Randy Shaw Encourages OPIRG’s Efforts
by EVAN KELLEY

Low-income housing activist Randy Shaw kicked off Ohio PIRG's Spring campaign on Thursday, Feb. 15 with a short speech that included encouragement for the group's current initiatives, which include attacking urban sprawl, curtailing toxic dumping, fighting hunger and homelessness and protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In addition, the UC Berkley-trained activist and lawyer introduced his own agenda: the passing of a bill currently pending on Capitol Hill, S2997, The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act. This bill is sponsored by John Kerry (D-MA), who wanted to take the earnings from the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund of the Federal Housing Administration and put them into a housing trust for a new, extremely low-income housing bracket.
This proposal depends on returns on investments in America's booming economy and budget surplus. Fiscal conservatives have criticized the plan as financially imprudent, especially in the face of the sudden economic slump.

Speaking to a crowd of nearly 40 Oberlin activists after OPIRG's first big recruitment meeting of the new semester, Shaw found an audience more receptive to his ideas than Kerry encountered on the Republican Senate floor.
In Shaw's 15-minute speech he talked about the lack of federal funding for low-income housing initiatives in America, and advocated $5 billion per year toward a new affordable housing trust fund.
Shaw also described the pivotal role that students play in the national movement to fight homelessness. He claimed this role was based on their sheer numbers and large amount of free time to devote to important causes. He commended Oberlin for its activist tradition, asking the students to pressure Ohio politicians to vote for S2997.

One of Shaw's contributions to the evening was his endorsement of the national PIRG network and his encouragement for the young activists who might have been checking out OPIRG for the first time. He said America has problems, and people in OPIRG are the ones who must work to remedy them. He mentioned that Ohio was a particularly important state in the housing debate because of the high number of students coupled with deteriorating urban housing infrastructure in its many cities.

OPIRG was largely responsible for bringing Shaw to campus. The activist network was the link that brought him from San Francisco's Tenderloin Housing Clinic to Oberlin. Shaw met sophomore Jennifer Poore at a Hunger and Homelessness Conference in Baltimore and they had corresponded via e-mail, culminating in his visit.
Shaw, who authored The Activist Handbook, briefly participated in all the small group workshops meeting after his talk to critique the spring initiatives.
Ellen Montgomery, a senior Politics major and chair of the Oberlin OPIRG chapter found it very helpful for OPIRG members to "use Randy as a resource." She said that Shaw's experience in San Francisco, working on housing could help Oberlin's OPIRG, volunteers work with a greater web of like-minded people nationwide. "He's really helped connect us with other networks of students around the country," Montgomery said.