03 04 2020

VOL. 17 IssUE 9

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The Cover

The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper

Joseph young’s first camera, photo by ben cooper. inside the lens is young’s 2018 photo of a man visiting the home where he grew up in the barry farm neighborhood.

originally founded as a street newspaper in 2003, Street Sense Media has evolved into a multimedia center using a range of creative platforms to spotlight solutions to homelessness and empower people in need. the men and women who work with us do much more than sell this paper: They use film, photography, theatre, illustration, and more to share their stories with our community. our media channels elevate voices, our newspaper vendor and digital marketing programs provide economic independence. and our in-house case-management services move people forward along the path toward permanent supportive housing.

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

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EVENts

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NEWs IN BRIEF Shuttle service for homeless students extended after public backlash A new shuttle service that transports homeless students in D.C.’s overflow family shelters to nearby Metro stations for their commute to school will be extended to the end of the school year in June. The pilot program began in January and was originally set to end in mid-March, WAMU reported.

D.C. officials announced the decision after backlash from community members and D.C. councilmember Mary Cheh surrounding the service’s ending, which was originally scheduled for March 13.

In a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser dated Feb. 24, Cheh urged her to consider extending the program, citing benefits that would heavily outweigh the necessary spending.

“Providing shuttle service through June would cost around $200,000, a drop in the bucket compared to the benefit this service will provide to families,” Cheh wrote. That level of funding should also cover the cost of running the service from late August through September, so shuttles are available for the start of School Year 2020-2021.”

The shuttle transports about 50 people each week from two motels on New York Avenue Northeast that are contracted to shelter families beyond the capacity of the city’s facilities, according to WAMU. D.C. is legally required to provide shelter for anyone when temperatures become dangerously cold, but Department of Human Services Director Laura Zeilinger expanded DHS policy in 2015 to provide year-round shelter for families.

Among the 93,708 students who attended a D.C. public school in the 2018-19 school year, over 8% experienced homelessness at least once in that span, according to data from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.

In her letter, Cheh recommended that permanent funding be identified for the service in the fiscal year 2021 budget under the purview of the deputy mayor for education. The mayor’s proposed budget will be released March 19 and public hearings to review D.C. Council’s markup of the budget will begin April 21.

—ben.cooper@streetsensemedia.org

CoRRECtionS 1) in the previous edition of Street Sense,, the article “Tenants on strike describe the financial, medical, and emotional toll of apartments in disrepair” and the accompanying photos did not clearly represent that the wall damage mentioned in the article was eventually repaired after two months. the online edition has been updated to clarify this fact. the caption for the photos provided by the family to show the initial damage has been corrected to reflect that the images were taken on the same day, not before and after UIP’s initial work to fix the leak, which further damaged the wall. language has been added to explicitly state both that the Salvadors have not filed a formal housing code complaint with the department of consumer and regulatory affairs and that doing so is not required to legally withhold rent. and information about uiP’s perspective on the situation — from emails sent to Street Sense Media in response to the article — has been added, as has a photo of the Salvadors’ attempt to fix the wall while waiting on uiP and a photo taken post-repair.. the online edition will be updated.

2) in the same edition, in the page 7 “at a glance” sidebar, we mistakenly announced the death of vendor James “bilal” Stewart. We have since learned that he is on life support and are keeping him in our thoughts while working to confirm the state of his health.

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NEWs

The Office of Human Rights has grown tremendously, but needs more help

By GRAHAM VYSE The DC Line

A

new leader took over the D.C. Office of Human Rights last month amid calls to increase the agency’s funding and reduce its long-standing backlog — an issue the office had begun to address.

Michelle Garcia started as interim director on Feb. 4 although she continues to simultaneously lead the District’s Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants. Outgoing Mónica Palacio’s last day was Feb. 3. She is now running to succeed independent at-large D.C. Councilmember David Grosso, who is not seeking reelection.

News of Palacio’s exit followed her testimony at a Jan. 22 hearing of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Government Operations, where the outgoing director — whose departure hadn’t yet been announced — acknowledged that the office needed additional attorneys. This was one of a series of concerns raised by legislators, lawyers, and community activists at the hearing.

The Office of Human Rights is responsible for enforcing the D.C. Human Rights Act as well as a variety of other local and federal civil rights laws — all within its mission “to eradicate discrimination, increase equal opportunity and protect human rights” for residents and visitors. The agency provides a legal complaint and mediation process available to those who believe they’ve been discriminated against, but the director also has authority to “investigate practices and policies that may be discriminatory.”

But resource limitations hamper its ability to fulfill its broad mission, according to testimony at the council hearing.

Alexander Afnan, a student attorney working at Georgetown Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, described the Office of Human Rights as “under-resourced” and its staff as “undertrained.” These deficiencies create “a reluctance to take on new cases, and complaints that are drafted frequently misrepresent the facts and the law,” he added.

Emily Chong — an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services Program, a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal information, representation, and advice to low-income D.C. residents — agreed. Some of the agency’s staff members “have been mistaken about the law or about their duties,” she said. For example, she noted that some members of the office’s legal team cited incorrect sections of the Fair Criminal Record Screening for Housing Act in a recent case and “incorrectly applied the facts to the law.”

Another frequent criticism at the hearing was delays in processing. The office can take months or even years to resolve complaints, Afnan testified.

“Such delays have the inevitable consequence of putting complainants in often precarious situations, where they are forced to stay in environments where they are already experiencing harmful discrimination,” he said.

Ward 4 D.C. Councilmember Brandon Todd, chair of the Government Operations Committee,

said the District needs to “prioritize additional funding, because it sounds like one of the recurring themes is the time it takes to get folks through the process." Much of the testimony also focused on the need for the office to accept attorney-drafted charges, a move Palacio said she supported.

Last April, Todd’s committee recommended that the office “change its policy requiring an intake interview for a represented party” and instead “allow attorney-drafted charges to proceed directly to investigation and/or mediation.”

The agency saw its authorized staffing climb from 43 in fiscal year 2019 to 47 in fiscal year 2020 and its local budget jump from $5 million to $5.65 million over that same timeframe. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer says funding would need to grow to $5.78 million in the coming fiscal year just to keep up with rising costs.

During Palacio’s tenure, which began when former Mayor Vincent Gray appointed her acting director in 2013, the Office of Human Rights nearly doubled in size in terms of enforcement authority, personnel, budget and volume of work. "The bottom line is that the agency’s enforcement authority has grown at a faster pace than staffing," Palacio told The DC Line.

“Two of the biggest challenges have been recruiting highly qualified talent and reducing the agency’s backlog of cases,” she added.

Concerns over OHR staffing and budget needs also contributed to Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen’s decision in 2018 not to advance a bill that would have expanded the Human Rights Act to explicitly protect homeless people, according to supporters of the legislation who lobbied Allen’s staff at the time.

Referring to the backlog, Palacio said the office has been implementing a plan to reduce delays in case processing. She told the council the office was “restructuring its enforcement teams to remove bottlenecks” as well as hiring new supervisors and attorney advisers.

The January hearing underscored the need for a strengthened Office of Human Rights amid growth in hate crimes. The change in leadership came after 203 hate crimes were reported to the Metropolitan Police Department in 2019 — 60 related to sexual orientation, 46 related to race, and 27 related to gender identity/expression. That’s down slightly from a total of 205 in each of the two previous years, but still about double the number reported most years in the past decade.

In 2015, the office released the results of an extensive study that found that nearly half of District employers preferred a less qualified applicant who was not transgender over a more qualified transgender applicant. At-large Councilmember David Grosso said at the time that, in general, D.C. “still has a long way to go in achieving a more equal, discriminationfree and inclusive city for all of its residents.”

This article was co-published with TheDCLine.org.

Two proposed bills to mitigate housing discrmination may only duplicate existing protections

By Sasha Polonko sasha.polonko@streetsensemedia.org

A

t a Feb. 20 hearing, the D.C. Council examined legislation that some see as an incremental step in addressing housing discrimination. The Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization heard testimony on the Local Rent Application Voucher Amendment Act of 2019 and the Rental Housing Source of Income Amendment Act of 2019, two bills introduced last fall that critics say are more symbolic than effective.

