Alabama is one of two states that do not have a modern, up-to-date law regulating the relationship between residential landlords and their tenants. For the past 5 years several bills have been introduced in the legislature. However, until 2006, the competing and conflicting interests of various groups have prevented the passage of any legislation.

     Our Landlord/Tenant Project began in 2003 with several efforts to develop a new Landlord/Tenant bill to replace the current outdated laws. We attended meetings with Alabama Arise's representatives, state legislators, and representatives from the Homebuilder's Association and the Realtor's Association in efforts to develop a bill that was acceptable to all parties involved. However, no agreement was reached on an acceptable bill and therefore none of the bills progressed to a vote in the legislature.

     In 2004 and 2005, we again met with the interested parties, and through negotiations with the realtors' representatives, were able to develop a proposed compromise bill. However, this bill likewise did not receive strong support from the various interested parties and groups and was not introduced in the legislature.

     In 2004, in addition to co-authoring a new Landlord/Tenant bill Alabama Appleseed commissioned a 50-state survey of Landlord/Tenant laws. The survey was done as a pro bono project by the Atlanta, Georgia law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton. The survey researched nine key landlord/tenant issues that were and are the main points of dissention in current negotiations for a new law in Alabama. On December 2, 2004, we released the survey to the public and news media and sent it to all the interested parties and legislators.

     In 2006, Alabama Appleseed has continued to be a major participant in the efforts to pass a new residential landlord/tenant law for Alabama. In February, 2006, with the intervention of several key legislators, the interested parties (including Alabama Appleseed) met and negotiated an acceptable bill. In early March, 2006, this negotiated and agreed upon bill passed the Alabama House of Representatives by a vote of 100-0. Passage in the Alabama Senate is expected by the end of March, 2006, and we believe and fully expect the Governor to sign this new law. Once passed by the Senate and signed by the Governor, the new law will become effective on January 1, 2007.

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    Alabama's system of providing attorneys to poor defendants in criminal cases is so decentralized and fragmented that it places poor people in great jeopardy. There are no standards, guidelines or training requirements for attorneys handling indigent cases. There is no state oversight of the quality and effectiveness of appointed counsel in indigent cases, and no state oversight of the continuing escalation in the cost of indigent defense in Alabama. Indigent defense cost in Alabama has risen from around $17 million in FY 1998 to $45 million in FY 2004

     In 2003, Alabama Appleseed began its Indigent Defense Project. The purpose of the initial phase of the project was to begin to document and gather evidence about the inadequacies of the Indigent Defense system in Alabama.

     The initial phase of the program used law school interns to investigate cases from judicial circuits where contract public defenders, hired for a set dollar amount, are used in place of an established public defenders office. The investigations concluded that clients of these contract defenders are grossly under represented resulting in an inordinate amount of guilty pleas, case postponements and general inattention to client requests for information about their cases. In 2003 we also began work to form a coalition to seek the needed reforms. In this regard, we work closely with Alabama State Bar President, Bill Clark, a Birmingham attorney. Our work with Bill Clark related mostly to helping him put together and coordinate a day-long symposium on the status of indigent defense in Alabama in order to raise public awareness of the need for reform.

     In February 2004 this daylong Symposium was held in Montgomery at the State Capitol Auditorium. Alabama Appleseed's Executive Director, John Pickens, not only helped Bill Clark arrange and coordinate the symposium, but he also appeared as a panelist. As a result of the symposium, and at the request of Bill Clark, John Pickens coordinated the re-drafting of a prior bill drafted in 2000 to establish a State Indigent Defense Commission with central authority over the substantive and budgetary aspects of the indigent defense system. The draft bill was not introduced in the 2005 legislative session as there was not clear support for it.

     In July, 2005, Alabama Appleseed's Executive Director, John Pickens, was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to the Chief Justice's Indigent Defense Study Committee. This Committee was charged with the task of developing and recommending the best way to reform Alabama's fragmented indigent defense system. By mid-December, 2005, the Committee had met several times and that reviewed and revised the prior draft legislation which would establish a state-level Indigent Defense Commission. This piece of legislation is currently pending in the Alabama Legislature and Alabama Appleseed is working with the Chief Justice's Committee to gain passage thereof.

