Cincinnati Change

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said victims of the Hurricanes and their aftermath must be given more time in hotels because FEMA cannot guarantee that all applications for other aid, such as rent assistance or trailers, will be processed by the agency's Jan. 7 deadline. The temporary restraining order was part of a class-action lawsuit filed in November by advocates for hurricane victims.

The ruling was in response to a class action lawsuit filed in November by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights along with the New York law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP; John Pierre, Attorney and Professor at Southern University Law Center; the Public Interest Law Project; and the Equal Justice Society. The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights legal organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to provide legal services to address racial discrimination.

FEMA is immediately complying with the court order. FEMA has extended the stay of all of those evacuees living in hotels and motels paid for by FEMA at least through January 7, 2006 . No hurricane evacuee will have to make the transition to longer-term housing without first receiving rental assistance from FEMA or being provided with referral options if ineligible for assistance. The federally-reimbursed hotel/motel program will end no earlier than February 7, 2006 for those still working with FEMA to receive assistance.

"We have extended the stay to all evacuees staying in hotels and motels to Jan. 7," said acting FEMA Director David Paulison during a teleconference Wednesday. "It has been our mission all along to make sure the evacuees making the transition into longer-term housing have the assistance they need. Our goals and those of this ruling are very much the same and that is to make sure no one is asked to make a transition to longer-term housing before receiving the tools to do so, such as FEMA’s rental assistance. "

Although the short-term lodging deadline is Jan. 7, during a conference Wednesday, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen said eligible evacuees who contact FEMA prior to the deadline would be allowed to reside in hotel or motel rooms after the deadline in order to find an apartment. The federally reimbursed hotel/motel program will end no earlier than Feb. 7 for those still working with FEMA to receive assistance.

FEMA has provided rental assistance to 653,000 families affected by this catastrophe so far. The Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to pick up the tab for about 41,000 hotel rooms in 47 states and the District of Columbia at an estimated cost so far of about $350 million.

Judge Duval’s order requires FEMA to notify all displaced persons who were incorrectly told by the agency that they must apply for a SBA loan in order to obtain temporary housing assistance. Pursuant to the court order, FEMA “must notify applicants and potential applicants that no such requirement exists and that no applications will be held up for Temporary Housing Assistance processing due to an SBA Loan application not being filled out, or being filled out incorrectly, unnecessarily, and/or superfluously.”

The needs of the relative few who remain in hotels and motels remain a top priority. FEMA continues to reach out to those evacuees who may not yet know of federal aid they are eligible to receive, and encourages those who have not registered to do so.

This ruling is critical for the close to 100,000 hurricane survivors who are now living in at least 37,000 hotel and motel rooms throughout the country," said John Brittain, Chief Counsel of the Lawyers' Committee. "African Americans made up a disproportionate high share of the hurricanes' survivors. Many have little or no resources and those that remain in hotel rooms are in most need of assistance at this time," added Brittain.

Cincinnati Change will work to ensure that all victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have housing and economic development opportunities.

CINCINANTI CHANGE ORIGINAL MEMORANDUM

14 December 2005



In Re.: October 25th 2005, Port Arthur Working Paper

For Immediate Release
Subject: Cincinnati Economic Development
Contact: Hershel Daniels, Junior

Cincinnati Change
2439 Auburn Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
Phone: (513) 381-5111Ext 3
E-mail:admin@cincinnatichange.com

CINCINNATI CHANGE knows that the Tristate is politically fragmented and segregated by race and class. Many poor Cincinnati residents have a high degree of desperation and hopelessness along with the belief that things can't change. They can and Cincinnati Change will do so by organizing Cincinnati Change Agent for Change Now Campaign. It will create with 200 non governmental organizations and agenceis of government the creation of 50,000 Cincinnati Change Agents partners.

These Cincinnati Change Agents are to be created to “change the peoples perception of Cincinnati” by taking action to change Cincinnati NOW. the founders of Cincinnati Change started this movement on June 19th, 2000 where they took the first public action at the 2000 Black Family Reunion to organize a response to the authority granted to Cincinnati - the ability to issue $100M worth of non volume cap revenue bonds.

From the leveraged investment of these funds in Cincinnati Change Small Business Agents Partners Business Cincinnati cahnge Agents will have access to discounts on over 10,000,000 items through our integrated web site (to go public 17 January 2006) and delivery to a Agents doorstep.

Cincinnati Change was created "to change Cincinnati" by action; we will walk the walk, not talk the talk - we are asking people, organizations and companies to join us in changing Cincinnati in our lifetime.

Cincinnati Change Response to Hurricane Katrina & Rita

As President Bush stated, on Thursday September 15th 2005 in New Orleans, "In the aftermath [of Hurricane Katrina and now Rita], we have seen fellow citizens left stunned and uprooted, searching for loved ones, and grieving for the dead and looking for meaning in a tragedy that seems so blind and random.

We have also witnessed the kind of desperation no citizen of this great and generous nation should ever have to know - fellow Americans calling out for food and water, vulnerable people left at the mercy of criminals who had no mercy, and the bodies of the dead lying uncovered and untended in the street."

MISSION AUTHORITY

On June 19th 2005 Cincinnati Change received its charter from the State of Ohio and stands ready to change Cincinnati NOW as an example of Global Change a business process owned by Lloyd Daniels Development Group that meets national emergencies in cooperation with those who want to change the world.

For more information goto our 360 degree Blog.