FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 25, 2019

Clean Energy Group and Catalyst Miami explore the obstacles and opportunities for deploying solar and battery storage at critical community facilities in Miami  

Miami, FL – Solar and battery storage technologies that provide clean, reliable backup power are cost-effective for many critical community facilities in Miami, according to a new report released today by Clean Energy Group in partnership with Catalyst Miami. The report, “Resilient Southeast - Miami: Exploring Opportunities for Solar+Storage in Miami, FL,” is one in a series that details a first-of-its-kind economic analysis for solar PV and battery storage (solar+storage) in the Southeast. When the economic value of resilience is accounted for, solar+storage was proven to be a positive investment for all building types in Miami, though obstacles remain before widespread adoption of the technologies will be feasible.

“Resilient Southeast - Miami” explores the case for solar+storage to keep critical services powered at four community building types in Miami – a school, a nursing home, a fire station, and a multifamily housing property. The report evaluates the opportunity for solar+storage to serve as a clean, onsite energy source that can keep communities safe more reliably and, in many cases, more affordably than traditional backup power methods such as diesel generators. Beyond providing emergency backup power during grid outages, solar+storage systems can provide benefits throughout the year, including significant electric bill savings and valuable grid services.

"Frontline communities most impacted by severe weather and power outages have historically been left behind in the clean energy transition,” said Zelalem Adefris, resilience director at Catalyst Miami. “With solar+storage, we can change that narrative by accomplishing three goals at once: keeping our most vulnerable residents safe, saving low-income communities money, and reducing harmful emissions."

“This report marks the first time that solar paired with storage has been assessed to determine the value it can bring to Miami communities,” said Seth Mullendore, vice president and project director of Clean Energy Group. “It clearly shows that this innovative technology combination can bring real benefits to populations that have been hit so hard by severe weather and widespread outages in recent years.”

“Miami has a history of destructive hurricanes, like Hurricane Irma in 2017 which left over 800,000 residents and businesses without power in Miami-Dade alone,” said Marriele Robinson, a program associate at Clean Energy Group. “As natural disasters like Irma increase in frequency and intensity, we need to equip community institutions with resilient backup power so that they can continue to provide services to Miami’s most vulnerable residents, such as senior citizens and low-income households, during an outage.”

Based on detailed economic modeling, solar alone, without storage, was found to be a positive investment for a secondary school and a nursing home Miami. While solar paired with storage, which can be configured to provide resilient backup power during outages, was not found to be an economical option based on bill savings alone, factoring in savings due to avoided power outage costs resulted in positive economics for all building types evaluated.

In comparison to the other Southeastern cities evaluated – Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC; New Orleans, LA; and Wilmington, NC – Miami ranked fourth overall based on the economic opportunity for solar+storage development. The report highlights significant challenges and barriers that must be addressed for these types of resilient power systems to be more economic and widely adopted. Key barriers to customer-sited solar+storage deployment in Miami include a lack of supportive policies, relatively low electricity rates, and limited customer-sited market growth.

To address existing barriers, the report presents potential near-term opportunities for policy and regulatory changes that could advance solar+storage development in Miami and concludes with a set of recommendations.

“Resilient Southeast - Miami: Exploring Opportunities for Solar+Storage in Miami, FL” is available on Clean Energy Group’s website at https://www.cleanegroup.org/ceg-resources/resource/resilient-southeast/.

Clean Energy Group will be hosting a webinar on the Resilient Southeast report series with report authors Seth Mullendore and Marriele Robinson and guest speakers from regional partner organizations. The webinar will take place on Thursday, May 16 at 1pm ET. This webinar is free and open to the public. Read more and register at https://www.cleanegroup.org/webinar/resilient-southeast/.

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About Catalyst Miami

Catalyst Miami believes everyone deserves a healthy and financially secure life; currently, two in three families in Miami don’t have enough savings to weather a financial emergency of any kind. For over 20 years, Catalyst Miami has committed to empowering residents to build better futures by providing family economic security programs, developing leadership and civic engagement, and building coalitions to address poverty. More detailed information about all their programs can be found on their website: https://catalystmiami.org/.

About Clean Energy Group

Clean Energy Group is a leading national, nonprofit advocacy organization working on innovative technology, finance, and policy programs in the areas of clean energy and climate change. Clean Energy Group also manages the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), a coalition of state and municipal clean energy funds. The Resilient Power Project, a joint initiative of Clean Energy Group and Meridian Institute, is designed to help states and municipalities with program and policy information, analysis, financial tools, technical assistance, and best practices to speed the deployment of clean, resilient power systems in their communities. For more information, visit www.cleanegroup.org and www.resilient-power.org.

