06 02 2021

VOL. 18 ISSUE 20

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JUNE 2 - 8, 2021

Real Stories

The United States Street Paper Movement: Resilience and strength in a year of challenges

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EVENTS

// 3

NEWS IN BRIEF DC’s proposed FY22 budget increases funding for affordable housing

Memorial for David Denny Thursday, June 3, 11:00 a.m.

Church of the Epiphany (Street Sense Media office), 1317 G Street NW This will be a time of remembrance and gratitude for our friend, leader, and voice of our community. Our gathering will be in the Sanctuary. Following the memorial light refreshments will be served.

Everyone is invited and welcome to join. Please let us know if you plan to attend.

The memorial will be streamed live on Street Sense Media’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/streetsensedc.

THURSDAY, JUNE 3

UPDATES ONLINE AT ICH.DC.GOV

Southeast Children’s Parade

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meetings

10:30 a.m.

Eastern Market Metro Park

Executive Committee June 8, 1:30 pm Online via Webex

To celebrate the reopening of Southeast Neighborhood Library and DC Public Library’s 125th birthday, join DCPL for a children’s parade through Eastern Market Metro Park. Bling your bikes, wagons and strollers, bring your shakers and get ready to cheer!

***For call-in information, as well as meeting info for unlisted working groups, contact: ich.dmhhs@dc.gov

SATURDAY, JUNE 5

Fort Stanton Park 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Fort Stanton Recreation Center 1812 Erie Street Southeast Join the Ward 8 Woods Conservancy for a cleanup of Fort Stanton Park to remove litter and invasive species of plants. Bring a water bottle, boots and durable pants.

For questions contact Nathan at 202-520-2742 or nathan@ ward8woods.org

Submit your event for publication by emailing editor@streetsensemedia.org

Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled her plan for a proposed $17.5 billion budget at a hearing at the newly opened MLK library on May 27. The new budget, buoyed by $2.5 billion of federal aid from the American Rescue Plan, allocates $505.1 million of federal aid over four years to affordable housing, $483.2 million for businesses, and $387.6 million for economic recovery for residents.

The budget also includes plans to allocate $263.9 million of the federal aid for learning acceleration, $193.7 million to gun violence prevention, and $189.1 million to COVID-19 response.

Despite the investment in pandemic relief and recovery, some say it still falls short of what is needed.

According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, an advocacy organization focused on reducing poverty and inequality within the District, the plan does not do enough to address structural inequities that impact the city’s poorest residents.

“Even with this strong plan, the Mayor misses some important opportunities to dismantle structural barriers to opportunity for Black and brown communities and those living on low incomes,” the organization said in a press release.

In the press release, the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute also added that the budget “falls short” on supporting excluded workers such as undocumented immigrants.

Still, according to data from the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers, D.C. generally leads its neighbors in funding and providing affordable housing. In 2020, the District met 52% of its target for new housing for “low-income” households while Arlington County met 23% of its housing target for the same demographic. The same data also shows that Fairfax County met only 2% of its annual target while Alexandria met 6% of its target.

While the budget increases funding for nearly every D.C. agency except for the Metropolitan Police Department. The proposal instead offers spending on alternatives to policing.

Within affordable housing, the proposed budget includes a record $400 million contribution to the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund, adding $150 million in funding for the current fiscal year and $250 million for the next fiscal year. $352 million will also be provided for rent and utility assistance through the STAY DC program.

The plan calls for spending $113 million on renovating and replacing public housing. It also allocates $67 million to acquire and convert property into emergency and transitional shelters for victims of domestic violence. In addition, the plan calls for new housing developments, including the production of 758 new permanent supportive housing units for singles and 347 new units for families.

The D.C. Council will review the mayor’s proposed budget over the coming weeks, with the first public hearing set to begin on June 2 at noon, where members of council and the public will deliberate the plan for next year’s spending.

—Will Schick

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NEWS

Bowser calls for $400 million investment in affordable housing

BY ALLY SCHWEITZER DCist

This article was first published by DCist on May 24.

As part of her goal to construct thousands of new homes across the city by 2025, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is seeking to invest an additional $400 million into affordable housing over the next two years.

The mayor announced Monday that her supplemental budget for this fiscal year will add $150 million to the Housing Production Trust Fund, the city’s primary vehicle for affordable housing financing. Bowser is also calling for $250 million in the fund in 2022 — the District government’s largest annual investment in affordable housing to date, if it’s approved by the D.C. Council.

The investment could generate an additional 2,700 affordable homes, according to the mayor.

“You know affordable housing is my baby,” the mayor said to developers, housing advocates, and officials who gathered to hear her announcement at the Spring Flats development in Ward 4 on Monday morning.

Affordable housing advocates welcomed the news that Bowser is also seeking to boost the city’s Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP) for households earning at or below 30% of the region’s median family income, equal to about $39,000 annually for a family of four.

LRSP vouchers can be used to provide rent subsidies to low-income tenants in developments financed by the GRAPHIC BY THE D.C. OFFICE OF PLANNING’S 2019 HOUSING EQUITY REPORT.

Housing Production Trust Fund.

According to the mayor’s office, part of the $400 million investment will help construct 462 net new affordable housing units and preserve another 175 affordable homes across eight different projects.

Half of those projects are located in Ward 8. Rental units financed by the Housing Production Trust Fund must be maintained as affordable for 40 years.

In 2019, the mayor announced an ambitious goal to build 36,000 homes by 2025, with a third of them affordable to low- and moderateincome residents. The administration had reached about 20% of its affordable housing goal as of April, according to city data.

In 2019, the left-leaning D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute

implored the mayor to double the annual $100 million in housing funds, saying the trust has become less valuable each year as construction costs have gone up.

So m e a c t i v i s t s used M o n d a y ’s announcement as an opportunity to urge the mayor to cancel rent for residents who lost income during the pandemic. Bowser continues to face criticism over the administration’s rollout of its Stay DC rental assistance program, which began distributing $352 million in federal relief to tenants last week. Advocates say the program’s online application is difficult to access without a computer and requires extensive documentation that many renters don’t have.

Others pointed out that $400 million is not enough to prevent displacement of low-income D.C. residents.

A 2015 study by the Urban Institute estimated that the city would need to invest between $3.1 and $5.2 billion in affordable housing to meet its needs through 2020.

While Bowser talked up her budget request in front of the Spring Flats development, Councilmember Robert White (D-At Large) announced he’s introducing legislation that would preserve existing rental units in D.C. as affordable housing. The Generating Affordability in Neighborhoods (GAIN) Act would allow the city to place temporary affordability requirements on privately owned rental units in exchange for subsidies. Residents who earn less than 30% or 50% of the Washington area’s median family income would qualify for housing under a covenant.

As proposed, the bill is similar to the city’s DOPA law, which grants the city an opportunity to purchase and preserve affordable homes before they’re sold to private developers.

