VOL. 17 ISSUE 17
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JUNE 24 - 30, 2020
Real Stories
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VENDOR CODE OF CONDUCT
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The Cover
The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper
A man leads marchers who cary a “Divest from police, invest in communities” banner down Pennsylvania Ave. NW on June 12.
Originally founded as a street newspaper in 2003, Street Sense Media has evolved into a multimedia center using a range of creative platforms to spotlight solutions to homelessness and empower people in need. The men and women who work with us do much more than sell this paper: They use film, photography, theatre, illustration, and more to share their stories with our community. Our media channels elevate voices, our newspaper vendor and digital marketing programs provide economic independence. And our in-house case-management services move people forward along the path toward permanent supportive housing. At Street Sense Media, we define ourselves through our work, talents, and character, not through our housing situation.
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EVENTS
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NEWS IN BRIEF Franklin Park to close next Wednesday
Tackling Homelessness in the District Friday, June 26 // 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Via WebEx or by phone.
The Consumer Engagement Workgroup of D.C.’s Interagency Council on Homelessness is hosting a town hall meeting to discuss the District’s homeless services and to receive feedback on how to improve its system. RSVP via Eventbrite to receive access details: TinyUrl.com/dc-ich-town-hall
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
UPDATES ONLINE AT ICH.DC.GOV
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
DC Vigils Against Racism
DC Interagency Council on Homelessness (Remote)
“Fade to Black” Screening and Q&A
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Public vigil and 8:46 long moment of silence hosted simultaneously at various churches along 16th Street NW and elsewhere. “This is our public, prayerful, meditative response to the murder of George Floyd (and far too many more), as well as our way of being in solidarity with the people protesting in downtown DC and across the country.” INFO: tinyURL.com/dc-anti-racist-vigil
Emergency Response and Shelter Operations Committee June 24, 1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Details to join: jill.carmichael@theaterchurch.com Youth Committee June 25, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Details to join: ich.dmhhs@dc.gov
7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Join the Human Rights Campaign, Jackson, Mississippi, the NAACP and One Voice for a powerful screening of a short film written and directed by Sham Tremaine, a Black, LGBTQ, Mississippi social justice activist. Q&A session afterword with Sham, and special cast members, Mariah Joiner and Sylvia Gayden. RSVP: tinyURL.com/fade-to-black
Submit your event for publication by emailing editor@streetsensemedia.org
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“street sense” to 73224
For the past year, Street Sense Media has been working strategically to better meet the information needs of the low-income communities we most frequently write about. Now, thanks to funding from the American Press Institute, we are piloting a text-messaging service for community members to send in your questions related to getting by in the District. We’ll do our best to provide timely, direct responses to meet your information needs. We look forward to hearing from you! In the coming weeks, this number will also provide access to an automated resource directory. Please send suggestions for improvement to editor@streetsensemedia.org.
Franklin Square Park will close on July 1 for a 12-month renovation project organized by the National Park Service and the Mayor’s office. Homeless residents will lose access to the park after a clean-up conducted by the National Park Service on June 30. Franklin Square currently functions as a site for multiple outreach services for residents experiencing homelessness. The advocacy group People For Fairness Coalition notes that after Franklin Shelter was closed in 2008, people who had used the shelter were pushed into the park. Franklin Shelter, established in 2002, was located at 13th and K streets NW in a former school building. When the shelter closed the park became an area where homeless residents pass the day, receive services and sleep. Starting July 11, the D.C. Department of Human Services plans to partner with the Downtown BID to set up an alternative site for outreach services. Nonprofits are also invited to set up booths on Vermont Avenue between H Street NW and I Street NW on Saturdays and Sundays to provide services formerly provided in Franklin Park. The D.C. Department of Human Services encourages homeless individuals seeking shelter to call the shelter hotline for transportation to shelters. Residents may also receive services at the Downtown Day Service Center, 1313 New York Avenue NW, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. — lana.green@streetsensemedia.org
Expiration of the CARES Act may leave millions of Americans without support The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — which helped stave off financial crisis for millions of Americans during the COVID-19-related economic downturn, according to a new study — is set to expire next month. Allocating around $460 billion to one-time payments and weekly unemployment checks, the federal aid expansion prevented nearly 12 million Americans from falling below the poverty line, as reported by The New York Times, and drove a 2.3% drop in the poverty rate nationwide. Sixty-eight percent of Americans who qualify for unemployment insurance are earning more now from unemployment checks than they would from their normal salaries, according to a paper from researchers at the University of Chicago. Poverty rates were on pace to reach 16.3% if there had been no intervention and some families went as far as to ration food, according to the New York Times. Researchers at Columbia University are optimistic the CARES Act could successfully return annual poverty rates to pre-crisis levels, but noted some flaws in the legislation. For example, it is not known if the majority of people now receiving unemployment benefits will be ready to return to work when the act expires on July 31 or soon after that date, as the current economic disruption may last much longer. Around 30 million income-eligible people are still excluded from coverage. About 15 million of these individuals are undocumented migrants — a household with even one undocumented resident does not qualify for aid. The other 15 million are 17-24 year olds whose parents claim them for tax purposes. Columbia researchers advocated for expanding coverage as a key way to keep the national poverty rate low. — alicia.clanton@streetsensemedia.org
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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: Demonstrators gathered in John Marshall Park, near Metropolitan Police Department headquarters and the courthouses at Judiciary Square before marching through downtown to rally again at Freedom Plaza. Photo by Rodney Choice / ChoicePhotography.com
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NEWS
2-day sit-in across from the Wilson Building protests DC police budget expansion The D.C. Freedom Fighters sit-in at mid-day on Tuesday, June 16. PHOTO BY BEN BURGESS / KSTREETPHOTOGRAPHYDC.COM
BY CALLIE TANSILL-SUDDATH callie.tansillsuddath@streetsensemedia.org
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n the evening of June 16, more than 100 people gathered in Freedom Plaza, across the street from the Wilson Building and down the block from the White House, to watch the documentary “13th” and television series “Trigger Warning with Killer Mike,” both of which explore generational inequity faced by Black people in the U.S. But when the credits rolled, many didn’t leave. Some had been there since 9 a.m. the previous day when members of the racial justice collective Freedom Fighters D.C. began to sit in at the park in protest of the proposed police budget. The grassroots group formed on May 28, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by former Minneapolis Police Department officers while in custody, to confront systemic racism and police brutality. The fiscal year 2021 budget proposed by Mayor Muriel Bowser last month includes a 3.3% increase in funding for MPD, meaning a total of nearly $580 million for the department. The proposal includes $1.7 million to add 50 more cadets to the police force. Initially announced via the organization’s Instagram two days before it began, the demonstration was described as a 36-hour sit-in “to demand that the D.C. Council reject the proposed $18.5 million increase to the police budget, defund the [Metropolitan Police Department] in a substantial way, and fully invest in our communities.” It was extended through the second night as protestors continued to amass, but concluded Wednesday morning ahead of forecasted inclement weather. The group mobilized people through social media to donate camping equipment for the event, which organizers said would be washed and donated to people experiencing homelessness afterward. As the sit-in began, the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety heard testimony from public witnesses and MPD officials for more than six hours regarding the department’s budget. The committee received over 16,000 written, video, or audio testimonies, 99% of which called for decreasing police funding, Washington City Paper reported.
