Free Rent Smart Workshop 4/2

Want to know more about your rights as a renter? Wondering how to get your deposit back or request a repair? Would you like to know how the new changes in the laws impact renters?

Solid Ground Tenant Counselors are hosting a FREE Rent Smart Workshop for the community on Tuesday, April 2nd, 5-7pm, at the Douglass-Truth Library Conference Room (2300 E. Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122). They will provide information about the landlord-tenant laws in Washington State and discuss the laws and ordinances that apply throughout the housing search process, move-in, during tenancy, move-out and eviction. Bring your questions!

Since there is no agency that enforces the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act in our state, it is largely up to tenants to understand the laws and know their rights in order to take appropriate action to effectively enforce them. They will talk about some tips and best practices for renters to help you assert your rights and have a successful tenancy – whether you are signing a rental agreement, requesting repairs or have questions about your privacy rights.

Especially with recent changes and additions to the laws, challenging situations can arise for tenants. For example, the laws around landlord entry and privacy rights changed in 2011, requiring landlords to provide written notice before entering a tenant’s unit. If a tenant is unaware of this law or the changes, their privacy rights could be compromised. There are remedies available to tenants if a landlord is not complying with the laws, but tenants have to know those remedies are available in order to use them. Knowing the laws and what steps to take, tenants can take action to correct the problem.

If you would to attend the workshop, please RSVP to the Solid Ground Tenant Services Workshop & Advocacy Line at 206.694.6748 or email tenantwa@solid-ground.org.

That’s the free Rent Smart Workshop next Tuesday the 2nd from 5 to 7 at the Douglass-Truth Library which is at 23rd & Yesler in the Central District Buses 4, 8, 27, 48, will take you there. Please spread the word by distributing the Rent Smart Workshop flyer. For more information, visit the website at www.solid-ground.org/Tenant.

Free Document Scanning Event 3/28, Downtown Library

Do you have important documents and other paperwork that you would like to store in your email?

Springwire is a local non-profit organization that is offering free document scanning this Thursday, March 28 on the 5th Floor of the Downtown Public Library from 1:00-5:00pm. You’re invited!

Last week at the library, we scanned more than 300 pages of documents for Community Voice Mail users, including birth certificates, legal paperwork, ID cards and personal documents. If you have any document or piece of paper that you want to turn into an electronic file and store in your email, please consider attending. It’s fast, easy, free and completely confidential. We put your documents through a scanner, you send them to yourself as an email attachment, and then we delete them off our laptops. We never ask for or need to know your password or other information – we just help you turn your paper documents into electronic ones.

Why might you want to do this?

• To make a copy of your important files in case the originals are lost.

• To be able to forward by email a resume or other document to a potential employer or a service provider.

• For the peace of mind that comes from knowing all your paperwork is safely stored somewhere else, and can easily be re-printed if you need to.

We’ll scan anything that is important to you. We only require that you have an email address and a basic knowledge of how to access your information online.

Here are the details for this document scanning event:

When: Thursday, March 28 from 1:00 – 5:00pm
Where: 5th Floor, Downtown Seattle Public Library (4th Ave. & Spring Street - click here for a map and bus routes)
Bring: All paperwork and pieces of paper that you’d like to store in your email or other online location

We’re located on the 5th floor next to the free tax-preparation services being provided by United Way. Look for us at the Springwire table, and we’ll see you there!

Tell the FCC to stop corrupt phone price gouging

Please sign this petititon today by Color of Change urging the FCC to stop prison phone companies from gouging families of incarcerated people:

Indefensible price gouging for basic communication is a fact of life for millions of American families with loved ones who are currently incarcerated. They're a captive audience for the phone service providers awarded monopoly contracts by prison operators, and are accordingly charged 15 times — or more — than regular phone rates.

Martha Wright, an 86-year-old grandmother, has spent the last decade of her life fighting these predatory practices in the courts, and now before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). For Wright, choosing to maintain her relationship with her grandson as he's been transferred between four separate correctional facilities in as many states has meant at times going without her medication — and even without food — in order to afford their twice-weekly phone calls.

