![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Since Sliced Bread drawing to a close--want to help?
Have a moment for an explanation? Here's your chance to help fund a new way of looking at getting the homeless back into safe housing.
Some of you know that I do web maintenance for the Universal Living Wage Campaign. I fell into it by chance, or maybe not--the chairman of the campaign, House the Homeless's Richard R. Troxell, has also become a massage therapist, and was taking the same CE class I was attending. He needed a web designer, I needed work--so I built him a text heavy, stripped down site that could be accessed by browsers no one thinks are still in use.
The thing about Richard is, you may think he's nutty on his topic, but he's walked the walk. He's won awards from the UN, from numerous humanitarian groups--he works for Legal Aid in Austin. He's the only person who ever got money out of then-Governor Bush for a social work project. Richard coordinated dozens of agencies doing myriad things to prepare someone to go back from homelessness into working society.
And then they hit the wall--if a community does not have enough safe, cheap housing for minimum wage workers, you cannot get those people off the street. Their money runs ahead of them, and they slip back into poverty. Hence the creation of the Universal Living Wage calculation.
Curious what it costs you per hour in earnings to have safe housing in your area? Check out the website. Several hundred people working at UT, for example, qualify for food stamps, because the living wage in Austin for a one-bedroom apartment is $14.37, and many jobs at UT pay less per hour.
I don't want to argue whether the idea is worth anything--I just think he deserves a hearing, too. He's done more than most to launch a real dialog on the topic. If you are curious, go click on the "Facts & Myths" button, or the "Reports & Stats" button. If done slowly over a period of years, we won't tank if we pay living wages, since it would be linked to HUD estimates and to the local economy, not a national dollar figure. (Did you know Australia pays a living wage, at least in the restaurant industry? Tipping is optional and for supreme service--and they'll often turn it down.)
But if you'd like to help ULW be discussed--if you'd like to see the idea get enough air play that legislators start discussing options for our working poor--well, I'll quote the web site:
Go to "www.sinceslicedbread.com/idea/3428. Find the line "open an account." Click on it. Enter your personal information. Then make a positive comment of one or two sentences in the comment space. Click on "submit." You can then scroll down and see that your comment has been instantly recorded. You will be identified by your first name and the 1st initial of your last name only. That's it!
There will be a first pass at reducing the number of ideas on January 9th. 21 finalists (out of 15,000) will be chosen on this date. We need to make a good impression, so click on the above link and tell people why you were attracted to the idea of a ULW. Pick your favorite article in our articles section, and suggest they read more (like why raising the wage in one fast food store in a suburb did not raise the price of food--competition kept prices the same or lower! Or point out that companies like Costco make money, and pay their employees a living wage, etc.)
If we make that important first cut, then it's time to vote again, only for the ULW! If we can make the top three (chosen from the final seven sometime in early February, 2006) we can share the $200,000 prize money--and you know how much we could use those funds! So please--tell your friends and co-workers! If you have never helped us before, this is your chance! Go to the site, give us a favorable comment, and put your email in for a reminder to vote!"
So--if you haven't been swept away already by another "Sliced Bread" idea, give the ULW your vote.
If nothing else, it will drive Dick Cheney nuts...
And thank you for your attention.
Some of you know that I do web maintenance for the Universal Living Wage Campaign. I fell into it by chance, or maybe not--the chairman of the campaign, House the Homeless's Richard R. Troxell, has also become a massage therapist, and was taking the same CE class I was attending. He needed a web designer, I needed work--so I built him a text heavy, stripped down site that could be accessed by browsers no one thinks are still in use.
The thing about Richard is, you may think he's nutty on his topic, but he's walked the walk. He's won awards from the UN, from numerous humanitarian groups--he works for Legal Aid in Austin. He's the only person who ever got money out of then-Governor Bush for a social work project. Richard coordinated dozens of agencies doing myriad things to prepare someone to go back from homelessness into working society.
And then they hit the wall--if a community does not have enough safe, cheap housing for minimum wage workers, you cannot get those people off the street. Their money runs ahead of them, and they slip back into poverty. Hence the creation of the Universal Living Wage calculation.
Curious what it costs you per hour in earnings to have safe housing in your area? Check out the website. Several hundred people working at UT, for example, qualify for food stamps, because the living wage in Austin for a one-bedroom apartment is $14.37, and many jobs at UT pay less per hour.
I don't want to argue whether the idea is worth anything--I just think he deserves a hearing, too. He's done more than most to launch a real dialog on the topic. If you are curious, go click on the "Facts & Myths" button, or the "Reports & Stats" button. If done slowly over a period of years, we won't tank if we pay living wages, since it would be linked to HUD estimates and to the local economy, not a national dollar figure. (Did you know Australia pays a living wage, at least in the restaurant industry? Tipping is optional and for supreme service--and they'll often turn it down.)
But if you'd like to help ULW be discussed--if you'd like to see the idea get enough air play that legislators start discussing options for our working poor--well, I'll quote the web site:
Go to "www.sinceslicedbread.com/idea/3428. Find the line "open an account." Click on it. Enter your personal information. Then make a positive comment of one or two sentences in the comment space. Click on "submit." You can then scroll down and see that your comment has been instantly recorded. You will be identified by your first name and the 1st initial of your last name only. That's it!
There will be a first pass at reducing the number of ideas on January 9th. 21 finalists (out of 15,000) will be chosen on this date. We need to make a good impression, so click on the above link and tell people why you were attracted to the idea of a ULW. Pick your favorite article in our articles section, and suggest they read more (like why raising the wage in one fast food store in a suburb did not raise the price of food--competition kept prices the same or lower! Or point out that companies like Costco make money, and pay their employees a living wage, etc.)
If we make that important first cut, then it's time to vote again, only for the ULW! If we can make the top three (chosen from the final seven sometime in early February, 2006) we can share the $200,000 prize money--and you know how much we could use those funds! So please--tell your friends and co-workers! If you have never helped us before, this is your chance! Go to the site, give us a favorable comment, and put your email in for a reminder to vote!"
So--if you haven't been swept away already by another "Sliced Bread" idea, give the ULW your vote.
If nothing else, it will drive Dick Cheney nuts...
And thank you for your attention.