Jacqueline LeBayne, one of seven co-founders of Freedom Fighters D.C., said the goal of the action was to show D.C. councilmembers that their constituents are showing up to demand that the $18.5 million increase for MPD instead be redistributed to community programs involving mental health services, education, and food and housing insecurities in underserved communities. Emily Kerl, a white 20-year-old participant in the sit-in, said the District prioritizes police funding over other areas that urgently need support, like education. “We want to see the defunding of the police,” she said. “[The mayor has] money for the police, doesn’t have money for affordable housing developments, doesn’t have money for Roosevelt High School, and doesn't have money for Coolidge High School.” Bowser had previously allocated unprecedented levels of funding for the Housing Production Trust Fund. And last year, her administration committed to adding 12,000 units of affordable housing, equitably distributed throughout the city, by 2025. However, the mayor’s FY2021 budget proposal includes a $16 million cut to the trust fund, a more than $10 million cut to the Housing Preservation Fund, and a $2 million cut to the Local Rent Supplement Program. The proposed budget also includes $15,000 less for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, banking on federal dollars to make up the difference, and decreases funding for street outreach by about 57%. Stefon Lyndsey, 34, attended the sit-in out of frustration with Bowser’s approach to providing affordable housing options and helping the city’s most vulnerable residents. “A couple years ago, she said she was going to make all of this affordable housing. But, I see more condos, I see more office buildings than affordable housing,” said Lyndsey, a Black native Washingtonian who grew up in the Shaw neighborhood. “I feel like a lot of D.C. residents are being pushed out of D.C. because they can’t afford the rent here.” He said majority Black neighborhoods are feeling this particularly intensely. A national study released last year found that D.C. had the most intense rate of gentrification and that low-income populations in neighborhoods like Shaw have decreased by as much as 57% as wealthier, whiter, tenants have moved in. Bowser has not shied away from her critics’
complaints about MPD and racial inequality, nor has she been subtle in addressing President Donald Trump’s criticism of how she handles protests in the city. As violent clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement drew on in front of the White House earlier this month, Bowser commissioned artists to paint "Black Lives Matter" as a street mural spanning the crowded block. She also renamed the street "Black Lives Matter Plaza” and condemned violent actions from federal officers. Bowser gained national attention and inspired other cities to replicate the mural. But many, including activists involved with Freedom Fighters D.C., are critical of the move. Black Lives Matter D.C. called the effort performative if not backed up by changes in the city budget and policies. Activists led by the D.C. Movement for Black Lives painted an addition to the message and covered over the stars of the D.C. flag, resulting in an amended “BLACK LIVES MATTER = DEFUND THE POLICE” graphic. D.C. Public Works employees repainted the stars on the flag but have not removed the additional words. Bowser’s mural also served as a poignant setting for clashes between protesters and her own police department, which used pepper spray against activists attempting to topple a statue of Andrew Jackson this week, and additionally removed protesters from tents they had set up. One such tent that captured local attention sheltered Earl’s First Amendment Grill, which the Washington Post reported fed more than 1,000 protestors in a day. The meals were given freely and also provided to people experiencing homelessness, whether they were protesting or not, according to DCist. “How is a mural supposed to protect us?” LeBayne asked. “It was a publicity stunt. People, Black people, were brutally beaten, peppersprayed, shot at, all in front of this mural that states ‘Black Lives Matter.’ We want to see real policy and funding changes immediately. Freedom Fighters D.C. does not stand, or sit, alone in their fight. A number of local advocacy groups offered support during the demonstration. Bartenders Against Racism, a collective of hospitality workers that organized to fight racism within their industry, has been providing free snacks, water, and other essentials to protesters since June 9. Allison Lane of BAR explained she initially connected with Freedom Fighters D.C. during
a prior protest, when the organization helped to arrange rides for protesters after police clashed with peaceful demonstrators. So when they learned of the sit-in, BAR set up a tent stocked with essentials for the entire event. The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company also offered solidarity and support in the form of opening its lobby. Dylan Arredondo, theatremaker and community organizer within the D.C. theatre community, helped orchestrate Woolly Mammoth’s involvement with the sit-in, and with other demonstrations that have taken place across the city over the last few weeks. At its conclusion, LeBayne said those who participated in the sit-in found the experience empowering, “...like we were getting people’s attention in a positive way to discuss our demands, and educate the public on defunding the police and what that would look like.” Ray Pyle, 26, a Black first-grade teacher in Southeast D.C. who participated in the sit-in, was initially unsure of whether he would join the protest. But then, he said, he thought about his brother. “What does it take for the government to understand and see we just want to be given the same rights as anyone? I shouldn't have to be afraid [for] my brother in Chicago. I literally call him every night to make sure he’s okay because if he says the wrong words to a cop, or he looks at somebody differently, he could not be at next Thanksgiving.” Violence and a level of safety not provided by police for communities of color has also impacted his professional life. Pyle said, “I'm tired of seeing my students not making a home after a day's lesson.” It is a situation he has dealt with more than once in the past few weeks, alone. The Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety markup of the budget is scheduled for June 25. A work session to draft the full edited budget is expected to take place June 29. The first full council vote to approve the budget is scheduled for July 21 and the final council vote is planned for July 28, after which the budget support act will got to Bowser for her signature before awaiting congressional approval. On Tuesday, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau released a statement on MPD’s use of pepper spray against protesters. She urged Mayor Bowser to immediately sign into effect emergency legislation that Nadeau co-introduced, which the D.C. Council passed unanimously on June 9. It bans the use of chemical irritants against protesters.
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More than 100 protesters march by the D.C. Superior Court on Indiana Avenue on June 12 carrying a banner that says “Divest from police, invest in communities.” PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE / CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Hundreds gather for ‘Fund Care Not Cops’ rally BY LEAH POTTER AND MEREDITH ROATEN Volunteers
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ore than 100 activists gathered in John Marshall Park on the evening of June 12, just south of MPD headquarters and Judiciary Square, to urge D.C. officials to defund the city’s police force. The rally, “Fund Care, Not Cops,” was co-sponsored by Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, and other organizations like Empower D.C. and 350 D.C. The gathering followed a slew of protests and demonstrations in the United States after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in recent months. Maryland resident Nagari Irby said he has protested against police brutality for 12 days despite being kettled by police during the Swann Street incident last week. He said keeping the energy and momentum going is what will create real change. “I think defunding the police means defunding them until they treat us right,” he said in an interview. “Take all the racists out. Take all the money out.” Mayor Muriel Bowser told Black Lives Matter organizers that she would not reconsider the 3.3% increase in the Metropolitan Police Department’s more-than-$500-million budget this year. Bowser’s budget also calls for cutting more than 50 percent of funding for outreach to people experiencing homelessness. Maryland State Delegate Gabriel Acevero, one of the speakers at the rally, led the crowd in chanting, “No justice, no peace” and “No racist police.” He told protesters to remember that action is required at both the state and federal level, and that they must urge their legislators and representatives to both defund the police and get rid of laws that reinforce systemic racism. “This is not only about a moment, but we all know this is about a commitment to a movement,” Acevero said. “A movement that not only values Black lives, but recognizes that we must dismantle the systems and the policies that historically have rendered Black lives disposable.” Ed Lazere, a candidate for D.C. Council At-Large, said in an interview he is “frustrated” that the budget for D.C.’s police department continues to grow each year. “We know that the police aren’t keeping us safe, and in fact are in many ways harassing and abusing the community,” Lazere said. “I’m here to send the message that ‘defund the police’ means we need to focus on investing in the community – that’s the way to create real safety.”