CONTACT:

Molly Delahunty
Development Director
Catalyst Miami
Phone: 786-414-1292
[email protected]

Samantha Donalds
Communications Coordinator
Clean Energy Group
Phone: 802-223-2554 x204
[email protected]

April 22, 2019
By Arian Campo-Florida and Laura Kusisto
By The Wall Street Journal

Rising sea levels are driving gentrification, causing longtime residents to worry about affordability and displacement

MIAMI—The Little Haiti neighborhood has never held much appeal to real-estate developers. Its inland location is flanked by railroad tracks and an interstate highway. It has long been home to working-class Haitian and other immigrants and mom-and-pop shops that cater to them.

Now, due in part to the area’s higher elevation in a city vulnerable to rising sea-levels, more property firms are flocking to Little Haiti. Investors are scooping up homes and industrial lots. Others are building office towers, trendy restaurants and hotels.

The new development has helped boost home prices in much of Little Haiti by 7% over the past year, nearly double the rate of Miami overall, according to CoreLogic Inc.

But longtime residents are worried they could become displaced as part of a gentrification wave that has already forced some out.

Higher Ground

Prices have risen in neighborhoods with higher elevations, such as Little Haiti.

[caption id="attachment_9135" align="alignnone" width="628"] Source: FEMA (floodplain); CoreLogic (home-index-price)[/caption]

“Every day, we are seeing the impact,” said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, an advocacy group in the neighborhood.

Residents in other low-income, higher-elevation Miami neighborhoods, such as Liberty City, Overtown and Allapattah, are worried that new development could make their neighborhoods more expensive, too. They also lie on a ridge that stretches from northern Miami-Dade County to the Florida Keys. Little Haiti sits at roughly double the elevation of affluent coastal areas like Miami Beach, which on average is 4 feet above sea level.

“With climate change a factor, that’s a multiplier to market forces already at play,” said Samuel Diller, executive director of the Haitian American Community Development Corp., which has teamed up with other organizations to create more affordable housing in the area.

The migration shows how rising sea levels are beginning to play a role in redrawing the residential map in South Florida, as some of those with means retreat from the seaside to the perceived safety of higher ground.

Easter Mass at the Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic Church in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood on Sunday.

 

In November, Miami commissioners passed a resolution directing the city manager to research “gentrification that is accelerated by climate change” and to examine ways to stabilize property tax rates to allow people in affected areas to continue living there.

“As people move inland, we want to make sure there aren’t waves of displacement,” said Gretchen Beesing, chief executive of Catalyst Miami, which focuses on poverty and climate issues.

Jesse Keenan, a Harvard University professor cited in the resolution, released research last year showing that housing prices in Miami are beginning to increase more slowly near sea level than at higher elevations. He predicts the trend will accelerate as more people flee coastal hazards like nuisance flooding and rising insurance premiums.

Eugenie Noël, a Little Haiti resident for nearly three decades, lives with her four sons, aged 18 to 26 years old, in a two-bedroom apartment where they pay $850 a month in rent. She said the landlord has warned he may raise it to keep pace with the market.

“The neighborhood is changing,” said Ms. Noël, a 58-year-old housekeeper. “It is becoming very expensive for people like me to afford it.”

‘Every day, we are seeing the impact,’ said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, of gentrification.

 

On one street, strip malls that once housed restaurants, a tax-service business and tuxedo shop are being remade as sleek storefronts. Nearby, The Citadel, a complex featuring an upscale food hall and cocktail bar, recently opened.

Farther south, developers of the planned Eastside Ridge project are seeking city approval to replace an apartment complex with a large mixed-use development that has some 3,000 rental units, office space and a hotel.

Up the street, another team is proposing the Magic City Innovation District, which would convert 18 acres of industrial or vacant property into a campus with residential, office and retail components as well as cultural offerings overseen in part by Guy Laliberté, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil.

The developers have said in presentation materials regarding the city’s resiliency strategy that the site would be “an anchor for sustainable development given its location on a ridge providing resiliency to sea-level rise.”

A bar inside the Citadel, a newly opened food hall just north of the center of Little Haiti. Miami is studying ways to deal with gentrification ‘accelerated by climate change.’

Representatives for both projects say developers aim to preserve Little Haiti’s cultural heritage and together will contribute tens of millions of dollars to a fund designed to provide more affordable housing.

Local organizations are also pursuing an initiative to create more housing options. Known as a community land trust and used for years in cities like New York and Cleveland, it is a nonprofit that buys up land to build housing that is leased to low-income residents at below-market rates.

A partnership among the Haitian American Community Development Corp., the South Florida Community Land Trust and Citi Community Development, which is affiliated with Citigroup Inc., is building a 13-townhouse project in the heart of Little Haiti. The partners held community gatherings to elicit input from residents on what features they wanted in the homes, such as open kitchens and gardens to grow vegetables.

Appeared in the April 23, 2019, print edition as 'Miami Enclave’s Higher Ground Gains Allure, but Residents Worry.'

