01.12.2022

VOL. 19 ISSUE 8

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The Cover

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Brian Carome

The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper Originally founded as a street newspaper in 2003, Street Sense Media has evolved into a multimedia center using a range of creative platforms to spotlight solutions to homelessness and empower people in need. The men and women who work with us do much more than sell this paper: They use film, photography, theatre, illustration, and more to share their stories with our community.

Our media channels elevate voices, our newspaper vendor and digital marketing programs provide economic independence. And our in-house case-management services move people forward along the path toward permanent supportive housing.

At Street Sense Media, we define ourselves through our work, talents, and character, not through our housing situation.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

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AT A GLANCE ANNOUNCEMENTS • Congratulations to Kaela Roeder for her new role as deputy editor!

Franklin Park is one of 29 parks and open spaces being considered as part of the DowntownDC BID Parks Master Plan. Photo by Athiyah Azeem.

DowntownDC intends to change how some D.C. parks are used

BY ATHIYAH AZEEM Volunteer

The DowntownDC Business Improvement District, known as BID, is reexamining D.C. parks and open spaces.

But how this plan will affect people experiencing homelessness who live in these parks remains a question.

BID held information meetings from November to December.

The meetings outline the 29 open spaces being assessed under the Downtown DC Parks Master Plan, from Franklin Park to Judiciary Square, and were led by the land planning services company LandDesign.

“It’s really important that the parks meet the needs of the community. So through this process, we are trying to understand what those needs are,” said Beth Poovey, a LandDesign director of greenways, parks and open spaces.

When a Street Sense Media reporter surveyed people living in McPherson Square, none said they knew about the Master Plan. Melanie Saxon, who is using pseudonym, has been living in the park since June 2021 and says people living at parks could provide valuable input for the survey.

“We live here, we come here on a regular basis. We do have eyes and a heart,” Saxon said.

When a Street Sense Media reporter asked if and how people experiencing homelessness are included in the planning process, Poovey said her team has reached out to homelessness outreach organizations for their input.

Galin Brooks, director of planning and placemaking for

DowntownDC BID said they have been distributing postcards with information about the Master Plan, doing paper surveys at parks and have put up a sign with a link to the survey in Franklin Park.

Walter Elliott, who has been sleeping in McPherson Park to escape unsafe conditions in D.C. shelters, says he understands why the city wants to renovate and clear the parks.

But it’s getting harder to find a place to stay. In the following months, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser launched an encampment pilot program, which has aggressively cleared three encampments so far. Out of 111 residents that the Deputy Mayor’s office for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) has engaged with since October, 68 people have leases, 21 are waiting for housing and only 5 remain at the sites.

That has left people like Elliott with few options.

“The parks here…Franklin Park, they cleared it up. Better not be caught in that park sleeping around,” Elliott said.

Franklin Park was closed in June 2020 and renovated by the BID in partnership with the National Parks Service. The park was also an unofficial center of homeless outreach services, who used the park to help people sleeping there secure housing. The closure of the park pushed out many residents who scattered across D.C., chiefly settling at McPherson Square.

Franklin Park reopened in September 2021 as a no-camping zone, with park attendees actively directing people attempting to sleep there to the DowntownDC Day Services Center.

Submit your event for publication by emailing editor@streetsensemedia.org

AUDIENCE EXCHANGE Kaela Roeder @RoederKaela

Professional news. I am so excited to announce that today is my first day as deputy editor for @ streetsensedc. I am incredibly honored to be a part of this team.

Here’s to 2022!

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Sonni Efron @sonniefron

Congratulations, Kaela! Smart editor over there at @streetsensedc

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NEWS

DC fails to protect thousands of children from abuse and neglect By jonetta rose barras The DC Line

Many children are suffering from abuse in D.C. and are not afforded the same opportunities as others their age. Photo by Alexander Schimmeck // Unsplash

This story was first published in The DC Line on Dec. 21, 2021.

o

utside the three-story, red brick apartment building at 935 Division Ave. NE, it must have seemed like an ordinary spring day on April 1, 2020, with an overcast sky and a temperature of around 45 degrees. Yet the tragic events unfolding that morning in Apartment 6 — hidden within what looks like a nondescript mid-20th-century structure in a worn residential neighborhood of Ward 7 — present a disturbing and untold story about the plight of many infants and children in the nation’s capital.

Two-year-old Gabriel Eason lay cold and unmoving. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) personnel desperately tried to revive him, having arrived after his mother, Ta’Jeanna Eason, called 911 at 8:24 a.m., reporting “an unconscious person.” Minutes later, members of the Sixth District Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrived at the building, according to government documents provided to The DC Line.

FEMS attempted life-saving measures. They were too late — too late by several months. The autopsy conducted by Dr. Sasha Breland, then the District’s deputy medical examiner, captured a slow death and offered proof that Gabriel’s two short years on earth were tortuous.

He suffered multiple blunt force trauma to the head and central nervous system, marked by swelling to the head as well as abrasions and contusions with associated sub-scalp hemorrhages. There were contusions to the heart and thymus gland; liver lacerations; right kidney lacerations; a small subdural hemorrhage to the left side of the brain; and 36 bilateral rib fractures — 30 that were acute and six that were healing.

His two older brothers — 3 years old and 11 years old — also lived in the Division Avenue apartment and carried scars of extreme physical abuse.

Within hours of Gabriel’s death, his siblings traveled by ambulance to Children’s National Hospital on Michigan Avenue NW for examinations. Physicians found that each child presented with “trauma” to his body.

The 3-year-old, referred to as I.E. in court documents, suffered rib fractures, liver lacerations, a right kidney injury and blood in the abdomen. Doctors determined that his injuries were caused by “severe blunt force trauma” and admitted him immediately to the intensive care unit.

The eldest child, identified as M.E., displayed a “healing black eye” and “appeared to have older injuries.” Clearly underdeveloped for an 11-year-old, he weighed only 78 pounds and stood “a little over 3 feet tall.” He told the medical staff that his mother had asked him to perform CPR on Gabriel as

they waited for FEMS to arrive — and that he could still taste his brother’s saliva in his mouth.

Police later determined that M.E. received that black eye two weeks earlier from a blow delivered by Antonio Dale Turner, his mother’s paramour and the father to the child she carried in her womb. M.E. told MPD detectives that his mother and Turner frequently hit him and his younger brothers. “If, in the morning, the children’s diapers were wet, [I] would be beaten,” he said.

MPD subsequently charged Eason and Turner with firstdegree cruelty to children and felony murder. Cynthia Wright, an assistant U.S. attorney for DC, is handling the prosecution; a court appearance is expected on Jan. 20, according to court records. The younger children were placed in foster care — another case of too little, too late from DC’s child welfare system..

The Eason brothers are far from outliers, both locally and nationally. They are part of a larger population of infants, children and youth who each day experience frightening levels of violence across the country. In Houston, an 8-yearold boy was murdered — his body in one room while nearby his three siblings were forced to fend for themselves after being abandoned by their mother. Elsewhere in Texas, an El Paso woman allegedly repeatedly beat her 4-year-old nephew, leaving him in a vegetative state. In New York, 7-year-old Julissia Batties, 4-year-old Jaycee Eubanks and 4-year-old Aisyn Emerson-Gonzalez were all beaten to death by members of their family. All of these incidents — occurring within the span of a few months this year — mirror tragic cases locally.

While some child deaths are due to natural causes, many are the result of violence.

This is not an epidemic caused by the ongoing pandemic.

Rather, it extends back many years. In 2019, the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reviewed the deaths of 51 D.C. children up to the age of 19. The fatalities reviewed that year actually occured between 2015 and 2018. Further, they did not represent the total number of children who died during those years; no one has that definitive list, according to sources interviewed for this series.

In 2020, the Child and Family Services Agency reviewed 40

deaths of infants, children and youth. Fifteen of those occurred in 2018 and 2019; there are no public records that disclose how many children actually died last year, either.

While some child deaths are due to natural causes, many are the result of violence. Those that result from guns used on the streets may gain the most attention, but others happened inside the victims’ homes, behind closed doors. Because of scant media attention, there’s little public awareness of the insidious and brutal treatment of infants, children and youth like Gabriel Eason, Makenzie Anderson, Kyon Jones, D.J., L.D., S.C., and the 1-year-old boy found dead in July 2021 in an apartment on Ainger Place SE; many presume the latter infant was murdered but as of this writing an MPD spokesperson said detectives are still investigating.

