07 15 2020

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STREET SENSE MEDIA FAMILY UPDATES

Online: Active bystander skills for interrupting racism Time: Saturday, July 18, 4:00 p.m.

Location: https://tinyurl.com/defend-yourself A free webinar from Defend Yourself on how to take action to interrupt verbal and physical hate. We all have concerns that can prevent us from stepping up.

Skills are the antidote to those concerns. Join to learn how to assess a situation and choose a response to reduce harm to the person targeted while keeping yourself safe.

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Housing Solutions Committee July 20, 3:00 pm - 4:30 p.m.

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Christian Legal Aid D.C. partners with National Community Church (NCC) and its DC Dream Center to host a legal clinic once per month. Legal issues typically addressed include elder law (wills, powers of attorney, etc.), expungements, and housing issues.

More info: Call (202) 710-0592 or email info@christianlegalaid-dc.org

Emergency Response and Shelter Operations Committee July 22, 1:00 pm - 2:30 p.m.

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4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J U LY 1 5 - 2 8 , 2020

NEWS

D.C. Council increases funding for affordable housing and homeless services, but advocates warn budget still falls short

Even after the Council nearly doubled funding for PSH, current funding levels only meet 16% of what advocates have asked for. COURTESY OF THE WAY HOME CAMPAIGN

BY AVI BAJPAI avi.bajpai@streetsensemedia.org

T

he D.C. Council unanimously approved an amended version of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal on July 7, giving advocates less than two weeks to push for additional funding for affordable housing and homeless services before a final vote on July 21.

Councilmembers met virtually during a hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider a series of lastminute revenue-boosting amendments after Council Chair Phil Mendelson circulated an updated print of the budget the night before.

Of the six amendments proposed by councilmembers, the four that were passed primarily increased money for programs geared to tenant relief and housing for people experiencing homelessness over what the Mayor’s original budget allocated.

One measure that passed was an amendment proposed

by Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen which will free $7.4 million for Local Rent Supplement Program (LSRP) vouchers and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), among other things. The amendment delays a tax deduction for publicly-traded corporations for five years.

Another amendment, brought by Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, provides $5.5 million for permanent supportive housing (PSH) and $4 million for ERAP, in addition to other social services. The amendment also makes proposed funding levels for the homeless outreach program and transition-age youth shelters recurring, instead of one-time funds that would expire in the next fiscal year.

The committee voted against an amendment that would have shifted $35 million from a planned streetcar expansion along Benning Road NE toward urgent repairs to public housing units and another amendment that would have raised funding for ERAP and affordable housing by raising income tax rates on D.C. residents making more than $250,000 per year.

During the committee July 7 meeting, Ward 7

Councilmember Vincent Gray, a proponent of the streetcar expansion whose funding advocates wanted to reduce, said doing so “breaks a promise to the residents and businesses of Ward 7, who already have limited transportation access going east to west.”

In response, Councilmember Robert White, who proposed the amendment, said it was important to provide the D.C. Housing Authority with a predictable funding stream so that the agency could make decisions about which units to repair first.

“If we’re going to be honest, there are other ways to get around,” White said. “There are not other places for people to live who are living with mold and infestation.

And if we don’t want it for our family, we would never want folks to say a streetcar is more important than the housing conditions for our family and putting public housing on a sustainable path to stability.”

Jesse Rabinowitz, an advocacy and campaign manager at Miriam’s Kitchen and a spokesperson for The Way Home campaign, issued a statement criticizing councilmembers for voting down the two amendments.

A poll released by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute last month found that 72 percent of District voters supported raising taxes on incomes higher than $250,000.

“Yesterday, a majority of the Council broke with the wishes of four out of five voters by declining to pass a small increase on our highest income neighbors to fund basic human needs and by prioritizing funding for the Streetcar over funding for urgent public housing concerns,” Rabinowitz said. “Unfortunately, for many Councilmembers, their celebration of Black Lives Matter painted on the street does not match the ink in their budget.”

Under its revised budget, the Council has increased funding for several housing and homeless diversion and mitigation programs that were policy priorities for advocates disappointed with the funding levels Bowser proposed in May. According to a tally done by The Way Home campaign, the Council nearly doubled the $5 million investment Bowser allocated for permanent supportive housing, adding another $4 million to build an additional 118 units for individuals and 53 units for families. In total, the

current budget provides $8.5 million to end homelessness for 319 households, but is still $43 million, or 1,481 units, short of The Way Home’s recommended investment level.

The Council also invested $9 million in the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF), on top of the $100 million allocated by Bowser.

The new budget also authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to apply for Section 108 guaranteed loans from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD) to finance new affordable housing units. According to the Council, DHCD will pledge $5 million in Community Development Block Grants each year to unlock $88 million in Section 108 loans “to subsidize the creation of over 600 new units of affordable housing projects” this fiscal year. A summary of the Local Budget Act describes this funding as “a gap subsidy resource for affordable housing acquisition and rehabilitation” that will function alongside the HPTF to advance ongoing housing developments.

As of March, D.C. had a total borrowing availability under the Section 108 program of only $77 million, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. It is unclear where the remaining $11 million in funds will come from.

The Council also provided an additional $25 million in the capital budget for repairing the D.C. Housing Authority’s public housing stock, building on the $25 million that was previously allocated by Bowser for this fiscal year. Last year, the housing authority’s director, Tyrone Garrett, told councilmembers the agency required $343 million in 2019 to address conditions of disrepair that were “extremely urgent” in 2,610 units. An additional 4,445 units were in “critical condition,” Garrett said at the time, meaning that nearly 90 percent of the agency’s 8,000 unit-portfolio required immediate attention.

