03 27 2013

STREET SENSE July 18 - July 31, 2012

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Volume 10: Issue 10 March 27 - April 9, 2013

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Special Election Issue

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BIRTHDAY

CORRECTION A story on page six of our last issue stated the increase in homelessness in the District since the recession year of 2008 until 2011. The number of literally homeless people living in the District rose from 6,044 in 2008 to 6,954 in 2012, an increase of 15 percent, according to the city’s annual point-in-time count. We regret the error.

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STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

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NEWS

SOME Hosts Candidates’ Forum

By Zoe King Editorial Intern In the days leading up to the April 23 special election for an at-large seat on the D.C. City Council, candidates have been asked to weigh in on everything from bike lanes to marijuana legalization. But at one recent campaign event, poverty issues took center stage.

At a March 13 forum hosted by So Others Might Eat (SOME), an interfaith nonprofit that provides food, housing, medical care and clothing to some of the city’s poorest residents, candidates explained their positions on challenging issues such as homelessness, joblessness and the shortage of affordable housing.

Statehood Green Party candidate and army veteran Perry Redd told the audience that he had experienced homelessness himself after leaving the military.

He contended the city has not done enough to address family homelessness, which has risen steeply since the recession. The number of homeless families in DC increased by 46 percent between 2008 and 2011, and an additional 19 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to the results of annual homeless point-in-time counts.

“Our city has a blind eye when it comes to it,” said Redd, one of seven contenders on the ballot to fill a seat vacated when member Phil Mendelson became the council chair.

Former Democratic councilmember Michael A. Brown, who was voted out of office last November and who is running to regain a seat on the council, said that attention needs to be brought to the dilapidated conditions of some of the city’s shelters.

“If you go into a shelter like DC General, you can get first hand what goes on and what conditions are like,” Brown said at the forum, sponsored by SOME, together with the senior advocacy group AARP and the Coalition for Housing and Homeless Organizations (COHHO).

Fellow Democrat Matthew Frumin, an attorney and advisory neighborhood commissioner, agreed.

“We have to do better at addressing the shortcomings in our shelters,” Frumin said.

Statements made about homelessness

led to the topic of the city’s scarcity of affordable housing. Frumin proposed a $500 monthly voucher for teachers, policemen, firemen and other city employees, to be put towards rent or mortgage.

“We need to increase the stock of affordable housing,” he said. “We have to make this city a place where people who work here can live here too.”

Candidates also stressed the importance of the city’s Affordable Housing Production Trust Fund, which is credited with building or renovating nearly 7,000 units over the past 12 years. Funding for the program, which comes from deed recordation and real estate transfer taxes, faltered during the recession years. Redd said the city should be doing more to shore up the fund and build more housing for low and moderate income residents.

“We have an issue here that we have a $417 million dollar surplus,” said Redd. “We need to make affordable housing a priority issue.”

Attorney Paul Zuckerberg (D) added that the city needs to be more meticulous in where the fund’s money is actually going.

“I want to see housing money going towards real housing units,” he said.

“We need to make sure it’s going to housing and not the pockets of lobbyists and special interest groups.”

Former journalist Elissa Silverman, also a Democrat and a budget analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, said she had been advocating to increase city spending for affordable housing.

“I can show you a track record of fighting for things at the Wilson building,” she said. “I was down there fighting for dollars when the housing trust fund was cut.”

Zuckerberg also spoke about residents who are struggling to stay in homes that they have lived in for years, proposing homestead exemptions and tax reductions for longtime residents.

He also supported the implementation of a living wage.

“That’s how the economy will get a boost, people will have income to spend,” he said. “Minimum wage doesn’t cut it if you are trying to live in D.C.” Unemployment also dominated the

Candidate Elissa Silverman speaks at a D.C. City Council candidates’ forum at SOME on March 13. PHOTO BY ZOE KING conversation, with most of the candidates agreeing that the jobless rate goes hand in hand with poverty in the city.

“The key component to preventing homelessness is making sure folks have jobs,” said Silverman. “We need to look at who is employable and who is not.”

Silverman, who said her work at the fiscal policy institute has given her insights into the challenges of workforce development, also spoke in support of putting money into job training programs and adult literacy programs.

Zuckerberg spoke out about the city’s graduation and truancy problem, stating that training needs to begin in high school.

“I’m all for adult literacy but let’s not graduate people in 12th grade who can’t go out and get a job,” he said. “We are not giving them marketable skills.”

In addition to providing job training for residents so that they can become employable, Redd’s platform also includes a placement component on the back end to help place people in jobs once they gain the required skills.

Candidates also advocated for stronger enforcement of the city’s First Source Employment Agreement Act, a law passed in 1984 that requires employers that receive contract money from the District to give priority consideration to D.C. residents for jobs.

“We need to enforce DC First to meet hiring goals,” Zuckerberg said.

“There’s no contract penalty.”

As former chairman of the Housing

and Workforce Development Committee, Brown amended the law at the end of 2011, requiring that 51 percent of new hires be District residents.

“We have 50 non-compliance letters out for people that aren’t doing right by D.C. residents,” he said. “We rewrote the bill to make sure if you don’t hire D.C. residents you will lose money.”

The city’s 2011 decision to impose a 60-month lifetime limit on welfare benefits was also examined.

“If we cut people off, kids will be on the street starving,” said Zuckerberg.

“Get rid of deadline; work it down day by day, person by person, look at the families and see what’s possible.”

Silverman spoke of the importance of a city initiative geared toward assessing long term beneficiaries of the welfare program, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), in order to help them address the problems underlying their poverty.

“We need to properly assess families on the program and understand their barriers to work,” she said. “The city hasn’t been good partners to people on TANF.” Redd proposed giving enhanced exemptions to corporations that hire TANF employees, as well as enrolling them at the University of the District of Columbia at no cost.

“Education is the key to empowerment,” he said. “We need to raise TANF benefits; it’s impossible to live in poverty when you’re trying to get out.”

Seven candidates are on the ballot for the April 23 special election to fill an at-large seat on the city council. What are their positions on poverty and homelessness? Jeffery McNeil and Kate Sheppard from the Street Sense Writers Group decided to find out. They developed a set of questions and heard from six of the seven candidates: Democrats Anita Bonds, Matthew Frumin, Elissa Silverman and Patrick Zuckerberg; Statehood Green Party contender Perry Redd and Republican Patrick Mara. Democrat Michael A. Brown did not respond to their requests for answers to the questions.

Welfare Cuts

The issue of cutting Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) by 25 percent for those who have been on the program for more than five years has been hotly debated in the Council. Do you support this TANF reduction? How would you change the TANF program as a council member? What programs or policy changes do you support that you believe would help move current recipients of public assistance who can work into jobs?

Anita Bonds: We should do everything we can to incentivize people to get off TANF, although I recognize that a small percentage of families and individuals may not have the ability to find work. I do agree with the policy, and I think individuals should come before the government and provide a plan to get off TANF and we should move these people into job assistance programs when appropriate. We need to foster a better relationship between job training programs and community colleges. We should support community colleges; provide assistance to students who want to attend them and bridge the gaps among these training programs and the workforce. This will be a relative small cost with great economic benefits, in the form of increased tax revenue.

Matthew Frumin: I think we need to work to make sure that people are prepared to get off of TANF, and until we’ve sorted out and provided the kind of engagement we need with TANF recipients, we have to be very careful about taking people off of TANF without an alternative for them to get by. I am for having TANF be temporary, but I think we need to commit to helping people to have the skills and access to jobs, to address where it can’t be temporary, to follow through on the plans that have been put in place to improve TANF, and to make sure that we’re providing all the opportunities necessary. I think that we need to focus on creating jobs for our unemployed. There is high unemployment in parts of the city. We need to press for increased job training programs that will give them the skills necessary to fill the various jobs, and we need to approach our education system as a berth to workforce and actual life-long-learning system.