Keeping up regular family contact is not only key to supporting our loved ones while they are incarcerated, but it also plays a critical role in reducing recidivism and assisting with successful reintegration post-release. In order to address the rampant profiteering that is so disruptive to these family and community relationships, the FCC is currently considering capping prison phone rates in line with those available to the general public — but it's only accepting public comment through this Monday, March 25th.

Please join us in urging the FCC to stand up for families and curb the abusive business practices of prison phone providers. It only takes a moment.

Prison phone corporations don’t “compete” for contracts in the normal sense of the word, meaning that they don’t win bids by offering the lowest rates. This is because phone companies aren’t contracting with the people who actually use their service by making and receiving phone calls — they’re inking deals with states, localities and private prison operators that aren’t directly impacted by calling rates, but benefit to the tune of millions of dollars annually from commissions charged on each call. In at least Louisiana, Alaska, Nevada and Alabama, increasing these corrupt kickbacks from the phone service providers has been shown to have been the determining factor in selecting winning contract bids.

And while government entities generating revenue by punishing the families of prisoners is a scandal, it's the private prison industry in particular that has a ruthless track record of profit-seeking behavior that actively targets and exploits the most vulnerable among us. The country’s largest private prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was a key architect of Arizona’s notorious SB1070, the racial profiling law designed to fill prison beds with anyone unable to prove on demand that they aren’t an undocumented immigrant. The GEO Group, the industry’s second largest player and regular subject of civil and human rights abuse investigations, was barred from doing business with the entire state of Mississippi after massive corner-cutting at their Walnut Grove youth facility led to rampant sexual and other physical abuse by staff of the minors in their care.

In light of states’ widespread practice of warehousing their prisoners in private facilities owned by CCA and GEO Group out of state — an ill-conceived attempt to address budget shortfalls and overcrowding that has failed miserably on both counts — the cost of interstate prison phone calls deserves special scrutiny. Transferring inmates — often repeatedly — across state lines makes physical visits virtually impossible for most family members due to the distance and expense involved. And private prisons don’t have to comply with the same visitation standards as their public counterparts, leaving inmates and their support networks even more reliant on the phone system for maintaining any kind of connection during incarceration.

For Black men in their 30s, one in every ten is in prison or jail on any given day, and federal sentencing data shows that Black men receive longer sentences than white men for the same crimes. Among Black children, one in nine has an incarcerated parent, constituting an enormous captive audience for prison phone operators preying on the need to keep family connections alive over the course of years or even decades apart.

Demand that the FCC cap interstate phone rates and stop prison phone operators from exploiting our families for extortionate profits. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same.

Thanks.

2 Job Fairs Thursday 3/28

If you or someone you know are looking for work, I want to let you know about two job fairs next Thursday the 28th, the WorkSource job fair and hiring event and the Greater Seattle Job Fair.

WorkSource and The YWCA are having a job fair and hiring event on Thursday the 28th from 10 to 2 at YWCA Opportunity Place in Seattle. This job fair and hiring event will feature hundreds of positions in manufacturing, transportation, material handling, food service, hospitality, customer service, and much more! Bring your resume, dress professionally, and be prepared to speak to company representatives. To attend, call or sign up at the WorkSource Affiliate Downtown Seattle front desk (206) 436-8600. The job fair is happening from 10am to 2 pm at YWCA Opportunity Place, 2024 3rd Ave, in Seattle on the 2nd Floor. The following Metro bus routes serve this location: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 13, 16, 27, 32, 36, 54, 55, 70, 135, 304, 316, and 358.

Also on Thursday the 28th is The Greater Seattle Career Fair from 11 to 2 at the Seattle Center Northwest Rooms. Meet Face to Face with the Hiring Managers from some of the best employers in the greater Seattle area. You can save time, money and effort interviewing with dozens of local companies in one day and at one location. Free Admission. Hundreds of Jobs, in most job categories. The recruiters at this event have many job titles they need to fill. To register, for a list of job titles, maps and a line pass, please go to choicecareerfairs.com. That’s the Greater Seattle Career Fair by Choice Career fairs, from 11am to 2pm at the Seattle Center in the Northwest Rooms at the Corner of Republican St and 1st Ave N next to  Key Arena.