The Council is expected to vote on a final draft of the budget on July 21, at which point the budget will be sent to Bowser for her approval. Advocates including The Way Home campaign have signalled they will push for additional funding over the next two weeks before the budget is finalized.

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DC Tenant Union organizes rent strikes across the city to demand rent cancellation

BY EUNICE SUNG eunice.sung@streetsensemedia.org

A

fter losing her restaurant job in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Keitisha Bonhom, a single mother of two, could not pay her rent until she received her unemployment benefits in May. Even in the months prior to the pandemic, Bonhom had to receive support through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program to avoid eviction. If another emergency arises this year, she won’t be able to receive that same funding again.

“When I heard about the rent strike, it just made sense because of the fact that if we’re not working, how can we pay rent?” Bonhom said. “For them to expect people to pay rent, knowing that people are not receiving the same amount of income, there’s some people

COURTESY OF DC TENNANT UNION

that are and there’s some people that are not receiving any financial income at all. For them to expect them to pay, that is inconsiderate, and especially during a pandemic.”

Tenants of a dozen residential buildings across D.C. are currently on strike to demand the cancellation of rent for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Stephanie Bastek, a board member of the DC Tenant Union. The union has also collected almost 4,000 signatures on a petition to cancel rent.

While some tenants began withholding rent payments as a display of solidarity, others, like Bonhom, withheld rent because they did not have the money to pay. Despite receiving her unemployment benefits, Bonhom is continuing

to strike at her apartment in Ward 7.

From March 13 to July 7, over 120,000 unemployment compensation claims were filed in the District, according to the Department of Employment Services. To account for the potential repercussions of the public health crisis, the D.C. Tenant Union is demanding a two-year freeze on rent increases while the city recovers, the right to counsel in eviction cases, tripled funding and expanded eligibility for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program and the enactment into law of the Reclaim Rent Control platform in its entirety.

“At this point, cancellation of rent for tenants who have been out of work is the only thing that’s going to keep the public health crisis at bay. We’re not thinking about what would be second best or what would keep maybe half of the tenants who haven’t been at work in their homes or what would not protect everyone, just because that’s not what we need right now,” Bastek said. “It would be a disservice to our membership.”

ONE D.C., an organization dedicated to creating and preserving racial and economic equity, arranged a demonstration on June 19 demanding that the D.C. Council defund the police and cancel rent.

“This is disproportionately on the shoulders of native Washingtonians, Black Washingtonians, brown Washingtonians.

These folks who are often underserved and disenfranchised, they should not bear the brunt of the mistakes of our leaders,” said Patrick Gregoire, the Right to Housing organizer for ONE D.C. “If Mayor Bowser and the city council are serious about racial and economic equity in the district, they have to cancel the rent.”

David Meadows, senior advisor for At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds, said there are currently no movements within the council to have a rent freeze across the board.

Instead, there are options for tenants to work out a payment plan with their landlords.

“We don’t know how long this is going to last so just as this virus is changing, legislation can change to reflect the needs of the city and its residents,” Meadows said.

“Councilmember Bonds understands their situation and asks that they work with their property management.”

Venus Little, a board member of the D.C. Tenant Union, believes this approach to the problem will not adequately resolve the abundance of eviction cases that will follow the pandemic, especially if tenants don’t have the right to counsel. She said payment plans rely too heavily on the hopes that a landlord will be forgiving, when that isn’t always the case.

“That payment plan is not going to work at

COURTESY OF DC TENNANT UNION

the end of this pandemic,” Little said. “All it’s going to do is end up with a mass situation of evictions.”

D.C. ranks third in a national housing policy scorecard system that measures the steps all states have taken to prevent homelessness during and after the pandemic. So far, D.C. has issued a ban on evictions, late fees and utility shut offs for the duration of the public health emergency. The Department of Housing and Community Development also developed two rental assistance programs to aid residents impacted by the public health crisis. But, since there is no action addressing rental debt, there may still be a surge in evictions after the state of emergency expires, according to the Eviction Lab. Richard Bianco, the general counsel of the Small Multifamily Owners Association, said a cancellation of rent across the board is shortsighted and will have a disproportionate impact on small landlords because they have no meaningful relief from their mortgage and tax obligations.

“If the only source from which to pay [mortgage and tax obligations] is tenant rent, and rent is cancelled, then those obligations are not going to get met and that could have potentially disastrous consequences for the landlord,” Bianco said. “It could lead to displacement for the landlord.”

Bianco also believes there is a wrong perception that landlords want to drive out their tenants when in reality, they want their units rented and displacement would work against that.

“When a problem comes along and the landlord has to take some action, whether it’s a nonpayment of rent problem or some other type of lease violation problem, once the landlord has to take action and immediately walking in the door, the landlord is the bad guy, notwithstanding the fact that they are law-abiding and rule-following,” Bianco

said. “It’s difficult that all landlords are looked upon in exactly that way.”

Landlords have many expenses to take care of, and the public health crisis exacerbated them, according to Eric Jones, the vice president of government affairs for the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington. They include costs such as maintenance, utilities, staff payment and property taxes. Jones said that before a landlord has any hope of breaking even, they must have about 91 percent of rent coming in at any given point.

Jones also argued that a separate conversation should be held about providing alternatives for rental replacement and that it is more of a federal issue than a local issue.

“D.C. has added money for rent subsidies, for rental assistance … that’s a great start.

But realistically, to ensure the viability and security of the city, we need federal support to provide rental assistance,” Jones said.

“Rental assistance not only helps tenants who are unable to pay, but it also helps property owners who still have to pay all the things I have laid out.”