The Local Rent Application bill, if approved and funded, would provide recipients of housing vouchers with the money to cover fees associated with up to five apartment applications, including background checks and credit checks. The Source of Income bill underscores existing law, stating it is illegal for landlords to deny housing to a potential tenant based on their use of vouchers or similar housing assistance to pay the rent.

More than a decade ago, “source of income” was added as a protected class under the District’s robust Human Rights Act. However, according to a recent Urban Institute report, 15% of D.C. landlords still will not rent to voucher holders. Despite current federal and local laws, experts say, the issue of housing discrimation persists due to the District government’s poor enforcement and some landlords’ lack of respect for existing requirements.

“Unfortunately, some landlords or housing providers and property managers have ignored the law,” Councilmember Anita Bonds said at the hearing for the two bills, both of which she backs. “This legislation will clarify to such bad-actor housing providers that their actions will not be tolerated in the District and that all people who are able to pay for rent — no matter what source of income they list — are eligible and must be considered.”

The proposals come at a time when District officials have taken steps to address what advocates say is a long-standing sense of impunity some landlords have exploited. A 2010 report produced by the nonprofit Equal Rights Center found that 45% of voucher holders at the time experienced income discrimination. Not much has changed in the past decade. The center is currently funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to combat housing discrimination via various techniques, including a free online course to help tenants and landlords alike understand what constitutes discrimination. The nonprofit has documented the extensive use of digital ads with discriminatory language and has filed complaints with the D.C. Office of Human Rights. A Street Sense Media analysis of all Craigslist advertisements for apartment rentals in D.C. on a single day in 2018 found that 8% of listings explicitly said vouchers were not accepted.

Last year, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine expanded his office to include a new Civil Rights Section. A press

streetsensemedia.org

release explaining the expansion focused on housing descrimination against low-income tenants along with “a spike in hate crimes in the District that have targeted the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and other vulnerable populations.” In conjunction with the new initiative, Racine’s office announced a lawsuit against Curtis Investment Group Inc. in response to the company’s use of discriminatory ads and alleged unwillingness to consider voucher holders as potential tenants. That suit was settled last month, with Racine’s office securing a $900,000 penalty for the company.

Meanwhile, D.C. Council members have proposed several bills that promise stronger anti-discrimination measures. But speakers at last month’s hearing said the two under discussion wouldn’t actually remove the obstacles that prevent low-income residents from becoming tenants.

“We don’t think these bills … close any loopholes in the law,” said Catherine Cone, an attorney at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

“I don’t think these bills serve a helpful purpose. [The legislation] doesn’t do any harm, but it doesn’t provide more protection. The thing we think would be much more helpful for the council to do is to set a hearing for the Fair Tenant Screening Act.” Cone said she appreciates the intent of the new bills but sees more promise elsewhere.

The Fair Tenant Screening Act of 2019, introduced by Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White the day before the hearing, would prohibit housing providers from inquiring about a prospective tenant’s sources of income and credit history. Bonds joined Vincent Gray and David Grosso as the bill’s co-sponsors.

“Unfortunately, some landlords or housing providers and property managers have ignored the law.”

Anita Bonds, At-Large Councilmember According to the D.C. Housing Authority, over 11,000 local households depend on the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program that it manages. Housing discrimination is pervasive in the District and can be formidable for those who depend on the federal voucher system, even prevening some from getting off the streets, according to a DCHA spokesperson.

The Local Rent Application bill offers to pay for up to five rental applications but does not address what is a bigger obstacle for many voucher holders: the landlords’ requirement for a credit check.

“I pay all my rent and utilities,” Nicole Odom, a voucher recipient with Empower D.C., said at the hearing. “Why am I treated differently when the only difference is that I made a sacrifice to go to school? Every time they check my credit, it’s a hit on my credit score, and they have no plans of even approving me.”

Cone said a working group is putting the best features of all the relevant bills together — including the Fair Tenant Screening Act and the Eviction Record Sealing Act of 2019 — into a single piece of omnibus legislation. Members of the working group will press for a hearing and markup once the new bill is introduced.

This article was co-published with TheDCLine.org.

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Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, who chairs the Committee on Government Operations, listens to public testimony on Feb. 19. Screenshot courtesy of DCCouncil.us

Public hearing raises questions about civil rights enforcement

By Katherine Randolph katherine.randolph@streetsensemedia.org

O

n Feb. 19, the D.C. City Council Committee on Government Operations convened a public hearing to consider the Attorney General Civil Rights Enforcement Clarification Amendment Act of 2019. Attendees discussed the balance of power between the Office of Human Rights (OHR) and the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) under the bill.

The bill, introduced on Jan. 16, 2019, by Council chair Phil Mendelson, has been under review for the past year. Currently, the OHR is responsible for initiating civil rights actions in D.C., but the bill would allow the OAG to bring civil actions under the Human Rights Act. The bill would also clarify that a complainant in a fair housing issue can hire their own lawyer and under what circumstances the OAG may choose to withdraw from representing the complainant.

Advocates in favor of the bill and who testified at the hearing included Tracey Zhang, an attorney from Georgetown Law’s Civil Rights Clinic. Zhang compared the legislation to similar laws in New York and Massachusetts that give those states’ Attorneys General expanded power to address civil rights concerns.

“Given the pervasive nature of discrimination, D.C. should have as many tools as possible to tackle the problem from numerous angles,” Zhang said. “This amendment would provide clear guidance to all parties by delineating the Attorney General’s role in human rights act enforcement.”

The Equal Rights Center’s Fair Housing Rights Program manager, Susan McClannahan, stated that the District’s current procedure for investigating possible civil rights violations requires that victims of discrimination report complaints on their own. “Relying on aggrieved parties is woefully inadequate to undoing the decades of discriminatory policies and practices,” McClannahan said.

“It’s one of the worst things that’s happened in their life and they have to spend 12 months talking about it. Not everyone chooses to do that.”

Individual civil rights complaints are now the purview of the OHR, but under the amendment, the OAG would have increased power to investigate complaints. Critics of the bill in the OHR see an expansion of OAG responsibilities as a source of confusion that may result in wasted resources.

In her testimony, Hnin Khaing, the OHR’s general counsel, cited a 2018 case in which the OHR investigated and mediated an incident involving discrimination against a transgender woman. The case was later reopened by the OAG and re-investigated, with the OHR finding learning of the second investigation through public portals rather than from the OAG. Khaing called the case a “duplication of efforts” and advocated for specific language in the amendment to ensure that the situation will not occur again.

“I think our only ask is that the law be clear in making sure that there will be a streamlined process between OAG and OHR and what the jurisdictions are, so there’s no duplication of claims,” Khaing said.

Michelle D. Thomas, chief of the Civil Rights Section of the OAG, testified that the OAG simply wants the power to intervene in cases of significant public interest and would communicate clearly with the OHR to avoid duplicate investigations. She stated that specifying the relationship between the two offices in the language of the bill is less important than establishing a flexible process. “I think the one thing that’s important … is that the Office of Attorney General and Office of Human Rights ... have a vehicle that allows our agencies to be flexible in determining and identifying how we will work going forward.”

Khaing also expressed concerns about how the amendment would affect the OHR’s ability to handle cases. Khaing said that currently many civil rights complaints brought before the OHR are solved through mandatory mediation without requiring full-fledged investigations. If the bill allows the OAG to reopen closed cases, Khaing stated that parties responding to complaints will be less likely to settle because the OAG has the potential to render OHR decisions moot.

“Retroactive authority to reopen cases is problematic as there will be no finality to cases before OHR,” Khaing said.

Thomas responded by noting the OAG Civil Right Section’s limited resources and emphasizing that the office is only seeking to investigate complaints that significantly impact the District’s general public. “We are not in a position, nor do we desire to be the primary place for individual cases,” Williams said. “There are some cases where a significant interest by the people of the District will require us to act.”

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NEWs

Ward 1 councilmember rallies alongside tenants to call for rent control reforms and expansion

By Jamie Rogers // Volunteer

W

ard 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau rallied alongside about 150 tenants and supporters at a Columbia Heights apartment building over the weekend and vowed to pursue legislative initiatives to expand the city’s rent control law.