Rally organizers urged attendees to sign petitions asking the mayor to defund the police and put more money in social projects like affordable housing and public schools. The D.C. Council held several budget oversight hearings on June 15, including a virtual hearing for the Metropolitan Police Department at noon where more than residents testified about their experience with police officers. Jacquelyn Smith, a member of the Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America and an organizer for the rally, said she was “gravely disappointed” in the budget increase for MPD, while anti-violence programs and housing services continue to get cut. Smith said activists should join the more than 15,000 people who have submitted testimonies to the D.C. Council about MPD and voice their budget concerns. She added that organizers
Janeese Lewis George, the Democratic nominee for the Ward 4 D.C. Council seat, speaks to the crowd at Freedom Plaza. PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE / CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
would also be offering to film three-minute testimonies for people attending the rally. “It’s really important that this isn’t just a flash in the [pan], and that we maintain momentum and really apply pressure to our elected officials and our decision makers – we don’t want them to think that this is just something that they’re going to wiggle out of, that they can just bear the PR damage,” Smith said. The group gathered around 5:30 p.m. and began to march at 6:20 p.m. Activists chanted “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A,” and carried signs that said “Black Lives Matter” and “Abolish the Police” as they walked down Indiana Avenue, past D.C. Superior Court. The protesters stopped briefly outside of the Trump International Hotel before entering Freedom Plaza. Janeese Lewis George, the winner of the Ward 4 Democratic primary for D.C. Council, addressed more than 200 activists in Freedom Plaza. “A lot of people have said to me, ‘oh, don’t use the word defund because it makes a lot of people uncomfortable,’ and I said, ‘were people as uncomfortable when they defunded education?’” Lewis George said. “What we’re saying to you is that you have had too much of continuing to divest from our communities and to take from our communities and continue to do it and we are tired.” Lewis George received pushback from her opponent in the primary, Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, for her platform to cut the police’s budget. Democrats for Education Reform-D.C., a group that had endorsed Todd, sent out a mailer campaign depicting Lewis George as anti-police just as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s deaths gained national attention. The group’s director issued an apology on June 7. Reginald Black, the advocacy director for the People for Fairness Coalition and a Street Sense Media vendor, said the police should be defunded because there are too many people in the District who still need housing. Black also called for protesters to remember the more than 100 people who died without a home last year when they think about where funding should be allocated. “Poverty is the catalyst to state violence,” he said. “That is what the real fight is about. We are fighting for a place to be and exist and make sure that we are valued.”
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NEWS
New HUD rule could allow anti-trans discrimination in shelters BY LANA GREEN lana.green@streetsensemedia.org
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omeless shelters that receive federal funding will be allowed to consider an individual’s sex and gender identity when deciding on accommodations, thanks to a proposed rule that went before the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s authorizing committee on June 12. The move, LGBTQ activists argue, will affect dozens of programs in D.C. and put transgender people at risk of discrimination and chronic homelessness. “This really is changing the anti-discrimination regulation that went into place under HUD during the Obama administration,” said Darla Bardine, executive director of the National Network for Youth. “This rule would be allowing providers to discriminate.” HUD awarded roughly $22 million in Continuum of Care Grants to 22 community development and housing organizations that coordinate housing and offer case management in the District. Some of those programs, including Community of Hope and Catholic Charities, offer short-term housing and services to help with permanent housing. Programs that receive Community Development Block Grants, 14 of which are in D.C., will also be governed by the rule. According to the rule, “grant recipients, subrecipients, owners, operators, managers, and providers under HUD programs” could establish acceptance policies based on sex and gender identity. The rule is a partial reversal of the Obama administration’s Equal Access Rule, first implemented in 2012 and updated ARCHIVE PHOTO BY OLIVIA ZHANG in 2016, which banned discrimination based on sexual and gender identity, expanding protections for LGBTQ individuals the general population. Research also suggests that people in housing and other areas. The 2016 update, as the National who are gender-nonconforming or transgender face greater Alliance to End Homelessness noted, mandates that “access to shelter and housing must conform with, and adhere to, an difficulty in finding shelter. Fifty-five percent of transgender individual’s self-expressed gender identity.” adults who are also homeless reported having been harassed Under questioning by Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) in by shelter residents and staff, while 29% reported having May 2019, HUD Secretary Ben been turned away from shelters Carson had denied any plans to and 22 percent reported being undermine Equal Access, saying: sexually assaulted. “I’m not currently anticipating It is difficult to specify the changing the rule.” The change number of transgender adults now being considered was experiencing homelessness in the proposed the next day. District. The city’s annual census “It’s hard to say exactly what for the homeless community impact this rule will have on classifies each person by the people, but we do know already gender they identify as. that the number of trans folks that “We know that trans women are experiencing homelessness and nonbinary folk do protective is extraordinarily high, and we things in order to get access to shouldn’t be doing anything that shelter,” Maury said. “About Darla Bardine, Executive Director makes it harder for trans people 25 percent of people who seek National Network for Youth to access shelter,” said Meghan access to a shelter report that they Maury, policy director at the dress up as the wrong gender in National LGBTQ Task Force. order to protect themself.” According to data published by the National Coalition for Faith-based programs may employ the rule more than the Homeless in 2017, 40% of homeless youth and 43% of secular programs in the future, said Bardine, the National homeless youth in D.C. identify as LGBTQ, and LGBTQ Network for Youth Director, because of pre-existing youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than exceptions for religious beliefs.
“Twenty-five percent of people who seek access to a shelter report they dress up as the wrong gender in order to protect themself.”
D.C. has a number of noted LGBTQ-friendly shelters for youth, such as Casa Ruby, SMYAL and the Wanda Alston House. But for those who are LGBTQ and above the age of 24, it is harder to find short-term living and transitional housing programs. There are no shelters specifically for adults that identify as LGBTQ. Most LGBTQ-friendly housing programs and shelters in D.C., including Casa Ruby and SMYAL, only accept people from ages 18 to 24. For those who cannot find shelter in which they feel safe and comfortable, there are often grim consequences. “What we know is that if trans people feel that they are going to be discriminated against or face violence in a shelter or another housing program, they’re not going to go,” said Dylan Waguespack, public policy and external affairs director at True Colors United, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ youth homelessness. “That leads to a higher rate of street homelessness and death among trans people who are not sheltered.” Both the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs are required to review the new HUD rule for 15 days — or until at least June 26 — before it becomes official. The change will then be available for public comment for 60 days. The National Center for Transgender Equality and 44 other orgnaziations requested that HUD postpone considering the rule until after the COVID-19 national emergency has ended, to no avail.
