Proposal recommends almost $37-million for high crime and low income areas

Attorney General Matt Denn announces details of his Lifting Up Delaware’s Communities proposal as Governor Jack Markell and members of Wilmington City Council look on.

(WILMINGTON) – Backed by the Governor, legislators, police, educators, clergy, community activists, Attorney General Matt Denn proposed a multi-faceted plan to allocate money from a financial crisis settlement Wednesday, designed to have a profound impact on some of Delaware’s most economically distressed and crime-stricken communities.

 

Funded by settlements with Bank of America and Citi to resolve allegations of actions with respect to investments that contributed to the financial crash, “Lifting Up Delaware’s Communities” consists of three main components:  Investing in people and neighborhoods, providing help to our high-poverty schools, and promoting affordable housing and development in economically impacted areas.

 

“We believe that this ambitious investment in Delaware’s economically impacted communities has the potential to transform parts of our state,” said Attorney General Matt Denn, “and we have faith it will have a real impact on people who desperately need help.”

 

Governor Markell noted the plan supports efforts in some of the highest need areas of the state, which can then serve to enhance all of Delaware.

 

“Thriving cities shelter their people in safe and comfortable homes,” Markell said. “They support vibrant neighborhoods, and that allows businesses to prosper, and it also lures visitors as well.”

 

The details of Lifting Up Delaware’s Communities are as follows:

 

1. Investing In People and Neighborhoods. An investment of almost $16 million in programs to help youth succeed, provide treatment for Delawareans with substance abuse disorder, help inmates being released from our prisons to avoid re-offending and going back to jail, and fund a variety of policing and other enrichment activities for economically impacted communities.  Specifically:

a. Substance Abuse Treatment. Proposing $3 million be spent over a period of three years to establish additional treatment facilities for persons suffering from substance abuse disorder or related conditions.

 b. After-School and Summer Programs. Proposing $3 million be spent over three years for summer and after-school programs targeted at children from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

 c. Prison Re-Entry Programs. Proposing $3 million be spent over three years to provide competitive grants to non-profit organizations that assist persons being released from correctional facilities in Delaware to avoid new criminal offenses.

 d. Community Policing and Community Support. Proposing  $5.9 million be allocated to the state’s Neighborhood Building Blocks Fund, which can make grants for a broad array of government and non-profit efforts to support economically impacted neighborhoods.  The fund currently has $1 million available from a prior bank settlement.  One example of a potential use of these funds is the Wilmington neighborhood foot patrol initiative that the Department of Justice and the City of Wilmington are about to propose to the Fund.  We are also proposing that $1 million of the funds be used to continue the existence of the Department of Justice’s Crime Strategies Unit, which is designed to address underlying causes of crime in economically disadvantaged areas (such as abating nuisance properties).

 

2. Providing Help to Our High-Poverty Schools. Proposing to invest almost $5 million in adding teachers and paraprofessionals for the 16 elementary schools in Delaware with the highest percentage of low-income students.  Each of the following elementary schools would receive $300,000 over a three year period to hire additional teachers or paraprofessionals to provide additional assistance with their students:

Brittingham Elementary (Cape Henlopen School District)

East Dover Elementary (Capital School District)

Towne Point Elementary (Capital School District)

Bancroft Elementary (Christina School District)

Elbert Palmer Elementary (Christina School District)

Pulaski Elementary (Christina School District)

Stubbs Elementary (Christina School District),

Eisenberg Elementary (Colonial School District)

Colwyck Elementary (Colonial School District),

Dunbar Elementary (Laurel School District)

Highlands Elementary (Red Clay School District)

Lewis Dual Language Elementary (Red Clay School District)

Richardson Park Elementary (Red Clay School District)

Shortlidge Elementary (Red Clay School District)

Warner Elementary (Red Clay School District)

West Seaford Elementary (Seaford School District)

 

 

3. Promoting Affordable Housing and Development In Economically Impacted Areas. Proposing to invest almost $16 million in efforts to promote affordable housing and economic development in economically impacted areas of the state.  Specifically:

a. Foreclosure Prevention. Proposing to direct $1.5 million to the Delaware Mortgage Assistance Program to help Delaware homeowners prevent foreclosures on their primary properties.

b. Affordable Housing. Proposing to dedicate over $10 million to the Delaware State Housing Authority’s Strong Neighborhoods Revolving Housing Fund which is dedicated to the creation of affordable housing in economically impacted areas.

c. Economic Development in Low Income Areas. Proposing to devote almost $4 million to the Downtown Development Districts Program, half of which would be used to provide down payment assistance to homeowners willing to purchase homes in those districts.

 

The settlement of multistate investigations into the actions by Bank of America and Citi, in addition to providing direct relief to some homeowners and the state’s pension funds, has resulted in the state having $36,615,801 that it is permitted to spend to (a) remediate harm the state suffered from the mortgage and financial crisis, and (b) improve housing.  Given the nature of the settlement, the settlement funds are not meant to be used to simply supplant existing state programs or for programs that do not target economically impacted areas or individuals.

 

“In the past, the Attorney General’s Office has independently exercised its common law authority to distribute lawsuit settlement funds,” said Attorney General Matt Denn. “But given the unprecedented sum of money involved in this settlement, we believe it is a sound practice to consult with the Governor and General Assembly regarding the expenditure of the funds.”

 

The Attorney General has already consulted with the Governor and obtained his agreement regarding the use of the funds, and will now seek to enter into a similar  agreement with the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee.

 

Addressing high poverty schools is supported by educators across the state. Equetta Jones, a fourth grade teacher at Warner Elementary School in Wilmington, looks forward to the opportunities the school funding will bring.

 

“So many people think our children don’t want to learn. They do want to learn, they are inspired to learn, and they are me. I am a prodigy of city schools,” Jones said. “Our teachers are capable but we do need resources, and this funding will actually support us by giving us additional staff.”

 

Colonel Elmer Setting, Chief of the New Castle County Police, believes education is a key component to substance abuse treatment.

 

“It’s normally the message from law enforcement that we must find drug dealers and arrest them,” Setting said. “We’ve done that, but the prisons are full and forced sobriety is not the answer. Education is the only way out.”

 

Several elected officials representing the city of Wilmington offered support to the initiative.

 

“This proposal to invest in some of our hardest hit communities is a balanced one that is important to our citizens and to our effort to reduce violent crime,” said Senator Margaret Rose Henry.  “Not only should we make these investments, but given the violence that we are seeing in our neighborhoods, we should make them sooner rather than later.”

 

“We can argue about what money should be spent where, but it’s difficult for me not to agree with conceptually where this money is being spent,” said New Castle County Councilman Jea Street. “The fact of the matter is, if you look at housing, the highest foreclosure rate in the state is in my council district in the city. The city is in trouble and it needs help.”

 

Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory thanked the Attorney General for acting so quickly.

 

“I wanted to thank and express my appreciation for the foresight in the recognition that there’s an urgency to get started, and that Matt Denn hit the ground running,” Gregory said.

 

The Join Finance Committee is expected to address the proposal in early February.

“It is time to get some things done”

 

WILMINGTON, Del. (Tuesday, January 6, 2015) – Today, surrounded by his wife Michele, and twin sons Adam and Zach, Matthew P. Denn was sworn in as Delaware’s Attorney General, pledging “action and a sense of urgency” in addressing the state’s violent crime.

 

After being sworn in by Delaware Superior Court President Judge Jan R. Jurden at the Wilmington Police Athletic League, Attorney General Denn talked candidly about his vision.  “This is not going to be a long speech because when it comes to this problem of violent crime in our state, there has already been too much talk,” Denn said.

 

“Delawareans know that violent crime won’t disappear from our streets overnight; they don’t expect that.  But they do expect action and a sense of urgency from their elected officials.  An urgency that does not wax and wane with the prior week’s headlines.  It is time to get some things done.”

 

In his speech today, Attorney General Denn laid out just a few of the immediate plans he has for addressing these concerns:

 

• Putting visible law enforcement officers in our most violent communities: Denn has presented the City of Wilmington’s elected leaders a proposal to apply jointly with his office for $650,000 from the state’s Neighborhood Building Blocks Fund to pay for six additional foot patrol officers to walk the streets of Wilmington’s most dangerous neighborhoods at night from the beginning of March through the end of the summer.  Officers from the New Castle County and Delaware State Police would help the city’s police provide coverage for the patrols and provide advice on tactics.

 

• Passing legislation addressing illegal possession of firearms: Working with the General Assembly, Denn will be moving quickly to create a legal framework where violent offenders – including teenagers – who illegally carry guns face sure punishment and are not turned back out onto our streets to engage in more illegal activity.

 

• Helping our communities and our neighbors: Denn is committed to providing children chances to learn and stay out of trouble, devoting the resources necessary to tackle the crisis of addiction, helping those who are integrating back into our communities after leaving our corrections system and understanding that human lives are precious and human potential is limitless.

 

 

While he was sworn into office today in Wilmington, the issues the Attorney General and his team will be working on are statewide.  “Violent crime may be concentrated in certain areas of our state, but it affects our whole state,” Denn said.  “When businesses don’t want to come here or stay here because of our violent crime rate, it affects all of us.  When many of our state’s children can’t excel in school because they return home to neighborhoods full of chaos and despair, it affects all of us.  Drug trafficking and the violence that so often accompanies it has found its way into every corner of our state.  And even if violent crime didn’t affect all of us, addressing it would be the right thing to do.  Because people in every neighborhood of this state, rich or poor, have a right to live free of fear.”

 

Attorney General Denn was introduced at the event by Valerie Swanson, a 30-year employee of the Department of Justice.  The invocation was delivered by longtime friend, Apostle Thomas Wesley Weeks, Sr. of New Destiny Fellowship.  Trawana James-Taylor of Seaford sang the National Anthem.  The Attorney General was joined by family and friends, colleagues from the Department of Justice, legislators and law enforcement officials from all over the state.

 

Attorney General Denn concluded his remarks saying that in protecting some of our most vulnerable citizens – children, senior citizens, and Delawareans with disabilities –advocating for consumers, representing our state agencies and investigating wrongdoing, his goal is for Delaware to become the standard by which other Attorney General offices are measured.

 

“Ten years from now, what I have said today won’t matter,” Denn said.  “What will matter is what we do in the weeks and months to come.  We will be judged by our actions.  Did we put aside ego and politics to do the things we all know must be done?

 

Did we do what was needed to secure for this state’s children the opportunities that we received, the opportunities that are their birthright?  Were we our brothers’ keepers?

 

Together, we can set this state on the right course, a course that will allow our neighbors to live in peace and security, and all this state’s children to have the opportunity to live out their dreams.  If we do the right things.  Our work begins today.”

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Event gives public opportunity for open discussion with judges, prosecutors and police

 

WILMINGTON – The first Community Justice Forum will be held this Thursday evening at the New Destiny Fellowship Church in Wilmington, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden announced today.

 

The forum, which will last from 6 to 7:30 p.m., will focus on building trust in the justice system, strengthening collaboration between law enforcement and Delaware’s communities and improving safety on Wilmington’s streets.  The forum will also include discussion of police use-of-force issues.

 

The four-member panel will feature United States District Court Judge Gregory Sleet, State Protector Kathleen Jennings from the Delaware Department of Justice, Justice of the Peace Court Chief Magistrate Alan Davis and Wilmington Police Chief Bobby Cummings. Panelists will give opening remarks and also take questions from the audience. Deputy Attorney General Daniel Logan, who heads the DOJ’s Crime Strategies Unit, will serve as moderator.

 

“Improving communication and strengthening ties between local residents and law enforcement is a critical step in our work to strengthen communities,” Biden said. “Strong communities are safe communities, and working together, local residents and law enforcement officials can make neighborhoods safer.”

 

Thursday’s forum is the first of a planned series of events to foster stronger communication between criminal justice system officials and members of the public. Future events will be announced at a later date but will likely be once every three months and will focus on timely criminal justice issues.

