Push the poor to the suburbs where there is no transportation or services

Even more money for Ohio State was announced by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded a $30 million grant to Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) and Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT) to help improve and revitalize the Near East Side neighborhood around University Hospital East.

PACT is a partnership between The Ohio State University, the City of Columbus and the CMHA. The federal Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Grant will allow PACT to redevelop and improve housing, empower people with workforce training and wellness programs, and grow this community by attracting new businesses."

Low income people are driven out of their neighborhoods in these types of  "initiatives" of transformation and empowerment and they rarely get the construction jobs and mom and pop stores can't wait it out. In Columbus we had German Village renewal in the 1960s, Victorian Village in the 1970s, and the Short North in the 1980s. In the 1990s, areas around Ohio State University were practically leveled as the University welcomed more initiatives, renewal and gobbling up land.  Where do these people go?  To the suburbs. No bus service, no churches of their denomination, no social services.  Here’s what I wrote in 2008 about a different alphabet soup of grants.

“Dear reader--housing doesn’t change lives. Marriage does. Parenthood does. Faith in God does. Employment does. Education can. Art and music can. Pets might. Leisure activities don't. Substance abuse will definitely change your life downward. But not housing. Ask any landlord who turned the keys over to a careless, slovenly tenant. Housing doesn’t create safe neighborhoods; it doesn’t get transportation issues funded; it doesn’t improve health; it doesn’t pass bond issues. In partnership with the private sector, this kind of housing for low income people creates jobs and profits for . . .the construction companies.”

You want how many cookies?

Twenty nine thousand, give or take a few dozen. Our Upper Arlington Lutheran Kairos Prison Team will be going to the Marion Correctional Institution April 24-27 for a Christian Renewal Week-end, and each team brings their own cookies--28,800. Usually, we need only 10,000-12,000, but we have so many members on the team for this week-end, we need a lot of cookies. So I'm baking--which is pretty unusual for me. I've made eight twelve dozen brownies (with a little help from Duncan Hines), some with chocolate chips, because there's nothing like chocolate to say, "love." And that's what the cookies are for--tangible evidence of God's love for a sinner in a batch of homemade cookies or brownies. The freezers at the church are probably full--it's hard to find room for that many cookies. A team member is using our garage refrigerator.

To learn more about the program go to www.ualc.org/cookies

Many of the men reached by Kairos Renewal will never be released into society, but many will--and our UALC men are committed to work with them then too, to ease them back into employment and their families.

"Faith-based programs that start in prison and continue after sentences have been served can produce meaningful outcomes when they offer the mentoring, guidance, and hope needed to face a future often marked by social exclusion and fear of the unknown." also, "Working with prisoners before they are released can increase the chances of successful reentry." http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_51.htm