Patrick Mara: In 2010, Mayor Fenty and the D.C. Council worked together to pass legislation that would bring the District into compliance with federal welfare reform laws dating back to 1996. The District planned to gradually reduce benefits for recipients who have been receiving TANF for longer than five years. Shortly after Mayor Gray took office, the District reduced TANF benefits by about 20 percent. Mayors Gray and Fenty as well as the Council were right to pass TANF reform laws; I support them, too. We need to make sure that TANF recipients are aware that the benefits they are receiving are not permanent. 3,300 District residents have moved from welfare to work, but we need to increase that number dramatically. As a Council member I will be dedicated to bringing more jobs to the District. We need to cut through the red tape and bureaucratic barriers that make the District unattractive to employers.

Perry Redd: I’m for an increase in TANF benefits, and the reason being that in order to move someone out of poverty, you cannot further impoverish them. Simply put, we have a great wealth disparity in this city. My role on council is to speak to those issues and to speak for those people who are the most vulnerable, the most disenfranchised in the city. Raising TANF monthly benefits is important to sustaining life in this city. We live in the fourth most expensive city in the country, and so to reduce TANF benefits is criminal. What I would do to change it is to strengthen our job training programs. I have a job training structure in my proposal for returning citizens, those who have been previously convicted. I call it RECAP – Returning Citizens Assimilation Program. We train specifically for jobs that employers tell us are open. That same structure would be used in other areas, like TANF recipients.

Elissa Silverman: I don’t support cutting people off right now because I don’t believe the program has done a good job in assessing families and assessing moms and dads in their barriers to employment. Right now, the Department of Human Services is implementing a new assessment process, and I think until all the folks who are on TANF are properly assessed, we shouldn’t take punitive measures. Obviously we want to encourage those who can work to work, but we need to be realistic that the TANF program hasn’t had a good jobs component. It’s improving, and we need to give it time. Part of the assessment process is to determine who is employable and can get into jobs quickly, and who needs some barriers to be removed. I think that, for example, Mayor Gray’s “One City, One Hire” is a good program to help match people who have the skills to work with employers. But there also might be other barriers. Obviously if you’re on TANF, you have kids, so we need to make sure that things like childcare are funded, that people have good access to transportation.

Paul Zukerberg: I don’t support the TANF reduction because the effects will be felt most sharply by children who are already, even with TANF, living below the poverty line. Twenty-five percent less support means kids will go hungry, and I would never support any policy that harms kids. Barriers to employment need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. What has worked to date in getting people off public assistance? Can we multiply what has worked to include more people? What are the barriers facing those still on public assistance? Is it childcare? Is it literacy? Is it homelessness? We have made progress, but much more needs to be done.

STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

Budget Surplus

The District recently announced a $417 million budget surplus.

How do you think the city should use that money?

Affordable Housing

What would you do to improve access to affordable housing in D.C.?

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NEWS

Anita Bonds: I think the money should go directly back to the community with a particular emphasis on seniors. We should continue to provide tax incentives to seniors and endorse policies so that seniors can stay in their homes and live comfortably. Secondly our city’s schools will need more money. More children our going into our public schools and we will need to pay for more teachers and fund more programs to make sure our children get a proper education. We also have to fund the efforts to make sure housing in the city is affordable. We are still looking at the plans to make this happen but the Trust Fund for Affordable Housing should be funded.

Matthew Frumin: I think half of that money should go into the “rainy day fund.” The current call is that all of it go into the “rainy day fund.” That money is one-time spending. It’s not programmatic spending, you can’t commit it for programs, but you can make capital and one-time investments. I think we should make investments in affordable housing and the Housing Production Trust Fund. I think we should be making investments in things like parks, and libraries, and focusing on serving the homeless in this critical period.

Patrick Mara: My opponents have talked a lot about the $417 surplus. Here is the real talk: by law, the $417 surplus must be put into savings. That is the law. Anyone who tells you how it can be spent does not know what they are talking about. With regard to future surpluses, we need to do a better job projecting revenue. Surpluses aren’t a government slush fund. Surpluses are taxes and fees that were taken from residents and local businesses. When we “over tax,” we take money out of the economy that helps to create jobs. We also lose our competitive edge to Virginia, where many employers prefer to set up shop to avoid the high taxes and fees imposed on them by District government. We also burden middle-income families in the District with tax bills, fees, parking ticket fines and other penalties that are higher than they need to be.

Perry Redd: I’m never for outright spending an entire surplus. I do support Mayor Gray’s effort to shore up the general fund, and even by law we have to do it. But I am even more in favor, and if I were on council I would propose, spending $217 million of it on programs that support affordable housing, our homeless programs, programs that support seniors like home foreclosure tax relief, programs that support returning citizens — which 10 percent of Washington’s population are previously convicted people. The supportive services there are in dire need. I would invest in our city residents who are the most vulnerable, those who are being driven out of the city through gentrification, through economic development.

Elissa Silverman: Right now the law says that the money has to go into our savings account. I think the council should change that. I think it’s important to save for a rainy day, but I think it’s also important to make investments for the future. I think a great one-time use is putting half of the money into the Housing Production Trust Fund, [for] both new housing and also to maintain affordable housing through maintenance and repairs, as well as giving rental housing vouchers to residents. I also think it should go for capital needs—like if MPD needed new cars, or if the fire department needed to replace fire engines.

Paul Zukerberg: The D.C. council must amend the law to allow a portion of these funds to go to the neediest. While the most privileged have prospered, the neediest have grown more desperate. I know that some of this money must go into the “rainy day fund.” But for some, it’s already raining, and they need help now.

Anita Bonds: Establish a permanent oversight committee to deal with the issue of affordable housing and allow experts to determine the best method to address the issue. There are a few solutions floating and we should study these ideas closely before enacting, but I would consider extending rent control policies more aggressively. We should also do targeted outreach to categories of the workforce who do critical city work but don’t make enough money to afford living in the city.

Matthew Frumin: One is strengthening the Housing Production Trust Fund. Another thing we can do is make it a line item in the budget.

I've also proposed an approach to making housing in the city more accessible to teachers, firefighters and police as a pilot program, to encourage more people to live in the city and make housing more affordable to them. If that works, maybe it can be broadened to others as well.

Patrick Mara: Money meant to support the Housing Production Trust Fund must protected. We cannot build affordable housing when politicians steer the money to other programs. We must also preserve and strengthen rent-control laws. Additionally, no developers should get a tax break if they aren’t setting aside units for low- and middle-income families.

Perry Redd: I think all of us as candidates say the same thing, in terms of the Housing Production Trust Fund. What we don't agree on is the numbers. Mayor Gray proposed $100 million for affordable housing, but he didn’t say it would come from the surplus. I think that's weak-kneed. I think the current council being silent on it is sorry at best, and so I would propose at least, of the $417 million surplus, at least $150 million into affordable housing. If I was elected to council I would shore up and protect, by legislation, the Housing Production Trust Fund. I would raise the ceiling on it for homeless services, in particular the shelter that's on the brink of being closed at 2nd and D streets. The lease there, at the Mitch Snyder Shelter, expires in 2016 and nothing has been said about that. I would invest in that shelter – everything from retrofitting, upgrading, creating single units, family units, units for single mothers. I would move families out of DC General. I find that criminal as well.

(responses continue on next page)

(cont’d)

What would you do to improve access to affordable housing in DC?

As a council member, what would you to address the issue of homelessness in DC, particularly the growing number of homeless families?

Elissa Silverman: I think one way is to build more [housing]. We obviously need more supply. I would put more money into the Housing Production Trust Fund so that we can produce more affordable housing, so that we can maintain the affordable housing we have and also provide rental assistance to renters who need it. When we're doing development deals with developers who are building these nice condos, we also need to make sure that our inclusionary zoning law is being enforced. And if we need to improve it or tweak it, we should do that.