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     The purpose of this project is to identify the problems and obstacles that small business owners in Alabama face in providing and affording health insurance for their employees. This project was started in February, 2004, and is an Appleseed collaborative project with Nebraska Appleseed, New Jersey Appleseed, and South Caroline Appleseed. We first gathered data from individuals and small business owners in the Montgomery MSA and three counties in the Black Belt. We also closely followed and participated in a federally-funded (HRSA) state initiative coordinated by the Alabama Department of Public Health on the issue of the growing number of uninsured persons in Alabama.

     Alabama Appleseed has focused its work primarily with working with the Healthcare Committee of the Governor's Alabama Black Belt Commission to develop and implement practical solutions to decrease the number of uninsured persons in the Black Belt counties and solutions for problems facing small businesses and their employees in the area of health insurance. Through work on this Committee, Alabama Appleseed hopes to develop and help implement model programs to make health insurance more accessible and affordable for residents of the 10-county Black Belt area, with statewide replication of these model programs.

     It has long been known in Alabama that the 13-county Black Belt area has needed economic and social service revitalization in practically all areas impacting the residents of this area. For example, in February 2003, the Alabama Education Association conducted a survey to determine the level of satisfaction of Black Belt residents with their communities. Survey results showed that 71% of the participants thought the Black Belt was a good place to live. The residents were also very clear on a number of issues that needed to be addressed to make improvements within their counties. In the survey respondents reported the #1 problem was a lack of jobs and industry.  The survey showed:

• 64% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the economy.
• 76% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the jobs.

     The lack of healthcare, education and employment top the list as issues that consistently keep the citizens of these counties from emerging from the cycle of poverty. This project of Alabama Appleseed will strive to implement solutions that will increase health insurance coverage for residents in the Black Belt working for small businesses.

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        Alabama Appleseed is undertaking a new project called the Hispanic Financial Access Project to improve the accessibility of banks and other financial services to Hispanic immigrants in Alabama. The goal of the project is to expand the banking services offered to the Hispanic community to include a diverse spectrum of financial services: small loans, mortgage loans, and expanded checking, savings, retirement investments, and foreign remittance products. This project will reach out to both the banking community and to the Hispanic community in an effort to educate and assure both communities that increasing financial access to Hispanic immigrants living in Alabama is mutually beneficial.

The Need - Alabama is the home to over 75,830 Hispanic immigrants. In 1990 the Hispanic population in Alabama was only 24,629. This growth in the Hispanic population in Alabama represents an increase in this ten-year period of over 200 percent. According to a recent study, that was the seventh highest growth rate in the nation. Jefferson County and the four surrounding counties that make up the Metro Birmingham area have the highest concentration of Hispanics. According to U.S. Census 2003 data, this population figure is now 25,003. A recent article in the Birmingham Business Journal used this figure, stating further that this population figure was expected to rise to around 33,009 by 2009. It would appear that the Hoover area has the largest concentration of Hispanics in this five county area, even though there are sizable concentrations of Hispanics throughout the area.

The following cities/counties have sizeable Hispanic populations:

• Mobile-Baldwin Counties(7,333)        
• Huntsville-Madison County(5,537)      
• Decatur-Morgan County(3,645)
• Albertville-Marshall County(4,656)
• Ft. Payne-Dekalb County(3,578)        
• Montgomery(2,665).

     Given these statistics and the rapid growth of Hispanic immigrants in Alabama, it is disturbing that Hispanic immigrants, whose financial contribution to the Alabama economy is growing significantly, are largely un-banked. By reason thereof, they are often victims of robberies and predatory lending practices. Our preliminary investigation in the Montgomery, Birmingham and Decatur areas has identified only two financial institutions that are serving the banking needs of the Hispanic community: the Bank of Alabama, with its Banco Hispano branches in Hoover and Homewood; and the Family Security Credit Union in Decatur. These branches have bi-lingual staffs, Spanish-language banking materials, and strive to serve Hispanics in their immediate areas. With the exception of these two financial institutions, banks and credit unions are not making their services readily available to the Hispanic community and there is little outreach by the banks to the Hispanic community. Of the larger banks, it appears that only Wachovia and Compass have specific Hispanic-oriented banking services, but these have not yet been introduced in Alabama.  In Birmingham, the New South Federal Savings Bank has the Casa Mia Program which provides mortgage loans to Hispanics. From what we have been able to learn, this is a rather small program and is limited to mortgage loans, rather than general banking services.