About 77 percent of apartment households nation-wide made a full or partial rent payment in the first week of July, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)’s rent payment tracker. Doug Bibby, NMHC president, is quoted on the website saying that state and federal unemployment assistance benefits have been making it possible for renters to pay every month.

“Unfortunately, there is a looming July 31 deadline when that aid ends,” Bibby wrote.

“Without an extension or a direct renter assistance program, that NMHC has been calling for since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. could be headed toward historic dislocations of renters and business failures among apartment firms, exacerbating both unemployment and homelessness.”

6 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J U LY 1 5 - 2 8 , 2020

NEWS

'Nowhere to go': Pandemic prison releases prompt housing concerns Many jails have drastically reduced their populations amid coronavirus fears, but where do ex-prisoners go once they’re out?

BY CAREY L. BIRON Reuters

W

hen Livia Pinheiro got out of prison, she had been held for more than a decade - first by the state of California, then by the federal government and finally by immigration officials. When it was all over, she had no home to go to.

Initially charged with robbery, she was released suddenly in late May from the Yuba County Jail, the result of a class-action lawsuit over detention conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"It was the most joyous day of my life. I had been incarcerated since 2009 at that point, and it hit me like lightening," said 40-yearold Pinheiro.

But while the virus ultimately prompted the release of Pinheiro and hundreds of others from Yuba County and the Mesa Verde Detention Facility to prevent a heavy toll on inmates, it also posed a major complication for her thereafter.

Pinheiro suffers from multiple chronic conditions and as part of her release was ordered by a judge to self-quarantine for two weeks - but where? "I have nowhere to go," she said.

More than 9.5 million people are released from US jails and prisons each year, according to a University of Delaware researcher in a paper published in February - with tens of thousands going directly into emergency shelters or on the streets.

A disproportionate number of those incarcerated are minorities: For instance, African Americans are almost six times more likely to be imprisoned than whites, according to a 2018 report to the UN by the charity Sentencing Project.

Such disparities have fuelled national protests in recent weeks over racial i n e q u a l i t y, p o l i c i n g a n d t h e m a s s incarceration of Black men.

Officials recognized the dangers to prisoners posed by the pandemic, and many detention systems responded by authorizing mass releases within certain parameters - often non-violent offenders who were already close

Signs made by prisoners pleading for help are seen on a window of Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., April 7, 2020, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

REUTERS/JIM VONDRUSKA

to their release date or were elderly.

California's governor in March ordered the early release of 3,500 prisoners, for instance, and the state expanded that order in mid-June.

Jails run by local authorities across the country have "drastically" reduced their populations, according to NGO Prison Policy Initiative.

That has meant a sudden, severe need for housing at a time when already-stretched shelter systems have been turning away new entrants amid attempts to social distance.

"Our jails had never been so empty," said Britta Fisher, executive director of the Denver county and city Department of Housing Stability.

Combined with the pandemic, she said, mass releases suddenly turned Denver's shelter system "on its head".

‘Piecemeal’ re-entry system The United States continues to incarcerate more people per year than any other country, according to the Prison Policy Initiative - 698 per 100,000 residents.

Yet officials continue to place far less emphasis on what happens after release, advocates say - despite the implications for recidivism.

"Re-entry has been the stepchild of the criminal justice system," said Jay Jordon, executive director of NGO Californians for Safety and Justice.

"We have a system that incarcerates people, and it's very sophisticated," he said. "But when you look at re-entry, it's funded by grants - piecemeal."

As a result, the re-entry process is largely the work of housing and other service providers, he said.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, that had important ramifications, he said: Those organizations were not considered "essential" by the government, and many either halted operations or were not included in policy discussions.

"There was a lack of coordination, so people weren't getting the support" they needed, he added.

Emergency reforms Still, state and city officials did increasingly

move to address the need for housing during the pandemic.

The states of California and New York for example are paying for hotel rooms for those getting out of prison with no home to return to, a strategy the city of Dallas and others have also adopted.

In Denver, Fisher's shelter system was not only seeing hugely increased need but also capacity that was suddenly cut by more than half due to social-distancing requirements, as well as limited staffing.

"What we saw was this damage that COVID did to our sheltering system, taking a model that's about getting as many people in and out of the elements," she said, but now has to be "spread out."

Part of the response was on an emergency footing: expanding the shelter system into event space and other buildings, and bringing in hundreds of National Guard officers to reinforce staffing, Fisher said.

And instead of focusing solely on the neediest, her office is also looking at who would be easiest to house, with the goal of taking pressure off the shelter system.

They used the situation as an opportunity to move quickly on what had previously been a long-term plan: to start running the shelter program 24 hours a day, rather than the overnight facilities that most cities offer.

Fisher said she and her colleagues are already seeing results from this new roundthe-clock approach: A recent survey found that 16 per cent of those staying at one of the new men's auxiliary shelters had previously been sleeping rough.

As in Denver, the pandemic has been an incubator for new approaches in many cities, said Kirby Gaherty, with the National League of Cities network - and that now provides a key opportunity.

"Now, how can the reforms that are beneficial live beyond COVID? Housing should be one of those things," she said.

‘Re-entering society’ For Livia Pinheiro, the re-entry process started with a friend in northern California who allowed her to stay at her house for the

mandated two-week quarantine.

After that, she got in touch with Susan Burton, whom she had heard about from an acquaintance in jail and who runs a Los Angeles housing and re-entry programme for women called A New Way of Life.

The group also trains others across the country to open similar facilities, including a planned six more this year, said Burton.