Paul Zukerberg: 1. Help people stay in the homes they already have, by increasing the homestead tax deduction and denying rate increases for PEPCO, Washington Gas, Verizon and the rest.

2. Require developers to pay into the Affordable Housing Trust when they want exemptions from building restrictions.

3. Make sure that the money we are spending on affordable housing goes to the housing, and not to politically connected insid ers with sweetheart contracts.

Anita Bonds: We should increase the number of permanent supportive housing (units) available for the homeless and streamline the process of getting the homeless from the streets into the available housing.

The permanent supportive housing application process should be more efficient and faster. I co-sponsored the bill 20-150 to do just that.

Matthew Frumin: We need to find a way to serve homeless families. The DC General situation is unacceptable, which is obvious to anyone. We can do better in meeting the needs of people who are homeless. But then we also really need to commit to serving those people in as thorough a way as possible, to bring them out of homelessness and give them a path to a more stable life. In a time of a $417 million surplus and in a time of strengthening economy and strengthening fiscal picture, we have the ability and the obligation to do that.

Homelessness

Patrick Mara: Part of my answer goes back to job-training and economic development. But here are some other issues that need to be taken into consideration. First, when women are battered and abused, often along with their children as well, they often become victims of homelessness, too. The District must always be available to support, intervene, temporarily house and protect victims of domestic abuse. Second, many homeless people struggle with mental health issues. This is a challenge that has vexed society for ages. Again, we need to support non-profit organizations who have proven their ability to do good work in assisting people with mental-health issues. Third, there are an increasing number of (formerly incarcerated) returning-citizens at risk of homelessness due to the challenges they face finding jobs. The District government needs to put its money where its mouth is. We are not hiring enough local residents. We also need to prepare returning-citizens for work while they are incarcerated.

Perry Redd: Investing in homeless services means not only people who are on the streets as we see them, but people who have to couch surf. Homeless services need to be extended to people who are in those precarious living arrangements. Those are homeless people we don't count, folks who have an address but are truly homeless. I'm the first candidate in the race to call for a living wage ordinance in the city. I'm opposed to the Walmarts that are coming into the city. Some residents are blinded by the history of Walmart, and belief that jobs are a good thing. But Walmart treats its employees terribly. It's sort of like slavery ‌ That's unacceptable.

Elissa Silverman: I think we need to have adequate resources, number one, to house families. I think that putting people at DC General is just wrong in so many ways. From an economic point of view, it's expensive. From a human point of view, it's a terrible place to live. From an investment point of view, it's a bad investment because you have kids who don't have a place to study, aren't getting a good night's sleep, and therefore when they're showing up at school the next day, they're not going to be productive learners. We need to put families into permanent supportive housing, into apartments, so they can stabilize their lives.

We need to make sure those families have access to the resources they need. If they're not on TANF but are eligible, they should get on TANF. The moms and dads should be assessed so we know why they're in those circumstances, why they're not working perhaps or why they lost their housing and how we can get them back into a more stable environment and stable conditions.

Paul Zukerberg: We need to have a cabinet level position of Director of Homeless Services. Each case of homelessness needs the attention of a wrap-around social services specialist. Money needs to be invested.

If there are no affordable units, the causes of homelessness are beside the point. Right now we need affordable housing units and we need to add them quickly using part of the surplus.

STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

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NEWS

Homeless Man to Run for Council Seat Zoe King Editorial Intern

Charles Crews found his political calling in an unusual place: the city’s shelter for homeless families.

Now he is running as a write-in candidate for the at-large D.C. City Council seat in the special election that will take place April 23.

Crews, who has been homeless since 2010, has a campaign manager who he met at the shelter. His grassroots campaign is built upon his life experiences and the needs he sees around him.

Crews, 52, is a native Washingtonian who first fell on hard times when he lost his job as a concierge manager at The Bozzuto Group during the recession.

Shortly after, he found himself homeless.

“I had about two years worth of money saved up, and it was gone in six months,” he said. “I’ve made a whole lot of money, and I’ve lost a whole lot of money.”

Crews first went to the 801 East men’s shelter but left after one night, instead choosing to live out of his car for two months until he began living with his sister in her two-bedroom apartment. Crews left two months later due to lack of space and ended up residing in a Days Inn hotel for eight months. Then, he began living at DC General homeless shelter.

“I got into being an advocate because of what I saw in the shelters,” he said.

“All I smelled was urine [and] feces.”

While at DC General, Crews met Nkechi Feaster. She was in the room right next door to Crews, his fiancé and their two children.

“From the first conversation we had,

A New Leader

By Reginald Black Vendor, “Da Street Reportin’ Artist ” On Feb. 26 the Shelter, Housing and Real Change (SHARC) advocacy group, an organization formed to bring about shelter, housing and respectful change for the homeless, held its monthly town hall meeting in the Martin Luther King Library. This meeting included a discussion of future plans for the CCNV shel-

Formerly homeless resident Charles Crews will be a write-in candidate for the atlarge D.C. City Council seat in April’s special election.

PHOTO BY ZOE KING

we got along immediately,” Feaster said. “We adopted each other as brother and sister right off the bat.”

It wasn’t until he became friends with Feaster and spent time at DC General that Crews considered running for office.

“I’ve never wanted to be a politician, but when people started asking me at DC General, I thought why not give it a shot,” he said. “It’s a special election.”

Crews asked Feaster to be his campaign manager and the two began campaigning, talking with people in the shelters and on the streets about what they wanted to see change.

“I go out and talk for 14, 15 hours a day, asking people what kind of programs and services they want,” he said. “I’m going to be as transparent as possible.”

Crews says his party platform centers on the issues most important to his constituency, including affordable housing, rent control and improving

condition in shelters.

“People need a place to live,” he said. “We need to lower the rates of affordable housing so it’s easier for people to stay in their homes.”

Crews also hopes to allocate more money to educational services.

“I believe that all kids should have a head start in life, especially the ones that really don’t have anything else,” he said.

Although Crews has little political experience, Feaster thinks not having a political background might actually work in his favor.

“I think without the politics, it makes him even better for the position because that’s not standing in our way,” she said.

“We’re first worried about the people.”

Crews agrees, stating that his main focus, if he were to be elected, would be the homeless population.

“These are my people, these are my votes,” he said. “I’ve been where

ter, which is set to close in June 2016.

The advocates would like to see that the city does something for those experiencing poverty, instead of just building condominiums. This was also an opportune time to introduce Charles Crews.

Crews is running for the city council seat in next month’s special election.

Crews, who was homeless himself, is running because he knows the needs of what he called “my people.” Crews feels that the black community is not doing enough to address its own needs.

If he wins and does not do what he promised he would, he said he will not run again. He called on those present to help him voice the opinion of the community. He related to the crowd by talking about things that he sees on the streets. Because it is so early in the campaign, the Crews camp kept quiet about specifics until Crews hears more from his brethren. He wants to gather a better idea of what goals he should push to accomplish. With time, he will establish a final plan of action regarding

these people have been. I feel what they feel.”

Along the campaign trail, Crews has received job offers from various advocacy groups in DC and even California.

However, he says that has dedicated himself to this race and advocating for change for the homeless.

“I’m a very loyal person,” he said.

“This race isn’t about me, it’s about all of us.”

Crews said he is relying heavily on the homeless population for votes.

Because he failed to get the 3,000 signatures required on the nominating petition, Crews will be serving as a write-in candidate, meaning his name will not appear on the ballot.

“We need to get the homeless population to get out and vote so we can have our voice heard,” he said. “It doesn’t take money to elect someone, it takes people.”

Although Crews recently moved into his own apartment in Southeast D.C., Crews says he can still very much relate to the issues facing his constituency.

“I haven’t found a job yet, I’m still one of these people,” he said.

Feaster believes that Crews’ experience being homeless is what makes him the best candidate for the job.