    The project will help stabilize the Hispanic workforce by giving them access to banking services and helping Hispanic immigrants understand the value of developing a banking history and a good credit rating, which will allow them to acquire things such as a car, a house or a business loan. By increasing their financial access to banking services, the project will lessened the risk of Hispanic immigrants being victims of crimes of robberies and burglaries and predatory lending practices.

Implementation Plan - The implementation of this project will be carried out by an Alabama Appleseed Board/Volunteer Partner advisory group, pro bono involvement of local lawyers/law firms, and collaborative work with existing local community and faith-based groups who are currently serving the Hispanic community in their areas. The Advisory Group will be comprised of at least two Alabama Appleseed Board members, 2-3 legal/banking professionals, and 1-2 Hispanic community group members. The Advisory Group will be staffed by the Alabama Appleseed staff. This Advisory Group will provide strategic guidance to the overall project and will lend their time and names to the effort.

     In each geographic area, Alabama Appleseed will recruit the pro bono services of several lawyers/law firms to be actively and directly engaged in the project as a community service effort of their firms. We also plan to work collaboratively with existing local community and faith-based groups who are already serving the Hispanic community and with local business groups, chambers of commerce and government officials who are interested in this project. We envision this being a close collaborative effort. We will share educational brochures in both English and Spanish that cover banking, credit, foreign remittances and other financial matters with each group. The brochures have been developed as part of the collaborative work of the Appleseed centers in Texas, Nebraska and Chicago (samples copies attached in the supporting documentation).

    This project will be conducted in stages. Initially we will focus the work in the areas of the state with the highest number of Hispanic immigrants and then expand the outreach to include the communities with lower, but still significant, numbers of Hispanic immigrants. The first stage of the project will focus on the Birmingham metropolitan area, with a related pilot project in the more rural area near Gadsden and Albertville. These two projects will begin in September, 2005, and continue into 2006 until completed. In early 2006 the project will engage in similar work in Huntsville/Decatur, Montgomery, and Mobile/Baldwin County, to be concluded by the end of 2006.

Our Goals - Our goals for this project are as follows: (1) To encourage banks and financial institutions to serve the Hispanic community with an expanded array of services and affordable fees for both banking and foreign remittance services, without unreasonable risk to the banks; (2) To educate the Hispanic community on how to use banking and financial services in Alabama; and (3) To identify any unfair and exploitive financial practices that impact and affect Hispanics in Alabama, and where so identified, to seek remedial action.

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Background and Overview - Too many low-wage workers in America are struggling to make ends meet.  Low-wage workers often live on the financial edge and face great instability.  Easily losing housing, child care, or transportation, these workers may quickly- or gradually- find themselves unable to work.   In research conducted by Appleseed centers, the gap between workers' actual wages and a family sustaining wage -- the wage needed to meet basic living expenses, such as health care and child care- was as much as $10 per hour for a family of three.  Low-wage workers should not have to choose between paying their rent and sending their kids to the doctor.

     According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses represent more than 99 percent of the country's employers and generate 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually.  Small businesses also are the most likely to employ low-wage, no-benefit workers.  Without the human resources capacity or typically greater resources of larger companies, small business often struggle to recruit and retain good employees. When every penny matters, workers may move to a new job for even small increases in pay or benefits.

     Many small business owners may have more to offer their employees than they realize.  With the help of an engaged small business community, many eligible families could be covered under state-funded health care, child care, food stamp, and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) programs.  When claimed, these public benefits can be a critical piece of the puzzle for working families.  While many low-wage workers qualify, these benefits are too commonly not accessed because of lack of information, stigma, or inadequate state funding.