Reclaim Rent Control, a grassroots campaign supported by 45 local unions and nonprofits, set up the Feb. 29 rally. Organizers say the policies in the coalition’s agenda are essential to improving conditions in rent-controlled apartments — and that simply renewing the city’s current law, as some lawmakers are proposing, is wholly inadequate. Existing policies, they say, have led to conditions such as pest problems so rampant and persistent that tenants have come to expect them.

On Saturday, Nadeau signed a giant poster in front of the crowd with the campaign’s handwritten agenda items on it, scrawling her name under the words “I pledge to introduce this bill.” Proponents say expanding and amending rent control would close loopholes that are used to drastically raise rent but would still allow for reasonable rent increases that align with inflation.

Nadeau encouraged residents to turn out in support of future legislation based on the campaign’s demands, including changes to the Rental Housing Act Extension Amendment Act of 2019. The bill was co-introduced or co-sponsored by every single councilmember in September and received a hearing in November, but it remains in the Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization. Committee Chair Anita Bonds has said she supports extension without amendments that would spur opposition from housing providers and the real estate industry.

Without legislative action this year, the District’s rent control law will expire Dec. 31.

“It’s been obvious to me from the beginning that we need to fix rent control,” Nadeau said in an interview at the event.

“I’m really pleased that the rent control coalition has put forth

Approximately 150 people attended the rally outside of 3435 Holmead Place NW in Columbia Heights. Photo by Jamie Rogers

a comprehensive idea of what needs to be done, so I decided to support that.”

Both Nadeau and Stephanie Bastek, an organizer of Saturday’s event, say that what needs to change is the status quo.

Property managers and property owners would prefer no rent control at all, said Bastek, who is on the board of the Uptown Chapter of the D.C. Tenants Union, a group that came together in August with the help of the Latino Economic Development Center.

Both groups have signed onto the Reclaim Rent Control effort.

“The status quo allows [landlords] to make millions and millions on the backs of working-class people,” Bastek said.

There is 44 years of data that shows rent control laws don’t go far enough, she shouted before asking the crowd to join supporters of rent control reform in their efforts to draw attention to the issue. She was referring to the current law’s predecessor — the 1974 rent control act that was one of the first measures enacted by the elected D.C. Council under home rule. The current rent control law, which dates to 1985, has been extended with some changes over the years.

“The average rent increase under one of the loopholes in the law is $1500. In one case late last year, the landlord used voluntary agreements with the threat of another loophole, a hardship petition, to secure 476% in rent increases. That’s the kind of data I’m talking about,” Bastek wrote in an email when asked to support her claim.

At the rally, she urged those offended by the current state of rent control to vote Reclaim Rent Control as Washington City Paper’s Best Real Estate Group in the publication’s annual “Best of D.C.” competition. Online voting was set to close the next day.

“The best real estate group is no real estate group at all,” Bastek shouted into a bullhorn.

Bastek and other Reclaim Rent Control activists extend the criticism to the owner of the property where the rally took place.

Approximately 14 renters in the 100-unit apartment building at 3435 Holmead Place NW have been holding a rent strike since

Dec. 6. They say it is in response to lingering rat, roach and repair problems that haven’t been addressed by the property management company, Urban Investment Partners (UIP). The company has taken about 10 the tenants to court and contends that workers have made appropriate repairs. A UIP representative did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The residents withholding their rent and their supporters at the rally say the Holmead Place building is severely neglected.

Lilia Salvador, who lives there with her three sons and husband, Felipe, said there have been insects throughout her 12 years in the building.

In an interview in her apartment after the rally, Salvador said through a translator that she finds roaches in her family’s food — that is, when rats haven’t eaten the food first. In an effort to keep rats out, her family has nailed a piece of wood over a hole behind the stove. Still, she can hear rats or mice — she’s not sure which — moving in the walls and ceilings.

There’s an emergency after-hours number, but it goes unanswered, she said.

The building being 75% to 80% Latino doesn’t help. Several residents said some who live there don’t know their rights and lack confidence to demand accountability because of their uncertainty and the language barrier.

Rent control advocates said they have seen firsthand other problems in the building. One reported witnessing a whacka-mole situation of sorts in an apartment. A mouse popped up through one stove burner, so the resident placed a pot on the burner to keep the mouse out, only for the mouse to pop up through another burner.

Bastek said letting conditions deteriorate is a common strategy. Things get so bad that residents are pushed out, which allows the companies to raise the rent by 20%, she said. That’s the rent increase allowed for a new tenant over the amount paid by the previous tenant. Reclaim Rent Control’s recommendations include allowing landlords “to take a vacancy increase of no more than the rate of inflation,” which the proponents say will maintain affordability and avoid “incentives for high turnover and rapid escalation in rents.”

That’s why the status quo works for housing providers: there are multiple loopholes that allow for similar tactics, Bastek said.

Meanwhile, rent control reform advocates plan to put pressure on Bonds to bring the rent control extension bill to a vote in her committee with the Reform Rent Control provisions.

“It’s up to her. We are going to hold her accountable,” said Viçtoria Goncalves, a senior tenant organizer and campaign coordinator for the Latino Economic Development Center.

This article was co-published with TheDCLine.org.

Hand-written mock legislation used as a prop by organizers of the rally, which Councilmember Nadeau signed. Photo by Jamie Rogers

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// 7

At a Glance

Landlord jailed for contempt of court in lawsuit over alleged failure to maintain safe living conditions

By Natalie delgadillo @ndelgadillo07

This article was first published by DCist.

A landlord currently embroiled in litigation over allegations that he neglected to keep his properties up to code has been arrested for contempt of court.

Mehrdad Valibeigi failed to make court-ordered payments for a third party to make repairs, a judge found on Monday.

He was taken into custody and will remain there until a hearing on Friday, according to court records and the office of the attorney general.

The arrest comes amid D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine’s ongoing crack down on landlords that he says keep tenants living in unacceptable conditions. While his office has filed more than 10 cases asking the court to step in to address chronic health and safety issues at D.C. rental properties, this is the first time a landlord has gone to jail in one of Racine’s suits.

Racine sued Valibeigi and his company, The Bennington Coroporation, in October 2018 for allegedly failing to maintain safe living conditions at three properties in Ward 7. The buildings on Benning Road and C Street SE contained a total of 35 units, almost all of them being rented out by low-income residents.

In his initial complaint, Racine named multiple tenants who alleged that nails fell out of their ceilings and that mice, bedbugs, and roaches infested the apartments. One tenant said that she went for two months without water in her apartment, and the suit also claimed that mold growth and fire hazards were persistent issues at the properties.

Valibeigi has denied that he is a negligent landlord, telling DCist in October 2018 that there were no mold problems in his buildings and blaming persistent vermin infestations on his

tenants. “There are two things to this,” he said at the time. “One is whether these landlords are the victim of certain tenants who know how to maneuver the legal system to avoid rent, or we are talking about the neglect by the D.C. government.”

The office of the attorney general had petitioned the court to place Valibeigi’s properties into receivership, meaning they would be appointed to the care of a neutral third-party who would be charged with making repairs. After more than a year of back-and-forth litigation, the court did so in November of 2019.

As part of the agreement, Valibeigi was required to place $25,000 into an account for the receiver to use to make repairs. According to court filings, Valibeigi provided only $5,000 and had allegedly been seen at the properties making repairs himself, against the orders of the court.

The court also determined that Valibeigi failed to prove that he had a present inability to pay the $25,000, per the court order. The landlord was given until Monday, Feb. 24 to make the remaining payment, or else he faced incarceration at the D.C. Jail.

Valibeigi was arrested Monday and remained in custody until another hearing was held Friday, Feb. 28. At that point, the judge determined Valibeigi had adequately proved he is unable to make the payments and was released from contempt, according to court records. The lawsuit over failing to maintain safe living conditions is ongoing, with another hearing scheduled for March 5.

The landlord is also involved in other suits with the OAG, including for his management of the Westwood Apartments in Ivy City. A lawyer for Valibeigi did not respond to a request for comment.

One tenant said that she went for two months without water in her apartment

Floyd Carter performing.

Photo by Eric Falquero

Street Sense Media Artists Reginald Black, Queenie Featherstone, and Floyd Carter (a.k.a. DC Young Brody) performed at an Art and Justice Collective showcase in the Josephine Bulter Parks Center. It was the first of a recurring series to be held every third Friday of the month.

