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POVERTY from Page 1
neighborhood commissioner, agreed to serve as the poverty commission’s executive director.
“Councilmember Trayon White deserves the credit for bringing up this concept and Mayor Bowser has embraced it,” Fletcher said. “Bowser appointed me to supervise the commission which will look into ways to combat poverty in D.C. and how best to serve those who are economically vulnerable who need support and access to change their lives for the better.”
The commission publicly started its work on Dec. 14 at the SOME (So Others Might Eat) offices on Benning Road, N.E. at its inaugural listening session. Census data reveals 15.5% of District residents live below the poverty line, a number higher than the national average of 12.8%. The largest demographic living in poverty in the city consists of females ages 25-34, followed by females 1824 and then males 18-24. Census data also reports that Blacks overwhelmingly consist of those living in poverty in the District, followed by Whites and Latinos. Fletcher said while poverty exists throughout the District, its strongest presence exists in Wards 7 and 8.
FLETCHER’S CHARGE
The commission works under the aegis of D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES). Fletcher said that in his role of executive director, he reports to DOES Director Unique Morris-Hughes and Bowser.
“Dr. Morris-Hughes told me when I got the appointment that she wants a policy-driven commission that will come up with legislation and recommendations to end poverty in the city,” he said. “We are planning on having a 19-member commission with people from across the city. What will be unique about the commission here in D.C. is that we are actively seeking people to serve on the commission who have lived in poverty. Poverty commissions in other cities tend to have just agency heads.”
Fletcher said he is accepting applications for commission positions. On the commission, there will be eight ward representatives who have had personal experience with poverty within the previous three years and 11 members who possess experience in public policy or in addressing poverty in the community or with a non-profit. He said residents who are interested in serving must be 18 or older and reside in the District.
The main goal of the commission will be to facilitate the writing of a poverty reduction plan that will be submitted to the mayor and the D.C. Council. Fletcher said the report should be complete by early 2025 at the latest. After the report’s sion, the predominantly Black participants talked about how difficult getting assistance from District agencies can be.
“It takes so long for the bureaucracy to respond,” said Kevin McLaurin, a resident of Ward 8. “I have tried to apply for positions with the District government since the start of the pandemic and I have been unsuccessful. It seems like I get the run-around. I am having to deal with this while trying to raise a small child that isn’t even my own. The child has been abandoned and I am trying to raise her.”
McLaurin’s complaints about the District’s bureaucracy were echoed by participants who said they could not solve their problems with housing, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and in the school system due to inaction or being ignored by government workers. However, Daryl Wright, the vice president of emergency services for SOME, said his agency can help people who are seeking aid.
“Let us know what your problem is and I can call someone to help you,” Wright said. “You don’t have to do this alone. We offer help for people in a lot of areas but what we find is that people just don’t know where to go.”
At the end of the two-hour meeting, Fletcher agreed with Wright, saying people who are impoverished tend not to understand how to get government assistance. He also said there will be a listening session in Ward 8 and Ward 5 in early 2023. WI @JamesWrightJr10
submission, the commission will go out of business unless it receives an extension by the administration or the council.
He added each ward will have a listening session on poverty, even those wards where wealthier residents tend to live.
“I want everyone to have a chance to be a part of this process,” he said.
Fletcher said Bowser’s goals are to significantly reduce poverty in the city by 2026 and to eliminate it altogether by 2036.
“These are bold goals but this administration thinks boldly,” he said. “The mayor wants to make sure all Washingtonians have a path to the middle class.”
THE FIRST LISTENING SESSION
Twenty-five people attended the first listening session at SOME’s Ward 7 offices. Throughout the ses-
DC HOUSING ENTERPRISES Notice No. DCHE 2023-4 FOR NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT NOTICE OF ALLOCATION AVAILABILITY
DC Housing Enterprises (DCHE) a wholly owned subsidiary of the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), was awarded $55 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC).
The Notice of Allocation Availability will be available beginning Monday, December 19, 2022 on DCHA’s website at www.dchousing.or under “Business” and “Solicitations”. Applications are due on or before Friday, January 27, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. If allocation availability remains after the first round review is completed, DCHE will continue to accept funding applications on the 2nd and 4th Friday monthly until funding is fully allocated.
Interested parties should contact Lolita Washington, Contract Specialist via email at lwashing@dchousing.org to submit questions regarding this notice.
5 Gordon-Andrew Fletcher serves as the executive director of the D.C. Commission on Poverty. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)
PRISONS from Page 17
rectional staff can employ to ensure compliance with both legitimate and illegitimate requests.”
She added that the clearly unequal power dynamic plays a major role between women who are incarcerated and male authority figures.
“Combine these levers with a toxic culture, the forced compliance that is a part of the custodial environment, and powerful system actors who appear to be all-powerful and above rules, regulations and indeed the law, women make a choice to survive even if survival means rape.”
DOJ officials said they are in the process of overhauling policies that could allow for the compassionate release of inmate victims of prison employee sex abuse.
