2
Thursday, September 14, 2000
Group Requests Funds for Housing
By Phil Perry
Staff Writer
EmPOWEßment, Inc. is a nonprofit
organization that specializes in commu
nity development to assist those with
low to moderate incomes. Now it’s in
some financial need of its own.
While EmPOWEßinent still lacks nec
essary funds, it is working on a plan to cre
ate more affordable housing in Carrboro.
Residents who earn less than 80 percent of
the area’s $59,000 median annual income
are eligible for affordable housing.
So far the organization has approached
Orange County and Carrboro officials to
address the need for hinds.
EmPOWEßment director Mark Chilton
spoke about the project at the Carrboro
Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday.
“It’s pretty clear most of the aldermen
are interested (in) the subject of afford
able housing,” Chilton said.
EmPOWEßment’s plan is to take
Campus Calendar
Today
4 p.m. - Advocates for Children
and Teens will hold a general interest
meeting in Union 220.
If you are interested in raising aware
ness about children’s issues such as child
abuse, education and gun violence, or
you want to volunteer with kids, come
check out ACT!
5 p.m. - Student activists are encour
aged to join the UNC chapter of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) at a general meeting in Union
213.
All those interested are welcome to
attend.
Refreshments will be served.
6 p.m. - The Carolina Academic
Team will have a practice in Greenlaw
321. Anyone interested in quiz bowl,
Jeopardy!, or Who Wants to Bea
Millionaire is welcome to attend.
No prior experience is necessary.
6 p.m. - Theta Nu Xi Multicultural
Sorority, Inc. is sponsoring a resume
workshop in 203 Alumni Building to
promote one of its five tenets, leader
ship.
Prepare for the Minority Career Fair
by getting expert advice on your resume
from Vicki Lotz of University Career
Services.
6:30 p.m. - Advocates for Sexual
Assault Prevention will hold a gener
al interest meeting in 101 Bingham Hall.
Topics include the Rape-Free Zone
planning and other activities. New
members are welcome.
7 p.m. - The Management and
Society Student Association will be
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I an agency funded by the State of North Carolina anti the National 1 -ndo\vnient for the Arts. WWW. ticlvloncl .OFg
TECHNOLOGY CAREER FAIR
\ September 20th, 1-5 pm, Dean Smith Center
& MINORITY CAREER NIGHT
September 20th, 6-9 pm, Great Hall, Student Union
CAROLINA CAREER FAIR
September 9 am-3:30 pm, Dean Smith Center
„, . , ~, , , , Take the Reverse “U” bus to the Dean Smith Center. UCsT
Professional attire recommended for seniors and graduate students. University Career Services
(Business Casual Dress for Underclass Students) "
existing lots in Carrboro and divide
them into smaller lots for development.
Chilton said the organization intends to
build five new affordable homes, restore
two existing ones and construct seven
apartment buildings. The organization
will acquire the land needed for this pro
ject in die near future.
“We’re buying a group of properties
from an estate,” Chilton said. “It’s 10
houses, and the 10 houses are on land
that can be subdivided into more lots.”
Financial backing remains the only
obstacle impeding the project, he said.
“Between Carrboro and the county,
what we’re going to be asking for is
about $250,000,” Chilton said.
Chilton plans to ask Carrboro for
slighdy less than $40,000 and the county
for $210,000.
EmPOWEßment officials have con
tacted Orange County Commissioners in
their quest for funds. While no money has
been offered yet, Commissioner Barry
holding a general interest meeting for all
of those interested in the management
and society major in Union 211.
7 p.m. - Come find out what mis
sions are all about at Inter Varsity
Christian Fellowship, North Chapter
in Union 224.
Everyone is welcome.
7:30 p.m. - An interest meeting will
be held for students interested in
Paganism and other Earth-based
Religions in 108 Bingham.
Some officer positions are open.
Friday
noon - Masters of old-time bluegrass
and gospel, Jerry and Tammy
Sullivan, will bring their singing to a
free lunchtime concert on the terrace at
Graham Memorial.
The Sullivans will both play and talk
about their music.
7 p.m. - The UNC-CH Medieval
Studies Curriculum presents The
Seventh Seal, directed by Ingmar
Bergman, as the first feature of the 2000-
2001 Medieval Studies Film Festival.
The film will be shown in DVD in the
Commons Room of Graham Memorial.
Admission is FREE!
Monday
5:30 p.m. - A Project Literacy
information session in Union 213.
Come be a part of Kids Read, ESL
teaching, and Adult Literacy projects!
cLlip Batlti wt Heel
Thursday, September 14,2000
Volume 108, Issue 73 '
P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Matt Dees, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising & Business, 962-1163
News, Features. Sports, 962-0245
Jacobs said it was possible in the future.
“The commissioners were sympathet
ically inclined, pending more details,” he
said.
But the commissioners have told
EmPOWEßment officials they must for
mally present a plan that involves other
nonprofit organizations before they will
grant funding. This plan must also
ensure that houses will be affordable in
the long term and the development will
have a mix of rental- and owner-occu
pied housing. The organization must also
attain help from Carrboro, Jacobs said.