"Nationally, we face a housing crisis, but when people are released one of the main things they need is housing," Burton said by phone, decrying what she called "shortsightedness" at the state and national levels on the issue.

Further, research suggests high incarceration rates of minority communities could be skewing housing security.

The Prison Policy Initiative, for instance, has found that African Americans coming out of prison have far higher rates of homelessness and housing insecurity than white or Hispanic people.

"We house them in abnormal conditions of confinement, and then we release them back into communities without investment in those communities nationally," Burton said.

In April, A New Way of Life opened a new housing facility in response to the pandemicrelated surge in demand.

"During the pandemic, it's extremely important for people to have housing so that they don't catch or spread the virus - we know that our jails and prisons are saturated with infection," Burton said.

Ultimately, she opened the organization's doors for Pinheiro "without hesitation" and told her to use the opportunity to "quiet myself, quiet my mind and think about what my purpose is in society," Pinheiro said.

"Housing plays a huge role in my life," she said. "Here I'll be able to have the assistance I need, have the support I need as a woman re-entering society after so many years and so many changes."

Courtesy of Reuter / Thomson Reuters Foundation / INSP.ngo

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// 7

DC Council moves to limit police power in schools, a win for reform advocates

BY ASIA ROLLINS asia.rollins@streetsensemedia.org

O

n July 8, local anti-police groups got one step closer to their goal of police-free schools when the D.C. Council passed an amendment to change D.C. Public School’s security contract with the Metropolitan Police Department giving DCPS more authority over school safety.

The council’s amendment to the fiscal year 2021 budget would give DCPS complete authority over hiring its security officers. Currently, this responsibility lies with MPD’s School Security Division. Police will still be in schools but MPD will no longer manage the contract of officers within schools.

“We need to remove police from schools and we need to deeply invest in more equitable resources for our schools,” said Samantha Davis, the executive director of the Black Swan Academy, a local nonprofit dedicated to empowering Black youth to be involved in social change through career development sessions and an annual civic leadership summit.

“What we find is the young people who are least likely to have positive relationships with police officers are the young people who are at the margins,” she said. “The young people who are experiencing homelessness, young people who might be queer, young people who are at risk of the school-to-prison pipeline, those are the young people that we want to center in this conversation.”

There were 7,728 homeless students in DCPS schools during the 2018-2019 school year.

In the existing relationship, MPD’s school resource officers work closely with school administrators to implement safety plans and violence prevention programs. Officers within schools are the main point of contact when suspicion of crime or violence arises. Before working in schools, an MPD officer must pass a School Safety Division training, according to the department’s website.

“The contract being moved is definitely a small step in the right direction and it’s not enough,” Davis said.

“There’s a diverse group of people and positions that “We need support for kids, school counselors, school nurses we need in our schools that are lacking. If schools were and we need large amounts of public housings.” resourced equitably and young people had all their needs Students being criminalized at school extends beyond met, then conflict will reduce.” physical pain, Wexler said. Random searches of students’ bags Part of the process of making schools better for students and being made to leave class for pat-downs is enough to cause involves changing the traditional classroom structure, according trauma and damage police-student relationships within schools. to Davis. Smaller class sizes, more innovative classroom “We can have actual mediators so that teachers don’t have to instruction, and more school mentors create more well-rounded do all the work themselves and counselors to deal with conflicts,” students, she said.

Wexler said.

Those in support of policeOt h e r s s a y p r o p e r l y “There’s a diverse group of people free schools say local schools placing police within schools and positions that we need in our have more important needs contributes to a safe, healthy than hiring officers. Part of environment. schools that are lacking. If schools learning the movement for no police “I d o n ’t w a n t p o l i c e in DCPS involves pushing were resourced equitably and young slamming kids,” said Patrick administrators to recognize Burke, executive director of people had all their needs met, then the Washington D.C. Police that students come into schools with unique situations Foundation. “I think a lot of conflict will reduce.” that are too often addressed kids would want police there by officers, instead of more not just to be an armed security appropriate support staff. presence but there as mentors Multiple administrators for the young people and to declined to comment for this hopefully preempt any violence Samantha Davis article. One counselor feared from happening.” that speaking critically of officers could put the students they Burke acknowledges that there is a level of difficulty that work with at-risk. comes with trying to heal police-student relationships. His In June, At-Large Councilmember David Grosso, who experience as a law enforcement officer has allowed him to see chairs the D.C. Council Committee on Education, published that the sight of a police uniform can cause students discomfort a resolution disapproving of the mayor’s proposed renewal of because of previous bad interactions with police. the School Safety Division contract. Councilmembers Charles “Every child needs to be able to go to school in a safe Allen, Kenyan McDuffie, Brianne Nadeau, and Robert White environment,” Burke said. “If you’re worried about getting also signed the resolution. jumped by a gang every day or getting hurt because you’re the “We’re in the middle of a pandemic which is about to induce smart kid, that’s gonna impact your ability to learn.” a recession where we need mental health services,” said Valerie Burke’s goal is to try and reach children at a young age so Wexler, an organizer for the Stop Police Terror Project D.C. that they can view officers as a source of help and not solely a uniform presence. The foundation’s Junior Cadet Program, which aims to have teachers dedicate one hour per week for curricula taught by MPD School Resource Officers, allows youth to have a non-confrontational relationship with police, according to Burke. Those enrolled in the program go on field trips with officers and learn about law enforcement through shadow experiences.

He said it is critical to have well-trained, good people in school officer roles to be mentors and role models.

“I think it’s really reconsidering the kind of roles that police have in schools,” Burke said of the foundation’s program.