Ossoff said the subcommittee investigated sexual abuse of women in federal prison “because of some of their unique considerations.”
“Some women are more likely than male prisoners to have suffered from trauma and sexual abuse prior to incarceration, and particularly susceptible to subsequent abuse in a custodial setting,” the senator explained.
He also noted the subcommittee’s understanding that sexual abuse does not just affect women.
“However, the subcommittee fully acknowledges that sexual abuse is not limited to female prisoners.”
WI @StacyBrownMedia
RALLY from Page 1
out suddenly.
For nights at a time, Childs, now 47, slept on an air mattress with a hole in it. By the end of the night, after air escaped out of the air mattress, Childs found himself on the floor.
On Monday morning, after completing his morning prayer, Childs braved below freezing temperatures to tell his story and demand that D.C. government officials better support returning citizens with adequate housing and employment opportunities.
Childs counted among several returning citizens, advocates and public officials who took to the podium in front of the John A. Wilson Building in Northwest during the Emergency Rally for Returning Citizens.
“We got to educate people and have a mentality that they will hear us,” Childs said.
“These kids are lost and are in survival mode. I’m trying to repair the damage so give me something solid,” he added.
“We’re not looking for a messiah. We want to make it better. Give us something to stand on and watch us shake something up.”
THE OVERALL FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH
Other speakers on Monday included Roach Brown of Inner Voices along with The Rev. Willie Wilson, The Rev. Graylan Hagler, Tony Lewis, Jr., Al-Malik Farrakhan of Cease Fire, Don’t Smoke the Brothers and Sisters, and D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-large).
Brown organized this event in collaboration with former Alliance of Concerned Men director Tyrone Parker and Kevin Petty, founder of Philemon Mission Transitional Facility in Southeast. They coordinated the rally to bring attention to what they described as the long-term health drawbacks of housing insecurity and joblessness on returning citizens.
Brown, in particular, mentioned how housing insecurity has not only exacerbated a mental health crisis in the District, but New York City and other major U.S. cities.
In her comments, Dr. Carmen Johnson, a returning citizen and founder of re-entry program Helping Ourselves to Transform, delved into her experiences as a female inmate who experienced incarceration and prison residents, often fall short in acquiring permanent, affordable accommodations.
The decades-long phenomenon inspired some people like Petty to take matters into their own hands.
Petty, a returning citizen, launched the Philemon Mission Transitional Facility in Southeast to provide temporary housing to men leaving the prison system.
On Monday, Petty said the Philemon Mission has been able to operate without government support. However, he called on the D.C. government to fulfill its obligation to residents via 3,000 housing units for returning citizens and other poor and underserved District residents.
Petty went a step further in proposing that those units eventually get converted into condominiums, not by developers, but by District residents possessing those skillsets.
“Our returning citizens are coming out of the prison system and have to come home to a poor and underserved family that’s being crushed,” Petty said.
“There is housing insecurity,” he continued.
“We are pulling people out of poverty. We don’t need your developers. We will build and manage this housing. We will take care of our people ourselves.”
guard abuse for three years.
She too repeatedly explained the importance of mental health, and implored listeners to understand returning citizens’ plight.
Other returning citizens expressed gratitude for the advances the District has made for returning citizens and incarcerated residents -- including reinstatement of voting rights and the creation of the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs.
However, they said more must be done to dismantle a remnant of chattel slavery that primarily discriminates against native-born Black Washingtonians.
AMID VAST DEVELOPMENT, HOUSING INSECURITY PERSISTS
Miles away from the Wilson Building, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and other District officials celebrated the opening of The Rise at Temple Courts.
The reconstructed affordable housing at Golden Rule and Temple Courts developments in Northwest now includes more than 100 affordable units. It counts as phase one of the Northwest One community at 2 L Street NW, which transpired out of the New Communities Initiative started by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.
In the 17 years since Williams launched the New Communities Initiative in 2005, countless Washingtonians have experienced displacement amid significant cost-of-living increases.
As explained by several speakers at the emergency rally, returning citizens transitioning to life in the nation’s capital often struggle to navigate a society vastly different from what they left behind. Despite the influx of newly constructed housing in the District, returning citizens, and other low-income
A WOMAN’S PLEA FOR GRACE AND UNDERSTANDING
Johnson, who also conducts court watch programs in Maryland, called on women and families to be more supportive of these efforts. She didn’t mince words as she expressed her gripes against the court system she said unjustly incarcerated her.
“It’s not cool for us to be enslaved and come home with nothing. It's disgusting,” Johnson said.
“I couldn’t even get my housing
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5 Tony Lewis, an advocate for returning citizens, speaks during a rally at the John A. Wilson Building on Dec. 19. (Marckell Williams/The Washington Informer)
because I was considered a felon. Thank God I had my family and community supporting me,” she continued.
“There should be more of us standing out here fighting against this disgusting system. Mental health is real. I know what it’s like to be beaten down by racist white guards.” WI @SamPKCollins
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