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OUR STORY Street Sense began in August 2003 after Laura Thompson Osuri and Ted Henson approached the National Coalition for the Homeless on separate occasions with the idea to start a street paper in Washington, D.C. Through the work of dedicated volunteers, Street Sense published its first issue in November 2003. In 2005, Street Sense achieved 501 ( c ) 3 status as a nonprofit organization, formed a board of directors and hired a full-time executive director.

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STREET SENSE April 22 - May 5 2015

3

NEWS IN BRIEF

Smartphones Set to Empower Homeless People Housing Finance Agency Shows Positive Returns

By Sabrina Caserta, Editorial Intern

By Sabrina Caserta, Editorial Intern

Technology companies in the Bay Area of California have begun a smartphone giveaway program to provide homeless people in the area with access to smartphone technology and the Internet.

A San Jose nonprofit, Community Technology Alliance, collects smartphone donations from tech giants, like Google, and redistributes them to the city’s lowincome and homeless populations. They have given away only about 100 of the 1,000 phones and promised another 350 to various organizations, reported the New York Times. BetterWorld Wireless provides phone recipients with data and phone service for $30 to $40 a month.

According to St. Anthony’s, a San Francisco nonprofit, more than 40 percent of people living on the city’s streets have cell phones. The majority are Lifeline phones, an Obama Administration plan

affording low-income people free phones that are good for calls and texts but lack Internet access.

Without access to the Internet, basic activities such as finding and keeping a job, staying in contact with others, and locating shelters and other service providers becomes even more difficult than it has to be.

Silicon Valley has also made strides to combat the digital divide and wealth gap.

Twitter is building a $3 million computer lab for low-income people. Zendesk, a business software company, created a mobile app to help homeless people find essentials, like soup kitchens. Also, Twitter, Yammer and Zynga employees have taken to tutoring low-income people in social media.

Representatives of the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) testified before the Committee on Housing and Community Development on Wednesday, April 15th to review their Fiscal Year 2016 Budget.

Maria Day-Marshall, Interim Executive Director of DCHFAreported great success with the ‘DC Open Doors’ program, which provides single-family loans and down payment assistance to those seeking to purchase homes in the District. The program has produced 358 single-family mortgages totaling $98 million.

DCHFA’s Interim Executive Director , reported that the budget proposed for FY 2016 will be nearly $10.8 million, a 12.5 percent increase over the fiscal year 2015 budget of $9.6 million. According to DayMarshall, much of the increase would go towards updated accounting and systems software for the agency.

Day-Marshall reported that the agency has closed nine transactions across six of the District’s Wards, representing $150.4 million in tax-exempt bonds, $84.5 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity and over 1,200 units of affordable housing. With five months left in the fiscal year, the Agency expects to close an additional seven projects.

With their proposed budget increase for FY 2016, DCHFA expects to continue and expand housing assistance for lowincome residents through a few different programs, including the District’s Housing Production Trust Fund.

“We are hopeful the city council will fund the Housing Production Trust Fund,” Day-Marshall said. “In my view, [this funding] is one of the larger obstacles developers face when trying to preserve affordable housing units.”

invest in “peer coordinated entry.” This system will enable people in the homeless community to gain employment, working alongside professionals, to assist those experiencing homelessness to access service. Some of PFFC’s members are trained in how to take assessments; the group hopes the city will produce funding for two other members to continue the work. Second, the group wants the city to invest in a daytime service center to help homeless singles who stay downtown access services that do not exist in the area. Finally, PFFC wants D.C. Council to consider using the Local Rent Supplement

Program to help homeless singles, particularly tenant-based vouchers that will allow the individual options for what part of the city they wish to live in.

“Since I’ve been at PFFC, people have died on the streets. What keeps me going is the fight for housing. We’re fighting to end poverty in the District,” said John McDermott, who helped found the group.

“I see that these people could be the next victim to die on the streets.”

McDermott questioned why the District of Columbia has more children in shelters and on the streets than anywhere in the nation.

D.C Begins Budget Season

By Reginald Black, Vendor - “Da Street Reportin’ Artist” On April 13 an organization called Jews United for Justice held a meeting in the Potters House on Columbia Road to discuss issues of affordable housing in Washington.

A concerned citizen named Deloris was asked to described the neglected state of the building where she lives. Deloris detailed complaints of rodents, insects, and near-constant need for repairs. She said the landlord has submitted a hardship petition to the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) requesting to raise rents in the building. Deloris said she currently pays $940 a month and

YES!

the increases could be $250 to $350 monthly. “We didn’t want to pay because of the conditions,” she said. Since the landlord submitted his hardship petition, residents have been fighting back. “We keep demanding repairs but nothing is happening,” Deloris said. In the District, landlords are allowed a 12 percent conditional rent increase if they meet DHCD’s criteria, which include maintaining the building in compliance with housing regulations.

The People for Fairness Coalition (PFFC) laid out its budget priorities for the coming fiscal year. The group has three primary priorities. First, the city should

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4

District Streamlines Road to Housing on Shoestring Budget

By Emma Holland Editorial Intern If you’re chronically homeless and you want housing, where do you start?

Coordinated entry, also called Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement (CAHP), is a new system for placing homeless individuals in housing.

It uses a “no wrong door” approach, which allows homeless individuals to be assessed in multiple locations and added to a central pool of applicants. This way, homeless people don’t need to traverse the city and visit many different housing providers to find out if there are open spots.

Once an individual’s vulnerability is measured, he or she is put into the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and matched with a housing navigator. Finally, the assessed person is placed in suitable housing out of an inventory of the city’s available affordable housing spaces.

“They don’t have to tell their story over and over again,” said Emily Buzzell, senior case manager at Miriam’s Kitchen and a leader of the movement toward coordinated entry in the District.

The coordinated entry assessment can also be administered on the street. The Vulnerability Index & Service Prioritization Decision Assessment Tool (VI-SPDAT) is used by certified assessors to determine what kind of housing each individual needs. So far, the coordinated entry system for singles has met success.

“I think we’re doing pretty well,” Buzzell said. “We’ve got good participation and lively discussion, and we’re seeing outcomes.”

Those outcomes show up in big numbers.

Twenty-nine agencies and organizations are able to do assessments, more than 3,800 assessments have been done and 420 people are trained to do the assessing.

But Buzzell and her team have also run into roadblocks.

“It’s not as easy as flipping a switch.

There’s a process, and we’re learning,” said David Tweedie, HMIS coordinator and system administrator for the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness.

The District’s CAHP pilot program started in February, 2014, after a successful coordinated entry system for veterans began the previous year. Community Solutions and the Rapid Results Institute held a kickoff event three months later to scale up the program.

Last year the D.C. Council dedicated $250,000 to the coordinated entry system for singles, but the funding hasn’t been released yet. The Department of Housing Services was not available to comment.

Buzzell says that the $250,000 would go towards staff, which the system currently works without, and flex funding to help prepare individuals to move into housing. For example, flex funding might pay for a client to obtain ID, necessary for most housing.

“There is a lot of transparency and group accountability, but it is not sustainable without a formal management infrastructure,” said Kristy Greenwalt, Executive Director of the D.C. Interagency Committee on Homelessness and a member of the coordinated entry leadership team.

Buzzell added that the lack of housing space within the CAHP system is an obstacle.

“Some providers want to continue to do their own thing,” Greenwalt said. “They often want to continue to decide whom to accept based on their own application rather than joining the CAHP system.”

Last year the team began by explaining the benefits of participating in coordinated entry and inviting housing providers to join the system, according to Greenwalt.

This “soft” approach has not worked with all providers.

“We are now writing it into our funding requirements and our contracts,” Greenwalt said.

Buzzell said an additional obstacle is that many people who have been matched to housing lose contact with their housing navigator before learning of the match. In response, a list of people who have been matched but are not found by their navigator is being circulated to service providers.

Still another obstacle to housing is the occasional anomalous score on the VI-SPDAT. A higher score means faster placement, but sometimes a person’s score does not reflect the real situation. For example, someone may have been homeless for many years and may have a chronic disease, but still receive a low score. To combat this problem, assessors may complete a more in-depth questionnaire that has space for comments.

Housing navigators can also explain that a client is more vulnerable than his or her score suggests during one of the District’s twice-monthly case conferencing meetings. These meetings are only open to certified VI-SPDAT assessors, housing navigators, and housing providers.