Last year, both housing advocates and the Bowser administration expressed concerns that the coronavirus pandemic would force the city to slash spending on affordable housing, citing potentially huge revenue losses.

But those fears have gone mostly unrealized. The District wrapped the 2020 fiscal year with an unexpected budget surplus, and the CFO’s latest 2022 revenue estimates look surprisingly rosy.

By law, the District is required to dedicate half of any annual budget surplus to the HPTF, once reserves are replenished.

After the mayor releases her proposed budget this week, D.C. Council committees will hold budget oversight hearings, followed by a markup of the budget.

A 2015 study by the Urban Institute estimated that the city would need to invest between $3.1 and $5.2 billion in affordable housing to meet its needs through 2020.

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Build-first redevelopment at Greenleaf Gardens may be moving out of reach

// 5

DCHA’s latest build-first redevelopment plan, referred to as a “make ready” plan. IMAGE BY DCHA

BY NENA PERRY-BROWN Greater Greater Washington

This article was first published on May 20 by Greater Greater Washington.

In November 2020, the DC Housing Authority selected a co-development team including Pennrose, EYA and Bozzuto to redevelop the 15-acre Greenleaf Gardens housing community in Southwest. Their goal was to use the “build-first” model in which new units for the public housing residents are delivered before razing and redeveloping their current units, so as to not leave them scattered and displaced.

[Disclosure: A GGWash board member is an EYA employee, and currently works on the Greenleaf Gardens redevelopment project.]

The co-development team initially presented two build-first options in their proposal: a surface parking lot at the nearby Capitol Park Plaza & Twins apartment complex and a portion of the development planned by Westminster Church a couple of blocks away. Both sites are attached to members of the development team.

DCHA’s 180-day negotiation period with the co-development team is now in its last trimester. At this point, both of the build-first options previously identified for the redevelopment of Greenleaf Gardens are in doubt, and the powers that be are pushing for a different approach.

Meanwhile, Greenleaf residents are contending with issues regarding miscommunication from both DCHA and the co-developers, which is adding anxiety to an already haphazard process.

first option for Greenleaf Gardens. Instead, if the team is able to build the up-to-100-units that may or may not be feasible on that site, that new building would simply be a welcome addition of affordable housing to that complex. No word on where that would leave the previously-shared interim option for Greenleaf residents to move into already vacant units at Capitol Park.

Newly added to the build-first options is what DCHA is referring to as “make ready.” The agency plans to renovate 48 vacant units, half within the Greenleaf footprint north of L Street SW between 3rd and Delaware and Half Streets and half at the James Creek public housing complex east of King Greenleaf Recreation Center. Current Greenleaf residents in the block south of L Street (“Block A”) would have the option of moving into those units this fall, possibly freeing up Block A for razing and redevelopment. This build-first opportunity seems to be the most achievable.

But that also begs the question: if one of the criteria for RFP respondents was for the development team to have buildfirst sites under their control, does the shrinking window of possibility for the previously-proposed sites not disqualify the co-development team? The answer: apparently not.

Build first or move first?

As the uncertainty of the build-first plan and details of their relocation looms, Greenleaf residents are also growing restless with the slow pace of repairs — even after DCHA announced a roughly $6 million budget that would go toward capital repairs to Greenleaf properties this fiscal year, in addition to the makeready plans.

Residents have also criticized the quality and thoroughness of communication from the agency and the co-development team.

In recent months, numerous community leaders have echoed the sentiments of residents and called for sharper communication.

At the April Board of Commissioners meeting, Greenleaf Gardens Extensions and Additions Resident Council President Dena Walker read a statement calling out the current redevelopment effort as the latest example of DCHA’s “empty promises” to not displace residents before moving them to new build-first units. Walker is currently working toward issuing a resident-led RFP for one of the blocks in the Additions/ Extensions, with hopes that residents can co-develop where they live.

At the May ANC meeting, Greenleaf Midrise’s acting Resident Council President Patricia Bishop noted with the recently-formed Greenleaf Resident Advisory Group having met with DCHA and the development team twice, residents have felt disregarded and disrespected, particularly when it comes to their attempts to get answers about needed capital repairs and unsafe living conditions. Along with the slow or lacking response to short-term needs, there also seems to be a disconnect between what information is relayed to stakeholders and what is relayed to residents.

ANC Commissioner Rhonda Hamilton, whose singlemember district includes the Greenleaf Midrise and senior

In March, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission that encompasses Greenleaf voted unanimously on its position regarding the mixed-income planned unit development (PUD) currently under zoning review for Westminster: the 123 affordable senior apartments being proposed for the project should not be build-first, but should be a net increase of affordable housing for the neighborhood.

Westminster Church and Bozzuto agreed to comply with this request, which seemingly took build-first off the table at the site. However, the development team has since been suggesting that the remaining 99 units included in the PUD, currently being pursued as market-rate condos, could be a potential build-first opportunity instead.

Such a drastic change for this portion of the development would obviously require a major shift in financing strategy for the project, and would also require that the PUD application be modified (no such modification has been filed yet, and the Zoning Commission will reconsider the PUD in June). In either case, achieving build-first here is far from guaranteed.

At an April meeting, the Greenleaf Neighborhood Advisory Council learned that because the co-owners of Capitol Park put the property up for sale, this potentially closes the window for any future public housing-related development on the site unless the lone co-owner on the redevelopment team is able to buy out their partners.

A month later, Jack Lester of EYA (another partner on the development team) informed ANC meeting attendees that Capitol Park was not, in fact — nor had it ever been — a build-

Residents grow frustrated with miscommunication

buildings, reiterated this point during the May ANC meeting, as well. “I’m glad that you all are making a lot of efforts with this redevelopment process, which I hope will be successful and I hope that you all will include us,” she said. “But I’m just very bothered by the meetings that I’ve sat in and attended — how the staff has been disrespectful to the residents, how we don’t hear the concerns that they’re bringing up every month.

We don’t hear anything about how they’re being addressed, and they feel like no one is really listening to them.”

In response, DCHA officers say they are communicating as much as possible and the redevelopment is moving forward full steam ahead, with no options off the table. “I’m sorry if you feel as though my team has been dismissive of the residents,” Director Tyrone Garrett said at the ANC meeting.

“When we talk about make-ready units… when we talk about wanting to push up opportunities for build-first, all those things are trying to create a warp-speed approach to getting things done and moving people into safe spaces so that we don’t have to hear about deplorable conditions,” he continued. “Sometimes [our] hands are tied because [we] don’t have anywhere to move them to, nor do [we] have the capital money to make the improvement in the particular unit, and we don’t want that. None of us do.”

What’s next for Greenleaf?

Since the clock started in January, DCHA has just under two months remaining to put an operating agreement in place with the co-development team.

