"I
want you to open your hearts and see the world in a different way. You get from
the world what you give to the world. I promise this will change your life for
the better."
—
Oprah
" I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." F.D.R.-1937
What Is A
DREAMER?...
A Dreamer looks beyond the limits of today To the possibilities of Tomorrow,
And sees what CAN BE instead of SETTLING FOR WHAT IS.
A Dreamer
imagines the most wonderful NEW things,
And then finds a way TO
MAKE THEM REAL!
A Dreamer knows that stars were made to WISH
UPON
And that wishes DO COME TRUE.
BELIEVE in
the MAGIC of your DREAMS."
Awareness-Education-Advocacy-Prevention
The biggest expenditure for our current operations are the costs associated with our online services; the website www.southbankcares.net and the MSN support group http://groups.msn.com/SoBankHive To date, the set-up, funding, operation and maintenance of these services have been funded through The Michael W. Connett Living Trust. The pertinent accounts payable of the Trust that support this venture are: Cincinnati Bell for our Broadband connection-Zoomtown and our Internet Service Provider-FUSE, Cinergy
for Gas & Electric Service and Ellanet for web hosting services. As an HIV/AIDS Case Management Client as well as the Grantor, Trustee and Beneficiary of the Trust, it has been my HOPWA and Ryan White funding benefits that have assisted indirectly in covering these accounts in the past. We are now facing a serious budget crisis as those benefits have been capped out /exhausted for the current fiscal year or their appropriate funding cycle. We are now in need of outside financial assistance to maintain our online presence and continue providing online support and social services assistance. All of these
accounts are currently billed to/through Michael W. Connett % The Living Trust. Gifts for support of these services may be made to the Trustee (NB: Gifts to the Trust or beneficiary are not declarable as income and therefore do not negatively impact any other current benefits) and or directly to the vendors as follows:
-
Ellanet, Inc. 1704 Ella Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45223-2035 Acct: MWCLT/SoBank CARES! Outstanding Amt Due: $65.00
-
Cinergy/ULH&P P. O. Box 740150 Cincinnati, Ohio 45274-0150 Acct: 8050-0592-32-3 Outstanding Amt Due: $266.49
-
Cincinnati Bell P. O. Box 741811 Cincinnati, Ohio 45274-1811 Acct: 8592912214024 Outstanding Amt Due: $132.15
-
Cincinnati Bell Wireless P.O. Box 741832 Cincinnati, Ohio 45274-1832 Acct: 62321583 Outstanding Amt Due: $56.00
"Quality of Life" Support
Michael Wallace Connett
The HIVe @ Seminary Square
1043 Russell Street – Suite 1
Covington, Ky. 41011
Earvin “Magic” Johnson
The Magic Johnson Foundation, Inc.
9100 Wilshire Blvd.
East Tower, Suite 700
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Dear Magic,
I watched with interest the TV news coverage of your recent visit to Cincinnati to unveil the new computer center. You see, You and I were diagnosed in the same year – 1991 and I remember when you started the foundation. I was disappointed that no connection to the HIV/AIDS issue was made in the coverage, so I went to your website for research. I also have an idea for using computers and the internet to improve the quality of life for those of us living with
HIV/AIDS in America. I call it Computers for CommUNITY and it simply entails taking cast-off and upgraded computer equipment from donors, refurbishing them and putting them in the hands of people who live in what I call the HIV Closet.
As a straight man living with this “stereotypical” gay disease I am hopeful that you can understand what that means. We gay people have lived with being the scum of the American earth for so long that it doesn’t faze us to also say I have HIV/AIDS and go on with it. Through my internet work and connections I am painfully aware that many living with HIV do so all alone. Yes, they may have case managers and doctors, but in this world of confidentiality,
stigma and discrimination they suffer in silence and pain – unless they find the online support groups. I just thought I should mention this so in the event that you get a hold of a bunch of used computers from one of your partners, you’d know what could be done with them. Thanks for your consideration and continued good health and luck to you and yours.