Birthdays Lorrie Hayes March 12 Vendor

Our stories, straight to your inbox Street Sense Media provides a vehicle through which all of us can learn about homelessness from those who have experienced it. Sign up for our newsletter to get our vendors' stories in your inbox.

Outside 4480 C St. SE, one of the properties owned by Mehrdad Valibeigi. Courtesy of the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, via DCist.

www.StreetSenseMedia.org/newsletter

8 // St reet Sens e Me di a / / Ma rch 4 - 1 7 , 2020

NEWs

Photographer Joseph Young sits on his couch behind an art piece that he created out of found objects. The piece consists of bottles from makeshift memorials at Barry Farm on top of wooden fence pieces from the neighborhood. Not pictured are red and yellow stains at the bottom at the bottom of the fencing. photo by ben cooper

After years of photographing gentrification in DC, Joseph Young donates his photos to the Smithsonian

By Ben Cooper ben.cooper@streetsensemedia.org

E

arly in his career, Joseph Young couldn’t fathom why someone would want to photograph old, worndown buildings.

“I used to ask myself, ‘Why would they want to do that?’” Young said. “I just thought it was so ridiculous.”

But after he joined the community where he still resides, those buildings soon became more to Young than just withering structures lining the streets. They were the homes of his neighbors being neglected and the locally-owned businesses being demolished. He watched gentrification set in for 15 years.

Then Young began doing what he thought he’d never have a reason to: he took pictures of the dilapidated buildings.

He started with the H Street Northeast Corridor, documenting the area as gentrification intensified. There was a Black woman who used to own one of the restaurants and a Black beauty school where people could learn cosmetology, among other buildings.

Soon enough, the area transformed. Businesses closed and construction of apartment buildings got underway.

Young continued to take pictures. Then, he learned about the demolition of the historic Barry Farm neighborhood in Southeast D.C., which began with land given to thousands of freed slaves after the Civil War. His interest was piqued once again. An initiative to convert the public housing community that has since been built there has languished without adequate funding for more than a decade. More recently, the plan itself was held up when the D.C. Court of Appeals sent it back to the zoning commission. In the meantime, temporary relocation

of residents to make way for construction and demolition was allowed to continue. Everyone has moved.

Young photographed the dilapidated homes and collected objects left behind by residents who had deserted their apartments. He gathered empty bottles, shoes, clothespins and other odd items that told the stories of low-income families that had no options.

All of that work has led him to where he is now: approximately 160 of his photos were accepted into the collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum on Feb. 6. They show the transformation of D.C. neighborhoods and symbolize gentrification occurring across the globe.

“His photographs, even the ones without people in them, have a very human element to them,” said Samir Meghelli, senior curator with the Smithsonian. “They really capture the essence of a place, of a moment in time. This isn’t just someone that’s

streetsensemedia.org

photographing for photographing’s sake. He’s really deeply tied to and connected to the city and has legitimate concerns.”

Young, born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1956, got started with photography in the early ‘70s when he would take pictures on disposable cameras and have the local drug store send them out to be developed. After taking an introductory photography class in college, Young purchased his first “real” camera, a Canon AE-1.

He practiced photographing family members while traveling and slowly honed his craft. Still, it wasn’t a serious hobby for Young, who came to D.C. from Los Angeles in the ‘80s.

He took on a job at a bookstore before working as a fulltime reporter with the Washington Informer in 2006. While out on his assignments, he said he would often be asked to take pictures to accompany his stories.

Denise Rolark Barnes, the publisher of The Washington Informer, said Young was “thoughtful” in his reporting, which eventually gave way to a full-blown passion for photography.

“It seemed as though once he focused on the lives of the people that he was writing about, he realized he could tell a story through photos and I think became really passionate about documenting folks’ stories through photos,” Rolark Barnes said.

Photography soon became more than just a hobby, and Young’s focus turned to documenting the rapid transformation and erasure of the area around him. For that reason, the pictures he submitted to the Smithsonian have heightened meaning.

Joseph Young points to a photo of construction occurring on a corner of 5th and H Street. Photo By Ben Cooper

Young has seen first-hand how gentrification has impacted H Street. He said rent prices were under $1,000 when he moved into his home, but a studio apartment now often goes for around $2,000 or more. In the same vein, median income has skyrocketed in his more than two decades living on 4th St. NW. Only recently has the government cared about developing the neighborhoods, according to Young.

“Neighborhoods like this were neglected by the city and the federal government. It was just allowed to transform into a ghetto,” he said. “All the things the city is doing now is for the new people. They didn’t do any of this stuff — they didn’t keep the streets clean, there was no good policing, there was no nothing. No grocery stores. But when the new people come in, they get everything.”

Young cited that when he moved into his home, the closest grocery store was a mile and a half away. Now, there are at least four within walking distance. A study published in March of last year by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that D.C. had the highest rate of gentrification by rate of eligible neighborhoods in the U.S. from 2000-2013, resulting in more than 20,000 Black residents being displaced.

One of Young’s many photos features the carryout Horace and Dickie’s at 12th and H Street NE, which closed on March 1 after 30 years of operating. The owner told ABC7 the landlord wants the property and that the city has towed and ticketed their customers away.

A similar neglect occurred within Barry Farm, which — aside from a small portion that was designated a historic landmark — is set to be demolished and redeveloped under the New Communities Initiative that aims to “transform the public housing development into a mixed-income, mixeduse community.”

“He’s really deeply tied to and connected to the city and has legitimate concerns.”

SAMIR MEGHELLI, SENIOR CURATOR SMITHSONIAN ANACOSTIA COMMUNITY MUSEUM Rolark Barnes, who has been the publisher of The Washington Informer for 26 years, has also noticed the changing communities. She mentioned 9th Street Northwest near Florida Avenue as an example of an area she used to spend a lot of time in but has since transformed.

“It’s a completely different community,” she said.

“Gentrification also makes me ask, ‘How was it so easy for folks to come and reform neighborhoods or reconstruct neighborhoods, and why was it so difficult for those who lived in those neighborhoods to create the kinds of quality of housing I’m sure they wanted but couldn’t get?”

For as long as Young has been photographing change in the H Street Corridor, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development has been tasked with planning city-sponsored development projects. When asked about the accuracy of Young’s perspective, DMPED acknowledged “the impacts of a growing city.” A spokesperson emphasized that the District’s economic development programs and initiatives are developed with equity and inclusion at the forefront.

Projects include building affordable housing or space for local business owners, providing public resources like parks and libraries, and courting new businesses such as grocery stores. Part of these efforts include trying to mitigate the negative side effects that often come along with new investments, including displacement.

DMPED added that since coming into office, Mayor Muriel Bowser has invested more in affordable housing per capita than any other jurisdiction in the country, investing more than half a billion dollars into the Housing Production Trust Fund. In May 2019, she set a goal to build 36,000 new homes by 2025, 12,000 of which will be affordable. Five months later, a report released by the Office of Planning — which is supervised by DMPED — outlined where those new units should go, making D.C. one of the first cities in the United States to set affordable

A long line at Horace and Dickie’s, a popular carryout at 12th and H Streets NE that closed on March 1 after 30 years of business.

Photo courtesy of joseph young

// 9

housing targets by neighborhood and examine the barriers and opportunities in each area.

“Gentrification is taking place all over the world. It’s not just in the United States. It’s not just happening to AfroAmericans and Latinos,” Young said. “I think that the world is experiencing a shift in populations.”

When Young visited Barry Farm, he noticed makeshift memorials with bottles, teddy bears and candles had been left behind in the backyards of some of the buildings, commemorating those who were killed in the neighborhood.

Things such as shoes and Bibles were left behind, too.

“When people left, it was almost like they were escaping.

Some people left and just left everything in their apartment.

Some people left and they just took some things,” Young said.

“It wasn’t what you expected. It was like something tragic had happened and they felt that they had to just get out.”

He began collecting the pieces, and the head of construction allowed him to take some of the fencing from the neighborhood.

Joseph Young collected shoes that were left by Barry Farm residents who relocated ahead of demolition. Photo By Ben Cooper

Months of gathering provided the makings of an art piece in tribute to the former residents. Young mounted the bottles on top of the fencing to symbolize the killings that had occurred in Barry Farm. A red stain on the wood represented the blood that was spilled; a similar yellow splotch was indicative of the yellow tape at a crime scene; and the bottles lying on their sides depicted those who were slain.