—–

This article was posted by The Wall Street Journal.

COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED:
Struggling Workers and Families Deserve Food
Tell the Trump Administration: Hands Off SNAP!
It’s quick and easy - Leave a Comment by Wednesday, April 10th

Procrastinators: You're in luck! If you didn't leave a comment by the deadline this week, the submission period has been extended. You can still comment by Wednesday, April 10th. 

Food assistance is under attack—again. And we need your voice to fight back.

If the Trump Administration has its way, 755,000 very poor people could lose nutrition benefits through SNAP (formerly known as food stamps). These are working-age people without dependents who receive benefits because they live in places with very high unemployment. Thanks to waivers requested by state governments, these people are exempt from the standard time limit of three months of assistance every three years if they cannot document enough work hours. This exemption means people who can’t work enough through no fault of their own still get enough to eat.

But the Trump Administration has been fighting to make it harder for states to give struggling workers a break. Right now, they’re trying to force rigid time limits through a rule change—but they cannot implement their proposed rule without first taking into account public comments about the proposal.

Public feedback works. That’s why we need your help. The government has to take every unique comment under consideration when assessing a rule change like this; the more comments, the more roadblocks to slow or stop harmful changes. Furthermore, judges deciding cases challenging these kinds of rule changes have referred to these comments in their own rulings. It might feel like leaving a comment won’t make a difference. But judges have overturned unfair rules like this in part because federal agencies didn’t take comments into consideration. This was evidence that the process behind making these changes was unfair. (You can read about such an instance involving Medicaid here.)

That’s why your voice is so important.

Here’s how to comment:

The Coalition on Human Needs’ member the Center for American Progress has a comment portal that makes it easy to send a comment. Use the comment in this platform and then add your own take to make it unique. You can talk about how everyone deserves to be free from hunger; you can tell a personal story about how benefits like SNAP have positively impacted you or someone you know; or write about any other reason that resonates for you personally.

(Note: Please make sure your comment is unique: “unique” is understood to mean that about 30 percent of the comment’s text is different from other submissions.)

Use the Center for American Progress comment platform at handsoffsnap.org

Let’s get to commenting!

--

This call to action was originally published by the Coalition on Human Needs.

For Immediate Release: March 22, 2019
Contact: Molly Delahunty
786-414-1292
[email protected]

WHAT:            Catalyst Miami and Miami-Dade Oral Health Network Partners to host the 4th Annual Oral Health Equity Summit on March 29, 2019. We invite members of the community to examine the current state of oral health in terms of health equity in our County, and to share and receive information regarding existing programs and policy initiatives to increase access and equity in oral care.

WHO:             Catalyst Miami and members of the Miami Dade Oral Health Network, in partnership with the City of Miami Gardens and the Live Healthy initiative.

Speakers include:

• • • Chelsie Purcell, M.P.H., Jessie Trice Community Center
    • Adriana Torres, M.S., FIU Neighborhood HELP program
    • Norma Subadan, Community Health of South Florida, Inc.
    • Maybell Perez, University of Florida Hialeah Dental Center
    • Audrey P. Miller, PhD, MSN Ed, APRN, PPCNP-BC, FIU Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences
    • Claudia A. Serna, PhD, DDS, MPH, MCHES, CPH, NOVA Southeastern University - Dr. Kiran C. Patel of Osteopathic Medicine
    • Miriam Harmatz, J.D., Florida Health Justice Project, Inc.
    • Zelalem Adefris, M.P.H., Catalyst Miami
    • Kristin Palbicke Garces, M.P.H., Florida Institute for Health Innovation

WHEN:           Friday, March 29, 2019, 3:30 - 6:30pm

WHERE:       Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex (3000 NW 199th Street, Miami Gardens, FL 33056)

WHY: To improve awareness that oral health is critical to overall health. The summit’s goals are to:

• • • Examine the intersectionality of oral health, social justice, and community advocacy
    • Identify available resources for comprehensive oral health programs in our communities
    • Develop strategies that yield policy and systems change to address existing disparities and inequalities in oral health

According to the U.S. News and World Report (2019) Florida ranks 48 out of 50 states in terms of overall healthcare access. Children and adolescents from low-income families have approximately two times or greater the rates of tooth decay than children from higher-income families. Other specific groups also lack access to proper oral healthcare coverage, including seniors, people with disabilities, and Medicaid and CHIP recipients, due to a shortage of dental care providers who accept public insurance plans.

Admission for the summit is free. Refreshments and childcare provided. Registration and more info can be found at bit.ly/ohesummit.

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About MDOHN
The Miami-Dade Oral Health Network (MDOHN) is a community centered grassroots initiative committed to improving oral health through education, assessment, policy/program development, and collaboration. MDOHN promotes cooperation, communication, and concerted action among community residents and organizations dedicated to eliminating oral health disparities.