These two job fairs next Thursday are only a mile apart, so you could easily attend both of them. Metro buses 1, 4, 13, 33 and 674 can take you from Opportunity Place to the Seattle Center. Good Luck!

Free Document Scanning 3/20

Springwire (the national nonprofit that partners with Solid Ground to bring you Community Voice Mail) wants to invite you to a document scanning event at the Downtown Seattle Public Library next Wednesday, March 20 from 1:00-4:00.

If you’re carrying around paperwork that is really important to you and you’d like to have a digital copy of these documents available in your email, please come to this event. We will help you make electronic copies or “scans” of your documents, and send them to yourself in email where you can keep them safe or share them with others as you see fit. At no point will we ask for or know your password, or have access to your documents.

We’ll scan anything that is important to you: photo ID cards, birth certificates, military discharge papers, medical paperwork, social security cards, photos of loved ones, and even that scrap of paper with all your contact information on it. We only require that you have an email address and a basic knowledge of how to access your information online.

The event is from 1:00-4:00 on Wednesday, March 20 at the Downtown Seattle Public Library, which is located at 4th Avenue and Spring Street. We’ll be on the 5th floor next to the free tax-preparation services being provided by United Way. Look for us at the Springwire table!

DESC-Connections Career Fair 3/20

Greetings. If you or someone you know are looking for work, I want to let you know about the DESC-Connections Career Fair next Wednesday, March 20th, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Seattle City Hall.

DESC-Connections, a non-profit in downtown Seattle that serve individuals battling homelessness and poverty, will be hosting this career fair geared towards a variety of positions, from entry-level to professional. DESC is a comprehensive daytime service and referral center that addresses the needs of homeless men and women by providing individualized support, basic skills training and referrals to local services and housing. Connections aims to eliminate existing barriers that prevent homeless men and women from securing and retaining livable wage jobs and stable, affordable housing.

Companies participating in this career fair include: Fred Meyer, Lowe's, Pioneer Human Services, Northwest Center, Port of Seattle, Metropolitan Improvement District (MID), Farestart, Workforce Education – Seattle Community Colleges, and more!

That’s the DESC Connections Career Fair next Wednesday, the 20th, from 10 to noon at Seattle City Hall, Bertha Landes Room at 600 Fourth Ave. in downtown Seattle

For more information contact Steven Endsley at DESC Connections at (206) 515-1555 or visit www.desc.org.

Financial Fitness Day, Saturday 3/9

Want to get your finances in shape? We want to let you know about Financial Fitness Day, Saturday, March 9th, 10am to 3pm at the Rainier Community Center in Seattle. Don’t miss this unique event that offers one-on-one help for many financial issues all in one location. More than 50 community partners will be in attendance providing a wide array of free services to help people understand, manage and improve their financial situations—brought to you by the City of Seattle and the Seattle-King County Asset Building Collaborative.

People who attend Financial Fitness Day will receive help filing their tax returns, printing free credit reports and reviewing them, opening bank accounts, creating household budgets, developing plans to get out of debt, understanding options to foreclosure, applying for public benefits, such as child care, food stamps, and utility assistance, learning to write a resume or apply for a job online, starting or growing a business, shredding confidential documents, and more.

Free workshops throughout the day will cover credit reports; homeownership; dealing with debt collectors; money management, job readiness and employment resources; planning for retirement. Here is the full  program schedule and list of what to bring.

All services are free, so don’t miss out! Child care, interpretation and other accommodations are available, but people who need them are asked to register online, or call 888-864-8549.

That’s Financial Fitness Day, next Saturday the 9th from 10to 3 at Rainier Community Center, which is at 4600 38th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118. Metro bus routes 7, 39 and 42.  Please spread the word to your friends, family and networks by distributing the Financial Fitness Day Flyer. More info is available at www.skcabc.org/FinancialFitnessDay.