We are the only party 100% focused on the policies that will improve the well-being of the African-American Community.
HOUSING
Economic Revitalization without Displacement
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Economic revitalization can benefit neighborhood residents by lowering poverty rates, providing residents with increased public amenities, lowering crime and improving employment opportunities and educational attainment. However, economic revitalization often results in increasing rents and property taxes that force lower-income and moderate-income households out of improving neighborhoods into neighborhoods with fewer resources, high unemployment rates and poor public-school performance, denying them the benefits of economic investment they are often promised.
All Americans deserve to share equally in the opportunities that their hard work affords them to enjoy. The Community Freedom Party (CFP) supports and will fight for neighborhood economic investment and development without displacement. We believe that public and private investment in communities, especially black communities, should not displace residents from their neighborhoods against their will. CFP therefore supports the following policies:
• Increased Investment in Underfunded Neighborhoods: CFP believes that all neighborhoods – especially black neighborhoods which have suffered decades of disinvestment – deserve safe green spaces, economic development that aligns with its residents’ goals, convenient access to public transportation that connects residents with employment and recreational opportunities, properly lighted and well-kept streets and walkways, and the repair of vacant buildings and dilapidated infrastructure. CFP will work to ensure that all neighborhoods receive the public and private funding and attention necessary to meet these needs. This will help to raise the living standards of those who dare to envision a better life for themselves and their families.
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• Rent and Property Tax Increase Caps: CFP supports an annual cap on increases in rent and property taxes in designated lower-income and moderate-income communities, allowing residents to benefit from investment in their communities without being displaced. Rent caps would be paired with enforceable building standards and a ban on loopholes that allow landlords to remove apartments from rent control when a renter vacates the apartment. CFP also supports property assessment freezes where appropriate in designated lower-income and moderate-income communities to prevent displacement in improving neighborhoods.
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• Tenant Anti-Harassment Laws: These laws prohibit such behaviors by landlords as unreasonably slow repair timelines, frivolous eviction proceedings, and removing a tenant’s possessions from an apartment. CFP also supports giving city attorneys civil enforcement powers when there is a pattern and practice of harassment by a given landlord or at a given property and also requiring landlords to mail or email updated “Tenant Right” notices to new tenants before move-in and to all tenants annually.
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• Application Fee, Move-in Fee, and Security Deposit Fee Caps: These caps would restrict the amount that landlords may legally charge to prospective tenants submitting an application. In some localities, as demand for rental housing increases, some landlords charge exorbitant application fees to generate revenue from the leasing process and discourage applications from low- to moderate-income tenants.
• Universal Right to Counsel Laws: These laws grant eligible tenants facing eviction in court right to legal counsel. Eviction proceedings disproportionately target black people – especially black women – and a right to legal representation in housing court has been proven to help tenants win eviction cases and stay in their homes.
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Affordable Housing
Housing affordability is an essential determinant of whether a family is able to achieve economic stability. Yet affordable housing is increasingly difficult to attain for many Americans. A substantial portion of people are finding it difficult to meet non-shelter related expenses and to build their savings and pay down their debt as housing costs outpace wages and income. Housing cost-burdened families are experiencing greater stress relating to food security, health care, retirement, transportation and overall social stability.
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While this is taking place, the Federal government provides more than $120 billion annually in tax benefits for homeownership that particularly benefits the wealthy, but it does not adequately address the increasing gaps in affordable housing. There are significant gaps in the supply of units that are affordable for households in the lower- and middle-income brackets and this is largely due to the inadequate production of affordable homes and apartments.
The Community Freedom Party calls for an increased production of affordable housing, especially on publicly owned land, including vacant sites, underutilized sites such as parking lots, and underused public land in proximity to public transportation with the adoption of necessary zoning changes where appropriate. CFP will also work for adoption of the following policies:
• Changes to Existing Laws That Limit the Development of Affordable Housing: Where appropriate, CFP will advocate for changes to local zoning laws, growth caps, and density restrictions to spur the development of more affordable housing for lower- and middle-income families and higher density development in an increased number of areas.
• Increased Funding for Community Land Trusts (CLTs) : CLTs are non-profits that acquire, fix up and sell affordable housing to homeowners and renting families as a way to take land off the speculative market. CLTs own land - sometimes transferred from local governments – that it stewards to ensure the long-term affordability of the properties on the land.
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• Lease City-Owned Land for the Development of Affordable Housing: Municipalities that own land in their boundaries have a head start in creating new affordable units. The price of land accounts for a substantial amount of the cost of building new housing in high-demand areas. Where appropriate, CFP supports leasing city-owned land to developers at a discount for the construction of affordable housing.
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• Support Policies That Naturally Bring Down the Price of Housing: CFP will advocate for local housing policies that bring down housing prices overall, including reducing barriers to building a diverse housing stock in every neighborhood, such as allowing small apartment buildings by right in every neighborhood.
• Limits On the Demolition of Affordable Housing: CFP calls for laws banning the demolition of affordable or rent-controlled housing unless developers replace such housing with similar affordable and rent-controlled housing units and offer displaced renters first right of return at similar rents.
• Passage of “Source-of-Income Laws”: CFP calls for the passage of laws which ban landlords and real estate brokers from discriminating against people because they are using a housing voucher. Currently only about half of voucher holders are covered by source-of-income laws. There is also evidence that voucher discrimination is exacerbated for blacks. In a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 80 percent of black voucher holders reported that landlords in low-poverty areas would not accept vouchers, compared with 57 percent of voucher holders from other racial groups. Housing vouchers help make housing affordable for lower-income individuals. Research shows that housing vouchers help prevent homelessness and increase long-term health and economic outcomes of children in lower-income families. CFP also supports making the voucher process more efficient for landlords to address their concerns about the program.
• Increase Overall Funding For Housing Vouchers and the Monetary Amount of Individual Housing Vouchers: CFP supports increasing the overall appropriation of funds for the federal housing voucher program. In 2015, approximately 1 million families had housing vouchers, but another 6 million families qualified but could not get one. CFP also calls for an increase in the dollar amount of housing vouchers. Currently, the voucher amount is usually too small to allow for rentals in low poverty areas. In 2010, few families using housing vouchers rented apartments in low-poverty neighborhoods; over half rented in neighborhoods where the poverty rate was 20 percent or more.
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• Troubled Buildings Initiatives: CFP supports such initiatives, which turn vacant and abandoned buildings and structures into affordable housing as well as affordable commercial leased buildings.
We are the only party 100% focused on the policies that will improve the well-being of the African-American Community.
EDUCATION
Equal School Funding
The Community Freedom Party (CFP) believes that the current public school financing systems that exist across much of the United States are unconscionable, damage black communities, contradict America’s professed values and must be drastically reformed as soon as feasible.
The present financing systems of public schools ensure that wealth disparities in communities carry over into education. By relying heavily on property taxes to fund schools, American school districts create funding gaps, which ultimately contribute to educational achievement gaps and income gaps. Wealthy districts end up with well-funded schools and lower-income areas have poorly funded schools. Current district sizes also distort funding levels. Predominantly white districts are typically smaller, yet still receive $23 billion more than districts that are predominantly composed of students of color. This results from the tendency to draw district lines around small affluent islands of well-funded schools within larger less wealthy areas that serve mostly students of color.
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CFP does not support or call for more equal school funding per pupil; we call for equal school funding per pupil, period. Education is too important to expect anything less. Research has shown that school districts with less funding tend to have lower educational achievement and graduation rates. Research has also shown that increased funding equity correlates with a decrease in crime along with an increase in wages. In the long run, investment in education saves money due to decreased spending on public health, the criminal justice system and welfare systems. In order to achieve equal school funding per student, the CFP supports the following policy interventions.
• Reform Public School Financing Systems to Achieve Equal School Funding Per Student: To ensure equal school funding per pupil, CFP calls for the reform of school funding systems that rely on property taxes as the major sources of funding. One possibility is widening the sales tax base or an approximate 0.75% - 1% increase in the sales tax rate, with revenues to be used to create equal funding per pupil in schools located in low- and moderate-income school districts, especially those with very low property values. The increased funding could be used to update and maintain facilities and equipment for the 21st century, decrease class sizes, increase teacher salaries to attract more experienced and highly qualified educators for the public school system and provide them with ongoing professional development, provide intensive tutoring for struggling students, and make additional improvements that will improve outcomes for students, which ultimately saves states and tax payers money.
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Universal Access to Pre-Kindergarten/Early Child Development
Research has shown that students who start the formal education experience sooner, even one year earlier than Kindergarten, fare better long-term in their academic careers. Research has also demonstrated that 74 percent of black children who attended an all-day preschool program were prepared to enter kindergarten, compared with 78 percent of white children and 62 percent of Native American and Hispanic students. CFP advocates for the following policies where appropriate:
• Universal Access to Pre-Kindergarten: CFP supports a 0.5%-0.75% increase in state sales taxes to help fund the establishment or expansion of pre-kindergarten scholarships for all low- and moderate-income families. This is a small cost considering that high quality pre-kindergarten can have as much as an eight-to-one return on investment.
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• Early Child Development Workshops: Although increased and equal school funding and access to high-quality pre-school are important for students’ academic success, it remains true that a child’s first and most important teachers are their parents or other primary caregivers. We cannot expect teachers to be miracle workers – a child’s education is a partnership between teachers and parents, not to mention the wider community. However, parents are not always aware of the important early steps they can take to ensure that their children have the habits and educational foundation that will help them succeed in a subsequent school setting. CFP therefore supports locally available private and publicly funded workshops open to parents and expecting parents of all income levels that will help them learn methods and proven strategies to prepare their kids for academic excellence.
Additional Education Policies
In addition to the educational policies delineated above, CFP will work toward implementing the following policies to improve educational attainment in the black community.
• Increased Local Control of Educational Decision-making: CFP calls for more local control and involvement in the school decision-making process (i.e., increased involvement by local school boards, principals, teachers and especially parents). Families and educators in the black community have a right to have a more prominent say in what their children are taught, how they are instructed and the environment in which they learn. Family and community engagement has been demonstrated to be associated with reduced absenteeism, improved academic outcomes, and greater levels of trust between schools and families.
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• Expansion of After-School Programs: Most K-8 schools dismiss their students mid-afternoon, which is several hours before many parents stop working. Consequently, many parents must find daycare options, enroll their kids in costly after-school programs, or work fewer hours. These burdens often disproportionately affect low income, working-class, single-parent and minority families. CFP therefore supports collaboration and partnerships between local governments, schools, non-profit organizations, businesses and other resources in the local community to provide optional after-school programming for elementary-aged students to better align with the schedules of working families and provide students with safe and enriching after-school experiences such as tutoring, mentoring, music, art, and sports.
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• Continuing Education Options for Adults: As noted, CFP believes in the importance of an equally-funded and high quality education for children in the black community. However, it also recognizes that many African-American adults can also benefit from local government policies that value their continued education and career aspirations. Associate’s degree graduates earn on average $400,000 more during their careers than those with just a high school diploma. Yet, partly because of America’s inequitable school financing systems and disinvestment in black communities, a nontrivial number of African-American adults don’t have a high school diploma or the traditional academic abilities associated with it and only approximately 33 percent of African Americans have at least a two-year college degree. CFP believes that the best way to increase wages and income in the black community is to encourage black adults to advance their educations and professional training and to support them in those efforts. CFP calls for an ambitious public-private partnership between local governments, high schools, community colleges, local universities, businesses and non-profit organizations to reach out to interested adults in the black community, as well as other communities, to help them set up a plan and access resources to advance their educations, obtain an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or achieve similar professional training and certification. CFP also calls for the increased availability of low-interest federal and state loans, modifications to the Federal Pell Grant program (e.g., allowing recipients to take one course at a time to decrease the burden on adult students) and greater provision of income-based repayment programs for adults who want to continue their educations and training.