The Board of Commissioners does not vote to approve operating agreements, nor is it a requirement that specific development sites be identified in order to execute an operating agreement. This means that in early July, DCHA expects to transition seamlessly into a new 180-day negotiating period, this time for a Master Development Agreement (MDA).

DCHA expects to share a draft of the revitalization plan with the public in September; the Board of Commissioners would vote on the plan in October. The subsequent MDA will deliver more clarity on the development components, phases, timeline, and details like the number and distribution of replacement units.

If nothing changes between now and the creation of the updated revitalization plan, some questions still remain. Do the existing proposals meet the build-first requirement? What would happen if the Board of Commissioners rejected an MDA whose only proposed build-first was within the Greenleaf footprint?

The public would likely have to wait until next January to find out, and a lot could happen in the meantime, especially with Garrett’s resignation effective in June.

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NEWS

Protests, occupations, and “takebacks” of unused public housing: Activists notch wins with militant tactics

BY HENRY BRANNAN Street Roots

This article was first published by Street Roots on Feb. 24.

Spurred by deepening housing, homelessness and gentrification crises, a nationwide wave of militant housing activism is growing as its successes go viral.

In 2019, when Moms 4 Housing took over a vacant home in Oakland, California, activists across the country learned of the victory on social media, in the press and through national activist networks. They adapted the approaches from this occupation and others like it and put them into practice, each victory adding to the momentum.

The seeds of the movement were planted in 2015, when Jennifer Bennetch noticed the Philadelphia Housing Authority, a public agency, was selling off an ever-increasing number of her neighborhood’s public housing units. Families that had lived in the area Bennetch’s whole life were now overflowing out of shelters as gentrification exploded, she said.

Bennetch started attending the Housing Authority’s board meetings, but years later, her efforts materialized into nothing, so she took a new approach.

“I started off really humble and going, trying to talk to people,” she told Street Roots. “You just get ignored. Nothing changes like that, and so I kind of became more militant over time.”

She ultimately became involved in a highly publicized battle for housing — complete with protest occupations, public housing takeovers, failed negotiations, targeted harassment and last-minute back-channel deals, all documented in the press and in volleys of competing press conferences.

Bennetch, who now lives with her husband and kids in the city’s Sharswood neighborhood, was homeless for seven years after aging out of the foster care system. She co-founded #OccupyPHA in early 2019, and it soon began a protest Philadelphia resident Jennifer Bennetch used militant measures to protest her city’s practice of selling off public housing units. She helped organize takebacks, getting families back into vacant homes. PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER BENNETCH

encampment outside of the Housing Authority’s new $45 million headquarters.

Though it yielded no concessions, the five-month occupation, which Bennetch explained was to fight the mass privatization of the Housing Authority’s public housing stock and to disband the city’s police department, ended up playing a key role in an eventual win. It was during that occupation that Bennetch was introduced to many of the people and organizations that would later form a winning coalition.

That coalition, Philadelphia Housing Action, continued the work, launching another protest encampment, this time in a central and historic area near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Starting last year on June 10 with just five people, the protest encampment, which coincided with the George Floyd uprising in the city, swelled to more than 150 people in just a few days.

Releasing a list of eight demands relating to disbanding the city’s police force and providing permanent housing to houseless and low-income Philadelphians, the occupation proved effective at gaining significant attention.

Seeing this, the group decided it was an ideal time to go public with another project it had been working on.

In between the two protest occupations, Bennetch and others had been compiling a list of vacant Housing Authority-owned properties around the city and, earlier in the year, secretly started helping families move back into the vacant, publicly owned homes.

In a video announcing the takebacks, Bennetch explained to left-wing media outlet Unicorn Riot that because the Housing Authority was letting “a lot of vacant, viable homes” run down before selling them off to private developers, the coalition has

“been supporting families (in) making these vacant homes that are meant to house families anyway into their homes.”

The story erupted nationally, and the city called the group to negotiate but offered no permanent housing, Bennetch said.

Soon after, the group started another occupation, this time in a soon-to-be-developed lot across from the Housing Authority’s headquarters.

By July, the ever-expanding, multipronged approach of the group and the measures the city took in trying to fight them off were a major story, frequently detailed in The Philadelphia Enquirer, WHYY and other media outlets.

The group’s efforts prompted the city to call for a second round of negotiations, but those again stalled. Recalling the talks, Bennetch told Street Roots that tensions boiled over, and at one meeting she announced, “Can y’all hurry up? I got to go move another family into one of your houses.”

In another, she told Philadelphia’s mayor, “Just lock me the f*** up right now — ’cause I’m not going to stop. Just do it.

I’m going to break into houses today.”

After months of gridlock, the wins began in October.

Activists had jeopardized a $52 million development the agency had slated for a lot they were occupying, and the city needed them out in a matter of days to salvage the deal.

The Housing Authority offered nine homes to be put into a community-controlled land trust as well as amnesty for people squatting in Housing Authority-owned homes, all in exchange for the camp across the street from their headquarters to be disbanded.

The group accepted the offer, but the saga wasn’t over.

“We had to close the camp down in like four days so that they wouldn’t lose the deal,” said Bennetch, “so we just took over all their houses that weekend and just moved everybody in some more flats.”

Resolution to the larger camp in the center of the city followed this same arc. About a week later, she got a call from the Housing Authority’s CEO and Philadelphia’s managing director. The pair offered the coalition 50 additional units and temporary housing options for people in the meantime, Bennetch said.

After some debate, the group accepted the offer and cleared the camp, and like last time, the former residents moved out of the camp and into more vacant Housing Authority-owned housing.

“God, I think we moved like 60 people into vacant PHA houses that weekend, like that week alone,” Bennetch recalled.

By September, the group had won 79 houses, all placed into a land trust to be permanent housing for houseless and lowincome Philadelphians. News of the win spread quickly as it was covered by national news outlets.

Philadelphia Housing Action told Street Roots the group was inspired by Oakland’s Moms 4 Housing. In turn, the Philadelphia activists’ win has influenced other groups nationwide.

And while the Philadelphia activists’ massive win may be the largest of the movement so far, it isn’t an isolated event.

Portland’s own Red House on Mississippi Eviction Defense has been successful in holding off police efforts to evict the residents and in raising enough money to purchase the house from the developer who owns it.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 7

AT A GLANCE

Jet Flegette

In the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles, Reclaiming Our Homes took over 14 vacant homes that California’s transportation agency had acquired for a since-abandoned freeway expansion plan. This is the first home the activists took. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARTHA ESCUDERO

In the El Sereno neighborhood on the east side of Los Angeles, Reclaiming Our Homes took over 14 vacant Caltrans-owned homes that the state agency had acquired for a since-abandoned freeway expansion plan. In November, after more than six months holding them down, the city partly capitulated and let the reclaimers legally stay in the houses.

