Picture This! The Real Cost of Prison Expansion in front of a foreclosed home in West Philly.
Governor Corbett’s proposed budget for 2012-2013 will eliminate funding for Pennsylvania’s Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP). For the past 28 years, the program has provided loans to homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage due to a job loss or other temporary hardship and are in danger of losing their home. Governor Corbett already slashed the program’s budget to $2 million last year - such a drastic cut that the program announced it would not be able to continue operating. According to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, HEMAP has saved the homes of more than 46,000 Pennsylvanians from foreclosure.
At the same time as Governor Corbett is taking away a critical safety net that helps keep Pennsylvanians in their homes, he is spending $685 million to build three new prisons and expand nine existing facilities. Instead of helping Pennsylvania residents maintain safe, stable homes for their families that will allow them to grow and succeed, Governor Corbett is choosing to invest in more unnecessary prison cells. Tell Governor Corbett and the PA legislature that we want homes, not prisons!
For more on HEMAP’s years of success in helping people stay in their homes, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704561004575013263982822140.html
For more on Decarcerate PA’s demand for a moratorium on prison construction, visit: www.decarceratepa.info
(via afrofuturistaffair)
