11/26/2019 0 Comments City resources- text over video
After working through some user errors, creating a text over video project was very easy using the Quik app. The set up of the app is easy to get familiar with after looking through it for a few minutes and the step-by-step approach makes the task less daunting. I liked how you chose your videos, then your theme, then music and so forth and so on. The variety of options for music and theme were also really nice. It was fun to be able to create the mood that fits my story perfectly.
I did struggle uploading my video projects after completing them. Finding the two ways to save them was easy, but something about uploading them just did not work. I'm not sure if it was the file size or just my phone. Over all though, using Quik was a good experience and something I would feel comfortable doing again.
0 Comments
Labeling bags of cat and dog food, finding the best contractor to fix a hole in the roof of a family home and meeting with recently rehomed families are all in a day’s work for employees of the city Community Resource Division.
Resources offered by Fayetteville tackle several issues those in need might face, including transportation, finding housing, repairing houses and securing housing. “We are kind of hitting it from all points,” said Yolanda Fields, community resources director for the city.
The Fayetteville Hearth program provides assistance with rent, housing and utility deposits, as well as case management, according to the September 2019 quarterly report.
The program has helped house and provided case management for 196 people since February of 2016. At the end of September, 38 scattered-site units were occupied across the city, housing families and individuals, Fields said. Hearth Place is a part of the program in which the city collects everything from home goods to toiletries to kitchen essentials and gives them individuals in a laundry basket when they are housed, Fields said. The Hearth program uses a survey to assess the situation of clients and goes from there, said Robert Bradley, one of the case managers for the city. “If you have three kids and are sleeping in your car, you are going to be higher on the list,” Bradley said. After getting in touch with individuals to determine whether they will need short-term or permanent assistance, they will complete an application and they then have 30 days to look for housing, Bradley said. The city assistance for permanent housing is available as long as needed, as long as rules are followed, Bradley said. There is no cap on the number of families the city can help, but there is only so much a case manager can handle, Bradley said. If people do call for immediate services, they are referred to the Salvation Army, Bradley said. The pet food bank is another one of the city’s resources available for those in need Ranger's Pantry Pet Food Bank was founded in 2010 and works to keep struggling families, individuals and their pets together during financial hardship, according to the Fayetteville Community Development Program website. Through Oct. 25 the pantry has distributed more than 160,000 pounds of pet food, according to the city website. Ranger's Pantry has assisted 118 families, including 238 pets, and distributed more than 8,000 pounds of food for the year through Oct. 24, according to the official Facebook page. Winter is the busier season for the pantry, especially for day laborers, but it aligns with the holiday season where people are more inclined to donate resources, said Adam Roberts, one of the project coordinators for the City of Fayetteville. The main focus of Ranger’s Pantry is cat and dog food, but it does occasionally get bedding for rodents, birdseed and other items, Adams. The pantry also accepts pet beds, leashes and toys. The only restriction for the program is that clients must live in Fayetteville. If a client is homeless the pantry will accept somewhere such as 7Hills Homeless Shelter for their address. Others are required to bring a bill for proof of address, Adams said. “Income requirements are set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but we take it by faith,” Adams said. The city assists with resources including taxis and transit services, housing rehabilitation program and the Help a Neighbor Fund. The latest count showed 529 people in Fayetteville were facing homelessness on Jan. 24, 2019, according to the Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care’s Point-in-Time census. NWA Continuum of care is is a non-profit coalition working to end homelessness in the region. Volunteers are passionate about ending homelessness in the region, according to their website. The Point in Time Count is a HUD-required count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January that HUD requires Continuums of Care conduct. For those 529 as well as families and individuals who might not have been counted, a variety of resources are available in Fayetteville.
Whitney King had a plan. She had just graduated from Arkansas State University with her bachelors’ degree in journalism and was accepted into a masters program at the University of Arkansas.
She made the move from Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Fayetteville and thought she was set. Then she got an email on August 15 saying that a payment was overdue by 11 days — a loan she thought she would not have to start paying back until after she graduated with her masters’ degree. King, 24, said she thinks there needs to be more information given to a borrower beforehand. “I hadn’t taken out a loan before, so I think it would be beneficial to know the ins and outs,” King said. “It was a lot of information thrown at me on that day. Out of all Arkansas college students that graduated between 2015 and 2017, on average, 14 percent defaulted on their student loans. The average amount of debt a student graduated school with between those two years was $14,000. Borrowers default for various reasons, including divorce, health problems and not finishing school, Joel Doelger, Director of Community Development and Housing Counseling for the non-profit Credit Counseling of Arkansas. “There is no typical reason,” he said. A loan is considered in default after a borrower goes 270 days without making payments, Deolger said.
King said she enrolled in her graduate courses in May and thought the loan would automatically defer until after she graduated with her masters. King then got a letter informing her that loan was in default in August and quickly began the process of getting it deferred. After proving her enrollment, King is now considered to be out of default.
Todd Hertzberg, a Fayetteville-based bankruptcy attorney, said about half of his clients have student loans with some loans reaching up to $350,000. Hertzberg urges his clients to get out of default as soon as possible, even if they plan on filing for bankruptcy. Penalties for defaulting on student loans can be severe. Unlike other creditors, student loan providers only have to send one notice before they can have employers garnish wages, meaning loan payments are forcibly taken from a paycheck. Interest rates on loans in default can spike as high as 30 percent. There are few options for relief for those struggling to pay down student loans. Student loans are non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, unless they pose an undue hardship. This means that even if other debt is waived through bankruptcy, student loans are not except in rare cases, Hertzberg said. “There has been a myriad of court decisions around the country as to what constitutes undue hardship and the courts have not opened the doors very wide,” Hertzberg said. “It has been narrowed to nearly complete physical disability.” Some undergraduates who took out loans are nervous about paying them off in the future. Rachel Thrash, a junior advertising and public relations major at the University of Arkansas said she worries about balancing living expenses and student loan payments after graduation. She will have to begin repaying her loan six months after she graduates. “After college, I’m going to have to start paying on an apartment and a car and all these different things and then on top of that also paying for student loans,” Thrash said. Options for those in default are limited. A defaulted loan will be transferred from the original bank or loan servicer to a collection agency, Doelger said. Two options for borrowers after defaulting are rehabilitation and reconsolidation. For rehabilitation, a borrower will contact the collection agency and ask for a rehabilitation plan where a payment amount is determined, The borrower will need to make nine payments in 10 months to get out of default, Doelger said.
If a borrower chooses rehabilitation they can have the default mark removed their credit report, Doelger said.
If a borrower has more than one loan, they can consolidate them, Doelger said. The consolidation process can take borrower out of default in one to two months, a quicker option that rehabilitation, Doelger said. It also offers a wider range of payment options, but consolidation does not allow the default mark to be removed from credit scores, Doelger said. Income-driven plans are available for both options, Doelger said. Some students do not understand the full implications of taking out student loans and the repayment process, he said. “I think it’s human nature to be more aware of what’s going on today than what’s going to happen six years down the line when loans are going to be payable,” Doelger said. Noel Morris, a finance professor at the Sam Walton College of Business at the UofA, said students need to approach student loans like any other loan. “It has the same impact as if you stop paying for your car or you stop paying for your house,” said Morris. “They cannot repossess it like they would a car, but it will not go away. It will hurt your credit for about seven years.”
|
Abbi RossUniversity of Arkansas Journalism Student || Arkansas Traveler Reporter || Lemke Digital Media Lab Student Archives
December 2019
Categories |