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Volume 14: Issue 19 July 26 - August 8, 2017
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Potential Medicaid cuts challenge city officials to support poor and disabled Washingtonians pg 5
Faith leaders arrested in Senate office building during Medicaid rally pg 4
DamonSmith
THE HEALTH CARE CLIFF
Street Sense is the street media center of our nation’s capital. We aim to serve as a vehicle for elevating voices and public debate on issues relating to poverty while also creating economic opportunities for people who are facing homelessness in our community.
CORRECTION 1. In the July 12 edition of Street Sense, an article about telemedicine and the startup business Urgent Wellness mispelled the founder’s last name: Freya Spielberg 2. In the June 28 edition of Street Sense, an article misattributed the city agency that manages the Emergency Rental Assitance Program. ERAP is managed by the D.C. Department of Human Services. Street Sense regrets the errors.
COVER ART
Proposed federal cuts to medicaid expansion programs lead to slipper y slope of reducing support for the most vulnerable segments of society. I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y V E N D O R S D A M O N SMITH, AND CYNTHIA MEWBORN. CAPITOL ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF PIXABAY.COM
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jeremy Bratt, Max Gaujean, Margaret Jenny, Jennifer Park, Reed Sandridge, Dan Schwartz, Jeremy Scott, John Senn, Kate Sheppard, Annika Toenniessen, Martin Totaro EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brian Carome EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Eric Falquero COMMUNICATIONS & SALES MANAGER Jeff Gray VENDOR PROGRAM MANAGER Mysa Elsarag EVENTS & ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Dani Gilmour CASE MANAGER Colleen Cosgriff INTERNS Maren Adler, Justine Coleman, Tom Coulter, Dorothy Hastings, Zachariah Tollison WRITERS GROUP ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE Donna Daniels, Willie Schatz OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER) Rachel Brody, Arthur Delaney, Britt Peterson EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS Justin Benedict, Lenika Cruz, Roberta Haber, Jesse Helfrich, Laura Osuri, Andrew Siddons, Jackie Thompson, Marian Wiseman VENDORS Shuhratjon Ahamadjonov, Gerald Anderson, Charles Armstrong, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Aida Basnight, Phillip Black, Reginald Black, Melanie Black, Phillip Black Jr., Maryann Blackmon, Viktor Blokhine, Debora Brantley, Andre Brinson, Donald Brown, Joan Bryant, Elizabeth Bryant, Brianna Butler, Melody Byrd, Conrad Cheek, Aaron Colbert, Anthony Crawford, Walter Crawley, Kwayera Dakari, James Davis, Clifton Davis, Charles Davis, David Denny, Reginald Denny, James DeVaughn, Ricardo Dickerson, Dennis Diggs, Alvin Dixon-El, Ronald Dudley, Charles Eatmon, Deana Elder, Julie Ellis, Jemel Fleming, Chon Gotti, Marcus Green, Barron Hall, Tyrone Hall, Richard Hart Lorrie Hayes, Patricia Henry, Jerry Hickerson, Ray Hicks, Sol Hicks, Rachel Higdon, Ibn Hipps, Leonard Hyater, Joseph Jackson, Carlton Johnson, Donald Johnson, Harold Johnson, Allen Jones, Mark Jones, Morgan Jones, Linda Jones, Darlesha Joyner, Juliene Kengnie, Kathlene Kilpatrick, Hope Lassiter, John Littlejohn, James Lott, Scott Lovell, Michael Lyons, Jimmy M. Ken Martin, Joseph Martin, Kina Mathis, Michael Lee Matthew, Authertimer Matthews, Charlie Mayfield, Jermale McKnight, Jeffery McNeil, Ricardo Meriedy, Cynthia Mewborn, Kenneth Middleton, Cecil More, L. Morrow, Evelyn Nnam, Moyo Onibuje, Earl Parkin, Jacquelyn Portee, Lucifer Potter, Ash-Shaheed Rabil, Henrieese Roberts, Anthony Robinson, Doris Robinson, Raquel Rodriquez, Lawrence Rogers, Joseph Sam, Chris Shaw, Patty Smith, Smith Smith, Gwynette Smith, Ronald Smoot, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens James Stewart, Beverly Sutton, Sybil Taylor, Archie Thomas, Shernell Thomas, Craig Thompson, Eric ThompsonBey, Sarah Turley-Colin, Carl Turner, Jacqueline Turner, Leon Valentine, Grayla Vereen, Ron Verquer, Martin Walker, Michael Warner, Robert Warren, Angelyn Whitehurst, William Whitsett, Wendell Williams, Sasha Williams, Judson Williams III, Ivory Wilson, Denise Wilson, Charles Woods
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STREET SENSE July 26 - August 8, 2017
NEWS
City Continues to Chase Homeless Campers Away from Northeast Metro Bridge
A New Way for D.C. Businesses to Help End Homelessness
Two camp residents packed their bags in preparation for the July 20 cleanup, but did not leave they area where they had been living until city workers arrived to force the issue. | PHOTO BY MAREN ADLER By Maren Adler maren.adler@streetsense.org
One month to the day after the mass eviction of a tent community under the 2nd Street NE Metro bridge, the Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services or maybe the Interagency Council on Homelessness administered another sweep of the area. Signs hung at the site last month specified that District government retains the right to maintain the area without notice for two weeks following the initial cleanup date. After that, the city’s encampment protocol starts over, and two-week notices will be required before any further action is taken. In contrast to the tear-down of more than a dozen tents last month, only a few stood under the bridge two days before the scheduled July 20 cleanup. According to camp residents, outreach teams came through on the 19th to inform them they would be forced to relocate. Some left on their own accord. Only four people were still living in tents on the public sidewalk the morning of July 20, but it was crowded with onlookers. Several outreach representatives from D.C. government also arrived to offer water, procedure on days the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency declares a heat emergency, as they had on July 20. Several young lawyers observed the whole ordeal, and a police officer rode through on a motorcycle. Joyce had been living under the bridge before last month’s cleanup and returned that evening to set her tent back up. She was still packing the morning of the most recent cleanup. She said that she appreciates the city’s efforts and watched as workers sprayed down the underside of the bridge. The smell of urine from her neighbors under the bridge was so strong that morning that she felt sick to her stomach, Joyce said in an interview with Street Sense. She was able to keep her spot at M and 1st Street NE because she does not use a tent. Local ordinances do not prohibit inhabiting public space, but outlaw the
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use or construction of a “temporary abode,” such as tents, trailers or automobiles. Instead, Joyce sets up a lawn chair somewhere sheltered from the rain and wind, such as under the Metro bridge. She said she avoids city shelters, because she doesn’t like crowds or having to deal with rodents and insects. But she also doesn’t want to waste her time and energy being chased around the city for using a tent. Joyce’s unsheltered life doesn’t go unchallenged: representatives from the city-funded nonprofit Pathways to Housing stop by daily to check on her. “I know it’s her job to try to get me to go to shelter, but it’s my job to tell her no,” Joyce said of a Pathways outreach worker present for the July 20 sweep. Joyce said she has been staying under the bridge for the past six years. ■
T h e p r o p o s e d H o m e l e s s S e r v i c e s Re f o r m Amendment Act of 2017 would add representatives from philanthropic organizations and local businesses to the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Currently, the 38 voting members of the ICH represent government agencies, homeless individuals and advocates, service providers, and the Continuum of Care. Together, they implement the city’s strategic plan to end homelessness. If it passes, several new seats would allow businesses toweigh in on policy decisions to assist homeless individuals and families. The D.C. Business Improvement District has been working with the city on solutions to homelessness since it was founded in 1998, and already invests $75,000 each year in homeless services outreach. “[The HSRA Amendment] would be formalizing a partnership that has been there for a long time,” said Natalie Avery, director of the D.C. BID. “It enables us to educate and engage stakeholders in being a part of the solution.” Kristy Greenwalt, director of the ICH, sees the solution to ending homelessness beyond government funding and decision making. Her vision for the ICH is to include universities, hospitals, local partners, philanthropic organizations, businesses, and even landlords for an all-inclusive approach to ending homelessness. More flexible funding is needed and government funding is unpredictable, Greenwalt said. Beyond funding, she is equally interested in the insight, commitment and networks these business leaders would bring to the table. “ N o o n e a g e n c y, n o o n e s e c t o r c a n e n d homelessness,” said Greenwalt. “Each have different parts to play.” ■