Some providers have employment or sobriety requirements, so discussing each person’s case, not just their score, is necessary. Case conferencing also allows navigators to offer choices to their clients.

“We want to give people options and ask, ‘which do you prefer?’’’ Buzzell said.

Despite CAHP’s growing pains, District case manager and senior outreach worker Julie Turner is happy with the new system.

She said that many unsuccessful approaches have been tried before to place homeless individuals in housing.

“It’s not uncommon for us to co-case manage,” Turner said. “The more the merrier, as long as we’re on the same page.”

The VI-SPDAT can help a case manager find out what services the individual needs immediately, especially because it asks about the person’s medical history.

“It’s a case management tool. It’s also a good conversation starter,” said Tweedie.

Another benefit in tracking all of the information that HMIS collects is that it shows how necessary it is to fund homelessness programs, according to Greenwalt. You can see where money should go and what the return on the investment will be in terms of reducing homelessness.

“If I were a funder, that’s a much more attractive proposal than ‘Please give us money,’” Greenwalt said.

The coordinated entry data shows there has been success in housing people. Since August 2013, Washington, D.C., has participated in two 100-day initiatives to decrease veteran homelessness, and two to decrease single adult homelessness using the coordinated entry system. The first

two initiatives housed 409 veterans cumlatively. The third and fourth initiatives housed 764 single adults.

In addition to the case conferencing meetings, Buzzell and Tweedie hold “systematic meetings” at Emery House with representatives of housing providers, homeless service providers and a representative of the Department of Human Services to track progress and troubleshoot the problems they have run into.

These meetings are essential because the HEARTH Act, a federal law that was amended to require coordinated entry, allows each community to decide how it will implement the system.

“We are using an approach to designing and implementing our CAHP system that is about empowering the people on the ground who are doing the work and can see firsthand what is working and what is not,” said Greenwalt.

Now Washington has joined the Zero: 2016 national campaign to end chronic and veteran homelessness by 2016, rather than start another 100-day initiative. The District was also designated by the federal government to be part of the 25 Cities Initiative, which named the communities with the highest homeless prevalence and most difficult housing and labor markets.

“It will clearly take more investment in housing assistance,” Greenwalt said. She believes the lack of available housing in the CAHP system might hinder the goals of Zero: 2016.

Even with the use of the CAHP system, housing placements of chronically homeless people and homeless veterans have been far below the target goals set for Zero: 2016.

Part of the reason for not reaching these goals is that assessors don’t know what qualifies a person as chronically homeless, according to Tweedie. For example, having a disability is one of the criteria that designates individuals as “chronically homeless.” Someone with a disability might be successfully placed in housing, but would not be included in the placements counted for the Zero: 2016 campaign if he or she had not been correctly categorized first.

Tweedie also explained that there are people who do not fit either the “chronically homeless” or “homeless veterans” description who are more vulnerable than some that do. In these cases, the CAHP teams is not wedded to the priorities of Zero: 2016.

“We’re committed to housing the person who is most likely to die first, rather than checking off a box for chronic homelessness,” said Tweedie.

STREET SENSE April 22 - May 5, 2015

COVER PACKAGE

5

Professionals Hired to Navigate Family Homelessness Crisis

By Jacquie Lee Editorial Intern

Mayor Bowser announced in early February that she would hire four permanent professionals to streamline the process of connecting families to housing. Candidates are still being considered, while the quantity and quality of affordable apartments available to homeless families continues to make the housing process difficult.

Typically, caseworkers with limited knowledge of the realty market in Washington work with families to acquire housing. These paid housing navigator positions are new to D.C. A requirement is that the person have prior experience working in the District’s competitive housing market, according to Dora Taylor, public information officer for D.C’s Department of Human Services (DHS).

“Unfortunately, we are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis and we think it’s important to have people experienced in real estate and not just in management,” Taylor said.

There were 1,885 families counted as homeless in the D.C. metro area during the 2014 annual point-in-time count, an 11 percent increase since 2013. During the 2014-15 winter hypothermia season, the city had to lodge families seeking shelter in motel rooms, because shelters were filled to capacity.

Navigators will help families identify units to live in as well as facilitate communication between tenants and their landlords.

At first, the navigators will be working only with families, but Taylor said DHS hopes to open up the service to single individuals.

Generally, a family experiencing homelessness presents themselves at the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center in Northeast D.C. to receive an assessment and a score. This sorts families into the programs that suit them best. Then the process of identifying housing for that family begins.

Most of the families scored are eligible for rapid re-housing, which provides rent subsidies for up to one year. Only 3 percent of families receive scores that qualify them for permanent supportive housing. That program provides a rent subsidy that can be permanent if the family has a permanent barrier keeping them from becoming self-sufficient, such as a disability.

DHS said it is trying to extend the amount of time a family can receive a subsidy.

“Because of the large number of families living in homelessness, we are tweaking the rules to expand the programs,” Taylor said.

Finding housing for large families is especially difficult for caseworkers, according to Taylor.

It is not unusual for clients to have preferences for where they live. Clients may want to return to an area with a familiar support system, or they might want to move away from an abusive or dangerous situation, said Kristy Greenwalt, the executive director of the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH).

The housing navigators “should significantly ease the burden on a household in crisis,” Greenwalt said.

A recent five year plan to end homelessness released by the ICH set a goal of reducing any individual or family’s period experiencing homelessness to sixty days before they are placed into some form of housing.

“When it comes to making a match, it’s still the client that has a say in finding a unit that works for them,” Greenwalt said.

Locating a unit was easier said than done for Davinia and Bryon Hawkins, a married couple who rejected roughly 15 apartments before settling on their current home in Southeast Washington.

“When they first started showing us apartments I kept asking her ‘would you want to live here?’” Hawkins said.

Davinia and Bryon Hawkins were homeless until this year when they moved into their apartment in late February through the Rapid Re-Housing program, which they applied to through Friendship Place. The process took them roughly six months, Bryon Hawkins said.

Davinia and Bryon Hawkins hold hands at their new kitchen table.

PHOTO BY JACQUIE LEE

“Every time [my caseworker] took us to see an apartment, it was always some drug infested area with some dope fiends hanging outside the building, and I didn’t want none of those places,” said Davinia Hawkins.

Davinia and Bryon Hawkins with their two grandchildren, Skhai and Demar, outside the back door of their new apartment.

PHOTO BY JACQUIE LEE

Trash littered the hallways of most of the apartments that Davinia Hawkins and her husband toured, and people loitered in and around the buildings selling drugs, she said.

But the worst apartment they toured was on Capitol Avenue, Bryon Hawkins said.

“I could smell the urine already getting out the car,” he said. “I opened up the door and all you smell was more piss and shit.”

Bryon said he preferred to live in Northwest, D.C., but housing prices kept him out of the area.

Lack of affordable housing was credited for the 11 percent increase in homeless families in the D.C. metro area from 2013-2014, according to last year’s homeless census.

Short-term rental subsidies cannot overcome the loss of affordable housing units in D.C., the report stated.

“A lot of federal funding for permanent supportive housing just isn’t there anymore,” Taylor said on behalf of the Department of Human Services.

In addition to Mayor Bowser’s housing navigators, the city will create a “housing team,” in order to expedite the process of acquiring housing for the District’s homeless families.

The housing team will include four housing navigators, two housing inspectors, two members of an assessment team and one new-lease housing specialist, according to Taylor.

Candidates for the positions are

still being vetted by Michele Williams, DHS’ family services administrator. DHS welcomes candidates for the navigator positions from the private or public sector. In addition to realty knowledge, experience working with homeless families is preferred.

“The Mayor announced it and made funding available, but then entrusted us with the selection process,” Taylor said.

Less than one percent of the city’s projected family services budget will be spent on the entire housing team.

For families like the Hawkinses, finding housing is a frustrating hurdle to overcome. But having a place to shower and stay clean has helped Bryon Hawkins keep his job as a mail carrier and do it well, he said. In the future they hope to own their own home.

“I want the all-American dream, a house,” he said. “That’s what everybody works for, wworks hard for, a house.”

By Julie Gallagher Editorial Intern A group of University of Maryland students traded in tropical beaches, parties, and relaxation for education, community service and volunteerism during spring break this year.