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Annual survey reveals a continued decrease in family homelessness, no change for youth, and an increase for single individuals BY AVI BAJPAI avi.bajpai@streetsensemedia.org
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n annual report on homelessness in the D.C. metropolitan area released on June 10 shows that the number of homeless people fell in 2020 for the fifth consecutive year. But the rate at which D.C. has reduced homelessness continues to decelerate, and the survey, which offers just a single-day “snapshot” of the city’s homeless population from January, doesn’t take into account homelessness caused by the economic fallout of COVID-19. The Point-in-Time (PIT) count, which was conducted by outreach workers and volunteers on Jan. 22, shows a total of 6,380 homeless individuals in D.C. this year, down 141 people from the 6,521 individuals recorded in 2019. Over the last five years, D.C. saw its homeless population fall by 24%, or 1,970 people, from a total of 8,350 individuals in 2016. But during the same period, the rate at which homelessness has fallen has steadily declined, dropping from 877 fewer homeless people between 2016 and 2017, to just 141 people exiting homelessness between 2019 and 2020. Of the 6,380 total homeless people counted in D.C. this year, 3,947 were unaccompanied individuals, of whom 11 were children, and 2,433 were people in homeless families, 1,420 of whom were children. Over the last five years, family homelessness in the city has fallen by 48%, down from a total of 4,667 people in 2016, the year after the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) implemented yearround access to shelter for families. Over the last two years, DHS also launched the Homelessness Prevention Program and Project Reconnect, which help newly homeless families and individuals “double up” with other households, stay with local relatives or friends, or return to their previous living arrangements. But people who are living in overcrowded situations are not considered homeless, and under guidelines from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD), are not included in the annual PIT count. This year’s count identified 485 transition age youth, or young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, among D.C.’s homeless population, a decrease of four people from last
Homeless Individuals Counted in Washington, D.C. between 2016 and 2020
The rate at which D.C. has reduced homelessness has steadily decreased since 2016. GRAPH BY AVI BAJPAI // DATA COURTESY OF METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS
year. However, a separate week-long survey of youth homelessness that includes those who are doubled up found nearly 800 more homeless transition-age youth in 2019 than the PIT count. Within the homeless population, the number of unsheltered individuals — people living on the streets, in encampments, parks, or other public areas — also grew, from 607 people in 2019 to 652 people this year. That number has doubled since 2016, when there were only 318 unsheltered individuals in D.C. The rise in people living outside of shelters in recent years comes as the city has struggled to provide sufficient emergency and transitional shelter beds — 3,269 adult-only beds available for 3,875 individuals counted in 2019 — and improve shelter conditions people with firsthand experience have said are unsafe and unsanitary living conditions. There was also a slight uptick in veteran homelessness, rising from 297 people in 2019 to 302 people this year, though the current number is still down 14% from 2016, when there were 350 homeless veterans counted in the District. The city also saw a continued decrease in chronic homelessness, or people with a disabling condition who have been continuously or sporadically homeless for a total of 12 months or more. Out of the 1,337 chronically homeless people counted this year, 37 less than 2019, 29% were living unsheltered and the remaining 952 individuals were residing in shelters. The report, produced by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, warns that rising housing costs and rent burdens on lower-income families will almost certainly be exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic,
which has required extended stay-at-home orders and business closures. On top of that, tenants across D.C. who can no longer afford to pay rent are bracing for an anticipated surge in evictions once the emergency moratorium expires. And while landlords cannot initiate eviction proceedings while the emergency order is in effect, that hasn’t stopped some from sending tenants late on paying rent eviction notices, according to WAMU. During a virtual board meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments the day the report was released, experts said further investments in affordable housing — the lack of which the report identifies as “the most significant and persistent obstacle to ending homelessness” in the region — are necessary to remediate the impact of the public health emergency. “Homelessness was a serious challenge in our region pre-pandemic, but the COVID-19
impact brings new urgency to addressing the crisis,” said Tony Turnage, assistant director of the Prince William Homeless Services Division and co-chair of the Council of Governments Homeless Services Committee. “It’s clear, housing must be central to the conversations about the region’s recovery plans.” To further reduce homelessness in the region, the report recommends boosting outreach efforts to people living unsheltered and providing greater access to either housing or shelters. The report also identifies the use of local hotels to quarantine and isolate people who are symptomatic or have tested positive for COVID19, which DHS has been doing since late March. In the long-term, the report suggests increasing permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing and other permanent housing units to provide “wrap-around services” to minimize the chance of recurring homelessness. “The greatest need in the metropolitan Washington region is permanent housing that is affordable to the lowest-income households, combined with a subsidy to be able to support the housing costs in this region and remain independently housed for the long-term,” the report states. The endorsement of further investment in permanent supportive housing comes as the D.C. Council is considering Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal, which, according to advocates, only allocates 7% of the funds necessary to build sufficient permanent supportive housing units and support homelessness prevention and diversion programs. A final vote to review and approve the mayor’s budget is expected to come by late July.
ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KJ WARD
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NEWS
DC government returns to providing referrals for housing, and focuses on people at high-risk for COVID-19 BY MARIA TROVATO maria.trovato@streetsensemedia.org
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he D.C. government’s main method of matching people experiencing homelessness with housing providers was put back into use last month. People in the high-risk groups for COVID19 who were previously given the opportunity to self-isolate in hotel rooms are now being prioritized for housing assistance. In March, due to the pandemic, D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS) paused the Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement (CAHP) program because the process relied heavily on in-person meetings. There were conversations then about prioritizing individuals for housing who are at higher risk for COVID-19, but the shift was finalized in May, according to Adam Rocap, who co-chairs the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness working group focused on CAHP for single individuals. There is a separate system for families. While housing matches were not taking place, DHS contracted local hotels to provide rooms for people experiencing homelessness who tested positive for the coronavirus and had nowhere to self-quarantine. Rooms were also made available for people deemed by the CDC to be especially vulnerable to the virus, due to causes like old age or chronic illness. Starting May 4, CAHP began making housing matches again, focusing first on the people now sheltering in hotels due to the pandemic. This prioritization was decided because this group is more vulnerable and can be easily located and assisted at the hotels, where case managers are also working on site, according Rocap. Eric Schneider, CAHP coordinator, said the program has altered its approach to account for the pause on in-person meetings, continuing to make matches through alternative methods such as online resources and digging into the backlog of cases. While those in the hotel rooms and isolation sites are being prioritized at the moment, they are not the only people supported by the program. As of June 17, these sites were housing 85 people coming from shelters or no housing, according to data from DHS. As many as 354 people experiencing homelessness were isolated in hotels in early May. “We’re going to continue to listen to the science and that’s what’s going to dictate how long we’re doing these practices,” Schneider said. “In reality, they’re not a ton different [than the practices we used before the pandemic]. We’re just kind of honing our focus more on the people that we can definitely locate and definitely progress through this process.” CAHP is not alone in modifying its match process to cope with the public health emergency. The system relies on outreach workers and other nonprofit service providers to assess individuals’ housing needs and submit them to its database. Many of these organizations have similarly paused or changed their methods during the health crisis. CAHP leadership continues to meet via biweekly calls to discuss how to move forward. But fewer people are being matched than before the pandemic due to a lack of housing assessments. Approximately 55 D.C. residents have been matched with housing since the pandemic started. To compare, CAHP reported 1,033 total matches in the 2018 fiscal year. Friendship Place, an organization that both assesses
ARCHIVE PHOTO COURTESY OF SEAN MCBRIDE.
individuals’ housing needs and runs several housing programs that CAHP feeds into, has been successful in conducting socially-distanced assessment meetings over the phone. Despite some success, however, the need to socially distance caused their monthly number of assessments to drop by about 60-70 %, according to Sean Read, the organization’s chief community solutions officer. “It is much easier to come to a single location where you can get it done as opposed to trying to figure out, do [they have] enough minutes on [their] phone? Do [they] have enough battery on [their] phone? Do [they] even have a phone?” Read said. N Street Village, a group that empowers and provides services to homeless and low-income women, is another organization that is part of the continuum of care providing housing to those matched through CAHP. According to Schroeder Stribling, its CEO, the organization has been able to continue finding housing for those who were already in its pipeline before COVID. Stribling, who is also a service provider representative on the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said that halting and adjusting CAHP during this pandemic has allowed the ICH to understand problems with the program and ways that changes made and lessons learned during this time can be useful even after the pandemic.
