The Aquilian February 2020 Volume 82 Number 4
By: Henry Sullivan ‘20 Photography Editor
Men For Others Since 1821
19 Eye St, NW Washington, DC 20001
The Crisis on K Street
garnered 350 signatures from the Gonzaga community. The On January 15th, the Peace Club faxed over 350 Gonzaga Peace Club spoke signatures and a letter to the out against D.C. Health and Deputy Mayor’s Office. In the letter the Peace Human Services’ decision to remove homeless encamp- Club stated that the city ments on K & 2nd Street. should “clean up” the injusThe Peace Club felt a call to tice of homelessness rather stand in solidarity with the than people and their belongmost vulnerable who live just ings. Further, it argued that blocks away from Gonzaga. the overpass, which covered The Peace Club held a these encampments, providTeach-In regarding the re- ed lifesaving protection durmoval of these encampments ing these frigid months. Out during Community Period. of the estimated forty people At the end of school that day, who lived under the bridge a group of students walked on K Street, there were three to the encampment com- pregnant women. We feared munity and spoke with the for the lives of these women women and men experienc- and their babies. Tim, a man who lives in ing homelessness. Later in the week the Peace Club cre- one of these encampments, ated an online petition which told the Peace Club that he
March For Life, p. 2
Gonzaga College High School
Water Fountain Review p. 3
finds the shelters in D.C. ridden with crime and drug abuse. He also cited the yearlong waitlist for housing within the District. Therefore, simply offering a vague promise of shelter is inadequate and dangerous. Unfortunately, the signatures and letter we sent received no formal response from the city. On January 16th, Gonzaga students and faculty worked with the Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Pathways to Housing, and Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice to help move encampments on K, L, and M Street. This was not the answer we were looking for. The response by the city lacked dignity and care for its most vulnerable constituents.
Later in the month, a delegation from the Peace Club attended a town hall at the Father McKenna Center regarding the encampments. With unhoused NoMa residents, housed NoMa residents, and government officials in attendance, the town hall aimed at presenting solutions to the plague of homelessness that has swept through NoMa in this last decade. Octavia, an apartment manager, said, “The D.C. government has services, but they are not accessible.” We also learned that 80% of the people experiencing homelessness among the NoMa underpasses have some sort of mental illness. The work for social justice in the community is far
New Schedules p. 4,5
Ryan Creamer ‘10 p. 8
from over. Let’s fulfill our call to be “men for others” and stand up for those on the margins. Though this issue is complex and the solutions are not obvious, our neighbors need us to stand with them and cry out for justice. As Pedro Arrupe SJ said, we must “dismantle unjust social structures so that the weak, the oppressed, the marginalized of this world may be set free.” Currently, the Peace Club is working with the Legal Clinic for the Homeless so that a couple of Gonzaga students can testify at the upcoming Health and Human Services oversight hearing. Follow @ gonzagapeaceclub on Instagram for updates.