Alternative Break (AB) trip-goers travel locally, nationally, and internationally, to learn about social issues that are affecting those communities while volunteering to address those issues.

One team of students, lead by Chloe Isaac and Ann Marie Huisentruit, went to Baltimore to focus on poverty, affordable housing and homelessness.

Isaac said that they taught the other participants about the wage gap and the disproportionate spread of wealth before departing on their trip. The group also went through sensitivity training about how to be inclusive, including using “people first” language.

“I think our education really helped shape our interactions with our community partners,” Huisentruit said.

To start their trip, the students bought groceries for the week as if they were receiving Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps. They spent four hours planning what to buy.

“A lot of people don’t have that time, and that’s a huge factor,” Huisentruit said.

Isaac and Huisentruit said the challenge did not go as planned because they brought so much food and snacks along that they were never hungry.

The group slept on the floor the entire trip, but recognized that in order to effectively learn about their social issue, “they had to lean into the discomfort,”

according to Huisentruit.

Courtney Holder is the Alternative Breaks coordinator at the University of Maryland and oversees the experiences.

She believes that the relationships built between participants and community partners often have the greatest impact.

“It’s an opportunity for community members to give voice to their own lived experiences” Holder said. “In turn the community members are taking away new perspectives and friendships.”

Bea Gaddy’s Family Center was one of the sites where the group volunteered.

Bea Gaddy’s provides necessary items like food, diapers and clothes for people of all ages. Volunteers at Bea Gaddy’s can do a variety of tasks, but the UMD group helped sort food and served it to clients.

“Eventually, these students will go on to be our next doctors and dentists; they will be helping the people they were providing food to,” said Cynthia Brooks, a staff member at Bea Gaddy’s Family Center. “It gives them a better idea of the population they will be serving in the future.”

It is a very different experience working up close and personal with people experiencing poverty -- different than what you might see on television, according to Brooks.

“When you come here and actually prepare a bag of food for someone you understand that you will be helping someone eat a meal tonight,” Brooks said.

UMD has been working with Bea Gaddy’s for a number of years, something Brooks is grateful for. This year’s student leaders valued the opportunity to see below the surface of hunger, why a person may be

The University of Maryland Alternative Spring Break Group in Baltimore, Maryland.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHLOE ISAAC

University of Maryland Students organizing food at a local charity in Baltimore.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHLOE ISAAC

receiving federal assistance.

“Alternative breaks and any kind of short term service learning experience are often heavily criticized because they are just that, short term,” Holder said.

“We partner long term with our community partners.”

The Baltimore AB students also visited a few organizations within Catholic Charities, including My Sister’s Place Lodge and Weinburg Resource Center.

“If we did not have volunteers, we might as well close our doors,” said Valerie Tarantino, director of My Sister’s Place Lodge.

While AB students often already know the issues, she notices how much their perspectives and ideas change when they actually interact with clients. Through hearing peoples’ stories and understanding the complexity of homelessness, according to Tarantino.

The student group also helped prepare meals for Catholic Charities. The organization has about 2,000 employees and relies on the volunteer help of over 20,000 volunteers, according to Assistant Director of Social Ministry Allison Stone.

“Catholic Charities loves when college students come because they bring a fresh energy,” Stone said. “They lift the spirits of our staff and volunteers.”

The group also learned about affordable housing and poverty from seminars with a small church, the Citizen’s Planning and Housing Association, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Isaac and Huisentruit said that the group learned a lot about themselves too.

Some of the participants disclosed that their lives and ideas had drastically changed as a result of the trip. One woman had thought there was only one ‘kind’ of homeless person, but her perceptions changed greatly.

“You are not aware of something until it’s hitting you in the face.,” Isaac said.

“You are not aware unless you are dealing with it or unless you are in a program like Alternative Breaks” Isaac and Huisentruit recalled asking a man experiencing homelessness what they could do to make a difference. He said acknowledging someone as human was one of the best things that he could think of.

If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind, according to AB coordinator Courtney Holder. Many people also become immune or overwhelmed by the complex issue of homelessness “Experiences like this are the ‘real world’ classroom,” Holder said.

STREET SENSE April 22 - May 5, 2015

7

NEWS

Sexual Assault Rates Drop, But Remain High in the Homeless Community

By Sabrina Caserta Editorial Intern For some recent high school graduates, Fall will be spent unpacking their socks, sweaters and textbooks into a new dormitory room. For Sasha Williams, the few items she grabbed from her mother’s house were being placed into the emergency shelter room she shared with several other women. Just four months after receiving her high-school diploma from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland, Williams left everything she had ever known.

It had been just another night in November of 2003 when Williams was raped at gun-point. She was sitting in a friend’s basement when the ambiance changed and a gun was pulled. “‘You’re not going anywhere,’ he said. I was just crying. ‘Don’t run. I’ll shoot you,’ he said, ” Williams described. “I gave in, like I don’t know what’s gonna happen. He threatened to kill me if I told.”

Williams’ experience with sexual violence spurred her on a path of homelessness, a battle she is still fighting over a decade later.

As a child, Williams was molested by her step-brother. He would wake her in the middle of the night and force her to touch him. Other times, she would just wake up and find him on top of her. She believes this experience also acted as a catalyst for her mental health problems -bouts of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorderleading to her eventual homelessness.

At least 20 studies since 1990 have found correlations between childhood sexual abuse and homelessness among adult women, according to an analysis by VAWnet - a resource center dedicated to preventing violence against women.

Childhood sexual abuse was reported nearly twice as often among people experiencing homelessness, when compared to housed participants in a study of women seeking help from a sexual assault crisis center. The relationship between sexual assault and homelessness is complex, with either experience able to lay the groundwork for the other.

“There’s a kind of invisibility in that community and the perpetrators know who to target,” former District Rape Crisis Center worker Jamila Stevenson said. “They’ll think, ‘Who are you gonna to tell?,’ ‘Who’s gonna believe you?’ They look at [homeless people] as disposable people.”

More than 60 percent of homeless youths have been raped, beaten up, robbed or otherwise assaulted, reported a survey conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

cording to a special report by Department of Justice.

Sexual assaults go unreported for any number of reasons including threats, self-blame, and fear that the authorities may not believe what happened. Only about two percent of rapists will ever serve a day in prison, according to a study by the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) that factored in unreported rapes.

“You have to be aware, because at the end of the day, there are people out there--predators--that look for these types of Sasha Williams, now 30, with her 2-year-old daughter, Eboni.

PHOTO BY SABRINA CASERTA situations,” MewCynthia Mewborn called the streets of born said. “You can be dirty, you can be the District home for a full-year. During smelly, but they still want to rape you. her time on park benches, concrete and in They don’t care. That goes to show you Metro stations, she frequently experienced what kind of person you’re dealing with.” attempted assaults and harassment.

A number of other times, Mewborn was “I don’t know if there’s a neon light harassed on the streets by men gauging beeping on you, but people seem to know her reaction to their verbal assaults. She you’re new on the street. You’re homehas even been cornered on the District’s less,” Mewborn said. public transit system.

One night, Mewborn was sleeping in a “It was never a homeless man. Not tent, only to be awoken by two men with once. It was always people who had jobs, a gun, attempting to get her out. They people who had homes, probably people were pulling at the edges of her pseudo who had bank accounts and a whole lot shelter, hoping to lift it up. of other stuff. It was regular citizens,” “I’m not gonna have you out here harmMewborn said. ing me and I’m not gonna have you out Three of every 10 homeless womenhere intimidating me,” Mewborn said.

-and nearly as many homeless men--were “Most people have the fight or flight sexually or physically assaulted while on mechanism. I was planning on fighting. the streets, according to a report from Not flying away.” the Archives of Internal Medicine. Men She immediately notified the police and may experience rape at a lower rate than the men backed off some. To her surprise women, but that is not to say that it does and dismay, she was told by the respondnot happen. ing officers that she should “calm down.”

“It’s very against masculinity to be a “One reason why rape goes unreported survivor of sexual violence. It’s seen as within the homeless community is bea feminine issue, and so men are often cause often times, they’ve had very negafraid to come forth and talk about their ative experiences with police officers,” experiences,” Stevenson said. “Often Stevenson said. “They may feel very they’re ridiculed and teased, and asked threatened, or very afraid. They could how they could have allowed themselves have had violent experiences.” to experience it.”

