Below is the PolicyLink statement on the Senate Jobs Bill. For more information or to talk with our experts, please contact Dan Lavoie at dan@policylink.org.

“In passing the $15 billion jobs bill, the Senate’s bipartisan majority should be commended for heeding the voices of struggling Americans.

“But the road to a truly fair and sustainable economy is a long one. More must be done to get help to those hit first and worst by this recession, especially low-income communities and people of color.

“As we move forward in building an innovative, expansive, bipartisan recovery plan, we must make significant investments in job-training programs and a range of infrastructure projects – public transportation, schools, energy efficiency – that create jobs now and set our communities up for future success.

“This bill is a good first step. But America’s long-term resurgence requires that all of our communities are connected to opportunity and can contribute their full talents to our revival. We urge Congress to continue to advance a jobs agenda that lifts up all our communities.”

As a lifelong policy advocate, I don’t often get the chills. But this week in Kansas City, I did.

I was lucky enough to attend the second stop in the White House Office of Urban Affairs Listening Tour, which brought Obama Administration officials to help kick off the Kansas City Green Impact Zone, a “comprehensive, place-based plan to invest public and private funding to transform a neighborhood plagued by high rates of poverty and violence, unemployment, and abandoned property.” (Read more about the Zone here.)

It was moving to see top federal officials — like HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan; Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari; White House Urban Affairs Director Adolfo Carrion; and Special Advisor for Green Jobs Van Jones — on hand to really listen to the ideas and innovations of local leaders. There is a change afoot in how the federal government thinks of cities and metropolitan areas.

The Green Impact Zone — inspired by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, coordinated by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), and funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act– promises to be a shining example of what we can do with coordinated, cross-sector investments in housing, transportation, energy efficiency, and workforce training.

But, perhaps most important, it could be a model for how the federal government and local innovators can work together to make sure all Americans can live in communities of opportunity.

I don’t think these chills will be going away any time soon.

This week’s landmark fair housing settlement in Westchester County is a reminder that we still have a long way to go to achieve truly fair, equitable communities in America – but that we’ve also got the tools we need to make real progress.

The case brought into stark relief the impact that where we live has on how we live. Communities disconnected from jobs, good schools, parks, and other amenities do not provide the opportunities to succeed that all people need and deserve. Far too often, residents of low-income communities and communities of color are literally cut off from real economic and social opportunity.

While individual discriminatory landlords have long been targeted by advocates and local law enforcement, the broader community- and region-wide issue of housing segregation has rarely been given this much ink – and federal attention. By re-opening that discussion and bringing tangible measuring sticks to bear, the Westchester case has given a jolt of energy to efforts to fight regional housing segregation.

The case has garnered much-deserved attention in large part because of three important developments:

• An Equity Standard

By putting the onus for housing integration directly on affluent communities, this settlement helped create a benchmark for equity in all communities.

• White House Backing

When the Obama Administration (through HUD Assistant Secretary Ron Sims) spoke out  in favor of residential integration, the full force of the federal government came with it.  Bold federal leadership is required to bring the broad solutions needed to address this deep-seated problem.

• Power of the Purse

By tying federal money for infrastructure to an affirmative effort to integrate housing, the federal government used its primary lever (its money) to advance equity and opportunity for millions of Americans.

By ruling for the plaintiffs that the federal money for community development requires an affirmative effort to integrate housing, the courts affirmed that the federal government can use its primary lever (its infrastructure money) to advance equity and opportunity for millions of Americans.

We hope Westchester County steps up to its settlement to begin to open new doors to communities of opportunity.  PolicyLink, in the meantime, wants to work with the growing ranks of equity advocates to build on this win and continue pushing for robust expansion of these approaches from local, state and federal resources.

Written by Victor Rubin, Vice-President of Research at PolicyLink 

President Obama’s announcement this week of a $12 billion initiative to support community colleges has brought new attention to their potential for preparing large numbers of people for better-paying, higher skilled jobs.  That he made the announcement on a campus in Warren, Michigan, in a region where the auto industry can no longer be counted on for stable employment, only reinforced the urgency of the message: more than ever before, American workers need more education in order to thrive.  

Community colleges are indeed capable of training young people and experienced workers alike for new careers that require significant technical proficiencies, what are sometimes called “middle-skill jobs.”  The most nimble and effective community colleges have long been building partnerships with industry and organized labor to swiftly generate new curricula and have their graduates placed in real jobs.  As each new wave of technology has come along, there have been community colleges quick to take advantage of its opportunities. The early signs are good about their responsiveness to the growth in alternative energy production and other green business innovations.