“He’s someone that has been in these people’s situations,” she said. “To have someone like that in a decision-making position would be huge.”

Crews hopes that his campaign, no matter the outcome, will bring homelessness to the forefront of DC politics.

“I hope that even if we don’t win, our voice is heard,” he said. “We need to organize the homeless to send a strong message to the D.C. Council.”

the issues that concern the residents most. Crews also said that he plans to set aside some of the surplus money to help residents with housing, fixing the streets, etc., because “we need affordable housing.” He added that the District needs the jobs and housing that the surplus money is expected to bring. I hope that Charles Crews will be a great addition to the city council, and will help Washington improve the plight of its poor and impoverished residents.

STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

FEATURE

540... A Number to Live By

What Easter Is All About

By Evelyn Nman Vendor

By Reginald Black Vendor, “ Da Street Reportin’ Artist ”

The nation’s capital is a hub of diversity filled with hustle and bustle and people of all walks of life. But where intersections meet we all are guaranteed to encounter a homeless person.

What makes the difference are programs like Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen that serves the homeless located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, near the George Washington University campus.

Many Miriam’s programs, from meals to case management, are offered quietly inside the church basement that the non-profit calls home.

But on March 15, Miriam’s guests, volunteers, staff and community partners headed to Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Ave to mount a traffic-stopping display: 540 cardboard homes made by people who are homeless. The exhibit was aimed at visually exemplifying the critical need for affordable housing to

solve the District’s homeless crisis.

Mayor Vincent Gray recently promised to spend $100 million dollars for affordable housing. Now Miriam’s is asking city officials to invest $13.5 million into Housing First programs that offer stable homes to the chronically homeless. Roughly 2,000 people are chronically homeless in the city on any given night. Many are struggling with serious mental and physical health problems and will remain homeless for years.

Since 2008, the Housing First program has successfully contributed to a 19.3 percent decline in chronic homelessness in Washington.

The District’s Housing First program, also known as the Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) program, has ended homelessness for 1596 individuals and families. Not only has it helped people move beyond homelessness, studies have also shown such programs actually cost less than maintaining homeless people in a cycle of shelters, jails and hospitals. The programs cost about $60 a day, compared with $905 for a trip to the emergency room and $1,940 a day for an inpatient hospital stay.

Testimonies offered at Freedom

Plaza on March 15 attested to the effectiveness of supportive housing. Housing first resident John McDermott said the Housing First program “saved my life.” Carolyn Darley, another Housing First resident, observed “sometimes life throws you a wallup that you are not used to and that is where innovation comes in.”

Darley, who said she was once

“The exhibit was aimed at visually exemplifying the critical need for affordable housing to solve the District’s homeless crisis.” a nurse, described how her physical and mental conditions led to her being homeless. She spoke of waiting 10 years on the housing list until she applied for Housing First. Then, with great excitement and humility, she recounted her reaction to

learning she had been accepted into the permanent supportive housing program and was no longer homeless.

In addition to mounting the display of cardboard homes, a small delegation of advocates went into the city’s Wilson Building to deliver postcards urging the mayor and city council to invest in Housing First.

The group made its way to the second floor to the deputy mayor’s office to deliver the postcards, where a showdown ensued. Among those who spoke to the attendant to the deputy Mayor were John McDermott and Eric Sheptock. The attendant did not give specifics and when asked would the postcards reach the mayor, he said that he didn’t know about the mayor, and added that he had been working in the Wilson Building for a year and hasn’t even met the Mayor.

In response to these comments, the delegation left peacefully. Without programs like Housing First it would be tough to determine just what Washington would look like. Program members still hope the city’s elected officials will listen and respond to the cries of the impoverished.

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Easter is when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter follows Palm Sunday, which is on the 31st of March. Palm Sunday is the day that marks Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Followers worshipped Jesus by laying down robes and waving palms. The Scripture of Mark recounted the day.

11:8-10, “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the kingdom of our father, David. Hosanna in the highest.”

Jesus’ love, care and humility is a

“ Jojo ” A homeless artist sits by the Cardboard display (TOP). Carlton “C-Money Harris” and Street Sense vendor Robert Warren from the People for Fairness Coalition display their cardboard houses. PHOTOS BY REGINALD BLACK

CHILDREN’S ART: RONALD

great influence on Christians to live as Jesus did. It also prepares us for the final act of total self-giving which occurs on Good Friday, Jesus’ death for us. Easter is a large celebration in the Christian Church. Therefore, as our country is nominally of Christian background, Easter is a commonly observed holiday. Many people may celebrate Easter by just thanking God for what he has done and singing songs that reflect and relate to his resurrection.

Up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph o’er His foes.

He arose with great power and domain And He lives forever with His saints to reign!

He arose! He arose!

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Today

My Easter Rose

By Phillip Howard Vendor

By Phillip Howard Vendor

This day is like, the firwst day of life.

Today My eyes see wonderful things lots of joy, tears of happiness.

Today People rejoicing, bells ringing, birds tweeting...

Today

Petals of Radiant Color, Red, Yellow, White, and Pink My Easter Rose Sweet smells of joy.

My Easter Rose Thank you Father, for My Easter Rose...

ILLUSTRATION BY VEDA SIMPSON

Easter

By Sybil Taylor Vendor

-Tyree, age 7 Turning Point Center There are 1,880 children experiencing homelessness in the District. The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project visits 6 different transitional housing and emergency shelter programs to provide weekly activities, healthy snacks, and opportunities to play and learn to as many children as possible.

John McDermott testifies that Housing First saved his life.

PHOTO BY JANE CAVE

Members of the audience listen to testimony.

PHOTO BY JANE CAVE

Courtesy of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project

He is Risen He has Rose up from the Dead on Easter Day He is Shining so Beautifully He is a Blessing in the Sky A token of greater love The greatest who laid his life down for us Easter also Brings Joy Going to church to thank our Lord and Savior for this special day.

Easter means jolly fun with easter basket filled with lots of candy and pretty eggs of all sorts of colors and lots of goodies.

Easter Bunnies and chicks happily along the way. You’re never too old for Easter.

Easter dinners Ham, Deviled eggs, Po-

tato Salad, greens all sorts of drinks and desserts.

Enjoy this day of thanks and peace all over the world Happy Easter Palm Sunday The day that christ died on the cross and sheded his blood for us.

He took thorns and nails over his head and body Naile to the cross where he later died He was taken off from the cross and buried. For all to weep and cry of a gifted man. Who has not done anything wrong to anybody but help and heal people. He was later covered with palms from the trees.

Christ laid down his life for all of us on this earth.

COMICS & GAMES

Trust

TERRON’S GAME : SPRINGTIME CROSSWORD

By Terron Solomon Vendor

By Chris Shaw “The Cowboy Poet”

Street Springtime

Pre Rapahelite hues galore!

Do we see the brushstrokes of Millais, or for more, was it Dante Gabriel Rosetti,

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Who depicted an amber haired, ivory skin Lass in dress of azure and Blood rose red; Her lips blazon crimson against her white alabaster pallor (O shades of the Saint James' Infirmary) My personal Ophelia was not 'clept so, I'm reminded that this Chevy Chase aesthetic child,

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Recalled a Robert Herrick verse so mild.

"Amas amo I love he so, as Cedar tall and slender'-{merely a paraphrase} And now they've even slain my gingko.

The muse who lifted my troubled adolescense To glorious new plateaus of delusion May live yet, but my further knowledge of her Willowy laugh and dancing self Has been put away on some far inaccessible Cosmic shelf.

As they still mumble joyfully in New Orleans, the land that Care has lef'' behind, The monkey, dear friends, has spoke his mind!

Fear not — Glarph the Postulatin’

Daytona Beach

Tidal Basin

Shark will return

Ocean City

Cherry Blossoms

for the next issue!

