It’s no wonder that in Tacoma, Washington, educators noticed that homeless students were slipping behind. After all, these kids moved so many times, their learning was continually disrupted. So to combat this, the Tacoma Housing Authority collaborated with McCarver Elementary, the poorest school in the district, to provide families with housing vouchers that would stabilize them and allow their kids to study more continuously.
Fifty families experiencing bouts of homelessness signed up for the program, which began back in 2011. It gave them a 5-year housing voucher provided that they adhere to several rules — including making sure their kids showed up to class when the school bell rang. These families also receive assistance from caseworkers, who support them in obtaining education, certifications, and jobs. Each year, the level of support decreases by 20 percent, with the goal that by the end of the 5-year period, the family will become self-sufficient.
Tacoma’s approach seems to be working: Test scores and attendance have increased, and the families are moving around less. In 2006, McCarver Elementary’s turnover rate (the percentage of students moving in and out of the school) stood at a whopping 179 percent. It’s down to 75 percent now, with only 13 percent turnover for students enrolled in the voucher program.
According to the Seattle Times, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington is looking to extend this program beyond a single school district through the proposed Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act. Meanwhile, state senators and representatives in Washington state have supported the Homeless Children Education Act, which would provide resources to identify and serve students suffering from homelessness. Washington’s governor will soon consider it for signing.
For Mary Kamandala, a Sudenese refugee and mother of six, the housing program in Tacoma has been a life saver. “I’m from zero,” she told Ashley Stewart of the Seattle Times, “so it was a really bad situation when I came here. It was just me and them, and no one could help me.” With the help of Tacoma Housing Authority caseworkers, Kamandala earned a home-care certificate and found a job at the Korean Women’s Association, while the housing voucher provided her kids the stable home base they needed.
Tag: immigrants
While Washington Dithers Over Immigration Reform, a State Gets Down to Business
Were officials in Washington, D.C. elected to argue and name call or were they sent to our nation’s capital to get things done? In recent years, it definitely seems that they’ve been more interested in the former rather than the latter.
That’s especially true when it comes to the topic of immigration, which is something that has many people — from business owners seeking visas for highly-skilled employees, to those looking for temporary workers to harvest crops, to people who were brought to the U.S. as children and have no other country to call home — clamoring for reform.
Utah decided that it couldn’t wait on immigration reform from the Federal government, so its legislature passed two common-sense laws itself.
One law allows undocumented immigrants to stay in Utah and work legally provided that they pay a fine, demonstrate some English proficiency, and pass a background check. Another Utah law allows state residents to sponsor undocumented immigrants — giving them the legal right to live and work in the state.
According to the Deseret News, Republican Senator Curt Bramble of Provo said that these laws, “demonstrate that elected officials can come together and address in a responsible manner immigration.” The only problem? Utah passed these laws three years ago but it needs federal approval to implement them, because the U.S. government is solely responsible for immigration.
Utah has delayed implementing these laws until 2017 in the hopes they’ll see some movement on federal immigration reform by then. In the meantime, state citizens have put together The Utah Compact, a document endorsed by a wide range of people and organizations in Utah with the goal of elevating the tone of discussion around immigration reform. It reads, in part, “Immigrants are integrated into communities across Utah. We must adopt a humane approach to this reality, reflecting our unique culture, history and spirit of inclusion. The way we treat immigrants will say more about us as a free society and less about our immigrant neighbors. Utah should always be a place that welcomes people of goodwill.”
Now if only the Federal government would be as hospitable as the state of Utah.
MORE: Utah is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 with This One Simple Idea
One Unique Center Has Students Teaching Students. Here’s How It’s Paying Off
For some students, school can be nerve-wracking. But an ingenious school in Towson, Maryland, makes pupils feel at ease by having college students teach all the classes.
At Goucher College in Towson, M.D., immigrants come to the Futuro Latino Learning Center to learn English and computer skills. Most of the college students teaching at the center are Spanish-speaking or are Spanish majors; they are supported with work-study grants. These educators serve mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants, but the center also has some attendees from Iran, Brazil, and Syria (many of whom are parents).
Director Frances Ramos-Fontan, who was born in Puerto Rico, teaches Spanish at Goucher and runs the center. She told Carrie Wells of the Baltimore Sun, “You have participants who have never sat in front of a computer. We had one woman from Guatemala, her hands were frozen she was so afraid. It’s like learning another language from scratch, learning a computer.”
It’s not just the students at Futuro Latino Learning Center that receive an education–the college students benefit too. Fernando Parra, a freshman Spanish and international relations major at Goucher who teaches computer classes at the center, said, “It’s really great having the opportunity to teach them something that we take for granted.”