For many of those children and countless others, there are no public memorials marked by stuffed animals, candles, homemade cards and heart-shaped balloons. Even their names remain unspoken; police or fatality reports often refer to them by their initials or simply as “decedent.”

Their deaths, or near fatalities, serve as billboards shouting about the decline of childhood for all too many — the degradation of what should be an extended period of innocence and joy protected by adults and the government. The result is that they are unable to engage in the simplest activities enjoyed by their peers: riding a scooter, playing ball with siblings, walking home from school, or standing at an ice cream truck waiting to buy a Dreamsicle.

Frequently, they are forced to navigate households where parents suffer with substance abuse or mental health disorders; forced to assume adult responsibilities because they are dealing with parents who lack critical and essential parenting skills; or forced to quietly plead for a government rescue that, as illustrated by Gabriel Eason, may never come.

A widely held directive of any government is to protect its citizens, particularly the most vulnerable or those at the margins. No group fits that description more than children.

The DC Line conducted a six-month investigation that involved an extensive review of government documents, court records, published and unpublished external reports, and agency operations and programs. The dozens of people interviewed included key D.C. officials, government insiders, a whistleblower and former ombudsman, and child welfare experts and advocates.

The DC Line’s investigation revealed that the District consistently fails to protect far too many of the city’s infants, children and youth.

Some might challenge that assertion given that this June, DC resolved a 32-year lawsuit focused on reforming the city’s

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child welfare system. Initially known as LaShawn A. v. Marion Barry Jr., this class-action litigation accused the District of violating various federal and local laws relating to foster care and of not addressing the abuse or neglect of children who were considered wards of the state. Over the years, the defendant’s name has changed with each successive mayor.

District officials celebrated the end of that case as an indication that reforms have substantially solved the issues at stake in the litigation. However, The DC Line’s investigation yields a different conclusion. The city’s child welfare system — which is comprised of the MPD, Department of Human Services (DHS), Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), DC Health Department, Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, DC Office of the Attorney General, DC Superior Court’s Family Court Operations Division, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) — is rife with systemic problems: • Child abuse and neglect investigations often are delayed or suffer from a flawed investigative process, sometimes resulting in instances where children are murdered or severely injured and maltreated.

• Mental health services for children and their parents are grossly insufficient.

• The home visitation protocol is inadequate, often overlooking dangerous environments where there is significant drug use or domestic violence.

• The monitoring of fragile or troubled families is poor and ineffective.

• A hidden foster care operation is allowed to exist that not only denies children critical resources but also can jeopardize their safety and lives.

The process for reviewing child fatalities often is years behind and built around questionable determinations regarding the cause of death, allowing those who may be guilty of abuse or neglect homicides to escape accountability.

The families of a majority of the children whose deaths were reviewed in 2020 had direct interaction with one or more of the agencies mentioned above, according to government documents. That reality has prompted sources interviewed for this series to consistently argue that the underlying issues identified in the LaShawn A. case have not been fixed: Despite that court settlement ending the protracted litigation, the system still desperately needs a redesign or transformation.

This investigative series focuses on particular areas that The DC Line found to be failing: investigations, the child fatality review process and foster care.

Ward 1 DC Council member Brianne Nadeau, who heads the committee that oversees large sections of the child welfare system including the Child and Family Services Agency, declined on three occasions to be interviewed for this series, despite knowing that The DC Line was examining issues related to the life and death of children in the city.

on issues related to the system. Mathews has worked in CFSA intermittently, beginning in 2012; he left in early 2015 and returned in late 2016. The council has until Jan. 27 to act before the appointment takes effect automatically.

“I don’t see us as ‘the system’ — I do see us as an agency within the larger system,” Matthews told The DC Line during one of two interviews conducted earlier this year.

“The [child welfare] system is made up of a number of other D.C. government agencies, as well as community-based organizations that work with these families,” he said. “We don’t work with these families alone. Many of these families are connected to DHS. They’re connected to DBH. They’re connected to community-based services. We’re not alone on an island.”

It’s true. There are at least 10 agencies that are key spokes in the child welfare wheel, although the bureaucratic architecture has CFSA as its linchpin. None of this, however, suggests that the system’s components operate effectively and efficiently together.

“The agencies are broken. The monitoring system is broken,” said Christian Greene, a whistleblower who was CFSA’s ombudsperson from 2015 to 2017. “Even though CFSA touts [itself] as being the best in the nation, behind closed doors, people I know across the nation don’t want to be D.C.” Greene was fired after demanding the agency comply with legal mandates to notify children of their rights under the system and to issue certain reports publicly. A judge ruled against her resulting whistleblower lawsuit, which she initially filed in D.C. Superior Court on May 14, 2018, and later amended on June 29, 2018. Greene, whose appeal in the D.C. Court of Appeals is pending, recently helped persuade the D.C. Council to approve legislation creating an ombudsperson for children over the mayor’s objections.

However, many experts and advocates are not completely satisfied with the breadth of the bill — which focuses only on CFSA, rather than the entire child welfare system — or the pace of its implementation. They recently sent a letter to Nadeau, whose committee pushed through the law, to demand that recruitment begin immediately for the ombudsperson, who will be selected by the DC Council rather than the executive branch.

“I’ve seen chronic problems within the [CFSA] as a whole,” said Magdalena Acevedo, a DC resident who adopted her two foster children and advocates on behalf of other foster parents.

“Those problems aren’t caused by any particular individual [or] any particular social worker. There are gross systematic issues within the agency that need to be visited and reworked.”

“The agencies are broken. The monitoring system is broken,” Christian Greene, former CFSA ombudsperson

Evading Responsibility The DC Child and Family Services Agency is widely thought to be synonymous with the District’s child welfare system — although, during an interview earlier this year, CFSA’s Acting Director Robert Matthews sought to correct that perception: “I believe the public sees CFSA as the child welfare system, [but] we’re just the agency.”

Matthews became the agency’s acting director in July after the retirement of CFSA’s longtime director, Brenda Donald.

In October Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated Matthews as the agency’s permanent leader. The council’s Committee on Human Services held a confirmation hearing on Dec. 9, but Nadeau did not ask him about the concerns discussed by advocates in this series. Further, she did not challenge Matthews’ philosophy

When alerted to dangers and risks to children, observers say, D.C.’s child welfare system managers and staffers appear unable to make the tough decisions necessary to shield children, including removing them from homes where their parents lack the skills to care for them or suffer substance abuse or mental health disorders — sometimes both.

“It’s clear from the history of some families with CFSA that the agency is failing to identify and protect some children who are in danger in their homes,” said Marie Cohen, a policy analyst and former CFSA social worker who reports on the local and national child welfare system in her blog, Child Welfare Monitor D.C. Judith Meltzer, president of the national nonprofit Center for

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the Study of Social Policy, served as the official court monitor of the CFSA for decades, a role that has meant hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments over the years. Her appointment by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan stemmed from the filing in 1989 of the LaShawn A. lawsuit, whose named plaintiffs — seven children, ranging in age from 3 to 11 years old — were imprisoned by a disinterested, flawed and chaotic child welfare system anchored in the D.C. Department of Human Services.

The case went to trial in 1991. The plaintiffs sought specific changes that set a high bar. Judge Hogan agreed to impose strict limits on how many cases social workers could maintain and how quickly investigations should occur. Over time, however, the plaintiffs compromised on certain demands. Together with the city, they devised multiple roadmaps or strategies to exit; the last one was developed in 2019. In it, the District agreed to detailed performance goals and reforms in order to end the litigation. The settlement agreement — and the ability of plaintiffs to enforce its provisions in court — will expire 181 days after the CFSA files its final report. Until then, the plaintiffs could push for the judge to revoke it if they can show the District is out of compliance.

As part of the settlement, the District agreed to ensure the CFSA “maintain [current] caseload standards,” said Meltzer.

“They’re going to continue to do quality reviews of cases and produce that data. They’re going to expand mental health services. They also agreed to make changes to improve [foster case] placement stability.”

Further, CFSA must prepare two reports indicating its progress on outstanding issues. The first was to cover the period from Jan. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021, and the other from July 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2021. Meltzer said the agency is preparing a draft of the June report.