And in Oakland, Moms 4 Housing made national headlines in late 2019 when the group of houseless Black mothers took over a vacant house in West Oakland. In January 2020, they were evicted, but through a deal between the developer and the Oakland Community Land Trust, they came to own the house and turned it into transitional housing for other homeless mothers.

And while all of those wins are remarkable because of the concrete concessions they forced, many other groups’ wins required no concessions.

Tacoma Housing Now housed over 40 homeless people in a motel for five nights amid a serious cold spell. KC Tenants, a group based in Kansas City, Missouri, blockaded and shut down an eviction court in October. And a protest organized by New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly scored a similar win, shutting down an eviction court in late July.

Although this wave and some of its inciting forces are new, the tactics are not unprecedented. In the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, similar actions sprung up, including the “Take Back The Land” movement, which placed families in newly foreclosed houses around the country.

In 1990, the National Union of the Homeless pulled off a large-scale simultaneous takeover of vacant public housing in eight cities across the country. The group’s occupation is documented from the inside in Skylight Films’ “Takeover” by Pamela Yates and Peter Kinoy.

And even beyond the context of housing, takeovers have been a powerful tool in militant activism for a number of causes, from the American Indian Movement in the 1970s to Columbia University’s 1968 student uprising.

Portland also has an eventful history of militant housing activism dating back to the early 2000s, when unhoused activists took on the city’s sit-lie laws by marching as a convoy from one location to another to set up camp.

To Jaboa Lake, a former Portlander who now serves as a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress’ Poverty to Prosperity Program, it’s no surprise that these

approaches have reemerged now amid such a deep crisis.

Lake co-authored a recent report for the center, titled “Kicking Folks Out While They’re Down,” which looked at how the government’s pandemic response is worsening evictions and homelessness. “(It’s) really up to lawmakers to make sure that people are protected,” she told Street Roots, “and until that happens, people on the ground are going to do what they need to do to survive.”

To Lake, militant housing activism groups are meeting people’s essential and immediate needs.

“These are the type of groups that are central to saving lives.

These are the types of groups that are saying, ‘Our community has a need, we have our list of demands so that you know what they are, but in the meantime, we need to do what we need to do to survive,’” she said.

This rings true for Reclaiming Our Homes organizer Martha Escudero. She told Street Roots she’s partaking in direct action because economic crises “have driven us to this point.” She said she doesn’t want to break the law, “but if the laws are unjust, I feel like it’s my duty to do this.”

Before taking over a vacant home, Escudero was working as a perinatal case manager, but still ended up homeless with her two young daughters, bouncing between friends’ couches. Some of the same problems she had encountered for years at work as a social worker trying to help her clients were now her own.

And that’s when she saw what Moms 4 Housing was doing in Oakland.

“I was really inspired, them being moms as well, and just that they had the courage to do this for their children. And so I was like, if they can do it, I’m gonna do it too.”

For Escudero, the goal wasn’t just to get housing for her family but to get everyone, especially the most vulnerable, housed.

“We are all working towards the same goal, which is housing as a human right and having housing provided for people,” she told Street Roots about the national wave of militant housing activism.

She emphasized that the fight is about sustainable alternatives to the capitalist system, autonomy and community control of land and housing.

But, she said, “to me, it’s more personal. I like to have personal relationships with humans and to really care about them. It’s about love. … If you have a support system and people power, anything is possible.”

BIRTHDAYS Jet Flegette June 12 AUTHOR/VENDOR

VENDOR EMPLOYMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS • Vendors can receive 15 papers for presenting a CDCissued vaccination card.

• Ask Thomas if you’re interested in being considered for being recorded on video for a vendor profile.

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.

www.StreetSenseMedia.org/newsletter

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NEWS 14

International Network of Street Papers: North America

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ISRAEL BAYER, DIRECTOR

In the face of a global pandemic, a growing climate and eviction crisis and mass homelessness, street papers in more than 100 cities around the world (28 in the U.S.) continue to come together and respond with both poise and purpose. It hasn’t been easy.

For people living and working on the front lines of homelessness and poverty, COVID19 has only compounded the gross inequities that already existed on the streets every day.

It's crisis born of systemic racism, the lack of access to adequate healthcare, living-wage jobs and housing for millions of individuals and families living on a fixed income, or no income at all. The staggering loss of life and people’s livelihood is very real.

The collective stories of street papers are many. They include stories of triumph and struggle, endurance and loss, hope and defeat. They are the story of a street paper in Washington D.C. working to become a weekly publication, while a scrappy publication from Toledo supports vendors on the streets. It's an editor in Oakland refusing to quit and running a monthly street paper mostly by herself — helping support the livelihood of dozens of vendors. It's a small street paper in Denver maintaining normal office hours in a parking lot for months on end amidst COVID outbreaks to support vendors. It’s the story of a group of people coming together to launch a street paper in West Virginia during a global pandemic. It’s StreetWise in Chicago providing 12,000 disposable masks, 1,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, $100,000 in direct cash support and an opportunity for temporary reemployment doing census outreach to homeless people last year.

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During the past year street papers have come together to develop emergency safety plans and measures for organizations to remain operational during the pandemic. We developed campaigns to support vendors to have a basic income and worked to distribute PPE to street papers around the country.

Street papers continue to work hard to deliver important news and resources in their respective communities — highlighting the work of housing, environmental, criminal, immigrant and racial justice movements both locally and around the world.

From highlighting the homeless and housing crisis in America to the Black Lives Matter and larger racial justice movement to sharing the stories of immigrants and refugees — street papers believe in the idea of bringing people together to work toward making the world we live in a better place.

All of this continues to be done while working to try to provide vendors with access to the vaccine, maintaining a regular publication schedule and keeping the doors open during a global pandemic. It’s more than amazing.

None of this could be possible without readers like you.

At the end of the day, street papers are only as powerful as the people that support them. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support of both StreetWise and the larger street paper movement. We are stronger together. Thank you!

Israel Bayer is the director of the International Network of Street Papers North America, a regional bureau representing street papers in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Real Change SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

The pandemic has exacerbated income inequality and housing instability. On a national and local level, without cancellation of rent and a massive increase in social housing, homelessness will increase dramatically once the eviction moratorium ends.

Real Change exists to provide opportunity and a voice to low-income and homeless people while taking action for economic, social and racial justice. Based in Seattle, WA, Real Change serves over 700 individuals struggling with poverty and homelessness through a low-barrier employment opportunity.