About Catalyst Miami
Catalyst Miami believes everyone deserves a healthy and financially secure life; currently, two in three families in Miami don’t have enough savings to weather a financial emergency of any kind. For over 20 years, Catalyst Miami has committed to empowering residents to build better futures by providing family economic security programs, developing leadership and civic engagement, and building coalitions to address poverty. More detailed information about all their programs can be found on their website (catalystmiami.org).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2019

CONTACT
France Françoise
[email protected]

Lawmakers File Comprehensive Affordable Housing Agenda

Emphasizing renters rights and need for affordable housing, community organizations across Florida unite behind a housing agenda never seen before in the Florida Legislature

Tallahassee, FL - Joining forces with community organizations across the state, lawmakers have introduced a comprehensive legislative agenda to address Florida’s acute affordable housing crisis. In addition to repeated calls over the past eleven years that the Florida Legislature stop stealing dollars from the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund, lawmakers and housing advocates are uniting behind renters rights and rent control, and a call to not only stop the Trust Fund sweeps, but that the nearly $2 billion stolen from Floridians in desperate need of housing be reimbursed.

This package includes a comprehensive renters rights proposal filed by Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Miami-Dade) and Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orange), SB 1794/HB 1283. This legislation empowers tenants with basic rights necessary to combat predatory landlords taking advantage of a worsening displacement and affordability crisis. Among a long list of reforms, SB 1794/HB 1283 includes:

• Just cause eviction, protecting tenants from eviction for an improper reason by allow evictions only for specific reasons, such as failure to pay rent or for violation of the lease terms.
• A “right to first refusal” policy to require any housing unit to be offered to existing tenants first, before being sold or re-rented on the private market.
• If a landlord fails to return a deposit, the tenant shall be awarded damages in an amount equal to three times that amount.
• Requires leases to be provided the in the preferred language of the tenant.
• A moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during a state of emergency, such as a natural disaster.
• Requires that application fees be refunded in the case of no available units, and that landlords may not charge an excessive rental application fee.
• Requires 30 days notice of rent increase from the lease renewal period. If the rent increase is over 5%, the notice period must be extended from 30 days to three months.
• Protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, or stalking.
• Prohibits discrimination of renters based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Florida is in the midst of a housing emergency that is threatening the health and well-being of millions of renters. Florida is one of the least affordable states in the US, having the highest rate of cost burdened renters in the nation. The majority of Florida’s renter households are rent burdened with 1.8 million Florida households unable to afford their rent, including over 715,000 renter households who are paying over 50% of their income on housing.

Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez offered the following statement:

“Our landlord-tenant laws have been out of balance for a long time, tipping the balance in favor of landlords. Especially at a time when affordable housing is at a crisis point in our state, we need to make sure tenants are protected as they spend more and more simply to keep a roof over their head.”

Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith offered the following statement:

“I have seen first hand the exploitation of Hurricane Maria evacuees by predatory landlords in our area: unjust evictions, stolen application fees and deposits, and zero housing security during times of crisis. Our working families cannot thrive without reliable and affordable housing; I’m proud to partner with Senator Rodriguez on this groundbreaking vision for Florida’s renters.”

In addition to comprehensive renters rights, advocates are rallying behind Sen. Victor Torres (D-Osceola) and Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orange) introduced SB 1390/HB 6053, repealing Florida’s onerous rent control preemption statute. Rent control has been embraced across the country, and according to a new report released by PolicyLink, Right To The City Alliance and the Center for Popular Democracy, “Our Homes Our Future,” 42 million renter households would have their housing situations stabilized if rent control were adopted across the country. This legislation would provide local leaders a cost-effective solution that to stabilize communities and protect families. Advocates also support

Additional bills that will address Florida’s housing state of emergency include SB 1504/HB 353 by Sen. Berman and Rep. Polsky, which would prevent sweeps and require payback of the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund; as well as SB 70/HB 1103 by Sen. Mayfield and Rep. Plasencia, and SB1248/HB 153 by Sen. Torres & Rep. Cortes.

Community organizations and renters across the state help to craft and support this groundbreaking platform, including Community Justice Project, Manufactured Housing Action (MHAction), Miami Workers Center, Organize Florida, Vamos4PR Action, and Faith in Florida. Below find quotes from these key partners:

Maria Revelles, Faith in Florida:

“As leaders of many faith communities in The State of Florida, Faith in Florida advocates for comprehensive legislation that protect our most vulnerable and influence policies related to homelessness and poverty. We want to raise the voice of communities of faith and conscience, a voice that hopefully will resonate deeply with people who understand the difference between right and wrong, and basic human decency. We support practical solutions, like those included in the proposed legislation because we consider the formal recognition of renters rights and a pathway to homeownership as key solutions to addressing the affordable housing crisis that our communities are enduring. We will persevere in this commitment until all our neighbors in Florida, dwell in dignity.”