The second highest unreported crime One out of every ten men is a victim between 2006 and 2010 was rape, acof sexual assault and one out of six boys

will be sexually abused by the age of 18, according to statistics by Rape Victim Advocates (RVA), a rape crisis organization.

“Predators look for vulnerable people.

They don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, if you’re homeless,” Mewborn said.

Child abuse, substance dependence, length of homelessness, mental illness, location and economic survival strategies such as panhandling and sex trade can all increase homeless people’s risk of sexual assault, according to VAWnet.

Mewborn described being approached by a woman to become a prostitute. She claimed to have several girls working for her already.

“There ain’t no way I’m gonna be a prostitute. Not today, tomorrow or ever.

I don’t care if I’m homeless,” Mewborn said. “She was nothing but a pimp, looking for vulnerable people.”

Sometimes homeless people will turn to sex work as a last resort. Known as “survival sex,” this can include trading sexual acts for food, money, shelter or clothing. This is common among female street youth, but also affects men, women and transgendered individuals of all ages, according to research by Canadian think tank, Homeless Hub. A significant number of sex workers are survivors of sexual abuse, including rape.

“You have to be strong-willed or you’re not gonna make it,” Mewborn said. “When you’re out on the streets, you’re like an animal. It’s all a matter of survival.”

Sexual Assault Rates In and Out of the Homeless Community 0

Percentage of Total Population 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Homeless Women Homeless Men

All Women All Men *Population of All Women and All Men encompasses Homeless Women and Men.

Background photo by Matailong Du

c=mb : Don’t Police The Geese 2

By Cynthia Mewborn Vendor Today will not be a good day for either our Canada Geese or our naturalists.

In recent weeks, our Canada Geese visitors seemed no longer to be welcome at our National Mall, even though human visitors love to take pictures near them, seniors have conversations near them, and families love to see their children playing near them.

Wednesday April 22, 2015, is the last day the National Park Service (NPS) will take public comment on using dogs to chase our feathered visitors from the area. According to WRC's Channel Four News, supporters of this plan say using dogs will scare the geese into flight without harming them.

These once-dwindling and threatened populations are now being protected by conservation efforts throughout North America after being hunted to near-extinction just a few years ago. Normally, only injured geese become residents in local areas; the vast majority migrate each year. The animals, whose lifespan is 10-24 years, thrive on grains, berries and grasses. Geese migrate as far as 1,500 miles. They use their familiar V-formation aerodynamics to conserve and manage energy. They use a honking, noisy sound to designate resting stops.

They mate for life. A pair produces 1-3 goslings, which within one day can dive thirty to forty feet underwater.

Geese communicate using as many as 10 sounds. They display four postures when threatened or stressed: vertical

neck "alert"; bent neck "conflict situation"; forward head with a bent neck "increased danger"; and head pumping "conflict." A gander will fiercely protect a goose, so, being chased by dogs could put ganders at serious risk of being injured or killed. So, why are they being asked to leave? It’s because of their feces and damage to the fountain pumps!

However, birds, insects, land snails, and other species are able to convert the toxic ammonia in feces into uric acid, which has positive medical benefits.

These gentle creatures' poop can be used for fertilizers and is biodegradable because they are herbivores. So when it rains, the waste just becomes part of the environment.

In 1918, the Federal Protection under Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) was enacted. Despite being protected by this law, these birds' natural environment has been drastically damaged by human beings. If we can learn how we as a human race can help to protect our visitors, we can learn to coexist. One way the NPS can resolve possible damage to their fountain filters is to design a double internal filter pump, which has a twofold application that filters clean water while removing other contaminants. Just a suggestion: newer technology for new environmental situations.

Alternatively, the NPS could clean its air filter pumps weekly.

Let's start today making our planet habitable for all creatures, including our Canadian Geese. And remember: If we don’t take care of our planet, we will all be homeless.

“The ducklings are so cute. We would be really sad if the birds weren’t here.”

“The birds provide background noise.

I’m not a big fan of birds, but they are nice to look at from afar. It would not be a park without some kind of animal.”

Cherry Blossom Haikus

By Chris Shaw, “The Cowboy Poet”

Sakura, sakura.

No sakura

Til Hell’s Zephyr

Takes final Powder.

pale pink tears betray Fears.

Petal storm spreading, Cross our eye View.

The District’s Cherry Blossoms.

PHOTO BY CHRIS SHAW

Vendor Scott Lovell enjoys the District’s Annual Cherry Blossom Festival.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT LOVELL

STREET SENSE April 22 - May 5, 2015

Background photo by Jordan Wilson

FEATURE

Beauty in a Troubled Land, Part 1

By Jordan Wilson Volunteer

Some People Simply Refuse to be Enemies “Forgiving is giving up your just right to revenge.”

I am sitting next to a Grammy Award-winning artist, a red-blooded rock star for all intents and purposes, but these poetic words are not his.

Nearly anywhere else in the world he would be mauled for autographs and selfies but in this room, he is practically invisible.

E v e r y o n e i s f o c u s e d o n Ro b i Damelin, an unassuming middle-aged woman with closely-cut hair, magnetic eyes, and a crisp South African accent that she clearly has not managed to shake. Ears hang on her every word. Robi is a mother, an Israeli citizen, and lately a globetrotting peace activist. Sadly, all these titles are not unconnected.

In 2002, Robi’s 28-year old son was killed by a Palestinian sniper while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The first words out of her mouth when uniformed officers delivered the news were “you may not kill anyone in the name of my child.” Thus would begin her new and unfortunate career in reconciliation and peace-building.

Robi is joined by Bassam Aramin, her counterpart in this tragic narrative. Bassam’s 10 year-old daughter was shot in the back by an IDF soldier while on her way to school, a senseless killing. Together they are representing The Parents Circle Family Forum, a reconciliation organization that connects parents of slain children lost to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on both sides. Because of their losses, these men and women have earned the right to be heard by their constituencies, and the message they are spreading is one of peace, not vengeance. As Robi tells us, “we either share the land or we’ll just share graves.”

I, and 16 others – rock star included – are meeting with Robi and Bassam as part of a week-long tour of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, organized by the Telos Group - a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to educate and empower American faith communities to help positively transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In other words, in an era of picking sides, Telos seeks to be pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-American, and pro-peace. Our trip is part spiritual pilgrimage, part geo-political edu-

cation and awareness. We’ll explore the sites that mark the key events of Jesus’ life, from the Galilee to Jerusalem; share Shabbat dinner with a Jewish family on the Sabbath; visit a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem; and hear from key stakeholders in this generations-old conflict: an Islamic cleric who teaches at the al-Aqsa (Dome of the Rock) mosque, a spokesman for the Israeli settlement community, a former General in the IDF, Israeli citizens under fire from Hamas rockets, and even a Palestinian-American brewer and wine-maker who risked everything to start a beer company in the hopes of furthering the Palestinian economy.

The most striking thing about this trip, however, were the stories behind those who had messages of peace, told by people who have every right to be violently mad. People just like Robi and Bassam.

Blood Brother Elias ‘Abuna’ Chacour is a 75 yearold former Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. In 1948, he and his entire village of Bar’am were forcibly removed from their homes by Israeli military forces fearful of an Arab town so close to the Lebanese border. After numerous decisions in the Israeli Supreme Court affirming their right to return home, the residents watched in horror as Israeli forces bombed their village to ensure no Arab would live there, no matter what the courts said.

More than sixty years later, ‘Abuna’ (‘Father’) Chacour continues to tell his story, which involves a life of hardship as a Palestinian living in Israel. But he will stop anyone who suggests militancy as an appropriate response, stressing that loving and praying for one’s enemies is the only answer. Chacour has dedicated his life to living out this maxim of Jesus, from building schools in the Galilee to organizing blood drives for Israeli citizens injured by suicide bombers in Tel Aviv. His biography, ‘Blood Brothers’, is a stunning read and contains a forward by former Secretary of State James Baker.

At the other end of the country lives Roni Keidar, a middle-aged Israeli farmer who volunteers her free time to drive Gazans to and from medical appointments at Israeli hospitals. Organized by Other Voice, a public diplomacy charity, the time in the car is spent getting to know ‘the other’, hopefully debunking stereotypes and building friendships.

Roni grew up in this part of the land in a time when movement between Gaza,

Robi Damelin and Bassam Aramin of The Parents Circle Family Forum.

