Feeding The Hungry, Housing The Homeless!

Today was a long hot busy, exhilarating day for the nine of us who set out to make direct contact with hundreds of struggling Atlantans.

We started out at Hosea Feed The Hungry's  2nd annual "Labor Of Love" event, which provided literally tons of food, water, school supplies, job advice, and more to folks struggling to get by.


Once there we had the opportunity to speak with hundreds about effective strategies for organizing for housing justice, and we of course challenged folks to attend the September 10th march on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.


Hosea Feed The Hungry Executive director, Elizabeth Williams Omilami made time to speak with us about the work we've been doing to keep folks in their homes. When she heard we were using the bus to outreach to the hardest hit in the city she made sure we left with over 400 LB's of potatoes and 60 full grocery bags of food to distribute to folks in the community.

Today we were able to hit Polar Rock, Bankhead, English Avenue, Vine City, and Parts of Edgewood.

The last few days of neighborhood to neighborhood bus outreach has been an amazing experience for all of us. We're all curious to see if this kind of outreach effects turnout on September 10th. The question of the day is, how do we provide direct services(food, clothing, school supplies, ect) while mobilizing folks in a very real way at the same time, that is what we are attempting.

Speaking of mobilizing September 10th is set to be the largest housing justice mobilization in the south in years. Many still don't know that the housing crisis today is worse than it was during the great depression. We need a massive turnout. We're asking folks to take off work, go in late, do whatever you have to do to be present. We have the opportunity to flip the script here, but we can't pull it off with out you and your folks.

Are you in?

Link to event by clicking here.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Power To The People!

Over the last few days a five or six folks, myself included, spent hours preparing a design, cleaning, taping, and painting a bus to be used in an effort to outreach for the southeast's largest mobilization around housing justice in years.

Today was the first day the newly painted bus hit the road, and it was an invigorating experience.

Neighborhood to neighborhood, apartment complexes to parks the bus rolled through with a loud speaker and bus full of enthusiastic volunteers. We made countless stops and talked to countless people about organizing for housing justice. We visited a number of apartment complexes known for their nasty slum lords and shared strategies to organize for fair affordable housing.

We didn't come into communities empty handed either. Today was hot, so we provided cold water and healthy snacks to everyone we came into contact with.

Kids are back in school, so we gave out school supplies and books. We also provided AFSC's, "It's My Life" career opportunity guild books and "Before You Enlist" DVD's to high school aged youth.

Everyone we came in contact was invited to September 10th housing justice mobilization. I hope you will consider coming. Click here to see the event.

I want to ask everyone that can to volunteers to make the action a success, we REALLY need volunteers in the final stretch. Click here to sign up to volunteer.




Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

3am Evictions Will Become Illegal In DeKalb County

This past Tuesday Chris Frazer and community allies introduced a proposal that would not only make 3am evictions illegal in DeKalb County, it would also force more accountability on banks and investors to ensure the safety and dignity of folks facing eviction.

Know one know's the issue of inhumane eviction like Chris Frazer, who had her home raided by 40 armed DeKalb County deputies at 3am earlier this year. The Sheriff came with animal control for her pets, but had no where for her, her 86 year old mother, and 3 year old son to go. Chris is committed to fight against this inhumane behavior until it no longer a legal option for law enforcement to disregard basic decency.

We would like to encourage you to call Commissioner Larry Johnson( 404 371-2425) and Commissioner Stan Watson (  404-371-3681) and encourage them to pass this simple resolution.

Below is the text of the policy:

The people of Dekalb County are facing a depression era housing crisis. Sadly, there is a need to protect citizens from unscrupulous behavior with regard to evictions. This effort is designed to prevent landlords from placing tenants in harm’s way by evicting them at hours when they would be unable to obtain a means of securing their belongings after the eviction or obtaining permanent and/or temporary housing due to the hours of eviction.

This proposal would make it illegal to evict a tenant between the hours of 5:00PM and 9:00AM.

We also propose that landlords must meet the following basic criteria when moving forward with an eviction.

1.  The landlord must have an order of eviction from the appropriate court.

2.  The landlord must have a permit issued by a designated agency and/or court within Dekalb County. The landlord would be responsible for the cost, if any, of obtaining such a permit.

3.  There must be a certified law enforcement officer present during such eviction, the costs of which are the responsibility of the landlord. The name of the officer and their certification must accompany the permit application.

4.  Prior to obtaining such a permit, the landlord will:

           

a.  Provide a pre-paid storage facility capable of holding furniture for the number of rooms at the residence where the eviction is to occur. In other words, if the residence is a 3 bedroom, the storage facility will be capable of securing a 3 bedroom residence. The storage facility will be within 5 miles of the residence where the eviction is taking place.

                 

b.  Provide a pre-paid moving truck capable of moving the contents of the residence in one trip.

                 

c.  Provide at minimum a prepaid 3 star hotel room for a period of not less than 36 hours.

                 

                 

                 

These measures shouldn’t be considered radical notions, as they are already points of policy for other parts of the country.

ATL Youth Building Skills With SCAP!

This past Sunday, AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program hosted a “Movie Making Day” for youth.  Thanks to WonderRoot for the donation of their space and editing lab,  students flexed their creative muscle in storytelling through video.

Those in attendance learned filmic storytelling from start to finish as they explored writing, recording, interviewing, and editing. 

Each student personally interviewed, recorded, and edited a story that was uniquely their own. Whilst each story varied in tone, the general motif became a summers gone by as the four reminisced of adventures from a year or so past.

While the students learned a new camera, program, and medium, they more importantly learned a new way of expression and a voice that has existed in them ever-presently.

Victoria Temple

American Friends Service Committee

SCAP Pitches In With Occupy The Hood Event

Occupy The Hood Atlanta is doing some of the most inspiring work in the most impoverished pockets of our city. Today they hosted community event at the Chappell Forest apartment complex in Southwest Atlanta where clothing, food, and back to school where given away.

They also hosted a number of political education and community empowerment workshops.

AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program was on hand to provide some school supplies, including our "It's My Life" books, designed to help high school students explore creative post highschool career options. We also gave out dozens of our, "Beofre You Enlist" DVD's, which interview combat vets who were recruited out of low income high schools with the promise of opportunity. The DVD's really challenge the notion that the military is there to help young people.

Big, Big ups to Occupy The Hood for really stepping up for those hardest hit by the economic crisis in a way we haven't seen in years. We're excited to engage with the dynamic organizers of Occupy The Hood moving forward.



Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee