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PHILADELPHIA, PA – Councilman Kenyatta Johnson’s
bill to extend the “Longtime Owner Occupants Program,”
which will cap property taxes for low-income, longterm residents, was approved by the Philadelphia City
Council. The new bill extends a tax cap from 10 years to the
homeowner’s lifespan, or until they move out of the property.
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YEO F r o n t l i n e N e w s • Q1 2016 • PG 2
SAN FRANCISCO, CA –Supervisor Jane Kim recently
introduced a charter amendment to increase San
Francisco’s minimum affordable housing requirement to
25 percent, more than double its current rate. The measure
would require new market-rate housing construction to
dedicate 15 percent of all units to those
making up to 55 percent of the area median
income, and a further 10 percent to those
making 100 percent AMI. “With the
ridiculously high cost of living in the Bay
Area, our middle class residents are also
vulnerable to losing their homes… This is an
urgent step we can and should take now,” Kim
said.
ITHACA, NY – Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick’s plan
to tackle his community’s heroin epidemic is
being lauded as a common sense “tool in the battle against
addiction and overdoses.” His multifaceted approach would
introduce supervised drug injection sites, a detoxification
program, and a methadone clinic while increasing drug
education efforts and mental health screenings. “This has
been a quiet epidemic for far too long,” Myrick said.
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Our theme at National Convening this year is “Building the Power of Youth.” We’ve seen
young leaders – we’ve seen you – make a marked difference on the national narrative and
the policy landscape. Thank you for that service, and stay tuned for more details to come on
upcoming projects as we work together to create change both inside and outside institutions
of power.
MADISON, WI – Wisconsin State Representatives
David Bowen, Jonathan Brostoff, Amanda Stuck, and
Mark Spreitzer are calling for fair elections in their
state, whose congressional boundaries are “among the most
gerrymandered” in the country. Calling partisan redistricting
“unfair” and “expensive,” the letter advocates for passing
Assembly Bill 328, which would assign redistricting
authority to a nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau and
take it away from politicians and costly outside counsel.
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Election years are always full of heated rhetoric about the role of government. Jon Favreau
recently said, “Every election is a competition between two stories about America.”
However, so much of the discourse this year has turned American democracy on its head.
We’ve heard fear, hate, even the encouragement of violence. At YEO, our focus has always
been on serving our communities rather than on the national political stage, but we hold
all of you up as the antidote to this ugliness. We know that the youngest generations are
the most diverse in our country’s history, the most progressive, the most pragmatic – and
this will make all the difference as you rise in leadership. And we know that the work and
service you do every day is a direct challenge to those who would use their power to incite
such hate.
We are pleased to welcome
Karen Schillinger to the YEO
team as the Coordinator of
Advanced Leadership. Karen
will continue leading the Front
Line Leaders Academy as well
as be more formally involved
with YEO’s programs and
leadership work. We hope you
will congratulate her and be in
touch to explore new ways to
continue your own leadership
development within the YEO
Network.
In the News
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As we head into the second quarter of the year, we couldn’t be more excited about where
2016 is taking us. Already this year, we’ve been to Denver for the YEO Network’s largest
policy academy to date – a program on Clean Energy and Environmental Justice, produced
in partnership with NextGen Climate. (Read details on the conference and the work that
follows, including a Huffington Post feature, in this newsletter!) This month we head to
the Midwest for our 11th annual National Convening, where we will hear from leaders
of the movements taking hold in Chicago and all across the country. And we have several
other big projects underway for YEO this year – ways that we can work together to tackle
some of our biggest challenges, transform systems and institutions, and combat violence
and injustice in our communities.
YEO Network
Announcement
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Letter from the YEO Team
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YEO F r o n t l i n e N e w s • Q1 2016 • PG 3