Resisting Displacement in the Southwest Bronx: Lessons from CASA's Tenant Organizing

CASA is proud to present our new white paper, Resisting Displacement: Lessons from CASA's Tenant Organizing in the Southwest Bronx!In the last year, CASA has organized or provided technical assistance to over 90 buildings, which are home to more than 7,000 families. In the last year alone, over 4,000 tenants have actively engaged in CASA's work. Our new white paper shares lessons in tenant organizing, explores the forces of displacement that we are up against, and solutions for fighting displacement in the context of an impending rezoning.This is a critical moment for the Southwest Bronx. A potential rezoning is imminent, and could have devastating impacts on low-income tenants of color, their communities, and the state of affordable housing. CASA has drawn on our organizing experience, coalition work, previous research and the experiences of the tenants we work with to draft this white paper.In the report we:Present a clear and accurate definition of displacement and counter the false assertion that most tenants leave neighborhoods by choice;Explain the tactics that landlords already use to exert displacement pressures on low-income tenants of color;Emphasize the risk of increased displacement posed by rezoning, and in particular the Jerome Avenue rezoning, when new housing is not genuinely affordable and there are insufficient protections against displacement;Offer solutions that would protect tenants from displacement, allow them to remain in their homes, and preserve their communities

Power, Pathological Worldviews, and the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

This article takes up Blundo’s (2001) assertion in this journal that in order to practice from the strengths perspective, social workers need to alter their “frames.” Expanding on this assertion, we specify a particular frame that requires change: a pathological worldview. Examining the strengths perspective with regard to a Foucauldian analysis of power, we argue that to thoroughly implement the strengths perspective, we need to consider the dividing practices that allow us to maintain power and that reflect a pathological worldview. This article provides considerations for social work practice that will be of interest to practicing social workers and social work educators interested in continuing to develop their strengths-based practice

After the Rain – learning the lessons from flood recovery in Hull

The report shows that it is often not so much the floods themselves, but what comes afterwards, that people find so difficult to deal with. The research on which this report is based aimed to undertake a real-time longitudinal study to document and understand the everyday experiences of individuals following the floods of June 2007 in interaction with networks of actors and organisations, strategies of institutional support and investment in the built environment and infrastructure. It had the following objectives: - To identify and document key dimensions of the longer term experience of flood impact and flood recovery, including health, economic and social aspects. - To examine how resilience and vulnerability were manifest in the interaction between everyday strategies of adaptation during the flood recovery process, and modes of institutional support and the management of infrastructure and the built environment. -To explore to what extent the recovery process entailed the development of new forms of resilience and to identify the implications for developing local level resilience for flood recovery in the future. To develop an archive that will be accessible for future research into other aspects of flood recovery. The flooding which affected the city of Kingston-upon-Hull took place in June 2007. Over 110mm of rain fell during the biggest event, overwhelming the city‟s drainage system and resulting in widespread pluvial flooding. The floods affected over 8,600 households and one person was killed. Our research used in-depth, qualitative methods where 44 people kept weekly diaries and participated in interviews and group discussions over an 18-month period

The World at our Doorstep

The Onondaga Citizens League studied the issues of refugee resettlement in Central New York. The purposes of the study were to first develop a clearer picture and understanding of the refugee dynamic in Onondaga County -- the needs, the service continuum and the opportunities new refugee populations offe and then to recommend programming and policies to help it be a more welcoming community. The lessons learned crossed sectors from literacy to public safety, and offer information both in process and potential.The community has a long history of welcoming people from around the world and has seen an increase in New Americans in the last four to five years, as global unrest has grown. The higher numbers, coinciding as they did with an economic downturn that hurt all residents of the community, made the refugee presence more noticeable and for some, more problematic. Underlying the study was an unspoken question -- does Onondaga County have the resources and the willingness to welcome this population in a way that helps them without negatively affecting others with human service needs? The actions recommended might be targeted towards helping this new population, but were built on the premise that by helping them, Onondaga County (and other communities) help themselves

POVERTY LAWGORITHMS A Poverty Lawyer’s Guide to Fighting Automated Decision-Making Harms on Low-Income Communities

Automated decision-making systems make decisions about our lives, and those with low-socioeconomic status often bear the brunt of the harms these systems cause. Poverty Lawgorithms: A Poverty Lawyers Guide to Fighting Automated Decision-Making Harms on Low-Income Communities is a guide by Data & Society Faculty Fellow Michele Gilman to familiarize fellow poverty and civil legal services lawyers with the ins and outs of data-centric and automated-decision making systems, so that they can clearly understand the sources of the problems their clients are facing and effectively advocate on their behalf