Under the terms of the court settlement, Meltzer’s organization is responsible only for validating facts and data that the government claims as accomplishments. It is not required to track CFSA as it did while serving as court monitor during the final 20 years of the lawsuit. It’s also important to note the agency isn’t required to elaborate on its shortfalls or failings.

“Right now, we don’t even have all the data for the June 30 report,” Meltzer said during an interview in August with The DC Line. “So, it will be another couple of months before they and we will produce that report. Then, there is a second report that goes through December 2021; it will probably be close to June 2022 before we have a validation report on that.”

Notwithstanding the procedural limitations, the LaShawn A. plaintiffs — represented by attorney Marcia Robinson Lowry from A Better Childhood, a nonprofit watchdog organization — could still object to issues in those reports, said Meltzer.

They could also scrutinize the city’s claims of meeting the goals outlined in the settlement.

“Hopefully, they won’t object because the District will have done what it said,” added Meltzer.

The government’s own numbers, however, offer a disturbing depiction of malfunction, even though some advocates question the veracity of the statistics as overly rosy.

In 2019, the CFSA received 17,960 calls on its hotline from people who said they were concerned about the care or physical treatment of District children. Nearly 12,000 of those total calls were screened out for assorted reasons, according to a CFSA spokesperson. Another 599 of the calls were referred to community organizations or government agencies for assistance, and 588 involved previous investigations.

Meanwhile, 5,005 were accepted for new investigations, including one call that came from a day care that Gabriel Eason attended.

CFSA provided the following details about the hotline calls in documents submitted to the D.C. Council’s Committee on Human Services: • 1,993 were related to children being subjected to

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NEWS physical abuse.

1,475 involved substance abuse by someone around a child.

• 1,227 were related to inadequate supervision.

• 657 dealt with exposure to domestic violence.

• 643 were about potential sexual abuse.

• 571 were related to neglect.

• 436 were centered around a caregiver’s incapacity because of incarceration, illness or physical or mental incapacity.

At minimum, the data suggest the lives of nearly 6,000 children under the age of 18 were imperiled in 2019.

•

The Official View: Things are fine Despite the picture painted by the data, CFSA’s Matthews asserted that the system is on a “pretty positive trajectory,” deflecting responsibility with bureaucratic and figurative language while claiming significant advancements.

“We’re moving toward building out our prevention model,” he said. “It’s not a perfect system, but it’s a system where we are able to definitely track our progress, track trends, and as we see issues arise, we’re able to shift pretty quickly because we have a pretty dynamic and talented team of workers.”

D.C. Department of Behavioral Health Director Barbara Bazron, whose agency serves children as well as adults, agreed.

“We live by the guiding principle of creating an integrated system of care and really moving to whole-person care,” she said.

The Department of Human Services has a role as well. “When a family comes in — and particularly to homeless services, which is where there tends to be the most trauma and instability — we are looking at whether they have a history of involvement, or current involvement, with CFSA and the Department of Behavioral Health,” said DHS Director Laura Zeilinger.

Those relationships, she explained, often indicate economic or health-related problems like “severe mental illness or severe addiction, which may be mental illness masked by addiction or other co-occurring disorders.”

“That’s when we’ve seen the highest risk factors for children.

And then we shift to a teaming approach with all of those agencies so that we are working together,” added Zeilinger.

“Teaming” is often used when a family is in crisis. Agencies ostensibly collaborate in their response to a family, so it’s more reactive. But its deployment is yet another signal that the government arrived late — maybe even too late, as it did with Gabriel Eason and his brothers.

Generally, D.C.’s child welfare system relies on community organizations to assist families that may be having issues but are considered “low risk” because they are not in crisis. That, said a CFSA spokesperson, allows “child protection services to focus on the more serious cases in which abuse and neglect have been confirmed.”

The Human Services and Behavioral Health departments along with CFSA often contract with the same groups, including Healthy Family/Thriving Communities Collaboratives and the National Center for Children and Families. Those contractors can have a 1:15 ratio between employees and families, which leaves little time for expansive interaction.

CFSA and its partner nonprofits describe their approach using figurative language that some might dismiss as jargon.

For example, according to the agency spokesperson, “front yard” refers to “primary prevention services often provided by community organizations like the 10 Family Success Centers”; “front porch” deals with “secondary prevention programs,” which frequently means referrals to existing government resources; and “front door” is related to “tertiary prevention services provided directly by CFSA’s in-home administration,” which generally means a social worker is assigned to the case.

Evaluations of the nonprofit community organizations with which CFSA contracts do not shed light on how successful any of them are in thwarting neglect, abuse or maltreatment of children. Documents obtained by The DC Line revealed a heavy emphasis instead on hiring practices and CFSA’s preapproval of employees.

Often those organizations help families prepare “development plans” that may include attending parenting classes, seeking needed mental health or substance abuse assistance from District agencies, or improving their chances for employment. The CFSA evaluations reviewed for this series do not indicate what happened to the families after completing their development plans; those cases are listed as closed. In some instances, the families opt not to create such a document.

When they walk away in the middle of the process and choose not to continue their interaction, the nonprofits appear not to conduct any follow-up to find out why.

CFSA no longer handles family assessments in-house.

Greene, the former CFSA ombudsperson, argued that by jettisoning that responsibility, CFSA is dodging its legal obligations to safeguard the rights of and protect children in the community, which is heightening the dangers for them.

“They get rid of family assessment. They get rid of the

At minimum, the data suggest the lives of nearly 6,000 children under the age of 18 were imperiled in 2019.

continued, citing foster care as an example. “We currently have 650 children in foster care; 10 or 12 years ago, we had over 3,000 children in foster care. So, we’re continuing to have a decline in our foster care population.”

That doesn’t tell the whole story, however. What he categorizes as the “in-home foster population” is large. In fiscal year 2021, there were 1,757 such children living with their families. In many cases, the agency’s Child Protective Services division has investigated these homes and substantiated one or more allegations of abuse or neglect. Nonetheless, the CFSA did not remove the children; it considered problems a low or moderate risk.

“They are assigned a social worker from CFSA, and we provide a case plan, or we put in the supports necessary to keep that family together,” said Matthews. “What we’re building, I think, is a prevention continuum.”

What his assessment doesn’t address are the 2019 fatality reports prepared by CFSA and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which clearly indicate children continue to die — many of them from either similar or undefined causes. No widespread attempt at prevention is occurring. Of the 51 deaths reviewed by the Child Fatality Review Committee, nine involving infants were classified as undetermined — a classification used by the ME when despite a “thorough medical and legal investigation, a conclusive manner of death is not determined.”

According to CFSA’s internal fatality report that reviewed 13 fatalities of children involved with the agency, 11 of those children were living at home at the time of their deaths. Three of the 11 deaths involved abuse or neglect; one cause of death was ingestion of fentanyl. The cause of a fourth death could not be determined.

Abuse’s unending memory specialized unit for special abuse cases, like sexual abuse and near fatalities. They water it down to spread across clinicians who aren’t properly trained to do the sex abuse investigations,” said Greene. These are all services that she considers key to protecting children and that conform with national child welfare best practice standards.

“Now they’ve embraced this thing that they call diversion,” she continued, referencing a process the agency uses to keep children out of traditional and kinship foster care by placing them with unlicensed, informal, and not legally binding placements with relatives or friends of the family.

The problem, Greene pointed out, is that when “CFSA determines a child needs to be placed outside of their immediate biological family, legal custodian, and/or guardian, the agency is supposed to follow specific laws,” including those governing the services owed to that child — services not provided when “diversion” is used and no case is opened for oversight.

However, she asserted that the District is violating local and federal requirements in this and other areas. “The law’s very clear: If the child needs placement, then if the government is making that decision, the child has been coded as abused or neglected. The agency has a responsibility to place that child, to ensure [its] safety” and to offer appropriate services, she added.

The issue of when and how children should be removed or returned to their biological families is controversial. But it is a key element in whether the District is actually protecting children from abuse and neglect or putting them in harm’s way — with the potential of becoming homicide victims.

Matthews said he wasn’t surprised by the criticism coming from advocates and child welfare experts. After all, he said, the agency regularly deals with “the actual life and death of children. Some of [the criticism] is helpful to improve the system.” When comments aren’t really constructive, he considers it appropriate to “challenge” them.