Councilmember Vincent Gray was questioned about his support of the contract-cancellation amendment while appearing on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on July 10 to discuss the budget. Referencing the July 4 killing of 11-year-old Davon McNeal in the crossfire of a shootout, Gray was asked if he regretted his vote. He did not.

“I think we need both sets of services … we will have people who have the kinds of health and social backgrounds that we’ve been talking about who will be available to be able to supplement what the police services,” Gray said during the show segment. “So, I’m looking forward to the expansion of the health services, the social services in our city. And they will support what’s going on in our schools.”

Protesters calling for the defunding of MPD gathered in John Marshall Park.

The D.C. Council’s next vote on the fiscal year 2021 budget PHOTO COURTESY OF RODNEY CHOICE. Support is scheduled for July 21.

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The Days Inn on New York Ave. NE where the D.C. Department of Human Services contracts rooms for overflow family shelter space. IMAGE BY MATTHEW GANNON

Anticipating a rise in homelessness, advocates worry DC is phasing out motels for families too soon

BY LANA GREEN AND MARIA TROVATO Editorial Interns

I

n an effort to phase out its use of motels as overflow shelters for families experiencing homelessness, the District will end its relationship with Quality Inn and Suites New York Avenue this month.

Because there are more families experiencing homelessness than there are available spaces for families in city shelters, motels have long been used as overflow space to house these families. Family shelter space in the District is legally required to provide four walls and a locking door for the privacy and safety of children.

The D.C. Department of Human Services has been planning to reduce and eliminate reliance on this overflow contingency as more people are housed and more shelter capacity is built.

DHS did not make anyone available to comment for this article despite multiple requests.

When the department responded to D.C. Council performance oversight questions in January, the agency wrote that it was only utilizing two overflow motels: Days Inn and Quality Inn. At that time, use of the Quality Inn for overflow shelter was planned to cease in the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, which ends Sept. 30. And use of rooms for shelter at the Days Inn was expected to end during the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. DHS noted that these dates may change due to any variance in the opening of the last two new family shelter facilities being constructed.

The first new family shelter opened in September 2018, and only two of seven remain under construction. Each shelters about 50 people, providing on-site service providers and amenities like computer labs and play spaces. Five of the new facilities were intended to replace the capacity of D.C.

General, a converted hospital that was previously the District’s only family shelter, which was closed in 2018 before the new facilities could be completed. Construction delays and pushback from residents in some of the neighborhoods where shelters were to be constructed pushed back the plan’s timeline.

The council asked the same question about the timeline for ending use of motels as shelters in 2019, when DHS “anticipate[d] being able to close out of all Letters of Intent (LOIs) and all contracted hotels by the end of FY20.” The letters of intent refer to flexible agreements the department maintained with additional motels they intended to use if family homelessness increased beyond existing overflow capacity, to ensure there is sufficient space for families needing shelter.

For several years, the city has spent approximately $5 million per year per motel on its overflow shelter contracts, usually renewing option years of multi-year contracts with the same motels. The Day’s Inn contract was partially renewed for a fourth year in December. The Quality Inn and Suites contract was not. In February, an 11-month-old infant was killed at the Quality Inn. Wes Heppler, a staff attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said the decision to end use of motels likely stemmed from a decrease in the number of overflow families in motel rooms from 300 a few months ago to 140. The District wants to move families into more permanent housing, the new family shelters, and rapid re-housing so they are less dependent on overflow sites, Heppler said.

The median length of stay for a family in overflow motels during fiscal year 2020 was 115 days, according to DHS's performance oversight responses. The longest stay for a family who was in an overflow motel was 65 months, or 5.4 years. The

median-length of stay in the new short-term housing facilities was 71 days.

Jewel Stroman, a community advocate who ran for a Ward 7 ANC in 2018, said numerous motel residents have described instances where they did not receive proper services and were denied adequate protection. Stroman said she lived at the Days Inn when she experienced homelessness and the conditions were not safe for families. She has since been advocating on behalf of others for several years.

Last month, roughly 30 protesters joined Stroman in front of the Days Inn and demanded that DHS pull their contract with The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP), which manages the department's contracts with homeless services providers, including the motels.

“Families have been complaining about a shortage of food, security officers here refusing to wear PPE gear like masks and gloves when they’re interacting with clients and residents.”

Stroman said.

One of the speakers at the protest read statements they said were from people currently living in overflow shelter motel rooms.

Hear from more people at the June 18 demonstration in this video report: StreetSenseMedia.org/motel-protest

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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LEFT: Activist Nee Nee Taylor chants “When Black lives are under attack, what do we do?!” during the June 18 demonstration outside of Days Inn. BELOW: A young girl using sign-making supplies at the June 18 demonstration.

IMAGES BY MATTHEW GANNON // @GANNONFILMS

The Days Inn on New York Ave. NE where the D.C. Department of Human Services contracts rooms for overflow family shelter space. IMAGE BY MATTHEW GANNON

“There is no reason why we should be treated like prisoners," she read to the crowd. “They treat us like we are nothing.”

The DC Ward 5 Community Care and Mutual Aid group has been providing supplemental food, adult- and kid-sized masks, and care packages to people living in the motels used for overflow housing.

In 2017, the Office of the Inspector General published a report that found that contracts with motels for overflow shelter space lacked oversight and put the District at a higher risk regarding liability. The report concluded that DHS’ contracts with hotels “assign unenforceable oversight responsibility” to TCP. It is likely that motels will still be used to house families experiencing homelessness due to a rise in homelessness caused by COVID-19, said Melanie Hatter, communications coordinator for the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project.

