By Shannon Holmes
June 27, 2005

Moderated by Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle, mayors met for a workshop on June 13, seeking ways to strengthen working families within cities across the country. The workshop was sponsored by the Conference of Mayors and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. which began a partnership in January 2002 to examine the needs of working families in today's economy and how mayors can play a significant role in addressing these needs. Participating mayors included Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle, Fayetteville (NC) Mayor Marshall Pitts, Jr., Fort Wayne Mayor Richard Graham, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, Irving (NJ) Mayor Wayne Smith, Richmond (CA) Mayor Irma Anderson, Rochester (NY) Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr., San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, and Sugar Land (TX) Mayor David Wallace.

Bob Giloth, Director of Family Economic Success at The Annie E. Casey Foundation, who opened the workshop, said that there are many facets to assisting working families including addressing issues like predatory lending, transportation, and housing.

Giloth highlighted that the earned income tax credit (EITC), the cornerstone of the partnership between The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Casey Foundation, is a successful program to assist working families, but there is still more to do to ensure that the quality of the program is maintained. "The return on investment for families and cities with EITC is big and is underutilized," he said.

Giloth shared with the mayors other ways in which cities could assist working families and ensure they are provided with the means to become a sustainable family. These ideas included establishing a local EITC like in San Francisco and Denver, asset building activities tied to EITC, and forming partnerships with foundations like in Boston.

Best Practices

Richmond

Richmond (CA) Mayor Irma Anderson stressed that she believes that she, the Mayor, is responsible for kids during out-of'school time, even though she does not have control over kids inside the school. As a result Mayor Anderson teamed up the state trade unions to tie the practical skills of technical jobs, like plumbing and carpentry, with academics as part of the offerings for kids after'school through the "Kids First" initiative. With $200,000 in start up funding from city funds, $1.8 million was leveraged with funding from the federal 21st Century Community Learning Center program. The program which began in two high schools and one middle school was expanded to include two grammar schools.

Anderson concluded by saying, "Investment in youth is an important thing to do, they are the citizens of tomorrow."

Hartford

In Hartford, Mayor Eddie Perez is trying to help strengthen working families by helping youth become strong citizens of the city. With a dropout rate of almost 50 percent and only ten percent of high school graduates going to four year colleges, there was a critical need to combat this problem.

Perez informed the mayors, "If you want to do something good for the city, own a kid."

To that end Perez established a Children's Cabinet within his office to keep track of all of the youth activities in the city and began looking at workforce strategies for 14-24 year olds within the city, 40 percent of whom live at or below the poverty line. As part of this, a 10 point system for 14-21 year olds was started that includes a database connecting the different service systems to track all the programs kids are involved in. Additionally, there is an early childhood program 0-8 years old to coordinate health and education. In order too ensure the data collected is accurate, neighborhood workers obtain certification at the community college on the data system.

Perez is concerned about the 9-13 year olds that are falling through the cracks and has been setting the stage to address their needs by combining workforce development and education strategies.

San Jose

The rapid growth of San Jose has brought the city's population to nearly one million. As a result, affordable housing has become increasingly scarce, driving up rents and median home prices, and turning San Jose into one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.

"There are hundreds of thousands of working families in San Jose with an average track home cost of $680,000, that just does not work," said Gonzales.

Gonzales aggressively responded to address this issue. Over the past five years over 6,080 affordable housing units have been completed with approximately 15,000 units since 1988. In addition to providing affordable rental housing opportunities, San Jose was able to assist more than 5,000 homeowners with rehabilitation loans and grants, and more than 1,440 new homebuyers with second mortgage assistance, including over 500 public school teachers through the Teacher's Assistance Program to buy homes.

Rochester

Johnson, informed mayors that, in order to address the issue of affordable housing, Rochester 2010 was established through a public and private investment to revitalize the neighborhoods within the city. There have been 2,400 units of affordable housing and 600 market rate units made available to 48 percent of single, female head-of-households, with 83 percent first-time homeowners. Commerce has also been building back up with seven grocery stores, from three different chains in the neighborhoods.

The greatest resource in the process was the empowerment of residents of Rochester. Residents were heavily involved in making decisions on how to revitalize the neighborhoods. Youth also played a key role in the process as well because the view was that they are the future. As a result recreation centers have been re-opened on weekends, now functioning seven days a week, a large number of afterschool programs are offered, and each center has a teen council.

"Now, no child will be limited from getting access to afterschool programs, making it overall easier for working families, " said Johnson.

Dollarwi$e Campaign

Wallace shared with mayors the Conference of Mayors' DollarWise Campaign, a program to encourage the development of ongoing local financial literacy strategies to educate citizens about financial issues. With improved basic personal income money management and planning skills, citizens will be in a better position to own homes, raise healthy families, educate their children, and invest in small businesses. In Sugar Land, Wallace stated that there is a great effort to reach youth to educate them on the importance of financial literacy early. As a result, an interactive program was developed, with a syllabus, to have classes compete against each other in the purchasing of stock and business investments. The program will start with the high schools and eventually move down to the lower grades.

IRS

Don Dill, Senior Tax Analyst in the Wage and Investment Division of the Internal Revenue Service, informed the group of the importance of EITC, not only to working families, but also to cities. Dill said, "EITC is a no'strings attached catalyst for asset building and economic development in cities."

Established in 1975, EITC is the largest federal government, anti-poverty program raising over 5 million people out of poverty. This tax year alone Dill stated that 2.2 million tax returns were filed with EITC resulting in $500 million back to residents, and up to $1.5 billion back into local economies. However it is estimated that up to 20 percent of those eligible for EITC do not file for the credit, leaving $8-10 million dollars in the federal Treasury that could go to working families.

Dill thanked mayors for their continued support with EITC and asked for assistance from cities to continue to spread the word about EITC to ensure that working families are getting the money that is rightfully theirs.

Johnson concluded the session by saying, "Some of the best ideas I have learned have been from other mayors and I hope that mayors continue to learn through sessions like these."

To learn more about any of the best practices or the earned income tax credit please contact Shannon Holmes at 202-861-6728 or send an e-mail to sholmes@usmayors.org.