Strengthening Neighborhoods & Cities Rising
Cleveland, Ohio • Youngstown, Ohio • Pittsburgh, Pa.
CLEVELAND, OHIO
Cleveland, Ohio has suffered a wave of home foreclosures in recent months as a result of a combination of job losses, predatory lenders and falling home prices. Predatory lenders and mortgage brokers have targeted the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, like many other working-class and predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country. While subprime loans can be valuable to families without other credit opportunities, African-American and Latino borrowers are three times more likely to receive subprime loans than white borrowers with similar credit scores. Mount Pleasant resident Mariah Crenshaw is fighting to keep her family home of 30 years after a coercive and deceptive mortgage process. In Cleveland—a city with more than 13,000 foreclosures a year—ACORN is helping citizens like Crenshaw and organizing residents of economically distressed neighborhoods like Mount Pleasant.
[Schiller, 2007; NCRC, 2007; ACORN, 2007]
Video
John Edwards visits Cleveland, Ohio. The city has suffered a wave of home foreclosures in recent months as a result of a combination of job losses, predatory lenders and falling home prices. Predatory lenders and mortgage brokers have targeted the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, like many other working-class and predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country.
Blog
- Walking with John Edwards: Cleveland, Ohio
... "I worked on the Eastside of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1990, doing dental equipment repair. Seventeen years have come and gone, but I found one thing striking this morning. If you stray from the main drags like Shaker Blvd. or Harvard Ave., you end up in neighborhoods that make you feel uncomfortable...about yourself. We all like to feel good about our homes, but to see the inner-city strife that goes unnoticed day after day, it really hits you at home...so to speak. The Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood has a nice name, but over the years, more accurately, through twelve years of Republicans holding the reins of Ohio, things have gone from bad, to worse, and finally deplorable." Read more
Photos
YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
Youngstown, Ohio was once home to a thriving steel industry, but the decline of Youngstown Sheet and Tube in the late 1970s was the start of economic challenges. In the past few years, startup technology companies have revived the local economy. The Youngstown Business Incubator has helped local companies receive 19 new patents and create over 160 full-time, technology based jobs. The need for affordable housing is a pressing issue in Youngstown. Nationally, landlords remove 2,000 apartments a month from the list of publicly supported affordable apartments. Seventeen million families pay more than half their incomes in rent and over 800,000 are homeless. In Youngstown, Edwards will visit the Beatitude House for homeless women and children. Last year, Beatitude House helped over 400 people last year gain education, employment, and housing.
[YBI; Fannie Mae, 2002; JCHS, 2007; HHS, 2007; Beatitude House, 2007]
Blog
- From Youngstown
...Beatitude House opened in 1991 to "offer housing and support to any woman dreaming of better opportunities for herself and her children." Read more
Video
John Edwards visits the Beatitude House for homeless women and children. Last year, Beatitude House helped over 400 people gain education, employment, and housing.
Photos
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's economy also rose and fell with the steel industry, and it is now rebounding unevenly. The neighborhoods of the Hill District have suffered. By 1990, most residents lived in public housing, and 41 percent are now in poverty. The Hill House Association offers early learning, tutoring, summer camps, and senior services. Edwards visited Hill House to discuss his plan to create economically integrated schools for the benefit of all students.
[Houser, 2003; U.S. Census, 2005]
Blog
- From Pittsburgh
...Today, John visited one of their "Mission Discovery" classrooms, an award winning after-school program that brings real-world science and technology experiences to Hill District middle school students. "John met some incredible kids here," John Davis writes from the road. Read more
Photos
Events
5:45 p.m.
John Edwards discusses his plan to end poverty in America.
The Hill House
1835 Centre Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
How You Can Take Action
5:22 p.m. CDT - Marks, MS
In Marks,MS we had one of the most moving moments of the tour. On our walk down Cotton Street we stopped at the home of Mrs. Sammie Henley. Mrs. Henley told Senator Edwards about hosting students during Freedom Summer in 1964. She also talked about the flood that came in 1968, and how Dr. King rowed a boat up to the house at the start of the Poor PeopleÂs March when he famously described the situation as "an island of poverty" surrounded by an ocean of wealth.
We also learned the last presidential candidate to come to Marks was Robert F. Kennedy.
4:36 p.m. CDT - Canton, MS
One woman spoke of the back breaking work they do at the plant and what it was like to work in those conditions while pregnant. Other workers spoke about having their time on the clock shaved or not getting paid for overtime. ItÂs not right and itÂs why we have to address these problems
11:11 a.m. CDT - NOLA; Wheels up, headed to Canton
We're boarding the plane and headed for Canton, MS. More when we get there.
10:57 a.m. CDT - NOLA; Visiting Cafe Reconcile
Just stopped at Cafe Reconcile, which provides jobs to at-risk youth living in NOLA. We met dozens of kids who are working there and getting training for careers in the food service industry.
Again, another great example of folks in the community taking the initiative, rolling up their sleeves and building something to improve the community they love. And the food is excellent!
10:32 a.m. CDT - NOLA; Thoughts about NOLA
Just wanted to post a thought that has been sticking with me as we've traveled around NOLA. Over and over we have heard stories of folks getting caught up in red tape. Much of the city looks exactly as it did immediately following Katrina. The level of frustration among the residents is incredible but the commitment to the community is amazing.
It is frustrating to see how hard people are working to rebuild the community they love, and how little, if any, support they are getting from the federal government.
10:12 a.m. CDT - NOLA; Visiting Kingsley House
We're at the Kingsley house, a community outreach center that provides help to thousands of NOLA residents. John met with a group of children kids enrolled in the Head Start program. Currently there are over 600 kids in NO on the head start waiting list. I could tell he was moved - those 600 kids need the services provided by that program, and they're not getting them.
7:44 a.m. CDT - NOLA; At the "Good Morning America" taping
I'm standing backstage at the GMA taping. It's going well - John is speaking with passion about why 37 million people living in poverty is a disgrace, and what we can do to fix it. Ms. Tyler, the woman who owns the house John helped rebuild in December, is here and it was good to see her again. Kwame Asanti, the president of the Louisiana NAACP is here too - it is always good to see him, and hear about the amazing work he and the NAACP are doing to help rebuild and get people's lives back on track.
4:58 a.m. CDT - NOLA; En route to shoot "Good Morning America" segment
It's 4:58, dark and early, and we are getting in the car to go shoot the "Good Morning America" segment. More after the coffee has kicked in.
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