CCISCO is a member of PICO, a national network of faith-based community organizations and is active in PICO’s California Project.Welcome
CCISCO
Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization
CCISCO helps everyday people win extraordinary victories, not by speaking for them, but by providing a vehicle for them to speak, act and engage in the public arena for themselves. Since 1996, we have been organizing a voice for justice and equity in Contra Costa. We are a multi-ethnic, multi-generational, interfaith federation of 25 congregations and youth institutions representing over 35,000 families.
News
City Officials Re-Commit To Violence Prevention Strategy In Richmond
Richmond—On the evening of Thursday, June 12, 2008, 75 community residents gathered at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Richmond to ask city officials to re-commit to a crime prevention strategy presented to them one year ago.
“The purpose of tonight’s meeting is to make sure that our elected officials are being held accountable for what is going on in our community and for them to continue to work on the problems that our community faces,” said CCISCO Leader Victoria Leftridge, “We want to continue to build important relationships between the community and our city officials.
CCISCO leaders at St. Mark’s created a “Four Point Strategy for Crime Prevention in the Iron Triangle” which includes: 1) Street lights; 2) Blight and Trash Abatement; 3) Year-Long Youth Activities Designed by Youth and 4) Increased Police Resources and Community Policing. CCISCO leaders have made significant progress in getting the City of Richmond to move on the lighting issue.
Blight and weak lighting have been key issues in the Iron Triangle as crime tends to flourish under these circumstances. CCISCO underscored the need for bright lights and the City of Richmond and PG&E responded to these concerns by upgrading 30 lights in a 5 block area of the Iron Triangle neighborhood.
Research conducted by the Pacific Institute and the West County Indicators Project revealed that residents in the Iron Triangle had felt a change in their neighborhood since the new lights went in, and some residents noticed a decrease in criminal activity since then. The responses to the survey suggest that the upgraded lights have made a difference in the perceptions of safety for a significant number of residents.
“CCISCO has put forward the lighting issue,” said Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay, “Lighting is a simple solution to crime, I absolutely support this
approach.”
The event was organized by CCISCO leaders at St. Mark’s Catholic Church, the Historic Triangle Neighborhood Council, Atchison Village Neighborhood Council, and the Pacific Institute.
Antioch Residents Call on Banks to Come to the Table and Halt Foreclosures
Antioch—CCISCO leaders from Holy Rosary Church in Antioch organized a protest to bring attention to the lack of response from banks as community residents face foreclosure on their homes. Over 50 people gathered in front of Bank of America Bank, Bank of the West, Wachovia Bank, and Washington Mutual Bank to bring to light the inactivity and complete disregard for the concerns of homeowners—a concern that has led to frustration.Many hard-working and employed homeowners have not received face-to-face meetings to discuss their home loan terms despite numerous attempts to make contact with the banks.
The prevailing practice by banks is to systematically turn their backs on home owners. Leaders want a stop to this practice and are calling on banks to have face-to-face meetings with community members to modify loans.
“A lot of us are going into foreclosure, or in danger of going into foreclosure,” said protester Luis Flores, who could no longer keep up with the $4,000 monthly payment on the home he's lived in for seven years. "It came down to paying the bank or buying food.”
Ratings agency Moody’s recently released the results of a survey it conducted of the modification practices of subprime mortgage servicers regarding borrowers that have or will experience an interest rate reset on their loans in either 2007 or 2008. Sixteen servicers with a total servicing volume of approximately $950 billion, or roughly 80% of the market, provided data. “Specifically, the survey showed that most servicers had only modified approximately 1% of their serviced loans that experienced a reset in the months of January, April and July 2007.” (from report: “The Chasm Between Words and Deeds: Lenders Not Modifying Loans as They Say to Avoid Foreclosures” released by the California Reinvestment Coalition).
Washington Mutual claims to have held foreclosure workshops and that they have hired a new employee to begin addressing the foreclosure issue in Antioch. Bank of America, Bank of the West and Wachovia declined to comment.
The Holy Rosary Organizing Committee has been working to develop solutions to the foreclosure crisis in Antioch for the past five months. Leaders organized a foreclosure prevention workshop with over 200 participants in March 1, 2008 and have surveyed over 100 community members to identify barriers to saving their home. Leaders are targeting these institutions based on the results of those surveys and the difficulties that community members have had in getting their loans modified.
EBHO Honors CCISCO For Housing Work in Concord
Oakland—On May 8, 2008, East Bay Housing Organizations' (EBHO) recognized CCISCO’s long history of fighting for affordable housing for working families in Concord and across the county. The recognition was presented to Roberto Peña, CCISCO leader at St. Francis of Assisi Church, by Concord’s Council Member Guy Bjerke.
“CCISCO helps everyday people win extraordinary victories, not by speaking for them, but by providing a vehicle for them to speak, act and engage in the public arena for themselves,” said Council Member Bjerke.
Peña emphasized that the current housing and economic situation that has hit Contra Costa County has put many families at risk of becoming homeless and in urgent need of affordable housing. “I am honored to receive this recognition on behalf of the working families in my community, said Peña, “I want to invite all of you to renew our commitment to making affordable housing a priority.”
CCISCO leaders have been active participants in the Community Coalition for a Sustainable Concord, a broad-based coalition of labor, environmental groups, neighborhood associations, affordable housing developers, and the faith community. The coalition has united to advance a progressive vision for the re-use of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, the largest new development project in the entire Bay Area. CCISCO is helping to engage dozens of low-income immigrants from the Monument Corridor to have a voice in the planning process and to highlight the importance of affordable housing for working families.