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• Full-Funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities: As a result of state and federal action, HBCUs have been underfunded for decades. CFP will work to make sure all eligible HBCUs receive not only the full amount of current funding they are entitled to but that they also receive restitution for the funding they were wrongly denied in the past. CFP will also advocate for additional funding to be used to repair and renovate HBCU facilities and buildings that have fallen into disrepair and increase their research and instructional capabilities. HBCUs deserve to be fully-funded. Even though they represent only 3 percent of four-year degree programs, they produce 27 percent of African-American STEM graduates, 30 percent of black doctorates in science and engineering, and half of all black public school teachers.
• Make Higher Education More Affordable: Affordable higher education is important not just for black students but for all students. However, access to affordable higher education is becoming more difficult for many students. The net price of public four-year colleges has more than doubled since 2000. Student loan debt tripled from $360 billion in 2005 to $1.5 trillion in 2021. CFP supports increasing the amount of maximum Federal Pell Grants by 30%.
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• Provide 1 Year of Free Vocational and Technical Education for Recent High School Graduates: CFP encourages all African-American students who have the interest to purse a two-year or four-year college education. However, for some black high school graduates, college is not a practical or even desirable next step. As a way to set these students on a career path that will still provide them with well-paying jobs and career advancement opportunities, CFP calls for 1 year of free vocational and technical education to train them, as well as all other interested students, in the technical skills needed to fill jobs in advanced manufacturing, healthcare, construction and other sectors. These programs should begin in the fall after a student’s high school year as an opt-in extension of their public education, be paired with internships, and developed and sustained in close partnership between local high schools, community colleges and regional core or growth industries.
We are the only party 100% focused on the policies that will improve the well-being of the African-American Community.
ECONOMY
Property Development + Community Benefit Agreements
Property development is important to the economic success of cities and other localities. Property investment and development creates jobs, helps attract businesses, and ultimately contributes to a city’s fiscal stability. However, the Community Freedom Party (CFP) believes that, when practical, property development should be made in collaboration with the neighborhoods and communities that will be most directly impacted by such development. This type of collaboration helps to ensure that property development not only increases a city’s revenues but also increases the satisfaction of the city’s population.
• Publicly Supported Property Development: CFP supports utilizing subsidies, grants, tax breaks and other public incentives to spur property development, including office parks, medical centers, retail space, apartment buildings, mixed-use buildings, research & development centers, production facilities, recreational centers, and other types of properties.
• Community Benefit Agreements: Where appropriate and to the furthest extent practical, CFP believes that property development decisions should be made in collaboration with impacted surrounding communities. CFP supports the creation of enforceable Community Benefit Agreements between property developers and impacted communities outlining the criteria developers would have to meet (e.g., green space, job training, traffic mitigation) in order to receive public subsidies.
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Foster Innovation and Growth of Manufacturing Jobs
Promoting economic innovation and revitalizing manufacturing is important to the expansion of state, regional and local economies. However, careful planning and collaboration in both the private and public sectors is vital to ensure that the economic opportunities are available to all workers. Too often, governments have worried about creating greater economic growth without making sure that minority workers also benefit from that growth.
Currently, unemployment and underemployment in many minority and low-income areas is high, even though tens of thousands of well-paying jobs with career advancement potential – particularly in the advanced manufacturing sector – go unfulfilled. This presents a problem but also a great opportunity. The Community Freedom Party supports the following policies to foster economic innovation, create traditional and advanced manufacturing jobs, and link all workers with well-paying job opportunities.
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• Work to Attract Traditional Manufacturing: The Community Freedom Party will work to recruit traditional, non-polluting manufacturers to locations that are within easy reach of black communities. CFP will work collaboratively with such manufacturers to enable them to hire from these communities and provide their residents with living-wages and career advancement opportunities. Where appropriate, CFP will also work with businesses to encourage re-shoring of their manufacturing facilities and provide them with financial assistance and tax incentives when necessary.
• Promote Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing: The Community Freedom Party supports not only recruiting traditional manufacturers that provide living-wages, but also promoting innovation and advanced technologies to grow new, competitive industries to foster local growth and employment. To accomplish this, CFP will work to attract advanced manufacturers that will provide good wages for black and other employees and also increase investments in universities, colleges, and R&D centers. CFP will also support manufacturing incubators as well as other types of business incubators and encourage university-industry collaboration to promote development and implementation of new technologies for products and production.
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• Provide Innovation Vouchers: These are grants of up to $75,000 to small and medium-sized firms to enable them to access outside R&D resources.
• Introduce and Expand Innovation Investment Programs: These programs would provide tax incentives and funding to technology-oriented firms, universities (including HBCUs) and nonprofit research companies to encourage the growth of new companies, industries, products and jobs.
• Increase Investment and Support for the Growth of Innovation Clusters: CFP supports the continued investment in innovation clusters that support and build on a locality or region’s existing economic core competencies (e.g., biotechnology, entertainment, healthcare, etc.). These clusters should be self-reinforcing, attracting new companies, federal and state funding, and other private and public investments. CFP will work to support collaboration between local university research programs and industrial enterprises, pairing that with investments in workforce development – particularly in the black community – scientific infrastructure, and entrepreneurship.
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• Encourage and Increase Investment for Regional Industry Workforce Training Partnerships: CFP will establish or increase investment for industry partnerships that bring together multiple employers, labor organizations, community colleges, universities, and training providers around core competency industries in a region to address the workforce needs of employers and provide workers, especially black and other minority workers, pathways to well-paying, family-sustaining employment opportunities. Because such partnerships focus on the needs of industries rather than single employers, they help achieve economies of scale in providing effective training and certification for multiple employers in an area.