     Of the 10 million uninsured children in America, 6.2 million are eligible for coverage under either Medicaid or CHIP.  Food stamps now reach only about three out of five eligible people nationwide.  Every year, billions of dollars in Earned Income Tax Credits go unclaimed.  This is money that could be going directly to low-income working families.

     Moving public benefits into the workplace eliminates several barriers to enrollment.  Where small business resources are insufficient, and public resources are underutilized, a public-private partnership is the only way to bridge the gap to support low-wage workers.   Distinctly different from larger corporations who funnel their employees into public benefits while making enormous profits, the choice for many small businesses is to help their employees access public benefits, or to offer no benefits at all.

Appleseed's Project & Work Plan - Alabama Appleseed, along with the Appleseed national office and the Appleseed centers in Nebraska, South Carolina, and Washington, will participate in an Appleseed collaborative project, in which we will work with employers to educate them about the role of public benefits programs in supporting their workers and their businesses and to provide materials and models that will help them help their workers access benefit programs.  Our focus will be on access to health care, child care, the EITC, and food stamps.  Appleseed also will develop bridges between small businesses and social service agencies to make benefits more accessible.  Offsite enrollment and education of small business owners will reduce the barriers of stigma and inconvenience, and get benefits to small business employees, benefits that make a critical difference to working families.

     Additionally, we hope our work with small businesses leads to the foundation of a long-term political base in support of issues that matter to small business employees.  Getting employees enrolled in benefit programs is only half the battle; if program funding is not available, signing up employees is a futile exercise. Whether it means lobbying state governments to ensure adequate funding of work support programs, or encouraging greater engagement from within the small business community, a base of empowered small business leaders is a key element in advancing policies that meet the needs of the small business community.

Our initiative to increase access to work supports will focus on six target strategies:

1. Employer Surveys: Through surveys and focus groups, Appleseed will conduct research to examine employer attitudes regarding work supports.  We will use currently existing research where possible, but will conduct our own studies to fill gaps in the record.  By understanding the reservations of small business employers, we will be able to tailor our materials and advocacy to address those concerns.
2. Direct work with small businesses: Appleseed will develop and disseminate state-specific tool kits geared to small businesses to explain available work supports and how they can be integrated into the workplace.  Each Appleseed center will develop partnerships with at least six small businesses and at least one local small business association to pilot and model these programs.  Through chambers, ethnic associations, legislative testimony, the media, and other vehicles, we will then disseminate examples of businesses that are helping their employees make ends meet.  While emphasis will be on developing strong local models, the ultimate goal will be to highlight these practices on a national scale once there is a track record of success.
3. Leadership: Appleseed will tap small business leaders to use their influence to raise the importance of these work supports through legislative meetings, op-eds, etc.  This leadership will be a key factor in pushing for the state funding necessary to provide benefits to all who are eligible.  Engaged leaders will set an example for the remainder of the community to follow.
4. Appleseed Healthcare Initiative:Appleseed and its centers will continue our healthcare advocacy, both as an important benefit to support low-wage workers, and as a model for connecting employer benefits and public programs.  Working with such initiatives as a full cost buy-in to Medicaid and greater enrollment in state Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP), Appleseed has experience in bridging the public-private divide to maximize resources.
5. Non-Employment Models:  Each Appleseed center will develop at least one partnership with a local church, union, or other community-based organization that regularly touches workers.  The partnership will seek to deliver supports typically found through the workplace, such as healthcare.
6. State-level Advocacy: Without the allocation of proper resources for state-funded programs, encouraging the small business community to utilize those programs will be fruitless.  Along with business leadership, Appleseed will lobby state-level decision makers to ensure that money is available to fund programs for those who are eligible.          

