REBUILDING OUR COMMUNITY POST-9/11: A TIMELINE OF MAJOR EVENTS

October 2001: Hundreds of car service drivers excluded from the government’s relief programs come together in Chinatown and successfully push for inclusion.

November 2001 - April 2002: Over 10,000 garment workers north of Canal Street, where most of the factories are located, lose their jobs and family health insurance. CSWA members conduct an economic survey and find that a third of the factories we were able to survey closed down, and factories that remained open laid off at least half of their workforce. Due to the rigid decision by many relief agencies to use Canal Street as a cut off line, splitting Chinatown in half, these workers are deemed ineligible for any sort of assistance. When large relief agencies refuse to change their guidelines, CSWA partners with Catholic Charities and Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service to direct relief to these workers. CSWA helps to interview and distribute over $2.3 million to 2200 garment workers.

April 2002: CSWA helps to spearhead the Beyond Ground Zero Network (BGZ), a coalition of community and advocacy groups working within the impacted neighborhoods.

May 2002: Over 2,000 low-income workers from Lower Manhattan gather for a Town Hall Meeting in Chinatown to demand government and private relief agencies, such as Red Cross and Salvation Army, change their exclusionary guidelines and be accountable to their health needs. Programs like the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Mortgage and Rental Assistance program discriminated against low-income workers by unfairly requiring documentation such as employer verification or did not recognize the fact that many workers in Chinatown are paid in cash. Workers also voice the need for immediate health benefits and raise serious concern about the long-term effects of the toxic air.

June 2002: Over 3,000 workers and residents march from Lower East Side to Foley Square and demonstrate across from the FEMA office.

July 2002: A caravan of buses with over 1,000 low-income workers travels to D.C. to march in front of the White House demanding attention to their health needs. Within days after the march, the government announces a citywide program to provide air conditioners and purifiers. Around the same time, the September 11th Fund establishes a program to provide health insurance.

November 2002: CSWA partners with United Methodist Committee on Relief to assist workers apply for 9/11 disaster relief benefits.

December 2002: Workers and residents from the Lower East Side and Chinatown gather for a Candlelight Vigil in front of FEMA to demand an extension of the program deadline as well as changes in program criteria. Soon after, FEMA extends its deadline.

April 2003 - January 2004: CSWA assists over 2,000 displaced workers to access various health insurance benefits, including health benefits and job training under the September 11th Fund relief program. CSWA successfully advocates for the recognition of cash income by the September 11th Fund program.

April 2003: CSWA helps to form the Lower East Side – Chinatown Consortium in response to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s (LMDC) discriminatory, anti-poor Residential Grant Program, which excluded low-income residents on the East Side and unfairly required residents to provide a lease or landlord verification in order to be eligible.

May 2003: 14 injured workers and 9/11 survivors come together to hunger strike for 7 days in front of NYS Governor Pataki’s office in midtown.

June 2003: With the support of CSWA, garment workers whose 9/11 training program was unjustly cut short, successfully fought for the program to be restored. Ironically, many sweatshop bosses in Chinatown teamed up with the garment workers’ union to oppose the September 11th Fund-sponsored training program, claiming it took workers away from their factories.

September 2003: LESCC sponsors a town hall meeting, drawing over 1,300 9/11 survivors from the LES and Chinatown to call for initiatives that reflect the true needs of the working poor in Lower Manhattan. Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, State Senator Tom Duane, and other elected officials attend in support. NYS Governor Pataki and LMDC are invited, but refuse to attend.

September 2003 - March 2004: CSWA and NMASS assist over 2,000 LES and Chinatown residents to send in applications to LMDC in protest of their exclusionary program. In March 2004, copies of the protest applications are delivered to the offices of Gov. Pataki, Assemblymember Silver, and Senator Bruno.

Spring 2004: BGZ files a Freedom of Information Act request in 2002 to obtain FEMA’s relief program records. The initial records secured proof that there was blatant discrimination against low-income people. For example, fewer than 2% of applicants from the LES and Chinatown zip codes were approved for IFG funds. Initially, the government is unwilling to comply with the FOIA request in an attempt to cover up the failures of their programs. In 2004, we won our request and received full records. FEMA’s later records show that the number of people applying and approved for FEMA relief programs drastically jumped in the months following our outreach activities.

April 2004: Together with BGZ, CSWA launches BGZ Community Health Initiative with Bellevue Hospital.