Homelessness in the United States may increase by as much as 45% this year, according to a new study from Columbia University economics professor Brendan O’Flaherty.

“With the unemployment figures and likelihood of rising eviction notices due to COVID-19, we anticipate the number of families experiencing homelessness to rise,” Hatter said.

“We have had long-standing concerns about the lack of comprehensive case management in the hotel contracts and are eager to know what children’s services will look like in the new shelters.”

Homeless Children’s Playtime Project currently provides play programming at the Days Inn, along with several transitional housing sites. However, because the organization is restricted by COVID-19, it has been sending “Playtime to Go” kits instead of hosting a pop-up play space.

“We have always been concerned that the city’s shelters do not provide adequate services for children,” Hatter said. Playtime has proposed that the city install “Children’s Services Coordinators” in the motels and every short-term family housing site across the District so that children’s issues are directly addressed, according to Hatter. The nonprofit has not been able to operate in all of the new shelters due to space constraints.

“With the unemployment figures and likelihood of rising eviction notices due to COVID-19, we anticipate the number of families experiencing homelessness to rise.”

Melanie Hatter The majority of families moving from the motel overflow spaces have likely been moved into rapid rehousing, according to Heppler. Rapid rehousing involves placing families in market-rate rental units, with DHS subsidizing the rent for 18 months or less. After that time, families are responsible for the market rent. Critics say the program is very effective for some people, but used too much like a one-size-fits all solution in the District. For those that need many supportive services to attain an income that affords rent in DC, a 2017 report by the

Legal Clinic says the program leaves them “set up to fail” and re-entering the homeless services system worse off than they were before, such as with an eviction record.

“Most of the families put into the rapid rehousing program have no way of paying marketplace rent once the 12 months have ended, so we do not really view rapid rehousing as permanent housing,” Heppler said.

According to DHS’s responses to the D.C. Council oversight questions, the department is working to improve the program.

The department's goal of addressing identified barriers and enhancing the rapid rehousing program was listed as "50-74% complete." They are in the process of "developing program enhancements and adjusting the program model to better fit the needs of current and future program participants.”

Due to the pandemic, landlords have not been allowed to evict tenants, and those in rapid rehousing were given an extension of their rental subsidy. As a result, the number of families needing shelter is likely to significantly increase in the fall when these restrictions go away, Heppler said. He worried that it may be difficult to house these families if the Days Inn is the only motel still available.

Heppler said there have been complaints from the people the Legal Clinic represents about the uncertainty of where they will be housed now.

“Whenever a family gets moved, there is uncertainty and a lot of anxiety. The bigger concerns will be when there is nowhere to move them to,” Heppler said. “Even if they are moved into short term family housing in shelters, there is still uncertainty of where they will be moved next.”

Matthew Gannon contributed reporting.

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OPINION Random Acts of Kindness:

A long-overdue change

BY WENDELL WILLIAMS

A person who was living in Franklin Park on June 30 objects to the U.S. Park Police clean-up that removed her and others from the area. A fence was constructed around the park the next day. PHOTO BY BENJAMIN BURGESS

/ KSTREETPHOTOGRAPHYDC.COM

DC, stop bullying homeless people out of downtown

BY COLLY DENNIS

The sudden closure of Franklin Park on July 1 was nothing but an indication to the homeless community that it is time to pack it up and leave. I used to sleep over there for years. This was not the first time the city government has tried to throw homeless people out of downtown.

The newly renovated museum next to the park, which was expected to open this year, was a homeless shelter when it closed in 2008. It’s been unused since.

And there are no low-barrier shelters left for men in Northwest D.C. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, several blocks away from the park, was where many homeless people went to get through the day. It was even a regular stop for the city’s daily shelter van. But the library has been closed since 2017.

It feels intentional to close the park, the only other downtown refuge, before the library reopens.

This is a strategy employed by some landlords, particularly slumlords, if they want to get rid of a tenant but don’t have the right to kick them out. Just make them so uncomfortable that they leave on their own: turn off the water, turn off the heat, don’t fix anything.

What are our city’s values? Didn’t Mayor Muriel Bowser run on a platform of helping the homeless community?

And on top of that, there’s a pandemic going on. People are in greater need and at greater risk for health problems. Why would you block off something so essential?

But local officials still sanctioned an encampment clean-up in partnership with the park service, something the CDC says not to do until the health crisis ends.

They still moved an informal meeting place for obtaining donations and services. Many churches, volunteers, and donors have shown up at Franklin Park from different places of the DMV area to help the homeless community.

Now some of them might be able to instead set up booths on a nearby street -- a street right around the corner from where protesters continue to be harassed by police at Black Lives Matter plaza. That will not put people at ease or encourage them to trust service providers and case managers there. Social workers next to police officers just won't work. It comes across as intimidation. How do I know the outreach workers aren’t working with the cops?

And they still took away a massive peaceful place that had enough space for people to stay out of the way while “social distancing.” Keep in mind this is while Lafayette Square was fenced, opened and fenced off again, and the use of force at the protests has driven people away from that park, too.

The city should have put a hold on the project until the health crisis was over.

Colly Dennis is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

Thank God the NFL has come to its senses and has finally pushed the owner of D.C.’s professional football franchise for a name change. I am hearing about an effort to name them the “Red Tails.” But naming a sports team after a Black military unit doesn’t quite work, and it’s just another attempt at political correctness. These gallant servicemen who fought both Jim Crow and the Nazi’s deserve something more fitting than a perpetual losing team.

I like the Washington Warriors with basically the same colors and a few minor changes to the uniforms, like replacing the racist image of a Native American with a curly W on the helmet.

