04 29 2020

VOL. 17 ISSUE 13

$2

APRIL 29 - MAY 12, 2020

Real Stories

Real People

L Street camp residents say fire was intentional STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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© STREET SENSE MEDIA 2003 - 2020 1317 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 (202) 347 - 2006

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The Cover

The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper

D.C. FEMS responded to a fire in the L Street underpass between First and 2nd streets NE on April 8.

Multiple residents at the camp allege it was maliciously set by someone else.

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

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

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

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMI ANGELL

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Shuhratjon Ahmadjonov, Gerald Anderson, Charles Armstrong, Katrina Arninge, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Aaron Bernier-Garland, Tonya Bibbs, Reginald Black, Mathew Bowens, Rashawn Bowser, Debora Brantley, Laticia Brock, Lawrence Brown, Brianna Butler, Anthony Carney, Conrad Cheek, Anthony Crawford, Louise Davenport, James Davis, David Denny, Reginald Denny, Ricardo Dickerson, Patricia Donaldson, Nathaniel Donaldson, Ron Dudley, Joshua Faison, Queenie Featherstone, Jemel Fleming, Samuel Fullwood, James Gartrell, Anthony Gary, Kidest Girma, Chon Gotti, Marcus Green, Levester Green, Barron Hall, Dwight Harris, Lorrie Hayes, Patricia Henry, Derian Hickman, Vennie Hill, Ibn Hipps, Dan Hooks, James Hughes, Joseph Jackson, Chad Jackson, David James, Frederic John, Henry Johnson, Mark Jones, Morgan Jones, Mathew Jones, Juliene Kengnie, Jewel Lewis, David Lindsey, John Littlejohn, Scott Lovell, Michael Lyons, William Mayer, Jennifer McLaughlin, Jeffery McNeil, Ricardo Meriedy, Billy Meyer, Kenneth Middleton, Mark Monrowe, L. Morrow, Collins Mukasa, Evelyn Nnam, Earl Parker, Terrell Pearson, Aida Peery, Hubert Pegues, Marcellus Phillips, Jacquelyn Portee, Abel Putu, Ash-Shaheed Rabil, Robert Reed, Corey Sanders, Arthur Scott, Mary Sellman, Patty Smith, Ronald Smoot, David Snyder, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens, James Stewart, Steffen Stone, Beverly Sutton, Sybil Taylor, Jeff Taylor, Archie Thomas, Eric Thompson-Bey, Sarah Turley-Colin, Martin Walker, Michael Warner, Vincent Watts II, Sheila White, Angie Whitehurst, Wendell Williams, Christine Wong, Charles Woods, Latishia Wynn

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Coller Albert, Blake Androff, Jeremy Bratt, Cameron Curtis, Jennifer Park, Michael Phillips, Dan Schwartz, John Senn, Aaron Stetter, Daniel Webber, Shari Wilson, Corrine Yu

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Brian Carome

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Eric Falquero

INTERIM VENDOR MANAGER

Nikki D’Angelo

DIRECTOR OF CASE MANAGEMENT

Lissa Ramsepaul

CASE MANAGER

Nikki D’Angelo

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Maddie Cunnigham

WRITERS GROUP ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Willie Schatz, Thomas Ratliff

OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER)

Rachel Brody, Arthur Delaney, Britt Peterson

EDITORIAL INTERNS

Avi Bajpai, Ben Cooper, Julia Pinney, Sasha Polonko, Katherine Randolph

DESIGN INTERN

Camille Rood

ADVISORY BOARD

John McGlasson

EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS

Ryan Bacic, Lilah Burke, Lenika Cruz, Kelsey Falquero, Roberta Haber, Clara Hendrickson, Andrew Siddons, Jenny-lin Smith

OFFICE SALES VOLUNTEERS

Bill Butz, Jane Cave, Roberta Haber, Ann Herzog, Lynn Mandujano, Leonie Peterkin, Eugene Versluysen

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(VIRTUAL) EVENTS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29

ReOpen DC Tele Townhall 5 p.m. EDT Dial in: 844-881-1314 (No Passcode is required) Mayor Bowser is hosting a TeleTown Hall with the ReOpen D.C. Advisory Group Steering Committee and D.C. Health to update the public on their efforts. Residents will be able to share their ideas and recommendations about how we can reopen in line with our D.C. values.

Artist/Vendor Pat Donaldson. PHOTO BY ROLANDO APARICIO VELASCO

Dear supporters, readers, community members, and friends, Last month we wrote to ask for your assistance as Street Sense Media rises to the challenges of the current pandemic with continued and increased support for vendors. As our Clinical Director, I wanted to take a moment to write to you with more details about what this support really means.

This is an unprecedented time. In over two decades of work with people experiencing homelessness, I’ve never witnessed a more extensive a threat to our community than COVID-19. I’m concerned for the health and lives of our vendors, who are often living with unreliable access to appropriate healthcare, medications, nutrition, and shelter. Many fall into high health-risk categories due to underlying conditions or advanced age.

Due to necessary changes to business operations in the city, already underserved communities are facing difficulties accessing services typically available to them. Each day, we’re helping people who cannot access food due to the closure of food stamps offices and some meal programs; people who need to use our bathrooms and wash their hands because they cannot find another place to do so; people who need help purchasing essential medicines and sanitary supplies as pharmacies serving veterans and clients of the public mental health system have limited their operations; and people who need to use our computers to access vital information or fill out job applications as libraries are closed.

It’s critical that Street Sense Media is open to help address some of these needs, and our vendors have expressed deep gratitude that we are here. In a two-week period, we’ve seen a 75% increase in demand for our case management services. We’re meeting with dozens of new clients each week while continuing ongoing support to those already enrolled in our case management program.

Some clients have come to me simply to connect or to discuss their anxieties during a time when they are having trouble accessing mental health professionals.

Through this work, I’ve become deeply concerned about the damaging effects the pandemic has on mental health. The fear, social isolation, and hopelessness brought on by COVID-19 and efforts to contain it can lead to extreme levels of anxiety and depression, as well as the worsening of other psychiatric illnesses. At Street Sense Media, I’ve witnessed a concerning rise in suicidal ideation among those we serve. While this pains me, I’m glad to be able to offer clinical support and guidance to those in need.

Amid the darkness, you, our supporters, bring me hope. You’re an essential part of what we do, and you’re helping promote real change in our community. If you haven’t yet, please consider making a donation to our COVID-19 response campaign. I can assure you that your gift will make a difference in someone’s life.

Thank you for standing with us now and always. Wishing you and yours health and wellness!

Sincerely, Or send checks to: Lissa C. Ramsepaul, LICSW Clinical Director Street Sense Media

Click here to give online.

1317 G St NW Washington, DC 20005

For more information on the ReOpen D.C. Advisory Group, visit coronavirus.dc.gov/reopendc.

Can’t make it? The mayor is also soliciting feedback through this online survey form: dcgov.seamlessdocs.com/f/ReOpenDC

THURSDAY, APRIL 30

Washington Blade Ward 2 Candidate Forum 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. EDT Facebook.com/WashingtonBlade Facebook.com/Rayceen.Pendarvis Rayceen Pendarvis will moderate a forum of candidates running to represent Ward 2 on the Council of the District of Columbia, both in the primary election on June 2 and the special election on June 16. Voters are encouraged to visit vote4dc.com to request mail-in ballots. The forum will stream live on the Washington Blade & Rayceen’s Facebook Live.

Participating Candidates: Brooke Pinto, Daniel Hernandez, Jack Evans, John Fanning, Jordan Grossman, Katherine Venice, Kishan Putta, Patrick Kennedy, & Yilin Zhang.

FLEXIBLE

The People’s Demands DC — COVID-19 Participate in the community survey A group that grew out of the a group that came together through the D.C. Mutual Aid Network states “the coronavirus crisis continues to develop, it is critical that we develop a set of demands that protect our people and primarily reflect the beliefs and needs of folks that are Black, brown, immigrants, indigenous, low-income and native Washingtonians. The grassroots efforts is seeking a broad base of submissions to consider and aims share the finalized list with as many D.C. folks as possible, particularly Black, brown, immigrant, low-income, indigenous and native Washingtonian residents.”