“I speak highly about what it is the agency does well,” he

Not every abused child dies. Some of the most severe cases are described as “near fatalities.” Consider this: A little after 11 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2020, a call went from an apartment at 517 Harvard St. NW to the CFSA hotline, indicating a child there was being physically abused. When no city agency came to the home where six children, ages 2 through 13, lived with their mother and her paramour, a second call was made at 8:40 a.m. the next day. MPD officers subsequently responded; however, the mother, Arkazia Davis, said that her oldest daughter was with her father and that the youngest daughter, L.D., who had a different father, was with hers. While she provided precise information about the oldest, the story about the location of the youngest kept changing, according to court documents.

Eventually, it was revealed that her 2-year-old daughter had been missing for several days, ever since a severe incident of domestic violence occurred between the child’s mother and father, Maurice Meniefield. As police began looking for Meniefield, they visited the residence of his sister Quanice in Northeast D.C. When they arrived, she was just getting home.

She tried to prevent the police from gaining access. When they entered, they discovered her three children were alone hiding in a bedroom with all the lights off.

The missing 2-year-old girl, L.D., was under a bed. When she crawled out, an officer removed the child’s face mask and found that “blood was coming out of her mouth.” Tears were streaming down her face. The MPD officer requested an ambulance.

On the ride to the hospital, the little girl kept touching her face and her stomach. The officer asked her if it hurt; she nodded yes. He asked her if she had eaten anything that day.

“She shook her head, ‘No,’” according to court documents.

Meniefield lived in the Harvard Street apartment with Davis and her children, according to court records. On the fateful day, he had been alone with the child. He became angry because L.D. urinated in the bed. “He forcefully punched [her] with his

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fist numerous times in the face, head and body. He also kicked her in the chest repeatedly and threw [her] against the bedroom walls several times, causing the child’s blood to splatter on the wall. [He] then cut the electrical cord from a television and used it to whip [her].”

When Davis returned home, Meniefield pushed her from the front door to the back door and then threw a frying pan, hitting her in the head. She went to Howard University Hospital for treatment. Upon her return, he again assaulted Davis, who went back to the hospital. Meniefield ordered the children to walk with him to the hospital. He was carrying L.D. and punched her in the face during the walk. After leaving the other children at the hospital, he called his sister and told her he was bringing L.D. to her home, which is where police found the child.

Once L.D. arrived at the hospital by ambulance, doctors found she needed immediate surgery to repair her jaw. She had a “complete fracture through the right side of her jaw, and multiple fractures of the left side of her jaw.” Further, she was diagnosed with contusions to her right kidney and “extensive bruising to the underlying muscles of her abdomen.” She also had five rib fractures — one new and four older, healing fractures, according to court documents Meniefield was initially charged with first-degree cruelty to children. However, as a result of a plea agreement reached on Sept. 27 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the charge was reduced to aggravated assault, which has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine. He also pleaded guilty to the assault of Davis, which carries a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to a sentence of “supervised release of not less than three years.” It also stated that prosecutors “will not seek indictment on any remaining or greater charges arising from the facts in this case.”

The plea agreement must still be approved by the judge; a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 4, according to the court docket.

Two days before L.D.’s brutal beating, another District child nearly lost his life. On Dec. 21, 2020, MPD responded to a call at an apartment at 3848 South Capitol St. SE. S.C., a 2-monthold boy, had suffered bilateral skull fractures; bleeding on both sides of the brain; extensive brain injury; multiple rib fractures at multiple stages of healing; and a blown right pupil.

The abuse may have begun with a domestic violence incident on Dec. 7 involving the child’s mother, who was slapped and physically assaulted by her husband, Donovan Ahmir Gilchrist.

The court issued a stay-away order at her request. However, nearly two weeks later, he was back at the apartment.

On Dec. 21, she took their two older sons — nearly 6 and 3 years old — to day care, leaving the 2-month-old with her husband, although he was not supposed to be at the home.

When she came back 45 minutes later, she found the child’s body “limp and floppy,” according to court documents. She subsequently called 911. Paramedics arrived and immediately took him to Children’s National Hospital.

A social worker at the hospital called MPD, which dispatched members of its Youth and Family Services Division. That same social worker also called into the CFSA hotline; health care workers are required by law to report any incidents where a child is displaying signs of abuse or neglect.

Doctors at the hospital conducted a series of neuropsychological tests on the infant, which revealed “multiple skull fractures.” There were also “multiple rib fractures that appeared in multiple stages of healing.” The child was admitted to the pediatric ICU, according to court documents.

Gilchrist said that he had heard his son cry and subsequently went to get him a bottle. He said he left him alone propped up in the couple’s bed. When he came back, the child had tumbled over to the side of the bed and his head was against the wall.

Dr. Anita Patel, who conducted the medical assessment to measure the child’s brain injury, said that a 2-month-old infant is incapable of such independent movement. Further,

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Children across the city and country are suffering from domestic violence. Photo by Jon Tyson// Unsplash

the multiple rib fractures were unlikely to be caused by the accident Gilchrist described.

Given his condition, medical personnel at Children’s concluded that there was “no potential for recovery,” according to court records.

Gilchrist was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree child cruelty, which can carry a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine. Instead, he initially received a suspended sentence of 20 months. D.C. Superior Court Associate Judge Juilet McKenna ultimately shortened that, giving Gilchrist a penalty of 18 months of supervised probation and a fine of $100 that must be paid to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund by Oct. 15, 2023.

A CFSA spokesperson refused to answer any questions about whether the agency was involved in the lives of any of the children mentioned in this investigative series, asserting that District and federal confidentiality laws preclude it.

“I am unable to confirm any individual child or family’s involvement with the agency,” said Kera Tyler, who cited that same explanation for her refusal to provide any details about the status of the siblings of the injured or murdered children.

Many of the people interviewed for this series regard these stories of child deaths, maltreatment and neglect as an indisputable indictment of D.C.’s child welfare system. “I think the [CFSA] in many ways is failing to take care of the District’s children,” said foster parent and advocate Acevedo.

Just as the D.C. child welfare system’s failures make it culpable in past cruelty or murders, they are writing the story of abuse, neglect and homicides foretold.

Court monitor Meltzer’s 2020 report echoes the complaints made by advocates, lawyers and child welfare experts when she lays out CFSA’s failure to meet critical standards that she had identified and the agency had agreed to: • CFSA failed to link families to critical services.

• Investigations were not completed on time.

• Mental health care services for children and families are insufficient.

The latter issue, along with substance abuse, leads to critically dangerous situations for many children. Both are active ingredients in every child abuse or neglect murder or maltreatment story presented in this series.

“It is not good if it takes months to link a child, youth or

family member up with a [mental health] provider. Then, two months after that, the provider quits [or] the therapist quits, and you have to find another one,” Meltzer said. “That’s an area for much work.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Wright said likewise, noting as well that many people in D.C. are using marijuana, with recreational use legal in the city. “[However], I see personally in my experience that they’re using it to self-medicate for some kind of mental health issue.

“Then, they get angry with the child — they can abuse it or, as they’re getting high, they’re [ignoring] it. They don’t feed it; they don’t give it water,” continued Wright, adding that drugs and alcohol also are used by pregnant women, which can result in an infant being born addicted.

Matthews said that since he became CFSA’s acting director, he has spoken frequently with the Department of Behavioral Health’s director, Barbara Bazron, about the need for coordination. “As a system, I don’t believe [mental health] is just CFSA’s responsibility. We’re not the behavioral mental health agency,” he said.

“My job is to inform the agency that’s tasked with that on some of our needs,” continued Matthews, adding that he doesn’t want to supplant what DBH already provides.

“It’s really taking a look at, OK, here’s what the overall city provides for both children and adults around behavioral, mental health. What is it that we can inform DBH versus CFSA taking on those responsibilities? It’s less of a CSFA [issue]; it’s more of a system, as I talked about earlier,” added Matthews.

It’s not as if the city isn’t spending money in those areas.

CFSA spends millions of dollars on contracts with outside groups. It also hires other government agencies like the DBH to provide services. In FY 2021, DBH had a budget of $34 million to help children with mental health and substance use disorders, with $23.8 million of that funding in-school services.

“So, where kids are every day, there’s somebody who can do prevention, intervention, treatment and follow-up for that child, with the permission of the parent,” continued Bazron.