—dorothy.hastings@streetsense.org
Private Landlords Join With D.C. Government to House Homeless People By Zachariah Tollison & Ellie Bloomberg Editorial Interns Every month a handful of private landlords meet in a conference room near Eastern Market Metro station. It is here where they discuss ways to find more of their peers who will rent specifically to people exiting shelters and entering D.C.’s increasingly competitive housing market. One of the constant challenges has been addressing stereotypes landlords commonly have about people experiencing homelessness is that they will be bad tenants, destroy property or be evicted after a short time. The challenge, housing experts say, is encouraging landlords to go out of their way to take “risks” on vulnerable people. The efforts of these landlords are a crucial part of the city’s housingfocused efforts to eliminate longterm homelessness in the District. The Department of Human Services began to focus on partnering with landlords in 2015 to help pave the way for clients exiting shelter. There were 7,473 people experiencing homelessness in the city during the January 2017 Point-in-Time Count. Nealy nine hundred people were found to be completely unsheltered, while the number of those in a transitional housing program was 1,213. The majority of people experiencing homelessness in D.C., 5,363 of them, were using emergency shelters during the count. “ We h a v e m a n y f a m i l i e s , t h a t are currently in shelters, that have multiple barriers to housing such as previous eviction, poor credit history and past involvement with the justice system,” explained Dora Taylor, DHS Public Information Officer, during a 2016 interview. This is where the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness comes in. Their monthly Landlord Outreach meetings are led by Ishan Heru, who works for the nonprofit mental health agency Community Connections. Heru’s team aims to create a central network of housing units to expedite placement of individuals who receive vouchers or subsidies through the city’s various housing programs. One such program, DHS’s New Lease on Life Initiative, seeks to even the playing field for potential tenants maligned by the stereotypes Heru encounters regularly. The agency provides financial backing
and support services for the tenants their partner landlords lease to. Families sign a one-year lease for which they pay between 20 and 30 percent of the rent, and the rest is covered by a subsidy from DHS, according to the agency’s website. Interested landlords, who must be licensed with the D.C. Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs, simply sign between four and five documents and pass a unit inspection. After that, they are immediately matched with a family. The team of Heru and the landlords develop strategies for recruiting and retaining landlords. They host meet and greets, establish risk mitigation funds to assuage landlords’ fears of losing money and propose broader policy changes. “We leverage our existing networks because we have been working with landlords for years to place people.” Despite these outreach efforts, the high-demand housing market means altruism still plays a roll in recruitment for The New Lease on Life Initiative and the locally-funded subsidies are limited by affordability. DHS is not alone in grappling with market rate housing. Right before President Trump took office, HUD raised the local spending limits that determine how much federal Housing Choice Vouchers — commonly referred to as Section 8 — are worth in Washington D.C. This was done to help people avoid being priced out of the area. “If you have a section 8 voucher you can get into an apartment on Capitol Hill that costs $2,300 dollars a month. They get that because they have the latitude to keep pace with market rate.” However, other voucher programs that use HUD and local tax dollars do not have the same flexibility and leave voucher-holders to be priced out of higher rent areas. The struggle to engage landlords to help end homelessness remains bound by these market forces. From Heru’s perspective, The problem is a lack of vouchers to make that housing affordable. “There isn’t enough money dedicated to housing,” Heru said. “There aren’t e n ou g h vou c h e rs to d e al with th e homelessness need in D.C.” ■ Khyeria Ferguson contributed reporting.
AT LEAST 7 ARRESTED IN SENATE HEALTH PROTEST By Jennifer McLauglin Artist/Vendor
A Medicaid rally was held near the Hart Senate Office Building on June 13. A large crowd gathered on D Street Northeast and marched to the Russell Senate Office Building, chanting “We want health care!” and “When do we want it?! … Now!” The protest was organized by Justice and Witness Ministries, which aims to helps local United Church of Christ congregations “respond to God’s commandments to do justice, seek peace and effect change for a better world,” according to the group’s website. The diverse group of protestors came together in front of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office to talk about the need for universal health care in the United States. Until that is achieved, according to the speakers, Medicaid is too important to cut. There are over 500,000 people experiencing homelessness in the United States and many more that are struggling to make ends meet. Many housed people in more stable situations struggle to afford private insurance. “People could die without Medicaid,” one speaker told the crowd. The group waited and hoped McConnell would address them. Security officers urged the demonstrators to stay close to the walls of the hallway and not block anyone. They pushed media like me and anyone recording with a smart phone, farther and farther back. Only outlets with large, professional-looking cameras were allowed to stay near the front. No one from the Senate, McConnell included, addressed the group. All in all, the rally was mostly peaceful but some people were arrested — most of them faith leaders. Justice and Witness Ministries representatives told the protestors and passersby in the Senate offices that they will continue to come back and demonstrate until someone hears them. ■
STREET SENSE July 26 - August 8, 2017
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NEWS Losing Obamacare Could Leave Tens of Thousands of D.C. Residents Without Insurance By Justine Coleman justine.coleman@streetsense.org
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s a Republican Congress and president aim to take down the Affordable Care Act, District officials and health care experts warn that a repeal could leave tens of thousands of residents without health insurance. Both the House and Senate proposed versions of an ACA repeal that were considered earlier this year included massive reductions in Medicaid spending. The Senate narrowly was able to open debate on the ACA July 25, giving Republicans the opportunity to create legislation to begin ACA repeal. More than 260,000 people in the District received coverage from Medicaid in fiscal year 2016. Officials have expressed concern that a repeal would threaten the city’s financial stability and put the wellbeing of its most vulnerable populations in jeopardy.
Predicting the Unpredictable The D.C. Council Committee on Health scheduled a hearing to discuss how the proposed federal health care reforms would affect the District in mid-July. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed a Senate vote on the bill until after the July 4 recess. The council committee canceled its meeting accordingly. “Right now we’re just in the dark because we don’t know what Congress is going to do,” said Janis Hazel, director of communications for Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray, who chairs the committee on health. Gray wrote in an email that the committee would reschedule the hearing during D.C. Council’s summer recess if necessary. “My emphasis is to preserve health care coverage regardless of what the Congress does,” Gray said. “We believe in Washington, D.C. that it’s fundamental to our values that we support people having access to high quality care,” Mayor Muriel Bowser told Bloomberg last week. The Senate’s most recent replacement
plan would have cost the District $2.9 billion over the course of seven years, according to a report compiled by Wayne Turnage, the director of the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance. Because the Senate has now opened debate, several votes aimed to take apart the ACA will be held in the coming days. “I want to congratulate the American people because we’re going to give you great health care, and we’re going to get rid of Obamacare which should have been frankly terminated long ago.” Trump said during a press conference July 25 “It’s been a disaster for the American people.” Several people, including disability activists from National ADAPT and the National Council on Independent Living, interrupted the Senate debate with protests against the potential cuts to Medicaid by chanting “Don’t kill us. Kill the bill.”