More information: thepeoplesdemandsdc.com

$2

NEWS

The first half of every edition of Street Sense is reserved for local news affecting D.C. communities and occasional national and international news related to homelessness. Think we should be writing about something? Send tips and suggestions to editor@streetsensemedia.org.

PHOTO: The feet of a single passenger are visible in an Orange Line Metro car on March 14. This photo essay of D.C. during the pandemic, seen on each section’s title page, was taken by Photojournalist Benjamin Burgess. The full series is available here.

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NEWS

801 East redevelopment on track to finish in September 2021, but stakeholders say there isn’t enough transparency

BY BEN COOPER ben.cooper@streetsensemedia.org

A

fter two years of planning, construction of a replacement for the crumbling 801 East Men’s Shelter is getting underway after multiple delays. Community advocates, however, continue to voice complaints alleging a lack of transparency and questioning whether District officials are doing enough to address potential environmental hazards.

In March 2018, Mayor Muriel Bowser included $40 million in her proposed fiscal year 2019 capital budget to replace the 801 East Men’s Shelter due to “deteriorating conditions.” The facility — which had “outlived its life cycle,” according to the budget proposal — is one of six shelter facilities targeted for replacement in the city’s strategic plan to reduce homelessness.

“Conditions in the vast majority of the District’s shelters are simply unacceptable and offer very little to help reduce the trauma of whatever life events have led individuals and families to shelter,“ reads the plan, which was first published in 2015.

But environmental reviews conducted in October 2018 raised concerns about the proposed location of the new shelter, which would be on top of a former landfill and a tunnel for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Green Line. Assessments identified soil contaminants that exceeded standard guidelines as well as structural complications with the site atop the Metrorail tunnel. Like the current shelter, the new site is on the St. Elizabeths East campus in Southeast D.C. Additional soil tests were conducted in February 2020 after the project boundaries were altered slightly, but those results have not been released, fueling transparency concerns among stakeholders about what was found and how any potential hazards will be handled. Department of General Services Director Keith Anderson said in a statement to Street Sense Media that the findings didn’t alter the original request for proposals, and the project is on track for completion in September 2021 — even as community worries about the site remain.

“That [concern] is not going to change until we get confirmation that they’ve done sufficient testing and they’ve determined how it can safely be built on that specific site,” said Caitlin Cocilova, a staff attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. “We don’t have additional information to kind of answer the questions that we posed to them.”

Cocilova raised those questions in her testimony before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Facilities and Procurement at a performance oversight hearing in February. She described the Legal Clinic’s efforts over the past year to discuss concerns about soil contaminants with DGS, the agency that oversees most of the D.C. government’s construction projects.

At that hearing, Anderson said “having contaminants in the soil unfortunately is not uncommon.” In the later statement to Street Sense Media, Anderson said proper measures have been taken to handle any hazardous materials on the site.

“The Design-Build team has provided a soil management plan, as required by the Department of Energy and Environment

A rendering of one entry perspective for the new facility.

COURTESY OF THE D.C. DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL SERVICES

(DOEE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to properly manage hazardous materials on the site,” part of the statement says. *** Engineering firm Hillis-Carnes Capitol Services PLLC conducted the environmental site assessments and the geotechnical report before the request for proposals was released in January 2019.

The review concluded that the project, if it proceeded, would need to address several problem areas.

The initial concern involved the foundation of the new shelter being atop a portion of Metrorail’s Green Line, just north of Congress Heights Station.

“Our preliminary findings suggest that the development of the site as currently proposed would require difficult foundation design and construction and would place a significant amount of risk on the Owner,” the geotechnical report read. “There are subsurface conditions at the site that make foundation design and installation difficult, at best.”

The project’s design-build team is working closely with WMATA to ensure there is no impact on the subsurface tunnels, Anderson said in the statement.

The results of soil borings yielded additional issues.

Among the soil contaminants found in amounts that exceeded recommended maximums were hexavalent chromium, dioxins,

volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and total petroleum hydrocarbons - diesel range organics (TPH-DRO).

Hexavalent chromium can pose a risk if present in a groundwater supply that is being used. In the case of 801 East, however, no ingestion would occur because the building is slated to use the municipal water supply, said Sally Brown, a research professor in the University of Washington’s College of the Environment and an expert on contaminated soils.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that petroleum hydrocarbons are common and not usually labeled as hazardous wastes.

According to Brown, VOCs would be the primary concern, as volatile compounds could have a pathway into the building.

“The issue that you have to think [about] when any contaminants are in the soil — how can they get to residents in the building? How could they harm residents in the building?”

Brown said. “And there has to be an arrow that the thing in the soil could get to the person in the building.”

The 2018 environmental assessment conducted by HillisCarnes acknowledged that while the presence of VOCs is not unexpected due to the “urban nature of the site and the vicinity,” measures should still be put in place to counteract them.

The recommendations included installing engineering controls such as a vapor barrier or a subsurface ventilation system to prevent VOCs from migrating into the ambient air of the building.

COURTESY OF THE D.C. DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL SERVICES

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KEEPING UP WITH THE COMMUNITY

The current 801 East Men’s Shelter.

ARCHIVE PHOTO BY REGINALD BLACK

“It’s not really a hazard if it vents into the general atmosphere,” said Scott Lynn, a lecturer in environmental science and technology at the University of Maryland. “It’s a problem, a health issue, if it goes into a confined space. [The] engineering control would be implemented to try and reduce the risk associated with that.” *** The current 801 East Men’s Shelter has 380 beds and is open to males 18 years or older. Residents of the low-barrier shelter there have complained about safety and cleanliness. After a man was stabbed at the shelter in March 2019, the security company was replaced. In January 2020, an 801 East resident tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease — typically contracted from contaminated water.

According to the request for proposals, the new shelter will have 375 beds and multiple programs: a health clinic; a daytime service center; 25 medical respite beds; 50 beds for seniors and medically frail people; 100 beds for working people and others in employment programs; and 200 dormitory-style beds in the low-barrier housing tower.

Construction of the new shelter has been delayed multiple times. It was originally set to begin in April 2019 before being pushed back a month, with completion expected in the winter of 2020-21. Now, completion is set for September 2021. DGS said in the February hearing that it was still working to obtain permits to begin construction.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the shelter ’s groundbreaking ceremony — originally scheduled for March 24 — was postponed indefinitely. Reginald Black, a consumer representative on the 801 East Advisory Team and a Street Sense Media vendor, said foundation grading is scheduled for sometime next month. A DGS spokesperson confirmed that construction is set to begin in May barring changes because of the current public health emergency. The old shelter will remain in use until residents can move into the new facility.

The original footprint for the new shelter was shifted to accommodate a nearby historic stable. Last December, the Historic Preservation Review Board recommended one wing of the building be pulled farther from the stable, among other design guidance.

“The 801 East Men’s Shelter is situated near the historic horse stable which sits on a separate parcel of land,” Anderson said in the statement. “DGS has awarded a separate contract to stabilize that facility during construction.” *** In her February testimony before the Committee on Facilities and Procurement, the Washington Legal Clinic’s Cocilova outlined questions and concerns directed at DGS about the new 801 East shelter — questions that have gone largely unanswered.

“Hopefully, the answer is, it’s OK. But we have to err on the side of caution because we’re about to house hundreds of people there temporarily,” Cocilova said. “And we can’t take that risk for folks who don’t have another option — especially now in the current environment when, if we don’t test the soil efficiently, that’s potentially putting workers at risk who are actually doing the construction.”

At-large D.C. Councilmember Robert White, who chairs the Committee on Facilities and Procurement, asked DGS about some of Cocilova’s questions at the hearing. At that point, the agency said it had shared the soil abatement plan with the council and that a hazardous materials site survey already in progress would be available to the public within several weeks.

Those documents are not currently uploaded where the D.C. government has posted other 801 East documents, and neither Cocilova nor Black said they had seen copies.

“If things are at a safe level, why is it so hard to just say that?” Black said. “That’s been kind of my frustration — just how slow they have been with releasing information.”

DGS confirmed that additional boring samples were taken in February but said no changes were made to the existing request for proposals as a result of the findings.

Councilmember White reiterated during the hearing the importance of proper testing to ensure the safety of future residents.

