CWRU Socks: Social Justice Question #2

CWRU: Working While Homeless

The students of CWRU are doing a project in which all the incoming freshmen are reading the same book. The Common reading program is centered around Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel. As part of this project they are collecting donations and socks to distribute to homeless people in Cleveland. NEOCH is assisting with this project by putting together a section of our website that provides additional information and resources in the community. One aspect of this project is to prompt the students to begin to talk about social justice issues. We have put together a series of social justice questions around housing and homelessness. We hope to solicit discussion here on the blog and in the local community with comments and debate. Here is the link to the first social justice question posted over the weekend.

Question: Is it just that men utilizing the main shelter in Cleveland work every work day for long hours at temporary labor companies, but at the end of the day they do not have enough money to pay rent even in a motel room?

Working long hours every day and not being able to afford even a motel room at the end of the day is a blatant injustice. Measures have been set up in this country supposedly to prevent this kind of injustice, namely minimum wage laws. But a 2009 study confirms the flurry of complaints that advocacy organizations and the Department of Labor have gotten about temporary labor companies using illegal practices to effectively pay their workers below the minimum wage. Paying minimum wages to begin with, these companies charge their workers with various “fees” that drops their wage substantially below the legal minimum, in addition to offenses such as not paying proper overtime.

Companies are able to do this because as “temporary laborers,” their workers are very disorganized and lack any collective bargaining power. But obviously just because these companies can get away with what their doing doesn’t mean that they should do it. The problem, is that this issue is so pervasive that companies view themselves as being “put at a competitive disadvantage” by not engaging in such illegal wage violations. Clearly something needs to be done to stop these practices once and for all. But without the help of unions on their side, these workers must rely on the government to step in for them.

These wage violations are a huge problem for homeless people because they often find it incredibly difficult to earn enough money to be able to support themselves and their family even if they are earning minimum wage. The fact that they can work all day and still not be able to afford to put a roof over their head is incredibly disheartening. As is the fact that these companies are blatantly taking advantage of these vulnerable workers while fully realizing the desperate housing situation of many of them.

by Sam the Intern
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

CWRU Socks: Social Justice Question #1

Photo by Cheryl Jones from the Grapevine Photo Project

CWRU: Is the Mortgage Interest Deduction Fair?

The students of CWRU are doing a project in which all the incoming freshmen are reading the same book. The Common reading program is centered around Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel. As part of this project they are collecting donations and socks to distribute to homeless people in Cleveland. NEOCH is assisting with this project by putting together a section of our website that provides additional information and resources in the community. One aspect of this project is to prompt the students to begin to talk about social justice issues. We have put together a series of social justice questions around housing and homelessness. We hope to solicit discussion here on the blog and in the local community with comments and debate.

Question: Is it just that the U.S. Government gives a huge mortgage interest deduction of $110 billion per year to home owners while only $4.79 billion is spent on targeted homeless programs in the United States?

Sometime during what historians call the Progressive Era in this country, the government determined that homeownership should be a part of the American dream, and they decided to try to make that dream attainable for everyone. Since then, the government has instituted a plethora of policies in the name of “increasing homeownership.” What most people either forget or choose to ignore, however, is that while the middle-class has consistently expanded over the last century, those left behind, those stuck in the trap of poverty and homelessness, have had precious few bones thrown their way. If the government truly wants to help those most in need with the dream of owning their own house, it should reexamine how it currently spends much of its discretionary money.

The $110 billion that is spent (or more accurately, not collected) per year in mortgage interest deductions is consistently advertised as helping those in the lower-income brackets afford to own a home by allowing them to deduct mortgage interest payments from their income taxes. However, if this is truly the government’s aim, helping lower-income homeowners, they are largely wasting their money. This is because the vast bulk of mortgage interest deductions come from those with the highest incomes. According to the Tax Foundation, those earning in excess of $75,000 per year account for 53.8% of mortgage interest deductions claimed, while accounting for just 16% of all tax returns filed. In contrast, those earning less than $30,000 per year account for just 9.3% of mortgage interest deductions claimed while accounting for 51.9% of all tax returns filed.