Assessing the Cost Nearly 40 percent of D.C. residents received Medicaid, and more than 11 percent were covered exclusively by the ACA Medicaid expansion in fiscal year 2016, according to a Street Sense analysis of a recent D.C. audit. The federal government funds 95 percent of the expansion and 70 percent of the general Medicaid program, according to a report compiled by Wayne Turnage, the director of the Department of Health Care Finance. The unpassed Senate health care plan included reduction of federal spending on Medicaid expansion programs to 70 percent, in line with the traditional program funding, according to the report. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the latest Senate bill, the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, would reduce the federal deficit by $473 billion between 2017 and 2026 but would leave 32 million previously insured Americans without health insurance. The act would repeal the ACA coverage provisions in two years, giving the Senate time to come up with a replacement plan. Turnage said in the District, he expects 100,000 people will rely on the Medicaid
expansion to qualify for insurance next year. Without the federal government funding, the District would take a “big hit” and need to either find additional revenue or reprioritize the city budget to stop people from losing health care. The cuts would mainly affect single adults without children. About 99 percent of the people that would lose insurance in the District earn far below the federal poverty level, which is set at $12,060 per year for individuals, according to Turnage. Shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans requested that D.C. auditors study how a loss of the ACA would impact the District’s finances and residents, according to auditor Kathy Patterson. In January, the auditors released their research, which stated that the District would lose $563 million in the first fiscal year if the city tried to cover lost federal Medicaid expansion funds and would continue to lose more than $1 billion each year in the 10th fiscal year. More than 100,000 people could lose their health insurance if Medicaid expansion and subsidies for those in D.C. Health Link, the District’s health care marketplace, are eliminated, Patterson said. If federal funding is greatly reduced, the council and the mayor would be asked to find local dollars to fill the gap. “The likeliest thing to happen would be that policymakers here in the District would figure out a way to continue to cover as many of our residents as possible,” Patterson said, who thinks all of the repeal bills will include cuts to Medicaid expansion. The number of people who would lose health care and the timeline depends on how the federal dollars would be withdrawn.
The Risk for Homeless People GOP leaders have been pushing to fund Medicaid through state per-capita caps and block grants. Block grants would provide states with a set amount of money to distribute to individuals. Per-capita caps set a spending limit for each individual, which could be problematic if a person develops a medical condition, according to Courtney Pladsen, a family nurse practitioner and the clinical coordinator for the Unity Health Care women’s respite program. Pladsen is most concerned about the impact of reduced Medicaid spending on those in poverty and with disabilities. Some of her patients are scheduling full physicals and asking for long-acting reversible contraceptives just in case their coverage disappears. “The people that are the most disproportionately impacted are people
Courtney Plasden at the Unity Health Care Upper Cordozo Health Center. PHOTO BY JUSTINE COLEMAN
who are living in poverty and who are disabled,” Pladsen said. A lack of housing can intensify people’s health issues and limit their access to care, creating more obstacles to exit homelessness, according to Lara Pukatch, director of the advocacy program at Miriam’s Kitchen. The nonprofit provides breakfast and dinner to homeless guests Monday through Friday and offers on-site medical care during that time, as well as connection to outside service providers. “When we see proposed cuts to Medicaid that limits access to health care for some of our vulnerable residents, that medical outreach we’re trying to do in the dining room does not reach its full potential,” she said. One provision of recent GOP plans require people to work in order to obtain Medicaid. MaryBeth Musumeci, an associate director at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s program on Medicaid and the uninsured, said these work requirements could cause some eligible individuals to get lost in the administrative shuffle when filing documents like their exemptions. “There’s the danger that paperwork can get lost, things can slip through the cracks and people that were eligible could lose coverage,” Musumeci said. About 59 percent of people that receive Medicaid work and 80 percent are a part of working families, according to a March KFF report. Jeffery McNeil, a Street Sense vendor who also assistant-manages a local fitness center receives Medicaid from AmeriHealth Caritas, said that he does not think a work requirement for Medicaid would be fair for those unable to work. “The problem with Medicaid is you get health care but not health coverage,” he said. “Half the doctors don’t want to see you. I can only go to Whitman Walker or Unity Health Care. Thank God I’m not severely sick. That’s when the complications start.” ■
D.C. Council Fails to Fund Entrepreneurship Program for Returning Citizens By Dorothy Hastings Dorothy.hastings@StreetSense.org
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ayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council failed to fund a law that establishes an entrepreneurship training program for returning citizens. The bill was unanimously passed without funding in October. Despite this support, during recent fiscal year 2018 budget hearings a majority of the council chose to uphold a series of tax cuts approved in 2014 rather than fund the bill along with homeless, youth and violence prevention programs that had been neglected in the budget as well. The law has been effective but ineffectual ever since. It requires the Department of Employment Services and the Department of Small and Local Business Development to establish the Incarceration to Incorporation Entrepreneurship Program to assist returning citizens in starting and managing their own businesses through training, mentorship and classes. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity is required to establish a corresponding fund that would consist of up to $10 million from public and private donations, city council funds, and sponsorship to provide microloans and grants as startup capital for returning citizens participating in the training. If funded, the Incarceration to Incorporation Entrepreneurship Program Act of 2016 has the potential to serve a greater number of ex-offenders than any existing program, and is aimed at bypassing employment barriers that typically accompany a criminal record and reducing the chances of someone returning to crime. The D.C. Reentry Task Force’s proposed program model is a 12-month program that includes networking opportunities, leadership training, apprenticeship and personal coaching, workshops for returning citizens with businesses and a business plan competition. Most notably, it suggests creating education partnerships by offering GED preparation courses and scholarships for participants to take business classes at the University of D.C. or University of D.C. Community College. Unlike existing entrepreneurship programs, the IIEP recognizes the importance of education for employment and reintegration into society for returning citizens. According to a 2016 study done by the Council for Court Excellence, 36.2 percent of men incarcerated and 35.5 percent of women incarcerated under the D.C. Department of Corrections have less than a high school education, and by 2020, 76 percent of all jobs in D.C. area will require post-secondary degree. Current resources available to returning citizens in D.C. are not adequate, according to Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who chairs the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. She said the IIEP would serve as a more wholesome program, specifically in its education partnerships. “We have several thousand residents returning every year,” Silverman said. “We need to make sure that they are in jobs that aren’t just temporary but can lead to career paths and prevent the temptation of committing another crime. A lot of these folks are committing crimes because they need money and we want to provide a better alternative path for them, especially for our young people.” Instead of appropriating funding for the law in the recently passed FY2018 budget, the D.C. Council
suggested reviewing a similar pilot program that began in 2016, Aspire to Entrepreneurship. The pilot provides business development training for 13-15 returning citizens at a time, with the ultimate goal of starting their own businesses, according to Kate Mereand of the Department of Small and Local Business Development. Eligible participants receive a stipend of $9.00 an hour for the 6 months they are enrolled and are chosen based on who is prepared to go through the intensive business development training. T. Monique Braddy is a returning citizen who participated in the Aspire program after his release in March of 2016. Now he owns a small-business incubator company in Oxon Hill, Maryland called “The Tank.” The Tank offers business consulting, IT outsourcing services, infrastructure services and other resources to help small businesses thrive. In addition to the Tank and several other small businesses he operates, Braddy is starting a non-profit called Vision Concepts with the goal of offering returning citizens in Prince George’s county similar entrepreneurship opportunities to what helped him. While incarcerated, Braddy created 14 business plans, one of which was Express Dry Cleaning, which he now operates in PG County. He stressed how many incarcerated people have the potential and motivation to succeed, but lack resources and training.
T. Monique Braddy (above) and a van for his Express Dry Cleaning Service (below).
PHOTO BY DOROTHY HASTINGS
Braddy said that the $9.00 per hour stipend he received through the Aspire program was not sufficient to live on, and that he had to obtain the majority of the income used to start his businesses elsewhere. To him, education is a key concept that the Aspire program was lacking.
“Although the program is wonderful, it’s just not enough,” Braddy said. “You can’t give me a laptop and begin to ask me to do a profit and loss statement. I don’t know what that looks like, I’ve never seen one … you have to understand where [the student] comes from.”