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1 THE BRIDGE Memphis, TN 10 25

2 THE CHALLENGER Austin, TX 3 COMMUNITY CONNECTION Los Angeles, CA

8 THE HEARTLAND NEWS Omaha, NE

4 THE CONTRIBUTOR Nashville, TN

9 HOMEWARD STREET JOURNAL Sacramento, CA

5 THE CURBSIDE CHRONICLE Oklahoma City, OK

10 THE JOURNEY Fort Worth, TX

6 DENVER VOICE Denver, CO

11 LOWCOUNTRY HERALD North Charleston, SC

7 GROUNDCOVER NEWS Ann Arbor, MI

12 MAKING CHANGE Santa Monica, CA

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Denver Voice DENVER, COLORADO

JENNIFER SEYBOLD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

What do you see as the biggest national issue affecting our client population?

Never has it been more evident than in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that employment is the key to creating and maintaining housing stability. Unemployment, and low-wage jobs burden millions of individuals and families across the United States. With so many individuals stuck in low-wage positions and without proper support to grow their skills, the risk of homelessness continues to grow exponentially. Nationally, we need to look at solutions to increase opportunity to earn a wage that meets average median level expenses, and allow for quality housing and basic needs to be met.

Individuals experiencing homelessness also face greater challenges finding and maintaining employment. Systems need to do more to provide equal access to job training and placement, educational opportunities, and support for additional barriers to success including access to child care, systems to treat mental and physical health conditions and strategies to take on long standing negative impacts of racial and ethnic

discrimination.

What is the biggest issue facing your clients in Denver?

Since the last recession in 2008, just 15 cities have generated 80% of the nation’s GDP growth and Denver is one of them.

Metro cities with skilled workers and high-income influx have higher rent prices, revitalization projects increase, and this results in rent prices that have risen above what income gains could reasonably justify.

An estimated 96,000 Denver residents spend more than the recommended affordability rate of 32%. And a staggering 25% are already spending more than 50% of their income on housing.

In most neighborhoods, a minimum wage worker would have to work 80 hours a week to reasonably afford a 2 bedroom apartment, and those prices continue to rise, climbing 10% in 2019, while wages rose only about 0.5 percent.

Denver has only 23,348 income-restricted homes available and an ever-growing wage gap that continues to result in more individuals experiencing homelessness.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

13 ONE STEP AWAY Philadelphia, PA 14 REAL CHANGE Seattle, WA 15

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

SUZANNE HANNEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

What is the biggest national issue from a street paper perspective?

18 STREET ROOTS Portland, OR

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The racial wealth gap is the biggest problem facing the United States from a street paper perspective. A typical Black family has net worth of $17,150, and a 20 STREET SHEET San Francisco, CA typical white family, $171,000 - nearly 10 times greater - according to the Brookings 21 STREET SPEECH Columbus, OH Institution. Latinos have typical net worth similar to Blacks.

22 STREET SPIRIT Berkeley & Oakland, CA A reflection of historic discrimination (from slavery to redlining), the wealth gap 23 STREETVIBES Cincinnati, OH has been growing for the last 30 years.

Inheritances are one reason. Fewer Black 24 STREETWISE Chicago, IL families (8 percent) receive inheritances ($83,000 on average) than white families 25 STREETZINE Dallas, TX (26 percent/$236,000 average), according to McKinsey & Co. 26 THRIVE DETROIT Detroit, MI Lower net worth creates precariousness: up to 70 percent of middle-class Blacks can 27 TOLEDO STREETS Toledo, OH become lower-class (at greater risk for homelessness) as adults.

28 TWO WAY STREET Albuquerque, NM Simultaneously, more wealth raises prices and reinforces segregation: in housing, in education, in career opportunities.

Most of all, the gap creates a divided electorate, including some people with little empathy for hardship, which makes it difficult to create public policy to advance everyone’s needs.

19 STREETSENSE MEDIA Washington, DC

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StreetWise

16 SPEAK UP Charlotte, NC

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15 SPARE CHANGE NEWS Cambridge, MA

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COMING SOON! Wheeling, West Virginia

Street papers in the U.S.

What is the biggest local problem in Chicago?

Wealth inequality fuels Chicago’s worst problem, segregation, because higher

income people can choose pricier neighborhoods with more access to resources. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle, according to the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), because segregation furthers income inequality.

Segregation’s negative outcomes for education, for example, mean that only 12 percent of Latinos over 25 have bachelor’s degrees, compared to 20 percent of African Americans and 44 percent of whites.

Segregation also plays into what David A. Ansell, M.D., called “the death gap”: inadequately funded hospitals and limited access to health care that leads to a life expectancy of 85 for a Loop or Hyde Park resident but only 72 for a North Lawndale and 69 for a Washington Park resident.

During the pandemic, there were also greater numbers of cases and deaths in minority neighborhoods.

More than half Chicago’s homicides in 2016 occurred in 11 minority communities with the highest poverty. According to one study cited by MPC, increased deaths there created a ripple effect of 70 residents lost.

StreetWise has been part of the fabric of Chicago for 28 years. StreetWise Magazine has covered everything Chicago from its people to its social issues, politics, nonprofits, arts, culture, and neighborhoods. More than 14,000 StreetWise Magazine vendors have found dignity on street corners in neighborhoods across the city.

The Curbside Chronicle OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA NATHAN POPPE,` EDITOR

What do you see as the biggest national issue affecting our client population?

Nationally, the idea that people choose to be homeless is a detrimental problem. It’s never that simple, and it’s a dismissive, dangerous myth that’s persisted for far too long. It’s a bad line of thinking. The public should understand homelessness is complicated and it takes a community working together to make things better for its most vulnerable population. But it all comes down to housing, which is why we believe in the Housing First model in Oklahoma City. Housing First is exactly what it sounds like. It provides housing first, housing without preconditions, but it doesn’t stop there. Once housed, people are provided with case management and the support they need to address

the issues that might’ve led to their homelessness. People show improvements in mental and physical health, reduced substance use, decreased emergency room visits, decreased involvement with law enforcement and improved quality of life when they have the safety and security of a home. Homelessness is the symptom of multiple social ills in our world, but housing is the effective treatment.

What is the biggest issue facing your clients in Oklahoma City?

Before the pandemic, Oklahoma City faced a shortfall of 4,500 affordable housing units. That problem persists and has only been exacerbated by the lingering pandemic. Our city needs

more readily-available and truly-affordable housing options to house people. Minimum wage in Oklahoma City is $7.25 and has been stagnant since 2008. Income growth has not kept pace with rising rent costs, leading to an affordability crisis. Simply put, people working full-time minimum wage and low-wage jobs aren't making enough to keep up with the cost of living.

According to HUD, those who spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing are considered to be cost-burdened and at greater risk of homelessness. In OKC, a worker making minimum wage would have to spend 76 percent of their annual income on housing to afford the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment and 60 percent to afford the average cost of a onebedroom apartment, according to Deborah Jenkins, executive director of the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency.

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NEWS

The US government needs to address the housing crisis

BY BROOK FADLEY

Like the air we breathe and the food we eat, housing is a basic human need.