“We try to limit the assessment process and number of forms to fill out, but it’s hard. It can be a lengthy process, it can be an intrusive process, and it can be a frustrating process,” Stribling said. “In this time, we have learned how to do things like verify in different ways and not have people pass through as many hoops. CAHP and DHS usually re-evaluate their program and possible next steps in August or September before the new fiscal year. The agencies will likely decide then whether to move into the next phase of reopening by starting to place other groups with housing, according to Rocap. “The reopening of the homeless services system will follow the reopening of D.C. overall. As cases are declining, as testing is more available, as the hospital capacity increases, D.C. will reopen,” Rocap said. “Many of the people experiencing homelessness are vulnerable populations, so it’s important for us to be extra careful. Expanded testing and things like that are going to get us closer to the new normal.” Read said CAHP’s restarting was a sign of progress towards the goal of finding housing for D.C.’s most vulnerable population, but the gains it had made are dependent on a continued successful reopening. “I’m hopeful that things will start to kind of pick up again,” Read said, “as long as the reopening phases of the District continue to progress in a positive way.”
Approximately 55 D.C. residents have been matched with housing since the pandemic started. To compare, CAHP reported 1,033 total matches in the 2018 fiscal year.
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Proposed city budget cuts funding for affordable housing.
Advocates say Black residents will be left behind BY MARIA TROVATO maria.trovato@streetsensemedia.org
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ayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget will reduce funding for affordable housing in fiscal year 2021 and disproportionately hurt the District’s Black residents, housing experts say. The budget would cut funding for the Housing Production Trust Fund from $116 million to $100 million for FY21; cut funding for the Housing Preservation Fund from $11.8 million to $1 million for 2021; and cut the budget for the Local Rent Supplement Program by $2 million dollars from about $10 million to about $8 million. The Housing Production Trust Fund fund is the main tool that D.C. uses to create and preserve affordable housing and help tenants exercise their Tenant Opportunity to Purchase right. Affordable housing developers have said that $100 million dollars is needed just to fund existing commitments, including projects that were already awarded funding last year. If the budget does not increase from $100 million, there could be few, if any, new projects, said Beth Harrison, supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society, and she recommended that the amount allocated for the fund stay at $116 million in the FY21 budget. “This money is critical for tenants exercising their rights under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act,” Harrison said. “[There are] several deals that Legal Aid has worked on in the past year that have preserved units for low income Black and Latino residents, including individuals who are seniors or have disabilities. These are the residents right now that we need to protect from displacement the most.” The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act requires that tenants in buildings up for sale be offered the first opportunity to buy the building. The goal is for tenant groups to be able to purchase a building and convert the units into cooperatives or condominiums, according to D.C.’s Department of Housing and Community Development, and HPTF funds can be used
The Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization at a 2018 legislative meeting concerning the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. ARCHIVE PHOTO
by low-income residents to make a TOPA purchase and pay for renovations if needed. Harrison also recommended that the budget for the Housing Preservation Fund be restored to at least $10 million. She noted that because the fund is matched 3:1 with private investment, cutting $10.6 million of public funding will result in cutting overall funding from $47.2 million to just $4 million dollars. During discussions of the budget at D.C. Council meetings, Reginald Black, Street Sense vendor and advocacy director for the People for Fairness Coalition, an organization run by people who are currently homeless or were homeless in the past, urged D.C. to find $15 million to fund the Vacant to Virus Reduction Plan. Under the proposed initiative, the government would secure vacant units in D.C. and allow people experiencing homeless to live in them. The initiative would also provide funding to allow residents to be permanently housed in these units after the pandemic subsides. “Last year the Chief Financial Officer identified approximately 10,000 vacant rental units in about 3,000 buildings in the District of Columbia,” Black said at a meeting of the Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization. “Vacancies at any level in our city are unacceptable [when some people are homeless].” Scott Bruton, the vice president for housing policy for the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development, noted that D.C.’s Black residents have been the most severely affected by the pandemic in terms of both infections and loss of housing or income. Seventy-four percent of District residents who have died of COVID-19 are Black, while Black people total less than half of the city’s population. Nationally, non-Hispanic Black Americans make up roughly
25% of deaths caused by COVID-19, despite being only 13% of the population. Black Americans are also more susceptible to homelessness. The 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found that nationally, 40% of people experiencing homelessness on a single night were Black. Black Americans also made up 52% of people in families experiencing homelessness.
“To ensure that we are protecting the District’s most vulnerable residents and acting in ways that help alleviate racial and economic inequalities, we must protect programs that secure the basic needs of individuals and families.” Scott Bruton Bruton said budget cuts would only contribute to these disparities. “These overlapping crises are tied directly to our nation’s and the District’s histories of structural racism, which have resulted in wealth and income gaps that impact every aspect of life, including health outcomes,” he said. “To ensure that we are protecting the District’s most vulnerable residents and acting in ways that help alleviate racial and economic inequalities, we must protect programs that secure the basic needs of individuals and families including affordable housing.” Jesse Rabinowitz, advocacy and campaign manager for Miriam’s Kitchen, testified at a hearing on the budget on behalf of The Way Home campaign and said D.C. has prioritized funding for less essential services over affordable housing, hurting D.C.’s residents of color and causing them to experience higher rates of homelessness. “Homelessness, like [COVID-19] and like police brutality and violence, disproportionately impacts people of color,” Rabinowitz said. “It is not a coincidence but rather a purposeful result of public policy that the people most likely to die from [COVID-19] are the same people most targeted by the police.” In recent years, D.C. has overfunded housing for those with medium to high incomes, while underfunding housing for those experiencing poverty, said Rabinowitz. He also pointed out that the Metropolitan Police Department is funded at over $500 million per year. He recommended cutting this budget and increasing taxes for households earning over $350,000 to restore the budget for affordable housing. “The mayor’s budget does little to alter the status quo of D.C.’s homelessness crisis. Without action from the [D.C.] Council, over 1,600 households will continue to experience chronic homelessness,” Rabinowitz said. “We cannot let COVID-19 force us into accepting a manufactured scarcity mindset…Not only should we do more to end chronic homelessness, but we can afford to do more.” The D.C. Council will continue to review the budget and is expected to pass a spending plan by the end of July.
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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: Maryland State Delegate Gabriel Acevero holds out a mic to the crowd at John Marshall Park during the #FundCareNotCops rally on June 12. Photo by Rodney Choice / ChoicePhotography.com
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OPINION
What, exactly, ‘defund’ means BY ANGIE WHITEHURST
When asked about defunding the police, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted and hit on a very important valid point. Summed up, Ocasio-Cortez said what everyone wants is to live well and free, like folks in the suburbs. In other words, wealthy, with access to cash, credit, housing, the extra comforts of contentment and the greatest asset, having close to zero encounters with the police. In that ideal place, there are no one-way tickets from the court to jail to prison. No pipeline. No being barred from security clearances, healthcare, voting, housing, and the right to just eke out a living. Defunding the police is like telling a child that they aren’t getting an allowance for a year. You send them to the corner of Famous Time-Out Avenue, and once there and saddled on a three-legged stool named the Law, Police, and Public, the orders are to first think about what you did. Second, write down why you did it. Third, self-evaluate and decide on the punishment deserved. Fourth, apologize and make restitution and fix it, and change forever whatever inexcusable, heinous, abhorrent act occurred so it will never happen again. Thirty minutes later, the police are excused and told to go about their duties, as usual. As for the root of evil, it is racism—the problem is not the police. The police did not create racism; they follow the law. Law is made by the people’s appointed and elected proxies entrusted and legally mandated to make, enact, and remove unbroken, ironclad chains of injustice; decree, by decisions of our courts —prepositioned by the police, sheriff’s, DEA, ICE, FBI, ATF, to name a few—and enforce rules of containment. Law enforcement is not the creator of this human rights debacle. Taking their money away is not going to stop this engine. It is a machine with no checks and balances run amok.