“We need to make sure that [returning citizens] are in jobs that aren’t just temporary but can lead to career paths...” — At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman The FY2018 Budget established $2.3 million for the Department of Corrections to create the Portal of Entry, a resource for returning citizens that would serve only 365 of the 850 people released by the Department of Corrections each month, as reported in the FY2018 budget report for the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. It also provided money to continue the Aspire program. Returning citizen advocates Kevin Smith and Kimberly Nelson, who worked on the IIEP effort in conjunction with the D.C. Reentry Task Force, wrote in a recent article that “the IIEP model is structured to meet the needs of a larger number of individuals then any existing program of its kind in the District, and can help fill in the gap of 5,820 returning citizens the mayor leaves to fend for themselves [in the upcoming year].” Entrepreneurship has been proven beneficial for both returning citizens and the city as a whole, as demonstrated by returning citizen entrepreneurship programs in cities nationwide. In 2015, Rising Tide Capital in New Jersey served 689 entrepreneurs and had a business survival rate of 87 percent, reduction in use of public assistance by 56 percent, 47 percent increase in average household incomes for participants, created 228 new jobs and started 73 new businesses. The Council of State Governments Justice Center published a white paper in 2013 that showed how establishing sustainable employment for returning citizens reduces recidivism rates, saving the city money in incarceration costs and breaking the cycle of incarceration for those who have been in and out of the system their whole lives. Looking toward FY 2019, Silverman told Street Sense that the D.C. Council would be meeting with IIEP advocates and considering funding for the program. “[Aspire] didn’t have the participation rate that it had been projected to have,” Silverman said. “[We are considering] maybe shifting that funding next year into something like IIEP which is a lot more comprehensive in terms of its educational approach.” Although the FY 2019 budget seems far away, Kevin Smith and Kimberly Nelson are already focusing all their efforts to get the legislation funded by organizing returning citizens and advocates in partnership with community groups, universities and businesses. Smith urges the Mayor to put forth a plan immediately to address the needs of returning citizens with prior convictions or other circumstances that block them from employment opportunities and a livable wage. ■
STREET SENSE July 26 - August 8, 2017
Schools, City Find Innovative Ways to Boost NEWS Attendance as Questions Surround DCPS Data By Tom Coulter tom.coulter@streetsense.org
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oon after becoming the principal of Tubman Elementary in 2013, Amanda Delabar noticed the frequent absence of many students in her school. Her staff was following the D.C. Public Schools attendance procedure, including support meetings with students after their fifth unexcused absence and truancy court referrals after their fifteenth. To truly change attendance patterns, however, Delabar knew she and her team needed to think outside the box. “I can have the best teachers, they can do the best lessons, we can have the most amazing interventions,” Delabar said. “But if kids aren’t showing up, none of that matters.” In 2015, her team came up with a solution called the Hot List, which included the name of every student who missed 15 or more days of school the previous year. Teachers and staff aimed to reduce the absences of each student on the Hot List by 50 percent. Getting parents involved was a main focus of the list. They received shoutouts in the December newsletter if their child was on track to meet their goal, and the school held an end-of-year picnic to celebrate those who did. In the first year of the list, 40 percent of students succeeded in cutting their number of absences in half. Schools like Tubman are finding innovative solutions to lower chronic absence rates and reduce truancy court referrals, but the issue of attendance remains a large one for D.C. Public Schools. In the 2015-16 school year, 17.4 percent of District students had more than 10 unexcused absences, according to the
DCPS Annual Truancy Report. During that same year, 42.3 percent of high schoolers had more than 10 unexcused absences. One positive trend for DCPS is its 40 percent reduction in suspensions over the course of two years. However, a recent Washington Post investigation casts doubt on those statistics. The Post analysis found at least seven of the District’s 18 high schools have barred students from entering school without recording the prohibited entry as a suspension, leading many education advocates to question the validity of DCPS attendance data. “If DCPS is this sloppy with the data when it comes to suspension, you have to wonder about the integrity of their attendance recordkeeping overall,” said Eduardo Ferrer, executive director of D.C. Lawyers for Youth. Delabar said that her school requires every teacher — even those who have been there for 15 years — to go through training on attendance procedure each year. Tubman Elementary has two separate attendance sheets, and school officials check them each day to ensure they match. “ Pa r t o f t h e t r a i n i n g a s w e l l i s reminding teachers that this is a legal document,” Delebar said. “It’s your responsibility to make sure it’s completely up to date and accurate.” While Tubman has been strict about its recordkeeping, the Post article raises questions about citywide practices. The analysis prompted the Every Student, Every Day Coalition, which includes advocacy organizations, researchers and services providers, to release a statement calling for an audit of all DCPS attendance data from the past four years. Sharra Greer is the policy director of the Children’s Law Center, one of the
DCPS Chancellor Antwan Wilson reads to a student at Tubman Elementary School. PHOTO COURTESY OF DCPS.
founding members of the coalition. She said an audit is necessary because the attendance data could be faulty in more than a few high schools. “I don’t think we can say there has been a shift in a good direction based on this data when we have so much doubt about whether they’ve been reporting this information correctly,” Greer said. In its statement, the coalition also calls on DCPS to place a moratorium on all truancy court referrals, which are based on unexcused absences. Greer said it’s possible children who should be suspended are currently being sent to the justice system instead. “In our minds, the best way to protect the students is let’s just stop and actually figure out what’s going on with the attendance record and stop sending kids to court unnecessarily,” she said. The city’s truancy task force has worked to amend the 2013 Attendance Accountability Act, which mandates referrals to truancy court once kids have 15 unexcused absences, according Aurora Steinle, a senior policy advisor for the Deputy Mayor for Education. “We have not seen evidence that punitive measures actually improve attendance, so we just don’t think this is a good strategy,” she said. Ferrer agreed, adding that mandatory referrals to truancy court shouldn’t exist. He criticized the Attendance Accountability Act as legislation that wasn’t based in evidence. When the truancy task force was formed, it focused on reducing youth crime, but now it works to address the needs of all students with attendance issues, according to Steinle. “It really doesn’t matter if you’re missing school because you’re skipping it and have no excuse at all or you’re missing it because of a transportation barrier or a health issue,” she said. “We want to work on those, too.” Her task force now includes representatives from the Department of Behavioral Health and the Department of Human Services to better address students’ wide range of needs. Steinle said the task force also hopes to collaborate with the Department of Parks and Recreation and D.C. Public Libraries to strengthen their relationships with youth. Schools are better equipped than the court system to handle students’ problems, Ferrer said. Tubman Elementary provides an example of what schools can do. After the initial success of the Hot List in 2015, Delabar wanted to continue the positive momentum. “We realized there was a whole bunch more we could do to hopefully increase
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how many students meet that target,” the principal said. With a new Hot List for the 2016-17 school year, Delabar and her staff visited students’ homes to discuss with families what potential barriers may stand in the way of their children’s attendance and to offer them resources. Staff members also met with students on a weekly basis. If students had perfect attendance that week, they received a sticker. “The sticker may sound really silly and small, but the fact that it was consistently the same person checking in on them, the same person giving them their sticker, the same person who had done the home visit, means they had really formed a relationship with that adult,” Delabar said. Tubman Elementary’s attendance data reflects these extra efforts, as 53 percent of students on the Hot List met their target for the end of the school year. Delabar said a main goal for the upcoming school year is to help students understand t h e posit ive re la t ion sh ip be t we e n attendance and academic performance. Ferrer also pointed to communitybased organizations as useful groups for helping students who are chronically absent. In 2012, the D.C. Council created the Show Up Stand Out program, which oversees and provides funding to several community-based organizations, according to program director Brenda Aleman. Using this funding, the organizations work with elementary and middle schools to find solutions to students’ attendance issues. “In the elementary schools, it’s mainly a family engagement program, because we know that younger students rely on families to get them to schools,” Aleman said. “At the middle schools, it’s more of a youth engagement type of program where the community based organizations work directly with the students to engage them in school-based clubs to get them interested in participating in extracurricular activities.” Funding for Show Up Stand Out has increased every year since its creation, which Aleman said speaks to the city’s commitment to reducing truancy rates. Steinle, who helps organize the truancy task force, said the city will focus on a campaign to increase public awareness about attendance issues in the coming year. “One thing we think we’ve been missing is a citywide communication and coordination of every student and family feeling like attendance matters and that there’s people who are here to help them and make sure they can be present every day,” Steinle said. “We have a lot planned for this upcoming school year that we’re excited about through the initiative.” ■
Thank You, Readers! By Patty Smith, Artist/Vendor
Thank you to my customers! What would you like to see in the Street Sense newspaper that has never been done before? Over the years you have played a most vital role in shaping the fabric of our newspaper. Many of you have sent in food and donations, visited our offices to meet our vendors and staff as well as shared your time and expertise. For this, we thank you. I especially want to thank Sally for her donation of clothing. Please continue your good work helping our paper run smoothly.