But even before the pandemic hit, our housing system was already broken. We’ve seen over the last year that those most vulnerable, Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant families, and women-led households, have been impacted the worst. Now more than ever we see that we all need safe and stable places to call home. The government has a critical role in helping to achieve this by investing in housing infrastructure that safeguards against a public health crisis from happening in the future.

Right now, our housing system rarely protects those of us who are vulnerable from losing our homes. In Oakland, California, Rita, a mom with two young children, lost her family home due to back taxes she was no longer able to pay. She and her kids were homeless for two years. In Detroit, Michigan, Donna almost lost her housing due to an administrative mistake that she had to prove in order to keep her housing. Tahira needed her home repaired—it took eight years for her to get her roof replaced but her home is structurally damaged and unsafe due to mold and interior damages. I was living in Cleveland, Ohio when my children and I were made homeless by an unjust eviction, resulting in an entire semester struggling to care for my kids while trying to attain my bachelor's degree.

This is what happens when our housing system fails

How to improve the DC budget JEFFERY CARTER

I think D.C. needs to invest more in education and the development of young people. More of the budget should go toward social services, too.

Some money should be for job training, like workforce development in impoverished neighborhoods — especially for skilled jobs that will always be in demand, such as building, HVAC maintenance, electrical, welding, carpentry and masonry, medical assistance and IT/Computer training.

This is what I think the new budget should go to. If you want to run a community, if you want to build a community, you have to invest in education.

Jeffery Carter is an artist and vendor with Street Sense.

to care for all of us. It is now the story of an estimated 40 million U.S. households that are behind on rent or mortgage, and many more just one paycheck away from a housing nightmare. And you could be next, in the blink of an eye, it could be you that is homeless. Losing one’s home can happen in an instant of crisis: Loss of income or a job, a sudden health emergency, a sick child, a landlord evicts you for no reason or your home is sold to a new owner. Whatever the circumstances, the damage of losing a home is immense and can hurt families for years to come, and this trauma has impacted way too many of us already. Our elected leaders can choose to ensure all of us have the sanctuary and security of home.

America needs to invest in housing infrastructure that works for all of us, and that provides all with the safety and security of a home. Stability and health are the foundations of what families and communities need to thrive, and that starts with home, the platform that fosters our dreams and allows us to flourish.

The Biden Administration and Congress can start by following the actions laid out in the New Deal for Housing Justice, a policy playbook for federal housing policy that assures homes for all. Actions must include a housing voucher system available to all who are income qualified, addressing the $76 million in backlogged repairs to Public Housing, an investment of $20 billion

into the national Housing Trust Fund, and the creation of a federal acquisition fund that will protect families from the Wall Street vultures currently circling our communities for foreclosed properties.

America has the wealth and the means to have a housing system that works for all of us. The President and Congress also have an opportunity in this upcoming infrastructure bill to make a down payment for a housing system that works for all.

There is a fierce urgency now for people to be housed in safe, affordable and decent homes. For the millions of Americans from every walk of life, it is clear that housing is an essential human right. We all need to live and thrive in communities that offer resources, sustainable jobs and safe havens when crises like a pandemic or climate fueled weather emergencies hit. Let’s not wait for another disaster to hit. It is time for all of us to make our voices heard. We need a New Deal for Housing Justice.

Brook Fadley is a resident leader with Resident Action Project (RAP) in Washington state. Brook lives with her two children in Vancouver, Washington.

This column is made possible through a partnership with Community Change and the International Network of Street Papers North America.

Courtesy of INSP.ngo

Cranes over new housing on H Street in D.C. PHOTO BY TED ETYAN / FLICKR

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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ART

Acrostic for Professor Willie Schatz

BY QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE Artist/Vendor

To my customers

BY LORRIE HAYES Artist/Vendor

P – professional

W – wise

R – right standing

I – interesting

O – out of sight

L – learned

F – family man

L – loving

E – erudite

I – independent

S – sensitive

E – early riser

S – sociable

First let me say how much I miss all of you. And I hope that all is well during this time. I miss saying good morning and greeting you all with a smile. I’m hoping you will have a good day. I really would love to thank you for your wonderful donations you have made to me. I just want to say that I will remember the hugs and kisses from you. Please take good care of yourselves and your family. Maybe I will return to my corner soon.

Friends

O – optimistic R – ready

BY CARLOS CAROLINA Artist/Vendor

Friends are the people we pick to be family. Friends should treat one another like they are you themselves. That’s a real friend. Friends, my friends, growing up, we had a lot of fun. We played sports, ate food, partied, danced and even cried at times. That’s what made us family.

Healthy relationships are what make good friendships.

Hope for the disabled

BY ABEL PUTU Artist/Vendor

Everywhere I go, I motivate a lot of people that are disabled and not disabled. It’s not only about me, it’s about all the vendors, too.

Street Sense inspires me to keep busy and a lot of people are glad to see me out there, telling me that I’m doing a good job.

I’ve been homeless in the past. I’ve slept in the street, I’ve got robbed three or four times.

A guy robbed me while I was sleeping in a sleeping bag and took my shoes off my feet.

When I was laying back in the corner with a broken wheelchair, my Washington Wizards hat was stolen off my head.

When you are in a wheelchair it’s a difficult time, because you gotta find a place to sleep.

I’ve slept at a bus stop, in the alley, in the corner between the government buildings. Security will come around and tell you to leave the premises and you have to take all your luggage with you.

Also, my apartment got flooded like I wrote about before. So it’s been really rough in the

past.

It doesn’t matter because I fight to push my story for people to hear. My brother-in-law and my sister call me and check on me to make sure how I’m doing. I feel I got somebody that at least can cater to me. My social workers, Miss Aiesha and Miss Watts, they check on me, make sure I have everything I need. My caregiver, Missy, she comes to work and makes sure I got everything I need.

I feel good that I’m getting all this, that I will get more resources.

Selling the Street Sense newspaper inspires me to get more resources, more help, more things I need for my apartment.

I feel good when I’m out there, I feel comfortable. And I feel very independent when I’m out there. I strive to survive, to inspire people, to encourage people. I don’t let my disability hold me down.

Your health is a gift from God

BY ANTHONY CARNEY Artist/Vendor

I just had recent surgery due to my appendix bursting, a rupture which can spread infection throughout my body. It’s possibly life threatening. This condition requires immediate surgery to remove the appendix and clean your abdominal cavity, So customers, I’m back to work with my Street Sense family.

To my faithful customers, thank you for the donations.

Remember to take care of your health.

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Why are people so destructive?

BY JACKIE TURNER Artist/Vendor

I don’t understand why humans have done so much damage to the Earth and to one another. I’m worried our planet won’t recover.

People constantly spewing hate of this and that is dangerous for our children. What will happen to our future? If we don’t take care of the Earth, where will we live two thousand years from now? Will there be any life at all? Let’s not kill ourselves.