PHOTO BY JORDAN WILSON

Israel and Egypt’s Sinai desert was easy and relatively safe. She learned to drive in the Gazan city of Rafah, now a refugee camp home to some 100,000 victims of the constant state of conflict between Israel and Hamas. Roni so close that Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense syste. This summer she lost a chunk of her roof to mortar fire and spent most of the season sleeping in her bomb shelter. And to be sure, Roni has lost close friends to the fighting. Everyone in the village has. Yet when fighting resumes, Roni’s first phone call is to her friend across the border, talking as a

means of keeping sanity in the midst of such fear.

“People say I’m a dreamer,” says Roni, not just quoting John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, “but the dreamers are the ones from Hamas who think you can drive Israel into the sea, or the people in Israel who think you can just bomb and bomb the people in Gaza until they’re down on their knees.

Neither will happen… We’ve got to give [Gazans] a reason to live.” (to be continued)

BABY BUSINESS: My Friendship with Jordan

By Patty Smith, Vendor

When I met Jordan Wilson, I was working at Street Sense outside 7/11 on Rhode Island Avenue and 7th Street, N.W. Jordan works at The District Church, a growing nondenominational church that meets in Columbia Heights and near H Street, N.E. on Sundays, but keeps their offices in Shaw. One evening last year, he brought me some dinner and we have been friends ever since, seeing each other regularly as we both go to work. About a month ago, I ran into Jordan and he told me he had just returned from a life-changing trip to Israel and Palestine, which I thought our Street Sense readers would be interested in learning more about.

Jordan was born in Indiana but grew up in England. He graduated from the University of Nottingham in the U.K. at the top of his class with a degree in Political Science, concentrating on American foreign policy. A

tennis player in college, Jordan spent summers as a professional tennis umpire before moving to Washington, D.C. to join the 2009 Teach for America Corps. For three years, he served as a World History and Special Education Literacy Teacher at Anacostia Senior High School. Now, Jordan is the Worship Arts Director at The District Church in Washington, D.C., a church that he helped start in 2010.

For more information on Jord a n ’s s t o r y o r h i s r e c e n t t r i p to the Holy Land, email him at jordan@districtchurch.org

9

COMICS & GAMES

Keep the Cop

By Angie Whitehurst, Vendor

oms s s o l B rry n, D.C.! e h C e h o Visits t in Washingt

I’m gonna keep my cop!

The police and law enforcement officers across the country are under public relations-media fire. Every incident is reported and broadcasted live. There is always more than one side to the story. We need to make sure we get the facts, truth, and intent of each situation before any of us become the self-authorized judge, jury, and punisher, directed by pundits and rapid, competitive news stories.

I do not believe all cops are racist and bad. Nor do I believe all people are good.

I think that individuals can be deviant, for whatever the reason. Bad behavior is not normal. It is an anomaly.

We do have a problem with perceptions, assumptions, and stereotypes that all too often prove somewhat true. Yes, we do have laws against biased, discriminatory, and unruly behavior. Unfortunately, the heart and soul of one’s mind can take a long time to change, or can be skewed by a negative or good experience or event, which only reinforces that good or bad experience.

Re-training is the immediate solution that law enforcement is initiating.

I think that is outstanding. Reaffirmation, retraining, and refreshing is a solid, healthy approach. However, it should not be a one-way street. We as residents and citizens might also consider how to live, be safe, and interact responsibly with law enforcement as well.

We cannot live civilly or peacefully without some kind of order. Police officers

do give people the benefit of the doubt, and even when interacting with angry people, they show restraint and professionally encourage all to calm down and cooperate. They are even kind and helpful. Several weeks ago, they helped an elderly person, who was trying to find her way home. Officers Rivera and Simms of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) helped her and got her home. I have also observed the DC Police help people with mental disabilities who were having a bad day. The MPD has even stepped-up their neighborhood foot patrols. In other words, when and if you need assistance, there is a high probability that a cop will be nearby. There is nothing wrong with being safe and feeling safe. Let us all do our part to lower the incidence of civil disobedience born out of emotionallycharged history and anger. In the meantime, I’ll keep the cop!

PHOTO BY HENRIEESE ROBERTS

STREET SENSE April 22 - May 5, 2015

BIZZAROLAND: A Thriving Drug Scene in Plain Sight

By M. Cristo, Volunteer Drug epidemics are a well known part of the urban American narrative, and more recently so is the reach of drugs into rural and suburban areas. Efforts have been made nationally to legalize and tax a non-lethal recreational drugs like marijuana. Potentially lethal ones, like alcohol, have long been legal to consume.

Our fair city of Washington D.C. is no different in this regard. Mayor Muriel Bowser became a symbol of marijuana legalization in the District. She and Congress had different legislative stances on the District of Columbia's referendum that

voted in the new local statute that "legalized it." However, both sides have been virtually mute on the insidious drug epidemic ravaging the area in front and on the sides of The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) shelter at 2nd and D Street NW. That's right, just 2 blocks away from our nation's capitol building exists an open air drug market serving thousands of dollars worth of the ambiguous drug "K2.” It’s better known as "Bizarro" and "Scooby," notable for the childlike cartoon packaging.

I was once an addict. I paid the vari-

ous drug dealing pioneers who set up shop with impunity everyday at least $300/ week. Imagine the profit made from hundreds of people like me. For years--at least while I was there until 2012--drug dealers have come down to the shelter to line their pockets based on the misery of homeless vagrants.

What is more astonishing than seeing the increasingly damaged people that purchase these drugs is perhaps the innovation with which the dealers operate. For example, a community store clandestinely sells the dealer a single 10 gram package for

The Peace Tent

By Craig Thompson, Volunteer

Politics Suck

By Jeffery McNeil, Vendor

I am one of the volunteers for the Proposition One Anti-Nuclear Campaign tent over at the White House. I’ve been volunteering there since June 2014. The Prop 1 tent was started by William Thomas in 1979. We have kept the tent up and running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, since 1981 as a vigil for peace and against nuclear weaponry and nuclear power.

Mr. William Thomas and his wife Ellen Thomas met Concepcion Picciotto shortly after they started the vigil. Picciotto has been the main curbside patriot until recently, manning the tent an average of 20 hours per day. Due to her health and advanced years, she now keeps the vigil going from noon to 7:00 p.m. every day.

The rest of the hours are picked up by Phillipos Melaku-Bello, with a sprinkling of other students and volunteers such as myself. I do the Thursday 7:00 p.m. to Friday 7:30 a.m. shift and the Sunday 7 p.m. to Monday 7:30 a.m. shift.

Melaku-Bello is currently putting in 95 hours a week, by himself, and could use a little help from more volunteers. The nuclear disarmament issue and the negation of nuclear power like in Germany is old news, but remains just as serious an issue as ever before. Human error, worsening weather, and natural disasters are inevitable. We have witnessed Fukushima and can expect more such disasters in the future if something on a grand scale is not done. Volcanoes, fault shifts, and other world-changing events can be expected to cause catastrophe for nuclear industries if they are not shut down.

We owe it to our children to protect the biosphere against any further mishaps. As long as nuclear weapon stockpiles exist, there is a potential for catastrophe. The United States and Russia still have several thousand nuclear weapons. The only way to prevent smaller nations like Iran from arming, and to secure the disarmament of nations like India and Pakistan, is to uphold our end of the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Progress was seen on Thursday April 2,

I’ve always had a healthy skepticism of anyone that claims to be fighting “for the people.” If someone is speaking for me please don’t. I can speak for myself. I dont need an advocate or spokesman. I know some may be sincere, but I’ve seen too many in Washington sell the masses with flowery rhetoric and dreams of utopia only to betray them when they see fit.

Although the left can be contradictory and hypocritical, conservatives have also lead their flock to the slaughterhouse. I know many young Republicans that drank the Kool Aid of the Reagan myth, only to find out that conservatives are just as immoral and hedonistic as the liberals they demagogue.

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh dishonestly rant and rave about illegals taking over the country. However, there’s a market for right wing conspiracy theories about immigrants and gays taking over the country.

You would think poor whites would realize the people that plant immigration hysteria are the same people that hire illegal immigrants. Right-wing organizations such as the Heritage Foundation and Chamber of Commerce are grabbing their wallets by shipping their jobs to China.