My Community of Readers By Ken Martin, Artist/Vendor
The good thing about my customers is that they know I appreciate them. I don’t have to be there for them to get the message. And unfortunately, I haven’t been there of late, due to circumstances out of our control. My photography, articles and art are submitted with the intent of bringing pleasure and provoking thought for the people I consider to be among the most important in my life. I want to “do them proud.” My music selections are chosen to be entertaining and multiculturally jazzy — to make you want to stop and say “who’s that?” And people do stop. The best part of me, in my work, is a feeling that these contributions illuminate both my mind and the collective village. We belong to a mutual admiration society! My customers have made vending Street Sense as easy as pie. They motivate the melody in my pitch, inspire the patterns in my greetings and bring light that restores me after a bombardment of rejection. I can honestly say to many of these fine folks, “I Love You Guys!”
Good Things in My Life By Derian Hickman, Artist/Vendor
During my seven plus years offering Street Sense papers to the public, I have been in contact with some very interesting people. I always thought that my situation was very uncommon and that I was one of a few who suffered from not 1 or 3 but multiple problems, including
homelessness, financial difficulties, civil court filings, child support and more. What I have begun to find out is that these problems are not uncommon for a lot of people, which means I am not alone in 'my' world. Good things can and do happen in my life and one of them has been my experience with the people and customers of Street Sense. So, thank you, one and all, for your encouragement and support.
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Customer Appreciation By Aida Basnight, Artist/Vendor
I want to give a thank you to all of my customers on 14th & I Street, who have been buying my papers. I appreciate that my customers stop by for small talk and sometimes make dates to have lunch. We talk about all sorts of things and share what's been going on in our lives. I learn from these encounters and indeed look forward to them. Sometimes I catch myself fall into negative thinking – such as 'Aida, I got it bad.' Then I think, 'Lots of people have problems, and on a daily basis. Stay positive!' I am grateful to my customers in so many ways. They usually have a smile on their face and will some-times offer to pray for me. So, I want to say to all my customers: "Thank you for teaching me how to deal with disappointments and stay positive on a daily basis."
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OUR CUSTOMERS: Tina Darragh By Damon Smith Artist/Vendor Street Sense: Hello folks, I’m hear with one of my frequent customers, Tina Darragh. And if you don’t mind me asking Ms.Darragh, where do you work?
Darragh: Well, I really appreciate your resilience and stamina. I watch people walking by you all the time and I don’t think I could do it. You must have some goals in mind that keep you going when people are rude or ignoring you.
Darragh: Well, I’ve known you for about a year. And I always look forward to seeing you. Thank you ma’am! And I definitely look forward to seeing you too: your smile and your appreciation. That’s one of the things that helps keep me going — as a vendor, former homeless person and an advocate for the homeless. Do you have any specific thoughts about homelessness? Darragh: Well… Please, speak freely.
Oh, great, great, great. So you can appreciate good writing and literature. Darragh: Haha, exaclty! And if you don’t mind me asking ma’am, where do you live? Darragh: I live in Greenbelt, Maryland. Okay, so you’re a Maryland resident and you just commute to D.C. but you’re still passionate about the homeless cause. And we appreciate that! What do you find most interesting about Street Sense? Darragh: Well, I like the variety of the articles: I like the fact that so many of the vendors write and contribute to it; I thought the interview with Pope Francis a few issues ago was just amazing — it’s a great variety of work. Well I appreciate you taking time on this rainy day to share your passion about the cause. What do you find most interesting about your vendor?
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We’re All In This Together By Mildred M. Hall, Artist/Vendor
Actually ma’am, we do. As a vendor myself, we do get a lot of rude people, racism, discrimination, basic insults and everything. But if you’re passionate about the cause, that doesn’t matter. It’s like a rain drop rolling off your back. As far as your relationship with your vendor, could you say it has evolved at all?
Darragh: I work at Georgetown University, I’m a librarian there.
STREET SENSE July 26 - August 8, 2017
Darragh: There’s just so many factors. The treatment for mental illness contributes to it… So many veterans are homeless — and that’s because there’s a lot of rhetoric of support but not real support. Those are two things right off the bat that come to mind. And is there anything else that you’d like to add about homelessness, about Street Sense or about this interview? Dar ragh: Wh at I like ab ou t Stre e t Sense is that it’s connected to similar organizations across the country and around the world. I think that if people realized that they would take it more seriously. Thank you, ma’am! Well I greatly appreciate you taking the time with us and your support of Street Sense. Is there anything you’d like to say to the Street Sense readers or vendors? Darragh: Just keep on keepin’ on. You keep on keepin’ on too ma’am — thank you so much! Darragh: Thank you.
In the beginning, before I became vendor #611, I was a customer of Street Sense. As a customer, I appreciated each vendor that introduced me to the paper. They were polite when they presented themselves to me and expressed an interest in me as a person as they spoke about the articles in each edition. The first Street Sense newspaper
I gave a donation for was $1. At that time, the the organization was still working to become its own 501(c)3 nonprofit. The paper offers people an opportunity to be an independent contractor and earn an income to improve their lives. Similarly, the content presents different and new approaches to ending homelessness in our community. Many similar papers exist around the world. It is easy to be on either side of the coin. I appreciate having been both a customer and a vendor of Street Sense in Washington, D.C.
Supporters & Members of My Street Sense Family By Wendell Williams, Artist/Vendor
This family has supported me since they came to Del Ray. I remember the birth of their first child Arlo and have watched them all grow. Thanks for stopping by guys.
OPINION
Have an opinion about how homelessness is being handled in our community? We maintain an open submission policy and take pride in elevating community voices and fostering healthy debate. Please send your thoughts to opinion@streetsense.org.
Why is D.C. Still Funding The A Guide For Dealing With Trump-Haters Community Partnership? By Jeffery McNeil
By Jason Lee Bakke In 2014, Relisha Rudd, an 8-year-old girl living at D.C.’s largest homeless shelter, DC General, was abducted by a shelter janitor. His body has been found; Rudd’s has not. A nonprofit called Community Pa r t n e r s h i p f o r t h e Pr e v e n t i o n o f Homelessness has operated DC General since 2010, under contract with the District’s Department of Human Services. In addition to their failure to protect Rudd, Community Partnership was audited in 2015 and found to be illegally overbilling the city by $5.3 million. So, imagine my surprise a few months ago to see council consent on over $80 million in contracts to the Community Partnership. The contracts included strengthened requirements for “quality
control” and stated that no other group was found competent enough to receive the contract. How the Community Partnership could be found competent was not explained. If no one organization can operate the entire “continuum of care” for D.C.’s homeless population, the work should be split up. If DHS cannot effectively manage multiple contracts, it should hire a highly qualified firm to do so. Sometimes failures in contracting are amusing for their ridiculousness. I roll my eyes and trace the alternate paths in my head. But this time, I’m outraged and reminded that what we do is important. Please, let us do it well.
Jason Lee Bakke is a writer and acquisition adviser to D.C. and federal clients.
The Urgent Need for Public Toilets By Gary Minter Three years ago while visiting the City of Angels, I went to the KFC at the corner of 7th Street, in L.A.’s downtown. After eating my “finger-lickin” chicken, I asked the manager where the bathroom was, and she said they didn’t have one. I was shocked. I thought that health department regulations required restrooms for customers. But many downtown restaurants in Los Angeles refuse to open their restrooms even to paying customers. So I wrote a one-page opinion piece to the L.A. Times and dropped a copy off at the mayor’s office. On a visit to Las Vegas, I also observed a total lack of public toilets. In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, there are only two freestanding public toilets, and they both close at sunset. Providing public toilets is the right thing to do for everyone — not just homeless people. The U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention say that handwashing is the best way to prevent spread of many diseases, including the horrible gastrointestinal bug Norovirus, which is highly contagious and common among homeless people with no access to toilets. It can also spread in schools and hospitals. I was able to convince my friends at the People for Fairness Coalition, which meets each Tuesday morning in Miriam’s Kitchen in D.C., to take on public toilets as a top issue, and there is now a research and advocacy committee devoted to getting more public toilets in our nation’s capital city. And earlier this year, Councilmember Brianne Nadeau introduced a bill to install at least 10 new public restrooms in D.C. So please join our growing “movement” for better sanitation, the People for Public Toilets Coalition.