Most damage comes from those wanting money, power, and prestige. Look at it this way: People didn’t invent life. But nothing is more important. So let’s work to save the Earth and our life on it.

Please. please, please!

Joy

IMAGE BY DANIEL KÖCHLI / PIXABAY

One Spring Day

BY SAMUEL HALL Artist/Vendor

BY AYUB ABDUL Artist/Vendor

Joy is a feeling, an emotion, that all creations, I believe, should experience.

Us creations spend the majority of our life trying to experience that first experience of joy.

I believe that every level of life has different levels of joy. I haven’t found joy at this level yet, because I’ve been trying to find myself at this level.

I believe once you find yourself at a new level, that’s when you find your joy at that level.

Joy is consistency.

The rain comes down hard and after a while the sun comes out.

The wind blows softly and gently as the air has a freshness that pulls me in.

This is the right time to fall in love.

Do you hear the birds singing a melody of romantic rhythm?

Just hold my hand and take a walk.

Nature will do the rest.

Learning how to forgive yourself

BY VENNIE HILL Artist/Vendor

It’s been something that I’ve been doing for a long time now.

It’s not something that comes easily. You try to remove all the hurt and pain from inside of you that comes from the past.

Just to move on with your daily life. But somehow you still get time to remember your past. But trust me and take it one day at a time.

You try to take very good care of yourself because today you matter, today it’s all about you. So as you go to your mirror everyday and take a good look in it, whether brushing your teeth or combing your hair or even just looking at yourself, say to yourself, “Look how far I’ve come from there.” Remember all the struggles and trials and tribulations. Then say to yourself, “I’ve changed. I’m a better person today and I’ve learned a lot.” Because look how far you’ve come.

Today take your time and focus on you. If you lose focus, take a deep breath and start your day over. Because when we lose focus on ourselves and focus on others, that’s how we ended up where we were in the first place, putting others before ourselves. Because you can’t take care of nobody else if you can’t take care of yourself. Our problem is worrying about the word NO! Worrying how people would feel if we choose it. Today for ourselves, it’s okay to say no. Learn it, use it. Because again, you have needs too. Don’t let the past keep

you trapped in it. Today is a new dawn, a new day. Get out of that past. In the long run no one will keep you out of trouble.

Before, all I thought about was other people’s feelings, forgetting that I have feelings and needs too. I would give someone my last, without having anything for myself. That’s me, that’s Vennie. But today, I value myself. I’m still struggling but I’ve came a long way and learned a lot of new things about myself. I’m not hanging with the wrong ones anymore, those ones that want to use me and control me. Oh, left those behind.

You can believe they’re still out there. They have found them another victim, because it won’t be me anymore.

I didn’t realize that I had real family and friends that loved me sincerely. I thought that my family was my enemy. I started calling those crazy people out there my family and left my family alone basically. But all the time my family was showing me love that I was too blind to see.

This struggle that I go through learning to forgive myself is much more than a battle. But I’m not taking it sitting down.

I still fight everyday for my place as a normal person in this world that just wants to survive.

So the first thing I do for myself when I wake up is I thank God for letting me see a new day. Whether it’s a s***** day or a gorgeous day. I’m still breathing, my mom is good and I feel

blessed. Now I have already figured out my plans for today last night. Praying that I carry them out successfully and nothing gets in my way. Because you always have to be prepared for the enemy. He wants to steal and destroy everything he sees.

So when you get into the mirror you tell yourself, I am not who I used to be, I have changed. My life has truly turned around for me. Today I am somebody. Today I live my life for me. I am beautiful, I am kind, I am intelligent, I am smart, and I am worthy to be blessed.

Things like that, it makes a difference on how you feel about yourself and how you treat yourself. I am not saying be conceited or anything like that, but learn to love yourself again. There is nothing wrong with that. Being strong within can benefit you in the long run. And don’t you let no one tell you different.

Tell yourself, I am somebody. These are called positive affirmations. You use them to rebuild your strength within yourself if you lost it. Because sometimes we can lose it.

So when you’re feeling bad or had a very bad day, pick yourself up and treat yourself to something new. Even if it’s a nice meal. Why not? We deserve it. Who else is going to do it? I know it always makes me feel better inside.

So until next time, stay safe and stay clean.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Home for the heart

BY FAITH PEACE Artist/Vendor

As the deer goes down to the lakes for water, So we long for each other to live and laugh and love.

You alone are my heart’s desire to talk and walk, And I long and hope for your love in return!

My sister or my brother or my friend or my loved one, This poem with these words are for you to read or hear…

We have a livable, lovely, and light filled home, In the neighborhood and the way of the world.

You and I and everyone get along through valleys, High and lows, great times and poor, we get through!

In our home, there is comfort, rest and refreshment… … for the greatest and the smallest and in between hearts.

Even strangers come into our home to get a chance to rest!

We will build our home to be a place of strength and peace.

Favor, goodwill, courage, and reunions will be our goals.

With a humble garden outdoors to sit and talk to each other.

Between our busy moments, there will be food, drink and merriment.

Trusting and finding gratitude in each other and everyone around, This will keep our home warm, comfy, and cozy — a pleasant aroma!

Singing, dancing, flowing, and laughter abound in plenty!

Smiles, sparkles, and spring in the step are all around the place.

No hunger, no thirst, no sorrow, no want, no complaints… ...The home that we build is at One Hundred Percent!

IMAGE BY RYAN LERCH / OPENCLIPART.ORG

Life is an echo

BY MARCUS MCCALL Artist/Vendor

What you send out — comes back. What you sow — you reap. What you give — you get. What you see in others — exists in you. Remember life is an echo. It always gets back to you. Let God work and don’t block your blessings by moving too fast. When God is working on your behalf, be patient. Good things take time. Don’t get weary and don’t get in the way!

If you speak badly about someone, it will always get back to the other person that you spoke of. I’ve seen killas tell, I’ve seen men, I mean grown men, adjust the code to what benefits them, I’ve seen men who claim to live by the code embrace rats! The streets is a lose-lose situation. If your ass still in them, get the f*** out before you become the next victim! I’ve learned a lot this year. I learned that things don’t always turn out the way you planned, or the way you think they should. And I’ve learned that there are things that go wrong that don’t always get fixed or get put back together the way they were before. I’ve learned that some broken things stay broken and I’ve learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you.

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A prayer for police reform

BY MARCUS GREEN Artist/Vendor

Do you know “Change is Coming,” that old song by Sam Cooke? It was the soundtrack to the Malcolm X movie.

Seeing all the people that turned out to protest George Floyd’s murder made me feel the same way listening to that song does.

Holding the police accountable on the oath they took is critical. My prayer is to see in my lifetime a world that’s better than it was when I came into it.