Michael W. Connett, Grantor/Trustee
The Michael W. Connett Living Trust
Founder/Executive Director
“SoBank CARES!” A CommUNITY-Based HIV/AIDS Social Services Organization
|
Families & Children
Health Care/Prescriptions
Housing
The Neighbor's
Closet: A network of neighborhood repositories for cast-off
household furnishings for the benefit of a coalition of all agencies
serving/having housing needs for clients.
My Neighbors
Helpers- A
corps of volunteer handypersons with a wide range of skills who would
volunteer to help Low-Income tenants improve their "Quality of
Life" by assisting them with cosmetic/aesthetic upgrades to their
HOME. The example I cite most often in this regard: "I would
certainly be ready & able to pick up an inexpensive ceiling fan
somewhere to put in the kitchen. My obstacle is finding someone with
the tools and knowledge to install it correctly". I believe
this is the sort of thing that People Working Co-Operatively does for
Low-Income Home-Owners.
Seniors & Aging HIVers
Veterans
"The only thing required for the TRIUMPH of EVIL-
Is for GOOD People to DO NOTHING!!!"
--Edmund Burke
Hi Rachael
I am in need of a different electric stove for the apartment. It
turns out
that the previous tenant who left this one behind, had used the bottom
drawer to store her dog food. As a result, the critters decided to
make a
home amongst the fiberglass inside. I only discovered this recently
after I
noticed a mouse hole in the wall and moved the stove to clean behind and
underneath it. When I mentioned this to my case manager-Paul
Trickel, he
suggested I contact Brighton Center as he was aware that they have a
storage facility and get donations like that.
As I don't use the stove much, this isn't an urgent need. But since
I made
the mistake of setting out D-Con instead of traps, I'm now concerned about
the critters dying up inside of it. Otherwise, all is well and I've
been
inspected and approved for my second year here. Please let me know
how to
proceed. Thanks.
Michael
"6. SYNERGIZE. Ask yourself, "CAN WE seek and value
opinions, viewpoints
and perspectives from others to create solutions that are better than what
would have been created on our own?" When people can't get
together in
person to solve a problem, Web videoconferencing and instant messaging
allow them to post messages back and forth and interact in real
time."
FUNDING
AVAILABILITY FOR THE (HOPWA) PROGRAM - PROGRAM OVERVIEW:
HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PERSONS
WITH AIDS
Purpose
of the Program.
To provide States and localities with the resources and incentives to
devise long-term comprehensive strategies for meeting the housing and related
supportive service needs of persons with HIV/AIDS and their families.
Available funds.
Approximately $27,543,000 (and under a related part of this
SuperNOFA, up to $2,000,000 for
technical assistance for the HOPWA program).
Funds will be made available under this program NOFA in the following
priority order: 1) renewal of expiring HOPWA grants providing permanent
supportive housing as described in Part B: Renewal Projects; 2) award of
project outcome add–on funding for HOPWA grants not receiving such funding,
as described in Part C: Project Outcomes Add-on Funding; and 3)
to continuing and new projects seeking HOPWA funding, as described under Part
D: Continuing and New Projects.
Eligible
Applicants.
States, units of general local government, and nonprofit organizations
may apply for HOPWA competitive funding under this NOFA.
Additional, eligibility requirements are outlined under each part of
this program NOFA.
Housing project money
sought
By Mike Rutledge
Post staff reporter
Covington is scrambling to find money to help developers who want to convert
former tenements at a critical MainStrasse area block into upscale apartments.
RTR Holdings LLC in December
bought the apartments at the northwest corner of Eighth and Bakewell streets
for $350,000. The firm hopes to spend $750,000 more to transform the 23 vacant
squalor flats into 17 luxury apartments.
Renovating the apartments is
crucial to overall improvements in the area. The trouble is, the project has a
$250,000 gap in its financing that the firm hopes the city will help bridge.
In response to the firm's request for a $250,000 loan, however, Covington
officials recently offered only $50,000.
That's all the city can afford to
loan the firm, officials say.
