TO: Office of Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator
RE: Development plans for Restoring the National Historic District of Freedmenās Town as a
model campus for business training, Constitutional corrections, and educational outreach
(and pilot program for political leaders, candidates and interns to gain experience in economic and government reform by implementing sustainable solutions to be replicated nationwide)
CC: Gladys House, CDC of Freedmenās Town
Author of Vet Housing and Health Care Business Plan
Catherine Roberts, Yates Museum
Archaeology and technological methods for preserving landmark Brick Streets
Lenwood Johnson, Free Manās Neighborhood Association
Co-Author, APV Community Campus Concepts under HOPE VI Federal Legislation
Darrell Patterson, Fourth Ward Health and Educational Center for Youth
Fourth Ward Youth Plans for Economic Development, Youth Bank, and Preservation
Sally Wickers, M.Ed, Coalition of Pastoral Leaders and educational development
FROM: Emily Nghiem, National Freedmenās Town District, LLC, Fund for microloans toward restitution
To the Office of Senator Ted Cruz:
Thank you for taking the time to meet in the National Historic District of Freedmenās Town, regarding the political history and future of this district, and the cost-effective solutions developed by the local residents and business leaders here which can impact the entire nation and economy.
Given the long record of destruction of the national history in Freedmenās Town, largely by abuse of public authority and resources, this historic church community is asking for teamwork among government and citizens nationwide to support business plans to generate sustainable jobs and revenue, for education and training in restoration as restitution to taxpayers for past damages.
Community leaders of local programs serving the residents, as listed above, have suffered and witnessed an ongoing pattern of unlawful exclusion from equal representation, due process and protection of interests by political bullying and collusion, where the acts of malfeasance border on racketeering between corporate interests and government and party leaders under their influence.
Some of these wrongs, which cost the loss of national history at taxpayer expense, include:
A. The misappropriation of $3.4 million given to a defunct nonprofit, found to have a conflict of interest with the City Mayor, that destroyed historic houses instead of providing affordable homes; where refunding half this amount to taxpayers would save the last historic block of housing for VALID nonprofits to preserve for Vet Housing and training in financial independence.
B. The contested sale and demolition of the historic County Hospital, where the land was first sold to a private developer, at a loss to taxpayers, and later flipped to the Federal Reserve at a profit.
An estimated $8-10 million profit was made by a private developer, demolishing a historic building by bypassing federal restrictions on government, while there are āno fundsā to pay for parks and land the community groups asked to save instead of selling to outside developers.
C. $15 million paid by the Federal Reserve in advance taxes, which the previous Mayor had originally planned to use for historic preservation of a land trust, was spent on infrastructure preparing the sale of land to private developers, that will destroy preservation plans for a community campus, sustainable jobs and revenue for restoring the remaining historic churches.
Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee co-signed the attached agreement with HUD and community leader Lenwood Johnson, endorsing the Community Campus plans, passed under HOPE VI legislation to restore the loss of equal democratic representation of residents and tenants in public housing and the surrounding historic district (both nationally registered sites).
APV public housing, and resident plans to convert to a sustainable campus, represent a historic fight for political equality, which began over 100 years ago when Freedmenās Town was founded by Emancipated Slaves who built their own churches, businesses and streets before they were citizens. Later, government authority was abused to seize land by eminent domain to build a segregated public housing using, intended for Military families but used politically to exclude Blacks until the Civil Rights Act was passed that ended segregation. Though the Campus Plans were passed under federal legislation to restore democratic representation to residents, these efforts were censored again by evicting residents and demolishing most of the buildings, which blocked the plans from being implemented. After it took 15 more years for the community to recover from those damages, and unite around saving the last historic shotgun rowhouses on Victor Street, the City of Houston started moving the houses off site, destroying the history and community plans for housing Vets while teaching them financial management.
In order to address these Civil Wrongs, which have denied equal Constitutional rights of assembly, petition, due process, representation and protection of interests to law-abiding citizens, the community residents and nonprofit volunteers, once again seek help to enforce and fulfill contractual agreements with government by implementing the Community Campus plans to restore the entire Freedmenās Town district. Freedmenās Town can serve as a national model for investing resources into restitution to taxpayers for corporate abuse of government, by building a campus for sustainable jobs and education under President Obamaās Executive Order for Excellence in African American Education, the White House initiatives for housing and jobs for Veterans, and a possible alternative to ACA by creating programs for funding and managing medical education and services directly instead of going through insurance companies.
For each incident of abuse of government authority and resources to destroy national history, instead of investing in sustainable economic development, and to deny due process and democratic inclusion of community residents and interests in preserving Freedmenās Town, we ask for restitution to be assessed and re-invested in the various sites and programs that each community group is focused on as part of the campus plan for restoring the historic district.
Where the government may not have capacity to repair damages incurred at taxpayer expense, we invite citizens and investors to exercise the option of lending to government by investing microloans, through a system similar to the Federal Reserve, holding the property and programs developed as collateral against the loans. Should the government and/or wrongdoers responsible for illicit profits, at the cost of taxpayers and national history, fail to pay back the loans against debts and damages incurred, we ask that community investors who finance the restitution share ownership in the proposed campus plans for Freedmenās Town to end further political enslavement. To prevent political division over past wrongdoing and neglect from further destroying national history, we ask Senator Ted Cruz and all parties, including major and third-party, to unite all leaders and candidates in teams to develop and implement sustainable business plans for restoring Freedmenās Town as a national model, and to finance this project as a campaign to demonstrate leadership skills and proposed solutions for government reforms.