While the Smithsonian didn’t take any of Young’s found items, he said they’ll weigh doing so in the future. Meghelli, the senior curator, said that while there are no concrete plans yet to exhibit Young’s photos, they will likely be available to view online after a “lengthy” cataloging process.

“This is great for me personally because all of my life’s work I know is in a museum, being taken care of properly,” Young said. “And at some point it’ll be discussed, exhibited.

So this is a great day, a beautiful day.”

When Meghelli visited Young’s home on Feb. 6 to pick up the photos, he saw firsthand the importance of what Young had captured over the years. He said the photographs show the contrast of the city that once was and the city that is becoming a reality. They hold a “special significance,” Meghelli said, for capturing that moment in time.

And now those photographs are preserved with the Smithsonian — a “dream” for Young as he continues to document his home and his community being turned upside down.

“You know what’s the most important part of this, I’m telling this story — a Black person who lives here and has witnessed the change. This is my story.”

The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum re-opened in October after several months of renovations. The “A Right to the City” exhibit about gentrification will be on display in the main gallery until April 20 and related events are being held through the District in partnership with the D.C. Library until Aug. 5. Many of Joseph Young’s photos are visible online at www.behance.net/josephyoun2623

1 0 // S t reet SenSe Me di a / / Ma rch 4 - 1 7 , 2020

OPINION

i have never been to jail By maRCellUs PHilliPs

I’m a 40-year-old Black man from D.C. where the crime rate can get out of control.

As a child I moved around a lot and learned that it’s not the environment, it’s the people in the environment. I have been put in several situations that could have sent me to jail or federal prison. At this point I now know that we all have decisions to make in life based off of another person’s actions. I’m from the low-class society and still struggle with everyday living.

People assume that I’m on drugs and always getting locked up. A lady was talking to me and having a conversation and she told me all Black men have been to jail. After that she asked me how things are in jail and I immediately took offense.

I asked her, Why would you assume all Black men have been to jail? She was shocked when I told her that I have never been locked up.

As a Black man, every time I walk out my door I’m faced with the challenge of making it home. I can be locked up for

the littlest things, which creates a mindset of fear and it can make some nervous or scared. I have been pulled over, stopped and searched for no reason but have always proved my innocence.

I have to be extremely cautious because of the color of my skin. I have attempted several activities in life like walking to the store and ended up in a situation where I can catch a charge and end up in prison.

Hanging with a certain crowd used to put me into negative situations that I didn’t have full control of. When I was at a store with some friends they all took something and called me a punk and scared — then they all got caught. I didn’t take anything so I left while they dealt with that.

Because of my decisions and actions, I have never been to a boot camp or jail or sent to prison. I have never been to jail and I am never going to jail.

Marcellus Phillips is a Street Sense Media artist and vendor.

Join the conversation, share your views - have an opinion about how homelessness is being addressed in our community?

- Want to share firsthand experience?

- interested in responding to what someone else has written?

Street Sense Media has maintained an open submission policy since our founding.

We aim to elevate voices from across the housing spectrum and foster healthy debate.

Please send submissions to opinion@streetsensemedia.org.

“Her family disputes this”

By JeFF TaylOR

In the last issue of Street Sense, Director of Community Engagement for the Human Right Campaign, Tori Cooper wrote a piece entitled, “Honoring Baby Alice.” While I understand and wholeheartedly support most of what Cooper had to say about the plight of young trans folks, I cannot support what Cooper had to say of Alice in particular.

Cooper makes the following statement: “Some claim [Alice] was kicked out of her parents’ home because of her gender identity. Her family disputes this.”

And that’s as far as Cooper went in offering a rebuttal to rumors on the street.

Yes, indeed, her family, and I -- as her closest friend of more than a dozen years -- dispute this. Because it simply is not true. While Alice’s story is a tragic one, there is no need to overdramatize her life by making stuff up. And if Alice were still with us she would feel most dishonored to have her mother’s name dragged through the mud for no reason other than it makes for a sexier story.

Likewise, I was concerned when reading the first issue of Street Sense to come out in the immediate wake of Alice’s passing that she was consistently being referred to as homeless, which at the time of her death she most certainly was not. As a matter of fact, it was Street Sense that got Alice her single room occupancy.

Article after article, in the Washington Blade and the Washington Post, gave the impression that Alice was homeless most of her time here in D.C. There’s no mention of the fact that she lived with me in my apartment on 14th street NW for nearly 10 years, nor that she actually had her own one-bedroom apartment in Southeast D.C. for a couple years until she managed to lose it.

Alice had problems and occasional homelessness was one of them. But what most folks don’t know is that Alice chose to roam the streets of the city at night.

She had a home to go to, she just didn’t go there much of the time, mainly out of loneliness. Alice’s main problem was self-medicated mental illness. Full stop! Yes, this led to other problems, but her mental illness and inability to accept it was the core issue.

I suppose maybe it speaks to how much Baby Alice was loved that groups have been so quick to want to adopt her as a poster child for their causes. But let’s all try to stay reality-based in assessing the life of Alice Carter and where society failed her. Society housed her three times in D.C., once with me and twice on her own. Her acceptance as a trans woman in D.C., this supposed bastion of tolerance, was much more of an issue than it should have been. But even that would have been navigable for Alice if her mental illness had been self-acknowledged and adequately treated.

Jeff Taylor is a vendor and artist with Street Sense Media

Confessions of a Black Trump supporter

By JeFFeRy mCneil

When Donald Trump first came down the escalator to announce he was running for president, I had mixed feelings.

Trump was my generation’s Ronald Reagan. He was in my living room since the early eighties and everywhere I went his name seemed to be plastered everywhere.

As long as I can remember there were always rumors about Trump running for president. However, I believed that with his divorces, bankruptcies, his edgy views on Barack Obama and immigration, he was more a novelty or fringe candidate than someone to take seriously.

Before he announced his candidacy in June 2015, I really had no intention of voting. I wasn’t enthused about the prospect of Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush but that seemed to be what the establishment of both parties was trying to sell. Both were offering more wars, open borders, and bad trade deals that benefited their rich donors while depleting the working class.

Trump was an anomaly. While there were some things he said I viewed as edgy and racist, I found myself agreeing

with him on trade, immigration, and growing the economy.

He never apologized or backed down from anything he said. What finally made me get on board the train was when he called Jeb Bush “sleepy” and got into wars with Lindsey Graham and John McCain. I wasn’t a Trump “Kool-Aid” drinker. I was open to something different.

And I began seeing Democrats for who they were.

They weren’t asking me for my vote. They were harassing and bullying me because they couldn’t frighten me about Trump. I wasn’t for Trump but I did believe in the Constitution and free and fair elections.

It angered me that someone would tell me how to think and how to vote. I was confused because all my life, I heard Black leaders tell me voting was a fundamental right. Now, these same Black leaders were attacking me for exercising my right to vote.

I never insulted or harassed someone because they voted for Barack Obama or Bernie Sanders, but I was called a Nazi for my political views. Democrats encouraged this

new style of demonizing people by calling them racist.

All my life I was told how evil Republicans were, but Republicans became a big tent while the Democrats started driving out anyone who disagreed.

I went to a few Trump rallies and was nothing like the media depicted. While the media kept demonizing Trump supporters as uneducated Rednecks and rubes, many of us were ex Democrats who supported Obama. As the Democrats kept flipping us the bird it became very easy to support Trump.

I was under no illusions that Trump was a saint. But I don’t want a pope as president. I want someone to protect this nation, stand up to our enemies and defend our values and freedoms.

In 300 days Trump will be re-elected -- not because of white supremacy, but because the left refuses to look in the mirror at the damage they’ve done.

Jeffery McNeil is a Street Sense Media vendor and artist.

StreetSenSeMedia.org

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/ / 11

art

Success By andRe BRinsOn Artist/Vendor

Everyone defines that word differently. For me, it means having slept on the ground, getting up, and not going back.

I know and understand that while living on the streets you can easily give up on yourself and your life. Many homeless people you see have mental issues you don't know about. Many are there because they must be, not because they want to be. We all have our demons to deal with. I have many, as you will read one day when I write my book. I admit that I have witnessed many things I wish I had not.