Gary Minter is a Street Sense vendor.
How to Avoid Homesslessness By Elizabeth Bryant Don’t just listen to the homelessness; hear them. Understand their situations. Offer realistic and affordable housing. Provide them with choices. Give people information about how they can afford their own place. If they want to attend school, advise them about which school would suit them best. Then help them get admitted. Above all, don’t offer a place that you wouldn’t live in. If you are homeless yourself and must
share a residence, as we often do, choose someone compatible with your needs. When you’re with that person, don’t be condescending. And don’t demand something; when you do that, the person rebels. Give your roommate realistic choices. Help her help herself — just as you’d like others to do for you.
Elizabeth Bryant is a Street Sense vendor.
There’s something about AfricanAmericans with a different point of view that seems to make some people in Washington, D.C., stark-raving mad. Their hatred toward Donald Trump has made them deranged. The other day, I was working at the gym when a woman approached me and asked what I was reading. I decided to offend her. I lifted up a big front-page picture of Trump. She began screaming, “I hate him,” fuming that he’s racist and anyone who supports him is racist too. Then she asked what I thought of Trump. I disclosed that I was once employed by Trump. I told her the story of Sister Jean Webster, an AfricanAmerican woman who started a soup kitchen in Atlantic City. When she was struggling to keep the kitchen afloat, Trump came to the rescue to make sure that there was no lack of food. I also told her Trump may be the first white man since Richard Nixon who actually gives a damn about African-Americans. I told her I wasn’t on the Trump train until he said in Ohio last year, “The Democrats have failed completely in the inner cities. … You can go to war zones in countries that we are fighting and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats. And I ask you this ... to the African-Americans, who I employ so many, so many people, to the Hispanics, tremendous people: What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance. I’ll straighten it out.” I’ve learned long ago that providing Trump-haters with facts doesn’t humiliate them or put them in their place. They can’t handle being proven wrong. I asked the woman at the gym, why haven’t feminists championed Kellyanne
Conway, the first female campaign manager for a winning candidate? Or Karen Handel, the first Republican woman to win a House seat in the state of Georgia? Let’s not forget Elaine Chao, Nikki Haley, Betsy DeVos, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the surgeon general, Sylvia Trent-Adams. If these women were Democrats, feminists would be propping them up as potential presidential candidates for 2020. In response to my argument, the woman attacked me personally and finally walked off. Although I meet many self-proclaimed Trump-haters, no one’s more intolerant to black Conservatives than AfricanAmericans. I never understood this groupthink mentality. Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters and Bill De Blasio are no different from radicals of the past, claiming all will be well if you follow them. They all rail about millionaires and billionaires, but drive fancy cars, own expensive homes and take exotic trips around the world. A message to my African-American brethren: Black conservatives are not your enemies, nor do they hate you. They are preaching the same message that Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X preached: Quit looking for others to solve problems that you can solve yourself. No matter how well-intentioned whites may be, they will never be able to solve your problems. When the black man realizes that there are no laws that can make anyone love you, only then will they recognize the only solution to social problems is using their God-given abilities and quit looking for Washington to solve their problems.
Jeffrey McNeil is a Street Sense vendor.
A Warning to the Well-Dressed By Angie Whitehurst I walk on the right side of the street. In front of me looms the Entourage of Khaki Pants (EKP), with a sprinkling of gray and blue pinstriped-suited VIPs. Never looking forward, and never seeing the concrete with human beings in front of them. They rush forward blindly, quickly, toward a head-on collision with the One walking alone from the other direction. They just keep on coming. Oh, oh, the ruffled crash of clothes. This physical hit is only heard by the inner ear. The EKP walked right through the One. The turbulence was like an nuclear reaction of isotopes, molecules, atoms, protons, and neutrons trying to outdo one another without consequence.
Pushed, elbowed, bruised, and demeaned, the One turns around to the moving EKP army and from the bottom of her belly and the top of her lungs screams: “You are not excused! One day someone will ignore you and not see you and not yield to you with courtesy and respect. Then you will see what being thrown to the curb is all about! I’ll remember you when I become king, queen, or president. And I will build a wall! But not today. “I am a human being.“ Share the sidewalk. But please stay on your side.
Angie Whitehurst is a Street Sense vendor.
Rep. Maxine Waters, HUD Secretary Carson, Nan Roman:
STREET SENSE July 26 - August 8, 2017
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“CAN WE END HOMELESSNESS?" By Robert Warren Artist/Vendor
Street Sense Vendors Reginald Black and Robert Williams, NAEH CEO Nan Roman and Street Sense Vendor Robert Warren. | PHOTO BY JENNIFER MCLAUGHLIN ability. I asked her if she thought we would ever get to a universal right to housing in D.C., a self-designated as a “human rights city". She didn’t straight out say "no," but she said it would be hard to implement because of the incredibly high cost of any housing unit in the District. The keynote speakers this year were U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and the honorable Representative Maxine Waters. I was encouraged by what both had to contribute. I admit that I expected little from Carson as a conservative with admittedly little experience in government or housing and several well-known soundbites on poverty that seem out of touch. However, I thought he gave one of the best speeches I have ever heard coming from that side of the isle. He talked about providing housing vouchers for those who need them the most and about helping
Words to Live By
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Sasha Williams, Reginald Black, Laura Zelinger, Robert Williams, Eboni Williams, Robert Warren. Sasha attended workshops on veteran homelessness and grassroots organizing, before listening intently to the keynote speaker, Maxine Waters. Sasha and her colleagues from Sense also took a group photo with D.C. Department of Human Services Director Laura Zeilinger, who attended the screening of Sasha’s documentary “Raise to Rise” at E Street Cinema in 2015. | PHOTO BY JENNIFER MCLAUGHLIN
This year's National Conference on Ending Homelessness stood out because Representative Maxine Waters was present as a keynote speaker. She inspires me, as a reporter, because I've seen her speak on so many important topics. She's always been there, from the so called "war on drugs," to the bombing of the World Trade Center basement to calling for an end to South Africa's Apartheid. When you think about someone with that long of a tenure in politics — everyone saw her. Now here she was in front of me, advocating for housing rights. "It's truly time to sound the alarm," Waters said to the crowd. "We all need to spread the word about how devastating the [Trump budget] cuts will be for American families." One in four families need stable housing and have yet to receive it and 250,000 people are at risk of homelessness, according to Waters. "Shame on them for trying to raise rents on low-income families," she said. In April, Waters introduced the Ending Homelessness in America Act of 2017, that would provide more than $13 billion over the course of 5 years to proven federal programs to end homelessness nationwide. The act revisited the congresswoman's similar effort put forth
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By Reginald Black, Artist/Vendor
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whether we will ever end homelessness. It is significant that the president of this national organization, hosting this conference, is pondering this. She said that we really need to give more people housing vouchers. This will be part of a new campaign that the National Alliance is organizing. I was very happy to hear that because it is the core belief of the People for Fairness Coalition and Focus Attitude and Commitment to Excellence that people have a “Universal Right” to receive a housing voucher if they quality for one. All six Street Sense vendors in attendance belong to these two local advocacy groups. Together, we have also been working to end all types of discrimination. Another highlight of the conference was the chance to talk with Laura Zeilinger, director of the D.C. Department of Human Services. She also took the time to answer all of our questions to the best of her
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The week of July 17 I attended my eighth consecutive National Aliance to End Homelessness conference in the nation's capital. This year’s program was held at the Woodley Park Marriot Hotel. Every other year that I have been able to attend, the conference has been held at the Renaissance Hotel on 9th Street NW. The new venue made it a little harder to get from place to place on time due to bussing complications in the downtown area. As in the past years, there was a lot of good information on how to better service the unhoused community. Nevertheless, we should be fighting for housing rights. This year we had six homeless and formerly homeless Street Sense vendors attend to help cover the conference. We conducted interviews. We asked the hard questions of those who are in the business of helping people. We took photos, recorded videos and gained much needed information to share with the unhoused community about programs, new policy proposals and service changes that may all prove helpful in getting homeless people housed. This effort included an interview with Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Roman talked to us for nearly 30 minutes and took the time to answer all of our questions. I told her about a service provider representative I had met at this year’s conference who indicated that this was his 18th conference. Roman asked me
able bodied men and women to get back to work and to become more selfsufficient. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what he had to say. Congresswoman Waters brought the fire and received several standing ovations while pointing out some hard truths about President Trump’s proposed budget cuts. She spoke about how these will make things much harder for the unhoused community as well as for people in need of affordable health care. We ended our conference on the third day by going to Capitol Hill. For the second year in a row we visited the office of the Honorable Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. We shared with her staff the National Alliance's policy asks. And we specifically asked for Norton and her staff to support the Michael A. Stoops AntiDiscrimination Amendment Act of 2017 that is now before the D.C. Council to make homeless people a protected class under the city's human rights law. We concluded by voicing our hope to speak to the congresswoman personally in the near future. Until then, we will take the lessons we have learned this year and continue to organize around a model policy that will bring about a Universal Right to Housing for all those people Ben Carson and so many others talked about at this year’s National Alliance to End Homelessness conference in Washington, D.C. Footage from this year's conference will appear in the next documentary to be produced by the Street Sense Homeless Filmmakers Cooperative.