Conservatives have lead many poor whites into battles liberating warlords, opium dealers and corrupt oil merchants.

These same chicken hawks have yelled “charge!” from there cushy offices. Conservatives have lobbied lawmakers to have power of over any property that you own. Then they have the audacity to blame the deterioration of America on colored people.

While some Fox News analysts mock blacks’ loyalty to democrats, whites have not been exactly picking winners. Minorities did not vote for Nixon, Reagan or the Bush’s. All four wrapped the flag around

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CRAIGH THOMPSON

when Iran, the United States, and five other nations announced a preliminary nuclear pact that would vastly limit Iran’s nuclear production. But any nuclear production is too much. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton continues to fight on our behalf, having reintroduced HR-1650, the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act, 11 times.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs for social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Instead of nuclear weapons, America needs to be spending its money on schools, hospitals, healthcare, and jobs.

According to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the United States will spend at least $179 billion between 2010 and 2018 on nuclear weaponry. And on top of that, President Obama has just put in another trillion dollars. These funds could be better spent. We must act to remove this danger and put our country’s money in the right place by contacting government officials and telling them just how we feel and what we expect from them.

Please consider joining me in support of good efforts like Prop1.org.

If you would like to become one of the patriots who donates time to the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil Tent across the street from the White House, please text 571-235-3817 for an interview. Thank you ever so much for your time and attention. God bless.

11

OPINION

just $15. The dealer then buys a cache of cheap cigars and rolls up 30 "blunts" from this package. Each blunt sells for around $4 apiece at high volume, essentially subretailing the drug for windfall profits.

I know this because I pioneered it. Now it has begotten street violence in the corridor. It must be stopped. This is egregiously happening with open acceptance and apathy from police. Congress is oblivious to its neighboring drug strip behind the tax court. And our mayor...well, she should take a look into it, wouldn't you think?

themselves while taking the fat out of the white working class wallet.

Tea Partiers and conservatives need to wake up! Republicans don’t love you anymore than Democrats love minorities. We are both being used.

After twenty years of Bush--senior and junior-- Republicans think you are stupid enough to vote for another Bush and some of you Tea Partiers will prove them right.

When will you realize that people of color are no more interested in Red States such as Indiana than poor whites are interested in the black neighborhoods of Chicago?

The Republicans are playing poor whites. The Democrats, the minorities. If they aren’t playing the race card they’ll play any card to get people riled up. Fact finding and evidence doesn’t concern the Left. They keep the poor in a perpetual state of grievance to stay in power.

The Democrats love to claim they were the party of Civil Rights, yet they were the party of slavery, states rights and Jim Crow.

Nine out of ten blacks vote democrat and repeatedly support the most radical left-wing candidates. However, only 10 percent of blacks are businesses owners.

60 percent of us will be behind bars once in our lifetime. And 40 percent of us won’t be able to read at an eighth grade level.

Cities such as Chicago, Baltimore and Washington D.C. are supposed to be progressive. Instead, they resemble miniature Benghazi’s and apartheid colonies. In the District, neighborhoods that are now gentrified were once black sections of town.

Who do you think moved into those neighborhoods? It wasn’t Klansman, Neo Nazis or The Tea Party. It’s the special interests that voted for Obama and claim to be fighting for your right to affordable housing; labor bosses, school teachers, doctors and attorneys.

Like Martin Luther King I also have a dream: that poor whites and poor blacks quit allowing the elites to divide us and realize we are both in the same boat.

The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by 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.

My Introduction

By Phillip Black, Jr., Vendor

I am 35 years old and live in the District. I am the very proud father of beautiful 12­ and 14 -year-old daughters. I go by the name “Joker.” I play jokes because I like to make people laugh. I wear different party hats to bring smiles and joy to people who might not otherwise have either. You can find me selling this paper Monday to Friday outside the CVS across from the Ronald Reagan Building.

On Saturdays and Sundays, I am opposite Eastern Market.

When I am selling, I try to bring humanity to the process. I love to greet everyone who walks past me. My little blocks are like my office. When you see me, I will say, “Have a great day.” And I mean that!

From Monday to Friday I interact with the workday crowd. On Saturday and Sunday, I play with the families visiting Eastern Market. Everyone seems glad I am there. To watch the children smile when they see me and to hear them say, “Look!

A clown!” makes us all happy.

Meet Melanie

By Melanie Black, Vendor

I am a married 33­-year-old from the District and a stepmother to 12­ and 14­- year-old girls.

We are homeless. I had many challenges before becoming homeless. I was a new mother to pre­teen girls.

When I first married their father, they were 8­and 10­-years-old. This was a major time in their young lives. The girls had to deal with the problems of growing up, which is hard enough at those ages.

They had the added tasks of getting to know me and living with me and their father full-time. Everyone’s lives were changing so fast. I changed from caring only about myself to caring about these other lives.

Another challenge was being newly married. I realized early on that for us to succeed, I needed to change. As a wife, I needed to learn patience and compro-

mise. I had to change my thinking because now it was about what my family needed, not what I wanted.

This was difficult. At first I felt as though I was losing myself. But I soon realized that rather than losing anything, I was evolving and becoming more sensitive and aware of others. I was gaining so much more! So, I decided to embrace it.

Change is good; growth is better.

I refuse to look at our homelessness as a roadblock. Instead, I choose to use this situation as an opportunity. This is my chance to teach my stepdaughters that no matter how many times you are knocked down, you ALWAYS get back up. It is NOT about the fall. It is about the ability to RECOVER. Homelessness will not define me, and it certainly will not define us. We will rise, dust ourselves off, and keep moving. We will learn all the lessons that go with this process. And we will do more than survive; we will thrive. I will make a better life for my children, my husband, and myself.

Being Thankful for What I Have

By Carl Turner, Vendor

I thank the Lord God, and I thank the staff at Street Sense. I thank the people that support the vendors that sell the paper. I thank the writers who write the short stories, poems, etc. Most of all, I thank my wife, Jackie, for being sweet and kind and for all the years we have been together. You are an all­around good person, and I love you for all the years you have spent with me. I love you.

By Gwynette Smith, Vendor Ideally, in five years I will be living in an apartment not far from the water. I will travel. I will lead a pleasant life after having written successful poetry books.

(Confession: very few people buy poetry books, so achieving that goal may be difficult.) Some of my time will be devoted to volunteering.

Realistically, in five years I will live near my relatives just as I do now. I will work to some extent to have money to live, so, unfortunately I will not have much time

for volunteer work or money to travel.

There will be some socializing, such as going to activities with family and friends.

If I live in a new city, some friends will be people I meet through church or an interest group.

I hope I will have saved enough so that soon thereafter I can do volunteer work and can stop working because I will have reached the maximum retirement age for most jobs. Most importantly, I will have a dog!

By Levester Green, Vendor

My hope for the future is to be a success in multiple fields of interest, publishing several more books of poetry and starring in several more movie features. I envision the day when I am off the streets and advocating, helping others rise above their social ills and transition into productive members of society. I will continue to fight for rights of the underpriviledged in an unfair system, having gone through injustices myself.

Your husband, Carl

The Love of My Life

Outlook for the Time to Come

There is a special man in my life and I am so in love with him. He has been there for me through thick and thin. He accepted me when I was at the lowest point in my life. This man is loyal, honest, smart, funny, powerful, and treats me really well. I’m so thankful that I met him and that he is a part of my life. He makes me happy and always puts a smile on my face. I’m going to marry this man sometime soon.

I really care about him and I only want the best for him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I always wonder what would happen if I had never met him. I’d probably be pretty bad off.Thank god for my fiancé.

I have worked for Street Sense more than three years. My main goal for the next five years? To survive. I am 61 years old and will soon be 62. As I get older my health keeps changing. I have high blood pressure, Chronic Obstruction of the Pulmonary Valve disorder (COPD) and diabetes. Two weeks ago I was diagnosed with glaucoma.

I admit I have a few other goals: to get closer to God, to stay as healthy as I can, and to appreciate life! We are all going to die some day. So, every day you’re here, think about how good it is to be alive!

By Rachel Higdon, Vendor

My Vision

Hope For the Future

By Jackie Turner, Vendor

BEFORE KATRINA: How Life Started Out for Me in New Orleans

By Gerald Anderson, Vendor I was 37 years old when Katrina hit my hometown of New Orleans. Up to that point, I had been in and out of prison since I was 15 years old. Well, mostly in prison.