• Increase Investment in Apprenticeship Programs And Ensure These Programs are Adequately Targeted to Black and Minority Communities: Apprenticeships combine paid-on-the-job training and related classroom instruction to obtain workplace-relevant knowledge and skills leading to an industry recognized credential. Many apprentices find employment after completing their programs, with average starting wages reaching as high as $60,000. CFP supports expanded grants for apprenticeship programs, tax incentives for companies hosting apprenticeships, and partnering with community and technical colleges in providing classroom instruction for apprentices and subsidizing financial aid for this instruction. CFP will also work hard to ensure that these apprenticeship programs are marketed to the black community and other minority communities and that they are flexible enough to ensure that workers with variety of work schedules can take advantage of them. Additionally, CFP will advocate for funding for “pre-apprenticeship educational programs” that will ensure that those who wish to enter an apprenticeship program can obtain the academic foundation necessary to thrive in these programs.
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Support Increased Entrepreneurial Activity
Business ownership is one avenue that can advance economic security for individuals and their families. Entrepreneurship is particularly relevant for the African-American community because owning a business is one of the best ways to build wealth. The growth of black entrepreneurship also benefits the American economy as a whole since it creates jobs that helps stimulate demand in the economy. However, black entrepreneurs face major obstacles to entrepreneurial success, including limited startup capital, limited managerial and industry expertise, operations in low-revenue industries, and discrimination in lender and consumer markets.
• Increase Access to Startup and Growth Capital for Black Entrepreneurs: Businesses owned by people of color disproportionately lack access to venture capital and small business loans, which limits their ability to launch, expand and grow. One analysis has shown that 53% of black business owners who apply for financing are denied, compared to 25%, 35% and 39% of white, Asian American, and Latino or Hispanic business owners, respectively. Research from the Minority Business Development Agency in 2017 revealed that among high-sales firms (those with over $500,000 in gross receipts), white owned businesses received loans that were worth more than double the amount lent to minority owned firms, on average ($310,000 to $149,000). A study from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that black and Hispanic men seeking small business loans faced more scrutiny and worse treatment from bank officers than less qualified white men. Having sufficient capital at the outset is highly correlated with a business’ chance of survival. CFP will work with the public and private sectors to increase access to capital for black and other minority entrepreneurs. This includes advocating for $750 million in additional business loans for black-owned businesses guaranteed by the Federal government. Furthermore, because some African Americans who are interested in starting their own businesses don’t have much credit history, CFP supports investigating ways to increase black entrepreneurs’ access to business loans by considering additional criteria that indicate sufficient loan-pay-back ability beyond credit history, such as recommendations and work history.
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• Build Business Incubators and Accelerators in Black Communities: Incubators and accelerators are designed to address the networking, education and capital raising challenges faced by entrepreneurs. However, minority-owned firms represent a small percentage of the businesses supported by incubators and accelerators. CFP supports public and private partnerships and funding to build more business incubators and accelerators in black communities to provide entrepreneurial mentoring and other resources to black entrepreneurs.
• Increased Federal and State Funding for HBCU-Affiliated Incubators and Accerlators: CFP supports increased state and federal funding for business incubators and accelerators affiliated with HBCUs so that these institutions can provide their students and recent graduates with early-stage resources, mentoring and small seed capital needed to launch their businesses.
• Connect Black Entrepreneurs with Mentoring and Business Learning Opportunities: CFP will work with non-profits, local community colleges, universities and businesses to connect black entrepreneurs with mentorship and business education programs to further their knowledge of how to successfully run and expand their businesses.
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Additional Economic Policies
• Promote and Increase Government Procurement Opportunities for Black Owned Businesses: Local, state and the federal government spend billions of dollars per year hiring contractors for goods and services, but most of those contracts go to white-owned businesses. CFP supports providing substantially greater access for black-owned businesses seeking to supply goods and services to local, state and the federal government. Specifically, CFP calls for awarding at least 22% of all city, state and federal contracts to black-owned businesses. CFP also supports lowering barriers that have historically favored big contractors, which are usually not owned by minorities (e.g., using group purchasing agreements to provide smaller minority-owned firms with more leverage).
• Enact Policies and Support Activities That Help Existing Small Businesses Grow: Small businesses are the backbones of local economies. They provide jobs to residents and patronize local and regional businesses for their supply needs. A local economy that has a strong small business community is also less susceptible to economic shocks when big corporations shut down their operations. CFP supports working with small business leaders to enact public policies that enable small businesses to expand their markets and create more jobs, including making business regulations and codes less onerous, removing unnecessary barriers to starting a business, and providing subsidized loans for small companies that are expanding.
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• Promote the Growth of Well-Paying Jobs in the Service Sector: In addition to working to grow jobs in the advanced manufacturing sector, CFP will also support policies that promote the growth of secure and well-paying jobs in the service sector, especially employment in information technology, healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and professional services.
• Infrastructure and Transportation Investments that Improve Worker Mobility: CFP supports investments in infrastructure and transit systems that make it easier for workers – especially minority workers – in metropolitan areas to reach employment centers in their regions.
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: According to a 2019 report, on average, two-income families paid 11% of their income for child care, and in single-parent homes, 36% of parent income goes to child care. Moreover, 61% of women with at least one child under the age of six reported caretaking as the reason they experienced joblessness, and 75% of postsecondary students with children who dropped out of school say that child care would have helped them achieve their degree. Such statistics indicate that child care is an important economic issue. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) helps working parents with the cost of work-related child care expenses. CFP supports expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to cover 75% - 80% of the cost of child care for low-income and working class families. This would have a positive impact on the American economy, educational attainment and the earning power of families in the United States.
We are the only party 100% focused on the policies that will improve the well-being of the African-American Community.
PUBLIC SAFETY
AND
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Public Safety
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Public safety is one of the key parameters that determine the quality of life of residents of a municipality. It impacts the social vitality and mental health of a community as well as the economic success of an area, having a major influence in whether a community attracts investment. Public safety is a particularly important issue for black Americans. African Americans are ten times more likely than white Americans to be killed by gun homicide, and, according to one study, every year more than 46,000 African Americans are shot and wounded. The Community Freedom Party (CFP) believes all Americans, especially black Americans, deserve to live and raise their families in violent free communities. Therefore, we call for adequate, not excessive, funding of police departments and significantly increased funding for social services proven to reduce crime.