“I think the thing that we all need to be very clear about is that people live there,” White said. “And so anything that we wouldn’t want next to our home, we shouldn’t want where the individuals at 801 East Men’s Shelter live.”

While the contaminants found in the soil are unlikely to become a major issue, proper vetting is still vital, said Brown, the University of Washington professor.

“I think it’s really valid to look into it,” Brown said. “These people that are homeless so often get the short shrift of anything and everything that you want to make sure that something that’s being built is in fact safe.”

Cocilova said the residents she has spoken to at 801 East are first and foremost looking for housing and job opportunities to come from the project. Anderson said in his statement that DGS is working with other agencies to assist residents looking to work on the 801 East redevelopment project.

The spread of COVID-19 makes it even more vital to ensure that construction workers and residents aren’t exposed to anything that could weaken their immune systems, Cocilova said.

She and others cite that as all the more reason for transparency and care regarding any project like the 801 East redevelopment.

“I think we need to do oversight just as strong, if not stronger, for communities that are vulnerable and that have been put in these positions based on our systems that haven’t functioned in order to house them,” Cocilova said, “because we shouldn’t even be having this many people experiencing homelessness.”

This article was co-published with TheDCLine.org

Digital art created while isolating with my daugthers.

MODIFITED PHOTO COURTESY OF SASHA WILLIAMS

BIRTHDAYS Reginald Denny April 29 ARTIST/VENDOR

Jeff McNeil May 7 ARTIST/VENDOR

Making the Most of a Digital-Only Edition • Every page is a color page!

• Links and other interactive resources can be accessed right from this publication!

• As long as we remain digital-only, the current edition will be downloadable as a PDF you can read offline on any device.

These extras cannot begin to make up for the community our readers and vendors built together on the street corners of the D.C. area. Please join us in sustaining those relationships and building new avenues for supporting each other.

• Most importantly, if you can, please continue to support our vendors through the Street Sense Media mobile app. While we’ll continue to gather news, art, and opinions throughout the pandemic, 130+ men and women lost a substantial source of income when we suspended print newspaper sales.

• Sign up for our newsletter, or edit your preferences if you already subscribe, and choose to receive “our newsgathering.” We’ll send each new edition straight to your inbox.

• Join the “#DCHomelessCrisis Solutions” Facebook group and post your questions, your needs, efforts to aid your community, etc, Let’s pivot to each other, while social distancing, in these uncertain times.

• Let us know how else we serve the community: editor@streetsensemedia.org.

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NEWS

Homeless or poor citizens may have trouble getting stimulus payments. Catholic Charities hopes to help word out, particularly because libraries — the ideal place to advertise the service, Shanahan said — are closed. This is also a barriers for individuals who would otherwise fill out the form independently. Libraries and their free computers are closed, and restaurants that provided free Wi-Fi have either closed completely or closed their dining rooms.

The Financial Stability Network’s current outreach efforts rely, more or less, on word of mouth. Flyers are being distributed to parishioners across the region so they can reach out to family and friends. And Catholic Charities is collaborating with those distributing food to the homeless to make sure that a flyer is put in their bags, as well as placing flyers in the shelters they are contracted to operate.

It’s working. On April 22 alone, 50 inquiries were made to the Financial Stability Network about stimulus checks. The situations are all different — and some are more difficult than others — but the organization remains committed to doing what it can.

“I’d been practicing as a tax lawyer for 40 years before I came to Catholic Charities,” Shanahan said, “and I’ve had more joy working with these individuals than almost 40 years [there] because the clients are so, so thrilled to be helped out.”

BY BEN COOPER ben.cooper@streetsensemedia.org

S

timulus payments are making their way into the mailboxes and bank accounts of people across the United States after the passage of a $2.2 trillion relief bill to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Everyone with a valid Social Security number is eligible for some help, provided they do not earn six figures or more. Someone who doesn’t have a Social Security number, such as an undocumented resident, is ineligible.

For Americans citizens who filed either a 2018 or 2019 tax return, those payments came automatically, with some glitches and errors along the way. The first wave of direct deposits were transferred on April 11 and on April 21, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said paper checks had begun to be mailed.

As of April 28, payments had been distributed to 179,738 District residents, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

But for extremely low-income people who were already struggling before the outbreak and associated business closures, obtaining this money is more of a challenge. Many people in poverty don’t have sufficient access to banking — ruling out direct deposit.

And those experiencing homelessness are frequently without a consistent address where they can receive mail.

Those concerns only matter if the IRS has the person’s information. For anyone who did not earn enough to be required to file a 2018 or 2019 return, the payments will take longer to be processed. People who receive benefits from the Social Security Administration or from Veterans Affairs will still automatically receive a deposit or check as those agencies work to share recipients' information with the IRS. All other non-filers must proactively claim their payment through an online form on the IRS website.

“That EBT (food stamp) card can hold money and you know where to find those people because they do phone interviews every six months here to get food stamps,” one woman wrote in response to Street Sense Media’s previous reporting about the stimulus. “So again, the most vulnerable people … that need it MOST, you're saying you can't find them?”

She described herself as having worked as a nurse for 15 years before moving, losing her car, and becoming homeless . Nine years later, she is still homeless. The woman said she has received food stamps for most of that time, but does not receive benefits from the SSA or the VA and will not receive an automatic payment.

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE

Catholic Charities D.C., the social services arm of the Archdiocese of Washington, had already been helping low-to-moderate-income people fill out tax returns for free through its Financial Stability Network. So when the stimulus payments were announced, it was natural that the program help low-income people and those experiencing homelessness claim their money from the IRS — and to make sure they knew it was theirs to claim.

“I can't tell you the number of calls I take from people thinking that they're not eligible,” said Deacon Jim Shanahan, the director of the Financial Stability Network and a former tax lawyer. “And they think they're only eligible if they file an income tax return with the IRS. Well, that's totally wrong. There's a lot of misinformation going on out there.”

Individuals are eligible for a $1,200 payment if they earned $75,000 or less, while married couples filing jointly can claim $2,400 if their combined income is $150,000 or less. For each qualifying dependent, that payment is increased by $500.

For SSA, VA, and Railroad Retirement benefits recipients who did not file in 2018 or 2019, there is a limited window of time to claim dependent children and receive the additional $500 per child while the automatic payments are being sent out. The IRS announced an initial deadline of April 22, on April 20, allowing only two days for benefit recipients to take action.

However, public outcry led to an extended deadline: May 5. For anyone who misses the deadline, stimulus funds can still be collected on next year’s tax return.

The claiming process itself is relatively straightforward. Shanahan or a Catholic Charities volunteer interviews clients and enters that information into the free IRS tool designed to help people get their payments.

Then they’re able to make sure the payment is sent to a bank account or a mailing address.

Shanahan said the network is working with

banks to try to give clients a “second chance” if, for example, they once wrote a bad check.

The public health crisis has slightly complicated the program, though. Shanahan said eligible beneficiaries are often interviewed over Zoom and the Financial Stability Network had to get special permission from the IRS to inspect identification cards and Social Security cards over that software.

If a video call isn’t possible with eligible beneficiaries, interviews are conducted over the phone and clients are walked through the process of entering their own information.

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A large fire displaced 4 people from a homeless encampment in early April.

Residents believe it was intentional.

A man surveys the burned and soaked remnants of his belongings on April 8. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMI ANGELL

BY JOSEPH YOUNG AND ERIC FALQUERO Reporter, Editorial Director

T

here was a massive fire on April 8 at a homeless encampment in the NoMa neighborhood that consumed three tents. No one was injured, according to The Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.

The fire broke out shortly before 1:30 p.m. beneath the train tracks in the 200 block of L Street Northeast. The billowing black smoke could be seen from Shaw, a Twitter user wrote. Within 20 minutes it was all but extinguished.

“Our investigators were not able to determine a specific cause, so the fire has been listed as undetermined,” the department’s public information officer said. There is no police report associated with the incident, according to the MPD press office. Street Sense Media has filed a public records request for the FEMS incident report. Security cameras were installed in the underpass a year ago along with the “Lightweave” LED art installation, but Street Sense could not confirm what the footage revealed based on these agencies’ responses.

A young woman who has been homeless in and around the D.C. area for the past 6 months said she suspects the fire was set intentionally. Independently interviewed encampment residents gave competing accounts of who was responsible, but all agreed the fire was purposeful and malicious.

