Emily F. Keller: Journalist

Bedford-Stuyvesant Residents Discuss Violence Prevention

    Middle-aged women condemn it on the B52 bus.  Teenagers worry about it on their way home from school.  Posters at the entrance to a local high school offer rewards for information about it.

    In the school's auditorium, a forum of concerned community leaders has gathered to take another crack at eradicating youth violence - the age-old problem plaguing their community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

    They walk past a poster bearing the face of Rashawn Brazell, a former student killed in a grisly attack two years ago that left the 19-year-old's dismembered body on the A-train tracks of a subway station seven blocks away.  The New York Police Department has offered $22,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction but no one has come forward.

Food Stamps Benefits Formula Faces Scrutiny

By Emily F. Keller

    The routine renewal of a federal bill that provides subsidies to farmers and food assistance to low-income families is igniting an age-old debate about government responsibility, poverty and entitlement.

    At the center of the controversy is a messy economic equation that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) uses to determine monthly allotments of electronic food stamp benefits.  The benefits formula is based on income, assets and household composition.  It takes inflation into account but does not adjust for it automatically, and politicians tinker with it during each five-year review of the Farm Bill, which sets the program’s benefit guidelines.

A Closer Look at Foreclosures in New York

     Jim Buckley (pictured), executive director of the University Neighborhood Housing Program, has been working to help families in the Bronx avoid foreclosure since 1989.  Buckley said there has been an escalation in foreclosures on private homes in parts of the Bronx over the last four years, with a spike in the last two-and-a-half years.  He also said there has been an increase in auction sales following notices warning homeowners they are at risk of foreclosure – called Lis Pendens – leading many homeowners to sell at below market value. 

    To help homeowners avoid foreclosure, Buckley organized an informational meeting with bank and non-profit representatives in May 2007 to educate two-dozen attendees about how to deal with financial hardships and keep their homes.  He advised homeowners to contact their bank or lender to discuss their difficulty rather than failing to make payments, or to contact non-profits like his for advice. Buckley spoke on camera before the meeting, as cameras were not allowed inside.

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