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Poverty is a symptom of many complicated causes that
communities have always struggled with, and there are no
easy or quick fixes. As a community, we need to recognize
that poverty, weighs heavily, like a steel anchor, on
countless members of our community. Poverty is a factor in
the overall economic health of our community and our ability
to grow and attract new globally competitive, well-paying
jobs for our workers so they can remain in the Toledo area.
Factors such as the quality, condition, and safety of our
housing stock are key measures that new businesses consider
when deciding where they would like to locate. These are a
few examples as to why poverty must matter to everyone in
our community if we wish for the very best opportunities for
our children to remain and raise their families in this
community.
My concern is that Toledo has no unified economic
development plan. We are merely reactionary. Toledo will
forever remain in this cycle unless our community takes a
serious review of the realities of our economic health. We
must engage the best of the best to craft a plan to move us
out of this cycle for the benefit of every part of our
community.
Due to these concerns, on the current Council Agenda, I have
a re-appropriation request for $275,000 in CDBG funds for
six social service agencies.
Those agencies are: The MLK Kitchen for the Poor, Family
House, Neighborhood Health, YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter,
The Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union and Bethany House
I recognize this is not a solution, but a small step forward
until such time that our community recognizes how deep our
economic competitive disadvantage is. We must be willing to
take extraordinary steps to solicit the expertise and
experience of those best able to formulate a long-term
economic development plan with the objective of breaking the
perpetual cycle of poverty our community finds itself in.
Toledo City Councilman Tyrone Riley also requested
additional funds in the amount of $20,000 for the YWCA of
Northwest Ohio to help pay for advertising for the agency’s
“No More” campaign to prevent domestic violence and sexual
assault.
On Tuesday Toledo City Council recommended referring Sykes’
proposal to the City’s neighborhoods committee, but did not
take action on Riley’s proposal. |