Furthermore, although many police officers around the country perform their duties honorably, and CFP believes it is in the best interests of citizens for police departments to receive adequate funding, the fact is that police misconduct has been and continues to be a persistent problem in America. Police department issues vary by type and severity depending on the locality, but notable problems include excessive use of deadly force, patterns of harassment of racial minorities, discriminatory non-enforcement of the law, employment discrimination, a “code of silence, and lack of accountability. Since police misconduct hinders community relations and good law enforcement, addressing police abuse is a necessary aspect of neighborhood safety. CFP supports the following policies related to public safety:
• Adequate Funding of Police Departments as Determined by an Annual Independent Analysis of Public Safety Service Demand: Across 150 large cities, the share of spending dedicated to police departments has grown over the past 40 years, even as some cities have become safer. As spending on the police has increased, aid to cities has decreased in other areas that also impact public safety, such as antipoverty programs and social services. CFP believes police officers, like all public workers, deserve to be adequately funded. Police perform an important public service in oftentimes dangerous situations, and there are conceivably legitimate reasons for increasing police budgets. However, CFP would be remiss if we didn’t point out that increasing police budgets and force size cannot be the answer to every public safety challenge cities face. Increasing the police budget does not always result in less violent crime. CFP therefore calls for adequate funding of local police departments, but such funding must be determined by an annual analysis of public safety demand performed by an independent board of public safety experts, community leaders and residents, police officials, and government officials.
• Increased Funding for Social Services Proven to Reduce Crime: As previously mentioned, higher police funding and increasing the number of police officers does not always lead to reduced crime. In fact, excessive and indiscriminate spending on police departments can lead to over-policing, community mistrust, and the underfunding of local programs that can have a significant impact on public safety outcomes, including mental health services, youth and after-school programs, drug addiction services, and workforce economic programs. CFP, therefore, calls for a significant increase in funding for social and other services proven to reduce crime in the short-, medium- and long-term. With collaboration from police departments and neighborhood residents, these programs and services must be a bigger component of public safety strategies.
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• Establishment of Police-Neighborhood Committees to Improve Police-Community Relations, Encourage Collaborative Decision-making and Promote Feedback: For a public safety campaign to be most effective, there must be trust and communication between the police and the communities they patrol. To improve police-community relations, encourage collaborative decision-making and policy implementation, and promote feedback, CFP supports the establishment of formal or informal police-neighborhood committees consisting of police officers and community residents. In part, the committees would be responsible for finding ways to improve relations between the police and community members, discussing potential approaches to achieve active citizen-police partnership in crime prevention, striving to ensure throughout the community equal protection under the law for all residents, reviewing and proposing solutions for incidents of policing problems which create community concern, and offering a forum for feedback of any proposed new police tactics and policies.
• Suspension of the Use of Stop-and-Frisk by Police Departments: Studies have consistently demonstrated racial disparities in the use of stop-and-frisk by police departments in the United States. For instance, a study of stop-and-frisk by the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., found that of 11,045 stops that did not end in a warning, ticket or arrest, 86% were of black people. Another study of Chicago’s Police Department found that black Chicago residents disproportionately bore the highest number of stop-and-frisk encounters, and half the stops were not justified by the officers. Moreover, there is little to no evidence that stop-and-frisk has an impact on crime – in New York, when stops dropped, crime did as well. Given the racial disparities involving stop-and-frisk and the dearth of evidence concerning its impact on crime, CFP believes it is unjust and immoral to continue its practice and calls for its suspension. Stop-and-frisk reduces community trust of the police and, consequently, makes the delivery of police services in black communities less effective.
• Ban on Police Holds that Restrict Airways: A 2013 Justice Department survey found that of police departments serving more than a million people, 43 percent allowed neck restraints of some kind, even though, over the past two decades, multiple people have died when neck restraints were used in their arrest. For example, a previous study found sixteen instances of Los Angeles residents – nearly all of them black men – dying from police chokeholds. CFP calls for laws that would prohibit the police from using restraints that restrict the airway or blood flow to the brain.
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• Civilian Review Boards with Power to Suspend and Dismiss Officers without Pay: Per a 2017 study, since 2006, the nation’s largest police departments have fired at least 1,881 officers for misconduct that betrayed the public’s trust. The study found that they were subsequently forced to reinstate more than 450 officers after appeals required by union contracts (In many cases, the underlying misconduct was undisputed, but arbitrators often concluded the firings were unjustified because of procedural mistakes.). This includes a San Antonio police officer caught on a dash cam challenging a handcuffed man to fight him for the chance to be released, a Washington, D.C., police officer convicted of sexually abusing a young woman in his patrol car, and a police officer in Florida fired for fatally shooting an unarmed man. This, of course, does not include police misconduct cases that go unreported. On most police forces, officers accused of wrongdoing are subject to internal affairs investigations to determine whether they violated department policies. However, these internal investigations in which the police investigate themselves can be flawed, resulting in inadequate evidence gathering, false statements, and lack of transparency. Lack of proper accountability not only hurts the reputation and standing of the many police officers who perform their jobs honorably, it also endangers the communities that police are supposed to protect. CFP calls for strong and independent Civilian Review Boards to investigate suspected police misconduct. In localities where Civilian Review Boards are already established but weak and not sufficiently independent, CFP supports reforming them so that they have the following attributes: they must be adequately funded and independent with 1) the power to conduct hearings, subpoena witnesses, and report findings, 2) the authority to independently investigate incidents, 3) the authority to access relevant documents and video footage and subpoena police officers as witnesses, 4) the ability to make policy and reform recommendations, and 5) the power to suspend and fire police officers for egregious misconduct without pay and also the authority to reassign and demote officers.
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• Work with Police Unions to Increase Hiring of Minorities from the Communities that Police Serve: Greater racial diversity can improve police treatment of minority communities. A study from the Journal Science analyzed approximately 3 million Chicago police patrol assignments and found that black and Hispanic officers made fewer stops and arrests while using force less often, especially against black people, than their white colleagues. CFP will work with police departments and unions to increase hiring of minorities, especially minorities from the low- and moderate-income communities the police serve. CFP also believes police forces must address hiring practices which disproportionately hinder the hiring of otherwise qualified minority candidates.