Sheena Johnson, Organize Florida:

“The lack of renters protections and landlord accountability in FL has created severe habitability issues in our communities contributing to public health and safety concerns for women and families. We are proud to stand with renters and lawmakers across the state to put forth these groundbreaking policy proposals” said Sheena Johnson, Campaigns Director, Organize Florida

Trenise Bryant, Miami Workers Center:

“The rent in Miami is not livable. Residence should not have to choose between paying rent, feeding their families,” says Trenise Bryant, Organizer for Miami Workers Center. “Rent control, for many residences could make a difference! In one year, my rent has been raised by $200. Affordable Housing Is A Human Right.”

Margia Mathers, manufactured home resident in North Fort Myers, FL and member of MHAction:

"As manufactured homeowners, we rent the land under our homes from corporate owners, who are squeezing us for every dollar, just like other landlords. We need this law to protect manufactured home residents and renters across the state from homelessness.”

Javier Figueroa, Vamos4PR Action:

“As a tenant and community leader with Vamos4PR Action, I have seen and experienced difficulty accessing affordable housing that many people in our community face because of unjust practices by landlords, including high renits and demands for high salaries, non-refundable application fees and lack of information in Spanish about tenants’ rights,” said Javier Figueroa, who arrived in Orlando in 2017 from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. “Without better protections for tenants like those in the proposed Tenant Bill of Rights, our families will continue to face barriers that will prevent them from thriving. “

Alana Greer, Community Justice Project, a member of the Right to the City Alliance:

“The current state of landlord tenant law puts Florida among the least hospitable states to renters. This bill is a vital step forward towards fair dealing, common sense protections, stable and safe homes for Floridians.”

Charlotte Davis, renter and advocate in Orlando:

“There is a housing crisis in Orange County that needs to be addressed,” said Charlotte Davis, a renter who lives in Orlando. Davis was evicted from her apartment last year when her landlord raised her rent then refused to accept payment. “I was never offered a lease (to sign) and when (our landlord) wanted us out, we had to get out. We had no rights and we were taken advantage of. Our community needs rent control policies so we don't have to live this way.”

Katie Goldstein, Center for Popular Democracy:

“In communities across the country, people are rising up to demand rent control and tenant protections. Communities of color are most rent-burdened and are having to make the impossible decision between paying for health care, food, transportation and rent. Rent control policies are the protections that our communities need so that we can have the freedom to thrive without fear of exorbitant rent increases or eviction.”

Debbie Soto, Organize Florida (Board Chair):

“The housing crisis has mushroomed to the point that communities of color are one paycheck from being homeless and one major rent increase from being homeless. And because communities of color, as well as low-income communities, are more likely to be renters, we need better policies to protect them.”

Maria Revelles, Faith in Florida:

“As leaders of many faith communities in The State of Florida, Faith in Florida advocates for comprehensive legislation that protect our most vulnerable and influence policies related to homelessness and poverty. We want to raise the voice of communities of faith and conscience, a voice that hopefully will resonate deeply with people who understand the difference between right and wrong, and basic human decency. We support practical solutions, like those included in the proposed legislation because we consider the formal recognition of renters rights and a pathway to homeownership as key solutions to addressing the affordable housing crisis that our communities are enduring. We will persevere in this commitment until all our neighbors in Florida, dwell in dignity.”

According to a 2018 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, only 17 rental units are available for every 100 extremely low-income renters in the In the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area; and only 22 in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach region. The lack of affordable housing stock is compounded in Central Florida by rising rents- Orlando boasts one the highest rising rents in the nation with a one-bedroom apartment renting for $1,100.

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March 6, 2019

Health equity is achieved when everyone, regardless of race, neighborhood, or financial status, has a fair and just opportunity for health — physical, mental, economic, and social well-being. Attaining this goal means working not only within the health-care system, but across the many systems and institutions that affect how families live, work, learn, and play.

Cultural narratives are powerful, often underutilized tools for promoting policy change. Especially today, when fear, anger, and xenophobia have taken root in the public discourse — the story of who we are and what we value as a nation has never been more important.

Narrative change and systems change are at the core of the Ambassadors for Health Equity fellowship program, a joint venture of PolicyLink and FSG that is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The ambassadors are selected from a wide range of for-profit, nonprofit, and cultural fields. Throughout their fellowship year, they will learn about a Culture of Health, how health is more than health care, and how to share what they learn with others in their fields and beyond. They will also forge alliances among themselves as they collaborate to promote health equity.

The Ambassadors for Health Equity Fellowship

2016-2017: The first Ambassadors for Health Equity cohort included 13 national leaders who began meeting in 2016. They met over the course of 12 months, through five in-person convenings and several virtual sessions to consider how to foster and encourage environments where everyone has the opportunity for the best possible health and well-being.

