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assembly Member Karim Camara. The Act would grant New York state citizenship to noncitizens, giving them access to health care, drivers’ licenses, professional licenses, the right to vote, the right to run for elected office, equal access to higher education and protection against racial profiling. The New York is Home Act creates an ambitious new model of immigrant inclusion that we will work with states around the country to adopt.
“New York is Home recognizes and promotes the full equality and inclusion of all immigrant families in our democracy and our economy,” said CPD’s Co-Executive Director Andrew Friedman. “Washington may be deadlocked, but the movement for immigrant dignity is gaining real traction in states. What happens here in New York with this legislation will be watched around the country.”
Noncitizens should be treated with the same dignity and respect as American citizens. With state citizenship, countless immigrants, including millions of disenfranchised, aspiring Americans, will be able to exercise greater economic and political power, and help our communities grow and prosper.
CPD is proud to announce the launch of a new initiative focused on equitable part-time work and just scheduling practices for low-wage workers led by Carrie Gleason, formerly the executive director and founder of the Retail Action Project (RAP).
Carrie envisioned RAP’s groundbreaking Just Hours New York campaign to restore predictable, livable hours in retail through grassroots worker-community action and policy change, and is excited to grow that work as part of the new Fair Workweek Initiative at CPD.
As the fastest growing low-wage sectors of the economy increasingly shift to a “just-in-time” model of scheduling employment, workers face growing insecurity and instability. Only through an integrated strategy of worker organizing, critical research and policy action at the local, state and federal level will we ensure that our emerging economy provides quality employment for working families.
The Fair Workweek Initiative will convene key stakeholders, including community-based partners and national allies to formally launch this summer.
Click here for a video explaining how employers short-change workers through unscrupulous scheduling practices.
ABOUT CARRIE GLEASON:
Carrie Gleason co-founded the Retail Action Project (RAP), a fast-growing organization of retail workers dedicated to improving opportunities and standards in the retail industry. As RAP’s Executive Director from 2010-2014, Carrie oversaw the organization’s base-building and strategic campaigns, research and empowering direct services to grow an industry voice for New York City retail workers. RAP emerged from an innovative community-labor partnership with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU/UFCW) and the Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) that helped thousands of retail workers in lower Manhattan successfully fight wage theft and discrimination, winning millions in unpaid wages.
Carrie has provided analysis of the retail industry and low-wage worker scheduling trends for national policymakers and media outlets including NPR and the New York Times.
Carrie began organizing retail workers in 2005 and has worked in the labor movement for over 14 years, leading several winning unionization campaigns for the RWDSU and the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council (UNITE-HERE). She is a member of the Presidential Council of Cornell Women and served on the North Star Fund Community Funding Committee. Carrie was a 2009-2010 Charles H. Revson Fellow, a Program on the Future of New York City at Columbia University, and holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and son.
"Cities for Citizenship"A Discussion on How Cities Can Promote Citizenship
Join CPD, Local Progress, and the National Partnership for New Americans
June 3rd at 2pm Eastern – Webinar. Please click here to RSVP.
High fees and the lack of help navigating the naturalization process keep many low-income immigrants from pursuing the dream of citizenship. Join leading immigrant rights advocates and municipal officials to learn about innovative new approaches cities are undertaking to support naturalization for immigrants.
Featured speakers include: Angelica Salas, Executive Director of CHIRLA and NPNA Executive Committee, Linda Lopez, Chief of the Office of Immigrant Affairs in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, Adolfo Hernandez, Director of the Mayor's Office of New Americans in Chicago, Nisha Agarwal, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in the New York City, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago (Invited), and Emily Tucker, Staff Attorney, Center for Popular Democracy (Moderator).
This month, the Home Defenders League partnered with the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley to promote a new academic study, “Underwater America: How the So-Called Housing ‘Recovery’ is Bypassing Many Communities.” The Home Defenders League is a membership organization of families affected by the housing crisis with 25 partner groups including the Center for Popular Democracy, Right to the City Alliance and Alliance for a Just Society and local groups like ACCE and Occupy Homes chapters.
The new report uncovers the depth of the housing problem that persists in many communities, as well as the extent to which the legacy of predatory lending has resulted in a disproportionate, negative impact on African American and Latino communities.
