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NEWS IN BRIEF PEP-V residents told housing vouchers have run out

CCNV vaccine pop-up operating throughout April For vaccinations before noon, please arrive by 11:30 a.m.

For vaccinations before 4 p.m., please arrive no later than 3:30 p.m.

There is no cost and you do not need to bring anything with you.

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D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meeting Calendar

Marvin Gaye “From DC to Detroit”

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Online Past and present leaders from the D.C. community host a rich discussion on Statehood, why it is necessary, how it is relevant, and how individuals and organizations are working to level the playing field for DC’s 712,000 residents.

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On April 8, residents in the Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable People (PEP-V) at Holiday Inn on Rhode Island Ave. NW were called to a meeting, told the District has run out of permanent supportive housing vouchers, and that they would have to find a place by September when the program ends.

To Althea Thompson, one of the residents at the PEP-V site who has been waiting to be placed for permanent housing since she first entered the program in October, this news was a major disappointment.

“When you go to Google and you read about the PEP-V program, it says, when you leave from here you’ll be inside permanent housing,” Thompson said. “So that’s a lie.”

That is the program’s model: Residents stay until they are matched to housing. But due to the District’s housing shortage, matching PEP-V residents to permanent supportive housing has been slow going. In February, we reported that approximately 15 of the program’s more than 600 residents were being placed into housing each month.

The day after Thompson received this news, a similar meeting was held at another PEP-V site, the Hotel Arboretum. Resident Charner Snow did not receive an invitation to the meeting but her roommate did. Similarly, Thompson and her roommate were only informed that a meeting was in session when a friend called to ask why she wasn’t there.

“My roommate, she just turned 64 and she just got her voucher yesterday, so I don’t know what’s going on,” Snow said.

The Department of Human Services, who runs the program, did not deny that these instructions were given to residents and acknowledged that townhall meetings were being held with current PEP-V participants to provide updates about the program. In a statement to Street Sense Media, the agency said, “Given the scale of the PEP-V program, and that FEMA reimbursement is authorized until September 30, 2021, not all PEP-V participants will have attained housing once the program closes. Shelter beds will be available for anyone in need and residents will continue to receive housing intervention support even after the closing of the site.”

Housing vouchers running out in the District in the middle of the fiscal year may not align with information DHS provided to the D.C. Council for a performance oversight hearing in February. A DCist analysis of that information found that between October 2019 and February 2021, D.C. has only distributed 56% of the permanent supportive housing voucher funding allocated for individuals, and only 37% of vouchers allocated for families. $14 million of federal funding, enough for 520 vouchers, was not distributed.

Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau chairs the D.C. Council Committee on Human Services, which is responsible for oversight of DHS. A spokesperson said Nadeau’s office reached out to DHS to confirm whether vouchers have run out for this fiscal year, as the PEP-V residents were told, but they have not received confirmation.

When providing its statement, DHS ignored Street Sense Media’s question about whether vouchers have run out in the District. The D.C. Housing Authority did not respond to the same question. DCHA co-manages the permanent supportive housing program with DHS, distributing vouchers after DHS determines a person’s eligibility.

DHS’s message to participants of a lack of vouchers and housing in the District is being shared at the same time that the department publicly announced an expansion of the program to a fourth hotel that would accommodate one third of the more than 600 people on the waiting list, a list DHS said it will no longer maintain once the new site is full.

“D.C. is getting a lot of federal money for homelessness and housing, including vouchers, that should be available imminently,” said Amber Harding, an attorney for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. “If DHS said they are out of housing subsidies and people have to leave, that statement is false, misleading at best.”

—athiyah.azeem@streetsensemedia.org

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NEWS

DC failed to spend $14 million on housing vouchers last year

BY MORGAN BASKIN DCist, @mhbaskin

This article was first published on DCist.com on April 12.

In a subsidized Marshall Heights apartment that is crawling with pests, a mother of two is always cleaning. But despite her best efforts, there are always cockroaches in the shower, she says, and mice inside the walls. Outside her front door, she routinely hears gunfire. It’s been that way since she moved into the building three years ago from a homeless shelter.

The woman, who spoke anonymously because she fears reprisal from her landlord and case manager, has a rapid rehousing subsidy that was only supposed to last for one year. It has been renewed in three-month intervals because of extenuating circumstances and then the pandemic, leaving her in a state of constant uncertainty about how long she’ll have a place to live.

Case managers with a non-profit that helps manage the voucher process “don’t even know when [my subsidy is] going to expire because I don’t speak their language,” the woman says in Amharic, through a translator. “They don’t even want to talk to me. They treat me like dirt.”

She and her lawyers believe she qualifies for permanent supportive housing, a subsidy program reserved for people who are chronically homeless and have certain disabilities.

Advocates consider it the most effective kind of housing assistance because it supports residents indefinitely, unlike the time-limited rapid rehousing program she is currently enrolled in.

In September, the woman submitted an application, hoping that the D.C. Housing Authority and Department of Human Services — the two local agencies that jointly run the program — would quickly determine that she is eligible, and put her on a path to housing stability. She has been waiting for an answer ever since. And she’s not alone.

Even as housing needs spiked across the city while the pandemic broke out, the D.C. government didn’t come close to distributing all the permanent housing vouchers it had the funding to use over the last fiscal year, according to data DHS submitted to the D.C. Council this spring.

Between October 2019 and February 2021, D.C. used only 56% of its permanent supportive housing vouchers reserved for individuals, the data show. The agencies did even worse on such vouchers reserved for families, allocating just 37% of them.

(DHS Director Laura Zeilinger tells DCist that those numbers have since ticked up slightly to 68% and 51%, respectively, when adding in those that were granted in one fiscal year and actually used the following.) Those numbers represent significant drops from fiscal years 2019 and 2018, when about 80% of permanent supportive housing vouchers were utilized.

Another kind of subsidy for chronically homeless families who do not require intensive case management from DHS, called targeted affordable housing, saw the same issue; just 27% of the family vouchers were used as of February, though that figure has since increased to 33%.

In total, about 520 vouchers representing $14 million in allocated funding went unused that year (some of those vouchers, which were already in progress, were rolled over into this year).

Because the funds appropriated for vouchers largely don’t roll over into the next year, these losses are permanent. The D.C. Housing Authority used about $6 million of those funds to make public housing repairs, director Tyrone Garrett told the Council. The leftover $8 million was “recaptured” by D.C.’s Chief Financial Officer, a spokesperson for the Housing Authority tells DCist.

Delays in disbursing the vouchers during fiscal year 2020 2020 the agency referred 585 permanent supportive housing have also hindered D.C.’s efforts to use the vouchers allotted for applications for individuals to the Housing Authority, along the current fiscal year. D.C. has disbursed 21% of the available with 180 family applications — all of the allocated vouchers permanent supportive housing vouchers for individuals so far, for that year. Yet a spokesperson for the Housing Authority Zeilinger tells DCist. Though DHS and the Housing Authority tells DCist that “every voucher applicant that was referred to have identified which families will use the 122 permanent DCHA during this time was approved and distributed.” supportive housing vouchers allocated this year, only one of The spokesperson did not respond to DCist’s inquiry about those families has actually moved into their apartment. how it is possible for both of those statements to be true, since Meanwhile, families and individuals facing housing only 56% of the available individual vouchers and 37% of the instability have languished in perilous conditions. available vouchers for families were disbursed that year. Asked “When clients are in rapid rehousing and they are in that about those conflicting statements in a phone call with DCist, time-limited subsidy, every second counts,” says Caitlin Russi, Garrett says, “we’re standing by that.” an attorney at the Children’s Law Center who represents the “When you’re talking about just strict numbers, and how many mother in the Marshall Heights apartment. “I talk to clients referrals were made – there were many referrals made, but some every day who are struggling with housing stability and are just of them were not necessarily [complete applications],” he says. looking to find the means for permanent housing, to not need to But during his own time before the Council, Garrett also return to shelter, to have their families in a stable environment admitted that, in addition to pandemic-related processing issues, – particularly in the last year, when home is everything.” the agency intentionally “took a very conservative approach” to During the Housing Authority’s Council oversight hearing, disbursing permanent housing vouchers because they anticipated Garrett claimed that the voucher that COVID-19-related financial pressures disbursement process — from the might force D.C. to slash their budget.