The DBH budget increased in FY 2022 to $40 million with an extra $5.8 million added for schools, according to Bazron and documents from the DC Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

A DBH spokesperson, Derrick King, said that in FY 2019, it served 4,318 children; in FY 2020, the number of children

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NEWS enrolled with DBH-certified behavioral health providers was 4,176, not counting those referred by CFSA. The agency’s complete numbers for FY 2021 were not available by The DC Line’s publication date.

Advocates, including students in several D.C. high schools, have said the number of clinicians, psychiatrists and psychologists is insufficient for the population, meaning that students often aren’t able to see their therapists in a timely manner.

Still, Bazron cited the growth of in-school services as indication the agency is meeting the needs of the city’s children.

“The staff will do a number of things: provide prevention, [conduct] activities to support resilience. They do intervention if it looks like the child needs some support, and they provide treatment with the signed permission of the family.”

Neither Bazron nor CFSA’s Matthews would discuss how the city addresses the impact of adult disorders on children in D.C. A spokesperson for the latter was unable to tell The DC Line the number of children involved with the CFSA who have a parent with a substance abuse disorder.

The CFSA “does not have broad access to parental mental health diagnoses. Parental substance use disorder is not a data point that CFSA aggregates,” said Tyler, adding that the agency does “gather data on child abuse allegations involving substances, e.g., exposure to illegal drug-related activity in the home, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, positive toxicology of a newborn, or substance use by a parent, caregiver, or guardian.”

One indication of the low priority CFSA appears to

give mental health: In all of FY 2020, it referred only 141 children to DBH, according to an email from the CFSA spokesperson. No details were provided about the specific issues or diagnoses, however.

And regardless of CFSA’s celebration of services provided to families, court monitor Meltzer’s report on the agency’s performance in 2020, released earlier this year, made clear that CFSA was not meeting some of the standards to which it agreed in the LaShawn A. lawsuit.

The agency was supposed to ensure that “90% of families who have been the subject of a report of child abuse and/or neglect, whose circumstances are deemed to place a child in their care at low or moderate risk of abuse and neglect and who are in need of and agree to additional supports” were referred to “an appropriate [Healthy Families/Thriving Communities] Collaborative or community agency for follow-up.”

Of the sampling of CFSA investigations reviewed by the monitor that were closed in July and August 2020, only 62% of families actually received the required referrals.

In 12 of the 23 investigations with no indication of a referral, “the reviewer identified a need,” but the family was not linked to a community agency, the court monitor noted in her report.

In the other 11 investigations, “either the worker identified a need, or the family requested a service; documentation does not reflect a linkage was made.”

Former CFSA ombudsperson Greene characterized the family assessment as falling within the purview of child

protective services investigations. “It allows for you to go into someone’s household, do an involuntary safety assessment. As long as the child is safe, you change it to a voluntary service.

You mitigate a lot of the concerns that bring people to our [child welfare system’s] attention.”

A preliminary assessment could result, however, in a child remaining in a home even when a family is in crisis. Some people believe the government should err on the side of protecting the child and removing them from an environment where they are at risk.

Greene’s point is that children are left to navigate a dangerous environment on their own if CFSA fails to adhere to its legal duty to investigate and take official action on allegations of abuse and neglect, and then to protect the children based on those findings by qualified social workers. It could mean life or death to a child who is being abused by a parent, the paramour of a parent, or anyone else.

Considering all the information that points to the deplorable state of the child welfare system, it’s difficult to understand why federal Judge Hogan and the plaintiffs would agree to end the LaShawn A. case. One local attorney had this explanation: “They were all tired of it. It went on for 30 years, my God.” This story is part of a longer investigative series by The DC Line and supported by SpotlightDC: Capital City Fund for Investigative Journalism. To read more visit www.thedcline.org.

District set to receive millions to boost lead removal

BY CANDACE Y.A. MONTAGUE AND KAELA ROEDER

Thanks to the passage of the infrastructure bill and the American Rescue Plan, the District is set to receive millions in federal funding with the goal of completely removing lead pipes from its infrastructure by 2030.

However, both the city and advocates say the available money falls far short of what is needed to address the full amount of lead pipes and lead-based paint found in properties and public space across D.C. Exposure to lead causes a variety of health consequences, and properties with lead pipes and lead-based paint are most common in the District’s poorest wards.

The total estimated cost of Lead Free D.C., a plan to remove lead from the District’s water infrastructure, is about $1 billion, according to D.C. Water’s vice president for marketing and communications, John Lisle. That means the federal funds the District anticipates receiving for this purpose — $28 million annually over the next five years from the infrastructure package, and $10 million annually from fiscal year 2021 to 2023 from the American Rescue Plan — will cover only a fraction of the total cost of removing the District’s remaining lead service lines, Lisle said In December, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released the Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan, which is a nationwide initiative to remove all lead pipes and paint in the next decade. DC Water’s goal, set in 2019, is to remove all lead service lines by 2030.

The Biden administration’s plan directs the U.S. Department

The District plans to remove lead pipes from its infrastructure by 2030. Photo by Ugi K.

of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fund projects aimed at “removing lead-based paint and other hazards from homes in low-income communities.” Additionally, the plan designates $15 billion of direct funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law for lead service line replacements through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF), administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; there’s also another $11.7 billion in SRF funding available for projects that could include replacement of lead pipes.

DC Water says $632 million in its 10-year Capital Improvement Plan will be allocated for water main replacements — enough funding to replace approximately 130 miles of water mains as well as 5,827 lead service lines (20% of all lead service lines). Additionally, the District has committed $30 million from the American Rescue Plan to pay for private side removal of lead service lines.

Amid the promise of substantial federal investments, some advocacy groups are disappointed by the lack of oversight in managing the funds that the District has previously received for removal of lead infrastructure. For example, the District received grant funding via HUD for lead paint abatement beginning in 2012. After two Lead Hazard Reduction

Demonstration grant disbursements of more than $6 million each, the local program was shut down and restructured. Only 35 of the 225 units slated for remediation were addressed, according to an auditor’s report.

Larry Martin, president of the D.C. chapter of the Sierra Club, welcomes the federal spending but says that management — not money — is the major impediment locally. Programs established by the D.C. Council have not fulfilled their purpose due to sluggish implementation, he said.

“We have more concerns about the way the programs are being run in the District,” Martin said. “We passed a law in 2019 authorizing lead pipe replacement in low- and moderateincome housing. There were a few million dollars set aside for this. It doesn’t appear that we’ve spent it all. So money doesn’t seem to be the problem.”

The Sierra Club and other environmental watchdogs in D.C. are sounding the alarm for environmental justice with regards to lead in paint and water pipes. They are bewildered about why the District has not done more to address these issues that were present long before the infrastructure bill was introduced.

What’s worse, they say, is that these problems seem to plague the most vulnerable sections of the city: low- and moderate-

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income areas that are home mostly to D.C.’s Black residents.

Neil Boyer, who chairs the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee of the NAACP’s D.C. chapter, said the group’s members are highly concerned about this issue because of its effect on the health outcomes of Black residents that are documented in the “Health Equity Report for the District of Columbia 2018.” “The reason why we, the NAACP, are focusing on wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 is because these wards have 63% of the Black population in D.C. But when you look at [the data], those areas also have the highest rates of morbidity and the lowest life expectancy. Who is accountable for this?”

A history of lead issues Lead pipes have been a concern for decades in the District.

In 2004, Washington residents experienced one of the most severe water contamination crises in the nation. The lead levels in thousands of homes were higher than levels during the subsequent crisis in Flint, Michigan, according to Valerie Baron, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an appointed member of the D.C. Lead Service Line Planning Task Force, and a former advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 1. The task force is a development team that helps plan the logistics behind lead service line removal with the 2030 goal in mind.

“We all know how bad that was,” Baron said of the situation in Michigan. “It’s really important that people remember that not even 20 years ago, it was worse than that here, and those pipes by and large are still in the ground.”

In the District, changes in the water treatment process helped ease the immediate crisis, which had included warnings not to drink tap water in homes with lead service lines without filtering it first, particularly for children. Meanwhile, D.C. Water began the process of removing lead pipes in public spaces and the connections to people’s homes.

For many years, however, the District would conduct a partial replacement: D.C. Water would install a new water main beneath the public street, but not a new service line on private property — unless the affected homeowner had the funds to also replace the service line. Water service lines are small pipes that connect to the water mains, which run parallel to or under the street. This program was inherently inequitable, Baron said.