At the end of 2013 more than 9.8 million American households, representing 19.4% of all mortgaged homes, still owed more than the value of their homes. Underwater homeowners are significantly more likely to default on their mortgages than homeowners with positive equity.
The report recommends that loan holders should reduce the principal on underwater mortgages to their current market value. It also recommends that if loan holders are unwilling or unable to reduce principal then they should allow publicly owned or nonprofit entities to buy the loans to enable them to restructure them. The report further recommends that local municipalities should use all the tools at their disposal, including eminent domain, to reset mortgages to their current market values and to turn vacant homes into affordable housing.
An important and timely contribution to this issue, the report was covered well by national and local media outlets with articles in, among others, The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Hartford Courant, The Modesto Bee as well as coverage by Reuters. Several local broadcast television affiliates also picked up the story including San Francisco's CBS station and an Op-Ed by one of the report’s authors, Peter Drier, was published in the New York Times.
The Center for Popular Democracy Enters the National Debate During "Charter School Week"
Last week, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) partnered with Integrity in Education to release a report entitled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.” The report was designed to increase awareness around charter industry oversight and accountability.
The report details over $100 million in fraud, waste, and abuse perpetrated by charter school officials. Its publication coincided with a vote in the House of Representatives that sought to give $300 million in funding to charters with little oversight attached. The report was cited on the House floor and in statements by members who voted no on H.R. 10, and Ed Schultz featured it during a discussion of the House bill on his MSNBC program.
The report received strong media coverage by outlets and education experts including The Washington Post, Salon, Bill Moyers, The Nation, Diane Ravitch, and Education Week.
In addition to the report, we also launched an online petition urging lawmakers to include meaningful oversight provisions within the new law. The petition collected nearly 16,000 signatures in five days and was used by our partner organizations all across the country to engage their members.
Despite the charter industry getting their bill through the Republican-led House, we were able to initiate a vital conversation on oversight and school privatization before the Senate decides whether to take action. Importantly, we were able to provide a counter-narrative during "National Charter School Week," which the charter industry has created to overlap with Teacher Appreciation Week.
The release of the "Charter School Vulnerabilities" report marks the beginning of our campaign to increase the level of charter oversight on a national, state and municipal level.
Read more coverage:
Washington Post - May 6, 2014, by Valerie Strauss - A new report by two groups that oppose reforms that are privatizing public education finds fraud and waste totaling more than $100 million of taxpayer funds in 15 of the 42 states that operate charter schools. The report, titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, & Abuse,” and released by the nonprofit organizations Integrity in Education and the Center for Popular Democracy, cites news reports and criminal complaints from around the country that detail how some charter school operators have illegally used public money.
Salon - May 7, 2014, by Paul Rosenberg - Just in time for National Charter School Week, there’s a new report highlighting the predictable perils of turning education into a poorly regulated business. Titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse,” the report focused on 15 states representing large charter markets, out of the 42 states that have charter schools. Drawing on news reports, criminal complaints, regulatory findings, audits and other sources, it “found fraud, waste and abuse cases totaling over $100 million in losses to taxpayers.”
Bill Moyers - May 5, 2014, by Joshua Holland - Charter school operators want to have it both ways. When they’re answering critics of school privatization, they say charter schools are public — they use public funds and provide students with a tuition-free education. But when it comes to transparency, they insist they have the same rights to privacy as any other private enterprise.
The Nation - May 9, 2014, by Zoë Carpenter - Between 2003 and 2008, a Minnesota charter school executive named Joel Pourier embezzled more than $1.3 million from his school, the Oh Day Aki Charter School. While students at Oh Day Aki went without field trips and supplies for lack of funds, Pourier bought houses and cars and tossed bills at strippers. Because his school received federal funding—charter schools are privately run but many receive significant public financing—taxpayers were, in effect, subsidizing his lavish lifestyle.
Education Week - May 7, 2014, by Katie Ash - An examination of charter schools in 15 charter markets across the United States has exposed nearly $100 million in losses due to fraud, waste, and abuse, says a report from Integrity in Education and the Center for Popular Democracy. The report gathered court cases, media investigations, regulatory findings, audits, and other sources from Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