Because the funds applicant’s initial filing to being approved “We tried to make an affirmative and moving into an apartment — takes an appropriated for vouchers adjustment anticipating something going average of 45 days from start to finish in in a different direction budget-wise due to a typical year. After DHS determines an largely don’t roll over into Covid,” Garrett said. applicant meets certain eligibility criteria In a pointed exchange, Ward 1 the next year, these losses Councilmember for a voucher, it refers the applicant to Brianne Nadeau, who the Housing Authority, which processes chairs the human services committee are permanent. the application again and completes a and has oversight power over D.C.’s background check. DHS vets potential voucher programs, pushed back on that landlords for the voucher holder, and the justification: “That’s not really your call, Housing Authority inspects the unit to is it? You’re administering a program and make sure it meets the city’s housing conditions requirements. we’ve set aside funds for a certain number of people.”

But thanks to a variety of factors that can impede different It’s not clear exactly what the “conservative approach” steps, it actually takes much longer. During the pandemic, it was in practice or how much it might have slowed the took an average of 144 days from start to finish, Zeilinger tells distribution process down, and in an interview with DCist, DCist. It has since dropped to 119 days, she says, though that Garrett declined to elaborate. is still nearly three times the goal.

When DCist asked Garrett whether taking a “conservative Applications require extensive documentation, like a approach” meant that the Housing Authority proactively decided birth certificate and social security card, which are often not to disburse as many vouchers as it could have, Garrett said difficult for people without housing to access, even when that the agency budgets quarterly so that, if someone is approved government offices aren’t shut down amid a raging pandemic. for a voucher in the fourth quarter of a fiscal year but doesn’t And once they’re approved for the program, voucher holders move into an apartment immediately, there’s money in the often have difficulty securing a lease. Many face source-ofbudget for them to do so in the next fiscal year. income discrimination, where property managers refuse to “We’ve done something similar every single year because we rent apartments to people because of their status as a voucher know that there are going to be some people who haven’t leased holder. (The practice is illegal in D.C. but still rampant, up,” Garrett says. (Zeilinger was also on the call and said that voucher holders and housing attorneys say.) her agency “did not experience that there was any intentional Then there is the pervasive issue of poor housing conditions. holdup” from DCHA. “I’ve never heard the director say …

It can be difficult to find a unit that is clean, safe, and affordable they were holding back approvals of applications because they — and voucher holders only have six months to sign a lease weren’t sure if they were funded.”) before their subsidy expires. (Zeilinger and Garrett tell DCist Through a spokesperson for the Housing Authority, Garrett that the agencies have been working with families during the told DCist that the agency has since assigned additional staff pandemic to reauthorize vouchers that weren’t used in time on to screen voucher applicants for eligibility and troubleshoot a case-by-case basis.) issues, expedited the background check and income verification When pressed by members of the Council to explain the process, and improved communication with service providers. precipitous drop last year, officials suggested that the pandemic Those changes have allowed the Housing Authority to more slowed down the Housing Authority’s ability to review quickly process applications this year, according to Garrett. applications and determine eligibility.

Russi’s client, meanwhile, has started taking antidepressants “You are correct to question why it took so long to use those to cope with anxiety that’s exacerbated by her housing resources when there’s so much need,” Zeilinger told At-Large conditions and unstable living situation. Her four-year-old Councilmember Robert White when asked about the figures. son’s doctor believes the violence in their neighborhood has She indicated that the public housing agency’s case review started to harm his mental health, too. process was lagging and said DHS was working with their “I do not know how to raise kids in this neighborhood, in counterparts “to help speed up some of that process.” this environment,” she says. “All I need is to just raise my A spokesperson for DHS tells DCist that in fiscal year children in a good place.”

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Housing Production Trust Fund could receive $263M windfall

BY KATE SANTALIZ // kate.santaliz@streetsensemedia.org

The Housing Production Trust Fund, the District’s largest fund for creating affordable housing, is expected to receive $263 million as a result of a budget surplus. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, D.C. had a budget surplus of $526 million for fiscal year 2020 and, by law, half of those funds would traditionally be automatically invested into the Housing Production Trust Fund.

Since the federal government had been reimbursing local governments through relief packages, the District was able to save significantly, resulting in this large surplus. However, considering needs related to the health crisis, this budget surplus stirred concern among officials and advocates.

“The [former] Chief Financial Officer of the District was a little bit conservative when creating his revenue estimate,” said Eliana Golding, an affordable housing and workforce development policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

“If we hadn’t been so conservative, the budget would have been larger for these services, and the money would have gotten out the door for people who desperately need it right now.”

D.C. councilmembers shared Golding’s criticism when the surplus was announced in February. Just two months before the surplus was announced, the D.C. Department of Human Services was seeking to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of services for youth experiencing homelessness.

Mayor Bowser has made record investments in D.C.’s Housing Production Trust Fund every year since taking office and the fund has built or renovated more than 10,000 affordable housing units since 2001. But the program’s ability to produce enough housing for those most in need remains in question.

“Affordable” applies to a wide range of projects.

The income limits to qualify for affordable housing programs are calculated as a percentage of D.C.’s Area Median Income, which is high given the extreme wealth and inequality inside the District, coupled with the D.C. “area” including several of the wealthiest counties in the U.S. Depending on the specific housing designation, an individual may earn as much as $70,000 — 80% of the AMI for a one-person household — and still qualify for assistance. Critics say that households earning 30% or less of the AMI should receive the lion’s share of support but do not even receive the legally required minimum amount of investment.

The Housing Production Trust Fund Act of 1988 requires that 50% of annual HPTF spending go to households with incomes below 30% of the AMI. Another 40% of spending is reserved for households with incomes between 30% and 50% of the AMI. And the balance may be spent to serve households with incomes up to 80% AMI. The District has only met this goal once in the last five years.

“Unfortunately, over the life of a trust fund, it’s really been totally skewed to the opposite end, where the majority, the overwhelming majority, of the funding has gone to the 80% inside of affordability,” said Brittany Ruffin, the affordable housing advocacy attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

The fund can’t do it all “The real wrinkle with building housing for our lowest income residents is that not only do you need to provide that gap financing on what we call the capital side, but you also need to provide an operating subsidy, which will be a housing voucher, which makes the unit affordable to the tenant, and basically subsidizes the rent with a government subsidy,” said At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman.

For every unit that is built for households 30% or below the

AMI, a housing voucher must be provided to the tenant. D.C.’s HPTF funding is unable to cover these vouchers, which instead come from the D.C. Housing Authority and HUD. The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development acknowledges this lack of “deeply affordable” housing. “We know there is a need for more housing, including permanent supportive housing, targeting households in the 30% MFI and below income band and we are always exploring how we can leverage funds to create more housing in that range,” said Richard Livingstone, communications director for DHCD. (MFI and AMI are interchangeable in D.C.) Livingstone said DHCD took advantage of a new aspect of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program in their most recent call for project proposals. The agency has also been working with the D.C. Department of Human Services, the D.C. Housing Finance Agency, and the housing authority to see how the small number of locally funded vouchers D.C. provides might be used as operating subsidies to help create more units through the HPTF, just liked federal vouchers.

Still, housing advocates aren’t convinced. “If your goals are just to produce more housing, I think [the HPTF] is largely effective,” Golding said, “If your goals are really what it was designed to do, which is to boost the production of affordable housing, including deeply affordable housing, I would say it has not been tremendously successful.”

Efficiency and transparency Which projects receive funding has also raised concerns. “What we don’t have, which is true in other jurisdictions, is a more transparent kind of decision process with a scoring mechanism that helps everyone understand why some projects are funded, and some are not,” said Martin Mellet, vice president at the nonprofit developer Jubilee Housing.

