I met an unusual Black family last week. They were married; a minority since just 23.7 percent of Indy’s Black households are married these days. This family – husband, wife and their 12 year-old-son – were also unusual because they were homeless.
They’d been through tough trials. They “short sold” their house, which ruined their credit rating, which hampered their ability to rent an apartment. An auto accident further drained their finances.
Because they were both employed, they couldn’t get trustee help. What cash flow they had left was tapped by living in third class hotels.
When I met them they had literally nowhere to go. Indy’s homeless shelters for families were jammed. There were cots on the floor available; but the parents would have to split up. The family bristled at that.
This was a Black family full of pride. Angry and dispirited that though they’d tried to do everything right, it seemed everything was going wrong.
Their son, who dreams of being a scientist, gripped my hand, looked me dead in the eye, as I encouraged him not to let the fact that he and his family were living in desperate straits hold back his dreams.
I was able to find some Good Samaritans to help this family, BUT…what I encountered was the living tissue behind the cold data the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) unveiled about Indianapolis last week.
The reality is startling!
Since Gregory Ballard became mayor of Indianapolis, residents in poverty have grown by 38.2 percent. That number is largely fueled by both African-American poverty which has climbed 45.1 percent and by the Hispanic rate, which is up 76.9 percent.
“Now Amos,” some of you are saying, “you’re measuring from the start of the Great Recession, that’s not fair. Surely poverty is on the decline for the last year or so.”
OK, between 2012 and 2013, the overall number of people in poverty in Indianapolis declined by one percent. During the same period, non-Hispanic whites in poverty fell 2.3 percent. The numbers of African-Americans in poverty in Mayor Ballard’s city increased 3.4 percent between 2012 and 2013!
When I asked for comment on the devastating 2013 Census ACS data for Indianapolis, Marc Lotter, Ballard’s communications director wrote, “Mayor Ballard is very committed to helping everyone escape the grips of poverty, including African-American residents and families.”
If so, what’s Mayor Ballard done, because the cold stats and that Black family I met, say he’s done nothing!
What plan has the mayor implemented to increase homeless shelters for families with children – the city’s fastest growing homeless group?
During Indiana Black Expo this year, the Ballard administration bragged about some $800 million spent with minority-owned businesses since 2008.
So why didn’t that $800 million make a dent in Indy’s high Black unemployement? It is because very few Black-owned businesses got a piece of that money and those that did didn’t hire Black workers.
Since Ballard’s been mayor, Black employment has grown by just 2.4 percent; while Black unemployment’s soared 35.9 percent.
In the past year, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LICS); homeless advocates; some social service agencies and community centers; even United Way has publicly talked about the intractable rise of poverty in Indianapolis.
But the Indy Chamber, the business and philanthropic communities and especially Mayor Ballard and his Deputy Mayors have been silent sphinxes on the issue of poverty, income and unemployment.
Bethlehem, Judea has nothing on Indianapolis, Ind. where on any given night hundreds sleep on the streets because they’re no room at the inn (shelters)!
How hypocritical is it for our mayor and Indy’s leaders to press for 4 year olds in poverty to attend a “quality” pre-school, when we have no sound emergency housing strategy to make sure that child with a Ballard preschool voucher has a roof over their head!
How sinful is it for a world-class city to allow a married (or any) family with a kid to roam homeless on our streets, with nowhere to call home?
Can you answer that Mr. Mayor?
What I’m Hearing in the Streets
Anyone who’s ever run a meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order knows when a motion to table is introduced, all debate and discussion ends until the vote to table is finished.
That’s what happened at a City-County Council committee meeting when the proposal to eliminate the local homestead property tax credit was tabled.
Republicans were angry and declared a jihad against Committee Chair Angela Mansfield. They enlisted Indianapolis Star columnist Matt Tully, who’s becoming increasingly unhinged on some issues while ignoring more crucial ones, to do their media dirty work.
The education reform group Stand for Children tried to convince Indy that scores of children and parents were denied the right to testify.
But the whole incident was manufactured. Debate wasn’t shut off because procedure was followed. Instead hysterical Republicans and columnist Tully manufactured a 2014 version of the “big lie” to try to gin up outrage for the mayor’s Pre-K proposal, which I believe Indianapolis is largely indifferent to or hostile against.
For the first time since the early 1990s’, there’s no African-American editor or manager employed at the Indianapolis Star.
In the Gannett paper’s recent reorganization, Leisa Richardson, an African-American with 30 years’ experience as a journalist, newspaper editor and manager, 10 with the Star, was reassigned to reporting duties.
It makes it increasingly difficult for our African-American community to regard Star editorial positions with credibility, when there’s no African-Americans left in the room when news judgment and business decisions by the newspaper are made.
See ‘ya next week!
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