in April 2016. She positioned her bill as a counter to the Trump administration's budget request. At one point in the conference she called herself a politician. That's not true, she is just like me: an organizer, with boots on the ground. “We have an obligation to do something to help people in the streets," Waters said during her address. She urged attendees — a group of people whose job it is to put a roof over the heads of others -- to please keep letting their community members know what they need to help the most vulnerable. "I want you to show up to our rallies," Waters said. "Let’s get busy. Let's get to work." Her speech and attention meant a lot to me. The stories we tell can really make a difference. I think that people should take a long look at those who are improvising in any community. They may be more spirited than you know.
The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by writing professionals and meets every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. The group’s goal is to develop ideas and collaborate on the next great issue of Street Sense.
My Epilepsy, My Homelessness, Your View
Do I Look Homeless? By Antoinette Calloway, Artist/Vendor
By Marcellus Phillips, Artist/Vendor
What should I wear today? What choices do I have? My sweated-out, wrinkled shirt or my too-tight jeans? How about my tie-up sandals nearly busting at the seams? Can I borrow your tank-top? Oh, that’s the only one you’ve got. “Can you tell that I’m homeless?” He had no clue. Maybe tomorrow I’ll run into you.
Out There On My Own pt 2 By Reginald Denny, Artist/Vendor
"The story you are about to read is true, some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent." Somewhere around the month of January 1976 and after Christmas, I decided that I would borrow my sister's green, 24-inch, three-speed bike and go for a ride in the neighborhood. We lived in the area of 5th & E Streets at this time. My mom had told me time and time again, when riding the bike to stay in the area. But, for whatever reason, I took it upon myself to do what I wanted and ignore her rules and orders. I ended up venturing out of the neighborhood and rode the bike all the way to Union Station, where I definitely was not to go without permission, especially not with my sister's bike. Then, to add insult to injury, I had taken a drink of brown liquor I found around the house, before I left. I couldn't have been more than 12 or 13 at the time. But suddenly I found my vision impaired and my coordination way out of whack, which was not a good recipe for good judgement and certainly one for an accident. Riding recklessly and without a care in the world, for myself or others, I careened on and off sidewalks, up and down streets near the nation's capital with reckless abandon, until I was brought to a sudden and disastrous stop. Not paying any attention and being somewhat drunk, I had sped through a caution yellow light and was struck by a motorist in an
oncoming car. The only things that come to my recollection are horns blaring and noisy, glass-breaking sounds. When I eventually regained consciousness, I was lying against the curb and the gutter, bleeding from my entire face, which was riddled with pieces of broken glass. It was later ascertained that upon impact with the car, the velocity of the bike and the car contributed to hurling me into the air and slamming me into the windshield. There I received lacerations to my entire face, pock-marking it with shard of glass. As I lay there against the curb and gutter, with my vision impaired by blood and glass, not to mention the Windsor Canadian liquor I sampled earlier and the shock that had caused my adrenaline to sky rocket — I began to realize I was in serious, serious trouble to say the least! As my head cleared and I gathered my senses, I bolted to my feet. I was still dizzy and not sure of what to do. I ran in the opposite direction of the fatality. The people around me eventually apprehended me so I would not inflict more harm upon myself. They had to hold me down until the paramedics and ambulances arrived. They hurriedly transported me to the Roger's Memorial Hospital. I am a blessed individual to be alive. I sustained sixty-four plus sutures to my face and have a scar as a result. Also, as a result of this "joy ride", the tip of my nose is indented and as a reminder, there is a chunk of meat missing from it. I had to have my face entirely bandaged until I got healed. (to be continued)
Living with epilepsy is extremely difficult. I know because I've been dealing with it since I was 17. Most people see me and automatically assume I am 100 percent healthy. Unfortunately, as with other family members who have lived with epilepsy, that is not the case. The stress of coping with that disease is magnified many times by being homeless. Epilepsy gives me headaches, makes me depressed, diminishes my appetite and impairs my memory. My neurologist has told me not to work and to limit other activities. I don't like that; as a child I was taught to work because nothing is free. That's why until recently I never applied for disability insurance. Many people past and present have called me stupid for not applying until the age of 37. But I have always felt others need it more.
Even now I feel that where there's a will there's a way. I met a Street Sense vendor a while ago and decided to try selling the paper until I got another job. Every day I feel someone looks at me differently because of my epileptic seizures. Being homeless makes that feeling worse. I want people to understand that I can live a normal life. I can do a lot, just like everyone else. I'm not perfect, of course. But I get frustrated when I think about being discriminated against either because of my disability or my living situation. I'll always have issues in life; it's about whether I deal with them successfully. No one should be treated differently just because she or he is coping with life's problems. I was taught to treat others how you want to be treated no matter your color, your gender or any other characteristic about you. Yes, I am homeless, though of course I wish I weren't. But I am also learning from my situations and working hard to improve them.
My Friend, The Hiroshima Survivor By Emily Bowe, Artist/Vendor
A week after coming back to D.C. seven years ago, I met someone very interesting at the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) shelter. We became best friends. I had been staying at another shelter that you put out at 7 a.m. and wanted you back in by 7 p.m. It was hard for me to be fully awake in the morning after all the snoring and hearing people get up at all times of the night to go to the bathroom or whatever. After that moving to a shelter that didn't make you leave until 10 a.m. was a breath of fresh air. You have time to meditate, to pray, to... breathe. You can get yourself presentable to look for a job, or to take up a trade, or to go to some classes. That's where I met 82-year-old Yo u n g j a S h e r r y, o r J - M a m a t o h e r friends. This World War II survivor has given me permission to share a small part of her story. She was seven years old when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
The Japanese didn't believe a bomb could kill that many people, so they wouldn't surrender. J-Mama and her family lived across the street from the Nissan Company, which made cutlery. (It became an auto manufacturer after the war). The day before the bomb was dropped, J-Mama's mother persuaded her husband to take everyone up into the mountains. (Wise mother!). When they were allowed to return home, the Nissan plant and their home were gone. There was no water. The only food was brown sugar rationed by the government. They had to go to the Pacific Ocean to get water. A man was so delirious from hunger and thirst that he thought his baby was a pig. He ripped off the baby's arm and began eating it. Because there were no jails, people committing crimes were put into a deep hole. After the war the prisoners were forgotten. J-Mama said her mother took her there one day. J-Mama looked in the pit and saw nothing but bones. "It looked like they had eaten each other," she told me. I never thought I'd become best friends with someone like this!