• Establishment of a Police-Citizens Bill of Rights: CFP believes it is a worthwhile effort for each municipality to produce and widely distribute a Police-Citizens Bill of Rights. Such a Bill of Rights would not only inform citizens about what to do during encounters with the police, but it would also serve as a constant reminder to police officers of the limits of their authority, what compliance they are entitled to from citizens, and what respect they are responsible for giving the people they serve.
• “Criminal Misdemeanor” Crime Classification for Reporting A Suspected Crime When Such a Report is Shown to be Solely or Primarily Based on Racial Bias or Prejudice: Over the decades, African Americans have too often had police summoned by non-black citizens after engaging in mundane activities: sitting in restaurants, sleeping in university common rooms, moving into apartments, leaving apartments, entering apartments or their houses, going for walks, barbecuing, political canvasing, walking their dogs, standing on the sidewalk, sitting or sleeping in their cars, and other innocuous behaviors or activities. Some of these complaints can be classified as racially motivated – calls, complaints or reports made when African Americans are engaged in behavior that would not have been deemed suspicious if they were another race – or as racially weaponized – calls, complaints or reports made against African Americans in an effort to capitalize on law enforcement mistreatment of black persons or harm the victim because of their race. Often, these unjustified calls have resulted in innocent African Americans experiencing embarrassment, physical or psychological injuries, or, in the worse cases, fatal encounters with the police. CFP calls for laws that would make it a criminal misdemeanor to knowingly or recklessly report members of a protected class, including African Americans, to law enforcement agencies without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
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Transition from Prison
Over 600,000 people are released from state and federal prisons each year. Many struggle to reintegrate into society and need access to robust support while they work to attain self-sufficiency. Such support includes stable employment, secure housing, and treatment for physical and mental health conditions. However, a wide variety of federal, state and local policies make it extremely difficult for released prisoners, many of them African Americans, to support themselves and receive the assistance they need. In fact, a 2010 study by the Pew Center on the States found that so many residents of African-American neighborhoods, particularly men, had been touched by the justice system and systemically locked out of the traditional workforce, it was very difficult for them to break out of the cycle of poverty.
Successful transitions from prison to society are important not only for the formerly incarcerated (30%-50% of former prisoners become homeless after release) but also for their families and the predominantly minority communities to which they return. CFP therefore calls for policies that encourage rather than hinder the social and economic reintegration of released prisoners.
• Increased Educational Opportunities for Prisoners: One 2013 study from the Rand Corporation estimated that prisoners who enrolled in an education program were 43 percent less likely to return to prison. Sentence-blind GED, vocational, associate’s, and bachelor’s programs should be made available in all jails, prisons, and juvenile and civil commitment settings. CFP calls for the continued availability of Pell Grants as well as a mix of low interest, government-subsidized educational loans for America’s prison population and access to physical or digital libraries. The educational programs made available to prisoners should be certified for quality and possibly be provided by the public universities of the state in which the prison is located and HBCUs. A staff of counselors and tutors should also be made available to enrolled prisoners to help them as they earn their degrees as well as instruct them in basic job search skills such as typing, drafting resumes/cover letters, and preparation for job interviews.
• $7.25/hr Minimum Wages for Incarcerated Prisoners Who Perform Job Functions: As of 2017, the average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs was 86 cents and the average maximum daily wage was $3.45. Making it hard for incarcerated people to earn money hurts their chances of success after they are released from prison and makes it more likely they will commit crimes in the communities they return to. Though each state is different, individuals are often released from prison with little more than small stipend (which can range from $10 to a few hundred dollars), a bus or train ticket, a set of clothes, and the personal property with which they were admitted. CFP calls for a $7.25 per hour minimum wage for incarcerated workers. Part of these funds should be kept in an interest-earning savings account that can be accessed by the prisoners upon release to help increase their chances of post-release success in the communities they return to, which are usually minority communities.
• Pre-release Enrollment in State and Federal Benefit Programs: Some states prevent prisoners from applying for benefits before their release. This increases the risk of rearrest or reincarceration for former prisoners if they must wait a long time to receive support for accessing basic needs. For instance, it can take states up to 30 days to process Federal SNAP applications after a person files a request. CFP calls for allowing incarcerated prisoners to apply for eligible federal and state benefits prior to their release so that benefits can be available as of the date they leave prison.
• Better Access to Health Services In Jails and Prisons: A lack of adequate healthcare has been documented in many United States prisons and jails. However, one in six prisoners has a diagnosable mental illness, and the prison population suffers from infectious and chronic disease at rates that are four to ten times higher than the total population. Inmates deserve to have adequate healthcare services, especially since those who do not receive adequate mental and physical health services bring their health issues back to their communities after they are released. CFP supports better access to health services in jails and prisons and the increased federal and state funding necessary to achieve this.
• Elimination of Collateral Consequences for People with Criminal Records: Collateral consequences are a set of legal and regulatory restrictions that limit people with criminal records from engaging in a wide range of activities, including voting, participating in public benefits programs, and acquiring certain jobs and occupational licenses. Particularly, restrictions on employment, occupational licensing, and housing assistance can create serious barriers to finding high-quality jobs and stable affordable housing, increasing the risks of economic instability and recidivism. CFP calls for the elimination of collateral consequences relating to voting, employment opportunities, and public benefits programs.
• Prohibit Employers From Asking About An Applicant’s Criminal History: The previously incarcerated have a difficult time finding and retaining adequate employment. Up to half may remain unemployed for as long as a year after their release. Evidence suggests that employers are more averse to hiring those with criminal convictions than any other disadvantaged group. Another study found that both being black and having a criminal history independently decreased the probability of being called back for a job interview; black individuals with criminal records had the lowest callback rates of the study population. CFP supports the prohibition of employers asking about an applicant’s criminal history. This is necessary to allow parolees a fair chance to make an honest living and successfully integrate back into their communities.
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We are the only party 100% focused on the policies that will improve the well-being of the African-American Community.
