Thousands of Louisianans are expected to descend on the state capitol May 27 to say “enough is enough” to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s decision to reject $100 million in unemployment benefits from the stimulus package. For those hit “first and worst” by the recession, the problem got even worse today as the state legislature couldn’t muster the votes to override his decision.This is a looming disaster for folks who’ve had too much disaster in their lives already.

Want to go to the rally or get your voice heard from afar? Full release after the jump….

The folks who brought you “The Wire”–  everyone’s-favorite-show-of-all-time-anywhere-ever-no-really-you-have-to-watch-it-like-now — are moving their act down to New Orleans.

HBO just greenlit “Treme,” a series from producers David Simon and Eric Overmeyer and starring Wire alum/New Orleans native Wendell Pierce. The show, which will start taping in the fall and air next spring, will:

[C]enter on New Orleans residents — including musicians and a restauranteur –living in the city’s Treme district. Show follows the characters as they look to reclaim their lives as the city continues to rebuild.

“It will be uplifting at points, and may make viewers a little angry at points,” Simon said. “And at another point it will make viewers a little depressed.”

Simon said he and Overmyer, who lives in New Orleans, had been in love with the city long before the storm — but post-Katrina, knew there was a story to be told.

But, Simon warns, this won’t be “The Bayou Wire”and will have a broader, less overtly politically perspective:

Simon noted that there’s even perhaps the story of New Orleans can be used as a metaphor for the country’s current economic woes.

“Look at what happened down there after Katrina,” he said. “A lot of things in which New Orleans depended on and trusted turned out to be wholly undependable and untrustworthy. The governing institutions were supposed to monitor things of actual construct like the levees and the pumping stations. That could be an allegory for what we Americans presumed about our financial institutions, and the governing bodies that were supposed to monitor them.

“New Orleans found itself on its ass some years ago, and the rest of the country stared at it as it it was a unique case,” Simon said. “In some sense, Katrina is an outwire of what the rest of the country was going to experience.”

If you want to see what Simon thinks about the state of the nation, check out this really great interview he did recently on Bill Moyers show:

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called Trouble the Water “Superb…one of the best American documentaries in recent memory.” Apparently, members of the Academy feel the same way ‘cause it has been nominated for an Oscar!

We, at PolicyLink, though, recognized the genious of this film to unsettle, enlighten, and ultimately, inspire folks to push for an equitable rebuilding of New Orleans. We screened a clip at our Regional Equity Summit in New Orleans with over 1800 people –community organizers, policymakers, academics, funders, and business leaders. There was barely a dry eye in the place; and to be sure, there wasn’t a soul that hadn’t been stirred.

It’s a film that tells the story of a young New Orleans’ couple - trapped by the deadly floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina - who courageously survive the storm and its calamitous aftermath. It chronicles their flight from home and their quest to rebuild their lives and Lower Ninth Ward community. It’s a powerful story of community fortitude in the face of adversity, and a look into one of the most defining moments in our recent history.

Haven’t seen it yet? Check out a preview and this list of theatres. And if you don’t see that it’s playing near you, call your local movie theatre and ask them to play Trouble the Water.  Theatre managers (especially art-house theatres) take note of these requests, and it makes a difference. The filmmakers have made it simple, and provided some helpful talking points.  You can also help bring the film to your community; the filmmakers want this screened not just in theatres, but in centers, churches, parks, and all places where neighbors gather to mingle and mind the country’s business.

Remember, it’s not about a hurricane. It’s about America. That means all of us, even Oscar.

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).
 

Can you believe it’s been almost three years? Three years since the levee breaks? Three years since the Superdome? Three years since President Bush making promises in a generator-lit Jackson Square?

But three years out, where are we? How much progress has really been made? According to a new report released today by PolicyLink, we’ve seem some progress the past year, but not nearly enough — especially when it comes to the bedrock issue of housing for Louisianans. Far too many residents still can’t afford to rebuild their homes or find an affordable place to rent.

The new report, “A Long Way Home: The State of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008,” shows that while some progress has been made during the past year, thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules.

The report (which I co-authored along with my colleagues Kalima Rose and Dominique Duval-Diop) analyzes the three major federally funded housing recovery programs – the Road Home (for homeowners) and the small and large rental programs (for renters). Together, these programs allocate nearly $12 billion in federal recovery funds to restore housing in Louisiana.

Some key findings:

• In New Orleans, 4 of every 5 Road Home recipients rebuilding their homes did not get enough money to cover their repairs. Statewide, more than 2 of every 3 face the same predicament.
• Statewide, the average Road Home applicant fell more than $35,000 short of the money they need to rebuild their home. The shortfall hit highly flooded, historically African-American communities particularly hard.
• Nearly 40,000 low-income homeowners received an average of about $27,000 each from an additional Road Home grant program designed to help vulnerable residents.
• Renters still face huge hurdles—only 2 in 5 damaged affordable rental units statewide will be repaired or replaced with recovery assistance. In the New Orleans metro region, it’s an even more dismal rate of 1 in 3.
• The national credit crunch and personal financial vulnerability keeps many mom-and-pop landlords from being able to rebuild through the small rental repair program. Meant to restore more than 10,000 rental homes, the program has completed only 82.
• Nearly 28,000 families nationwide still rely on disaster rental assistance, with 14,000 in the greater New Orleans metro region alone. There will not be nearly enough affordable rental units on the market by the time the assistance runs out in March 2009.

