October, 01 2008, 06:18pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Charles D. Jackson, Communications Director, at 504-994-4669, or communications(at)acorn.org
Crisis Continues on Main Street; ACORN Asks, "Where's Hope?"
WASHINGTON
On Oct. 1, ACORN members in more than 30 cities will visit their local offices of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to turn in "applications" for the "HOPE for Homeowners" program that takes effect today - demonstrating that Congress has yet to pass a bill that will provide any real help for homeowners. ACORN members are demanding that Congress provide real leadership in stemming the foreclosure crisis which is adversely affecting financial markets in the United States and all over the world.
The proposed bailout plan currently being debated in Congress does not contain any help for the millions of Americans caught in the foreclosure crisis. Neither does the "HOPE for Homeowners" program - intended to encourage mortgage lenders to renegotiate loans to affordable terms for homeowners, this program is ineffective because lender participation is voluntary and not a single lender has signed up to participate - making it clear that homeowners do not have any more "hope" today than they did yesterday.
"It was strange to see those who had said everything was fine wake up one day last week and decide we were finally in a crisis and something had to be done," said ACORN President Maude Hurd. "We've known there was a crisis with foreclosures for more than a year now, and nothing Congress has done will make a dent in the crisis we see on Main Street.
"It is imperative that we continue to press for solutions to fix the underlying problem here: Unaffordable mortgages that families cannot afford. We need the Hope for Homeowners program up and running on all cylinders, we need a real commitment from Secretary Paulson to pursue aggressive modifications of the mortgages underlying the assets purchased by Treasury, and the government must decisively use its conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to achieve sustainable modifications. Finally, we need bankruptcy reform so that judges can restructure some mortgages on principal residences to affordable terms," said Hurd.
"As shown by the massive number of homeowners still in urgent need of help, this crisis is far from over and demands leadership commensurate with the enormity of the challenges we face - the kind of leadership we just aren't seeing in Washington now," Hurd concluded.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 350,000 member families, organized in 850 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Argentina, Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Canada.
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Highlighting the end of a yearslong trend of declining hunger in the United States due largely to federal policies like the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals, a report published Wednesday details how the expiration of these programs has fueled a resurgence in food insecurity.
Hunger Free America's (HFA) 2023 National Hunger Survey Report found that "the number of Americans without enough food over a seven-day period was an average of 40% higher in September and October of 2023 than in September and October of 2021."
"Over that time period, the number of people without enough food increased from 19.7 million to 27.8 million nationwide," HFA noted, attributing the rise in hunger to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals.
"Many federal benefit increases have either gone away entirely, or are being ramped down, even as prices for food, rent, healthcare, and fuel continue to soar," the advocacy group added.
Among the report's other findings:
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"This report should be a jarring wake-up call for our federal, state, and local leaders," HFA CEO Joel Berg said in a statement.
The new HFA report follows federal data released in November showing the U.S. child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year, thanks in large part to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit. Under the policy—part of the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021—eligible families received up to $300 per child each month.
However, the program expired at the end of 2021 as congressional Republicans and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed its extension. Manchin infamously argued that parents would use the money to buy drugs instead of food for their children.
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans last year blocked the extension of a pandemic-era policy under which public schools offered free breakfast and lunch to tens of millions of children.
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"To achieve the proposed global renewable energy target by 2030, massive growth in financial investment into renewable energy is required in the Global South outside China, from both private and public sources," Sieber said. "Barriers such as debt and the inequitable cost of capital in the Global South, significantly hinder investment in renewable energy."
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As Murphy's office explained:
The rule will take effect starting in model year 2027, providing time for auto industry transition and continued development of charging infrastructure and a more robust and cleaner electrical grid in New Jersey. It does not ban gasoline cars, nor does it force consumers to buy EVs. Rather, the rule will provide certainty to vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, utilities, and charging infrastructure companies to make the long-term investments that will be crucial to large-scale deployment of light-duty [zero-emission vehicles] and consumer choice.
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New Jersey joins California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington state in committing to adopt the ACCII rule.
Meanwhile at the federal level, the Biden administration earlier this year proposed a rule aimed at ensuring that as many as two-thirds of all new light- and medium-duty passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032 are EVs.
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