Spring Break

NCAA

Flowers

Bike Week

Barbeque

Ice Cream

STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

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EDUCATION

International Breakfast Highlights Importance Parents Prepare Lawsuit Against School of Women’s Education Closures

By Shonette Reed Editorial Intern The importance of female education was the focus of a recent Washington D.C. gathering, attended by powerful women from the halls of Congress and around the world.

The meeting was hosted by Women Thrive Worldwide. The organization held its fifth annual Women’s Day International Breakfast to explore ways that the U.S. government can join with private sector organizations and the international development community to improve learning. The focus of this year’s event was to discuss the barriers that women face while earning an education.

“We just simply can’t build the world we want without education at the center of our efforts,” said New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey.

She was joined by representatives of international groups who spoke about the importance of women to the success of families and economies.

“Without women, men cannot pros-

per. Because men came from the womb of women, how can we live without them?… If you provide education for women, you have the quality woman,” said Juhundi N. Mbwambo of Elimu Community Light, an organization based in Tanzania.

The main barriers girls face in pursuing higher education in many places are child marriage and sexual abuse.

“Thirty nine million girls drop out of school during adolescence… Age 14 is the most critical time: they get married [and among other things] are sexually abused,” said Subhadra Belbase, Special Adviser to Plan International’s Policy Advocacy and Campaign Team. “If a child gets nine years of education: she has the skills and knowledge to get up and claim her rights.”

Sakena Yacoobi of the Afghan Institute of Learning suggested that giving a basic education to girls will not just impact the economy, but will also inspire leadership.

Congresswoman Lowey said she believes that providing girls with quality education builds the foundation for strong women, families and communities.

“A quality education can be the difference between living a lifetime in poverty or having the ability to change not just a family’s economic situation, but a whole community’s,” agreed Ritu Sharma of Women Thrive Worldwide.

Panelist M.Chariot Kruvant of Creative Associates International said that a system of trust should be built in the endeavor to provide quality education for students.

“We have to work in the community.

It would be bad for us just to go into the community and tell them what to do,” said Kruvant.

By Shonette Reed Editorial Intern DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson plans to close 15 public schools, a propositon that has drawn the ire of a number of local families.

On Thursday, March 14, parents gathered at the Temple of Praise in Anacostia to prepare for a legal battle to fight the closings.

At the event, dubbed an education summit and hosted by the grassroots group Empower DC, speakers shared the details of a lawsuit aimed at D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson. The lawsuit is expected to be filed on the last week of March.

“We can have a lot of power if we’re organized and we’re strong,” said Daniel del Pielago, Empower DC’s education organizer.

During the summit, del Pielago noted that there were hashtags to tweet at Mayor Gray and Chancellor Henderson along with each persons name, neighborhood, school and organization.

The schools will be closed are located in Wards 4, 5, 7 and 8, affecting communities of color with higher-than average levels of poverty.

Henderson has portrayed the closings, expected to affect more than 2,400 students, as necessary in a plan to improve performance and save money. The District is under intense pressure to raise test scores and outcomes. Enrollment, which has declined for years, has fallen even more steeply in recent times due to competition from charter schools.

“We can’t ignore the fact that we as a city have embraced school choice,” said Henderson at a briefing on the planned closures earlier this year. “If we proliferate charter schools, we have to know that [it’s] going to have an impact.”

At the education summit, Empower DC’s legal team member Julianne M. Robertson King described the closings as “educational genocide” of children.

The school closings will affect one-third of students who have already

experienced school closings in their neighborhood.

In a video (right) displayed of interviews done by Empower DC, a third grade student at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School said, “it’s crazy that they’re going to close [the schools] because if they are closing [the schools] they are closing down what brought this environment together... they are closing down what gave me my courage.”

Soumya Bhat of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute shared that there is no information on cost savings or how the saved resources would be invested. She argued that the cost savings argument “really doesn’t hold water.”

Local parents spoke in favor of Empower DC’s lawsuit.

Joy Parker said that this would be the third school for her children that has been closed. She stated the need to teach stability to black boys and girls.

She declared that her children deserved an education.

Johnny Barnes of Empower DC’s legal team said he believed the parents would prevail.

“The power of the people is much stronger than the people in power,” Barnes said.

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The Mysterious Masonic Ring Chapter 3: The Lawyer’s Office

By John “Mick” Matthews Vendor In the last installment, Bill receives a fresh set of clothes from Miriam’s Kitchen to prepare for his meeting with Ms. Bell. While he is in the bathroom washing up, a man next to him makes a derogatory comment about Kittie, causing Bill to put the man in a headlock. After putting him in his place, Bill heads over to meet with Ms. Bell.

It took about 25 minutes to walk from Miriam’s Kitchen to the Connecticut Avenue office building where I was to meet Ms. Bell. I checked the time on a nearby parking meter and found I was 20 minutes early. I slipped my hand into the wrong pocket looking for my pouch of tobacco, and I found a crumpled up piece of paper. I pulled it out and discovered it was a $10 bill. Apparently, whoever donated the slacks to Miriam’s didn’t check the pockets first. I took my newfound wealth to the Starbucks on the corner and got a venti-sized cof-

fee. I made it back to the office building with five minutes to spare.

After checking my ID, the guard at the desk directed me to an elevator that would take me to the fifth floor, which housed the law offices of Rabin and Thorne. Ms. Bell was a junior partner at the firm. The receptionist at her desk offered me a Danish before admitting me into a conference room that was equipped with a coffee maker, its decanter full of the life-giving brew, as

well as sugar and powdered creamer on the side. I topped off my cup and was munching happily on a cinnamon Danish as Ms. Bell entered the room with an A/V cart equipped with a monitor and a DVD player.

“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting long,” she said as she knelt down to plug the monitor and DVD player into a wall outlet.

“Not at all,” I replied. “I’d just grabbed some coffee as you walked in.”

“Good,” she replied as she sat down and fished a bulging legal-sized envelope out of her attaché bag. “This is a copy of Mr. Cornel’s will, as well as certain documents he’s left for you and an item of some interest.”

I opened the envelope and found the will, a checkbook and a folder emblazoned with the logo of BB&T bank. At the bottom of the envelope was a small jewelry box, the kind that usually contains an engagement ring. As I scanned

the contents of the envelope, Ms. Bell popped a disc into the DVD player.

Frank’s face appeared on the monitor.

My attention was drawn to the screen, my newly-acquired property forgotten for the moment as Frank began to speak from beyond the grave.

“I, Francis Allen Cornel, being of sound mind and body, do solemnly leave this last will and testament … Oh to hell with it! Look, Bill, if you want the legalese, read the will. It’s in the package Ms. Bell gave you. More importantly, all my money has been placed into a bank account which the documents in the package should allow you to access. Now I know you’ve gotta be wondering, ‘How did an old-head drunk like me wind up with a couple grand in the bank?’ The secret is that ring you always saw me wearing. It should be in that package with everything else.”

(To be continued)

BEFORE THE RAIN PT 18: ESCAPE FROM DESTREHAM, OR, ‘WHO’S MY DADDY?’

By Chris Shaw “The Cowboy Poet” Lyndsey lit a kerosene lamp, barely illumining her ‘new,’ used long sleeve nightgown festooned in flannel with countless hummingbirds. Opposite lay Loomis, reflected in her beaming face, of a warped aluminum mirror behind their double-wide FEMA cot. Their air in this little hutch of a FEMA unit stank of Chinese-issue pthalate vapors seeping out of the plasti-foam insulation.

Loomis gasped, “We’d ‘a been better off in a boxcar up on the Katy railroad —” “Oh well,” she smiled. “Just hafta make do, won’t we, Loomis,” “Yes, but- Oww! My neck,” Loom is complained. “Y’know this place just feels downright WEIRD, though.

Don’t it?”

Lyndsey sat up, propped on a squished little pillow under her dainty left elbow. She assessed this amazing fiftyish mess of man before her. “We did just now make love, sir!”

