"It's not equitable. It's not responsible to take the tax dollars the least of these are paying and divert them away from public use to subsidize a billionaire owner's wealth. That's not right," Tonya Myers Phillips, Community Partnerships & Development Director at the Sugar Law Center, said. "We're not anti-hospital expansion. What we are asking for is fairness and equity and for our public servants to use our money for public good." … see full story at CBS News Detroit
Detroit City Council to vote on incentives for $3B New Center development
“The hospital itself is not tie-barred; it’s not connected to the incentives request," said attorney Tonya Myers Phillips of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. "We’re going to get a new hospital no matter what." … see full article at Detroit Free Press
'Unbelievably frustrating': Jobless aid appointment waits vexing some Michigan claimants
Advocates who help unemployed people with their claims said the portal's confusing prompts have frustrated "dozens to hundreds" of claimants trying to work through issues with their claims — and serve as a reminder that the agency has yet to fix longstanding problems with confusing directives issued to claimants.
"It's unbelievably frustrating," said Tony Paris, lead attorney at Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. … see full story at Detroit News
The Detroit Future of Health development's nine-digit gap controversy
What's happening: Developers have said in public meetings that they're providing $604 million worth of benefits for nearby residents, including $90 million to operate the new research center and $300 million in uncompensated care costs.
Yes, but: Tonya Myers Phillips, community partnerships and development director with Sugar Law Center, which helped advocate for the Community Benefits Ordinance in 2016 and still monitors its use, analyzes the total as just $9 million. … see full story at AXIOS Detroit
Detroiters are outmatched in city’s community benefits process. What could change?
Tonya Myers Phillips has helped community groups navigate the process and wants to see them have more time and put an end to developer “double-dipping” …. see fiull story at Outlier Media
Michigan cosmetology school agrees to $2.8M settlement after unpaid labor dispute
A judge has approved a $2.8 million settlement in a dispute over unpaid work performed by aspiring hair stylists at a Michigan cosmetology school.
Roughly 1,500 people will get some compensation for cleaning floors, washing towels and stocking shelves when they were students at Douglas J Aveda Institute, attorney John Philo said Monday.
The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging violations of federal labor law. Philo said the work performed by students was not directly connected to their cosmetology education. … see full story at CBS News
Douglas J Aveda Institute agrees to $2.8M settlement over unpaid labor claims
DETROIT -- A federal judge has approved a $2.8 million settlement between the Douglas J Aveda Institute and plaintiffs who accused the school of forcing students to do unpaid labor while enrolled. According to the Associated Press, an estimated 1,500 people will receive compensation as part of the settlement which stems from a class-action lawsuit filed in 2014.
The lawsuit claimed that students who were attending the institute had to perform labor activities such as cleaning floors, washing, drying and folding laundry, and stocking shelves for no pay. The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice -- which filed the lawsuit -- claimed the duties were not directly connected to the cosmetology education students were receiving and the students should have been compensated for their work.
“What this case says is there are limits to what you can ask of your students,” said John Philo a lawyer with the law center. … see full story at MLive
Will Detroit’s Comeback Benefit Detroiters?
In October the community benefits process kicked off with a meeting at a local high school. Jerk chicken was served. From a distance, it looked like local democracy in action. Eighty-three area residents cast ballots for two community representatives who would sit on the committee that would negotiate a benefits package with developers. The West Grand Boulevard Collaborative scored a victory: Two candidates it endorsed won spots on the committee.
But democracy it was not. The other seven committee members were appointed by City Council members or the city planning department. The pressure to agree to whatever developers offered would be intense, warned Tonya Myers Phillips, a lawyer with the nonprofit Sugar Law Center who works closely with Ms. Floyd. Ms. Phillips said the city would do its best to limit the developer’s obligations and that developers would try to pass off existing programs or legal obligations as new benefits. She was right. … see full story at New York Times
Detroit Today: Could the ‘Future of Health’ development project be a net win for Detroiters?
Tonya Myers Phillips, a director at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, joined Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today Tuesday to share her thoughts on the project and Detroit’s community benefits ordinance that is at the heart of discussions. Denise Brooks-Williams, Henry Ford Health’s vice president for care and delivery system operations, also stopped by to share her thoughts on the project and how the development group is responding to the concerns of residents, along with Daniel Washington, executive director of NW Goldberg Cares, who joined the discussion to highlight why he believes the NW Goldberg neighborhood should have been included as an area of impact for the project. … see full story WDET
Years post-pandemic, some out-of-work Michiganders are waiting on unemployment benefits
That's time these claimants don't have, Tony Paris, a lead attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit, told the Detroit Free Press earlier this year. Paris has represented unemployment insurance claimants for about 15 years and said his current clients are on the brink of poverty, after surviving a global pandemic without much support, if any, from the unemployment insurance benefits system. … see full story at Detroit Free Press