Moving forward, we should surround ourselves with positive people and organizations that have a mission to make the world a better place. I feed the birds daily and I’m a dog lover. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The luckiest people in the world are the people who need people. Thank God for your support.

How Street Sense helped a homeless man start a business, part 1

BY MARCELLUS PHILLIPS Artist/Vendor

Street Sense Media has helped me establish a new life and new lifestyle. Prior to me learning about Street Sense Media, I always had a regular job when my health allowed me to. But after 20 years of wear and tear, I decided to take my life back.

I was initially scared because I had been denied disability after being diagnosed with epilepsy at 17. So, instead of fighting, I got a part-time job and worked despite my disability.

I don’t regret my 20 years of work because I learned a lot. But I would have had less stress, which in turn would have caused me less seizures. But I’m still alive, so no complaints.

In 2013, I was left homeless after moving to Atlanta to create a relationship that I always wanted with my brother and father.

My father is a TV repairman and my brother was a drummer for major musicians such as Outkast and other famous groups.

I enjoy wiring up houses and sound systems and I love making music and videos and entertaining others. So I’m both my brother and my father combined in one.

I’m thankful for the days we did spend together because my brother passed a few years after I returned to D.C., which hurt me more than most know. I currently accomplish things by using the power and mindset they both wanted but couldn’t get because of bad habits that caused issues with family and friends. My father is a heroin addict and my brother had his own issues that I prefer not to speak on as I say, “Love you and rest in peace, big bruh.”

Once I established a relationship with Street Sense Media, I didn’t take them seriously but left them as an option when I was completely broke and had the courage to go out and sell the paper. A lot of people choose to be homeless and broke because they are embarrassed of their situation and don’t want a low paying job or opportunity. But I am the opposite. And after I established a routine selling the paper, I was in business and used their resources to guide me to a better life…

To be continued.

OnlineCrosswords.net

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FUN &#2 Sudoku 8 4 1 GAMES 9 6

This is the Daily Crossword Puzzle #7 for May 27, 2021

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

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8 7 1 9 6 2

9

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

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7 1 3 5 2 6 6 54 3 1

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3 4 3 7 8 © 2015 KrazyDad.com

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each Sudoku #6 all of the digits 1 thru 9.

3-by-3 block contain

Find this crossword

7 use6 logic 2 you 9 can4solve 5 the1 puzzle 8 without 3 If you guesswork. puzzle’s answers at: 9 a1 5 6 The8hints3 page 2 shows 4 7a logicaltinyurl.com/06-02Need little help? order to solve the puzzle.

Use it to identify the next square you should solve.crossword-solution Or use the answers page 3 really 8 get 7 2 1 5 9 6 4 stuck. if you 5 2 7 8 9 6 4 6 9 1 3 5 4 7 8 4 3 2 1 7 6 2 7 6 5 3 9 8 4 5 9 1 7 8 3 1 3 8 4 6 2 9

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

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

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

<< LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION

"When I see a film I've finished, it's like another person made it. Like another mind."

-- Dario Argento

1 8 4 9 6 3 5 4 2 6

Across Across 1. Mold 1. Mold 6. Gorillas Gorillasup 10.6.Brought 14.10.

More wan up Brought 15.14.

Former More wan 16.15.

Great affection Former 17.16.

Absolute Great affection 18.17.

Division word Absolute 19.18.

Portent Division word 20.19.

Unsealed Portent again 22.20.

Surly Unsealed again 24.22.

ArtSurly ____ 25.24.

Cushion Art ____ 26.25.

Slipped Cushion 30.26.

Part of speech Slipped 32.30.

Comes close Part of speech 36.32.

Fiesta item Comes close 38.36.

Positive Fiesta votes item 40. Feather scarf 38. Positive votes 41. With ice cream (3 wds.)

40. Feather scarf 43. Eating away 41. With ice cream (3 wds.)

45. Basker's desire 43. Eating away 46. Girl 45. Basker's desire 48. Among 46. Girl 49. Play part 48. Among 51. Cooking vessels 49. Play part 53. Alpha's follower 51. Cooking vessels 54. Peculiar 53. Alpha's follower 56. Pare 54. Peculiar 58. Not wide Pare 61.56.

Brightness Not wide 66.58.

Customer Brightness 67.61.

Distinct times 66.

Customer 69. Honolulu greeting Distinct times 70.67.

Skirt length Honolulu greeting 71.69. ____ wolf Skirtuser length 72.70.

Lariat ____fish wolf 73.71.

Game 72.

Lariat 74. Deuces user Game fish 75.73.

Severe 74. Deuces 75. Severe

Down 1. Prod

2. Dislike strongly Down 3. Chorus voice Prod 4.1.Chick’s sound 2. Dislike strongly 5. Miscalculated 3. Chorus voice 6. Each 4. Chick's sound 7. Curious woman of myth 5. Miscalculated 8. Superlative ending 6. Each 9. Small porch 7. Curious woman of 10.

Fair-haired myth 11.

Italian city 8. Superlative ending 12.

Constantly 9. Small porch 13.

10.Refuse Fair-haired 21.

Vegas’s 11.Las Italian city state 23.

Kidnapper’s 12. Constantly demand 26. disagreements 13.Minor Refuse 27.

Pale purple 21. Las Vegas's state 28. Ridiculous 29. Beaver project 31. Farewell!

33. Remain

Find the solution at https://onlinecrosswords.net/71419

34. Bird’s perch 35. Mr. Claus 23. Kidnapper's demand 50. Martial artist Chuck 37. Ohio port ____ 26. Minor 39. Deleted 52. Taunts disagreements 42. Psychic ability (abbr.)

55. Resided 27. Pale purple 44. Bro or sis 57. Those who fib 28. Ridiculous 47. High voice 58. Without feeling 29. Beaver project 50. Martial artist Chuck ____ 59. China's continent 31. Farewell!

52.

Taunts 60. Cincinnati baseballe 33. Remain 55. Resided 62. Very much (2 wds.)

34. Bird's perch 57. Those who fib 63. Negative reply 35. Mr. Claus 58. Without feeling64. "Moonstruck" actres 37. Ohio port 59. China’s continent 65. Deserve 39. Deleted 60.ability Cincinnati baseballers 68. Line 42. Psychic (abbr.) 62. Very much (2 wds.)

44. Bro or63. sisNegative reply 64. “Moonstruck” actress 47. High voice 65. Deserve 68. Line

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.

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Joy in my kids

BY DARLESHA JOYNER Artist/Vendor

I find joy talking about and receiving pictures of my kids. My children make me super happy. I miss you all like crazy.

I’ll be glad when COVID-19 goes away so I can go back to church to see my daughter and visit my kids at my mom’s house.

Darlesha Joyner and her son. PHOTO BY DORIS WARRELL

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Holtwudu

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Yiff I shal for bear, blossumms will be then, t!morou, for here sweet grin wacks me.

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