John Anthony<\/p>\n
Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has expanded its mandate to enforce these laws by labeling everything that is not equal, from the educational experience and housing, to the relative wealth of your residential zip code, as discriminatory.<\/p>\n
HUD, formed as part of President Johnson\u2019s \u201cGreat Society,\u201d has assumed the role of lifting the poor from poverty.\u00a0 A \u201cgreat\u201d cause perhaps, but one which the agency is ill-equipped to administer.<\/p>\n
HUD employs initiatives like \u201cMove to Opportunity\u201d and \u201csocio-economic diversity\u201d to pull low-income families out of poverty\u2026by moving them. \u00a0The theory goes that by living in more affluent areas, the success of the well-off will carry over to those who are struggling.<\/p>\n
Soon to be HUD Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson, in a 2015 op-ed, compared the Obama administration\u2019s efforts to the \u201cfailure of school busing.\u201d\u00a0 He is right.<\/p>\n
Relocating low-income families as if they were hair plugs in a federally funded transplant operation does not grow prosperity. \u00a0Just ask the families in East Palo Alto, California where students have been shipped into tony Silicon Valley for nearly a quarter century. \u00a0At best the results are mixed and decades later, classmates still hang out with their friends from the old neighborhood.<\/p>\n
HUD\u2019s upward mobility programs are bound to fail because they contain no mechanism for helping people build economic success.\u00a0 Rather than accept the fundamental truth that mental attitude and job opportunities are key to financial advancement, the agency instead uses its own circular logic. HUD concludes that financial lack is the result of discrimination; because discrimination prevents the poor from living where there is less financial lack. \u00a0\u00a0Hence their solution, move them \u201cto opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
HUD\u2019s anti-poverty approach is reminiscent of Mark Twain\u2019s old truism, \u201cTo a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.\u201d\u00a0 To HUD, armed with civil rights law, everything looks like discrimination.<\/p>\n
But communities are already beginning to eliminate poverty using faith based programs that help people get jobs and leave discrimination in the rearview window.<\/p>\n
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Pastor Jerome Smith is working with Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) to develop the Joseph Project<\/a>. Sen. Johnson, formerly a successful business owner, knows that good paying jobs are critical if people are to exit poverty.\u00a0 But, good jobs require solid training and emotional\u00a0fitness.<\/p>\n The Joseph Project teaches class members from low-income communities the fundamentals of communication, resume completion, and how to present themselves at the hiring interview.<\/p>\n Pastor Smith is a street-wise, high-energy, speaker who connects with students through his emotion-filled messages that include spiritualism, tough love and self-help.<\/p>\n Instructor Scott Bolstad ducks his head entering doorways. The big man hammers home the ABC\u2019s of landing that new job with gutsy straight talk and active role-playing that engages the students and brings them back ot class on time. \u00a0Scott expects no less.<\/p>\n By the end of a single week, the class is a team.\u00a0 The Joseph Project has a placement record that would be the envy of most professional job firms. As of this writing, 76% of graduates found better paying jobs than before taking the classes, and once hired, their retention rate is 70%.<\/p>\n I visited with Ron, Pastor and Scott in February. \u00a0We will be working together to help launch the Miss Mary Project in Chattanooga, TN.<\/p>\n