13
Homeless (home · less) • •
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Anyone who does not have a lease to their name. "Without a home." Some people that are homeless sleep in the park – but that makes being “without a home” debatable because the park is their home. They consider themselves at home in the park. I was not without a home when I was underneath the steps. The definition of homeless to me would actually vary from the individual's perceptions: one's perception is their reality.
—Robert Williams •
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According to HUD, living in a place considered not fit for human habitation, such as the outdoors, transitional housing or a shelter. A situation where you don’t have an overnight residence such as a motel or a couch. Experiencing an abusive relationship. Children in unstable environments. Basically, to be classified as homeless means you qualify for housing benefits.
—Jeffery McNeil • •
In an abusive relationship and trying to get out of it. A person who has no basic living space.
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A person who is going through a temporary period of not being housed.
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—Jennifer McLauglin
—James Davis •
Poor (po͝ or)
People think of someone who is homeless as someone who goes around shaggy and dirty. Homelessness can happen to anybody. I just try to motivate myself to get out of it.
—Leonard Hyater
• •
When using these phrases — who is poor or what is poor — word pictures come to mind. These pictures imply that someone is less-than. They imply that the person perhaps is not like “us.” There is very little humility in using those words to define others. If there were, would we continue to use those phrases? You must ask yourself how a word is defined. Who determines how a word is used? Who made these decisions to tie a word to income and the status of an individual? Phrases such as “below the poverty level” partially define what it means to be poor. But again we run into a question: what is the definition of “poverty?” Perhaps one can be poor in a spiritual sense because he or she is experiencing sadness or some other mental state. Another definition of poverty is being without the means to physically change one’s environment, among other things. Being poor describes someone who is unfed or poorly clothed. Society is formed by the language it uses. We need to rethink the use of the words “poor” and “poverty.” Or, we could stop using them altogether. That might help us to relate more positively to those in less fortunate situations. We should think in terms of human rights and housing as a structure to live in and grow in all ways. —Reginald Black I’m homeless, but I don’t consider myself poor. In contrast, I consider myself rich in spirit.
—Leonard Hyater
sudoku!
COUTESY OF KRAYDAD.COM
Picture Peace By Sasha Williams, Artist/Vendor
last edition’s solutions
Just close your eyes There is a beach beautiful waves The birds soaring in the sky It is a nice day The sand feels good under my toes Then I see no shells I get sad It starts to rain I have no choice but to open my eyes
So now I still live with my realities who can really see my ups and downs but me Rejection is not for nobody but I still have to live for me When will I get the acceptance That will turn my life around? I feel so low  But I realize through it all I create my destiny
STREET SENSE July 26 - August 8, 2017
15
COMMUNITY SERVICES Housing/Shelter
Food
Clothing
Showers
Case Management
Health Care
Transportation
Laundry
Education
Employment Assistance
Legal Assistance
Vivienda/alojamiento
Comida
Coordinación de Servicios
Seguro
Educación
Assitencia con Empleo
Academy of Hope Public Charter School: 269-6623 | 601 Edgewood St, NE aohdc.org Bread for the City: 265-2400 (NW) | 561-8587 (SE) 1525 7th St, NW | 1640 Good Hope Rd, SE breadforthecity.org Calvary Women’s Services: 678-2341 1217 Good Hope Road, SE calvaryservices.org
Ropa
Lavandería
D.C. Coalition for the Homeless: 347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW dccfh.org
Línea de juventud
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE: (202) 749-8000 Línea directa de Violencia doméstica
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE: 1-888-793-4357
Assistencia Legal
Covenant House Washington: 610-9600 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE covenanthousedc.org
Línea directa de alojamiento YOUTH HOTLINE: (202) 547-7777
Duchas
Transportación
Community of Hope: 232-7356 communityofhopedc.org
SHELTER HOTLINE: (202) 399-7093
Línea de Salud del Comportamiento Jubilee Jobs: 667-8970 2712 Ontario Rd NW | 2419 Minnesota Ave SE jubileejobs.org
Samaritan Ministry: 1516 Hamilton Street NW | 722-2280 1345 U Street SE | 889-7702 samaritanministry.org
Loaves & Fishes: 232-0900 1525 Newton St. NW loavesandfishesdc.org
Sasha Bruce Youthwork: 675-9340 741 8th St, SE sashabruce.org
Martha’s Table: 328-6608 2114 14th St, NW marthastable.org
So Others Might Eat (SOME) 71 O St, NW | 797-8806 some.org
Catholic Charities: 772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp
Central Union Mission: 745-7118 65 Massachusetts Avenue, NW missiondc.org
Charlie’s Place: 232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave, NW charliesplacedc.org Christ House: 328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd, NW christhouse.org Church of the Pilgrims: 387-6612 2201 P St, NW churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach food (1 - 1:30 on Sundays only) Community Family Life Services: 347-0511 | 305 E St, NW cflsdc.org
Vagrancy Comics #9: Scenic Route By Justin Benedict Former Vendor
Father McKenna Center: 842-1112 19 Eye St, NW fathermckennacenter.org
Miriam’s Kitchen: 452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave, NW miriamskitchen.org
St. Luke’s Mission Center: 333-4949 3655 Calvert St. NW stlukesmissioncenter.org
Food and Friends: 269-2277 219 Riggs Rd, NE foodandfriends.org
My Sister’s Place: 529-5991 (24-hour hotline) mysistersplacedc.org
Thrive DC: 737-9311 1525 Newton St, NW thrivedc.org
Foundry Methodist Church: 332-4010 1500 16th St, NW foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities
N Street Village: 939-2060 1333 N Street, NW nstreetvillage.org
Unity Health Care: 745-4300 3020 14th St, NW unityhealthcare.org
Friendship Place: 364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave, NW friendshipplace.org
New York Ave Shelter: 832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave, NE
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St NW | 328-5500 legalclinic.org
Georgetown Ministry Center: 338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave, NW georgetownministrycenter.org Jobs Have Priority: 544-9128 425 Snd St, NW jobshavepriority.org
Patricia Handy Place for Women: 810 5th Street, NW, NW | 733-5378 Samaritan Inns: 667-8831 2523 14th St, NW samaritaninns.org
The Welcome Table: 347-2635 1317 G St, NW epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St, NW | 745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave, SE | 797-3567 whitman-walker.org
2017 ANNUAL AUDIENCE SURVEY! As a reader and customer, you are a crucial part of the Street Sense family. It is you who empowers our vendors economically, you who reads, watches and listens to their creative work and you who improves our local culture by being better-informed about homelessness and poverty. Needless to say, we value your feedback. Please complete this survey online at StreetSense.org/survey or postmark your response by August 31, 2017, to 1317 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 12) What is your gender?
2) How long have you been supporting Street Sense? ___ ___ ___ ___
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8) Have you ever donated to Street Sense outside of purchasing a newspaper? ___ Yes ___ No ___ I didn’t know Street Sense needs donations 9) Street Sense holds events such as film screenings, theatre productions and community forums about 12 times per year. How many do you attend? ___ ___ ___ ___
All Most Some I’ve never attended a Street Sense event ___ I didn’t know Street Sense holds events 10) In your opinion, which of the following best describes Street Sense? Select all that apply. ___ A newspaper ___ A multimedia center ___ An economic empowerment program ___ An advocacy organization ___ A news outlet ___ An art center ___ A platform that elevates voices of homeless people __ Other: _____________________
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_______________________________ 17) How often do you observe profane language, inappropriate comments or other harassing behavior from a Street Sense vendor? ___ Frequently ___ Rarely ___ I’ve never observed this behavior 18) How can we improve our organization? _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________
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July 26 - August 8, 2017 • Volume 14 • Issue 19
Street Sense 1317 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
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