I was doing time for my drug charges.

But I was looking at 25 more years for a case of mistaken identity. I was put in a block with people who were waiting to be sentenced for murder charges. The jail people didn't know my charges so they thought I belonged with the murderers. As I sat there under a name that wasn't mine,

Potential discount could be over $500.00 annually.

I had time to talk with people who would never see the light of day again. I realized I was in this hellhole with what felt like lost souls because of the choices I had made.

Then I spent nine months going through the court system telling every judge I was not the person the courts said I was. I eventually put my life in the hand of a grand jury.

Fortunately, it did not indict me.

So, to my people on the streets, if you are capable and strong in your mind and know you can do better, you will. Trust me!

Don't give up when life is tough; just be tougher. And to my Street Sense family, I love you and I thank you for supporting me and encouraging me not to give up.

Keep joy in your heart and keep your spirit high no matter what.

One love. One God.

Work on Yourself By dOnZell delanO ClaRKe Artist/Vendor

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Annual discount on one land line service per household.

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

The View from Seventh and E By nysiR CaRTeR // Artist/Vendor

Hi! It's me , your new friend from 7th and E streets. I'm writing this letter to show my appreciation for my donators and my customers. I may have lost my home, but I have not lost my self-worth.

I find pride selling the Street Sense Media newspaper and I'm most proud every time I see a customer. You lift my spirits. Not because of any monetary gain; rather, because of the humanity you show me. You are proof that the bigotry of our leaders is not how most people in our country feel and that, as a people, we can conquer any cause — even chronic homelessness. All we have to do is care.

So thank you, customers.

I'm becoming more independent thanks to the people around me, including you. I'm so proud to be a part of this community and this movement. I believe we, together, can house, clothe, and feed every American citizen who needs help.

That's the American Way, right? Helping our fellow men and women.

I try to follow that and I thank you, my supporters, for helping me fight the good fight.

Many times we find ourselves in situations where we have to choose between what we want and what's good for us, i.e., whether to hang in there or whether to walk away. It may be harder for you to digest as you struggle with what you've been told for so long, but it's so true because sometimes in life, loose ends are necessary.

Don't hold onto the relationship you know no longer serves you because you fear being alone and single. If you search for validation externally, your search will never end. Happiness isn't something you pursue, it is within you at all times and throughout all life's experiences.

Happiness is there. That emptiness you seek to fill is the light you need to ignite inside. That love you seek outside of yourself is waiting to be awakened within you.

Take time to care for you. Spend energy and time to focus on loving yourself and creating a healthier lifestyle. Get to know yourself on a deeper level. Love yourself more.

Understand your needs in order to find true love. Once you begin to do this, you will see a shift in whom you attract and with your relationships.

Take a leap and trust yourself.

1 2 // S t reet Sense Me di a / / Ma rch 4 - 1 7 , 2020

art

Random Acts of Kindness: A Valentine for Valerie, One year later

By Wendell Williams // Artist/Vendor

I

t’s been one year since the publishing of “Random Acts of Kindness: A Valentine for Valerie’’ in the Street Sense Media newspaper.

A lot has happened in that time. Mostly good stuff, like winning the 2019 Best Commentary Award from the D.C. Society of Professional Journalists chapter, which she would’ve loved.

But it all rings hollow without her around to share it with.

Writing “Valentine” was a gut-wrenching process and readers still ask me how I am getting along. It feels so good that so many people fell in love with her and her story of selflessness and sacrifice in the same way I did.

I have tried to keep it together through therapy, prayer, meditation, and the overwhelming support of my Street Sense Media community.

But as the one-year anniversary of her death approached, I was still having difficulty staying in reality. I miss her so much that, emotionally, I continue to bleed. My mind still just wanders off into this space only people who have lost someone special can understand. At first I seriously felt like joining her — but I knew giving up would piss her off. So to honor her love and her undying faith in me, reluctantly I learned to push on with my life.

At times I was a mess and mad at the world but couldn’t see it. Coworkers and friends both encouraged me to take some time and grieve but I knew she’d never want me to abandon my work even over her loss so I attempted to work through my pain. When I look back I can see my unconscious untreated anger raised its ugly head at times and caused me to escalate situations at work that I could normally handle. Many started to plead with me to seek treatment.

Doing the work I do, helping people put their lives back together, this was the last thing I thought I needed. I didn’t realize how sick I was. I was holding on to the 1% chance that all of this was a dream. I kept seeing her and my denial had me investing my emotions in a miracle. The last time she appeared to me was late last spring when she came to me and spent the night.

I fell asleep holding her tight and awoke to an empty bed. No one can tell me she wasn’t there as she looked at me and told me to “get on with it” and that moving on with my life is not “forgetting her.” Then, out of nowhere, I stopped hearing her voice and I felt so alone.

I found Dr. Fuji who helped me transition. Having someone who understood my unwillingness to let go was a game changer. I had turned my apartment into a shrine.

His advice was, “You’ll know when to start taking it down and move on.” For the longest time, I felt guilty about the prospect and feared I’d forget all the details of our life together. But he talked to me about it being my process and no one else’s. Having a non-judgemental therapist was just what I needed. It seemed like most people were getting tired of my constant crying and sadness by then.

He also cautioned against moving too fast and strongly suggested that I make no major changes in the first year

after Val’s death. I understand why now, when I think of some of things I considered doing, like quitting my job, which I eventually did to find inner peace after 16 months.

By the end of the summer of 2019, I knew I had turned a corner. But my therapist warned, “There’ll be another corner, then another.” He said it takes about half the time you were in a relationship to “get over it.” The problem was that I didn’t want to and I felt guilty about the thought of being with

Valerie Jordan.

Photo courtesy of Wendell Williams

someone else. Even though I had other “friends,” I just wanted her back. I had to work through not judging other people through her, which was hard. I even considered online dating to no avail because I was just looking for another Val, which was unfair and unhealthy.

Months after I thought her spirit finally left me, I was completely isolated other than work until an old teammate called me about our 50th year high-school

reunion. I tried every excuse not to go. I hadn’t been to any of the previous reunions. I didn’t even go to my own prom or graduation. But my team captain challenged me and, since he was coming from North Carolina and we were about to turn 70 as a group, I figured this may be the last time I ever see many of them. So I reluctantly sent the money order in and, on Sept. 29, things changed for me.

Out of a senior class of almost 800, around 225 showed up fifty years later. Some of my teammates had followed me on social media and knew of my loss. They greeted me warmly. I marveled at how much time had changed us but we all interacted like we were 17-year-olds again.

Some of them could still wear their old uniforms unlike me and most others. But I felt lucky to be able to walk in healthy. Many were in wheelchairs and using cains.

Others showed signs of significant health problems including strokes. After looking at the list of those who had passed away, It made me get in touch with some gratitude.

As I walked in, a woman I didn’t remember sat at the first table. But as I moved around the room mingling, I couldn’t stop looking at her.

For those three hours, I forgot about my life as I listened and got caught up on the lives of so many. And when the evening ended, I found myself at that same table being introduced by a teammate. As the conversation moved from topic to topic and landed on the subject of the food running out with none of us eating, there was an opening to say something to the person I had been embarrassingly and silently stalking. My mouth opened up but nothing came out. It was then I heard my Val’s voice for the last time saying, “Say something, Stupid.”

So I did, and I couldn’t believe she agreed to go to a midnight dinner with me at the Baltimore inner harbor of all places. I was further surprised when she asked, “My car or yours?”

Off we went. We ate and told our stories to one another and, lo and behold, she shared she had the misfortune of losing two lovers. The most recent was six years ago due to a heart attack — she knew what I was going through.

The next night I was her date at the closing dinner dance for the reunion. We have hung out and supported one another almost every day since. She has allowed me the space to be where I am in my grief and I can tell her anything when I need to talk about Val. It’s been a two-way street because she talks about her losses as well.

You see, I met the right person at the right time and It looks like Valerie has had a hand in making my life better one more time. A few days later, Oct. 2nd, was Valerie’s birthday. And I shared that I really wanted to return to our spot in Skyline Drive and release balloons, but I didn’t think I was emotionally strong enough. That’s when my new friend said, “I’ll go with you.” She did, and it made all the difference in the world.

