Page 22 - Florida Sentinel 12-1-17

National
Atlanta Toddler Denied Dad’s Kidney Has Successful Transplant
Affordable Housing Is A Thing Of The Past: Florida Among States With Little To None
ATLANTA, GA — The fam- ily of an Atlanta toddler had their prayers answered just in time for the holidays. A. J. Burgess, whose story came to light after his father was blocked from donating his kid- ney due to a parole violation, underwent successful trans- plant surgery on Wednesday (Nov. 23).
The three-hour surgery took place at Emory University Hospital, and A. J.’s kidney is already working properly and producing urine.
A. J., who will be 3 in Janu- ary, was born without kidneys. His parents got word at around 8 p.m. last Tuesday that a kidney from a dead donor was available.
A. J. Burgess who had a suc- cessful kidney transplant on last Wednesday is shown with his parents.
ful kidney transplant,” Davis told the press. “He is currently in recovery. His parents and family are overwhelmed with gratitude.”
Families living on the street and in their cars, (if they have one) is not a thing you only see on TV. If you take a close look around you, you will see there is a crisis for families who once had ‘the projects’ to call home.
Officials call it the hous- ing crisis, and with good reason. Providing affordable housing to low income fam- ilies has become so severe that in some states, there is no longer a place for poor people to live.
The sad state of affordable housing comes from infor- mation from a new report from Freddie Mac, which fi- nances loans for apartment buildings.
More and more states are reporting seriously declin- ing numbers in apartments affordable to very low-in- come families.
Here's a look at some of the statistics:
• Nationally - dropped from 11.2 percent to 4.3 percent
• Colorado - fell from 32 to 8 percent
• Texas - fell from 10 to 3 percent
• North Carolina - dropped from 10 to less than 1 percent
Low income and very low income
The main focus is on very low-income (VLI) house- holds, defined as those that earn less than 50 percent of the area median income. Low-income (LI) is defined as 80 percent of the median family income for the area, according to the U.S. De- partment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In states such as Califor- nia and Florida, available housing is already entirely unaffordable to VLI house- holds and is now affecting low-income households - the next bracket up the in- come ladder.
According to a report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, between 2001 and 2015, the number of severely burdened tenant
households (those paying more than half their income in rent) making less than $15,000 rose from 4.9 mil- lion to 6.5 million, and the number of families making between $15,000 and $30,000 with severe rent burdens rose from 2.1 mil- lion to 3.5 million.
Those at the very bot- tom get hurt
What is happening is that those at the very bottom, VLI households, are being hurt the most. Others, such as LI households, are having to move into VLI rental property due to rising costs. Even middle-income house- holds are finding themselves moving to LI property.
Where will this end? How many more homeless will be created as more states find themselves unable to pro- vide affordable homes for the poor?
For more details about these findings, visit www.jchs.harvard.edu/re- search/state_nations_hous- ing
“Baby A. J. had a success-
Elite College To Name
Other NYPD Cops Allegedly Visited Hospital To Intimidate Teen That Accused Detectives Of Rape
NYPD detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins have been accused of rape and have both re- signed from the force.
Building After Former Slave
Samuel ‘Janitor Sam’ Osborne will have a building on the cam- pus of Colby College named in his honor.
NEW YORK- Several NYPD officers attempted to intimidate a teenage rape vic- tim to stop her from pressing charges against two officers that she accused of rape, the New York Post reports.
According to the 18-year- old victim’s lawyer, nine offi- cers went to the hospital where she was receiving medical treatment hours
after the alleged sexual as- sault.
On Sept. 15 at around 10:45 p.m., Anna Cham- bers and her mother went to Brooklyn’s Maimonides Med- ical Center for a medical ex- amination and a rape kit. Chambers accused Brook- lyn South narcotics Detec- tives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins of rape.
At least one of the of- f i cers who showed up to the hospital, questioned the va- lidity of her story Cham- bers’ lawyer, Michael David, claims.
“They came with nine cops to intimidate her and her mom, to discourage them from coming forward and re- porting the rape and sex as- sault,” David said.
WATERVILLE, Maine — At the elite college perched on a hill overlooking this former mill town, the buildings are named as you might expect.
The library honors the par- ents of a graduate. The the- ater is named for the 17th president. The tennis pavilion for generous donors to the school.
But now Colby College will have a building named after a former slave who was the school janitor for 37 years starting right after the Civil War — a figure both beloved and disrespected by the col- lege in his day.
A front-page story in The Boston Globe explores Colby’s decision to name the Presi- dent’s House for the family of Sam Osborne, the College’s beloved custodian in the late 19th century.
Samuel Osborne, born into slavery, worked for nearly four decades at Colby and his daughter, Marion Osborne, was the first fe- male African-American grad- uate in 1900. As part of Dare Northward, Colby’s historic comprehensive campaign, the president’s house will forever recognize the contributions of this remarkable family.
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