HEALTH
Medical Facilities
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African Americans are living longer and a majority have some form of health care insurance coverage. However, the American health care system is still beset with problems that have a disproportionate impact on black Americans and other minorities. One major issue is that majority African-American and Hispanic areas are more likely to lack hospitals and other health care providers. Furthermore, when health care providers are located within majority African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods, they tend to offer low-quality care. Hospitals in African-American neighborhoods are also more likely to close.
A previous analysis by the Post-Gazette/Journal Sentinel showed that nearly two-thirds of hospitals opened since 2000 were in wealthier, mostly suburban areas. As health systems opened those facilities, they closed medical facilities in urban areas. The number of hospitals in 52 major cities in the U.S. feel from 781 in 1970 to 426 in 2010. Most of the medical facilities closed were community hospitals in urban neighborhoods and public hospitals, leaving many lower-income and working-class minority neighborhoods with no safety-net hospitals.
In order to provide African Americans with the high-quality health facilities they need and deserve, the Community Freedom Party (CFP) calls for the following policies:
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• Increase Federal, State and Local Funding for Safety Net Hospitals: According to data from one study by the Lown Institute, the best-funded hospitals in America generally avoid treating lower-income people in their local communities and fill their beds instead with affluent patients with generous health-care plans. Low-income and minority patients, who generally have more meager health insurance or none at all, are forced to use under-resourced safety net hospitals (i.e., hospitals that by legal obligation or mission provide healthcare for individuals regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay) such as those owned and operated by municipal governments. Data shows that minorities typically lack access to prestigious, well-funded hospitals even when these hospitals are located nearby and might benefit from a tax-exempt status (Most U.S. hospitals are nonprofit and retain tax-exempt status based primarily on the premise that they provide services to the community. But free or reduced-cost care for lower-income residents is now a very small part of what many hospitals focus on.). The hospitals that minorities do typically have access to are generally underfunded. CFP calls for substantially increased federal, state and local funding for safety net hospitals. The level of higher funding should be sufficient enough to allow safety net hospitals to cover their costs while providing high quality care to poor, working-class and minority communities. Also, CFP calls for hospitals to demonstrate that they are providing a fair and equitable level of medical care and services to poor, working-class and minority residents in their surrounding communities in order to maintain their tax-exempt status.
• Increase Funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Low- and Working-Class Neighborhoods: Federally Qualified Health Centers are community-based organizations that provide comprehensive primary and preventive care - including oral and mental health services - to persons regardless of their ability to pay. They often provide care to patients in underserved communities. Healthcare providers in these centers can help community residents manage their day-to-day health needs by teaching them ways to stay healthy, treating them for common illnesses and chronic conditions, and helping them make better health decisions and engage in practices that aid in disease prevention. FQHCs can also help decrease the burden on hospitals, especially by reducing emergency department visits for primary care treatable conditions. However, FQHCs currently lack the resources to help everyone who needs their services; about 20 million low-income people don’t have access to these health centers. Because FQHCs can have a positive impact on neighborhoods and their residents, CFP supports significantly higher appropriations for these organizations.
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Health Insurance Coverage
While coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have furthered progress toward universal coverage, the continued high cost of many coverage options means that access to affordable health plans is still a challenge for many Americans, particularly African Americans. The average annual cost for health care premiums among blacks is almost 20 percent of the average household income (it is 11 percent of family income for the U.S. population overall). Moreover, the Commonwealth Fund estimates that as many as 87 million people are underinsured, meaning they have health coverage but their plan leads to unusually high out-of-pocket costs that can lead to a strain on personal finances and even debt. To increase quality health insurance coverage, CFP supports the following policies.
• Medicaid Expansion: Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid eligibility was expanded for adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. However, due to a 2012 Supreme Court ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the expansion of Medicaid is optional for states. The states that haven’t expanded Medicaid are largely concentrated in the southern region of the United States, where approximately 58 percent of African Americans live. Due partly to the lack of Medicaid expansion, the southern U.S. is now home to some of the nation’s sickest people and it has the highest health disparities between whites and minorities. Consequently, CFP supports and will work for the expansion of Medicaid in those states that have not done so. Furthermore, CFP calls for the elimination of financially burdensome cost-sharing requirements, lock-out periods, benefit cuts or mandatory work or community engagement policies that have the effect of reducing enrollment among vulnerable individuals.
• Public Option for Health Insurance: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) significantly improved health coverage in the U.S., but many Americans remain uninsured or underinsured. Moreover, health insurance deductibles and premiums continue to rise, placing a substantial financial burden on many Americans. For instance, the average median deductible for benchmark silver health insurance plans grew from $1,809 in 2014 to $4,879 in 2021, and that for the bronze plans rose from $1,674 to $6,992 over a similar period. In 2016, the average employer group plan deductible rose 12%. CFP supports a Public Health Insurance Option that is 1) administered by the federal government, 2) offers automatic enrollment of the uninsured and those who lose their jobs, 3) is available to those in the marketplace, those enrolled in Medicaid, and low-wage employees offered job-based coverage (this is especially important for low-wage workers who often pay on average $7,000 toward premiums and $2,679 in deductibles for employer-offered health plans), 3) covers essential health benefits with extension of the full scope of Medicaid benefits, 4) features no deductible for all enrollees, no cost sharing for enrollees with income up to 250% of the federal poverty level, and co-insurance set at 85/15 for people with incomes above 250% of the federal poverty level up to an out-of-pocket cap set at 10% of after-tax income, 5) has monthly premiums set at $0 for those with income up to 200% of the federal poverty level, 3% of income for those with income up to 250% of the federal poverty level, 5% of income for those with income up to 400% of the federal poverty level, and 8.5% of income for those with income greater than 400% of the federal poverty level, 6) includes hospitals, physicians and other health care providers currently participating in Medicaid and Medicare, 7) is structured to have no impact on the current Medicare program, and 8) is partially funded through closing existing corporate tax loopholes.