Applications for funding are “scored” based on how much housing of each affordability level will be produced for the proposed investment amount. In 2018, the D.C. Auditor released a report stating that a disbursement of more than $78 million across nine projects had included five projects that ranked at the bottom half of all applications received for that period, resulting in the city adding 353 fewer units of affordable housing than it could have. Out of the 353 lost units, 95 would have gone to families and individuals who earn 30% or below of the AMI. The auditor’s report showed that during that specific application period, DHCD evaluated 28 proposals and proposed awarding funding to the nine highest-ranking projects. Auditor Kathleen Patterson called the process “transparent, competitive, and objective.” But after the agency’s recommendations were made, Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a press release announcing the funding awards and had replaced five of the recommended projects — those that ranked second through sixth — with other applicants whose projects ranked 11th, 12th, 15th and 20th.

“The director has the full authority to select projects and there needs to be more transparency around what projects are available, where projects are selected, why they’re selected,” Ruffin said.

According to Silverman, DHCD Director Polly Donaldson had said some of the projects scrutinized in the audit ranked higher because they provided more affordability but were not viable because they did not have the vouchers to subsidize the operating costs. However, the lowest-ranking project of the five replacements identified in the audit caught the attention of officials because the applicant was a politically connected

// 5

developer, Taylor Adams.

“Adams used to work at [the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development] and is very close to the mayor.” Silverman said.”His project was the lowest ranked and it had been his third funding round, I think it had been ranked poorly all three funding rounds. So it’s not like he showed marked improvement in the last round and got funded.”

In 2019, five D.C. councilmembers introduced the Housing Production Trust Fund Transparency Amendment Act, calling to release detailed information on applications to the HPTF, including the release of the competitive scoring information.

“The point of it is to make sure that we are using the dollars in the prioritized way that’s outlined in the Housing Production Trust Fund law,” said Silverman, who co-introduced the bill. “What the transparency bill would do is just make that evaluation public so that we see how projects were evaluated and gives projects that didn’t get funding an insight into how perhaps they fell short and how they can do better the next time.” Silverman plans on reintroducing the bill in the new council period that started this year..

As a developer, Mellet of Jubilee Housing agreed. “I think that it would help to have some more transparency in understanding how decisions are made so we can get the details of who got the funds, because there’s always limited funds, and we compete with everyone else.”

The geographic diversity of HPTF projects has also notoriously been an issue. Projects have been historically congregated in wards 1, 7 and 8, predominately Black wards with the highest unemployment rates. With 80% of all HPTF projects located in these wards ,less than 1% of new affordable housing is west of Rock Creek Park, sparking backlash from activists who cite the dangers of concentrating poverty.

Responding to the pandemic At the start of Bowser’s second term in 2018, she committed to building 36,000 units of housing, including at least 12,000 units of affordable housing, by 2025. And last month, she and DHCD announced the selection of nine projects that are expected to produce and preserve over 1,100 affordable homes, including approximately 660 new homes. These projects are being funded primarily through a $66 million HPTF investment from the previous fiscal year.

While an unprecedented influx of cash may be heading toward the HPTF, talks of Bowser redirecting that money have stirred among officials and advocates. While fiscal year 2020 ended in an unexpected surplus, the District is on track for a deficit in its four-year financial plan. Some are advocating to use the one-year surplus to balance this expected deficit — which it could cover — instead of allowing the money to be split between the HPTF and another legally required account.

Over the last few years, the District has been steadily increasing investment in the HPTF, with $100 million proposed for fiscal year 2019 and $130 million for FY 2020.

With potentially $263 million coming down the pipeline, the HPTF will be expected o meet the COVID-related housing needs. Bowser’s proposed budget will go to the D.C. Council for review at the end of May, an extended deadline to allow time for planning around additional federal relief.

“The gap is the biggest however, for the units that would be affordable for our lowest income workers, and I think this is especially pronounced right now during COVID,” Silverman said. “You know, we are calling upon pharmacy tech workers and grocery store workers and mostly men, but some women who are in our garbage disposal unit in city government, to report to work everyday and do their jobs and we want them close to their jobs. Yet, they can’t afford to live here. They are absolutely vital to societal functions, that’s why they’re essential. But we don’t consider them essential when it comes to housing. And what the Trust Fund does is try to prioritize dollars going to those.”

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NEWS

Banners outside of Meridian Heights Apartments in Columbia Heights say: “NOVO cancel the rent due to bad conditions” and “UIP doesn’t fix bad conditions.” PHOTO BY BEN GUTMAN

Overloaded with landlords and real-estate developers, Bowser’s “Saving D.C.’s Rental Housing Market Strike Force” leaves out marginalized tenant voices

BY BEN GUTMAN ben.gutman@streetsensemedia.org

W

orthington Woods is one of several sprawling apartment complexes tucked between 3rd street SE and Oxon Run Park on the western edge of the Washington Highlands neighborhood in Ward 8. In 2019, when the complex was put up for sale, the Worthington Woods Tenant Association organized to keep the property designated as affordable housing and to achieve some much-needed renovations in the process.

The fortitude and perseverance of the tenant association’s president, Evelyn Harrison, is what made this possible.

Harrison’s leadership earned her a spot on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “Saving D.C.’s Rental Housing Market Strike Force,” created through a mayoral order at the end of 2020. The advisory group of 13 public and legislative members and 18 non-governmental members was tasked

with creating policy recommendations for the District government to address the current challenges of D.C.’s rental housing market, and its post-pandemic future.

The strike force released a draft set of 10 recommendations on March 26, but none will be formally adopted until its members can agree on final language for all of them.

Several are still intensely debated.

While Harrison continues to be listed as an active member of the strike force, she was only present for two meetings and was not included in working group sessions. Harrison said that the responsibility of overseeing the online schooling of her two grandchildren impacted her ability to participate, but that leaders of the strike force did not make an effort to include her in the formulation of policy prescriptions.

Harrison was also unaware that she was the only direct tenant representative on the strike

force and voiced her displeasure. “I don’t understand how they could do that with all the tenants in the city,” Harrison said.

She and other tenant voices were conspicuously absent from the deliberation on recommendations that will affect the District’s most vulnerable renters’ ability to remain housed through the end of the pandemic and long after.

Amanda Korber, a supervising attorney in the Housing Law Unit of the Legal Aid Society of D.C. who was not on the task force, speculated that tenants like Harrison might not want to be held up as tokens among a strike force that overwhelmingly represents realestate and development interests. Korber said more than one tenant representative should have been included to even the playing field and set the stage for a truly equitable debate.

The absence of any tenant voices in the “consensus building process” used in

strike force meetings is reflected within the preliminary recommendations.

Housing Counseling Services Executive Director Marian Siegel and Georgetown University Professor Eva Rosen, who were both on the task force, were outspoken critics of two of them: one focused on “problem tenants” and another aimed at reducing the financial burden on landlords during the eviction moratorium.

“We still have a very low vaccination rate, we still have threats of increasing illness, and it’s too soon to talk about evicting people where there’s a public health emergency, based on threats alone,” Siegel said during the March 26 meeting. “[Evicting] one person in the household could result in the eviction of an entire family and I think we need to consider language in that recommendation.”

Twelve percent of District residents have been fully vaccinated, according to city data.

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Rosen requested that the recommendation be removed completely because of ambiguity in the use of being a “threat” as a criteria to be evicted, and because of the potential harm to people with mental illness.

Other members of the strike force mounted fierce opposition to Rosen’s request, including landlords, developers, and their lobbyists like CEO of the Coalition for Housing and Economic Development (CNHED) Steve Glaude and CEO of the D.C. Small Multifamily Owners Association (SMOA) Dean Hunter.

“If there’s anything we should be able to reach consensus on it’s this,” Glaude said, “and I think the language is perfectly adequate as it is.”

Regardless of whether the recommendation is included or not, the D.C. Council voted in favor of an exception to the District’s eviction moratorium on April 6 that would allow landlords to evict tenants that they can prove are a danger to their neighbors. An incident in March — where young people vandalized the property and broke in after the landlord confronted them about selling drugs at the property — brought renewed interest to the bill. The culprits did not live at the property, but were connected to a resident who had been living there without paying rent ever since his mother, the leaseholder, died.

At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, who is a member of the strike force, had previously been unable to find enough co-sponsors to introduce the legislation.

D.C.’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) was also a contentious issue for the strike force.

During the March 19 meeting, Siegel argued that a bill passed last month that extends the time period for tenants to exercise their TOPA rights is critical to preserving some form of tenant selfdetermination during and after the pandemic.