Loomis blinked wildly. “Oh, SH--!!--I’m sorry lil’ Lady, I’m sure you’re not lyin’, but I can scarcely recall.

And that chokin’ SMELL from God

whatever makes me want to pack us up and fly this dam’ COOP---” Now came an infernal KNOCKING to the trailer door, accompanied by Armageddon-calibre SHOUTS and SCREAMS with a somewhat familiar gluey accent, last heard in Ruta’s Cafe.

Loomis and Lyndsey glommed each other in sheer blue panic, snatching covers, jeans, and pullovers in a matter of New York milliseconds.

As the flimsy door blew open, practically off its hinges, with Frankie Daro bellowing “LET’S GO! TIDAL BORE ON ITS WAZY!!!” Lyndsey squeezed Loomis’ right hand with her own and silently swore to uphold their alliance in the sight of what God there may be over them in this crazy quilt mud-soaked firmament they were moving through.

“We WHAT?”, Loomis moaned, aware of her moving lips but not what was spoken.

“Oh never mind, you big galoot, mister Reader,” Lyndsey clucked, as they moved steadily but mindlessly out into a ground-blown maelstrom.

“C’Mon! Hop on board”, urged Frankie, as his son revved the deafening whirrers of a huge air-boat as one might have seen in a Grade Z movie

about smugglers in the Everglades swamps. Lyndsey literally shoved her new-found love interest Loomis into the mid-position catch basket, whereupon he promptly clonged his occipital skull against a high rail of the same, and as he went under, recognized Lyndsey’s soothing but agitated words of devotion: “You are such a Humpty Dumpty puzzle to be pieced back, Loomis, but I declare by the Powers above I’ll rescue you and reconnect all your jigsaw pieces...”

Wowww, Loomis mused, half in, half out of conscious thought. I see a cloud of red. Is it rage, or just this magenta cough syrup like they used to offer in vast quantities at the musty ol’ Thermopylae Pharmacy on Magazine Street.

Only now he was dreaming a horrible ‘user’s dream,’ of slurping the sticky suffocating mixture out of a continuous chrome trough or sluiceway.

Daro’s voice brought him around; that, and Lyndsey’s frenzied shaking.

Febre and his copter done GONE! I gotta drive us down the water route apiece!

Loomis sat up in the rolling gunwale, and blurted out, “Serious BooJoo, my man!!”

“That’s GADJO, earth guy,” correct-

ed Frankie.

Loomis retorted, “Gadjo, Boojoo, I don’t care. He wet his index finger and held it to the oppressive wind.

“We get out at Buras, Lyndsey. There we’ll sort it out.”

Lyndsey shouted with all her might directly into the face of her intended.

“Are you familiar with the AKASHIC RECORDS?” Loomis gaped in amazement. During his ‘occult period,’ which began sometime when he still lived in Washington with his real father, Johnathan Akula Havisham, Esquire, and on up to the Arsenal Museum near Faubourg Marigny--why yes, he was pretty zoned up on those mystic books which recorded EVERY SINGLE MOMENT(!!!)of EVERY HUMAN BEING FROM ALL TIME! “Yeah, Lyndsey. And I b’lieve we’ll get some answers if we make it on over to fonky ol’ Buras!” Lyndsey urged the hulking Gypsy and his son to put the jets on and get to Buras posthaste.

The craft took a sharp left heel, nearly clipping a fifteen-foot gator with a very mean yellow-eyed stare.

(To be continued)

STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

Prejudice and Poverty: One Man’s Quest for a Better Tomorrow

By Jeffery McNeil Vendor Race is a topic that can be sensitive, so I have approached it with caution.

However, since President Obama has been in office, the discussion of race is unavoidable. I stay awake at night thinking about racial tensions and poverty in the inner cities. I have been trying to examine the events that are causing the insanity.

While investigating the causes, I wrestled with my own prejudices to see if my beliefs were valid. Hopefully, in doing research I can find a way to contribute something to solving black poverty. I would first like to discuss the events that led me to examine how race affects these issues.

I love history, but until recently I had read little about black history. Before I read Malcolm X, I held no grudges, but when I finished reading him, I felt worked over. Malcolm was rough. He broke you down and took you from the Motherland to Jamestown. He made you feel the whips. He pointed out why I am light skinned and made me remember the kid who called me a n*gg*r. His fiery speeches about white people allowed me to use white people as a dumping ground

for my problems. For a while Malcolm messed me up. My advice for novices who want to learn black history is to start off with Frederick Douglas instead of Malcolm X, because it’s better than going straight to the hard stuff.

Eventually my anger toward whites subsided, but my anger towards the blacks were left revved up. I perceived the Urban League, NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and white liberals as race hustlers and welfare pimps who defended the poor no matter how indefensible their behavior.

Back then I was poor but not at rock bottom. I lived in the projects but had witnessed miracles. I saw single mothers, abuse victims and people who had harder roads than me finish school, get careers and raise families while another group cried and complained that nobody was helping them.

I remember hiring three friends as a manager of a restaurant, and later I had to fire them because they refused to work. The first thing they said to me was, “You’re an Uncle Tom.” I will never forget when I first started selling newspapers, I brought along two people who were broke like me. They didn’t want to look foolish selling papers, and today they are still in the shelter waiting for housing. This changed my atti-

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OPINION

tude about poverty.

Like the people on Fox News, I was fed up with the four babies/five daddy drama that you see in some communities, with people selling their food stamps for crack and black men liquored up in the park. I came to believe many of the problems in the inner city were self-inflicted.

I was fortunate to move out of the ‘hood. I became bourgeois, and I denied being black, telling people that I was French or American Indian. I resented being called an African American. My relatives were born in Ohio, New York and New Jersey. I looked up my family tree and not one was born in Africa.

I’m Irish, Indian and Dominican, but my dominant color happens to be black.

Why can’t I be called an “American” instead of categorized as an ethnic person? I equated negative things like crack, assault and rape with black people. Whenever something bad happened I would say that n*gg*rs did it.

At that point in time, I wanted to know less about black history instead of more. I believed I knew all that I needed to know about my past: Africa, slavery, civil war, Jim Crow, civil rights, Barack Obama. What else is there to know?

Then a few months ago I got Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United

States, and I began a metamorphosis.

The first time I read it I felt it was too far left. When I read it again, and I started seeing things differently. He explained vividly the cruelty of slavery and how the whipsawing of the slavemaster and the patronizing of liberals keeps minorities in perpetual dysfunction for generations.

What turned my curiosity into an obsession was reading Robert Kennedy and His Times, by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. His book looks at the roots of poverty.

“Something in the core of our society is starting to rot,” he wrote. Later in the book, he writes, “poverty is a cover for racial discrimination.” That struck a chord with me.

Reading about gang violence in Chicago and the recent shooting of a D.C. teenager over a pair of sneakers inspired me to begin my own investigation into how this all begin. These events inspired me to direct my rage into an effort to do something about it. I decided to take Robert Kennedy’s advice and get to the roots and causes of problems like violence and poverty. In the coming issues, I would like to continue the conversation on these issues and get input from others on how we can eradicate poverty in the black community. I am tired and I know many others are also.

at night. (They must, because they become paralyzed after only one hour in the sun.) Inchworms’ color resembles a twig or a branch, which shields them from predators by enabling them to blend into their surroundings. Many inchworms will stand erect and motionless when startled. Because they don’t have lungs, in the hot summer months these harmless creatures dig holes in the ground, which allows air into the soil. That process helps plant root growth, enhancing water absorption, which helps reduce pollution by breaking down natural materials into organic ones that lower the risk of soil erosion.

According to the Fairfax Examiner, the county this month will spend $226,000 spraying pesticides from helicopters in Franconia and Mount Vernon to kill off this purported over-

population of inchworms. Officials told the newspaper that these nuisances are “damaging local trees in their area” and “butterflies may be affected as well.”