Because of outstanding loans that
have gone unpaid, the city only has $37,673 of uncommitted cash in its Rental
Housing Rehabilitation fund, said city Finance Director Bob Due. This fund
contains the money the city sets aside for projects like the one tackled by
RTR Holdings.
Chris Montello, spokesman for RTR
Holdings, hoped for more help from the city after hearing Economic Development
Director Ella I. Frye speak last year about the potential of Covington's West
Side neighborhood. She cited the same apartments he now owns as a cornerstone
for rebuilding the area.
Montello and development partner
Joe Ciaramitaro own Happy Days Tavern, across Eighth Street from the
apartments, and have rehabbed the bar, replacing its boarded-up look with
large front windows and a new awning. They also threw out the drug users,
Montello said.
"We've kicked out so many
people that don't need to be in that bar," he said.
They've restored several other
buildings in the area as well and manage about 20 units.
Their plan for the Eighth and
Bakewell project includes 17 single-bedroom units, with each of the three
buildings topped by a large loft.
They have an option to buy a
neighboring property, with plans to use it for parking. They hope to convert
the back lot covered with concrete slabs into a common garden for tenants, he
said.
"It's an area on the cusp.
It's one block off the beaten path," Montello said, motioning toward Main
Street.
"We probably should have
secured money from the city prior, but it all happened so quick," he
said.
Aaron Wolfe-Bertling, the city's
housing development director, said there's not enough money in the city's
Rental Housing Rehabilitation fund to help RTR Holdings.
The Rental Housing Rehabilitation
program was largely depleted after the city in November 2001 agreed to loan
$646,085 for six other projects.
As of Dec. 31, the fund's balance
was $37,673. By June 30, the city estimates it will have $66,673 on hand to
lend, Due said.
The approval of such loans in a
short period was the result of developers seeing value in Covington, and also
people investing more heavily in real estate as the stock market has slid, Wolfe-Bertling said.
"We're just seeing a lot of
interest now in real estate," he said. "What's the one bright spot
right now in the whole economy? It's been the housing.
"We're just seeing some
pretty big buildings that have sat for a while. People are really looking at
them," Wolfe-Bertling said.
"We've got a lot of money
out, but that's good," said Mayor Butch Callery. "A lot of it is
recycled back" as loans are repaid.
Commissioner Alex Edmondson he
hopes the city can lend RTR money from the $300,000 the city agreed in April
to lend developers Jim and Donna Salyers to convert the former Fifth District
school into 26 luxury apartments.
Picture for
illustration purposes only
Something
this size ...???
-
A Multi-Unit building on a campus like setting that can be completely
re-habbed and up-dated to comply with the Housing Quality
Standards of HUD and the local municipality as well as upgrading in
accordance with the ADA
-
A gated, secure campus that would be redesigned and landscaped
to include a children's play area, space for resident community
vegetable gardening and a pet park I'd like to call "Moses'
Meadow".
That $300,000 so far has gone
untapped, partly because the Salyers had been negotiating finances with the
now-defunct Peoples Bank of Northern Kentucky. The city has contacted the
Salyers about delaying that loan several months until they are ready to start
construction of their projects.
"I still want to do Jim's
project," Edmondson said, noting the Salyers have redeveloped several key
downtown buildings, including The Madison and their new Madison South. But it
doesn't make sense to have that kind of money sitting still when another
developer can use it now, he said.
Edmondson recently joined
Commissioner Craig Bohman in expressing concern that the city's Newport Steel
fund also is being depleted. That fund, which the city has used to spark
developments since the 1980s, has the potential to last decades, he said.
"I've got to give Craig a
tremendous amount of credit" for raising the issue, Edmondson said.
The Newport Steel fund, which
makes loans to non-residential developments, has been shrinking, largely
because the city funds its Economic Development department's salaries,
benefits and large studies from it. That pulls about $350,000 from the fund
each year.
On June 30, 1998, the Newport
Steel fund had total assets of $6.1 million, more than $5 million of that in
cash. Last June, its assets were $4 million, only $804,773 of that in cash and
more than $2 million out in loan payments that are not yet due.
Bohman and Edmondson both advocate
moving the salaries of Economic Development and other employees off of Newport
Steel fund.