Another person staying in the L Street underpass worried the fire their neighbors fell victim to could cause negative attention toward the homeless community, specifically because three propane canisters exploded in the blaze. The FEMS investigation is ongoing but it appears the canisters were not determined to be the cause, according to Ami Angell, founder of the nonprofit The H3 Project. Angell arrived at the scene as the fire was being put out. She has been providing increased outreach to distribute supplies there every day since the coronavirus outbreak escalated in mid-March.

Everything inside the tents, where four people had lived, was ruined.

“I lost all my clothes,” said Mike, who didn’t want to give

his last name. “So, I’m walking around with no clothes, but I’ll come up out of it.”

Each person knew someone else homeless in the city whose tent they could move into temporarily, according to Angell, One of the ripple effects of the fire in the time of the novel coronavirus is a shortage of medical supplies and access to medical resources. One of the people who lost their home also lost critical medication and is struggling to obtain more.

“Emergency reinstatement is a nightmare right now,” Angell said.

On the micro level, she recommended people interested in helping this community contact outreach workers to direct that support. Most of what remains are very specific needs or desires, according to Angell, such as a certain size pair of shoes or a favorite book. “We’ve solved for clothes,” she said.

Outreach workers in the city cannot provide people tents. In addition to The H3 Project, teams from the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, HIPS, and Pathways to Housing regularly work with the homeless community in NoMa. Mike Dohmann, 26, a tenant at the nearby Avalon apartments, collected $360 from residents in his building and donated it to the victims of the fire. He said the average contribution was roughly $20.

On the macro level, Angell hopes more resources can be

provided to encampment residents to keep them safe until they can be connected with housing. She praised the handwashing stations and portable restrooms that had been installed on both M Street and L Street in response to the pandemic. She suggested that, if propane canisters became a concern, the city could establish a communal cooking area where those materials could be stored away from people’s tents. In a report documenting the growth of tent cities in the U.S., the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty said providing access to sanitation facilities and water, regular trash removal, and safe cooking facilities improves the health and safety of all.

Advocates have been lobbying for restrooms and more trash receptacles to be installed near the NoMa underpasses and serviced by the city long before COVID-19 arrived in the District. Officials have resisted adding anything that would make the camp communities more permanent.

The temporary sanitation stations align with prevention measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 22: “Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19 ... If toilets or handwashing facilities are not available nearby, provide access to portable latrines with handwashing facilities for encampments of more than 10 people.”

PHOTO BY JOSEPH YOUNG BEHANCE.NET/JOSEPHYOUN2623

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NEWS WATCH >> A mini docuseries “directed and shot by journalists surviving homelessness.”

“Beats” is a web series concept from Street Sense Media and the work of street reporters in Washington, D.C. who seek to defend their rapidly gentrifying city by repairing its community information networks. Both 10-minute pilot episodes focus on the experiences of people living in the increasingly large encampments in NoMa. The first takes the time to listen to the stories and experiences of people who have ended up living there. The second juxtaposes the dialogue about encampments in a D.C. Council oversight hearing with observations at the camps.

Work by Reginald Black, Robert Warren, Sheila White, Joseph Young, Bryan Bello.

Recovering from the trauma of an encampment clean-up

BY WILL SCHICK Volunteer

As 2020 began, before the COVID-19 crisis, a lifelong D.C. resident who calls himself the “homeless homeboy” sat atop a milk crate on a sidewalk near Franklin Square and asked passersby to consider making a donation in exchange for some of his poetry.

Homeboy, as he prefers to be called, writes poetry centered on the weather and the changing of the seasons. One of these poems made its way to a poetry meetup at Miriam's. Sometimes, he said, he performs his work in support of his personal fundraiser, for which he uses a microphone and external speaker.

He no longer has the speaker. It was destroyed in an encampment clean-up led by the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services (DMHHS) seven months ago, an event he could not help talking about over and over.

For this article, Homeboy requested that he be identified solely by his pen name. He said he has family who live in homes within the region, and he does not want them to know that he is living on the streets.

By all accounts, Homeboy has had a rough life. When he was 15 years old he was shot in the back. The bullet passed through his neck, leaving him physically and emotionally scarred.

It was around then, Homeboy said, that he ran away from home for the first time, starting on a “dead-end path” that led him to experience homelessness “off-and-on” for over 20 years — the last 10 of which he has spent downtown. Homeboy is 42 years old.

He also suffers from a herniated disc in his back, he stated he recently began receiving benefits to help him with this problem.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, someone is “chronically homeless” if they sleep in an area not meant for “human habitation” and have had at least “four episodes of homelessness in the last three years.”

For six months in 2018, Homeboy had a place to call home.

It was on North Capitol Street. From time to time, he invited

friends who lived on the streets to come stay with him. But he said he felt like this drew unwanted attention from his housing program managers.

Though no one asked him to stop inviting his friends who were without shelter to stay in his home, or even said anything to him about it, Homeboy decided to move out.

“When I’m not wanted somewhere,” he said, “I don’t want to be there.”

He said he felt like a “talk” was coming, and thought it was better to move out and avoid the inevitable confrontation.

Besides, he added, he had plans to move into another place.

But those plans never panned out. He moved back to the streets.

Some items that Homeboy owned, including the speaker, were compacted inside a city garbage truck in July, 2019.

He was living outside on a street corner downtown and had been storing his belongings on public property, violating the city’s encampment policy. As Street Sense Media previously reported, representatives from the deputy mayor’s office had ordered city workers to place Homeboy’s belongings into the mouth of the truck just before he appeared, 13 minutes late, to the scheduled “encampment protocol engagement.”

After destroying some of his belongings, they offered to help connect him with housing services. Angered by what he perceived as the deliberate destruction of his property, Homeboy turned down their offer.

Salvaging what he could from the wreckage, he vowed never to return to the same street corner. However, by December he was back in the same spot he was evicted from, sleeping in a tent on the sidewalk.

His July interaction with DMHHS left him bitter and disheartened. In a recent interview, he claimed the DMHHS representatives had intentionally deceived him, telling him they would help him cut the lock to a chair he had fastened to a bicycle rack. But then, he said, they trashed his belongings just as they sent him searching for a key.

“I said some bad things,” Homeboy said, referring to a flurry of racially charged insults he spouted at the DMHHS representative upon discovering that she had ordered his property placed into a dump truck.

He said he could not get over how they smashed his speaker.

“I do spoken word,” he said, and the speaker was meant to be used in concert with his microphone.

DMHHS did not respond to multiple email and phone requests for comment on this situation. The incident is also subject of a broader lawsuit between the District and people experiencing homelessness in the city.

With temperatures dropping below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, Homeboy says he would have liked to have more support for comfort items like blankets and hand warmers — items he claims DMHHS is responsible for providing during hypothermia alerts.

“This year you can hardly see them,” said Chuck, an unsheltered resident who also lives downtown. He added that many local unsheltered residents do not know about the shelter hotline (202-399-7093), and do not have phones.

While D.C. provides residents with the legal right to shelter during these times, Homeboy said he avoids staying in them out of fear for his own safety. Without giving away many specifics, Homeboy claimed he has been threatened while staying in shelters. He said he was once stabbed and escaped injury only because of the layers of clothes he had on.

After connecting with the chronic homeless outreach team at Pathways to Housing, an organization contracted by the city to help connect people to housing services, Homeboy said he was hopeful he’d soon find a home.

Once off the streets, he wants to focus on his art. Homeboy considers himself a “color nerd,” and has enjoyed visual arts and poetry. He also said he would be eager to get a job in a restaurant or somewhere where he can work with his hands and create.

At the time, he said, it had been cold, but he was hopeful things would work out for the best.

“As you get older, you have faith in God,” he explained.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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Seeing more people on DC streets, this native Washingtonian organized a community outreach event

BY ALEXANDRA KELLEY Volunteer

Rev. Christopher Tobias, with the faith-based community organization Hands Up Outreach Ministry, has been a D.C. resident all his life, but in a lifetime in the District, he had never seen a homeless encampment like the one just outside the NoMa Metro Station in the city’s northeast quadrant.