Landlords like Josh Bernstein were concerned that recommendations provided by housing providers on TOPA were being dismissed and insinuated that this could be because the strike force was not developerheavy enough, despite the fact that the strike force’s fourth recommendation was added to satisfy housing provider concerns on TOPA tolling, inability to increase the rent on vacant units, and others.

Tenant advocates on the strike force, like Rosen, repeatedly emphasized the need to prioritize an increase in subsidies for D.C. renters struggling to pay their rent. Many worry that current local and federal housing assistance will not be enough to keep every family housed for the remainder of the pandemic and through post-pandemic unemployment.

People or profits: the strike force’s identity crisis Despite a pledge from Bowser to center the needs of low-income renters within the strike force, several members of the strike force and numerous representatives from nonprofit housing advocacy organizations who were not appointed to it have voiced concerns

that tenants are not adequately represented.

Veronica Mosqueda, a senior organizer with the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), expressed her confidence in allies on the strike force but worried that their voices were being drowned out.

Mosqueda said LEDC was very happy to see that Harrison was appointed, having collaborated with her at Worthington Woods, but that more tenant voices are necessary to represent a diversity of experiences and to balance out the wealthy interest groups. “It’s pretty disappointing to see that there’s a lot of developers at the table making decisions for the most affected while the most affected are not appropriately represented,” Mosqueda said.

Three of the 31 appointed members fall into the tenant advocates category. Harrison was the only direct tenant representative.

All but one of the five members appointed to the “housing providers” category exclusively represent landlords, developers, or their interests and only one of those five is a community-based non-profit, said Korber of the Legal Aid Society.

Korber sees this imbalance as a major inhibitor to understanding tenant needs and how to best provide emergency rental relief to ensure that, once the eviction moratorium expires, tenants are not displaced, evicted, or left homeless.

Tenant advocates looking at the strike force from the outside in are not the only ones who have voiced concerns. Steve Glaude, CEO of the Coalition of Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, scrutinized the strike force’s makeup during the second meeting on Feb. 12. Glaude expressed doubt about the prospect of an equitable debate given the lack of representation from tenants and legal aid.

At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, one of three members of the D.C. Council included in the strike force, is also aware of the implications behind the lack of lived experience with rental housing among strike force members.

“I did bring up my disappointment about the composition of the strike force and I didn’t feel there was a balance of voices representing tenants in that we do have some of the biggest real estate owners in our city on there … yet we really only have one tenant representative,” Silverman said. “I’m no longer a renter … I doubt there are very many renters [on the strike force].”

Polly Donaldson, the chair of the strike force and the director of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community, said she took these concerns into consideration, but believes that current tenant advocates and the addition of two new members — D.C. Superior Court Associate Judge Todd Edelman and Aurelie Mathieu from the Office of the Attorney General — is sufficient.

“I think the [Office of the Attorney General], which has represented tenants in many court actions against bad actor landlords, I think their views will be very clearly represented,” Donaldson said over the phone.

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Significant deliberation of recommendations occurred in 3 working groups, which fall outside of public oversight and are not subject to open meeting laws.

SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF DHCD

The big dogs: Landlords, real-estate developers, and lobbyists Still, advocates say the strike force is overwhelmingly skewed towards the interests of landlords and developers. “These aren’t even like small-time building owners, like people who may own one building or two and it’s their central means of income,” said Daniel Del Pielago, the organizing director of the grassroots organizing group Empower D.C., which was not represented on the strike force. “These are the big dogs in this world.”

The Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA) was represented by Vice President of Government Affairs Randi Marshall. AOBA’s member directory is only available to member organizations, but its board of directors is stacked with realestate management companies including the executive vice president of Borger Management and the senior vice president of JBG Smith.

Both Borger Management and JBG Smith are separately represented as housing providers.

Mosqueda, of LEDC, has long worried that AOBA’s influence in shaping conversations related to rental housing does not benefit renters.

“Any hearing we have, we see AOBA or the small landlord lobby say things that are not based on any factual research or factual data and somehow they still get to call the shots on what happens when they’re not the folks that are most affected,” Mosqueda said.

The Small Multifamily Owners Association (SMOA) was represented by CEO Dean Hunter. SMOA is a self-described

“trade group representing owners, investors, developers, managers, and suppliers of rental properties” focused on rent control and affordable housing stock.

In a November 2020 twitter thread, Allison Hrabar, an organizer with the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, characterized SMOA as “a lazy, cynical rebranding” of the Urban Commercial Realty Group (UCRG), of which Hunter was a manager for three years. UCRG has since transformed into KW Multifamily. An internet archive snapshot of UCRG’s website from October reveals a lobbying effort to allow for the filling of new eviction complaints during the eviction moratorium for “emergency and safety matters.”

“SMOA was founded because openly advocating for evictions during a devastating pandemic was so unpopular that AOBA wouldn’t do it,” Hrabar said.

Other members of the strike force who are considered housing providers include Tom Borger, CEO of Borger Management; Buwa Binitie of Dantes Partners and the D.C. Housing Finance Agency; and AJ Jackson, executive vice president of JBG Smith.

Borger Management was found to be one of the top 10 D.C. landlords to file the most evictions in a report produced last year.

During the strike force’s third meeting, Borger freely admitted to this. “I confess I’m a serial evictor,” he said. “We file a lot of L & T [landlord and tenant] cases.”

In March, Borger Management also distributed flyers including a notice stating that “we will refuse to rent a rental unit to Continued on next page.

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NEWS Continued from page 7.

a person because the person will provide the rental payment, in whole or part, through a voucher for rental housing assistance provided by the District or federal government.”

Denying housing to voucher holders is unlawful “source of income” descrimination under the D.C. Human Rights Act enforced by the Office of Human Rights. Borger Management has since responded to these allegations by citing a printing error on the flyer.

Binitie of the D.C. Housing Finance Agency and Dantes Partners, led the implementation of the New Communities Initiative from 2007 - 2009, an offshoot of the federal Hope VI program. The initiative is widely accepted as a complete failure for low-income renters. It has led to mass displacement of D.C. public housing residents and spurred redevelopment and gentrification without replacing the promised number of public housing units.

Dantes Partners, “a local, urban economic development” corporation, is one of dozens of local developers that have donated millions of dollars in campaign contributions to District politicians and received more than $1 billion in tax breaks and other subsidies according to an investigative report by WAMU. Dantes Partners was one of four developers who received a combined $12 million in subsidies and gave $127,295 in political campaign contributions in exchange for a contract to develop affordable housing in the West End. Dantes Partners was also one of 6 developers who received $23 million in subsidies and gave $164,045 in political campaign contributions for the Hine Junior High School redevelopment in Eastern Market.

In mid-2017, JBG Smith locked in a massive development deal with Amazon to create its Virginia HQ2. Housing activists expressed worry that the deal would exacerbate gentrification and the affordable housing crisis.

In addition to these large developers,

the D.C. Policy Center, represented on the strike force by Founding Executive Director Yesim Taylor as a housing policy research organization, took between $10,000 and $24,999 in contributions from both Borger Management and JBG Smith in 2019.

A lingering affordable housing crisis Between 2000 and 2016, the population of D.C.’s economically expanding areas grew by 19%, including a 201.8% increase in white residents. This trend was supplemented by the displacement of more than 30,000 Black residents according to the University of Minnesota Law School’s analysis in “American Neighborhood Change in the 21st Century: Gentrification and Decline.” In addition, the median income of Black D.C. households in 2019 was $48,700, which is $101,000 lower than the median income for white D.C. households at the time ($149,700). This income and racially-based affordable housing crisis is rooted in pre-pandemic housing policy that prioritized newer, whiter, and wealthier residents over Black D.C. natives.

This lingering systemic failing, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has complicated the strike force’s priorities and made it difficult to center solutions for the impending wave of evictions.

“We never addressed the pre-existing affordable housing crisis. If we had had appropriate affordable housing before this crisis hit — housing where rent was based on their income and they could recertify if they lost their job and reduce the rental obligations — we wouldn’t be in the situation where so many tenants in the District are facing displacement for non-payment,” Korber said.