Even in death, Val’s still there for me, proving what she said in one of her last cards: “I’ll never leave you, I will always love you and want the best for you.”

StreetSenSeMedia.org

Me and My Recovery, Part 3:

My Meet with the Devil

By Vennie Hill // Artist/Vendor

B

ack then I was doing drugs really hard, to the point where I was always high. One side effect was always thinking someone was going to hurt my mom when I left her home alone at night.

I was feeling that on this particular day. It was my birthday and I was blitzed.

I left out the house in my pajamas and while I was walking I said to myself, out loud, “If anyone hurts or harms my mom, I’m going to kill them. I’ll sell my soul to the devil.” Then, all of a sudden, a black Saab pulled with a fairly handsome man inside. “Hello. What are you up to?” he said.

I jumped inside his nice ride. “Nothing,” I said. “It’s my birthday!”

He smiled. “Happy birthday. What can I pleasure you with?”

I told him that I got high and he put a hundred dollar bill in my hand and asked, “Now, where can we get something?”

I kinda got scared, but I went anyway. We went and got a room at a local hotel and we jived and chilled. I talked and he listened, while staring into my eyes like I was a prize or something. So again, I began to get frightened.

Now I’m thinking of a way to get out of this mess. But being the drug addict I was, I’m thinking of a plan to find out whether he was the devil. So I let him do most of the smoking and chilling while all the time our stuff is running out. I volunteer to make the run to get some more. Then it hit me: I have a

friend who loves to talk about the Bible. So my plan became to go and find her and take her back with me. I did that.

I never told her what I was thinking about this gentleman; I just led her right to him. While they started back smoking, I’m trying to come up with a plan to bring God into the room.

I pulled out the Bible and my girl began to go for it. He got fed up and put us out of the room. We each had about $200, for which we hadn’t done anything but keep him company.

We finally left and went to the mall. We never talked seriously about what I just went through: the fear I felt in my heart; his evil smile and the way he looked at me like I was something he really wanted.

I went on with life and kept on being Vennie, untiil about three months later when I said the same stupid words out my mouth. You wouldn’ t believe this, but the same guy in the same car pulled up right after that, and my dumbass got in it.

“Do you remember me?” he goes. Like hell, I did. Anyway, he gave $200 again to go get us something and let me drive to get it. I felt like the devil knows I like to drive. So before I left he asked me, did I have somewhere that I could take us to chill and I said yes. I knew a buddy who was working on a new house and got high. He would rent the place out for a couple of hours. So there we were in this empty house, just me and him. My mind was going 90 miles an hour; my heart was beating even faster. He finally looked at me and said “What you are thinking is true.” I was thinking he was the devil but all I said was “What?” He said it again, this time a little louder and more forcefully. I jumped up and left the clothes he had bought me and the damn money and got the hell out of there.

I never thought about saying, “I will sell my soul to him.”

Now I know better. How about you?

A Woman’s Pain

By ROn dUdley, a.K.a. “POOKanU” // Artist/Vendor

She was a feminist that hated men They gave her Ritalin at the age of ten She went to school with Storm and Wolverine She blamed her momma for her daddy’s genes She hate her uncle’s and male cousins They always there when her daddy wasn’t

My Life...So Far

By JOsHUa FaisOn // Artist/Vendor

I am a native Washingtonian and I love my city. Life here has shaped, fashioned, and molded me to become the great man I am.

Poverty has been a major influence in my life. At age 12, my mother, my stepfather, my younger brother and I were struggling while living in a one-room apartment in Southeast. To help us survive I decided to sell drugs.

I sold marijuana and crack cocaine in our neighborhood.

I was a small-time dealer who thought he needed money for new clothes as well as to feed his family.

Three years later, a car hit me and I was hospitalized for three months. The police officer who witnessed the accident claimed it was my fault. Unfortunately, the female driver had no insurance. She was wrong and should have been incarcerated, but she wasn’t. That’s when I started to dislike authority. That’s also when I realized there’s no true justice in America.

She hate the preacher, she don’t like confession When she confessed he started yelling She told the truth about the preachers hands She said “Please stop touching me man!”

Everyday she hated men even more She said one day that she gonna settle the score She fell in love with an older woman Family members asking, “What you doing?”

They said, “God put you here for men “Watch out for Eve ‘cause Eve make you sin” She said, “What about Adam?”

If she had a knife, she woulda’ stabbed him.

That’s how much she hated men Said that she would never ever ever date them But the woman that she loved was in love with a man That left her confused, a confused lesbian My life was never the same After I felt the heartbeat of this woman’s pain My life could never compare And whenever you wanna cry I got a shoulder to share A woman’s pain.

// 13

Stairs

By QUeenie FeaTHeRsTOne Artist/Vendor

Backpack, knapsack, carts All our belongings stored Up and down I cry

Battle Poem:

Old School vs Youth By iBn HiPPs // Artist/Vendor

This “battle poem” shows a pattern of how a young person and an older person views life in our society. I was inspired to pull this together because my stepdaughter is talented and I wanted to challenge her skills. I’m sure she’s going to be a big name journalist or screenwriter someday. We sat down and wrote each poem on the spot. I wrote mine and then she responded to it.

Now, customers and readers, who wrote the better poem?

By iBn HiPPs

Bird’s fly and time freezes A thug angels’ clipped-wings Sins Control what society breeds The mind feeds from what the eyes seek Blood stains angry seeds Loving to live false beliefs Time fads the truth we seek By lOndOn deWs

When we hurt They tell us to believe But when we get hope They take us by the throat And when we choke They blame it on the rope False accusations and bleak education But yet we’re expected to make it So we turn to the streets and fake it Got so much power but we are forsaken And when we’re drained of all our faith The vultures come ready to take everything When our lives is done.

To vote on the poems, speak to Ibn where he sells papers at the McPherson Square Metro (13th and I Streets NW), email editor@streetsensemedia.org, or Tweet using the hashtag #SSMBattlePoem.

1 4 // St reet Sen S e Me di a / / Ma rch 4 - 1 7, 2020

FUN & GaMES

Intermediate Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 20, Book 1

Sudoku #5

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SuDoKu: fill in

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Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each Sudoku 3-by-3 block contain all of the digits 1 thru 9. #4

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"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses."

-- Alphonse Karr

1

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5

Sudoku #6 3 2 1 9 6 5 8 4 4 7 9 6 8 9 2 3 1 6 7 5 5 3 4 2 9 4 3 1 7 1 6 8 2 8 5 7

8 4 7 2 3 1 3 5 4 1 6 8 9 2 6 7 8 2 5 7 3 4 9 9 6 1

Sudoku #8 4 7 6 5 5 8 1 2 2 9 3 4 6 5 7 8 1 2 4 3 8 3 9 1 3 1 5 6 7 4 2 9 9 6 8 7

8 2 9 3 9 3 7 6 4 7 6 1 5 8 2 9 3 4 1 6 5 9 8 7 4 7 6 2 5 8 2 4 7 9 5 1 8 3 6 3 4 5 1 2

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3

By FRedeRiC JOHn Artist/Vendor

So now, is our honored Dusty Curator of values So tired and musty That the shame of a century-old “Black Sox Scandal” Shall be a disgrace so hard To handle!

Quick like a fox Creeps on the scene...

Judge and his Yanks, But beware as well Boston with their squad — So quick and mean!

a new player has joined the team

By William meyeR Artist/Vendor

Hey Street Sense Media customers and vendors. My name is Billy and I just celebrated my birthday last month, February 11, 1973 — the same day Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was released.

And what a year it has been! My hometown team, The Kansas City Chiefs, are Super Bowl champs.. Yes, I’m from Kansas City, Missouri. The president says there isn’t a KC, Missouri, only KC, Kansas. While it’s wild to think I may have been born in some unknown or hidden place, I can assure you both Kansas Cities are real. Get a map, Trump!

There will be more from me in the weeks to come, on sports as well as other fun-filled facts. It’s almost time for baseball. So stay tuned.