The encampment, home to single people and couples, is just blocks away from Union Market, a repurposed warehouse lined with stalls selling trendy food, beverage and goods. The neighborhood, once the territory of infamous drug trafficker Rayful Edmond III, is quickly gentrifying.

For Tobias, this is still D.C., still his home, and there is more to do. Earlier this year, during Black History Month, Hands Up Outreach partnered with Bible Way Church, Mt. Airy Baptist Church and Third Street Church of God to provide 150 meals as well as blankets, socks and other supplies to residents of the NoMa encampment.

Victor Brown, a 44-year-old experiencing homelessness who received several blankets,, described Hands Up Outreach’s effort as “friendly” and “helpful.” Tobias notes that individuals experiencing homelessness, including those at the M street encampment, are seldom the recipients of positive human encounters. They were “extremely grateful” for the aid and the interactions themselves, Tobias observed.

Some passing by noted their approval of their effort. Tobias recalls a moment when a “couple of police officers rolled by and waved, gave a thumbs up.” Similarly, a D.C. Housing Authority officer came to inspect the scene and told Tobias to “do what you’re doing.”

But according to Tobias, among all of the people who pass through, those living in nearby homes make the members of the encampment community feel the most unwelcome.

“When they were walking by, you can see that they felt uncomfortable,” Tobias said.

Even when volunteers attempt to engage those who live in homes nearby, he said they are “standoffish,” some clutching their purses and, at times, outright “rude.”

With an increase in residential complaints, the next step for encampments like these is usually a clean-up that evicts the homeless population from their community. This is what happened to the residents of the K Street encampment. M

Street appears to be next, Tobias mused.

When cleanups occur, the city offers services but many encampment residents do not take the city up on the offer, according to Tobias.

He noted that the shelter options are “rough” and can be “scary,” as residents clash and find themselves in substandard conditions, living with bedbugs and sweltering temperatures.

“It’s quite frightening,” Tobias said.

Nevertheless, Tobias and Hands Up Outreach are determined to find an alternative.

Hands Up Outreach has worked extensively with Tyler’s House, an affordable housing complex, hosting holiday meals and health symposiums, as well as financial literacy programs. Hands Up Outreach is also organizing a community outreach day slated to occur sometime this spring or summer.

Still, Tobias advocates for alleviating mass homelessness through more sustainable solutions. He believes in allocating more public resources to provide relevant training for individuals experiencing homelessness through the Department of Human Resources.

This would prepare these individuals for “decent government jobs” through the D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES) and help them find gainful employment in the public and private sectors.

DOES’s outreach vans — a mobile employment-scouting unit that registers individuals for training programs — are supposed to help create a pipeline toward sustainable employment in jobs that provide a living wage. However, Tobias noted there is not much follow-up with individuals who sign up through the vans.

Tobias acknowledges a benefit in connecting individuals experiencing homelessness with job opportunities, but he argues that more affordable housing options are also needed.

He noted some progress in making housing more affordable in the District, but he doesn’t see the cost of living falling any time soon.

Tobias feels compelled to serve his fellow Washingtonians. He doesn’t see residents who recently moved to the District or the hip businesses that have sprung up as the enemy; to Tobias they are newcomers who haven’t yet embraced the power of community engagement. D.C.’s socioeconomic changes could be good, he admits, “if we could all participate in them.”

Clara Hendrickson contributed reporting.

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Potential savings of $300-475 annually.

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Annual discount on one land line service per household.

for more info call 311 or visit doee.dc.gov/udp To apply for the telephone Lifeline Service (Economy II), call 1-800-837-4966 These discounts are for DC residents and are subject to income eligibility requirements.

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OPINION

The section aims to foster healthy debate about critical issues affecting vulnerable communities in the District. We have an open submission policy and welcome diverse voices from across our region, regardless of your housing status. Whether you’re responding to something we’ve published or putting forth a new argument, send your thoughts to opinion@streetsensemedia.org.

PHOTO: Graffiti seen at 16th and U streets NW on March 21. This photo essay of D.C. during the pandemic, seen on each section’s title page, was taken by Photojournalist Benjamin Burgess. The full series is available here.

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OPINION

The issue of homelessness and housing in America has been a tinderbox waiting to catch fire for generations.

It’s time for change.

BY ISRAEL BAYER

“It’s a time bomb: 23 die as virus hits packed homeless shelters.”

“Positive cases of COVID-19 at San Francisco homeless shelter grow to more than 90.”

“One in three among Boston homeless test positive for coronavirus.”

The now iconic picture [taken by photographer Tod Seelie] of dozens of people experiencing homelessness sleeping in a Las Vegas parking lot while thousands of empty hotel rooms sit in the background.

These are just some of the many headlines and images this month in the United States. There will be more. The global respiratory disease known as COVID-19 is hitting American’s homeless population, and it’s hitting it hard.

Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise. There is no place for people experiencing homelessness to shelter in place and emergency shelters aren’t the most ideal setting to fight against a global pandemic. It’s a harsh reality for more than 500,000 people experiencing homelessness on any given night.

We shouldn’t be surprised. The issue of homelessness and housing in America has been a tinderbox waiting to catch fire for generations. We know that housing specifically has been used as a weapon against people of color in America for centuries. To add insult to injury, the massive disinvestment in housing for America’s poor during the past 40 years, the lack of mental and physical healthcare, ongoing racial discrimination and most of all, the lack of leadership at a federal level, has led us to the situation we find ourselves in today.

It’s time for change. We must not forget the one time America did attempt to create a social safety net for all its citizens during the Great Depression — creating national jobs and housing programs — it did so in response to both market forces and social unrest. The federal government didn’t just wake up one day and say “we want to help the poor.” With the collective circumstances we find ourselves in today, we have a similar opportunity for much different reasons.

There’s no question the coronavirus pandemic is a nightmare for people on the streets and the poor, among others. The nightmare is far from over. In fact, it’s just begun. Without bold action, an entire new generation of people will be thrown into poverty and homelessness without the necessary support and safety nets put in place.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition, and other national leaders, including the International Network of Street Papers North America, is calling for the following in the short-term.

• Emergency funding of $11.5 billion to minimize the number of people who live in homeless encampments and congregate shelters, and identify alternative space, including hotels, for isolation and self-quarantine, as well as funding for short-term rental assistance and housing stabilization services. Funds should also be used to provide medical respite care, outreach and street medicine for people experiencing homelessness.

• A national, uniform moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. Congress should implement a uniform policy that assures that renters and homeowners will not lose their homes during a pandemic. A lot of tenants will be responsible for paying back unpaid rent. The law should prohibit rent arrears – accumulated during the period covered by the moratorium – from forming the basis of an eviction.

• Emergency rental assistance and eviction prevention of $100 billion. A moratorium on evictions, on its own, is not enough. Congress must also provide tens of billions of dollars in rental assistance to avoid creating a financial cliff individuals and families will fall off when eviction moratoria are lifted.

Don’t let Incarceration be a death sentence

BY ANGIE WHITEHURST

Find out more and take action at the National Low Income Housing Coalition website here.

It’s also important to remember there was a housing crisis in America before the pandemic. Long-term, the United States must move to create a new housing strategy that provides massive ongoing investments in supporting the production of millions of new housing units, rent assistance for our most vulnerable citizens, and protections for renters and homeowners nationwide.

The reality is, for millions of people out of work and facing housing instability, surviving the pandemic will only be the first hurdle in the long road that lies ahead. We have the opportunity to do much more. We have the chance to create a national housing justice movement that addresses both systemic racism and the need to provide a safe place to call home for all our citizens. There’s no better time than the present.

We have a problem that is not a new one, but which has bloomed horrifically into a deadly aggravated pandemic, all due to the contagious free-roaming pathogen, aka COVID-19. Incarcerated persons, those convicted in jails and prisons, those in lock up waiting to request bail, others being held on bench warrants and others, we will just say, held for what we know not.

COVID-19 is contagious and it will spread, missing no one, including the employees and staff. Which brings us to the crux of the problem. Health care in D.C. Jail has, for the last 20 years, been less than stellar. This is not because of the medical contractors. It is suspected to have to do with the protocols and restrictions of the prison system. Medical staff need to have access to the proper tools to help clients and the clients need to have the medicines and other items prescribed by their doctor.