During the second strike force meeting on Feb. 12, Alex Baca of Greater Greater

Area Median Incomes (AMI) and their corresponding housing programs. SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF DHCD

Washington voiced the need to differentiate between the needs of renters whose income is at the higher end of the Area Median Income scale, and the needs of extremely low-income households who earn 0-30% of the AMI. The District’s AMI, which is used to set qualifications for affordable housing programs, is very high: $88,200 for an individual, meaning that person can earn $70,000 and qualify for affordable housing programs that are reserved for people who earn 80% or less of the AMI. Baca urged her fellow strike force members to “unify over a definition of affordability.”

Del Pielago, much like Baca, believes defining affordability before talking about policy prescriptions is important.

“Affordable housing is a misnomer; affordable for who? Affordable at what level? … I don’t think that the city is going to replicate public housing, which is the only real affordable housing. It’s 30% of your income band, adjusted if you do lose your income,” Del Pielago said. “Unless they’re planning on doing something like that, it is not going to be real affordable housing.”

The impending eviction crisis A report co-authored by Rosen last year — the same one that identified Borger Management as a serial eviction filer — found that evictions in D.C. were most often used as a threat. Only 5% of evictions filed in 2018 were carried out. The rest were withdrawn after rent was paid. Included in Rosen’s presentation to strike force members were striking facts such as that 57% of eviction filings in 2018 came from the majority-Black wards 7 and 8.

The racialized disparity in those affected by hardship exacerbated by the pandemic has led to a sharp increase in renters of color applying

Density maps comparing the number of eviction filings identified as Black or African American in those locations SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF EVA ROSEN

for COVID-19 Rental Assistance (CHAP).

However, LEDC had 10 times more people apply for CHAP than were able to receive support from it, according to Mosqueda, the LEDC organizer.

There was broad consensus within the strike force that eviction court is dysfunctional, that evictions in general aggravate income insecurity, and that it makes economic sense to help keep people in their home rather than help a recently evicted family find a new home.

The strike force’s “Short-term recommendation #3” is the result of this consensus. It proposes the development and funding of an eviction diversion program with the goal of resolving disputes that can lead to eviction.

However, some housing providers used their position on the strike force to protest late rents or highlight their compassionate eviction policy.

“Tenants actually have ample time [to pay rent] based on recent laws that have been passed by the council … [that state] you can’t file [an eviction] for the first 10 days of the month,” said Binitie of Dantes Partners. Street Sense Media could find no record of this policy and consulted a tenants rights lawyer who said no such law has been passed by the D.C. Council.

“We are already providing housing at very very low rents compared to what the markets are recommending in certain neighborhoods,” Binitie continued.

Tom Borger of Borger Management lamented the fact that Washington D.C. does not have a sheriff’s department that could more efficiently carry out evictions than the U.S. Marshals Service.

Kay Pierson of the United Planning Organization reminded the strike force’s housing providers of the unprecedented context in which many D.C. tenants now find themselves.

“There had never been enough money for renters in distress, so what would happen is that the system would encourage tenants to wait

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Alternatives and next steps

by location in 2018 (green) to the number of households that that year (black).

until they’re in eviction status to apply for rental assistance so they would get priority,” Pierson said.

“Pre-pandemic yes, maybe people come up with the money when they get an eviction notice, but postpandemic the resources may not be there.”

The D.C. Council has taken some important steps to protect tenants from evictions and provide easier access to rental assistance programs. In October 2020, the council passed the Omnibus Tenant Protection and Eviction Reform Measure and relaxed documentation requirements to access the District’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).

Polly Donaldson was optimistic that a coordinated effort between community-based organizations and local government officials to help tenants access federal and local rental assistance programs will make a significant impact on eviction protection.

This past month, the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program allocated $200 million to help District residents earning less than 40% AMI. And on April 12, the District announced the creation of the Stronger Together by Assisting You Program (STAY), a $352 million rental assistance fund that replaces CHAP and includes all federal funds (the local ERAP fund is not included). District renters can apply for STAY funding at stay.dc.gov.

(Information about all local assistance funds is available at coronavirus.dc.gov/rent.)

The D.C. government has contracted with Deloitte to manage the online application system used to access these funds. However, housing activists have raised concerns that Bowser unilaterally appointed Deloitte to this role.

Bowser’s 2019 inaugural committee took in nearly $1 million from Deloitte, as well as from Dantes Partners and JBG Smith.

Housing activists and organizers on the ground say that these protections and rental assistance programs are not sufficient to keep tenants in their homes throughout the health crisis, nor as high unemployment persists afterward.

All tenant advocates interviewed for this article said the lack of tenant input on the strike force has contributed to a lack of aggressive policy recommendations.

Korber, the Legal Aid attorney, sees the efficacy in continued use of local ERAP funds to assist renters, but also has doubts on a strategy based solely on rental assistance programs like ERAP. She worries about families who do not have internet access or those impeded by other barriers to entry, such as documentation requirements for proving financial hardship and the lack of language translation for the application to receive assistance.

Hrabar, the Stomp Out Slumlords organizer, argues that the cancellation of rents and mortgages is a much more efficient solution that tackles the root of the problem rather than finding “more creative ways to collect debt from tenants.”

“D.C. has the power to [cancel rent], they have the authority to do it and we know they have the money to do it,” Hrabar said, referring to the District’s $552 million budget surplus for fiscal year 2020. “And it wouldn’t put more burden on D.C. residents, it would free up D.C. residents to stop worrying about this and get back to be being able to live safe and productive lives.”

Hrabar looks at the success of federal stimulus checks, direct cash payments, as a blueprint to getting people assistance in times of crisis.

However, the absence of tenant representation on the strike force has silenced the growing demand to “cancel rent” from thousands of District renters.

“Tenants on the ground who aren’t on this task force are the ones that know what they need,” Korber said. “They know that we’re facing a wave of evictions in the District like nothing we’ve ever seen before and I think that the Council, whether they want to call it ‘cancel rent’ or whether they want to call it something else, is going to have to address the fact that they’re going to have to come up with the money needed to keep tenants in their homes.”

The 2016 Housing Preservation Strike Force went through a deliberation process that resulted in six recommendations, all of which were eventually adopted by Mayor Bowser. The current strike force will undergo a similar process of recording all recommendations within a final report to be reviewed by the mayor’s administration for policy adaptation.

However, before the final report can be released, complete consensus between strike force members is needed. Once all current disagreements on the language of the recommendations are settled, Polly Donaldson and her team at the Department of Housing and Community Development will construct and release the report to the mayor and general public.

The last 15 minutes of each strike force meeting were left for public comments and concerns.

However, since the scheduled meetings have ended there is no longer a direct mechanism by which the public can offer comments on the recommendations.

If you wish to offer input, DHCD can be reached by phone at (202) 442-7200 or by email at dchc@dc.gov and information for members of the D.C. Council Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalizations is available at tinyurl.com/dc-council-housing.

The strike force’s preliminary recommendations, according to DHCD. VISUALIZATION BY BEN GUTMAN

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OPINION

How can Ward 3 reach the Mayor’s affordable housing goal?

BY MEG MAGUIRE

Ward 3, which includes neighborhoods northwest of Georgetown that are the wealthiest in the city, is abuzz with talk of affordable housing. Ad hoc working groups are attracting new members to address racially discriminatory policies of the past. Residents and city officials embrace greater racial, cultural and economic diversity and believe that people who work here should be able to live here. All proclaim a desire to meet Mayor Muriel Bowser’s goal of 1,990 new units of dedicated affordable housing — that is, housing for people making between 30% and 80% of the area’s median family income — by 2025. This unity of purpose is the good news.

But achieving this goal will be challenging. Land in Ward 3 is expensive, and we can’t build our way to the goal with market-rate development. With virtually no vacant public land available, how will we finance affordable dwellings for those who need them most?

What can we expect from private developers? And what is the best way to plan for neighborhood growth?

Some support the Office of Planning’s proposal to grant extensive density changes to the Future Land Use Map, known as the FLUM. “Up-flumming” lays the groundwork for upzoning for greater density and taller buildings.

Developers could then build massive new market-rate developments along Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues that would create a small percentage of affordable housing through D.C.’s loophole-ridden Inclusionary Zoning which requires that a portion of new construction be incomerestricted. To reach the goal, a minimum of 100 new buildings of 100 units each would be needed.