As for the root of evil, it is racism. The police did not create the problem, Black people did not create the problem. In fact, Black folks did not ask, pay, or want to venture to colonial shores. However, it is a fact that they built the capital, the White House, and picked millions of bags of cotton for the people who rule over them in the buildings that Blacks built, without a union, pay equity, or healthcare. Unfortunately to this day, excuse my humor, the ruling houses that Black Jacks built have ensured that they will not enjoy the full benefits enacted by the Constitution of the United States. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Ghandi all in different ways addressed the perpetrators. Basically, white people need to look at themselves and bare their innards as to why they don’t like Black people. Because it is all in their minds, and it is one of the most covered-up crimes of humanity in the world. Angie Whitehurst is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.
U.S. military and Drug Enforcement Agency personnel in D.C. on June 2. PHOTO
Safety, not police
BY BEN BURGESS / KSTREETPHOTOGRAPHYDC.COM
BY MEENA MORAR
Jamar Clark. Michael Brown. Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. What do these names have in common? Each person was murdered by a member of the police force in the last eight years. Their shared charge? Being Black. These names unfortunately only represent a small handful of the Black Americans who have died at the hands of the police. In the last five years, there have been over 5,000 fatal shootings by an on-duty police officer, according to the Washington Post. Just in 2020, there have already been 467 documented cases of fatal police brutality. It is clear that police forces across the country are in need of a major change. The question, however, is whether reform alone can be enough. Since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, protests have erupted across the country with chants of “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police.” Although the words “Defund the Police” may sound concerning and lawless to some citizens, it is not what is sounds like. The call to defund the police is a call for intentional redistribution of resources, a re-centering of priorities, and an admission of bias. A future with less invested in the police can be much closer than we think. In order to imagine this, however, we must first understand how much the United States over-relies on law enforcement. The police are used to investigate almost anything – from a Black man bird-watching in Central Park to a homeless man sleeping on a park bench. Just because the police are called for every inconvenience, however, doesn’t mean that they are adequately trained to respond. In the United States, for example, training to be a police officer can range from ten to 36 weeks, according to CBS News. Basic Police Academy curriculum includes training in criminal law, patrol, investigations, and “handling emotional situations,” according to California’s Police Academy website. Does this training really warrant the amount of funding flooded into police forces across the country or suggest that armed officers are the best way to respond to mental health emergencies and homelessness? Picture this instead: a man is walking down the street, clearly experiencing a crisis and causing a public disturbance. Instead of calling the local police, you call a mental health hotline, where a specifically trained professional will respond, de-escalate the situation, and provide the respective resources necessary. This is what a simple redistribution of resources can do. Cities such as Los Angeles and New York help illustrate the
largely disproportionate allotment of funding police forces receive. In Los Angeles, the 2020-21 city budget allocates $3.14 billion to the police department, out of the city’s total budget of $10.5 billion – approximately 30 percent. This is by far the largest allotment of resources, with only $6 million, or 5 percent, directed to emergency management. New York follows a similar trend. In the last five years, “$41.1 billion was spent on police and corrections while $9.9 billion was spent on homeless services and $6.8 billion on housing preservation and development,” according to Curbed. The time and energy put into policing manifests itself through jailing rates, where more often than not the people sitting inside the cells have a mental health condition and do not have access to adequate treatment. Every year, 2 million people with mental illness are booked into jail. Within that group, at least 83 percent did not have access to needed treatment while in jail, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. What would happen, however, if we redistributed some of those resources to mental health programs, youth trauma centers, or rehabilitative centers? What if, instead of investing millions of dollars into riot gear, we focused funding into adequate health care equipment? Surely, the public health and safety sphere includes more than just law enforcement. The push to defund the police comes in a period of time where tensions are extraordinarily high, during the midst of a global pandemic and a strong collective hunger for change. Right now, it is crucial to identify where resources are needed the most. It is true that a concerted effort to reform the police can also help ease tensions. However, we must ask ourselves if it is enough, or really addresses the crux of the issue alone. Police departments could attempt to pile on more specialized trainings for their officers in an attempt to bridge the gap of understanding, but why waste more time when there are mental health professionals ready to take action? In fact, the larger question is: do we need to respond to every “crisis” with an armed officer? The answer is no, and as Americans it is time to stop looking past the clear facts that regardless of how much money is funneled into law enforcement – it is not working. The status quo is not working. Let’s give other spheres of public health and safety a chance. Meena Morar is a former housing reporter for Street Sense Media. She is a Minnesota native and currently attends Georgetown University.
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Two protesters at a D.C. march on June 6. PHOTO BY CODY BAHN // CODYBAHN.COM
How to make DC more equitable post-COVID BY NECHAMA MASLIANSKY
We at SOME (So Others Might Eat) deeply mourn the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and the many other Black persons whose lives have been taken senselessly at the hands of law enforcement officers and civilians in our country. We stand in solidarity with all who proclaim and believe that “Black Lives Matter” and who are fighting to end systemic racism. Structural racism has led to longstanding and growing gaps in housing, public safety, and income that affect every aspect of life for Black people and so many other persons and communities of color. For example, Black people, who constitute 46 percent of District of Columbia residents, have suffered 75 percent of deaths from COVID-19 in the District. Unequal access to health care and nutritious food, disproportionate representation among essential workers who are exposed to the virus, and denser housing and neighborhoods all contribute to this morbidity. Too many Black and brown people, including members of SOME’s staff, residents, patients and guests, endure the daily stress of both poverty and racism. Across the country, this stress manifests itself in early death from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and violence. During this pandemic, people have lost their jobs, they are hungry and worried about paying household bills, and they are afraid they won’t be able to pay accumulated rental arrears two or three months after the public health emergency is lifted. We are worried about a likely surge in homelessness later this year. Starting right now, we want to work hard together to emerge from these crises with the beginning of a just and equitable society where the color of our skin has no impact on the outcomes of our livelihood or the length of our lives. One way we can start to do this is by ensuring that D.C. passes an equitable FY 21 Budget that pays attention to racial impacts. Though we understand public officials’ desires to balance the District budget, that by itself is not a sufficient goal. Collectively, we must speak out and insist that the District budget begin to lay a foundation to equity for all D.C. residents, rather than further displacement of Black residents and the loss
of essential services for the people who need them most. We must invest more in housing and health care for those who have the fewest resources. It is our duty. We therefore encourage all District residents to write the Mayor and their Council representative and urge them to: 1. Apply a racial equity lens to the D.C. budget as they make funding decisions and to pass the REACH Act, the Race Equity Achieves Results Amendment Act of 2019. The District must aim to achieve policies by both the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch that are anti-racist, not merely neutral, because a neutral policy is one that has a racist impact. 2. Expand funding for affordable housing so that all who want to live in the District can afford to do so regardless of income. Fund the Housing Production Trust Fund at least $120 million in Fiscal Year 2021, and add operating subsidies (LRSP) to match the Trust Fund. 3. Expand funding for homelessness prevention so that no more residents are displaced. Add at least $5 million to the District’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). 4. Sustain funding for community-based services in the Department of Behavioral Health so that tens of thousands of D.C. residents suffering from trauma can continue to get mental health and substance abuse services. Allow residents to continue to get care by telephone. 5. Rescue DHS’s homeless street outreach services so persons living on the streets get the support they need to be placed in safe and affordable housing. We must continue to fight — together — for what we know is right and just. Please join us! Nechama Masliansky is an advisor at So Others Might Eat.