However, other counties like Hanover and Chesterfield near Richmond, are forgoing spraying, believing that “nature will take care of itself.” Predators helping to accomplish that task include yellow jackets, birds, bats and wasps.

Metaphorically, and possibly literally, all of mankind hangs on an invisible thin delicate thread of silk similar to an inchworm’s. That thread holds this planet together, so, we are responsible to try first to understand nature’s ways before we take drastic measures that may severely damage our environment. Haphazardly bombarding any area with herbicides and pesticide should be our very last resort and never our first.

C=MB: ALL THIS OVER INCHWORMS?

By Cynthia Mewborn Vendor Why is it, that when something unexplainable happens in nature that startles us, our first reaction is either to minimize or wipe out what we don’t understand without comprehending why this event or phenomenon happened in the first place?

The latest example of this trend is Fairfax County, Va., which this month plans a massive pesticide offensive against these inch-long creatures. This reaction seems way over the top, considering that the inchworms weren’t coming to wine and dine on every fruit, plant and vegetable in the county.

Despite the bad press, the salient fact here remains unchanged: inchworms are absolutely harmless to humans. True, some inchworms are carnivorous — but only those living in Hawaii. The species’ largest prey is fruit flies. So, this natural occurrence of

inchworms visiting Fairfax County hardly poses a threat requiring a full-blown arsenal attack in which the chemicals used will create more pernicious effects than the “concern” spawning them.

Rather than being worms, inchworms are geometer moth larvae, otherwise known as geometridae. There are about 35,000 different species. Their “official” name means to “measure the earth,” which is precisely what their loop-like movements would suggest. They have two to three pairs of appendages at each end of their bodies. The creatures spend four-to-five weeks in late April suspended above ground, hanging on silk thread or on trees eating foliage before going underground in silk cocoons until June. They emerge in early November as adult moths.

The usually hairless adults fly mainly

The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by two writing professionals and meets every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. The group’s goal is to develop ideas and collaborate on the next great issue of Street Sense.

Call for submissions! Fulfillment This is a call for submissions for the Fourth David Pike Excellence in Journalism Awards, which honors reporting that changes perceptions about homelessness, highlights issues that contribute to or result from homelessness, and shines light on possible solutions.

Street Sense, the D.C. metropolitan area’s street newspaper, sponsors the awards. The awards are named in memory of Street Sense Board Member David Pike, who was a journalist for four decades, working for publications like U.S. News & World Report.

It is open to all publications and outlets, as long as the entries cover the D.C. metro region or national policy as it relates to these issues. Entries are due by April 25. The winners will be announced in early May, and the awards ceremony will be held on May 23 in Washington, D.C.

Criteria Submissions must address the causes, consequences, and/or solutions to homelessness. The entries must relate to the DC metro region or national policy on homelessness, and must have been published between January 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013.

Outlets may submit more than one article in each category.

Categories • • • •

Breaking news Investigative/Feature stories Opinion/columns Photography

Submission Guidelines Anyone can submit a story – editors, reporters, the general public.

Please submit the article electronically in a text or PDF format. Please indicate the category to which you are submitting it, along with your email and phone number. If you are the writer of the article, include a brief bio about yourself. The deadline for the receipt of all submissions is April 25, 2013. Send submissions and questions to davidpikeawards@gmail.com.

By Gwynette Smith Vendor

Some of Gayle’s closest friends were right there at the firm. Two of them, John, 19, and Paul, 21, had no family responsibilities. They were foreigners.

Gayle wasn’t interested in a trip. But as she thought about it, maybe a couple of days in New York City might be fun.

“Well, what about a trip from here in LA back East to New York for John, Paul and me?”

“Good, and we’ll spring for shopping and entertainment, too,” the senior partner said.

They were good workers who had decided not to become paralegals, but to seek to become attorneys after taking whatever college credits were necessary. The firm would contribute toward their education costs and surely hire them, if they applied to practice there.

The only thing that remained was

for Gayle to check with them and see if they wanted to go. Their friendship started mainly because Gayle had represented friends of theirs from timeto-time, many who could pay nothing or very little. Moreover, she had fortified ber school courses at Berlitz, and was bilingual.

She saw them in the library, dusting books, and said, “I’d like it if you two would join me on an all-expenses paid vacation the firm is giving me for my retirement!”

“Sure,” they agreed.

Plans for the trip were confirmed later that day, and four weeks later, after Gayle’s final day and a little party there, the group left. The guys had been told they would get paid vacation time, too.

So, they were off for ten days.

(To be continued)

They were consoling each other In their living room of life Behind the silver traffic signal box.

Suddenly, Popeye’s became the dinner table-At least on this night.

Tonight, I saw the eyes of homelessness.

Singing a simply hymn, Happy in their moment.

Apparently, life just goes on For both sides of the world.

Found Lost Found

My new job

Palm Sunday

By Victoria Beaumont, Vendor

By Phillip Black Vendor, “The Cat in the Hat”

By Sybil Taylor Vendor

Found: over-bleached blond Walking around L.A. in short black dress and six-inch heels

I wanted to give readers an update on my job. It’s going really well. I do about four to five plumbing calls per day. I work on Hanover Parkway in Greenbelt. If I work 90 days part time from 2:30-6:30, they will open up a full time position for me.

Seven years ago, I was a plumber working full time. But when I became ill, I lost my job. Now I’m getting back into the workforce, and doing what I do best: plumbing. This time around, it will be better than before.

I still sell papers on 11th and F streets some mornings, and on weekends at Eastern Market. I just want to say to all other vendors and my friends at Street Sense, never lose faith. And when looking for a job, sometimes it won’t be easy. But if I can do it, you can to. Remember, never give up.

The day that Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for us.

Gayle thought while growing up that a husband and kids would be the focus of her life. She believed she would have a career, but it would only play a minor part in her life.As she prepared to retire, however, she could see her life had been very different. She was a successful family lawyer, had done some trust work and volunteer legal work for the arts, and later became an entertainment lawyer. Now her nationwide firm wanted to recognize her achievements, although she had never made or wanted senior partner status.

“We are going to miss you. What would you like as a farewell gift?” she was asked. “How about a trip? We’d also pay for a friend or two.”

Open Your Eyes

By John Branges Vendor

Found: self confidence Found: new talent Found: lease on life Lost: Lost: Lost: Lost:

all self confidence ability to love lease on life desire to live

Found: over-bleached blond Walking around L.A. in short black dress and six-inch heals again Found: Found: Found: Found:

a new confidence a new project a new ability to love and live Lease on life

Message: if you ever found yourself lost, please find yourself.

He took thorns and nails over his head and body.

He was nailed to the cross, where he later died.

He was taken off from the cross and buried for all to weep and cry.

He was a gifted man who helped and healed people and had not done anything wrong to anybody.

He was later covered with palms from the trees.

Christ laid down his life for all of us on this Earth.

STREET SENSE March 27 - April 9, 2013

Service Spotlight: AimHire

15

COMMUNITY SERVICES

By Lanie Rivera, Editorial Intern D.C.’s Friendship Place expanded their services in 2011 to include a job placement program called AimHire. AimHire creates job opportunities for individuals currently experiencing homelessness or those who have formerly experienced homelessness.

“We empower these men and women to rebuild their lives with the involvement of the community,” said Jermaine Hampton, executive director of AimHire. The program focuses on each individual client to encourage success for that person.

The six-month program uses Friendship Place’s diverse connections with consumers, staff and volunteers to place each client with potential employers. Through the employment process, the staff members at Friendship Place work sideby-side with clients to assess their abilities and interests to find a suitable employer.