For example, City Ridge, the former site of Fannie Mae on Wisconsin Avenue, is a 1.2 million square foot mixed-use development. Of the 750 new residential units, only 70 will be affordable. Even if all of the units were affordable, this huge project would reach less than half the mayor’s goal. While some developers will receive a tax abatement requiring 30% affordability for much smaller projects, their contributions will still fall far short.

Others, including this writer, oppose this approach, believing that the city’s Comprehensive Plan must be based on fundamental principles: Housing is a human right, no one should have to pay more than 30% of their income for dwelling, developer giveaways are a recipe for community disempowerment, and land use map changes should follow, not precede, small area planning. Granting publiclyowned development space through up-zoning should be a negotiation, not a matter-of-right entitlement. The city should not let developers off the hook from negotiating a Planned Unit Development in which the public exchanges additional building mass for community benefits, such as a higher percentage of affordable housing. Why suffer the headache of community negotiations when you can reap a substantial profit from radical new policies that make up-zoning inevitable?

In Ward 3, we can expect private developers to produce some affordable housing, but the current puffed-up expectations are unrealistic.

While there are opportunities in Ward 3 to develop with little or no displacement of residents and businesses, there are limitations. New development should not displace Ward 3 residents who live in the numerous rent-controlled buildings along our avenues, many of whom are elderly and live on fixed incomes. Nor should new development drive out small businesses that serve neighborhood needs. New development must take place

through thoughtful, community-driven planning, not onesize-fits-all approaches.

In Ward 3, we can expect private developers to produce some affordable housing, but the current puffedup expectations are unrealistic. To produce 1,990 new units of affordable housing by 2025, the city must take intentional action and invest substantial public funds in many projects with a clear-eyed understanding of the limitations on what the private market will produce.

One exciting possibility to make substantial progress towards the mayor’s housing goal is for the city to purchase the bankrupt Wardman Hotel at the Woodley Park Metro station and convert it into affordable housing.

Hotels are far easier to convert to apartments than office buildings because they are similar to residential apartment buildings. Hotel conversion can be done at roughly half the price of new construction, and much more quickly.

By repurposing 1,100 hotel rooms, expansive ballrooms and exhibit space, the hotel could become a great asset for new residents and long-time neighbors alike. The Ward 3 Housing Justice Working Group and the Wardman Strategy Team, both offshoots of the D.C. Grassroots Planning Coalition, are talking with the city and others about acquiring the property and developing it with innovative tools, supportive services and businesses.

These could include a land trust, limited equity cooperatives, job training, small business incubation, non-profit meeting space, a grocery store and more.

To date, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh has offered no encouragement. In a recent letter to her constituents, she supported extensive up-flumming; and dismissed public acquisition of the Wardman as too expensive.

We remain hopeful that she will rethink her support for developer-dominated approaches and embrace new ideas that welcome new residents into our neighborhoods.

Meg Maguire is a member of the Ward 3 Housing Justice Working Group and the Wardman Strategy Team. This article expresses her personal views.

Fight for the right to housing QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE

We at the People For Fairness Coalition have been on the frontline of the pandemic for the past four months now, faithfully supplying much-needed items to people experiencing homelessness who do not stay in shelters.

Five of us—Robert Warren, Reginald Black, and myself (who are also Street Sense Media vendor-artists), along with Andrew Anderson and Qaadir El-Amin — conduct outreach every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

We work together with the group’s treasurers, directors, and assistant directors and one really great, outstanding person—head advisor and mentor Marcia Bernbaum, who I feel must be acknowledged. She is so caring for the less fortunate.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been such a joy and a privilege to do this work, and I have been determined to help the homeless community at the

encampment. My motto is to be determined, to help myself in order to help others.

Along with volunteers, every weekend since this pandemic, we have faithfully served Virginia Avenue, New Jersey Avenue and O Street NW, and 2nd and L Street NE. Even when my health is not up to par (old age aches and pains), I still want to service the homeless and supply them with toiletries, personal items, socks, clothing items, tarps, food, and water. Because of grant money and donations, some from personal friends, we have been able to purchase these items.

I have been at peace knowing that they get what they need. But one thing that breaks my heart in a little sadness is when there is harsh weather, such as rain storms, ice storms, snow storms, or even dangerously hot weather—and we can’t service the people. Even at times the directors have had to cancel our outreach. In

this instance, I do shed a tear.

I am now an advocate who stands strong and speaks up for some people at these encampments who may not be able to speak up for themselves. Many of them are 60 years old or older. Now this really does destroy me.

So I’m determined to go before whomever in the government to protest and fight and get these seniors housed. Being a senior myself in a homeless community, I really do understand how this must stop. We must find a way to house the seniors.

As the slogan goes, “housing is a human right.” I (we) must FIGHT, FIGHT FIGHT! This pandemic has not stopped. It’s still for real and going on. I must continue (with my aches and pains) to FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! Queenie Featherstone is an artist and vendor with Street

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ART

Washington, DC

BY CARLOS CAROLINA Artist/Vendor

What’s going on in Washington, D.C., with the Wasingtonians?

A mural on 14th Street NW in 2020. Artist website: chrispyrate.com. PHOTO BY ERIC FALQUERO

On the Beat, Part 1

BY AYUB ABDUL // Artist/Vendor

As the trial over George Floyd’s traumatic murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer last year wears on, another young man, Daunte Wright, was killed by another officer from the same police department on Sunday. I think it’s critical in these times that we examine how police officers can be an asset to their communities if they put in the time to know and value the lives of every member of those communities enough to build relationships with them...

All lives matter and it’s time to recognize that truth, because this country is hurting and we cannot afford a civil war. The George Floyd incident that led to a murder, and all the recent shootings, this has set off worldwide peaceful demonstrations in places like Australia, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, just to name a few. Police reforms are requested all over.

This is the time for America to show real leadership. The whole world is looking to us. I urge you to get involved to create real change in our police departments.

I can remember my first ride in a police car.

It was years ago. I was about four or five years young. My mother, sister, and myself were in a shopping area that we frequented to buy all types of things. Sometimes my mother would buy me these toys, Cowboys and Indians. I ran over to where they were displayed and stood there watching and dreaming. Somehow, I got separated. I was standing in dismay, wondering where my mother and sister were. A very nice lady asked me if I was lost. I told her that I was looking for my mother. She took my hand and we walked until we saw a policeman. Then he walked us to the precinct.

We went to the police station and the officer told the desk sergeant about the situation.

Once inside, a very nice officer was assigned to me. The officer asked me some questions, but I couldn’t answer them. So the officer-in-charge suggested to put me in the squad car and see if I could recognize my mother.

This was all new to me and I found it to be exciting.

A few minutes later, the police officer had me perched in the front seat of the squad car. We left the precinct and rode around. A few minutes

later, I saw my mother and sister standing on the street. With a great ball of excitement, I let the officer know by pointing at them. Once the officer confirmed that we were family, he allowed us to reunite.

Another time, many years ago when I first moved here in the 70s, there was a beat cop named Officer Gray. He was assigned to the Georgetown area. One Sunday morning, he walked up and introduced himself to me with the warmest smile. I was taken aback because I had never had an experience like this before.

I immediately gave him my attention. He said he was the beat officer assigned to the area and that if I ever needed his assistance to let him know. He asked me my name and informed me that the police station was on Volta St. To this day, I remember his name and his kind face. He was a gentle man with gray hair who spoke softly, with a little authority but not overbearing. He was grandfatherly.

One reason that we are experiencing so much conflict in the police departments across this country is the police are alienated from the people.

Police officers who walked the beat, like this man I still remember from 40 years ago, were connected with the community. Those officers talked to the people in the businesses and knew the neighborhood residents.

We have to communicate with our city representatives. We have to have our police get out of those police cars and walk the beat. Once the police know the people in the community, they won’t be so fast to shoot. Once police officers and community members build enough trust in each other again, we can come to peaceful solutions together.

This is especially needed to stop the overpolicing of people with mental illnesses. If you are a part of the community, and get to know the people, you know when someone is acting abnormally versus when they are dealing with an ongoing medical condition. If you don’t know the people, you could overreact and respond inappropriately.

