WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
New Orleans When I wrote Citizen Wealth, published in 2009, I proudly recorded the role that ACORN played in increasing the homeownership rate of Black and Hispanic Americans over a period of thirty-years between 1977-78 and 2007-2008. We had fought, along with many others, for the legislation in Congress that passed the Community Reinvestment …
New Orleans ACORN, Local 100 United Labor Unions, and the Labor Neighbor Research & Training Center have been studying hospitals for some years now. First, we looked at charity care in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, and found that if nonprofits with tax exemptions simply hit the average of 4% of gross income as …
New Orleans The headline includes the words, “…Orange County as Harbinger of 2022 Midterms” in the New York Times. I’m not sure whether my father would be laughing his butt off or screaming at the winds of change, but I know one thing: he would have been scratching his head in total surprise. How …
Chicago It’s back on the road again, but that doesn’t mean anything is easy in the new world of pandemic travel when we have one foot in the mess, and another foot pretending it’s all over, but we’re good-to-go. Of course, there are mask rules or something similar on everyone in the airport, although, …
Little Rock A half dozen people gathered in the Atlanta heat under a gazebo at Capital Gateway Apartments, an Integral managed project. The issues weren’t unusual. In fact, the issues were too common: mold, slow to no maintenance, security, and rents themselves. The ACORN Tenants Union in Atlanta had heard all of these …