 

New Destiny Fellowship Church is located at 906 E. 16th Street in Wilmington.

 

More information on the forum:

http://tinyurl.com/nst9nf7

Part of settlement terms Attorney General Biden secured calls for Delawareans who had mortgages serviced by Ocwen and lost home to foreclosure to receive payment

 

WILMINGTON – First State consumers who are eligible for a direct payment as part of the $7 million settlement Attorney General Beau Biden reached with Ocwen Financial should soon be receiving their checks, Biden announced Monday.

 

More than 200 Delawareans will receive checks of approximately $1,200 under the settlement, which Biden, 48 other attorneys general and the federal government reached with Ocwen in December 2013 to resolve allegations that the financial institution’s misconduct contributed to the housing crisis. The settlement holds Ocwen accountable for past mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses, provides relief to homeowners, and stops future fraud and abuse.

 

The payments are going to Delawareans who had mortgages serviced through Ocwen or one of two subsidiaries and lost their homes to foreclosure between January 2009 and December 2013. The checks should all be in the mail by Tuesday. In addition to these direct payments, Ocwen was also required to provide financial benefits, such as principal reductions, to homeowners who still hold an Ocwen mortgage as well as make significant customer service improvements.

 

“Our financial system only works when everyone plays by the rules and there must be accountability when the rules are broken,” said Biden, who has secured more than $185 million for Delaware in settlements with banks whose conduct helped cause the housing crisis. “The funds we have secured in these settlements provide financial benefits to consumers as well as resources to strengthen communities harmed during the housing crisis.”

 

Ocwen specialized in servicing high-risk mortgage loans. Ocwen’s misconduct resulted in premature and unauthorized foreclosures, violations of homeowners’ rights and protections, and the use of false and deceptive documents and affidavits, including robo-signing.

 

Ocwen customers eligible for the payments should already have been contacted. Consumers can contact Ocwen at 1-800-337-6695 or ConsumerRelief@Ocwen.com.  Borrowers having difficulty contacting Ocwen or who have questions should contact Biden’s office by calling the Attorney General’s Office of Foreclosure Prevention at 1-800-220-5424.

Washington, D.C. – Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden and his colleagues in 43 U.S. states and territories voiced support today for a Congressional proposal that would provide financial support for victims of child pornography. The Attorneys General sent a letter today to the leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a House Judiciary Subcommittee calling on federal lawmakers to vote this year on the Amy and Vicky Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2014 (S. 2301/H.R. 4981).

The legislation would allow full restitution to victims of child pornography to pay for needed resources including therapy, medical care, lost wages and other services. In April 2014, the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court in Paroline v. United States affirmed that victims of child pornography should receive restitution, but defendants are only liable for their actions, not the conduct of others.

“Victims of child pornography are constantly reminded of the abuse of their past, and there is no way to erase the photographs from the Internet or prevent them from being shared by others,” Biden and his colleagues wrote in their letter. This legislation “provides victims with meaningful restitution from multiple defendants who produce, distribute or possess images of child pornography, including those who have not been identified.”

“Providing timely and meaningful restitution will ensure that the growing number of victims can begin to rebuild their lives by fully recovering the financial losses caused by child pornography,” the Attorneys General wrote.

Child pornography is growing in the United States and according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, cases prosecuted for possession, distribution, receipt, and transportation of child pornography increased from 624 cases in 2004 to over 2,000 cases in 2012. With the Internet and other new technologies, child pornography is more easily attainable and has led to increased victimization and trafficking in order to meet the demand.

In 2007, Biden established the Delaware Child Predator Task Force and worked with legislators to establish tough minimum mandatory sentences for those who deal in child pornography. Since then, the Task Force’s work has led to the conviction of more than 200 predators and the rescue of more than 100 children from abusive situations.

“Nothing is more important than protecting our kids,” Biden said. “The Child Predator Task Force puts prosecutors and police side by side to track down the worst of society and stop them from hurting any more children.”

The letter can be found HERE.