• Expanded Premium Subsidies: CFP supports recent efforts to increase funding and expand eligibility for premium subsidies for those enrolled in marketplace health plans. Such changes improve affordability of health coverage for individuals and families already enrolled in marketplace health plans and those who would want to do so. Particularly, CFP calls for fully subsidizing the benchmark gold plan for people earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level. Furthermore, people earning between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty level should be required to contribute no more than 3% of household income toward a benchmark gold plan, 5% of household income for those earning between 250% and 400% of the federal poverty level and 8.5% of household income for those with higher incomes. These changes would be partially funded through closing existing corporate tax loopholes.
• Decrease in Prescription Drug Prices: An estimated 18 million Americans were unable to afford a prescription due to its cost in 2021, and the U.S. pays three times more than other countries for brand-name drugs. CFP supports efforts allowing the federal government to negotiate on behalf of all Americans a fair price for drugs with pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, there should be very few, if any, limits on the number or type of drugs subject to possible negotiation. CFP also calls for more closely tying what Americans pay for drugs to the rate of inflation, requiring pharmaceutical companies to report and justify price increases, limiting out-of-pocket prescription drug payments for Medicare recipients to $1,500 annually, restricting a drug company’s ability to unjustifiably extend their original patents, heavily fining pharmaceutical companies for paying competitors not to introduce generic drugs, and linking pharmaceutical research tax credits to price concessions. Although the pharmaceutical industry claims that allowing the government to negotiate prices would hamper research and innovation, the largest drug companies spent $577 billion on stock buybacks, dividends and executive salaries between 2016 and 2020, which is less than they spent on research and development.
We are the only party 100% focused on the policies that will improve the well-being of the African-American Community.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollution-Free Neighborhoods
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Over the decades, black Americans have shouldered a disproportionate burden of the United States’ pollution. Examples include toxic water in Flint, Michigan and dangerous chemicals that have poisoned a corridor of Louisiana known as Cancer Alley. A 1983 study by the U.S. General Accounting Office found that in the United States, commercial waste treatment facilities and uncontrolled waste dumps were more likely to be found near black than white residential areas. A 2017 report from the NAACP and the Clean Air Task Force found that African Americans are 75 percent more likely than other Americans to live in areas situated near facilities that produce hazardous waste. A 2018 study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Center for Environmental Assessment reported that African Americans are subjected to higher levels of air pollution than white Americans regardless of income level.
Like all citizens of the United States, African Americans should be able to go to work, socialize with their neighbors, and raise their families without having to suffer the negative health effects of living near sources of pollution. The Community Freedom Party (CFP) will work for the following policies to help ensure that black Americans enjoy clean air, water and soil in their communities:
• Ban On the Placement of New Pollution-Producing Facilities Near Black Communities: Communities of color, especially those that are lower income, are routinely targeted to host facilities that have negative impacts on the environment (e.g., landfills, industrial plants, incinerators, and radioactive waste storage areas). Affluent and non-minority communities would never tolerate such facilities, and CFP believes black and other minority communities shouldn’t either. CFP will work to enact municipal ordinances banning the placement of new toxic waste and pollution-producing facilities near minority neighborhoods and communities and prohibiting the expansion of such facilities that already exist.
• Enactment of Amortization Ordinances: In addition to banning the placement of new toxic waste and pollution-producing facilities near minority neighborhoods and communities, CFP calls for phasing out existing pollution-producing facilities that have a detrimental environmental impact on minority communities. Specifically, in or near black and other minority communities, operations that have negative impacts on the health of residents (e.g., landfills, industrial plants, incinerators, and radioactive waste storage areas) must be designated as nonconforming land uses and be required to be phased out within a reasonable and legally-defensible time period. Moreover, after the phase-out period, adequate funds should be made available to rehabilitate the land for future economic, residential or commercial use that does not harm the health of local residents.
• Require Environmental Impact Reviews for New Developments: Many municipalities already have a process to review proposals for new developments through their planning and zoning boards. But sometimes the review process doesn’t require applicants to address the environmental impact of their projects on surrounding communities. CFP supports laws, regulations and ordinances requiring new development applicants to submit detailed information about what chemicals and potentially harmful substances are expected to be emitted, released or stored as a result of the development and what environmental impacts the development will have on surrounding communities in the short-, medium- and long-term. The laws, regulations and ordinances should also give municipalities the authority to reject applications based on projected environmental consequences on surrounding communities or require changes to mitigate their impacts.
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Additional Environmental Policies
• $85 Billion Contribution to the Superfund Trust Fund: : Superfund sites are locations where hazardous waste (e.g., lead, trichlorethylene, chromium, benzene, and arsenic) has been dumped from such sources as mines, processing plants, manufacturing facilities, and landfills. Recent legislation has appropriated $3.5 billion in funding for cleanup of 49 Superfund sites. However, there are more than 1,300 Superfund sites in the U.S. These sites have especially impacted minority communities, leading to contaminated drinking water and health problems for residents, including asthma, cancer, and neurological damage. More than one in four black Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site. CFP believes that the current situation, which has resulted in the continued contamination of black communities, is intolerable and must be immediately addressed with adequate funding. The present funding level for Superfund site cleanup is obviously insufficient, and, over the past several decades, has been inconsistent (from 1999 to 2020, annual appropriations to the Superfund Trust decreased from $2.3 billion to just under $1.2 billion). CFP calls for an $85 billion one-time contribution to the Superfund Trust Fund to finance the immediate cleanup of America’s over 1,300 Superfund sites. This contribution is meant to supplement, not replace, the Superfund Trust’s usual annual appropriation, which should increase or decrease depending on the progress of Superfund site cleanup efforts. CFP also supports necessary state and local legislation and regulations to ensure that minority residents actually benefit from cleanup efforts, rather than being displaced from their neighborhoods to make room for new commercial and residential development.
• Enact and Strengthen Laws That Protect Residents from Pollution: CFP believes that all Americans deserve to live and work in environments that are free of pollution. Where appropriate, CFP will work to enact and strengthen local, state and federal laws that result in clean and safe environments for American families.
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
Angela Davis