May 8, 2009
Catholics committed to justice: $1 million committed for housing trust fund, petition started for better bus transportation
Scott Harris, co-chair of the CAJE Transportation Committee and a member of St. John the Baptist Church in Newburgh, introduces Kathy Allen who testified about the need for improvements in public transportation in the Evansville metropolitan area. (Message photo by Paul R. Leingang) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Kathy Allen, legally blind, said she lost her full-time job last year because the earliest bus she could take could not get her to work on time. Allen told her story to a cathedral full of people April 30 at a “Nehemiah Action Assembly” organized by Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment (CAJE).
Members of Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and Unitarian Universalist congregations in Evansville were at the meeting, held at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville. Two issues are being tackled by the congregations — affordable housing and public transportation.
CAJE won a $1 million dollar commitment from Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, to be used for affordable housing projects. Weinzapfel and the city’s planning and development director, Tom Barnett attended the assembly.
Invitations to attend were declined by the Metropolitan Evansville Transit System (METS) and the city’s Depart-ment of Transportation and Services.
Kathy Allen is a member of Holy Redeemer Church in Evansville and has held a job at the Evansville Civic Center for 21 years. She worked there full-time until last year, when her work schedule was changed.
Allen dedicated her story to her legally blind parents, Austin and Mary Harl, “who also used the bus system all their lives.” She has two legally blind children and a legally blind granddaughter “and I know at some point they will need transportation, and I want it to be available to them,” she said.
She told the hushed assembly that she did not want to attack public officials: “I am thankful for the METS transportation,” she said. “I purchased my house along a main bus line because of my disability.”
But last year, “My new employer required that I be at work by 6:30 a.m.,” she said. The earliest bus would get her to her job at 7:05 a.m.
Allen now works a three-hour shift. She said she was not blaming METS for the loss of her eight-hour shift, but “I do want to make it clear that I could have continued to be a competitive employee if there was more timely bus service.”
According to a fact sheet handed out by CAJE, METS has not reviewed its service for 10 years; key social service agencies like the Pregnancy Resource Center and the Knight Township Trus-tee Office are not located on METS routes; the Vanderburgh County parole office has moved to an area on North Highway 41, an area without bus service, and an Ameriqual spokesman said 100 more people could have been hired last fall if transportation were available.
CAJE also noted that bus service to the Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center stops at 5:30 p.m., while adult enrichment classes and GED evening testing begin at 6 p.m. and do not end until 7:30 p.m. English as a second language classes run from 5 to 8 p.m. While people can ride the bus to classes, there is no transportation service to get adult students home from evening classes.
The members of the CAJE transportation committee said the long term view should include service “beyond just the City of Evansville” and focus on the “M” — the metropolitan part of the system. The metropolitan area includes portions of Vanderburgh County along North Highway 41 and portions of Newburgh and Warrick County — including Deaconess Hospital.
A petiton initiated by CAJE requests “that the Evansville Department of Transportation and Services take all necessary steps to coordinate with the leadership of METS . . . and the EMPO (the Evansville Metropolitan Planning Organization) to create and convene a task force with the mandate of studying and developing reliable and successful public transportation options between the city of Evansville and 1. Northern Vanderburgh County, 2. Warrick County.”
The CAJE participants include members of St. John the Baptist Church in Newburgh and the Evansville parishes of St. Anthony, St. Mary, Holy Redeemer and St. Benedict Cathedral.
Mayor Weinzapfel made a commitment that will provide $500,000 in 2010 and the same amount again in 2011 for the Evansville Affordable Housing Trust Fund. That money will be used in projects for people who have an income of 50 percent or less than the median in-come for the area.
Weinzapfel also made a commitment to work “with CAJE over the next year to identify sources of additional city funding that can be dedicated to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund . . . with an ultimate goal of $2 million annually in local funding.”
A housing trust fund is flexible, in that funds can be used for rental subsidies or as various grants for repair and rehabilitation and for new construction.