Expected Outcomes - The implementation of our work plan and the use of our work product will result in:

• 6 model partnerships with small businesses in each state with workers
• Increased take-up of public benefits by small business employees
• Better quality of life for low wage workers in these targeted businesses
• Stakeholder coalitions of small business leaders and workers who advocate on public benefit issues
• Greater awareness of public benefits as critical supports to working families among employers, employees, and policymakers
• Increased funding for and easier enrollment in public benefits programs

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     Since 2002, we have focused on issues related to the concept of a living wage and living wage campaigns as part of our interest in promoting economic justice for the working poor. The first step we took was to commission a "Living Wage" study for Alabama. We contracted with the Department of Demographics and School of Business at Auburn University in Montgomery to conduct this study, and the report was released in February, 2003. This report can be found on this website at   (to be inserted)

     In the months that followed the release of this study, we met and shared this report with numerous groups, policymakers, and other interested parties. Beginning in July, 2003, we convened a network of public interest groups, in Birmingham, who had expressed an interest in issues related to living wage studies. This group met four times in 2004 and calls itself the Alabama Economic Justice Coalition. The core members of this coalition groups, besides Alabama Appleseed, are The Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama Arise, Birmingham Coalition for the Homeless,  the Alabama ACL-CIO/Lift, and the Jefferson County Labor Council. This coalition group continued to meet and work during 2004 and 2005. From its earliest meetings in 2003, the members of the coalition came to a consensus that they wanted to focus their energies on beginning a living wage campaign for the City of Birmingham, which campaign would culminate in passage of a living wage ordinance for the city.

     The specific community policy issues addressed by the proposed project is the fact that many City of Birmingham employees and many employees of companies doing business with the City under independent service contracts are being paid wages well below what those employees need to earn in order to meet their basic living necessities and not live in poverty. In current vernacular these employees are not being paid a "living wage". In 2006, we are continuing our efforts to convene and develop an economic justice grassroots coalition in Birmingham focusing on educating the community on issues related to living wages for low wage employees, with these grassroots efforts developing into a living wage educational campaign in the City of Birmingham which would culminate in the enactment of a living wage ordinance.

      For the living wage campaign in Birmingham, we have two specific goals. First, we will educate the community and raise public awareness within the City of Birmingham of the plight of the working poor who work at low paying jobs that do not allow them to meet their basic living needs and to become self-sufficient. Secondly, out of this educational and networking effort, we will build and develop a grassroots movement that will lead to the enactment of a living wage ordinance by the City of Birmingham. This movement and subsequent ordinance will apply to either all city employees or employees of companies doing business with the city under independent service contracts, or both.

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     In the last fifteen years, judicial elections in Alabama have become highly partisan, negative and political, to the extent that it threatens the independence and integrity of our judiciary at all levels. Campaign costs for judicial elections have escalated significantly during this period threatening the ability and interest of qualified candidates to seek election. Reforms need to be implemented with respect to our appellate court elections in order to restore confidence in our judiciary. Alabama Appleseed since 2002 has been working on drafting and promoting recommendations on the way our judicial elections are held and on how those campaigns are financed.

     In 2001, we commissioned and received a comprehensive report on the judicial selection practices in all fifty states. This work was done on a pro bono basis by the Atlanta law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton. Based on what this survey showed, we formulated recommendations calling for non-partisan elections, with non-partisan retention elections of judges seeking re-election. We also recommended a merit selection process for filling judicial vacancies. In 2002 and early 2003, we presented these recommendation to the Alabama Citizens Commission on Constitutional Reform, headed by Samford University's President, Dr. Thomas Corts, and to the Governor's Commission on Constitutional Reform.

    In 2004 we elected three new Supreme Court justices and one Civil Court of Appeals justice. These elections were highly partisan and heavily financed elections. In the three Supreme Court races the candidates, for both the primaries and general elections, raised and spent over $5 million.     Most of the money raised came from special interest groups, such as the political action committees (Pacs) of the business community, the trial lawyers, and the political parties. Such partisanship and campaign financing is continuing to destroy the independence and integrity of our judiciary. During 2004 we continued to monitor and write about the rise of campaign donations and expenditures in our appellate court races. We want to educate the public about the dangers of continuing on this path and to advocate for election reform that will include merit selection of appellate court judges and non-partisan retention elections.

     In 2005, Alabama Appleseed supported a bill developed by an Alabama State Bar committee which provided for merit selection of appellate court judges with non-partisan retention elections. There was not sufficient support in the Alabama Legislature in 2005 to pass such a reform measure. In 2006, there also does not appear to be sufficient support to such a merit selection bill. During 2006, Alabama Appleseed will work with the State Bar committee to raise public awareness about the need for judicial election