The next problem is the non-ergonomic architecture and facility design. It definitely lacks the space for social distancing.

The final problem to be mentioned, but not the only issue, is with the courts. With the pandemic, the courts are mostly closed except for emergencies. So, how do lawyers and detainees meet? Defense lawyers are very concerned about the possibility of technology erasing human contact. The nonprofit Due Process Institute is reviewing and watching these concerns.

The D.C. Courts/jail/incarceration crisis existed decades before COVID-19 appeared.

Front line D.C. Jail reform is being aggressively advocated for by ReThink Justice D.C. And they are backing Feinstein and Booker’s emergency COVID-19 bill to assist and support the prison population during this crisis.

ReThink Justice has been on the front lines for years and has compiled supporting research on why D.C. needs control and not the federal court system. Parolees do not need to be reincarcerated for nonviolent violations, for example: missing urine tests, smoking marijuana (which is legal by D.C. law) and other non-felony crimes. In 2018, nearly 10,000 people were on parole or probation in the District. And when D.C. residents return from jail or prison, they often struggle with housing and face homelessness.

The end question is: Will COVID-19 change and supersede our humanity and individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution?

Israel Bayer is director of INSP North America.

Angie Whitehurst is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

• Emergency funds for already existing affordable housing in both rural and urban environments, including tribal lands. Providing resources for already existing affordable housing efforts is critical in maintaining people’s housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Access to legal services and housing counseling.

Resources for legal services are needed to protect tenants from unlawful evictions that may occur after any moratoriums are lifted, or if moratoriums are not put into effect. Housing counseling can help renters and homeowners remain stably housed during and after the coronavirus outbreak.

• Moratorium on sweeps of homeless encampments.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise localities to not sweep homeless encampments or force people to relocate during the pandemic if there are no alternative housing options available to them. Federal resources should be tied to a requirement that states and local communities institute a moratorium on homeless encampment sweeps.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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Will America ever be the same again?

BY JEFFERY MCNEIL

PHOTO COURTESY OF GAGE SKIDMORE / FLICKR

Get excited for President Biden!

BY JEFF TAYLOR

Politics just keep on getting quirkier and quirkier. The guy who I and so many others on the farther left had, with some enthusiasm, written off after abysmal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire came back like wildfire to become the apparent nominee.

Early on many, myself included, who were tired of the status quo were looking to almost anybody but Biden. It's not that we hated ol' Uncle Joe. It was just that we were looking for a person who could bring about the transformational change our nation has needed for so many decades.

Biden is an Obama Democrat at a time when what we really need is an FDR Democrat. We desperately need Roosevelt's second bill of rights. But voters made it clear that as much as a revolution may be wanted and needed, most folks at this point just want a return to some kind of normal (whatever that normal will look like once we've made it through the age of Trump's coronavirus failures).

I was disappointed by peoples' willingness to just settle for going back to the old status quo where the economy works for the top 5 percent, but at least the person sitting in the Oval Office isn't a total flaming idiot. I suppose the old status quo was better than the current status quo, but I know we can do better.

I am heartened, though, that to date Biden is sounding like he could turn out to be more progressive, more transformational, than he has been given credit for. He has embraced some of Bernie Sanders's policy positions.

There's a good chance, if he takes the subtle hint Obama gave a while back, that he could pick Elizabeth Warren for his running mate. Hell, by the time you read this he may very well have already done just that!

Now that Obama and Warren have officially given their endorsements it's a whole new ballgame. Obama and

Warren were both on the campaign trail in 2008 and 2012 respectively with the same winning message: You didn't build that all by yourself. You are behaving selfishly and it must, by the power of lawful people, come to an end!

Obama and Warren are each in their own right extraordinary orators and setters of narratives. They will inspire a majority of eligible voters to get excited to vote for Uncle Joe! Biden just needs to follow their lead on policy while folks around him keep him from doing too many unscripted public appearances.

I've read and heard that as Biden drifts further leftward, it may make conservative African Americans and blue-collar workers in the rust belt, Michigan and Wisconsin in particular, a little nervous.

That's where Obama and Warren's ability to set the narrative will be crucial. It will fall on them to bring these necessary constituencies enthusiastically on board and to the voting booth come November.

If Obama and Warren can't do it, no one can. I believe they can!

If our elections are allowed to be free and fair, and there's sufficient reason for concern that they won't, then Democrats sweep the boards; federal, state, local, straight ticket top to bottom.

There's a saying that, much to my displeasure, rings true: Republicans fall in line, Democrats fall in love.

This November there will undoubtedly be some Democrats who aren't in love with Joe Biden. I'm here to say to them, "Get over yourself and do what needs to be done to quite literally save the world. Vote for Joe Biden." But I suspect the vast majority of Democrats (and others) will be excited to do so, especially after Obama, Warren, and yes, Sanders, among others, help them to fully understand that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is at stake!

Jeff Taylor is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

Whether we reopen or stay shut, one thing certain, America will never be the same.

In times of crisis, Americans get to see the difference between how Democratic politicians govern with the power granted by a state of emergency versus Republican-controlled states.

And many Americans were horrified as this pandemic unfolded.

They also saw many of the coronavirus cases were in urban-controlled blue states. On April 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 14% of all COVID-19related deaths in America were in New York.

For many states, what started off as a voluntary two-week “stay-at-home” order has now become a two-month lockdown where small businesses are struggling and unemployment rose 4.4 percent. What was supposed to be a temporary measure to flatten the spread now has cost taxpayers $2 trillion, with more money being proposed by the Democrats to support bloated government and the medical establishment that blew up the American way of life.

Behind every Democrat there is a tyrant waiting to get out. Many didn't disappoint with their authoritarian power grabs. D.C. Mayor Muriael Bowser threatened to fine and jail people if they didn’t follow her strict stay-at-home orders. That’s mild compared to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, whose stay-at-home order forced stores larger than 50,000 square feet to close their furniture and gardening departments and only sell those items online. Police broke up a funeral and charged 15 people for breaking New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s stay-at-home order.

Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson accused the governor of trying to nullify the Bill of Rights.

In cities such as Tulsa, Chicago and New York City, neighbors are snitching on one another at the encouragement of their mayors.

In Elizabeth, New Jersey, police officers are using drones to play recorded warnings when people are observed disregarding social distancing rules. And Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo went full Mussolini when she ordered Texas residents to use face masks in public or face stiff penalties or even imprisonment. A conservative activist in Houston has sued her for violating the constitution.

America also saw the division between the haves and have-nots, where those comfortable with “stay-at-home” orders tended to have cushy jobs and those whose work depends on public interaction were dismissed as kooks and crackpots if they protested or complained about these questionable efforts to “flatten the curve.”

We also saw the hypocrisy of Democratic politicians who picked and chose what was essential and non-essential. Some states emptied out their prisons yet fined people for playing in parks. Many blue states consider having abortions essential while fining people for prayer gatherings.

In the end, Americans should be concerned if politicians are using this crisis as a way to destroy our freedoms and transform the nation into their vision.

Jeffery McNeil is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, giving his remarks at a coronavirus (COVID-19) update briefing on March 18.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE / SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD

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ART

The art section is reserved exclusively to elevate the art of Street Sense Media vendors who contribute poetry, essays, illustration, fiction, and more.

PHOTO: A “genuine starving artist” playing the guitar at the Dupont Circle farmers market on March 29. This photo essay of D.C. during the pandemic, seen on each section’s title page, was taken by Photojournalist Benjamin Burgess. The full series is available here.

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ART

My Holy Week journey to reconciliation

BY JEFF TAYLOR // Artist/Vendor

I

haven’t always been a religious person. But I’ve remained deeply spiritual even during times when my faith was weak. Nonetheless, I was unprepared when an epiphany arrived on the afternoon of the Saturday of the Great Vigil before Easter. The Creator began laying the groundwork six days prior on Palm Sunday, when my world appeared to be quite literally crashing down around me.

The coronaviris had been screwing up my Metro station singing gig for weeks and I was forced to cut further and further back on self-medicating for my bipolar depression.

My friendship with my roommate had been tenuous at best lately and self-medicating with him was providing some sense of stability in our relationship. I have also been grieving the untimely death of my dearest friend of nearly 13 years, Alice, one week before this past Christmas.

