Support Gulf Coast Job Creation Bill!

Dear Friends,

December 10 is International Human Rights Day, the fifth International Human Rights Day since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. After five years, four regional disasters (Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike) and a new President, the United States government still has not taken the necessary steps to ensure the human rights of the survivors of our nation’s disasters.

As we look across the Gulf Coast we still see:

• Tens of thousands of Katrina survivors unable to realize their right to return home.
• Families living in toxic FEMA trailers struggling to find resources to rebuild their homes.
• Over 2 million residents of coastal Louisiana increasingly vulnerable to future disasters an internal displacement due to coastal land loss and climate change.
• Homelessness and rental housing costs rising while affordable housing projects grind to a halt with the crash of financial markets;
• Communities still without vital medical facilities.
• Many more survivors who can't find work at a living wage or training to finance their families' recovery and find their way out of poverty.

But we have a chance to let the Obama Administration know that such injustices must not continue in the United States of America.

Click here to support a plan to bring human rights home.

President Barack Obama launched an effort to reconsider how our country should respond to natural and man-made disasters. The President has tasked Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to lead a Long Term Disaster Recovery Working Group. But that working group hasn't included many grassroots leaders representing low income, minority, and immigrant communities-the most vulnerable victims of the storms-in its early consultations.

A growing movement of Katrina survivors, local elected officials and community, faith-based, and human rights organizations is continuing to push the Administration and Congress to stand up for human rights and enact innovative policies to equitably restore Gulf Coast communities. But we need your help.

President Obama pledged to fix what the Bush Administration left undone after Katrina. But we need to pressure him to make good on his promise. Let’s tell the Obama Administration that we will not let another Human Rights Day pass without meaningful steps to recognize the rights of disaster survivors along America’s Gulf Coast and across the nation.

Click here to send your message to the Obama Administration.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Buchanan
Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign
http://www.solvingpoverty.com/

PS The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is the national effort to pass HR 4048: The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, which would create 100,000 jobs for Gulf Coast residents and evacuees to rebuild their communities.

Ask Your Congress member to co-sponsor HR 4048: The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act

Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:36 AM