The election season provides another chance to put the issue of Gulf Coast rebuilding at the forefront of our national dialogue. Let’s hope we’re at a very different place in the process come Year 4.

“Below the Line: The Changing Face of American Poverty”, the provocative series featured on the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, has profiled a vast range of people living at or below the poverty line in the United States. The series has critically examined what it looks like to be poor in America today, by telling stories as varied as the young, African American, single mother of two children who lost her job at Enron only to find herself making less than $10,000 a year as a nursing assistant; a young married couple, graduate student and carpenter, trying their best to sustain a family of five on the land by growing a community garden; and the Ethiopian immigrant working full time at a meat packing plant, and part time as a child care provider in rural Minnesota.

Angela Glover Blackwell frames each installment from a public policy perspective, while respective experts offer insight and strategic solutions for the foreclosure crisis, living wage, inadequate health care, homelessness, transitional housing, and ex-offender re-entry, along with other issues faced by a growing number of Americans.

Now you can catch the entire series right here on EquityBlog:

Episode One
The series begins with Terreal Grant of Baltimore who is coming out of poverty and drug addiction with help from the Thompson Mobility Program [PDF].

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Two
The second installment features Cici Youngblood, a college graduate who describes her path to poverty as “riches to rags” and Jeff Page, a former DJ who went from fame to a downward spiral into homelessness after cancer. Both profiles illustrate how poverty is compounded by health and how successful programs (e.g. Rainbow Apartments) in Los Angeles’s Skid Row community work to meet these challenges.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Three
Reporter James Mills shares the story of Abeba Adella of Minnesota. Originally from Ethiopia, Abeba left an abusive husband, raises two children alone, and works two jobs to barely avoid poverty.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Four
From Augusta, Georgia, reporter Charles Edwards speaks with two residents who struggle with less than the federal minimum wage. Richard Sparrow suffered a back injury and was shunned by employers as an insurance liability. Unemployed since 1996, Richard lives on less than 700 dollars a month, over half of which goes to medicine. Sunny Johnson, a former Enron employee, describes the sacrifices she makes with her wages from her day and night jobs.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Five
New Orleans producer Eve Abrams brings us the story of Vanessa Nevilles, who is struggling to find a job with health insurance, and Keith Carter who was shunned from employment after an arrest and a lengthy legal battle.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Six
Executive Producer Cheryl Flowers visits Mississippi to find two stories of poverty in small rural communities. Mississippi is home to one of the highest concentrations of poverty in America.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Wrap Up
Dr. Cynthia Duncan, Founding Director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of the Opportunity Agenda, joins Tavis Smiley and Angela Glover Blackwell for the series wrap up and analysis.

[53 minutes | MP3]

Audio courtesy of The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI. Check your local listings for more from Tavis Smiley.

Trouble the Water fills the cover of the New York Times Arts section this morning. Manohla Dargis calls it “One of the best American documentaries in recent memory,” and one of the strongest films in this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films, by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art.

Read all of Voice, Eyes and Camera of Katrina Survivors.

Or listen to New York Times audiocast available below:

A crowd of more than 1,000 packed the Grand Ballroom at the Regional Equity ‘o8 Summit Thursday to see clips of “Trouble the Water,” a powerful new documentary about post-Katrina life in New Orleans.

Executive producer Danny Glover joined with the film’s directors, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, and the film’s subjects, Kimberly and Scott Roberts for a passionate and inspiring discussion about the film and the issues of equity and equality is raises.

The documentary follows Kim and Scott for more than a year as they face the storm (via gripping hand-held camera work as they were still trapped in their home by floodwaters) and try to recover and start a family. Critics are already raving about the film, including awarding it the Grand Jury prize for best documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

As Glover pointed out, though, the Roberts’ story is not just an tale isolated to post-storm New Orleans. It reflects the inequity and injustice we see all over the country.

“In Detroit, Chicago, New York, communities have been left behind,” Glover said. “This is an epidemic.”

Lessin said she hopes the film can serve as a catalyst for equitable change across the country, as activists, advocates, policymakers and people from the faith community come together to watch the real life struggles of Kim and Scott and strategize ways to create more and better opportunities for all people.

To find out more about the film, please visit the film’s homepage, www.TroubleTheWaterFilm.com.

Producers are eying a late summer or early fall theatrical release.

For more information about what PolicyLink is doing to help Louisiana recover more equitably and how you can help, please check out www.PolicyLink.org/Communities/Louisiana.