2019-2020: The second cohort of Ambassadors for Health Equity includes 23 fellows whose tenure began in February 2019 and will continue through February 2020. The program is again conducted in partnership with FSG, and generously supported by RWJF, whose vision for a national Culture of Health drives the initiative.

These twenty-three leaders from nonprofit organizations, private sector, arts, and philanthropy have been selected to take part in the year-long program to embolden them to share ideas and experiences, forge new alliances, generate new solutions, and promote a Culture of Health within their own work and across networks. The fellowship experience will be guided by three health equity experts and two program alumni, who will provide mentorship, strategic direction, and curriculum content for the program.

Through in-person meetings, a series of webinars, and online support, the ambassadors will:

∙ Gain a comprehensive understanding of the intersections of their work with health equity and be able to make the case for how that work contributes to desired outcomes for population health;
∙ Learn new frameworks and approaches to seek allies, partners, and even investors across systems or issues not normally engaged;
∙ Build a network with other system-level leaders across issue areas to exchange best practices, lessons, and tools, to take action in new ways that create win-win benefits.

Meet the new Ambassadors for Health Equity:

Dorian O. Burton
Dwayne Marsh
Gretchen Beesing

Gretchen Beesing, CEO, Catalyst Miami

Gretchen Beesing is the chief executive officer of Catalyst Miami. Beesing joined Catalyst in 2007, directing civic leadership and advocacy programs for more than five years, before becoming CEO in 2013. During her time at Catalyst, Beesing has integrated the organization’s services into an effective and empowering financial coaching platform that offers asset-building strategies at each stage of a client’s journey to prosperity. She effectively transitioned Catalyst from a financial literacy provider to a financial capability thought leader, engaging in many national partnerships and demonstration products, including Mission Asset Fund’s Lending Circles. Other accomplishments include conceiving and piloting the Miami Thrives executive leadership program for community development practitioners, the first of its kind in South Florida. Under Beesing's leadership, Catalyst hosted Miami’s first Poverty Solutions Summit, attended by more than 300 service providers, activists, and Miami-Dade County officials.

Beesing serves as chair of the Board of Directors for the South Florida Community Development Coalition. She participates in JPMorgan Chase’s Community Advisory Board (Florida), the Florida Policy Institute’s Community Advisory Board, Resilient 305 Steering Committee, and other advisory boards. Beesing was a 2015 American Express NGen Fellow and is an alumnus of the Federal Reserve Board’s Community Leaders Forum. She is a licensed clinical social worker with degrees from New York University and Kalamazoo College.

Experts

Ana Garcia-Ashley
Mindy Fullilove
Otho E Kerr III
Shireen Malekafzali
Victor Rubin

——

The fellowship will support our organization to infuse our work with a health equity lens, and examine how we can better contribute to systems change.

Originally posted on Policy Link.org.

March 1, 2019
From The South Florida Roundup on WLRN

The audio clip below includes Friday, March, 1st's full 1-hour radio show, The South Florida Roundup, on WLRN Radio.

The first half of the program featured guests including Catalyst Miami CEO Gretchen Beesing to discuss the recently released Color of Wealth in Miami Report.

[audio mp3="https://catalyst-miami.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/The-South-Florida-Roundup-02-19-2019.mp3"][/audio]

Read the full Color of Wealth in Miami report here.

In Miami, your skin color is a better predictor of wealth than where your ancestors came from

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="720"] According to the study, most nonwhite groups in Miami did not have enough savings to withstand an unexpected hardship such as a Hurricane Irma, which hit during September 2017. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)[/caption]

February 27, 2019
By Tracy Jan
From the Washington Post

Race appears to trump ethnicity when it come to predicting wealth, according to a new report examining the economic disparities among Miami’s diverse population.

The report, released this week by Ohio State University, Duke University and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, compared the economic positions of nonimmigrant black people in the United States and those with ties to Puerto Rico, Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America with white people and Latinos who identified as white or other on census forms.

Among the most provocative findings: Identifying as black or white was a bigger factor than ancestry or ethnicity in determining employment, income and homeownership, said Darrick Hamilton, an economist who co-authored the report and leads the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State.

Descendants of black Americans, Afro-Caribbeans — primarily Haitians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians and Tobagonians — and black Latinos were more economically similar than Latinos of various ancestry who identified as white, the researchers found.

The median wealth for U.S. black households was $3,700, compared with $12,000 for black Caribbean households and $107,000 for white households, the study found.

Latinos who identified as white generally have higher household incomes and homeownership rates and lower unemployment rates than those of black Latinos, the study found.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="720"] (Tracy Jan/Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity)[/caption]

More than 17 percent of black Colombians were unemployed, compared with just over 6 percent of white Colombians. Among Cubans, 11 percent of blacks were unemployed, compared with nearly 7 percent of whites.