Then the literal crashing happened.

My bedroom ceiling collapsed right on top of my television.

No more picture. Oh, the sound worked fine, but listening to TV just wasn’t quite the same. Of course, I had no renters insurance, so boredom quickly drove me to find other ways to entertain myself. That was Palm Sunday.

The next day of significance in Holy Week is Maundy Thursday, when most Christians commemorate The Last Supper. It was almost 11 that morning when I received a message alert from Facebook.

I had little use for Facebook until it became a means of maintaining a sense of closeness to Alice through her family.

Alice’s mother Debbie is very active on Facebook and I had been keeping in close contact with her even since Alice’s memorial in February. Alice and I weren’t married, we weren’t even lovers. Nonetheless her kinfolk and I consider each other family given how inseparably close Alice and I were.

“Are you my Jeff Taylor?” the message said. “Because if you are, your birthday is wrong.” It was my friend of more than 30 years, Pat Patton, and yes, my birthday was incorrect.

I had been frustrated with Facebook for automatically setting a wrong date that I had yet to successfully edit.

I knew Pat from my days as a choir director back in the Midwest. We talked over the phone for nearly an hour and a half that afternoon. We had at least 20 years to catch up on, after all. Among the things we discussed were times in both our lives that we had been angry with our Creator. She said to me, “It’s ok to yell at God.” Of course, the following day was Good Friday. The spirituality group from Anchor Mental Health, where I’ve received services for the last seven years, was going to attempt a virtual meeting that afternoon. I had never really participated in the group before, but I was intrigued by the technological aspect of this meeting and I was intellectually starving to death (remember the crashing?). So I figured it might be cathartic.

The discussion was around the question of whether or not the coronavirus has affected our individual spirituality.

Once all participants got familiar with the Zoom platform, we were able to enjoy a much-needed sense of genuine connectedness. At the time, I found the discussion question difficult to answer. Little did I know, this was yet another stepping stone on my journey to epiphany.

Saturday morning I had to go out and sing if I wanted to make sure I could get more cigarettes and water. I said my usual prayer, “Lord please help me today, please help people to help me, please let me be a blessing to others.”

I didn’t have money for the train but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I jumped the fare gate at Pentagon City station but unfortunately got caught. What I thought was going to

ruin my day only ended up changing it for the better in a way I never saw coming.

As I was singing songs of my childhood faith, unable to enter the Metro station, a woman named Sarah approached me and said, “I want to tell you a story.” Sarah immediately impressed me as one of those who I was being called to be a blessing for.

Though I’m ashamed to admit I based this solely on her physical appearance. And I must confess I was hoping she might have a monetary blessing for me in return. So I sat and listened..

She told me God delivered her from the debilitating miseries of PTSD. Sarah was white, late 30s I guess. She told me her boyfriend is Black and they are very happy. “Well, I sure would like to meet my Black boyfriend someday!” I said with a grin and a chuckle.

“Oh, you’re homosexual,” she replied.

I wasn’t sure where the conversation was about to go but I was already putting up defenses in my head. Turns out Sarah didn’t find homosexuality wrong, she just found it “weird.”

I thought to myself, yeah, I can accept that. Even I look at some parts of the LGBTQ+ spectrum as being a little weird at times. We discussed homosexuality as it relates to theology, then moved to theology in general and the nature of God. I was trying to get across to Sarah the idea that when none of us has control over the circumstances of our birth and early childhood environment, that puts the onus on the Creator to show a great deal more mercy than many seem to be receiving.

Eventually she said, “God does the best He can with what He’s got to work with, just like the rest of us.”

And that was it! My Easter epiphany! I needed to stop being pissed off at the Creator for a moment and reciprocate the same understanding I have come to expect in my life. Because maybe, as all-knowing and all-powerful as Creator supposedly is, Creator, regardless of dogma, might actually be imperfect.

And that’s a notion that makes perfect sense to me.

My reconciliation with the Creator brought me to the final point where I was ready to alter my self-medicating in a major way. No more chemicals other than what a doctor prescribes.

And I find it liberating. Haven’t kicked cigarettes yet and I really don’t want to if I can avoid it. I enjoy it and there are beneficial social aspects I value, for now anyway.

Getting past my anger with Creator was also getting me past some deep, longstanding anger at my family’s beliefs. I had allowed my disgust with the extreme religious views I was raised with to drive an unnecessary wedge between myself and certain members of my family, primarily my sister Laura, who has since divorced an ultra-conservative preacher.

I had only interacted with Laura briefly through occasional texts. Our conversations always seemed to lead to her wanting me to listen to her sing on her karaoke machine. As a professionally trained musician, I’m not in the habit of giving false praise. And I didn’t want to find myself in the awkward position of having to compromise my integrity to spare my sister’s feelings in the unfortunate event she turned out to kinda suck. So, I always came up with any excuse I could think of to politely escape. I know, shame on me.

Well, that clever sister of mine happened to notice my presence on Facebook that Saturday. She went “live” and sent me a message that alerted me to this. I followed the links and there she was singing. And she sounded pretty darn good! I wrote her a comment to that effect and she commented back. She made a joke and I made a joke back. But she wasn’t getting it, so I thought it best to immediately pick up the phone and head off any further misunderstanding before it became a family episode.

We talked and talked from 8 p.m. that night until 2 a.m.

Easter morning. As we talked, I made notes of things I wanted

to be sure to cover with her. It was quality time she could spare since she had the next day off.

In talking of Creator’s amazing grace, Laura called from memory a Glen Campbell song (also covered by the Statler Brothers), “Less of Me.” I was literally up all night memorizing the lyrics to this tune that had been forever ingrained 50 years ago.

♫ Let me be when I am weary just a little bit more cheery.

Think a little more of others and a little less of me.

Let me be a little braver when temptation bids me waiver.

Let me strive a little harder to be all that I should be ♫ Click to watch Jeff sing “Less of Me” outside of Metro Center Station.

VIDEO COURTESY OF JEFF TAYLOR

Then came Easter Sunday! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

I watched a live 7:15 a.m. sunrise service at Bald Knob Cross in southern Illinois. (Through Facebook — what else, at this point?) It was the only live-streaming sunrise service I could find other than the pope’s. It would be interesting to know how many multiple friends and family from that area and across the country were, just for those brief moments, simultaneously gathered ‘round and connected through their devices. The service was phenomenal, nice local talent for the special music and the minister delivered a coronavirusappropriate message of hope.

I had my sister promise me the night before that she would make sure I talked with my father on Easter Sunday. I talked to Dad for a little over an hour and jotted down notes to make sure the most important s*** got said. I still and will always love him, but he still believes some messed up s*** that I find disappointing. The words “welfare queens” actually came out of his mouth. I know he’s not a bigot and he should be smarter than that. I kindly told him that was a racist trope used by Ronald Reagan to gin up racial resentments. But his prefrontal cortex was severely damaged by his parents and the church’s teachings.

At least he treats my mom very well these days, much better than he used to. He is, at heart, an exceptional human being with a sterling business reputation across the Midwest.

I talked to Laura again, talked to mamma more than once.

The first time was at the crack of dawn to invite her to virtual church with me. She’s a bit tech-averse though, so I woke her for nothing. I talked to Alice’s mom. Talked to Pat again, too. All in all, this was one of the most personally meaningful weeks of my life. I have a new outlook, largely through a social media platform I previously hated. Who’d have thought it?

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The power of forgiveness

BY REV. JOHN LITTLEJOHN // Artist/Vendor

What is “power,” really? One definition is “to move or travel with great speed or force.”

Now think of how to apply that to forgiveness, “the process of forgiving or being forgiven.”

All too often, we consider forgiveness as a mysterious and spiritual transaction that, once accomplished, is a past event that has little to do with our subsequent lives.

The Bible says, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37) This is not one or many transactions, but a mindset and a way of life. And it takes constant, intentional work.

Think of it as giving your forgiveness to others — in essence, having mercy.

On mercy, the Bible says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” (Titus 3:5) It is better to give than to receive, because God loves a cheerful giver. God gave his one and only son that whosoever believe in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life!

Luke goes on to say, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” (Luke 6:38) Christ has subdued, cleansed, and forgotten our sin.