I really have no issue with the change because being a longtime Black D.C. resident, I remember growing up in the 50s and 60s with no family and friends rooting for the home team. Why? Because we couldn’t connect with a team of players where no one looked like us. So many of us chose teams that had players we could relate to.

My team as a kid was the multi-racial team from Baltimore, the Colts, that had several Black stars and future Hall of Famers like Lenny Moore, Jim Parker, John Mackey and my favorite, Gene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb.I think this was because the city of Baltimore had many different ethic groups living side by side which fostered tolerance and needed its team to reflect that makeup. My first pro game was to see and cheer for those Colts in RFK at a preseason game when a neighbor working on the ground crew walked me in. My friends and I from time to time still talk about the stores and places we couldn’t go to and I am only in my late 60s. It was well known about the team’s owner’s hatred of Black players. But many don’t completely understand why.

It’s easy to forget about the location of your city. D.C. is right on the Mason-Dixon line that divided North from South in this country and supposedly the issue of slavery as well. But keep in mind just across the 14th Street bridge was the Old South with Robert E Lee’s home sitting high on that hill that’s now the hallowed ground of Arlington Cemetery, where Union Army dead were temporarily buried to embarrass the Confederates . So northern Virginia is a stronghold of people still clinging to the romantic ideals of the confederacy and the gateway to south with Richmond the capital of the Confederacy just 90 miles away. hen I graduated from high school Alexandria still had separate school systems for Blacks and whites and was one the last school systems to desegregate. When it finally did it named the region’s most diverse high school after the segregationist T.C. Williams, which needs to be changed as well.

It’s with this backdrop that the team was moved here from Boston in 1937. Blacks were not welcome at games which led to separate Black sports leagues that sometimes hosted their games at the same venues when the “white” teams were on the road.

But there was an economic reason just as strong. Look at a map: Washington was the southernmost sports franchise in America.

For broadcast purposes they were the team of the South, with the largest radio and TV network in sports before cable TV and satellite radio. So people down South grew up following the Skins.

The Washington team couldn’t afford the fallout from its Southern fans and advertisers for having Black players, leading to their unholy distinction as the last team in professional football to sign and play a Black player, the just-recently passed Bobby Mitchell when I was about 13. This changed the relationship between the team and Black fans: It was now okay to root for the home team.

As time went on and new coaches arrived with different opinions and experiences with Black players D.C., with close to a 70 percent Black population, fell in love with the team. They went from the worst team in the league to a contender mainly because of coach Vince Lombardi and my favorite coach, George Allen, who bought not only winning to town but large numbers of Black players we could identify with.

As a kid living 2 blocks from RFK my friends and I used to sneak off to the team’s practice field behind the old D.C. General Hospital to see the players, who now looked like us, and got to know many of them by name who would let us carry their pads and helmets back to the stadium locker room.

We became big fans but almost never had the money to go to games. Welived close enough, though, to sit on the front porch and hear the announcements from the game. It was almost like being inside. Later we would make movie money by parking cars in vacant lots nearby or even fitting cars in our backyards. We had found a way to prosper from the team too, but we never understood or discussed the real meaning of our now-beloved team’s name.

I can’t believe the push back in 2020 by Blacks over the name change. We of all people should understand. But most don’t, and some have placed the addictive fix of pro football fandom over social justice and respect for others’ humanity. I am asking everyone as a random act of kindness to embrace, accept and respect this long-overdue change.

Some will speak of the long tradition of the football team as a reason to continue to resist the righteous change. We have had a Major League Baseball teams with a longer tradition going back well over a hundred years—the Senators— yet we embraced the new name and team the Nationals. The longtime basketball franchise the Bullets changed their name three times. We need to get on board with this change because in time everything must and will change!

Wendell Williams is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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A just recovery

BY FATHER JOHN ENZLER AND THE REV. WILLIAM H. LAMAR IV

This column was first published by The D.C. Line on July 7.

(TheDCLine.org) The recent surge in public attention to police violence against Black communities — not to mention the ongoing pandemic that has disproportionately harmed Black and brown people — has prompted a moral call to action in DC and across the nation. In the District, we have a chance to partially answer this call by passing a just fiscal year 2021 budget that asks those with the greatest means to pay more of their fair share in taxes.

As Christians, we believe in living out what the Bible calls the greatest commandment: “Love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Both of us strive to do so in our daily work: Father John ministers to hundreds of our neighbors at Catholic Charities who have been experiencing homelessness for years because there is not enough affordable housing, and Pastor Lamar has been building relationships with our neighbors in public housing who are living in deplorable conditions. A budget that shows our love for our neighbors would include big investments in ending homelessness, building and preserving affordable housing and repairing public housing.

During her tenure, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has made important investments in short-term family housing, shelters for individuals and housing programs. These efforts have

led to improved services and helped many residents out of homelessness, but the reduced investments included in her proposed fiscal year 2021 budget aren’t enough to meet the human needs of our residents. Housing vouchers for individuals experiencing homelessness, for example, would be cut by roughly 85%. And some essential programs, like homeless street outreach and homeless prevention services, would suffer devastating cuts. The DC Council should address these shortcomings while finalizing the budget. A fair budget also would fund more public housing repairs so those sheltering at home are doing so in an environment that is safe and healthy.

Health and safety are particular concerns given the pandemic.

While even one COVID-19 case is too many, we have been encouraged by the positive effect of public health practices and policies in limiting the cases in DC’s homeless shelters.

However, many individuals experiencing homelessness are particularly susceptible to COVID-19 because of their age, vulnerability, exposure to many people and inability to keep clean while living outside. The presence of underlying health conditions means that nationally people who are homeless are twice as likely to need to be hospitalized and two to three times as likely to die from COVID-19. To date, 20 people experiencing homelessness have lost their lives in DC due to the disease.

