A recap of this week’s equity news

 ”Road Home fix falls short,” - Times-Picayune

As soon as Louisiana homeowners could take stock of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, thousands of them had to turn their attention back to the Road Home program and their ongoing efforts to collect grants to repair damage caused three years ago by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

More than 3,100 Road Home applicants still have active appeals to fret over — and some worry that highly touted reforms to the process carried little impact.

 ”Low-Income Housing: Another Crisis Looming?” - TIME Magazine

Another housing crisis may be looming even as the mortgage meltdown continues and as Americans who once dreamed of home ownership see their properties foreclosed. The Housing Act of 1937, imposed in the wake of the Great Depression, and amended a number of times in the 1970s, is reaching a crossroads — and close to five million Americans who depend on subsidized public housing may soon have to figure out where and how they are going to live.

That’s because under the provisions of Section 8 of the historic law a significant change will be under way in the next few years. As a result, building owners who participate in the program — receiving subsidies from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in exchange for taking in lower-income renters — will be able to opt out of those contracts. And many are thinking of doing just that. America’s two largest cities, New York and Los Angeles, will be severely affected as will many smaller communities.

“Author tracks one man’s quest to fix Harlem,” - USA TODAY

In 1999, Geoffrey Canada, president of a respected non-profit for families in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, embarked on an “outsized and audacious” endeavor. Programs that helped dozens or even hundreds of kids, he’d concluded, weren’t enough. So he traced out a 24-block “children’s zone” and blanketed it with social services: a health clinic, parenting classes, an intensive charter school, after-school tutoring and more. The idea, says author Paul Tough, was to create “a safety net woven so tightly” that kids couldn’t slip through.

Tough, an editor for the New York Times Magazine, spent five years following Canada’s efforts as the zone grew to 97 blocks. USA TODAY spoke with Tough about his new book, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America (Houghton Mifflin, $26).
 

A recap of the week’s equity news

 “Latino-vs.-black violence drives hate crimes in L.A. County to 5-year high,” - Los Angeles Times

Hate crimes in Los Angeles County rose to their highest level in five years last year, led by attacks between Latinos and blacks, officials said Thursday.

The annual report by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission showed hate crimes rose by 28%, to 763, with vandalism and assault leading the way.

In what commission Executive Director Robin Toma called an alarming trend, hate crimes based on race, religion and sexual orientation all rose, increasing against nearly all groups — including blacks, gays, Jews, Mexicans, whites and Asians — even as crime in general declined.

 “Billions needed to shore up nation’s bridges ,” -  USA TODAY

The fatal collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis a year ago jolted states into better inspections of the nation’s 600,000 bridges, but they aren’t coming up with the billions of dollars needed to ensure that all of them are sound.

The plunge that killed 13 people when the span crumpled into the Mississippi River on Aug. 1 was “a wake-up call” to take care of aging bridges, says Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. “We can’t wait for another Minneapolis.”

“Looking for Equity in Arts Financing ,” - New York Times

In Harlem, Marline A. Martin, the executive director of the Children’s Art Carnival, figures that losing her financing from the city’s Cultural Affairs Department means she will have half the number of students this fall in her school-day program for children whose schools don’t offer art.
Downtown, near Stuyvesant Park, Diane Fraher Thornton, the director of American Indian Artists Inc., squeezes dollars from her budget for a project of readings by Indian playwrights.
Ms. Martin and Ms. Thornton are among the dozen or so leaders of a coalition of arts organizations in New York City called the Cultural Equity Group. In a proposal to city officials the group asked for $15 million in the city budget that would go to so-called culturally specific organizations, serving blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and American Indians. The money — to be used for things like programs and administrative support — would be separate from financing awarded by city agencies, like the Cultural Affairs Department.