The extremely high cost of housing in this area leaves many people with mental illness no alternatives but to go to the street and be homeless. And if that happens, that person needs psychological and economic assistance, not a traumatic interaction with authority.

As tax-paying citizens it’s time to get city officials to legislate increased funding to help get people into housing and to provide adequate care for anyone with mental illness.

To be continued.

I see gentrification has really gotten the best of our city. A city once known as Chocolate City is looking more and more like the Milky Way, or yet a caramel swirl. “No funny.”

Where have all our culture gone? Where is the Washingtonian spirit? Has gentrification hit our city so hard that we “the people” of the land can’t identify one another?!

NO! NOT AT ALL We each, as a culture, people, and tribe, need to reach deep down within and become more in tune with one’s self. Two things that I definitely feel will help is spirituality and unity.

Come on D.C. — Delicate City.

To be together we at least have to come together.

You know — U.N.I.T.Y.

*ay, ay, ay

And when we come together — it’s always a beautiful thing.

Go-go music Beat your feet dancing Game playing Bike riding Board racing And tribe game tests.

I really miss the old D.C., where things was chocolate and sweet.

Healing Justice

BY ROBERT WARREN // Artist/Vendor

What should I be but that person, the man who I am, the Believer in the unseen, the giver of Good Tidings, the seeker of the Lord’s forgiveness, to have justices denied to see a baby smile and to give all praise to the most High.

To see life’s water running free for every man, woman and child in need, let freedom ring, let spiritual healing bring forth peace, yes peace, Healing Peace.

A thought of no more unjust wars; No more white people, Black people anymore. Just being People forever more; Bring forth Healing Justice. Let us all walk through this door, Healing the souls and Hearts of those in need of Healing Justice. Let me Breathe: no more George Floyds in need. Let all the people Breathe the fresh air.

I will Believe Healing Justice for the people will one day be no longer the hidden reality. If I only knew what Healing Justice really means, maybe just a place to have a place for everyone to just be. No more Hunger.

Housing Justice is Healing Justice for me.

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ART

Hope strong for a disabled team

My Peace & I

BY DARLESHA JOYNER Artist/Vendor

BY ABEL PUTU Artist/Vendor

I’m looking to see the warmer weather happenin’ and I’m waiting for the pandemic to be over.

We’ll be able to play the wheelchair basketball again. And my goal is to one day open my own business. It’s important for everyone to be able to get out safely, especially kids. The kids want to come out and play and do the things they was doing in the past, like going to the zoo, playing in the playground, and going to the ice cream shop.

I got grand nieces and grand nephews who want to play outside. Not only them, but everybody’s kids.

Some kids, they want to know why I’m in a wheelchair. They ask some tough questions. They want to know about my disability.

You have to be ready for them when it comes: “Why you in the wheelchair?” “Why do you choose to play wheelchair basketball?”

I say, “Look, I play because I love it. I play so we can make a difference in the kids’ lives and in the adults’ lives and for all the disabled people that have never seen the wheelchair basketball before. Not only here, but around the world.”

D.C.’s National Wheelchair Basketball Association team, the MedStar NRH Punishers, is incredible. We’re ranked third in the nation! I pray that one day soon it will make a difference in my life and in other disabled people’s lives here in the United States and all over the world.

But for now, I’m dealing with my housing. I appreciate everything that Street Sense Media does for me, especially the case managers. Also the social workers of the D.C. housing department and Green Door, and the mayor of D.C. They’re my other team.

Mamba out.

Thank God for never giving up on me to have another chance to raise my child My son brightens up my day He full of energy and smiles My beautiful daughter brings me peace I see me in her, she keeps me happy overall Thanks, God, for my five children I would not trade them for the world.

April is National Poetry Month! We hope you’ve enjoyed the work in these pages, included on our cover. For more work by Street Sense poets, visit StreetSenseMedia.org/art

Treading The Waters, Part 35

BY GERALD ANDERSON // Artist/Vendor

When we were last with Gerald on the streets of New Orleans, he was finally runnin’ the streets with his two best friends from two different periods in his life, Greg and Minew...

Now it’s really kinda shakin’ the city because we’re very known. What I mean by very known is, the large to-dos in the street, they know our work. They know we rob, they know we jack, they know we shoot dope. They know we hang out.

They know everything about us.

It’s me, Minew, Greg, all three together. The Three Stooges.

It’s shaking when we go back of town, the Calliope Projects, where Master P and C-Murder and all of them from. When we go back there, it gets shady.

They don’t know what we be up to. They be scared.

They’ll put in work if they can get the work. But they KNOW we gonna put in work.

What I mean put in work, we will pull them triggers. Police out there — whatever. That’s how serious we are out there.

We really don’t go back there for it. But we know they’ll snake on us. Mean they’ll kill us, because they want us out the streets, some of them be so scared.

These are big boys. Sam. You know he scared. But Sam will put a hit out on you, get you out the way.We don’t want the beef, but we never know. We can’t sleep on it.

He’ll put a hit on any one of us. Because if you kill him,

The Calliope housing project was renamed B.W. Cooper Apartments to memorialize a longtime employee of the local housing authority who had died several years prior. It was demolished after Hurricane Katrina. COURTESY DIETER KARNER / FLICKR

you know I’m gonna come. So it don’t matter.

A lot of people curious about young kids in New Orleans, how they get killed, and how the situation go. A lot of them be in the way.

What I mean in the way, it might be family problem, it might be beef problems, it my be girlfriend. But it’s mostly you in the way.

It’s different from here, where I’m at in D.C. now, to New Orleans. If you out there in the street, all this come with the street. What I mean by that is that you can’t be out there thinking this not going to happen.

Anytime you breaking the law, there’s gonna be some drama.

I don’t care how rich your folk be, how classy they be, it’s gonna be drama.

I don’t care how big you get, it’s gonna be a problem. Even for me, a problem.

I’m a street guy, but they still get me. They’ll get me high and still kill me. I gotta be on my Ps and Qs. You can’t never tell when it’s gonna happen.

My instinct can make me feel not the right way. You, him, him, him … I might tell y’all, “Nah, I’m gonna pass.”

I go in the project: “Glad you didn’t get in that car, they was trying to knock you off.” As I get in the car, they gonna have a back-seat man. I’d have seen it, watched it.

Most of the time when I move today, I still think about a lot of things that I did. And I’m blessed, I’m really blessed.

I look at the world today, it seem like it’s coming to an end.

That’s how it really look.

Then you gotta sit back and think about it. If it do end, I did me. I did what I had to do, whatever.

You can’t stop it if it’s coming to an end.

But I tell you, when me and Greg and Minew together, it’s no joke.

To be continued. Anderson’s first book, “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina,” is available on Amazon.com.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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Each week now!

BY QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE // Artist/Vendor

ILLUSTRATION BY MEG ROGERS

Read more SS news Weekly publications soon Come what “May”? Oh on, “April!” I’ll say; SS news will print week-by-week It’s here to stay — April, not May

Power

RARG! (Real as real gets)

BY RITA SAULS // Artist/Vendor

BY REGINALD SCOTT // Artist/Vendor

For pass of guesser choose capture for feed of the breed outline reads, fold all flaws divine odds by gravity charge focus at large, ‘cause RARG mountain raindrops sound so delightful for significant others and their life.

Whom dedicated to their progression as all prosper the supra, the deceptivate of the era, is placement occurring.

Albeit may levitation assist, but to resist the fake real as real gets!!!

When I think of power, it elevates me to its highest level mentally, physically, and spiritually. Mentally, there’s no power above the mind. Mindset regulates all power and then directs the body. Physically, the body is a power of its own with its ability to heal itself.

And spirituality is very powerful, fitting all things together like a puzzle.

The sun, moon, and stars; the water, fire, and Mars. Like you and I, all celestials, too, hold power.

Spring is finally here

BY SYBIL TAYLOR // Artist/Vendor

Spring is in the air! The cherry blossoms blooming are so pretty. There are pink ones and white ones — they are such an attraction. They make the city look nice, especially at the tidal basin. The blossoms add an attractive smell to the air, a beautiful spring fragrance to accompany the brilliant flowers.