The researchers combined their own survey data in Greater Miami with data from the U.S. Census Bureau between 2013 and 2015 to conduct their analysis.

The median household income for black Cubans was $22,900, compared with $38,000 for white Cubans. But that racial wealth gap narrows significantly for Colombians, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. Hamilton said that could be because some Latinos of color may more readily identify as white.

Cubans and Colombians who identified as white also had higher rates of homeownership, 53 and 49 percent, respectively, than black Cubans and Colombians who had homeownership rates of 23 and 29 percent, the report said.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="720"] (Tracy Jan/Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity)[/caption]

“It’s controversial, but important,” Hamilton said. “It dispels some of these myths about cultural efficacy and addresses the need to deal with social structures that still put a high reward on whiteness at the expense of blackness.”

Instead, black Caribbean and Latino communities encountered discrimination similar to that of African Americans. Miami’s tourist economy has long relied on poorly paid African American and Afro-Caribbean labor, the report noted. The violence of the Jim Crow era morphed into racist zoning laws and land expropriation through eminent domain, researchers wrote. In the 1960s, the government built an interstate through the economic heart of the black community in the Overtown neighborhood, seizing black properties and displacing tens of thousands of black Americans, Bahamians and other black residents.

Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy who was not involved with the study, said the report provides “yet another piece of evidence showing the enduring impact of racism in this country.”

Its findings are “consistent with the history of slavery, Jim Crow and other discriminatory policies which explicitly robbed black people in particular of wealth and economic self-sufficiency for generations,” Wilson said.

Researchers also found that most nonwhite groups did not have enough savings to withstand an unexpected hardship such as a hurricane or other life emergency. Black Americans in Miami had a median of $11 in savings. That figure is $200 for Puerto Ricans, $2,000 for Afro-Caribbeans and South Americans, and $3,200 for Cubans. White households had median savings of $10,750.

That is particularly alarming in Miami, where researchers said the impact of climate change exacerbates the wealth disparity.

The report noted that real estate speculators in Miami are increasingly interested in redeveloping black and Latino neighborhoods, which tend to be located on higher ground, as the region becomes more vulnerable to flooding as a result of climate change.

“A new wave of gentrification that America needs to be concerned about is climate gentrification,” Hamilton said. “That means a displacement of people from resilient neighborhoods to those that are more vulnerable. Once again, communities of color, as a result of their economic circumstance and limited political power, will bear the greatest blunt of climate change.”

- Tracy Jan covers the intersection of race and the economy for The Washington Post. She previously was a national political reporter at the Boston Globe.

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This article was posted by the Washington Post.

WIKIPEDIA CREATIVE COMMONS[/caption]

February 26, 2019
By Nadege Green
From WLRN

Black people, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, fare worse than white Americans and other groups that identify as white, according to a new study that looks at the accumulation of wealth in the South Florida region.

“The Color of Wealth” examines the wealth disparities that exist across racial and ethnic groups in West Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

South Florida has a significant Hispanic population, 43 percent. But when broken down by race, white Hispanics have significantly better economic outcomes than black Hispanics, the authors found.

White Cubans earn a median household income of $38,000 compared to black Cubans, who earn $22,900. Similar disparities were found among white and black Colombians even when there were no significant differences in educational background.

White Hispanics were also more likely to own homes than black Hispanics.

“For example, Cubans and Colombians, who self-identified as white, had home ownership rates of 53 and 49 percent respectively,” more than 40 percent higher than black Cubans and Colombians, according to the study.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="720"] "Color of Wealth" study by The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.[/caption]

The Miami metro area is often heralded for its diversity, but this report cautions that it is important to extricate the implications of race within a community with plural identities.

“There is a stark pattern of racial disparity in home ownership rates both across and within groups, with black Miamians at the bottom regardless of national origin,” authors wrote.

Researchers focused on assets like bank accounts, stocks and bonds and property.

"Most nonwhite groups did not have sufficient liquid assets to weather an unexpected hardship or financial shock, with U.S. blacks and Puerto Ricans having less than $200 in liquid savings to weather proverbial storms," researchers found.

The report furthers a body of studies and research that show higher education, for example, does not necessarily translate to access to wealth and upward mobility. For example, people from Trinidad and Tobago earn the most bachelor's degrees after white Americans in the Miami metro area, but rank lower than white Cubans when it comes to homeownership.

“Some local communities of color demonstrate higher levels of educational attainment, yet yield lower incomes and wealth as compared to whites,” the study’s authors wrote.

Some of the reports other findings:

• Black Hispanic groups, with the exception of Colombians, have lower unemployment rates than U.S. born blacks.
• The median wealth for white households is an estimated $107,000. White Cuban households had the second highest median wealth at $22,000.
• Homeownership rates were highest amongst Cubans (63.9 percent), whites (63.6 percent) and Caribbean blacks (61.6 percent). U.S. born blacks (50.8 percent) and Puerto Ricans (47 percent) had the lowest home ownership rates.