Both say now is not the time to
start turning developers away, even if the city lacks the cash on hand to
help.
Instead, Edmondson advocates
borrowing several million dollars long-term and using that money to help new
projects. Covington could repay that low-interest loan using the repayments it
receives for past loans it has made to developers, and also from future
Community Development Block Grant money it will receive, he said.
Wolfe-Bertling and Due agreed this
week it is time for Covington to become more creative in locating money to
push development.
"I think the commission's
ready to be creative in that area," Wolfe-Bertling said. "Everyone
realizes we have to be more creative in this area -- helping fill the
gap."
Meanwhile, Montello said he has to
recoup his investment somehow.
"If the city doesn't give us
the money, we're going to be forced to open it back up the way it is," he
said.
"We're hopeful we can put
something together. Right now we're scrambling," Wolfe-Bertling said.
"It'll be a challenge to fill
it," he said about the project's $250,000 gap, "but I think we'll
get closer."
Edmondson said he wants to make
sure Covington helps RTR.
"These guys want to fix up
maybe the worst tenement housing in Covington," he said. He also wants
the city to keep sending a consistent message to developers: "We want to
help you. Come to us with projects."
Publication Date:
03-17-2003
AIDSCare, a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization that runs a North Side
facility that houses 17 people with HIV/AIDS who would otherwise be homeless,
last week broke ground on a new $14.5 million, 2.7 acre, five-building campus
in the North Lawndale community, the Chicago Tribune reports. The West
Side campus will house "dozens" of low-income and homeless people
with HIV/AIDS and will offer medical care and social services to residents of
the campus, as well as residents of the surrounding community. The city last
month sold 27 vacant city-owned lots to AIDSCare for $1 each, and it plans to
offer similar transactions for future projects, according to Alicia Berg,
commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, the Tribune
reports. The Chicago Department of Public Health provided $1.2 million
in federal funding to the project, and the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development has also pledged funding. "We're trying to enrich
the neighborhood while providing housing and services for people who are HIV
or AIDS positive," Jim Flosi, director of AIDSCare, said. Three of the
buildings will house 65 apartments with various levels of independent and
assisted living, including a building designed specifically for women or
single parents who can live independently but who need support from social
services. A fourth building will hold a pharmacy, dental clinic and
wellness center, which North Lawndale residents will also be able to
use. A fifth building will house a youth education center and several
agencies that work with children. "It's unique," Luis Vera,
director of litigation at the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago said, adding,
"A campus like this stands as a symbol that there shouldn't be any
distinctions between the 'HIV community' and the community as a
whole." However, some North Lawndale residents "say the
distinction is clear," according to the Tribune. Isaac Lewis,
editor of the North Lawndale Community News, said, "Some people are
worried about the safety factors of using the same health facility" as
HIV-positive individuals. Flosi said that he hopes community education
will help assuage such fears (Kapos, Chicago Tribune, 2/17/2003).
Greetings,
Dr. Covey, in
explaining Habit #2, advises:
"Write
your own philosophy, mission statement, creed, belief system. Get it
written into your heart and mind through the use of Imagination and your
Emotion. "Don't tie yourself to your History, tie yourself to your
Potential..." If you learn to imagine vividly enough and to also draw
heavily upon the inner sense or conscious of what is right or wrong, you will
come to detect the most fundamental principles that pertain to your life... And
you can distill them into a Mission Statement."
He
also advises that you do not attempt to complete this process rapidly.
I've been working on mine for some time now And
recently, I've come to arrive at this distillation:
"The
Michael W. Connett - LIVING Trust"
Mission
Statement
To
use the rest of my life the best I can so that the lives and places through
which my journey leads me will remain a little bit better for me having passed
their way.
"The HOTTEST Places in HELL are RESERVED for
Those who in times of Great Moral Crises
MAINTAIN Their NEUTRALITY...
DANTE
Page last
revised: Monday, November 22, 2004
Copyright (c)1999-2004:
The Michael W. Connett Living Trust/SoBank CARES!