There are several reasons why mortgage interest deductions disproportionately benefit the wealthy, the biggest being that in order to receive a mortgage interest deduction, one must itemize their tax return, which many lower-income taxpayers do not do because the incentive for doing so is much less for them than for those in higher income brackets. The bottom line is that if this is a way for the government to “help out” lower-income homeowners, it isn’t really working. In fact, all it is doing is accounting for lost revenue from wealthier Americans, those who can afford to own a house without benefiting from such deductions. Now consider the $4.79 billion that is spent annually on targeted homeless programs. This is such a small number compared to the government’s overall budget that it is laughable. And yet, compared to tax breaks that benefit the wealthy, it has been proven over and over that such direct spending on lower-income, poverty stricken populations is much more effective in helping the overall strength of the economy. This means that the government can expect to get more back for its money.

So why is it that the government spends so little money on homeless services? It’s not really surprising when you consider that compared to middle-class Americans, homeless people have so little political clout, and thus are often ignored by politicians. That means that from a government purporting to do everything in its power to help those in need, homeless people aren’t receiving their fair share of the pie. So no, it isn’t just that while homeowners receive $110 billion per year in mortgage-related tax breaks, homeless services agencies are left scuffling with their meager $4.79 billion. The reasons listed above are largely economic, but it also goes against every moral and ethical obligation that we as a society should feel to completely ignore those of us in the unfortunate situation of not being able to afford a home.

by Sam the Intern
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

CWRU Hosting Sock Drive

Socks from Spartans and Common Reading Program

The Students at Case Western Reserve University, as part of 2011 orientation, are doing a Common Reading Program with the book Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel. Professor Sandel teaches government at Harvard, and will speak at the Fall Convocation on Wednesday August 31 at Severance Hall regarding justice issues. As part of this presentation and orientation programming, students are collecting new socks to distribute in the Cleveland shelters and to those resistant to shelter in the area as a sign of their commitment to justice. NEOCH has put together a section of our website to assist the students with local resources. There are links all over our website to this page www.neoch.org/cwru.htm.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, one of the leading social justice organizations in the community, is partnering with CWRU and the "Socks from Spartans" program to assist with the distribution of this vital resource in the homeless community. NEOCH will also act as a springboard for discussion about issues of justice in the area of housing and homelessness. The Coalition for the Homeless has year round volunteer opportunities or internships for students, information about homelessness/social justice and we also have developed ways to weave the knowledge learned during orientation into the day to day college experience while working on solutions to big community problems. The Justice Harvard website has recent interviews with Professor Sandel and a discussion section.

NEOCH have already begun distributing the socks. Yesterday we took a large bag over to the Cosgrove Center to distribute. Thanks to the students for all their help. There is nothing like putting on a new pair of socks especially after having to walk all day interviewing for jobs, trying to find food, and looking for housing in the community. We would be interested in hearing from CWRU students about the orientation, about the book Justice:What's the Right Thing to Do? or about the collection of items to distribute to homeless people in the comments section.

Brian Davis
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Good Will Gone Wild

Local University Students Sleeps Outside

I have never been a big fan of these fund raisers, but apparently Habitat for Humanity supports the concept locally. CWRU students slept outside earlier this month, and had a great night. One of our old interns wrote a letter to the editor complaining about the mixed up message and inappropriate stereotypes. Mike is correct that it is difficult to match the goals of raising dollars with awareness campaigns. There is some debate at the national level about these pizza and box nights. It is not fun to be homeless and it is nearly impossible to realize the problems faced by homeless people in one night.

The issues associated with being homeless is that there collapse of all stability without an end in sight. There is no place that is safe that people can use as a headquarters. There no place to put your stuff as George Carlin loved to talk about. There is no privacy and the future is always cloudy when you lose your housing. It may be fun for one night or even a couple of weeks, but that sense of freedom wears off real fast. Eventually, we need a regular safe place to return to. We all need a dresser to hold important documents and clean clothing. We want to stay up late if we feel like it, and we want a private quiet place to just think.

I know in Columbus and Athens do a homeless experience project to try to get across to students the frustration of being homeless, but they are not usually fundraising opportunities for the agencies. Back in the 1980s, the students built a shanty on the quad at CWRU. This was my first experience with the problem of homelessness, and got me interested in working on these issues. It was not a fund raiser, but an attempt to get the students involved in the problem. This was similar to the anti-war and anti-apartheid movements of the 1970s and 1980s. The organizers brought in speakers both local and national and confronted the university administration over their lack of involvement in addressing poverty. The students were arrested, but it generated a great deal of media and student attention. The group that formed met throughout the rest of the year and did a few other events to try to push the university to become more involved in taking a leadership role in addressing the poverty all around the school.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.