The grass is growing and the bees, insects, and squirrels are enjoying all the plants that are waking from winter. The sweet sound of the birds chirping and singing little tunes fills the air. Spring is a breath of fresh air. It all just makes you want to be outside, whether you’re walking or jogging in the crisp morning air, just relaxing in the sun reading a book or listening to music, enjoying bike rides, or watching our Nats play ball.

Spring is the season and reason to enjoy all nice days full of joy.

SONGS FOR SPRING: 1. "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" by Roy Aye 2. “A Beautiful Morning” by The Rascals An April 2014 photo of cherry blossom trees at the tidal basin. PHOTO COURTESY OF NICOLAS RAYMOND (WWW.BOLDFRONTIERS.COM) / FLICKR

The new beginning

BY MARCELLUS PHILLIPS // Artist/Vendor

Once my mind is set I'm ready for any war ahead of me. See me making moves so now the whole world is scared of me.

Try to stop my shine but my mind always destroys the drama.

In the world I live in, my number one rule is to always expect some type of karma.

Now when I think about my life and the way I choose to live, I give much respect to all those that do choose to give.

My life is unique and I struggle every day. I thank my Street Sense customers for your help in each and every way.

#Proximity

BY LEVESTER GREEN // Artist/Vendor

Y’all my brothers, but not like my brothers You know, the kind that’s got the back of one another’s Ok, man down!? Every man for himself In goodness & in health, but not for in the pursuit of wealth?

From a distance, at a distance, ear hustlin’ Listening but no up-close entrancing; Interesting It’s a pride thing then, when I’m surrounded by my pride Don’t let them liars in this here Lion’s Den Hon, what’s for Din? Mon, you can’t win When we were just about 2 let the fun begin again Coin gaining… in other words changing If not time zones then lanes Then like Poppa here, needing new lenses as well as frames As sturdy as my name How I get a higher-up price? That s*** is lame These people are suspicious & I cannot see them the same #Shame!~ Levester’s poetry collections “The $hort Report for a $hort $ta¢k of $hort ¢ake: This Is $hort Work” and “We Were Just Joaning: (It’s a Dc Thang!)” are available on Amazon.com.

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FUN & GAMES Sudoku #8

2 7 5 1 9 6 3 4 8 9 3 6 5 1 8 4 7 2 4 5 8 3 7 2 6 9 1 M E D I A // A P R I L 1 4 - 2 0 , 2 0 2 1 7 1 2 4 6 9 8 5 3 Sudoku #3 2 4 8 3 6 9 1 5 7 3 6 1 5 4 7 9 2 8 7 9 5 2 8 1 3 6 4 Tough Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 1, Book 1 8 7 4 1 9 5 2 3 6 6 1 9 4 3 2 7 8 5 5 3 2 8 7 6 4 9 1 4 5 3 7 2 8 6 1 9 1 2 6 9 5 4 8 7 3 9 8 7 6 1 3 5 4 2

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Want to help me pay my Internet bill?

You can make a donation at http://krazydad.com Or by mail: Krazydad, P.O. Box 303 Sun Valley, CA 91353 USA Thank you!

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BY PIERRE JOHNSON Artist/Vendor

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© 2013 KrazyDad.com scratch area

SUDOKU: Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each 3-by-3 block contain all of the digits 1-9.

LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION >>

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

9 7 4 8 2 5 1 6 3

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

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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

COMMUNITY SERVICES

SHELTER HOTLINE Línea directa de alojamiento

(202) 399-7093

YOUTH HOTLINE Línea de juventud

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE Línea directa de violencia doméstica

(202) 547-7777

1-800-799-7233

Housing/Shelter Vivienda/alojamiento

Education Educación

Health Care Seguro

Clothing Ropa

Legal Assistance Assistencia Legal

Case Management Coordinación de Servicios

Food Comida

Employment Assistance Assitencia con Empleo

Transportation Transportación

Showers Duchas

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

Friendship Place // 202-364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave., NW friendshipplace.org

Catholic Charities // 202-772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp

Georgetown Ministry Center // 202-338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave., NW georgetownministrycenter.org

Central Union Mission // 202-745-7118 65 Massachusetts Ave., NW missiondc.org

Jobs Have Priority // 202-544-9128 425 2nd St., NW jobshavepriority.org

Charlie’s Place // 202-232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave., NW charliesplacedc.org

Loaves & Fishes // 202-232-0900 1525 Newton St., NW loavesandfishesdc.org

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

Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 marthastable.org

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

Community Family Life Services 202-347-0511 // 305 E St., NW cflsdc.org

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

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

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

2375 Elvans Road SE 2204 Martin Luther King Ave. SE

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

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

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

New York Avenue Shelter // 202-832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave., NE

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

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

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE Línea de salud del comportamiento

1-888-793-4357

Laundry Lavandería

Samaritan Ministry 202-722-2280 // 1516 Hamilton St., NW 202-889-7702 // 1345 U St., SE samaritanministry.org

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 1500 Galen Street SE, 1500 Galen Street SE, 1251-B Saratoga Ave NE, 1660 Columbia Road NW, 4414 Benning Road NE, 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 765 Kenilworth Terrace NE, 555 L Street SE, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, 1717 Columbia Road NW, 1313 New York Avenue, NW BSMT Suite, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 828 Evarts Place, NE, 810 5th Street NW

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

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

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

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

BIRTHDAYS April 18

Warren Stevens ARTIST/VENDOR

HELP! WE’RE LOOKING FOR

volunteers Become a Street Sense Media volunteer and help further our mission to empower people experiencing homelessness.

Get to know the vendors and make a difference in their lives and yours!

You’ll support hard-working newspaper vendors by volunteering your time, four hours a week, distributing newspapers at the Street Sense Media office.

If interested, please contact: Raven Neely raven@streetsensemedia.org 202-347-2006 (x 401)

// 1 5

Dear Reader,

MOVING LIVES FORWARD

Despite all the disruption, despite all the uncertainty, Street Sense Media has stood steady alongside the men and women we serve throughout the last year during the pandemic. That would have been impossible were it not for you and other loyal donors. Your generosity is transforming lives and helping our vendors through this challenging time. It has also inspired us to make investments in new services and opportunities aimed at helping more vendors move out of homelessness. We are deeply grateful for your financial support.

When the pandemic began, we made a commitment to do whatever we could to help our vendors through it. In addition to a threat to their health, the pandemic and its impact on the downtown workforce had an enormously negative impact on our vendors’ ability to earn an income. In response, we established an emergency assistance fund to help housed vendors maintain that housing with utilities kept on and helped all vendors get the food and medicine they needed to survive. We kept our offices open to provide our vendors both hospitality and access to needed services. We asked newspaper readers to support their vendor via our mobile payment app. And perhaps most importantly, we doubled the capacity of our case management program to make sure more vendors could get the help they need to secure housing, benefits, and access to health and mental health care.

Text DONATE to 1-202-952-9856.

Given the vulnerability of the people we serve, we continue to be guided by an imperative to be bold in our efforts. With that in mind, I am pleased to report that as of April 14th, our newspaper is being published on a weekly basis (as opposed to the biweekly schedule it has been on since 2007). Publishing fifty-two times a year has been a strategic goal for us for more than 10 years because of the positive impact it can have on vendor income. Vendors sold about 40% fewer papers during the second week of the biweekly publication schedule. With a new product in hand on a weekly basis, we expect that sales dip to disappear and result in our vendors earning as much as 60% more! This will put more of our vendors on the path to housing and greater stability.

In all, these changes – maintenance of an emergency assistance fund, expanded case management capacity and weekly publication – will cost well over $100,000 annually. We are confident this investment will propel more vendors forward in their lives.

We hope you agree and will show that by making a donation today to support Street Sense Media. Your kindness and generosity may very well save a life. We deeply appreciate your support and wish you and yours the very best of health and all things in this challenging and difficult time.

With gratitude,

Brian Carome Chief Executive Officer

From your vendor:

Yes, I want to support vendors in moving their lives forward!

Enclosed is my gift of: ❑ $1,000 ❑ $500 ❑ $250

❑ $50

APRIL 14 - 20, 2021 | VOLUME 18 ISSUE 13

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