He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all thy sin into the depth of the sea. Christ has replaced our sins with His holiness. Any person who exists in Christ is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things become new!

The Bible says, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” (Isaiah 43:25) As a nation or world, we need to ask for forgiveness if we have sinned and wish all to be spared from this coronavirus.

In this world today, using prayer, we must ask for forgiveness and mercy and to be spared. Amen! The Holy Bible talks about forgiveness in the book of Matthew.

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15) Christ has given us victory over sin. Since all of the above and more is true and active in the lives of all believers, there should be an obvious exhilaration that enables us to confidently stand against whatever “fiery darts” the enemy may throw at us. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Ephesians 6:16) We are clearly told that sin shall not have dominion over us. And since Jsesus already dealt with the offence of sin when he died on the cross, we can regain life by him.

Once again, the Holy BIble talks about mercy. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

(Hebrews 4:!6) Amen!

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Homeless people are being ignored in the pandemic

Make America “great” by keeping more Americans alive

BY BILLY MEYER Artist/Vendor

BY NYRSIR CARTER Artist/Vendor

Well folks, we are in the fifth week of online-only paper viewing. Sales are not happening and donations are not coming in as well as before.

Baseball has been apparently canceled and all other sports as well. The 2020 Olympics have been pushed to next year. I just hope NFL football (this bored Street Sense sports writer and vendor’s favorite thing in the world) will be still going on.

Over 954,360 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States with 54,049 deaths as of April 25. New York State has the most.

Homeless people are being ignored, and it is getting harder to get food, medications, and other vital assistance. Veterans Affairs pharmacies are not open. I had to spend basically all of my Social Security money on a medication I depend on and that the VA used to give me for free because they forwarded the prescription to CVS when they closed.

I hope the stimulus checks will be available soon.

When it comes to coronavirus, as with many, at first I was scared. I saw the photos in Italy and saw what was happening in New York. But after two weeks, I went from fear of the virus to fearing the power grab of politicians.

I don’t know who to trust anymore.

Trump says he wants to reopen while Fauci keeps extreme social distancing.

As a member of the Street Sense Media team, I find myself constantly wondering about the people who can’t run and hide from this pandemic. I ask myself, what can I do to help them? I currently stay at a shelter with 5001000 people. Many are being taken away because of COVID-19 and it’s scary.

But what’s even more terrifying is, in the process of helping others, I’m constantly at risk and I don’t have the proper funds for the proper items to protect myself.

I can only imagine how scary it is for those who sleep outside. Mr. President, it’s time for you to make good on your promise. It’s time to make America great again.

Hang in there with humor

Watch yourself

BY QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE Artist/Vendor

BY JOSHUA FAISON Artist/Vendor

Dearest reader, These are horrible trying days for all of us. However, because we are still here, life must continue. My faith teaches me this scripture: “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.” (Philippians 4:7) Therefore, I want to share a little laughter to your (our) souls.

Jokes: 1. “Where is Mr. Whipple and Charmaine now.” Not to squeeze. I need it to wipe, duh!!!

2. If it’s a stay-at-home order, what should the Son of Man do? The holy scriptures tell us the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. He’s homeless, duh!!! Now what?

3. My friend made me face masks to wear, one donut print and one juice bottle print. Hell, should I wear them or eat them? The grocery store has neither!

4. Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine. Well, guess what — this happened to me! I used so so much alcohol-based hand sanitizer that when I went to wash them, a miracle was rendered. The faucet water turned into Mad Dog 2020. I did it a second time and, again, a miracle: the faucet water turned into chardonnay! I’m very happy now!!!

I’m going to tell the truth now: I hate food, I hate sleep, I hate COVID-19.

Stay well. We’ll get through this.

I am really wary about COVID19. I know it is spreading rapidly throughout the United States.

I am doing my very best to abstain from catching this virus. I make sure I wash my hands frequently and I stay tuned to the morning news so I can learn more techniques about how to properly prepare myself to ward off the germs causing the virus.

I also grab and turn door knobs with a napkin so I won't be exposed to the disease. I neither shake hands nor touch people.

I first started seeing people wearing hospital masks to protect themselves in early March. Now I see many more people with cloth masks to protect others from anything they may have.

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BY PIERRE JOHNSON Artist/Vendor

Author Gene Weingarten is a college dropout and a nationally syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post. Author Dan Weingarten is a former college dropout and a current college student majoring in information technology. Many thanks to Gene Weingarten and The Washington Post Writers Group for allowing Street Sense to run Barney & Clyde.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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For up-to-date information on service provider operations during the pandemic, visit: TinyURL.com/HOS-covid

// 1 5

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Social Credit: More than just money?

BY CHRISTINE WONG // Artist/Vendor

I often wonder how many people have heard about time-based currency. This is how former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang describes it: "Time banking is a system through which people trade time and build credits within communities by performing various tasks — transporting an item, walking a dog, cleaning up a yard, cooking a meal, providing a ride to the doctor, and so on."

I could see this being a social good right now for so many of my friends. For instance, Sally volunteers at a community club and pours her heart-and-soul into all the activities. But there are only four paid positions and, even though Sally could use the money, she and about 10 other volunteers are repeatedly passed over each time the organization is hiring.

Imagine if Sally had about 20,000 social credits for her volunteer work in a time-banking account! She could trade those credits in for necessities, services in kind, and even VIP perks, such as getting to meet a celebrity in person. (Although

that's important too for sensitive people like me.) The Sallies I know would be thrilled, and so many more people would start reinvesting in their communities and creative passions.

Edgar Cahn, a law-professor and anti-poverty activist, is credited with founding modern time banking in the ‘80s and ‘90s. There are already time-banking systems in about 200 communities around the United States! In the District, the D.C. Timebank has 263 members who have exchanged 1,105 hours.

Even though I hate getting messaged a lot, a cheerful "Thanks for helping out today as a tutor! You have earned 100 Social Credits" might help me feel more than just appreciated.

Not too many people I know are like Janet or George, who volunteer so many hours with the People for Fairness Coalition; or all the exceptional chefs at So Others Might Eight, Miriam's Kitchen, and D.C. Central Kitchen. With time-banking, they could be rewarded and recognized for being great role models and an inspiration for all of us.

Making masks and making it through each day

BY ANGIE WHITEHURST // Artist/Vendor

Making it through the day is surviving from one moment to the next, clear of the sheltered false security of fear. Stay away, stay in, and keep your distance — at least six feet away. Wash your hands as often as you can bear while you sing the happy birthday song for 20 seconds. Washing away what you cannot see in hopes it will not be passed along or recycled mysteriously back into the misted air of contagion.

Oh, but spare me.

I now know the weighted heaviness in my chest is covering a painless diamond in my heart, full of hope, for life to ebb calmly backward to my comfortable “normal.” A tense second tells me not to be deluded.

Don’t you know you are now incarcerated? At least until the coast is clear and one can run and escape to freedom lost and wanted back.

For real, this minute in deep thoughtless deviation feels like one spent in jail. The bars are my body, mind, house, tent, or shelter. Someone dictates when to go out, the time to buy food, requirements to see the doctor.

Yet those actually in jail or other monitored communities like group homes, halfway houses, and assisted living are more restricted and less able to isolate and avoid that nasty little warmongering bugger: COVID-19.

Oh, I have no words, except to say, may science smack the air out of you; and with hope, please go away.

Kalliste Don’t tu feel al one uor versis I made, Who mayest lade.

Uit Wætan When ocean fetes Elisium aforetime, sunns wl aris.

Uhta nourysst ussse wi’ dryng, sublime dew do to pris!

D’ Queyn fixeth his gai, roseate lens (séll reckon wos be d’ washerwimmens).

Some folk wha mum Spelles and cum— en wytut dream byn what happens.

POEMS BY FRANKLIN STERLING Artist/Vendor First I tried out making a “quick and dirty” mask for myself with an old shirt.

PHOTOS BY ANGIE WHITEHURST

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

APRIL 29 - MAY 12, 2020 | VOL. 17 ISSUE 13 Once I had the process down, I used a large t-shirt sleeve to make one for my mother.

PHOTOS BY ANGIE WHITEHURST

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Graphic courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instructions for all do-it-yourself mask types are here.

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