MORE: This Non-Profit Is Teaching Immigrants Much More Than Just Language
Paperwork Stood Between Immigrants and Their Dream, So This Group Stepped In
In 2012, President Obama issued a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals memo that instructed the departments responsible for enforcing immigration laws to refrain from deporting immigrants who were brought to this country as children. The benefits from this policy don’t happen automatically, however. Immigrants must get legal help to prove their continuous residency in the United States, pay a $465 filing fee, and fulfill other requirements to qualify, and many people in this situation can’t afford to pay a lawyer. That’s where the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio steps in.
About a year ago the center began offering free legal help to people who qualify for deferred action, and so far they’ve helped 200 low-income teens and young adults wade through the necessary paperwork. The center has succeeded with every single case it’s taken on during this mission. Once achieved, the deferral must be renewed every two years, and allows the immigrant to receive work authorization.
For 19-year-old Luis Garcia who arrived in the U.S. at age 2, help from St. Mary’s University “gave me the boost I needed to continue on forward,” he told Jennifer R. Lloyd of My San Antonio. Garcia is now a freshman at San Antonio College.
MORE: We Support Our Vets. But What About the Afghans Who Helped Them?
We Support Our Vets. But What About the Afghans Who Helped Them?
Ahmad Reshad Mushfiq was serving as an interpreter for U.S. troops in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb struck, costing him his legs and killing Jonathan Yelner, a U.S. senior airman. “When I think of the explosion, I don’t think of my legs. I just remember I lost my friend Jonathan Yelner,” Mushfiq told Chris De Benedetti of The Argus. “He left all his comforts in America to help the Afghan people, to make a difference. I can’t forget it.”
Now people in America want to help the 32-year-old Mushfiq. Mushfiq and his wife hid from the Taliban for three years while waiting for immigrant visas, and finally arrived in Fremont, Calif. The Sentinels of Freedom, a San Ramon, Calif.-based organization that helps veterans, has reached out to help Mushfiq begin his new life. He’s the first foreign civilian they’ve worked with, paying the rent on his family’s apartment, furnishing it, and helping him enroll in Ohlone College. Mushfiq also contacted Yelner’s mother, Yolanda Vega, a woman he now calls Mom.
Afghan coalition Executive Director Rona Popal told De Benedetti, “There are a lot of young Afghans working with U.S. forces, and they know they’ll be the first targets when the Taliban comes. That’s why we believe that, after 2014, a lot of Afghans will be coming here.” And many believe that these newcomers, who have served our country at such a personal price, deserve some of the same help that returning veterans do.
MORE: These Workers Are There When We Need Them. Now We’ve Got to Keep them Safe
Latinos Were Hard Hit by the Recession. Here’s How They’re Fighting Back
The recent recession hit American Latino families especially hard—the Pew Research Center found the median household wealth of Latino families fell more than that of any other group, decreasing 66% between 2005 and 2009, from $18,359 to $6,325. Compounding those losses was a hard hit to industries employing many Latinos, such as construction, hospitality, and domestic services. It left the unemployment rate among Latinos 2% higher than it is for everyone else. Many Latino families are still struggling to regain what they’ve lost.
So the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals is teaming up with Latino business leaders, led by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, to start the Hispanic Wealth Project. They will begin by studying the problem, and then by the end of this year develop a plan they hope will help Latino families close the gap and triple their household wealth in ten years.
One major focus will be home ownership. A larger percentage of Latinos with mortgages lost their homes due to foreclosure between 2004 and 2008 than did any other group. In a statement to Griselda Navarez of Voxxi, Gary Acosta, CEO of NAHREP, said the project leaders plan to address “a broad set of factors, like small business growth, savings, education, income, jobs and financial literacy.”
MORE: These Workers are There When We Need Them. Now We’ve Got to Keep Them Safe.
To Fix a Neighborhood, Invite a Newcomer
The idea of the hard-working immigrant isn’t just a stereotype according to several studies, including one by Paul McDaniel, who holds a Ph.D. in Geography and Urban Regional Analysis from the University of North Carolina. In “Revitalization in the Heartland of America: Welcoming Immigrant Entrepreneurs for Economic Development,” he writes that immigrants are “risk takers by nature” and “unusually successful entrepreneurs.” Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start their own businesses as people born in the United States.
McDaniel cites the finding of the Fiscal Policy Institute that “immigration and economic growth of metro areas go hand in hand.” That’s prompted several Rust Belt cities that are losing population and declining economically to look to immigrants for revitalization. McDaniel demonstrates that an influx of immigrants is helping stabilize and invigorate parts of Detroit and St. Louis, and rural communities in Iowa. These communities have seen the benefits of immigration and have begun to advocate for more—for example, the Governor of Michigan recently requested 50,000 visas to allow high-skilled immigrants to move to Detroit. Immigrants often move into low-income neighborhoods and make them safer and more prosperous.
