Changes to HUD Section 3 legislation creates more opportunity for Black employment

15th June 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan get a cash loan no credit check Whirty
Contributing Writer

For New Orleans resident Alfred Marshall, the proposed changes to Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 are certainly about providing more construction and blue-collar job opportunities for the city’s African-American population and other low-income residents.

The updates to the act are also, for sure, about stimulating the economies of the very neighborhoods in which HUD undertakes its projects, said Marshall, an organizer of the local grassroots activist group Stand with Dignity — New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice.

But the Section 3 adaptations and Stand with Dignity’s recently submitted comments regarding the changes also represent a chance for NOLA’s minorities to show the government that they are united, determined and looking at the big picture — that as the city continues to recover from both Hurricane Katrina and a slow national economy, New Orleans’ financially and politically downtrodden must and will be heard.

“It’s people power and people coming up and doing something around the cash advance maysville ky city,” Marshall said. “It’s people fighting back. These [Stand] comments are about us making sure we have the attention of the government.”

The changes to Section 3 contain the potential to have a sweeping effect on job creation, small-business stimulation, as well as job training, apprenticeship and other forms of worker education on the ground in lower-income communities.

According to a summary statement of the proposed changes issued by HUD, Section 3 of the 1968 act “contributes to the establishment of stronger, more sustainable communities by ensuring that employment and other economic opportunities generated by Federal financial assistance for housing and community development programs are, to the greatest extent feasible, directed toward low- and very low-income persons, particularly those who are recipients of government assistance for housing. HUD is statutorily charged with the authority and responsibility to implement and enforce Section 3.”

HUD last revised the requirements and language of Section 3 more than two decades ago, but the department believes that enough new gateway group payday loan government housing and development programs have been created and enhanced during that time to necessitate additional compliance by recipients of Section 3 financial assistance, the strengthening of those rules, and recognizing the existence of often crippling social, political and economic barriers to compliance with Section 3.

As a result, HUD held an open comment period during which citizens, businesses and community-action organizations like New Orleans’ Stand with Dignity had the opportunity to express their reactions to the proposed regulation and enforcement adaptations.

The public input period closed on May 26, and Stand with Dignity submitted its comments in a comprehensive, 35-page statement on that date.

“As we approach the 50-year anniversary of the passage of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968,” reads Stand’s statement, “Stand with Dignity commends HUD for working to strengthen the regulatory scheme of Section 3, critical civil rights legislation that remains acutely needed. Indeed, at this moment in our nation’s history, bold actions are necessary to build the level how to get loans if you have bad credit of opportunity that all people living in our country deserve. …”

It adds: “Congress’ findings ex­pressed in Section 3 remain of prime concern today: low- and very low-income persons, especially recipients of government assistance for housing, continue to have restricted access to employment and other economic opportunities, and prior Federal efforts to direct employment and other economic opportunities generated by Federal housing and community development programs to low- and very low-income persons have not been fully effective and should be intensified.”

Stand with Dignity’s proactive involvement in the Section 3 changes comes on the heels of the group’s successful campaign in the B.W. Cooper apartments to persuade the local Housing Authority of New Orleans to make similar changes to its own Section 3 policies.

The Cooper campaign resulted in the creation of roughly 50 new jobs, higher wages paid by Section 3 contractors and enhanced job-training opportunities for residents of the neighborhood. Marshall said the Cooper movement was an example of a community coming cash loan money centres bunbury together to “regain power with power.”

“We continued to go to HANO to demand not only jobs, but job training to help keep us employed,” he added.

Another of Stand’s leaders in the Cooper effort was Gary Truvia, who eventually became the Section 3 coordinator on that construction site for a portion of the project.

“Section 3 was passed way back in ’68, but it didn’t have any bite to it until we brought attention to it,” Truvia said.

He added that lower-income and minority neighborhoods are plagued by building contractors who import out-of-town labor that takes away jobs and income from New Orleans neighborhoods. Truvia said that phenomenon can be preempted by making sure there’s a large enough work force locally that’s qualified to obtain and retain jobs so business owners don’t feel they have to look elsewhere for labor.

“It’s about empowering the underprivileged and the undereducated,” he said. “We have enough manpower. If we get people trained, best in Memphis cash advance we can keep our jobs. That’s a good start.”

Attempts by The Louisiana Weekly to contact both local and national HUD officials for comment were unsuccessful.

Spurred and empowered by the success of the B.W. Cooper campaign, Stand with Dignity is approaching the proposed revisions to the federal Section 3 regulations with a great deal of determination and ambition, both Truvia and Marshall said.

Marshall said the federal changes have the potential to greatly and positively help the city’s lower-income workers and neighbors, just like the Cooper campaign did with HANO.

“This could really have an impact if [HUD officials] do the right thing,” he said. “People are tired of this. We’re sick and tired. All Black men want to do is take care of their families.

“If you give us the opportunities, we can excel,” he added. “What are you afraid of? Black excellence? That’s why our guys deserve change.”

This article originally published in the June 15, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.