Enough is enough, end anti-Black racism BY AIDA PEERY
As a Black Baby Boomer and mother who constantly worries about my own son and grandson, cousins and friends, I have always shared the concerns of the Black Lives Matter protesters marching in the streets these past few weeks. Systemic oppression does indeed exacerbate homelessness and mental health problems in our community. I myself have been near the point of going crazy while homeless in the streets of Chicago and Washington, D.C. When Black folks come out of incarceration, their past should not stop them from finding a job and housing. We all make mistakes and we all learn from those mistakes. It’s unfair that a white person can commit the same crime as a Black man, get less time in prison and still get a job and housing. Once a Black person comes out of prison their record haunts them for the rest of their life. Then you have Black people being stopped needlessly by white police officers over bogus stuff, like a busted headlight in the middle of the day. They end up in jail or dead, like Sandra Bland in Texas. Police reports omit crucial details and juries can’t make fair assessments, having to go by witness testimony that a Black person happened to be on the scene. I feel that the news media hasn’t talked enough about the systemic oppression of Black people in America. People’s lives have been ruined, mental health problems have been made worse, and families have broken up. It has to stop! Aida Peery is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.
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ART
The art section is reserved exclusively to elevate the art of street paper vendors who contribute poetry, essays, illustration, fiction, and more. PHOTO: A young man on a Capital Bikeshare rental participates in the #FundCareNotCops rally at Freedom Plaza on June 12. Photo by Rodney Choice / ChoicePhotography.com
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1 8 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J U N E 2 4 - 3 0 , 2020
ART
Two protesters at a D.C. march on June 6. PHOTO BY CODY BAHN // CODYBAHN.COM
Police violence is overdue for a change BY GERALD ANDERSON Artist/Vendor
I send all my blessings out to the family of George Floyd. Y’all stay strong. At least he’s in God hands. God got him. I speak on that situation with the cops. I’m an ex-con, so I’m gonna speak real talk, like I always speak. This ain’t just start happenin’. It’s happenin’ way back in the 50s and 60s, this stuff with cops. They always say we pull a gun out, we did this, we did that. But now it’s comin’ to the light. It ain’t like that, you know? And I’m not here to judge nothing. But I’m speakin’ as a ex-con. I know some guys that I met, or hang out in prison with, they in there for shooting at the cop. The cop say they shot, but never had the gun, never had the bullet. Nothing. To me, the whole justice system is not fixable. You got more crooked cops than you got crooked crimes on the street. Cops do more than we ever think they do. Pretend they got a uniform, ‘till the last minute it catch up with ‘em. I’m feeling down, but, like I said, I never give up. There’s a lot I’m going through, a lot I’m facing. Everybody facing something in life, but some people give up, some people don’t. For everyone in the world, whatever you do, never give up. I’m glad to see the city’s coming back together. A lot of things open. A lot of people moving around. And a lot of people starting back working. And not seeing so many police anymore. And no more burglarizing, nothing going on. I’m praying and hoping that we start back working, selling papers. I can start selling my book, get a better income. ‘Cause honestly, I tell you, I’m tired of sleeping outside on benches. My editor Thomas and his wife pull up on me Tuesday night while they was going out and protesting. It kind of hurt me letting them see me sleep there, but I was laying on the bench. He say, “I know you’re not comfortable with sleeping there.” No, I’m not. But I don’t care what I go through, Thomas and his wife, they always behind me. I thank them for everything that they do for me. Not only that, I’m thankful for all my supporters in this society with me that stop by and help me out. I’m just trying to take it one day at a time. I’m just praying that all of us start back working, people catch up with they bills, whatever. I thank God that we coming back together, and we stay together, and things gettin’ back on track. I love y’all, take care. Good luck to everyone. Gerald’s book, “Still Standing: how an ex-con found salvation in the floodwaters of Katrina,” is availabe on Amazon.com.
The George Floyd Effect BY MARCUS GREEN Artist/Vendor
The rioting, looting and fires remind me of when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. I was 5, I was living in D.C. My father took us from D.C. to Virginia. We got outta there because D.C. was on fire. I remember it like it was yesterday. As they left the stores after looting them, they threw the Molotov cocktails back into the stores. Some of the buildings stayed vacant for decades. They just started renovating H Street recently. That’s how long some of the damage lasted. This time people from other cities and states were trashing the city. Things are changing
as far as police being charged with crimes. Nobody is above the law. The president, to me, even got away with crimes. Our justice system is a joke to the world. Police need to be held accountable to the oath that they take, just like the next person. Some of the changes are forthcoming, God willing. The D.C. Council has changed the law to require that the Metropolitan Police Department release body camera footage of any incident involving the use of force within 72 hours. Thanks for your support and keep me in your prayers. God Bless.
This Time BY ROBERT WARREN Artist/Vendor
The signs of the time, 1619. COVID-19 400 years and the Devil ain’t never lied. I feel I saw the stare of them evil eyes, looking down on George Floyd suffocating his life line. Once again the Devil ain’t never lied about the evil doings of Mankind. Our humanity’s trying to find a more perfect union, in what seems to be the worst of times. Say their names! Why Rodney King ask can we all just get along? 2020 we sing a sad song? This world will never be the same. The number 10 some say was pregnant you see and gave birth to a wew world order.
No Justice, No Peace. What is it in life we truly seek? Internally we all seek the same Lord. George Floyds remember their mother with their last breath of air to breathe. Life is funny. You see how everything can change with a breath of fresh air, from the first cry of new life to the last breath of air. We breathe to say their names, it brings on sadness and tears and feelings of rage and pain. Yes, Black Lives Matter. White Babys’ and Black Babys Lives Matter, too. This time the revolution will be televised.
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Our Pain BY MARCELLUS PHILLIPS Artist/Vendor
As a child I wondered what my future would be and how I would live my life. Every day I wake up and notice what has changed and how things ain’t right. Then reality strikes and it’s like the world is dropping bombs on me. I hear what I see but the world never understands me; we all feel pain and most won’t agree. But if you bleed blood your life can be cut off like a tree. My thoughts are created and my actions show what I have learned. We all cool off because in life you will always get burned. Deal with it properly, be patient and wait your turn. These words that I speak shall always be true and should always be heard!
The Neighborhood’s Mom BY MARY SELLMAN // Artist/Vendor
She was like a neighborhood Mom. She would take us to Ocean City and everybody would stay in a big palace on the beach. She would take us to Atlantic City, Kings Dominion. She would pay for everything. She was the Mom that would try to be the Mom for everybody. You’d come to her with any kind of problem. She would be the best if she could. She wouldn’t lie. I named my daughter after her: Carolyn. I gave my daughter, April, born April 1st, her middle initial: Ann. She went and got her high school diploma and college degree when she was 30, here in D.C. She used to work for city housing. She was the best Mom. And when she died, I felt lost. Still do.
Sick of COVID-19 BY JEFFERY MCNEIL Artist/Vendor
I have to admit I’m sick of politics. I’m sick of defending my political positions. It’s America! We all have different experiences in life. I’m Black but don’t think I’m owed and I really don’t have that mentality. I’d rather earn my way in life than have to trust others to take care of me. I’ve never been angry about racism or white supremacy because I believe in God’s justice. What’s done in the dark will come to light. That’s why I don’t get angry about what man has done.