Sincerely, Your friendly neighborhood Street Sense Media vendor.

author gene Weingarten is a college dropout and a nationally syndicated humor columnist for the Washington Post. author dan Weingarten is a former college dropout and a current college student majoring in information technology. Many thanks to gene Weingarten and the Washington Post Writers group for allowing Street Sense to run Barney & clyde.

streetsensemedia.org

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All services listed are referral-free Academy of Hope Public Charter School 202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Place NE aohdc.org

Bread for the City - 1525 7th St., NW // 202-265-2400 - 1640 Good Hope Rd., SE // 202-561-8587 breadforthecity.org

Calvary Women’s Services // 202-678-2341 1217 Good Hope Rd., SE calvaryservices.org

Food and Friends // 202-269-2277 (home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc) 219 Riggs Rd., NE foodandfriends.org

Foundry Methodist Church // 202-332-4010 1500 16th St., NW ID (Friday 9am–12pm only) foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities

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Christ House // 202-328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd., NW christhouse.org

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Church of the Pilgrims // 202-387-6612 2201 P St., NW food (1-1:30 on Sundays only) churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach

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Sasha Bruce Youthwork // 202-675-9340 741 8th St., SE sashabruce.org

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

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

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

Unity Health Care 3020 14th St., NW // unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699

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

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Miriam’s Kitchen // 202-452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave., NW miriamskitchen.org

My Sister’s Place // 202-529-5991 (24-hr hotline) mysistersplacedc.org

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

Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave., SE // 202-797-3567 whitman-walker.org

Community of Hope // 202-232-7356 communityofhopedc.org

Covenant House Washington 202-610-9600 // 2001 Mississippi Ave., SE covenanthousedc.org

N Street Village // 202-939-2060 1333 N St., NW nstreetvillage.org

New York Avenue Shelter // 202-832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave., NE D.C. Coalition for the Homeless 202-347-8870 // 1234 Massachusetts Ave., NW dccfh.org

Father McKenna Center // 202-842-1112 19 Eye St., NW fathermckennacenter.org

JOB BOARD Operations Assistant Manager Dollar Tree // 3932 Minnesota Ave NE Part-time This position assists with operational tasks within the store. Will also assist with hiring, training, and development of store associates as delegated by the Store Manager.

REQUIRED: Strong communication, interpersonal, and written skills, ability to lift and transport merchandise weighing up to 50lbs, and ability to work in high energy team environment.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/Dollar-Tree-OAM

Box Office Manager District of Columbia Arts Center 2438 18th Street NW Part-time, 5-20 hours a week This position manages box office operations, greeting visitors, answering questions, and selling concessions.

REQUIRED: Must have people skills and an interest in the arts.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/DCAC-BoxOfficeManager

Client Services Representative Whitman-Walker Max Robinson Center 1525 14th Street NW Full-time This position is responsible for assisting patients in the medical, dental, behavioral health and other areas across the health center. This is through handling client-facing duties such as scheduling appointments.

REQUIRED: Ability to work harmoniously with diverse groups of individuals, able to lift no more than 20lbs, and must have written and verbal skills.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/WW-ClientServicesRep

Residential Aide Friendship Place // 3320 Idaho Ave NW Full-Time Monitors the residents, units, and grounds of the Brooks to ensure safety and security of each resident. Assists in the planning and organization of recreational activities.

REQUIRED: High school diploma or equivalent, and ability to lift 20lbs.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/FP-ResidentialAide

2020 Census Jobs Census Takers, Census Field Supervisors, Recruiting Assistants, Clerk, and Office Operations Supervisor.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/Census-Jobs-2020

Summer Employment

For further information and listings, visit our online service guide at StreetSenseMedia.org/service-guide

Dept. of Parks and Recreation: Lifeguard, Aquatics Operations, Aqua Day Camp Facilitator, Aqua Day Camp Service Rep, Assistant Facilitator, Camp Aide, Office Assistant, Program Monitor, Facilitator, Admin Assistant, Food Safety Trainer, Food Monitor, Senior Food Monitor, Warehouse Assistant, and Warehouse Driver.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/DPR-SummerJobs

Patricia Handy Place for Women 202-733-5378 // 810 5th St., NW

Samaritan Inns // 202-667-8831 2523 14th St., NW samaritaninns.org

// 15

Hiring? Send your job postings to editor@StreetSenseMedia.org

The Aya in Ward 6 is the latest DC General replacement shelter to open

By Ben Cooper ben.cooper@streetsensemedia.org

W

hen D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser campaigned for her current position in 2014, on a promise that she would close the dilapidated D.C. General shelter, there was uncertainty about whether it would work out.

Vincent Gray, who served as mayor from 2010-2014 prior to Bowser, had expressed the desire to accomplish the same feat while he was in office. Gray’s plan generated more questions than answers, though, and it never came to fruition before his term ended.

Bowser chose to tackle the issue regardless, developing a strategy in conjunction with D.C. Council in 2016 and formally closing the converted hospital in October 2018.

“It was a few years ago when our mayor made a decision to close D.C. General and to take a very different approach in how we try to help families that are experiencing homelessness,” Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen said at the ribbon-cutting. “It was a bold move, it was a strong move, and it was the right move.”

“In our worst moments, we should walk into a place that says you are loved, you are cared about, we see your humanity and you are safe.”

Laura Zeilinger Director, Department of Human Services

DHS Director Laura Zeilinger speaks at The Aya ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 21.

Photo BY Ben cooPer

D.C. General had housed approximately 250 families. The Aya, located in Ward 6 on Delaware Avenue Southwest, can accommodate up to 50 families. It is the fifth of seven planned short-term family housing facilities constructed in D.C. General’s stead — The Kennedy opened in Ward 4 in September 2018; The Horizon opened in Ward 7 in October 2018; The Triumph opened in Ward 8 in November 2018; and The Sterling opened in Ward 5 in August 2019.

A low-barrier women’s shelter also opened in Ward 2 in 2016. The Ward 3 site is set to open in April and the Ward 1 site is scheduled to open in early 2021.

A press release following The Aya’s unveiling said family homelessness in D.C. has been reduced by 45% since Homeward D.C.’s launch in 2016. According to the 2019 Point in Time count, 1,242 families were counted as homeless — a 12% decrease from 2018.

“It turns out, that if you put people in environments where they can steady themselves, get the services that they need, not be tucked away in a corner … they, in fact, do steady themselves,” Bowser said at the ribbon-cutting.

D.C. General had received countless complaints about poor conditions. Complaints described in a March 2015 Street Sense Media article included mice, cold water, and little heat. However, it was the abduction of then-8-year-old Relisha Rudd in 2014 that demanded national attention and prompted Bowser’s campaign promise.

Rudd, a resident of D.C. General, was last seen with a worker at the shelter. The employee was later found dead from a selfinflicted gunshot, but Rudd’s fate remains a mystery. Advocacy organizations and the police continue to release updated approximations of what she might look like today. The most recent image was provided

by The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Community members gathered over the weekend to mark the anniversary of her disappearance, keep hope alive, and distribute copies of the photo.

The Aya consists of seven color-coded floors with varying bed counts per space — some of which are designed for families of up to 10 or 11. Residents will begin moving into the space in March.

The Ward 6 facility features bathrooms for every two families, no-cost laundry rooms, community rooms, a community health clinic, WiFi, and landline phones. In the rooms, amenities include storage space, armoires and mini-fridges.

The Aya was unable to have outdoor play spaces because the area surrounding the building is public land. Instead, there are indoor/outdoor play areas on each floor that replicate an outdoor space.

Areas such as those, in addition to commissioned art decorating the walls — among other things — create an environment

A kitchenette to be shared by two families experiencing homelessness at The Aya. Photo BY Ben cooPer

A private room with four beds for a family experiencing homelessness at The Aya. Photo BY Ben cooPer

that says, “We want to keep our neighbors here,” said D.C. Department of Human Services director Laura Zeilinger.

“We know that everybody falls on hard times and everybody is worthy,” Zeilinger said. “And in our worst moments, we should walk into a place that says you are loved, you are cared about, we see your humanity and you are safe.”

Zeilinger said that the on-site service provider will be CORE DC, which also operates The Horizon in Ward 7. The Horizon was originally serviced

by Life Deeds, but the provider’s documentation was unable to be verified, leading to its termination.

Tyrone Johnson, who attended the event because his cousin was involved in the construction, said he had “been here through the whole process” and was proud of the final product.

“From start to finish, it’s a great job,” Johnson said. “I love the work, I love the building and can’t wait until the residents start coming in.”

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

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