All tagged Miami-Dade County

Avoid a hurricane if you're poor. Oh, you can't.

Hurricane Irma taught me that Miami-Dade County needs a different sort of emergency response plan for low income neighborhoods. That plan should include community-based organizations as part of the response. It must acknowledge that the financial burden of preparing for emergencies leaves low income families even more vulnerable. These communities need a more thorough response. A storm shouldn't allow them to slip further down the economic ladder. 

Our county refuses to be a sanctuary. Our churches are stepping up.

I’d never heard of a sanctuary church before and now I’m part of one. It ends up they have a long history in the U.S. of protecting runaway slaves along the underground railroad and assisting conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War. At least four houses of faith that I know of have already declared themselves as sanctuaries to protect our undocumented community members from government overreach.