The report notes access to intergenerational wealth through inheritances and "intra-family transfers account for more of the racial wealth gap than any other demographic and socioeconomic indicator, including education, income, and household structure."

The authors of the study suggest "policies are needed that provide opportunities for asset development; fair access to housing, credit, and financial services; opportunity for goodpaying jobs; strengthening retirement incomes; promoting access to education without overburdening individuals with debt; and providing access to health care while helping minimize medical debt."

It was a joint publication of The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.

- Nadege Green covers social justice issues for WLRN. For her, journalism boils down to not only telling the stories of the people who are accessible, but also seeking out the voices we don't hear from, and telling those stories too.

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This article was posted on WLRN.org.

Haitian, Jamaican or American ... If you’re black in Miami, odds are you’re struggling

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="704"] Miami skyline. C.M. GUERRERO [email protected][/caption]

February 25, 2019
By Rob Wile
From the Miami Herald

A new study sheds light on the yawning gap in wealth in the Miami area between white households and households of color.

Among non-white groups, it is Miami-area households identifying as black that continue to suffer most, according to the authors of the study, “The Color of Wealth in Miami.”

The wealth gap exists across racial background: African-American, Haitian-American, and all other types of black households, the study says.

“If skin complexion is a marker of social treatment, as I believe it to be, then we still have lots of structural barriers related to someone’s phenotype,” said study co-author Darrick Hamilton, a professor of economics and social policy at Ohio State University.

Or as the study’s authors state ominously: Despite Miami’s rise as a cosmopolitan city in the past decade or so, “The concentration of wealth that characterizes modern global cities does not necessarily trickle down to all its residents."

The study is part of a series chronicling the racial wealth gap in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Previous studies have looked at the gap in Boston, Los Angeles, and the Washington, D.C., area, among other cities. Hamilton said that the black-white wealth gap is most severe in Boston.

So what’s unique about Miami?

Thanks to its particular mix of ethnicities identifying as black, the authors are able to show how skin complexion is most correlated with economic insecurity.

Using new survey data, as well as U.S. Census Bureau data, covering a period between 2013 and 2015, the study’s authors calculated the median net worth for households of various ethnicities in the Miami metropolitan area, comprising Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

▪ For white households, the median net worth was an estimated $107,000.

▪ For Black-American households, the median net worth was $3,700.

▪ For Black-Caribbean households, the median net worth was $12,000.

Meanwhile, households identifying as Cuban had a median net worth of $22,000.

“U.S. black descendants and black Caribbean descendants, primarily Haitians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, and blacks with Latin or Hispanic heritage, are more economically similar than Latins of various ancestral origin who self-identify as white as opposed to black,” the authors write.

For Hamilton, the data show that the experience of being black in Miami is a uniquely difficult one, even accounting for different ethnic or ancestral origins.

“The key takeaway is that when it comes to things like business ownership, home ownership, and household income, the variation based on color is more pronounced than the variation based on ancestral background,” he said.

The authors findings suggest Hispanics seem to grasp the inherent advantage of identifying as white.

“In terms of identification, overwhelmingly, Latin Census respondents self-classify as either racially white or ‘other,’ while a small fraction chose a racially black identity,” the authors write. “Self-reported white Latin individuals attain higher economic outcomes, despite having only slightly higher educational attainment than their racially self-reported black counterparts.”

Indeed, education appeared to do little to close the wealth gap among Miami households of different ethnicities.

▪ For white households with a bachelor’s degree or higher, median net worth was $301,000.

▪ For Hispanic households with a bachelor’s degree or higher, median net worth was $87,500.

▪ For black households with a bachelor’s degree or higher, median net worth was $32,000.

Hamilton says the study offers evidence that what he referred to as “multicultural neoliberalism,” which he said puts forward the belief that different groups’ obstacles or sufferings are equal, but that education can be sufficient to overcome those barriers, needs to be questioned.

“This offers strong context to dispel the myth .. .that we all face the same circumstances, and that if we just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we can get ahead.”

In reality, Hamilton and his co-authors find, the gaps are the result of policies, or the lack thereof, that have discriminated against black individuals.

“We must understand the scope of racial differences in resource transfers across generations, with an eye on both historical and present-day policies and practices that enable some groups to gain a relative position advantage over others,” the authors write.

They continue: “Policies are needed that provide opportunities for asset development; fair access to housing, credit, and financial services; opportunity for good-paying jobs; strengthening retirement incomes; promoting access to education without overburdening individuals with debt; and providing access to health care while helping minimize medical debt.”

The report is a joint publication of The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The lead author was Alan A. Aja, an associate professor in the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College.

- Rob Wile covers business, tech, and the economy in South Florida. He is a graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. He grew up in Chicago.

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This article was posted by the Miami Herald.