But what will it take for scattered success stories to become far more widespread, for millions of community college students to get the basic education, industry-specific skills and connections to employers that they need?  And how can we be confident that these new initiatives would reach deep into low income communities and communities of color, where unemployment rates, high school dropout rates, and most other indicators of poor job prospects are highest?  After all, with so many laid-off skilled industrial workers looking to retrain, how can we maximize the chances for less experienced, less well-connected folks?

FInd out after the jump…

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During a webinar Friday, June 26, from 1 to 2:30 pm EDT (10 to 11:30 PDT), PolicyLink and Living Cities will release the Reclaiming Foreclosed Properties for Community Benefit tool, which will highlight promising strategies already underway in communities to acquire, care for, and return-to-market foreclosed properties.

The call will also feature tips and ideas for meeting the July 17th application deadline for $2 billion in additional Neighborhood Stabilization Program dollars from the federal stimulus package.

RSVP for the call here

The Discussion will be moderated by Kalima Rose, Senior Director, PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity

Welcome and Opening Comments

• Tamir Novotny, Program Associate, Living Cities

Review of Tool

• Sarah Treuhaft, Senior Associate, PolicyLink

Strategies in the Twin Cities

• Tom Fulton, President, Family Housing Fund

• Rebecca Rom, Attorney, Faegre & Benson, LLP

Strategies in Los Angeles

• Danny Draper, Director, Real Estate Department, LA Neighborhood Housing Services

Discussion/Q & A

• John Laswick, Community Development Specialist, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

On the same day PolicyLink president Judith Bell had her letter on healthy-food access run in the New York Times, her piece on the Kansas City Green Impact Zone ran in the Nieman Watchdog, a great site targeting elite journalists (and run by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard):

Many states and cities have moved quickly to spend their part of the $787 billion federal stimulus package. Plenty of conventional spending is under way – highway interchanges, bridges, etc. But is there anybody out there being innovative, smart, and forward-thinking?

One promising project is the Kansas City Green Impact Zone, a targeted green revitalization effort that supporters hope will bring as much as $200 million to a 150-block, mostly poor, economically depressed section of the city. Backed by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (shown above), Mayor Mark Funkhouser, a unanimous city council, and dozens of community groups, the project could be one of the stimulus package’s signature economic development projects.

On Friday, May 22, we hosted the fourth installment of the “Demand Equity Now” recovery briefing series. The one-hour call featured a spirited and lively discussion among some of the nation’s foremost health advocates:

• Manal Aboelata, Program Director, Prevention Institute
• Cecil Corbin-Mark, Director of Policy Initiatives, WE-ACT for Environmental Justice
• Judith Bell, President, PolicyLink
• Dwayne Marsh, Director for Policy Engagement, PolicyLink (moderator)

Full audio is available below:

The Outlook for Health and Wellness in the Recovery

[58 minutes | Download MP3]

Sign up here for the June 5th and June 19th calls, “What’s the Rural Agenda in the Economic Recovery Agenda?,” and The Green Recovery: How Communities Are Faring So Far?

You can also listen to previous calls at these links:

• Ending Poverty and Building Equity in the Federal Budget
• Achieving a Fair, Transparent, and Accountable Recovery
• Talking with the Media About Equity and Recovery

The NY Times had a great piece over the weekend about the racial disparities in foreclosures in New York. The story was both stunning in the depth of the crisis and, at the same time. so very much expected.

What really got me, though, was checking out this map of Brooklyn (click on the photo below to go to the full interactive map page). I live right smack-dab in the middle of all those red dots in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. I can pinpoint some of the houses that those dots represent. It’s awful and troubling and maddening. Look for yourself.

Earlier today, more than 200 advocates joined the “Talking with Media about Equity in the Recovery” briefing call. As the moderator, I’m pretty biased, but I thought it went great (the moderation, in particular, was sublime).

The call featured a very cool panel:

• Rinku Sen, executive director of Applied Research Center
• Christina Bellantoni, White House reporter for the Washington Times
• Roberto Lovato, associate editor for New America Media

If you weren’t able to join, you can listen to the full call below.

Talking to the Media about Equity in the Recovery

[58 minutes | Download MP3]

Sign up here for the May 22 call, “The Outlook for Health and Wellness in the Recovery,” or any other future calls.

The Obama Administration’s First 100 Days laid some vital groundwork for a more just, more vibrant, and more equitable America. But the change has only just begun.

America needs a movement to make sure all people can live in communities of opportunity - with access to quality jobs, good schools, and affordable, healthy neighborhoods. PolicyLink wants to work with you to build that movement.

What do you think Obama should focus on now that the First 100 Days are history?

Share your ideas and hopes in the comments.