When I was six, I began to notice that my brothers’ and sisters’ daddies came around on Fridays and Saturdays and gave them money. I asked my mama, “Where my daddy at?” She said, “I don’t know. He might be in his bird house.” I said, “What is this bird house?” She say, “Jail, where he always at.”

My mama had eight kids and I had one strong will. We were three girls and five boys with three or four daddies between us.

The neighborhood I grew up in, you can see the ladies, the players, the hustlers, the dogfights, and the stolen cars. It’s all right there. You could sit on the porch, and it’s like watchin’ a wrassling match.

Some action gonna go on all the time. If there ain’t men doin’ violence, women be fighting about men or about a card game.

Mardi Gras was my favorite time of year. As I got older, if I didn’t see my buddies at Mardi Gras, I knew that meant they was either locked up or dead.

When I was growing up, my oldest brother say he gonna break my arm if I don’t go to school. The more aware I was of what he gonna do, the more I got in trouble. My brother would pick me up, hold me to the ceiling and drop me.

Boom! One hour later, I go right back and disobey him. After a while nothing hurt you. It like a bee sting, it hurt for a minute and go away.

One day my brother sent me out for Ritz crackers and luncheon meat. Only thing he say, “Don’t pay for it.” He say the only way he let me go outside is if I don’t pay for it. He made me promise not to let my mama know. That’s how I got started.

When I was 15, I got sent to juvie for stealing things like food and yo­yos and candy bars. For the clubhouse with my

friends, I stole sardines. The only way to get into the clubhouse is you hadda bring something to eat.

Ten years later I met up with my daddy in Louisiana State Penitentiary. He arranged to have me moved to the section where he at.

He said, “Man, let me tell you something. I love you, but I had to do what I had to. But I don’t want to see you die here beside me.”

So I know that mean he got a little care about me. That make me want to stay out of prison. I told him, “We all make mistakes.”

I know I made plenty of mistakes too, but I believe in a second chance. I didn’t give people time to communicate with me. I was on drugs, and all I could think was one thing: find a way to get high.

One time I came out of prison for 24 hours and then I got right back in. Because you come out and you think you’re slicker.

It was all I knew. I didn’t know there

was another way. I’d say I was a professional burglar. But how do you say professional when you keep getting caught?

In 2010, the week before my mother passed on, I got in contact with my family.

I was in prison and I finally got to talk to my mother after five years. I lost contact with my family after Katrina.

My mother say she glad I in prison, she could sleep in peace. It make a mother relax because she know her son have a place to sleep, three hot meals and a shower. He not on the street, so she know he alive.

Soon I be telling you my story about all the drama that happened to me after Katrina, after I evacuated to D.C. But first I wanted you to know how life started out reckless for me in New Orleans.

Coming soon in Street Sense my new series: After Katrina: A Ten­Year Rollercoaste Coming soon on Amazon: My Katrina story for Kindle.

Metro, Part 5

By Chris Shaw, “Cowboy Poet” Episode 31

INSIDE THE FERAL MIND OF A HUMAN FERRET

By Chris Shaw “The Cowboy Poet” Picture an imaginary bifocal point of view from a raccoon­like narrow pair of eyes.

This is Ferret, the unlovely spawn of Boxcar Willie Gravatt, a carnie and grifter from way back in the 1940’ until shortly after our narrative of 1977. At the time of his grisly death, Sky Box Willie was trying to re­position a central gear on his Tilt­A­ Whirl ride when the master drive chain snapped and dropped a massive gondola on his skull.

Ferret is currently chasing, relentlessly, Billy Luck. Billy in turn has a destination in mind, which is the steepled and turreted National Union Building on F Street, in the heart of the funkiest commercial zone in downtown D.C.!

FROM INSIDE THE MIND OF A MADMAN: That damn Luck, that no good noodger, I gotta grab him, tear his throat open, drink his freakin’ blood, rip out and roast his liver-That good enuff? That’s just fer

starters. Yes, I was abused, maybe by old dad, certainly by an uncle, and my friendship with old Tucky Buzz’erd of the Atlantis wasno wholesome schoolboy friendship either.

Oof, I slipped­­dang near skewered me self on my Samurai so­ward! That won’t do...

Losin’ sight of him, puff, puff... Now that traitorin’ bastid Harris! Guess I’ll hafta kill him too. No!! The cop cruiser is creepin’ up the sid’walk. Gall! Throw a chunk o’ concrete­crashed the Glass!

Eh, that should stop ol’ Dudley Do­Right Car­L illy! Garrh! Slipped­t ripped again!

Crawlin’ up the fire escape. Grr­­almost grabbed Luck’s shoe!

I’ll git him, don’t you worry that! (to be continued)

By Phillip Black Vendor, “The Cat in the Hat” Now, Metro is going to operate computer driven trains on the system. Again. The same computer system that killed nine people six years ago.

Metro is trying so hard to please the public with this announcement, but it’s making me and a whole lot of other Metro riders very nervous.

This will happen only on the Red Line and only during rush hours on Monday. I ride the Red Line, and it’s a total mess.

WMATA reports have shown a decline in ridership in recent years. I have personally noticed that everyday the Metro is losing more riders. Metro needs to bring in the right people who know more about the subway system. I suggest bringing in someone from New York because, in my opinion, they have a better functioning subway system. Metro is also looking for a new general manager and a new chief executive.

We will see in the upcoming weeks and months how Metro will start to upgrade the system so we can all feel safer.

Metro Matters: Metro Manners 4

By The Anti­ Apathetic Vendor There you go again... Hurry... Slow Down... Scurry... What is the rush?

You mow us over when you hear the train a comin’.Rather than heed the message, “Please move to the side and allow others to exit,” you decide to block the door. How do the riders, who are trying to exit, alight?

Not your problem. Once they have pushed their way through the barrier of bodies you have created, suddenly your urgency subsides. With a free passageway, you proceed to drag your feet while looking for a place to sit after you have board-

ed. Nevermind the instructions, “Please move to the center of the car.” Another simple option is to just sit down.

There goes a bell, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, “Step back, the doors are closing.” And the urgency returns. With that you literally risk life and limb, not to escape peril, but to race to a place that will still be there when you arrive. You might say, “But I’ll miss my connection.”

Fact: With WMATA, odds are you’re going to miss the connection anyway. And, if you do, you will still reach your destination with dignity intact and maybe all your extremities too.

VENDOR PROFILE: CHON GOTTI

Earth Day Birthday

By Lillianna Byington, Editorial Intern

He lights up a room with his laugh, humor and outgoing spirit. The Street Sense vendor team is proud to have Chon Gotti as an active member. He brings levity to the group but also knows exactly how to sell papers and influence entrepreneurial spirit.

Family is extremely important to Chon. He has 7 siblings and always had a close relationship with both of his parents. When they got sick, he was right by their side through it all.

“I moved in with my parents when they got sick, I was the only one that was able to do that. I had my own little business going, I had 14 employees, and my business was booming, but I gave that up to take care of my mother and father,” Chon said.

After his parents passed away, Chon became homeless, and his experience in the homeless shelter iss not a fond memory.

Chon explained, “I had heard of bed bugs, but I thought it was just a song.

The whole shelter was infested with them, I was itchy and I would see these little things crawling everywhere. It was the most embarrassed I had ever been.”

He found Street Sense when his friend, Charles, who was also homeless, told him that this would help to get him back on his feet.

“I did a downward spiral,” he said. “I had to get rid of the drug selling and the cigarette selling, and just get rid of all those negative things.”

Chon says that Street Sense helped him to improve the way he was living

and revitalized his entrepreneurial spirit.

“In life there are no guarantees. You guarantee it by being out there in the public because people are going to say no, but there will always be ‘yeses’. You just got to get past the ‘nos’ to get to the ‘yeses,’” he explained.

“If you want to inspire me you have to be a person of action, not a person of talking the talk” Chon knows that a strong work ethic and persistence are vital qualities in an entrepreneur and he radiates those qualities as a Street Sense vendor.

He is appreciative of the good customers he has. Chon believes that they can really “relate to what he is going through” and look forward to seeing what he writes in the paper.

You can see Chon at all of the workshops that Street Sense hosts. Whether it is illustration, film, vendors’ meetings, writers’ workshop, or F.A.C.E., he speaks of every activity with enthusiasm.

