Appleseed Humanity

As the melodramatic, stage-managed bun fight that is the debate over the debt limit continues in Congress the full horror of the cuts proposed by some members as a solution is causing concern among people who serve those at risk.

Among the cuts proposed by conservative members is a significant reduction in the funding for ‘WIC’ – a nutritional program for women, infants and children. And the cuts would be inflicted while tax breaks for billionaires and oil companies remain blocked as ‘unfair.’

For years both parties had followed an unspoken tradition to always fund WIC, but early this year the GOP-led House passed a funding bill that would slash $733-million from the program.

If it ever becomes law 300-450,000 women and children would instantly go hungry.

To propose slashing funds for programs like WIC while insisting that tax breaks for billionaires and oil companies are preserved for the good of the nation is not only blatant pandering to those who fund both their lifestyle and election campaigns it’s also unsupported by facts:

Economists say every $1 invested in feeding a pregnant woman through WIC saves up to $2.13 in health care costs over the life of her child. At the same time, just one week of the revenue lost from the tax breaks would fund WIC in full for a year – With a profit.

44.5-million Americans now live beneath the poverty line. One in three are so poor they can’t eat every day. And to propose cutting funds to programs that help those with so little while preserving vote-gaining perks for those with more than enough is callous, deceptive, self-serving malfeasance.

The election cycle is almost upon us. Next time you hear a politician tell you they love this country and truly care about the people, find out where they stand on the funding for WIC.

You might not care about them quite so much when you know.

Source: Half-in-Ten

[Appleseed] — You rarely get good news in this line of work but homeless agencies in Michigan are using the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s ‘HPRP’ plan, and they’re making a real dent in what is no less than a national crisis.

At the last count Michigan had 66,051 homeless people, and nearly 15,000 of them have been helped by the new ‘Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program’ (HPRP) — And this is just its first year.

“HPRP is a great example of a successful effort to prevent homelessness,” says Linda M. Laford, Executive Director of the Sault Ste. Marie Housing Commission. “This is part of Michigan’s campaign to end homelessness in our area and across the state.”

Born as part of President Obama’s widely GOP-criticized ‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,’ HPRP helps people find new housing by allowing non-government agencies to provide services, and help with rent or utility payments. 80% of those who applied were spared from ever being homeless, and the rest were re-housed in under a year.

And nearly 60% of those people got their new homes in under a month.

“We believe the HPRP initiative helped prevent homelessness from substantially increasing in our area during the past year,” Bruce W. Beaudoin of the Sault Ste. Marie Housing Commission told the News.

The one dark spot on this splendid record is the cause of most of the need – Over 25% of the Michigan clients were being crushed by high medical debts, and almost the same number still had a critical medical problem that needed attention.

“Although risk factors present significant challenges, the program’s performance is something we can all be proud of,” said Mr. Beaudoin.

I’d say he’s right. And while 15,000 people saved from a national total of over 9-million is not the perfect solution it proves there are real and effective ways to help – if only people would care…