Calvary Women’s Services 678-2341 (shelter) 1217 Good Hope Road, SE calvaryservices.org Central Union Mission 745-7118 1350 R Street, NW missiondc.org Open Door Shelter 639-8093 425 2nd St, NW newhopeministriesdc.org/id3.html Community of Hope 232-7356 communityofhopedc.org Covenant House Washington 610-9600 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE covenanthousedc.org John Young Center 639-8569 119 D Street, NW

My Sister’s Place 529-5991 (24-hour hotline) mysistersplacedc.org N Street Village 939-2060 1333 N Street, NW nstreetvillage.org Samaritan Inns 667-8831 2523 14th St, NW samaritaninns.org

Among the services provided are career assessment, personal coaching, workshops, résumé writing, case management and computer skills training are just a few ways they help clients.

Friendship Place also helps AimHire consumers search for either transitional or permanent housing in local apartments or shelters.

AimHire is willing to work with all types of individuals, including both men and women. They typically aid 75 people a month, and since its establishment, AimHire has helped 115 people find jobs. Individuals who wish to participate in the AimHire program may drop in at Friendship Place, located at 4713 Wisconsin Ave., NW. Please call Jermaine Hampton, the executive director of AimHire, at (202) 364-1419 or email him at jhampton@cchfp.org.

New York Ave Shelter 832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave, NE

Catholic Charities 772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp Charlie’s Place 232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave, NW charliesplacedc.org Church of the Pilgrims 387-6612 2201 P St, NW churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach food (1 - 1:30 on Sundays only) Thrive DC 737-9311 1525 Newton St, NW thrivedc.org Food and Friends 269-2277 219 Riggs Rd, NE foodandfriends.org (home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc) Miriam’s Kitchen 452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave, NW miriamskitchen.org The Welcome Table 347-2635 1317 G St, NW epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable Unity Health Care 745-4300 3020 14th St, NW unityhealthcare.org

Housing/Shelter

Clothing

Outreach

Transportation

Education

Legal Assistance

Food

Showers

Medical/Healthcare

Laundry

Employment Assistance

DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH ACCESS HOTLINE 1-888-7WE HELP (1-888-793-4357)

SHELTER HOTLINE: 1–800–535–7252

Christ House 328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd, NW christhouse.org

Sasha Bruce Youthwork 675-9340 741 8th St, SE sashabruce.org

Whitman-Walker Health 797-3500 1407 S St, NW whitman-walker.org

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

Bread for the City 265-2400 (NW) 561-8587 (SE) 1525 Seventh St, NW | 1640 Good Hope Rd, SE breadforthecity.org

Academy of Hope 269-6623 601 Edgewood St, NE aohdc.org

Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place 364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave, NW cchfp.org Father McKenna Center 842-1112 19 Eye St, NW fathermckennacenter.org Georgetown Ministry Center 338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave, NW georgetownministrycenter.org Martha’s Table 328-6608 2114 14th St, NW marthastable.org Rachel’s Women’s Center 682-1005 1222 11th St, NW rachaels.org

D.C. Coalition for the Homeless 347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW dccfh.org Community Family Life Services 347-0511 305 E St, NW cflsdc.org Foundry Methodist Church 332-4010 1500 16th St, NW foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities ID (FRIDAY 9-12 ONLY) Gospel Rescue Ministries 8421731 810 5th St, NW grm.org Jobs Have Priority 544-9128 425 Snd St, NW jobshavepriority.org

Lessons of Hope: A Discussion on Homelessness

VENDOR PROFILE: GARY MINTER

By Lanie Rivera Editorial Intern McDonald’s changed a life — for the better.

Vendor Gary J. Minter first heard of Street Sense through a green-vested vendor who sat at the local fast food chain. Minter was experiencing homelessness, and when he learned more about the paper, he was interested in becoming involved.

“I was very excited and it paid off,” he said. “It gave me a purpose; it made me feel better about myself. I was doing something, helping society, something of good purpose [and] a good cause.”

Since working with the paper, Minter has been able to afford his own room after living in shelters and his cousin’s house in Bethesda, M.D. Minter had not always been a District resident; in 2002, he was living in Raleigh, N.C., working with the North Carolina Department of Health on the surveillance of HIV/AIDS. While working for the state government, he decided to run for Congress. During this time he met a group of representatives from the National People’s Congress of China who suggested he visit China.

“I’ve never traveled, … I’ve never been out of the U.S. This might be a good time to travel ... so why not? It might be my only time to do it,” he said to himself.

Minter quit his job and left for China on March 11, 2004, where he lived for five years working at a radio station and as an English teacher.

“I really loved the people,” he said.

“I made some good friends that I’m still in contact with today.”

Unfortunately, he had to return to the states to live with his stepfather in 2008 after his mom passed away a year earlier. It was at this time when his fall into homelessness began.

Minter began to experience symptoms such as headaches, digestive problems and mild fevers, but was eager to return to China in September 2008.

But his health problems began to take over his life. He didn’t enjoy teaching anymore.

I just can’t keep doing this,” he said. “I’m not doing a good job for my students.”

After giving notice to the university, he returned to Raleigh in February 2009 and stayed with friends, but then moved to a Super 8 Motel with the money from his mom’s insurance and his 401(k).

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he said. After two years, he became homeless after spending all of his savings on his room.

Minter then went to live with his cousin in Bethesda. In 2011, he went to DC to see the Chinese New Year Parade.

When he went to McDonald’s, one of his favorite restaurants, he encountered a Street Sense vendor for the first time.

He bought a paper from the vendor and decided to become apart of the team the following day because he loved the philosophy of Street Sense.

He currently writes for the paper on topics that spark his interest, such as the local HIV/AIDS forum and the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

March 27 - April 9, 2013 • Volume 10 • Issue 10

Street Sense 1317 G Street, NW

Nonprofit Org US Postage Paid Washington, DC

Washington, DC 20005

Mail To:

Permit #568

Remember, buy only from badged vendors and do not give to those panhandling with one paper.

Interested in a subscription? Go to page 3 for more information.

By Lanie Rivera Editorial Intern On Thursday March 21, Street Sense partnered with Miriam’s Kitchen to host the first of many “Lessons of Hope” community forums about the issue of homelessness in the District. The discussion, held at Miriam’s Kitchen, featured three panelists who have each worked to alleviate homelessness in the city.

The panelists were Susie Sinclair Smith, executive director of the Montgomery Coalition for the Homeless; Michele May, the adult systems of care manager at the D.C. Department of Mental Health; and Brian Carome, Street Sense’s executive director.

The panel was convened, ideally, to determine the best way to solve homelessness.

The panelists offered alternative methods that have been successful in the past. Carome spoke from 30 years of experience with shelters and housing programs, as well as his participation in demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience to seek fair laws for the homeless community.

May currently works with Open Arms Housing and in the D.C. government.

PHOTO BY LANIE RIVERA

In the past 20 years, she has helped economically challenged individuals, including people who have experienced mental health issues, addictions, trauma and other setbacks.

While May now works with the government and believes that it is more involved in low-income issues than it had been in the past, she also said that starting from the bottom up to help the homeless is successful: “Working with grassroots organizations … is the way to help people.”

Lastly, Smith has accumulated more than 25 years of experience with nonprofit services to help the homeless and founded the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. She admitted that she has been devoted to aiding individuals experiencing homelessness since the time she realized that she could make a difference for that population.

“Once you realize there are people who are homeless, you want to right that wrong,” Smith said.

Although the panelists could not concur on the best way to achieve it, each advocate agreed that much more affordable housing and a right to housing make up the path to end homelessness.

Cadbury Chocolate, Eggs and the ADA Jesse Helfrich, a volunteer copy editor for Street Sense, has been raising funds for the American Diabetes Association during the month of March. With a small donation, participants "sponsor" a Cadbury Creme Egg that Helfrich then eats and photographs for his website. Vendor Gwynette Smith, an always-cheerful presence on K Street NW, recently joined Helfrich for a photo sponsored by Street Sense. The effort so far has gathered approximately $500.

See Gwynette and the rest of the photos at jessehelfrich.net/eggs.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSE HELFRICH