“With this approach, the burden of lead pipe remains disproportionately on poor communities and communities of color,” she said in an interview.

Water is just one way that lead can prove dangerous to human health — peeling paint is also a clear risk, particularly to children.

Like many jurisdictions across the United States, the District has had a long-standing problem with lead-based paint and its removal from public housing and private properties that were built before 1978, when the federal government banned its use. At least 96% of conventional public housing units were built before 1978. In a 2020 report, the Office of the D.C. Auditor highlighted several deficiencies in the execution of the D.C. Housing Authority’s lead risk assessments. These findings showed that DCHA failed to clear lead-based paint within the time limits set by the DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE).

NAACP’s Boyer said the failures come at the expense of the District’s most vulnerable residents. He added that more scrutiny is needed on the related issue of what D.C. is doing to ensure private property owners — particularly those receiving government money — comply with federal and local requirements.

“The auditor made four findings that DCHA is not adhering to D.C. or federal laws requiring lead remediation,” Boyer said. “This is public housing. What about the housing that receives Section 8 vouchers? That is private housing. What

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about the houses for people who are homeless or have substance abuse issues? If DCHA is not adhering to local and federal legislation in its own properties, what about all the properties that are receiving public money? That’s the context that we need to look at when it comes to lead exposure.”

The auditor’s report that Boyer referenced revealed that D.C. officials missed several steps laid out in HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule: • DCHA failed to act within 90 days to remove or sand down and paint over lead-based paint hazards identified in units and common areas such as hallways THE DISTRICT PLANS TO REMOVE LEAD PIPES FROM ITS INFRATSRUCTURE BY 2030. PHOTO BY PISAUIKAN. and staircases where children under the age of 6 lived.

• DCHA failed to address nearly costs based on income and household size. half (48%) of the lead-related work orders within 30 The third part of the initiative is the Voluntary Full days.

Replacement Program, through which homeowners ineligible • DCHA did not conduct the lead-based paint inspections for assistance can initiate and pay for replacements on the required annually and when units turn over. public and private sides of the property.

• DOEE did not inspect complaints made about public Larry Martin of the Sierra Club is concerned about the lack housing, leaving DCHA to monitor its own compliance of coordination between District agencies that are involved with local lead laws. in the lead remediation: DOEE, which manages the grant Critics have also faulted the District’s progress in removing program, and DC Water, which handles the pipe replacements. lead service lines. After years of complaints about an inequitable He is also concerned about inadequate outreach so far to lowprocess, D.C. lawmakers passed legislation at the end of 2018 and moderate-income homeowners about the existence of the requiring D.C. Water to offer homeowners a chance to remove lead pipe replacement program. lead-based service lines on their property whenever the city “We just need to ask some hard questions. Maybe people replaced the adjacent pipes. [in the government] aren’t doing as much as they could do.

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, one of the new law’s And we may discover that the problem is bigger than we proponents, said removing lead pipes is an equity issue. realize. A hearing [by the D.C. Council] would help with “There is no safe level of exposure to lead,” said Cheh, that,” Martin suggested. who chairs the council’s Committee on Transportation and The federal government’s investment in lead replacement the Environment. “Every child should have access to safe is its largest to date and a “big step” in the right direction, drinking water, but we know that communities of color and according to Julian Gonzalez, a water policy lobbyist with the low-income families are at heightened risk of lead exposure national nonprofit Earthjustice. and lead poisoning.”

“Hopefully, it’s not the last big investment,” he said.

One group that is highly affected by lead is children. Whether The 2030 goal to remove all lead service lines seems to be it’s water from lead pipes that is used to make baby formula feasible, but only if the District government prioritizes the or lead-based paint chips and dust laying around the home, project, Gonzalez said. Speaking more broadly, he said the children are susceptible to ingestion. According to DOEE, 151 goal should be universal across the country. children under the age of 6 in D.C. had elevated blood lead levels in 2021. That’s a slight increase from the three prior What to expect with the block-by-block years — in 2018 the total was 143, compared with 135 in initiative 2019 and 144 in 2020.

Exposure to lead can cause behavior problems, hearing issues and anemia in children, according to the EPA. Exposure during D.C. Water is seeking to minimize the hassles involved in pregnancy can lead to premature birth or reduced growth of testing and removing lead service lines, Lisle said. the fetus. In adults, exposure can cause cardiovascular issues While going block-by-block, D.C. Water will also be testing and decreased kidney function. pipes of unknown materials. On the public side, about 14,000 Following passage of the Lead Water Service Line lines are of unknown material, and about 16,000 are unknown Replacement and Disclosure Amendment Act, DC Water on the private side. There are about 28,000 lead service lines released its “Lead Free DC” plan in the fall of 2019. The and 101,000 non-lead service lines in the District. initiative comprises three separate programs, the first of which The first step is obtaining an agreement from the homeowner provides funds for D.C. Water-initiated replacements during to test and/or replace the water lines on their property. planned capital improvement work and emergency repairs.

“The most important thing for people to understand is that Last year, D.C. Water began replacing lead service lines and this really is a fantastic opportunity to have their lead service water mains on a block-by-block basis through this program, lines replaced,” Lisle said. “It’s really important that people under which the government bears the full cost of private-side take advantage of the opportunity when it’s presented.” replacement. Wards 7 and 8 are being prioritized, according Residents can stay in their homes during construction and to Lisle. yards will be fully restored once the work is complete, Lisle The bill also required the establishment of a payment said. The replacement will be completed in a matter of hours, assistance program for property owners. Under the Lead Pipe and the work requires digging only a few holes, not an entire Replacement Assistance Program, eligible homeowners can trench, he said. initiate replacements on their private property, with the District “It’s not a terribly disruptive process,” Lisle said. paying between 50% and 100% of the private-side replacement

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OPINION

If Martin Luther King was alive, would he recognize today’s Democratic Party?

BY JEFFERY MCNEIL Artist/vendor

As we approach Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, I wonder what he would think of today’s activists if he were alive.

He committed to non-violence after Bloody Sunday, when racist cops attacked protesters on the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Many questioned his strategy. They were breaking away from King, becoming more aggressive and militant. White activists formed Students For a Democratic Society, railing against the establishment.

Nevertheless, Dr. King maintained that commitment, even while speaking out strongly against injustice. Even after Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, Dr. King didn’t feel fealty to him, but openly condemned the President for waging war in Vietnam.

During the sixties, the Left’s motto was ”Question Authority.” Today’s Left wants to censor anyone who doesn’t fall in line. Dr. King would be shocked that the sort of people who marched with him on Bloody Sunday now want to re-segregate society with Black-only college dorms.

To question Big Pharma means being anti-science. He would be shocked that no one resists.

Dr. King was stoned and beaten for civil rights, but never turned to anger or violence. We won civil rights because he persuaded the moderates by shining a light on what actually was happening in the South. He would be appalled that the word “racist” seems to be the only word in the Left’s vocabulary. Today’s 20-year-olds, sixty years after the civil rights movement, complain about slavery and Jim Crow laws, never having experienced being a sharecropper or white-only bathrooms.

I feel we are watching the twilight zone. Today’s Left wears masks, tears down statues, and smashes windows just like another vigilante group: the Ku Klux Klan.

During the sixties, college campuses invited segregationists like George Wallace, George Lincoln Rockwell, and Malcolm X to many campuses. The ACLU marched with the Nazis to defend their right to free speec. Now, Leftists get worked up over “Let’s Go Brandon” and David Chappelle telling jokes about transgenderism.

The Left has become everything people hated about the right. Today’s Left is a far cry from Lenny Bruce, who was jailed for saying the word F**k; the right-wing censors blew a gasket when Lucille Ball went on live TV pregnant.

Martin Luther King dealt with Bull Connor and George Wallace, and today’s Leftists think Donald Trump is a Nazi. They’ve lost their minds, virtue signaling about real barbarism like homelessnes while ignoring the slavery going on today: Human trafficking on the border.

It saddens me that my parent’s generation, which marched for civil rights and freedom of speech, has become the status quo. Dr. King wasn’t perfect, but he made the world a better place. I don’t think any Leftist can see the world as complex, not either-or.

Dr. King isn’t the only one considered flawed by today’s Left. Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy wouldn’t make it through the primaries because they always had a secretary under the desk.

As we come to King’s Birthday, I ask would he recognize today’s Democratic Party?