David G. Gutierrez studied census data for his report “An Historic Overview of Latino Immigration and Demographic Transformation of the United States” and found that 44% of medical scientists, 37% of physical scientists, 34% of software engineers, and 27% of physicians and surgeons in America are immigrants. We’ve always known that immigrants are one factor that make the United States strong, and these new reports suggest we should continue welcoming immigrants in the future.
MORE: Meet the CEO Who Wants to Bring 50,000 Immigrants to Detroit
Tired of Waiting for Immigration Reform, One Man Is Giving Undocumented Students a Shot at the American Dream
Don Graham, the former CEO of the Washington Post Company, doesn’t think America can afford to wait for immigration reform before beginning to help the undocumented students who were brought here as kids. To that end, he’s announced a $25 million scholarship fund for such students, called TheDream.US, which will begin providing 1,000 full-ride scholarships a year to some of the estimated 240,000 college students brought to the U.S. as children who are still waiting for the passage of the DREAM Act to provide them with a more secure legal status.
These students, who aren’t at immediate risk because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, do not qualify for federal student aid or Pell grants. Eighteen states now offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, with more debating the issue currently, such as Arizona and North Carolina.
Republican and Democratic legislators alike have given public support to TheDream.Us, whose funders include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The fund has already given 38 scholarships to students in all majors but liberal arts, and TheDream.Us administrators are working with a group of colleges that the students can attend. Graham told Maggie Severns and Hadas Gold of Politico, “We’re focusing on places that are low enough in cost that we can send a lot of students there, because we have to raise every dollar for their tuition,” giving students “a bachelor’s degree from a good place that will give students a start.”
MORE: Meet the Undocumented Immigrants Who Created an App to Press for Immigration Reform
These Workers Are There When We Need Them. Now We’ve Got to Keep Them Safe
Day laborers—those workmen for hire you might see gathered on a street corner—are often the targets of abuse, sometimes asked to work under unsafe conditions for low pay. Many become victims of wage theft, and because many of them are immigrants or have only a limited grasp of English, they have little recourse. According to a report by Baruch College, many day laborers employed to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy became sick from contact with hazardous materials. But as Claudia Torrens reports for the Associated Press, several organizations across the country are working to make conditions fairer and safer for day laborers.
The Latin Union of Chicago hosts a worker’s center to help day laborers negotiate work contracts and educate them about safety. “In street corners the agreement is only verbal. We are more organized in the center,” Jose Luis Gallardo of the Latin Union told Torres. “We want to prevent wage theft. We want both the contractor and the day laborer to sign the work agreement.” Similar organizations are found in San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
New York City has three such centers, including the new Workers Justice Project in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. This nonprofit has helped 500 registered workers raise their average annual wage from $20,000 to $46,800. Representatives from this and other centers visit day laborers, educate them, and hand out gloves and masks to keep them safe.
These centers don’t only help the workers—they also help the employer find the right people for the job. Allan Suarez, whose company All Renovation works with the Workers Justice Project to find temporary help, told Torrens, “We have full faith that if we tell them we need a specific person they will bring us someone with that experience. It alleviates us from going out and trying to find someone when we have these good connections.”
MORE: Think You Can’t Afford to Give? These Inspirational Immigrants Will Change Your Mind
Meet the Entrepreneur Creating a ‘TurboTax for Immigration’
Felice Gordoro is a young tech entrepreneur with big plans. When he was in college at Georgetown, he started the non-profit Roots of Hope to foster meaningful connections between American and Cuban youths. He worked as a White House fellow, and helped organize Colombian rock star Juanes’ “Peace Without Borders” concert in Cuba in 2009. Now Gordoro is working for Clearpath Inc., a company whose software aims to speed and simplify the visa application process for immigrants. “We are trying to be the TurboTax for immigration,” he told Kristina Puga of NBC Latino.
Former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Michael Petrucelli started Clearpath Inc. in 2009, providing a website that guides people through the application process. The forms cost between $70 and $200, which offers a significant savings compared to getting help from an immigration lawyer. While Gordoro and Petrucelli stress that people with more complicated immigration situations should seek help from a lawyer, they believe their software can help make the process easier and less costly for many.
In fact, “The wizard-based system has more than 5,000 rules that check along the way to ensure that the user who is applying for the benefit is eligible for the benefit,” Gorordo told Laura Wides-Munoz of the Associated Press.
MORE: Meet the Undocumented Immigrants Who Created an App to Press for Immigration Reform