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Understanding my cause & effect BY IBN HIPPS Artist/Vendor
To deeply know something But ignore or be blind to the cause. Reason, knowledge of one’s self, roadblocks, Triggers, is to remove one’s self Out of his or her own way. Expectation is one major road to unhappiness. For expectation causes false beliefs, Which cause one to lose focus, As in driving a car. Lost to his or her crossroads. No direction On which road his or hers belong. Mankind’s nature is to panic, Damaging your thought’s reason. Mind trapped into society’s ways Of being like a puppet pulled by strings. With a saying, “I am a made man, the streets raised me.” But not me, God made me and with blessing God raises me.” So I follow God’s voice And walk through God’s land, Live by God’s plan, That’s what I understand. So my cause to move Is through God’s breath And the effect is to rest In God’s plan.
Protesters at a D.C. march on June 6. PHOTO CODY BAHN // CODYBAHN.COM
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Points of Light BY QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE Artist/Vendor
1. Keep Hope Alive!!! Coronavirus can't kill that. 2. Live, laugh, love!!! This we still must do... 3. "Eat, Drink and be Merry" It's been stressful, but we all tried! 4. I'm laughing because I'm sick of crying.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DMCA / PXFUEL.COM
Tres Vivant Ate café, eveningue bicoms invitande (twix thez a-tonal panes flickerend, coherents partly oversaw), in eny meror'd viewe on manes. ...some egress'd sum wuasua esscapes whear notturni lit upp o gapes of holes, whose to sough? How bus the borough blery 'nough, to draw drapes. BY FRANKLIN STERLING 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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All s e rv i c e s l i s t e d a r e r e f e r r a l- f r e e Academy of Hope Public Charter School 202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Place NE aohdc.org
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// 2 1
Sasha Bruce Youthwork // 202-675-9340 741 8th St., SE sashabruce.org
Bag groceries, provide carryout and parcel pickup, load merchandise into customers’ cars, return shopping carts. APPLY: tinyurl.com/yamt4rzz
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Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW thrivedc.org
Greet customers, perform cashier duties, stock shelves, provide customer support, assist pharmacy personnel. REQUIRED: High school diploma or equivalent. APPLY: tinyurl.com/y835clzt
Store Warehouse Associate Designer Brands // Columbia Heights
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Miriam’s Kitchen // 202-452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave., NW miriamskitchen.org
My Sister’s Place // 202-529-5991 (24-hr hotline) mysistersplacedc.org
N Street Village // 202-939-2060 1333 N St., NW nstreetvillage.org
New York Avenue Shelter // 202-832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave., NE
Patricia Handy Place for Women 202-733-5378 // 810 5th St., NW
Samaritan Inns // 202-667-8831 2523 14th St., NW samaritaninns.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
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Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St., NW // 202-328-5500 legalclinic.org
The Welcome Table // 202-347-2635 1317 G St., NW. epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable
Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave., SE // 202-797-3567 whitman-walker.org
For up-to-date information on service provider operations during the pandemic, visit: TinyURL.com/HOS-covid
Maintain stock and sales floor, attach price tags, unload freight deliveries, move merchandise from shipping containers to displays.
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Merchandise Associate
Marshalls // 5333 Wisconsin Avenue NW Full-time Cashier duties, preparing merchandise and stocking sales floor. APPLY: tinyurl.com/ybke2j9l
Porter
Enterprise Residential, LLC Northeast Washington D.C. Full-time Clean and maintain real estate properties, including landscaping and snow removal as necessary. APPLY: tinyurl.com/ybe6rjro
Send your job postings to editor@StreetSenseMedia.org
Overcoming Covid-19: Finding housing
and education in the height of the pandemic BY SHEILA WHITE Artist/Vendor
T
he nurse at the Patrica Handy Shelter for Women started taking our temperature and asking us if we had any symptoms. I replied no and that I didn’t have a fever. The two weeks I stayed at the shelter I couldn’t concentrate on my studies. My nerves were a mess, and I had anxiety and panic attacks. My fears became worse when listening to the news and hearing about how many people in the world died from COVID-19. It made me more nervous and on edge all the time. I stopped catching trains and buses out of fear that I would get sick or even die. We couldn’t social distance ourselves in the shelter. Quarantining was not an option. You shared a dorm with eight to ten other women, as well as the common area. This virus has consumed my life to the point where the first two months I didn’t travel anywhere from fear that someone would sneeze or cough on me. My life was spinning out of control because of this pandemic. My child took me, two months later, to pick up my glasses and eye drop medication. I just ran out of eye drop medication so it is time to pick up again. My medication for my eyes is needed twice a day for the rest of my life. Going to get it is still something of a challenge for me. I don’t drive. During my spring break we found out that we had to quarantine ourselves. We didn’t return to class after spring break. Our classes were to continue online. I had to drop a class due to a group project that me and some other students had to complete. The students I had to work with wouldn’t comply with communicating with each other and the project did not get completed. I did my part but I needed the whole project to get graded so instead of getting an F grade I withdrew from the class with no penalty. My project in my technology class also required me to do it at school on their computer—mind you we are still in quarantine at this point. My professor told me to go to the UDC main campus library because they were still open, evern though public libraries were closed. I spoke with a gentleman over the phone and explained my situation. He assured me that it was safe and only eight people had utilized the library at that point. I didn’t feel safe going to the library at that time. He explained to me that “you would be much safer in the library than in the shelter.” I was shocked and couldn’t say anything. I told him I would be there and hung up. I didn’t show up. Maybe a week later UDC main campus library was closed. My project was still due. After talking again to my professor and explaining my situation he excused me from doing the rest
of my projects. He told me to concentrate on my finals and the rest of my assignments. Thank you professor. COVID-19 took the whole word by surprise. None of us expected this, but it happened. I wanted to give up at this point and quit school. I didn’t. The stress was too much. But something more powerful than me said you came too far to turn back now. My fears just wouldn’t let me catch the train or bus to get it done. My grades before this pandemic in technology class were at 97% on projects. Doing these projects was so much fun and so educational. They consisted of formatting, editing, designing your PowerPoint page, editing graphs and learning the basic operating system and application and so much more. Safe distancing was a must for me if I wanted to survive this pandemic. Going to stay with a family member is what I did. I left the shelter and slept on the floor of a family member’s house for five weeks until I signed my lease on May 29th. My child knew it was hard to safely distance yourself, that’s why she invited me to stay with her. The food was terrible. It was inedible, so I didn’t eat it. Insomnia was another problem, and developing pre-diabetes also was an issue. I developed all these issues while living there. I slept on my child’s floor for five weeks until I signed my lease. At least there I could eat properly and rest and study in peace. I moved into my own place on May 24, 2020. The real estate company I’m renting from took every precaution to make this transition safe and smooth for me and themselves. A virtual video was done so we all could be safe. Pathways to Housing and SOLID Properties done a fantastic job in addressing this challenge. A worker from my property took me personally to look at the place in early March. Thank you! My inspection was approved by virtual video. I really appreciate what Pathways staff and SOLID Properties did to make sure the move would be easy and safe for everyone involved. They made sure this move would be smooth and it was. It didn’t take long to move in, either. School started on May 18 for summer session. I’m planning to graduate in May, 2021 from UDC, and if not I’ll graduate in the fall of 2021. I do have a class I dropped during this epidemic so we will see. I will be graduating, that you DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION BY CAMILLE ROOD / CLRDESIGNS.ART can count on!
The stress was too much. But something more powerful than me said you came too far to turn back now.
Archive photo of Sheila White at the main UDC campus. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN / MARTINENDEAVOURS.COM
Thank you for reading Street Sense! JUNE 24 - 30, 2020 | VOL. 17 ISSUE 17
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