Housing for the People: “Dear President Biden…”

BY MANDEE SEELEY

Dear President Biden, We tend to think of big cities when it comes to houselessness, and the stereotypes that go along with it. Tents lined along the streets, addiction and mental health crisis happening for all to see, and people struggling en masse to find and maintain a safe place to call home. The issue looks a little different here in rural Sisters, Oregon. Folks are scattered throughout the national forest surrounding the city and aren’t always seen, but the stigma remains. People assume that if they just got a job or tried harder, they could be housed, but Mr. President we both know, it’s not that simple.

I’ve spent three of my six years here living in the woods with my family. I made $19 an hour before Covid hit, and I still couldn’t afford the rent. I struggle with mental health issues, and even though I could hold myself together most days, surviving in a national forest with your family is no way to live. It’s hard living outside when you don’t have the resources just to be warm. People die out here, and it’s not just in the winter anymore. Given the extreme heat and wildfire smoke, thousands of individuals and families are displaced from their housing and put at-risk every year now in the American West.

Housing has become a privilege in this country, but like air to breathe and water to drink, it’s a basic human need. It’s also a social determinant of health, like access to economic stability, education, food and healthcare. By not providing every person in this country a foundation on which they can build or rebuild their lives, we are setting people up for failure. Couple this with an addiction, isolation, mental health struggles, stress, and/or

trauma, and people are existing in a constant survival mode.

It’s a recipe for a slow death. We can change that.

Talking isn’t enough anymore, it’s time for action. The right to housing is still being denied to more than a million people in this country right now. Getting out of houselessness is like a ladder. Temporary shelter is the bottom step and permanent, stable housing is at the top. There are many steps in between.

Here are some things you could do at the federal level: Universal housing vouchers. (These vouchers should match the local market rate.)

• Fund permanent supportive housing and transitional housing for anyone who needs it.

• Fund more addiction and mental health services.

• Fund alternative and creative housing approaches.

• Ban criminalization of people experiencing houselessness.

• Expand and extend the rapid rehousing program.

• Incentivize business owners and landlords to get involved.

• Create a nationwide housing first program.

• Mandate all levels of government to participate. (They don’t always put residents first.)

• Bring people with lived experience to the table and pay them for their time. Create incentives for organizations to do the same.

Mr. President, if you feel like this is too much to ask for, I encourage to imagine having to survive in a National Forest with your family, constantly having to pack up everything you

own and remain on the go just to evade law enforcement for the crime of existing. That’s the reality. Imagine going camping for an extended period of time without the luxuries of home, all while you’re harassed and treated like dirt by your own community. That’s what it’s like to be houseless where I live.

It’s exhausting and humiliating. It takes a toll on your mental health. Hundreds of thousands of Americans don’t have the option to return home after a long weekend of camping. People experiencing houselessness don’t have that option. There are so many good people who have ended up homeless because of the lack of living wage jobs and access to affordable housing.

They remain hidden, and on the go, surviving the only way they know how. They deserve a roof over their head, period.

They deserve a safe place to call home. We must do better Mr. President.

Sincerely, Mandee Seeley Mandee Seeley is a Florida grown advocate with lived experience of addiction and houselessness who has found her community in Central Oregon.

Housing for the People is a column produced by the International Network of Street Papers from people on the frontlines of the housing justice movement in America and beyond.

Courtesy of INSP North America / International Network of Street Papers

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Thank you

BY JULIENNE KENGNIE Artist/Vendor

Once again, I would like to thank my Wednesday to Friday clients from between 18th and 19th and L and M Streets. And I would like to also wish my clients from Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market a happy end to the year 2021. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and I hope that 2022 brings us all iron health and long lives. I love you all very much.

I have no one behind me. My four children have college and university studies to pay for. May the good Lord protect you all during this difficult time. My sincere greetings to all of you.

Friends

BY MILDRED M. HALL Artist/Vendor

Friends can be close beside you in your home town. Friends can also be far away from you in another city, county, country, or continent.

True friends can be honest and trusted. On the other hand, those you thought were friends can become dishonest and untrustworthy. Still, you have to help your friends in any given situation. Friends can be the best of friends when they can share their differences, can make a difference, and can live in the world with all their other friends.

Happy New Year 2022

BY ANTHONY CARNEY Artist/Vendor

Three two’s in the year of our Lord, our king 2022. So, let’s rock and roll in the 22!

My daughter’s birthday is 22. 220 is my number I’ve had for a long time. So, let’s live it up in the new 22!

Spread love.

The sound of music

BY DANIEL BALL Artist/Vendor

Back in the year 1970, James Brown became one of my idols. His music touched the lives of so many people, to include mine.

I played drums in a band in high school. In those years we called ourselves the “10,000 Beats of Soul.” We would play soul and R&B music in parks and public spaces and everyone including homeless people,

would have a good time. People loved us.

And while I can’t even remember all the people from that time, I remember how it felt to hold those drum sticks in my hands. And I remember how it felt to make people feel good with our music.

// 11

1 2 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J A N . 1 2 -1 8 , 2022

ART

Just Relax

Rat City Attacks

BY AYUB ABDUL Artist/Vendor

BY CHRIS COLE Artist/Vendor

It’s one of those days when the sun pecks out and runs away for a moment.

You think you have it made and then you wake up.

My heart pounds when I see the tail wrap around my bag.

I hear claws and teeth ripping, scratching, tearing my sheets.

It yips. It squeals. It runs.

What does it want???

I think it wants me!

Immediately I get out of my tent.

I will NOT be its next meal.

I am so tired of losing to these rats.

This one makes me oh-for-twenty-six with these rat city attacks.

If you think that it is too much, Just relax.

Two poems

BY PATTY SMITH Artist/Vendor

A good day The sun is shining and I feel good all because it is not a real, cold fall day. Today is Saturday. I wake up in good spirits. I hope that I feel the same way about Sunday.

Saturday brings Street Sense I don’t know what tomorrow brings. Or if it comes with open arms. Come, come. Whatever comes. And with bending knees, I will come to you. How I love you.

The New Year

BY ABEL PUTU Artist/Vendor

The New Year will bring changes in my life. My goal is to move from Connecticut Avenue to the O Street market. It’s been more than two or three months, and I’m still waiting for somebody from the D.C. Housing Department to do the inspection. Once that’s done, my goal is to start fresh all over.

After I move, I want to go back to practice with my team, the MedStar NRH Punishers. We want to open our first wheelchair basketball game at the Capital One Arena. We’re hoping to submit a petition that will be

approved. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been missing the game a lot. I’m not the only person who feels this way. All the players from all the different teams in our league say they want to have it back again. We want to have a season the same way the NBA has a season.

I always want to motivate other people, especially kids and other people with disabilities that ride in wheelchairs. I pray we will have our opening game at the Capital One Arena and people will be able to come and see us play wheelchair basketball. Happy New Year to everybody, and to all the people who buy the Street Sense paper.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 1 3

Getting hired during the holiday season

BY MARCUS GREEN Artist/Vendor

My job search is three a week. But maybe I’ll try five a week and someone will finally hire me. I’m vaccinated, healthy, in shape, ready and willing. My aim is to make a difference for the homeless, and to help those who may be struggling and hungry, especially children and seniors.

I’ll do all I can to help someone in need during the holidays. But word to the wise: Be careful out there. Not too long ago, my wife came out of the check cashing place with an envelope full of money. The short version of the story is: she could’ve been robbed because

UNTITLED BY GRACIAS GARCIAS Artist/Vendor

she wasn’t paying attention. Someone could have grabbed her money and I would have had to chase the person down.

Also, be sure to show appreciation to your family, friends and animals beyond this holiday season. A kind word (along with hand warmers, socks, hats, and gloves) can signify the love you want to spread. And that kind of thing is something you can do all year long.

Keep pushing, work hard, and be fair. Stay up and be positive and love yourself because ain’t nobody going to love you like you. Be safe, and have a great holiday. God bless.

New Year, New Goals!

BY EVELYN NNAM Artist/Vendor

It is officially a happy new year! What a year it has been! A year of losses, a year of pain, a year of healing, a year of discovering, a year of change, a year of great moments, a year of it all.

I want to thank 2021 for a great year. It has taught us perseverance and how to overcome hardships to become stronger. As we reflect on the year and the great memories we created, we want to look into what we tried and what we didn’t try.

