"The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time." - Willem de Kooning
Clearly, words spoken by someone who has been there unable to get ahead and in need of a hand up. Sadly, too many people who live here in NC's 8th district know this all too well. In fact, it is a bellwether District – a harbinger the rest of the nation should heed.
In so many ways, my District is like a microcosm of America. We have suburbs, farmland, small towns, a military base, as well as the big banking hub, Charlotte. We also have the highest unemployment in North Carolina with one in ten looking for work in some of our more rural areas, and an Associated Press ranking as one of the most economically devastated Districts in the nation. Our schools face challenges just like anywhere else, with the dropout rate in big cities now at a 6-year high, and the number of homeless children in our school system doubling this year even in our suburbs.
Times are certainly tough, yet what unifies us all more than anything, both across my District and across this great nation, is the on-going struggle of working families and unyielding belief in the American Dream. For too many of us though, it's become a nightmare we have to address, before we lose a generation. It is more than just our dwindling manufacturing jobs.
I've been speaking out on the mortgage foreclosure crisis before it even was a crisis – before our kids started having to drop out of school just to help pay bills or attempt to do homework without a home to sleep in.
I've told you about Southern Chase, a middle class community in Cabarrus County where one in five folks have now lost their home.
The Observer on Sunday profiled Southern Chase, a neighborhood of 406 houses in Concord built by Beazer Homes USA. Seventy-seven buyers lost their homes to foreclosure. Forty-five of the failed loans were insured by the FHA. But federal officials expressed surprise when asked about the concentration.
I'm not surprised Federal officials expressed surprise. Are you?
You're also probably aware of how much the mortgage crisis impacts our already stretched-thin military families across America. In Fayetteville alone, a third of all foreclosures are on our active duty and veterans.
An investigation by The Fayetteville Observer covering 2001 to 2005 showed that 1,770 out of 4,979 foreclosure auctions in Cumberland County involved loans guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In those cases, borrowers were active-duty military families or retired veterans.
That's a disgrace to our men and women in uniform and veterans alike that served this country honorably. Who can afford to stay this course of economic neglect?
The city of Charlotte, also in my District, has so often been spared the worst of economic downturns thanks to banking centers and a host of technology growth. But just because one is lucky enough to have a job these days does not mean you can afford a place to live.
CLICK HERE for an Interactive version of Charlotte foreclosures.
The number of foreclosures in Mecklenburg County has spiked since 2003. That's due largely to increasing foreclosures in neighborhoods of new starter homes, shown on the map in red.
The Observer defines starter homes as homes built in the last decade, with a county appraised value of less than $150,000. There have been more than 3,200 starter-home foreclosures since 2003.
The more than 10,000 squares on this map represent Mecklenburg single-family home foreclosures from 2003 through early 2007.
Maybe now that the impact of poverty has hit the service industry and retailers we can begin to address the real impact of poverty in America. I'm glad our Democratic Presidential candidates have taken up John Edwards' lead. But I'll never understand why our long term incumbent Representative in this bellwether District still hasn't noticed his people are suffering.
Due to my loss in 2006 by 330 votes, my millionaire opponent, Republican Robin Hayes, has now had close to a decade in Washington to see this coming, and to be honest his view should have been pretty good from up there. It is going to take a Congress that truly gets it to change anything. I've dedicated myself to be part of that change, and hope you'll join us. As a Congressional Candidate who gets up and goes to work every day as a public school teacher and can't quit to raise money full time because I like many others in my District have to work to take care of my family, I'm asking you to help our campaign raise the money we need to win. I believe that Congress should not be made up of millionaires. If you believe that too, please help me, help my District. Wouldn't it be nice for NC-08 to be a bellwether that signals our Country that we the people are ready to take our Country back? Please be generous. We're counting on you down here.
This bellwether District can't do it alone.