Chilton said he hopes to submit a for
mal proposal to the commissioners Sept.
19 asking them to put it on their agenda.
He is meeting today with officials from
the Community Land Trust in Orange
County, Orange Community Housing
and Habitat for Humanity seeking help
from those nonprofit organizations.
Alderman Allen Spalt said the board
was excited about EmPOWEßment’s
Hate-Crime Provision Inches Toward Bill Status
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Armed with
more data showing that hate crimes
often go unreported, President Clinton
on Wednesday appealed to Congress to
pass hate crimes legislation. “Only
Congress can do what really should be
done here,” he said.
Only minutes later, the House agreed
in a nonbinding vote to make the hate
crime legislation part of a defense appro
priations bill. “Today, with this bill, we
as a society say that we will do every
thing we can to protect people from
these heinous acts, that we will not rest
until Americans are free from all vio-
House Votes to Uphold Boy Scouts' Federal Charter
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The House came
down solidly behind the Boy Scouts on
Wednesday with a 362-12 vote to reject
a proposal to revoke their eight-decade
old federal charter because of the scout
ing organization’s policy of excluding
gays.
Republicans, who brought the legis
lation to the House floor to show the
lack of support for critics of the Scouts,
labeled it an attack on American values.
Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., said half
the members of the House were former
News
idea and would likely support it but it
needed more information. “I think the
project’s going to go," Spalt said.
“Everybody on the board thought it was
a great idea based on what they knew.”
But Chilton did not go to the meeting
to ask for funding right away. Instead, he
said he just wanted to let the aldermen
know about the plan so they could help
in the future. “We think that given the
pace of the development (on the lots) we
could get the funding from Carrboro in
the next fiscal year,” he said.
Chilton said EmPOWEßment was
not sure exaedy what sort of deal would
eventually be reached, but any assis
tance would help. “I’m confident we’re
going to work something out, I’m just
not sure what that’s going to be,” he
said. “In the end, it’s about the houses
getting built.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
lence,” said House Minority Leader
Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.
The House vote was 232-192.
“This historic legislation will help
fight hate crimes by strengthening the
law and providing state and local pros
ecutors the tools they need to enforce
it," Clinton said in a statement released
after the vote. “I urge House and Senate
conferees to act swiftly on this legislation
so I can sign it into law.”
However, congressional sources who
spoke on condition of anonymity said
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told
Clinton at the White House on Tuesday
the hate crimes provision would not be
made part of the defense bill.
scouts and would defend an organiza
tion “as American as apple pie and base
ball.”
While the bill’s opponents accused its
few Democratic supporters of extrem
ism, Democrats complained that the
GOP’s only intent was to embarrass
them. Fifty-one voted “present” to
protest the procedure.
David Smith of the Human Rights
Campaign, a leading gay rights organi
zation, said Republicans were “trying to
change the subject from hate crimes to
Boy Scouts.”
The GOP leadership is resisting
SINGING WITH STRINGS
•-, Jaß <
DTH/KATHERINE EAKER
Chris Gray, a senior philosophy major, plays his guitar outside "
Hamilton Hall before he goes back to work. He has been strumming "
since middle school and plays for practice and to relax.
According to one source, Lott told
Clinton, “we’ll talk about it somewhere
else, Mr. President,” possibly as part of
another bill.
White House spokesman Joe
Lockhart said Wednesday’s vote was a
strong statement of support for tougher
hate crimes laws, “regardless of whatev
er comments were made yesterday.”
“The Congress has an obligation to
move on it this year,” Lockhart said.
Clinton convened an event at the
White House to release anew report
that shows information on hate crimes
sometimes is not forwarded to the FBI.
Victims of hate crimes tend not to report
them and sometimes police lack suffi
Democratic attempts to pass hate crimes
legislation this year.
Beyond the politics, the legislation
offered by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.,
spotlighted the uneasy relationship
between the federal government and the
Boy Scouts since the organization’s
stance toward gays became a national
issue.
Woolsey said she was a Girl Scout
and one of her sons was a Boy Scout
“We’re not saying the Boy Scouts are
bad; we’re saying that intolerance is
bad.”
“I know the value of scouting, and
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cient training to handle such cases,
according to the study, written by
Northeastern University’s Center for
Criminal Justice Policy Research and by
the Justice Research and Statistics
Association of Washington, D.C. The
Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice
Statistics paid for the report.
Clinton said a hate crime is “an even
more dangerous kind of infection” than
ordinary acts of violence.
“I don’t think any of us believe we
can ever root it out just by punishing
people,” Clinton said. “The most impor
tant thing is that we do have the tools we
need to take a strong stand before these
tilings spread even wider.”
that’s why I believe scouting should be
available to all boys, not just to some
boys,” Woolsey said during Tuesday
night’s debate. . >-
She was the only Democrat to speak
in favor of the legislation.
In contrast, a long line of Republicans
rose to condemn the bill.
“It’s an attack on the fundamental
values of America,” said Rep. Chris
Cannon, R-Utah, led by “a small group
of extremists on the minority side.” - ,
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision
in June, upheld the Boy Scouts’ ban on
homosexuals serving as troop leaders.
Division of Student Affairs