We should want to go into the new year not in vain, but with a new mindset and fresh ambitions for ourselves. We want this new year to be better than that we last went through because every new year should be a milestone, a fresh page in a book where we learn from our mistakes.

The year 2022 is here and we should not miss any chances to better ourselves. We should look forward to meeting new people, gaining new experiences and doing things we never dreamed of doing in the past. Overall, we should want to enjoy every day this new year brings us.

Making it through this uproar of a pandemic

BY AMIA P. WALKER Artist/Vendor

This year has been a blessing for me. I really miss my family gatherings. Before the pandemic, we would sit at the table and enjoy a wonderful dinner. My favorites were the sweet potato pie, the potato salad, the greens, the fried turkey, jambalaya, and so many more. This year I look forward to celebrating the New Year in church.

I attended my security ministry meeting online and we went over how we are going to open back up safely. I was so happy to see some of our church members in attendance. It had been nearly two years since I had last seen many of them. We were a little distracted and started talking about football and other topics related to the church. The conversation was enjoyable. Oh, how I really miss physically interacting with others. This is why I continue to pray that cities and churches open back up soon.

OnlineCrosswords.net 1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J A N . 1 2 -1 8 , 2022

Across

Across 1. Junior reporter

4.Junior Corrosive substances 1. reporter

substances 9.Corrosive Noted trial location Novice Sudoku Puzzles, Volume 1, Book 14.

Sudoku #1 7 8

2 8 4 6 7

9 1 6 7 4 4 7 5 9 1 6 3 2 4 8 8 1 5 3 9 2 4 9 7 4 © 2013 KrazyDad.com

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each 3-by-3 block contain all of the digits 1 thru 9.

If you use logic you can solve the puzzle without guesswork.

Need a little help? The hints page shows a logical order to solve the puzzle.

Use it to identify the next square you should solve. Or use the answers page if you really get stuck.

>> This crossword puzzle’s answers: tinyurl.com/SSMcross-1-12-2022

<< LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION

9.

Noted trial location 14.

Geneticist's letters 14.

15.Geneticist’s Exhibitedletters sudden elation 15. Exhibited sudden elation 16. Still with us 16. Still with us 17. Senator's pickup line?

17. Senator’s pickup line?

20.Clash Clash heavyweights 20. of of heavyweights 21.

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Park locale, briefly 28.Sunset Sunset Park locale, 29.

The euro’s Japanese counterpart briefly 30. More bombastic 29. The euro's Japanese 32. Windshield cover, sometimes counterpart 33. Printer type 30.Albacore More bombastic 34. and others 32.Advertiser’s Windshield cover, 35. pickup line? sometimes 39.

Terrible twos, e.g.

33.Amass Printer type 40. clues 41. no-no 34.Grammarian’s Albacore and others 42.

Disney head Michael 35.Longtime Advertiser's pickup line?

44. in atwos, Dickens title 39.Number Terrible e.g.

47. Bygone Ford 40. Amass clues 48. Word with stamp or knee Down 41. Grammarian's no-no Down 49. Ineffectual competitor 42.

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4. Fourth caliph of Sunni 26. Four is superior to it composer 3. British military 43. Entry requirement, 24. Send to seventh 55. Realtor’s Islam 31. Rum and water drinks 46. Where to find the best 47.

Bygonepickup Ford line? orderlies times heaven 60. Incur, aswith debtsstamp or 5. U.S.S.R. successor 32. Downfall actors and directors?

48.

Word 4. Fourth caliph of Sunni 25. Free ticket 44. It's self-evident 61. Last movement of a sonata, 6. Possessive pronoun 33. After everyone else 48. Momma’s mate knee Islam 45. "Tristan und Isolde" 26. Four is leaders superior to50. it Unit oftenIneffectual competitor 7. “Up Where We Belong,” 34. Pre-revolution of electrical 49.

5. U.S.S.R. successor 35. Polar composer 31.weather Rum and water resistance 62. Part of a musical gig for one condition 51. Unit of storage capacity, drinks irons 6. Possessive pronoun36. Shooting 46.flat-bottomed Where to find 63. One way to be lost 8. Meager 53. Large, boat the informally best actors and director 64. Nerdy guy 9. Far7. from 37. It’s32. nearDownfall the radius 56. Feel regret "Upfamished Where We 52. Tolkien's 65.

Virginia antagonists Woolf ’s “___ 10. Menu words,for perhaps 38. Feel dizzy 57. Navigational dir. mate Belong," one 48. Momma's 33.

After everyone else 54.

Puts Dalloway” the squeeze on? 11. Comparing or equating 39. Tall palm used for 58. Poetic 8. Meager 50.homage Unit of electrical 34.fan Pre-revolution 55. Realtor's pickup line? 12. Your average Joe 59. Scottish legend Roy resistance leaders (Var.) 9. Far from famished thatching 60. Incur, as debts 13. Imperils 42. British nobleman 53. Large, flat-bottomed 35. Polar weather 10. Menu words, 18. Word with post or ad 43. Entry requirement, at 61. Last movement of a boat condition perhaps sonata, often 56. Feel regret 36. Shooting irons 11. Comparing or 62. Part of a musical gig 57. Navigational dir. equating 37. It's near the radius Author Gene Weingarten is a college dropout and 63. One way to be lost 58. Poetic homage 12. Your average Joe 38.

Feel dizzy a nationally syndicated humor columnist for The 64. Nerdy guy 59. Scottish legend Roy 13. Imperils Washington Post. Author Dan Weingarten is a former 65. Virginia Woolf's "___ college dropout and a current college student majoring Dalloway" in information technology. Many thanks to Gene SATISFACTION GUARANTEED: Manufacturer's, upon receipt of the check

8

Find the solution at https://onlinecrosswords.net/2402

© ONLINECROSSWORDS.NET

FUN & GAMES

This is the Daily Crossword Puzzle #2 for Jan 2, 2022

Weingarten and The Washington Post Writers Group for allowing Street Sense to run Barney & Clyde.

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2375 Elvans Road SE 2204 Martin Luther King Ave. SE

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BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE Línea de salud del comportamiento

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So Others Might Eat (SOME) // 202-797-8806 71 O St., NW some.org

St. Luke’s Mission Center // 202-333-4949 3655 Calvert St., NW stlukesmissioncenter.org

Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW thrivedc.org

Unity Health Care 3020 14th St., NW // unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699 1500 Galen Street SE, 1500 Galen Street SE, 1251-B Saratoga Ave NE, 1660 Columbia Road NW, 4414 Benning Road NE, 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 765 Kenilworth Terrace NE, 555 L Street SE, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, 1717 Columbia Road NW, 1313 New York Avenue, NW BSMT Suite, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 828 Evarts Place, NE, 810 5th Street NW

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St., NW // 202-328-5500 legalclinic.org

The Welcome Table // 202-347-2635 1317 G St., NW. epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable

Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave., SE // 202-797-3567 whitman-walker.org

JOB BOARD Dishwasher Farmers and Distillers // 600 Massachuesetts Ave NW

Full-time// $600-$700 per week Farmers and Distillers is looking for someone

to load, run, and unload dishwashing machine; wash and store tableware and kitchenware; and clean restrooms.

REQUIRED: No prior experience necessary.

Must be able to lift 50 pounds. Must have strong English communication skills.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/FandD-Dishwasher Overnight Grocery Team Member Whole Foods // H Street

Part-time// Eight hour shifts Whole Foods is looking for someone to assist with stocking, inventory and breaking down deliveries during overnight shift.

REQUIRED: No prior retail experience necessary. Must be able to lift 50 pounds.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/WholeFoodsOGTM Server

Hot N Juicy Crawfish // 2651 Connecticut Ave NW

Full-time/Part-time// Flexible schedule // Eight hour shifts// $25 + per hour

Hot N Juicy Crawfish is looking for servers.

No prior experience necessary and open interviews Monday-Wednesday 3-6 p.m.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/HotNJuicyCrawfish Sales Associate CB2 Georgetown // 3307 M Street NW.

Part-time // Flexible Schedule CB2 is seeking a sales associate to make

sales, assist customers with merchandising selections, and maintain floor coverage.

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50 lbs and must be able to work one weekend day.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/CB2SalesAssociate Patricia Handy Place for Women 202-733-5378 // 810 5th St., NW

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