The group named F.A.C.E., stands for Focus, Attitude, Commitment and Entrepreneurship--a name that Chon coined. He serves as Assistant Director Chief of the group.

By “The Amazing” Chon Gotti , Vendor Chon says that in F.A.C.E., “We go out to little groups to let them know about the entrepreneurship side of Street Sense. If you can’t find a job, you can always come to Street Sense and work as an independent contractor.”

Advocating entrepreneurship has become a priority of Chon’s because he believes that he has found himself by taking initiative in his life and through his entrepreneurial values.

“I believe in entrepreneurship. Those who that inspire me are people who own their own business and work for themselves. ‘Just do it’ is the ultimate goal for me. If you want to inspire me, you have to be a person of action, not a person of talking the talk,” Chon claimed.

Family is, and always will be, a priority for Chon. He lights up when discussing his 20-year-old daughter, Australia.

He says that she is definitely a “daddy’s girl,” while he proudly displays images of her on his iPad. Chon says that he knows he wants to be his own boss, and that although he loves Street Sense, this is only a temporary position.

“My next move is to open maybe a kiosk with my smell goods, with my clothing line, the stuff that I sell. My ultimate move would be to own a franchise,” he said.

Until then though, you can see Chon with a big smile on his face and Street Sense periodicals in hand. “I have more than a job. I love doing what I do,” Chon said.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO HOUSING: Background Checks

By Arthur Johnson Volunteer

In the last issue, I discussed how to obtain a secured credit card so you could compete when landlords run a credit check as you apply for housing. The other big issue that arises during the application process is a background check. Most landlords run them, and the result will determine your chances of getting a place.

If past problems will show up on a background check, you should speak to the prospective landlord directly. This means you can pretty much forget about major complexes run by management companies. They will just run a background check and only contact you if you pass.

This eliminates the chance for you to state your case.

Two things show during background checks: rental history and criminal history.

In regards to rental history, unlawful detainers--a move filed in civil court, meaning that you did not pay your rent-

-and evictions will turn up in the background check. In the District of Columbia, if you do not pay your rent, your landlord can have you served with a notice to vacate. If you leave, there is no eviction.

If you do not leave, the landlord will petition the court and seek a writ of possession, which is the start of the eviction process. If you have been through this, you will have to prove to future landlords that you are in a stronger financial position than when the incident occurred.

Keep in mind that under D.C. housing laws, you have the right to prevent eviction by paying the amounts determined by the court up until actual eviction occurs.

If you are attempting to rent and have had problems with previous landlords, there are a number of options for finding help.

One place is the D.C. Tenants Advocate, located at 2000 14th Street, N.W. For criminal histories, you may expunge

or seal some arrests by petitioning the court. I cannot stress enough how important it is to pursue this avenue if you have a criminal record, and that you get help from a licensed attorney to do it. Fortunately, even if you are financially unable to secure a lawyer, you can get help from the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. They are located at 633 Indiana Avenue, N.W., and are open Monday-Friday from 9:00 am -5:30 pm. They can provide you with a self-help packet to file for sealing a record. They can also help you with the paperwork to petition the court to expunge or seal your criminal record. This service is available to you at no cost, so you would be highly advised to use their experience.

In the next issue, I will help you with a list of how to find housing in the D.C. area.

Today is the very best day of my life. Today is my birthday. Born on Earth Day, April 22, I was born a Taurus, like a bull running wild, roaming through the forest. I’ve been having the very best time of my life because this is the day the Lord hath made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHON GOTTI

When I Was Homeless

By Beverly Sutton, Vendor

The government needs to get more help for homeless people.

They need somewhere they can count on to take showers, hang up their clothes and change clothes.

It was miserable before I got help. I had to hide my clothes under steps of an abandoned building. Sometimes things were stolen from the four heavy bags I stored there.

When I couldn’t get to the shelter in time, I slept on a park bench. I would go to the Metro building and a guard there would let me wash up as long as I cleaned the bathroom afterwards.

“I had to hide my clothes under steps of an abandoned building” I was depressed a lot, and I used to sit in the park drinking all day. I would panhandle and then buy alcohol from the liquor store up the street. Do I still drink? Hell no!

A caseworker referred me to Bread for the City and they sent me to daily AA meetings. With slow, gradual progress and support from AA, I kicked the habit. The only thing I want to drink now is Coca Cola!

15

STREET SENSE April 22 - May 5, 2015

COMMUNITY SERVICES Housing/Shelter

Food

Clothing

Showers

Outreach

Medical/Healthcare

Transportation

Laundry

Education

Employment Assistance

Legal Assistance

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

Bread for the City: 265-2400 (NW) | 561-8587 (SE) 1525 7th St, NW | 1640 Good Hope Rd, SE breadforthecity.org

Community of Hope: 232-7356 communityofhopedc.org

Jobs Have Priority: 544-9128 425 Snd St, NW jobshavepriority.org

Covenant House Washington: 610-9600 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE covenanthousedc.org

John Young Center: 639-8569 119 D Street, NW

Calvary Women’s Services: 678-2341 1217 Good Hope Road, SE calvaryservices.org

D.C. Coalition for the Homeless: 347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW dccfh.org

Catholic Charities: 772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp

Father McKenna Center: 842-1112 19 Eye St, NW fathermckennacenter.org

Charlie’s Place: 232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave, NW charliesplacedc.org

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

Church of the Pilgrims: 387-6612 2201 P St, NW churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach food (1 - 1:30 on Sundays only)

Friendship Place: 364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave, NW friendshipplace.org

Community Family Life Services: 347-0511 | 305 E St, NW cflsdc.org

Food and Friends: 269-2277 219 Riggs Rd, NE foodandfriends.org (home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc)

Foundry Methodist Church: 332-4010 1500 16th St, NW foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities ID (FRIDAY 9-12 ONLY)

Georgetown Ministry Center: 338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave, NW georgetownministrycenter.org

Gospel Rescue Ministries: 842-1731 810 5th St, NW grm.org

CELEBRATING SUCCESS! •

Vendor Ronald Smoot graduated from the D.C. Department of Employment Services’ job rediness workshop. -->

•

Long-time vendor Patricia Henry obtained housing after experiencing homelessness for 20 years.

•

Vendor Sasha Williams (and her daughter Eboni) was accepted into a housing program and expects to be inside by October.

PHOTO BY JEFF GRAY

Martha’s Table: 328-6608 2114 14th St, NW marthastable.org Miriam’s Kitchen: 452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave, NW miriamskitchen.org

My Sister’s Place: 529-5991 (24-hour hotline) mysistersplacedc.org

N Street Village: 939-2060 1333 N Street, NW nstreetvillage.org

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

Open Door Shelter: 639-8093 425 2nd St, NW newhopeministriesdc.org/id3.html

Samaritan Inns: 667-8831 2523 14th St, NW samaritaninns.org

Samaritan Ministries: 1516 Hamilton Street NW | 722-2280 1345 U Street SE | 889-7702 samaritanministry.org

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

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

St. Luke’s Mission Center: 333-4949 3655 Calvert St. NW stlukesmissioncenter.org

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

Unity Health Care: 745-4300 3020 14th St, NW unityhealthcare.org

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

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

“The actress Julianne Moore talked to me and gave me this $20 bill at 8:15 p.m. at Wisconsin and M. Washington D.C. She bought my newspaper.

Notice the number its got 428 and 429. Thank God.” - Ron Verquer, Street Sense Vendor.

Ron Verquer’s lamenated photo of the $20 he recieved from actress, Julianne Moore. PHOTO BY RON VERQUER

directed by:

robert WARREN

reggie BLACK

levester GREEN

morgan JONES

D.C.’S FIRST HOMELESS FILMMAKERS COOPERATIVE Exclusively @ E Street Cinema

street sense media center presents:

CINEMA FROM THE STREET see our city – for real

April 22 - May 5, 2015 • Volume 12 • Issue 12

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.

April 29, 2015 | 6:30 pm StreetSense.org/film #StreetCinema ChonGottiCarltonJohnson CynthiaMewbornHenrieeseRoberts PattySmithAngieWhitehurst RobertWilliamsSashaWilliams Executive Producer Bryan Bello

Interested in a subscription? Go to page 15 for more information.

Female directors’ showcase coming in August