All of us are beloved children of God, and these completely preventable deaths are a failure of moral leadership. Had

District policymakers moved faster to secure safe housing, invested more heavily in recent years to end homelessness, or prioritized the health and economic well-being of Black and brown residents over the past decade, the devastation of COVID-19 might tell a different story.

Now is the time to write a new chapter for the District.

We urgently need to create a just recovery not only from this pandemic but also from years of systematic under-investment in the least among us. Our tax policies play a key role in recovery solutions. Taxing people earning $60,000 in taxable income at the same rate as those earning $350,000, as DC currently does, is unjust and diminishes our ability to care for those most in need.

And most residents agree: A recent poll found that 83% of DC voters support raising taxes on the District’s wealthiest residents to address budget challenges, put people first, and create a just recovery. This is putting love for our neighbors into action.

Moving forward without meeting critical human needs would be another shortsighted moral failure for our District. We stand with the Fair Budget Coalition in its call for our legislators to make better choices this time around by raising revenue.

Father John Enzler, a priest in the Archdiocese of Washington for 47 years, is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese. Rev. William H. Lamar IV is pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The 1918 pandemic, the nation’s capital, and the making of Charles Drew

BY C.R. GIBBS

The column was first published by Port of Harlem magazine on July 2. (PortOfHarlem.net) There was a time not long ago at the end of the First World War, when another killer virus stalked planet Earth. The book World History

by AMSCO describes its beginnings: War-related deaths continued past Armistice Day in the form of an influenza epidemic.

Under peacetime circumstances, a virulent disease might devastate a concentrated group of people in a particular region.

However in 1918, millions of soldiers were returning home as the war ended. As they did, they had contact with loved ones and friends, thereby facilitating the spread of the flu. In 1919, the epidemic became a pandemic (a disease prevalent over a large area or the entire world), killing 20 million in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. India alone may have lost 7 million to the disease.

There were many Americans who believed, however, that if there was one city in one nation that could beat this relentless plague, it was Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. This is the little known story of the American capital and its response to the first pandemic of the 20th century.

In September 1918, the flu, at first thought to be just a soldiers’ disease, began to strike the District. In Washington, "A History of the Capital, 1800 to 1950," C.M. Green recalled that: by September 21, it had hit the overcrowded capital with a force that broke

down the reporting service and swamped doctors with desperately ill and dying patients.

Both Commissioner Gardiner and General Knight were stricken and Board of Commissioners President Brownlow and the new health officer, Dr. Fowler, closed the theaters, the movie houses, the churches, and most of the shops, persuaded the school board to close the schools, and with the cooperation of the Visiting Nurses Association, the Red Cross, and a volunteer motor corps, opened nursing centers in four or five schoolhouses.

But the epidemic spread. Physicians and nurses caught the disease. Every hospital bed in the city was filled. At one point, George Washington Hospital, one of the largest, had every bed occupied and not a single nurse on duty.

With half the trolley motormen on the sick list, street-car service was utterly disrupted.

And as the death toll mounted, there were neither coffins nor gravediggers enough to meet the emergency.

The first death in D.C. was John Clore, a White railroad brakeman who died at Sibley Hospital. The Public Health Service opened a temporary hospital at 612 F Street, N.W. The disease even made its way into the White House where President Wilson and several staffers were stricken.

African Americans residents of the city were initially given little thought. A small Jim Crow medical facility was finally set up for them in October at the Armstrong School at First and P Streets, N.W. A tiny contingent of Black nurses

was recruited around this time to address the medical needs of returning Black doughboys.

Among these women was Aileen Cole Stewart of Seattle, Washington, who had been trained at the Howard University School of Nursing.

The authorities instructed citizens to stay off streetcars and to postpone meetings and public gatherings. Churches were closed.

Businesses were placed on staggered hours although playground hours were expanded.

There was debate on the wearing of masks, a doctor, H.S. Mustard, did not believe in them, calling them “an absurdity.”

Desperate and dying people were eager to purchase snake oil cures sold by quacks. Local newspapers carried ads for a potion called “Laxative Bromo Quinine,” which came in tablets that claimed to remove the cause of “Colds, Grip, and Influenza” by destroying germs because it acted as a laxative and tonic.

Anyone with any medical background was pulled in to help fight the sickness. Marines from Quantico were brought in to dig graves.

Coffins bounds for other cities sitting in the local railyards were commandeered for use in the city.

Deaths declined slightly in November but a surge was reported in December with nearly 350 people dying each day. The online Influenza Archive reports that: Washington D.C.’s influenza epidemic continued throughout the rest of the year and into early February, 1919 albeit with reduced case numbers. Between October 1, 1918 and February 1919, some 33,719 Washingtonians fell ill with influenza,

with 2,895 of them succumbing to the disease.

The result was one of the more devastating epidemics in the nation; an excess death rate of 608 per 100,000.

The cost to African Americans in the nation’s capital we know was disproportionate.

Separate but equal never was, as far as the health of city’s Black residents of that day.

And many of the same ills that affected them still exist today. Current estimates take the international death toll as high as 50 million with 675,000 deaths in the U.S., more than all the wars of the 20th century.

Yet there are few memorials to the pandemic and its terrible cost; in America (a plaque in Colorado, a huge stone bench in Vermont) and not much overseas. The world was eager to forget the suffering and move on.

But not everyone has forgotten, there are a handful of elders, nonagenarians and centenarians, who still vividly recall the loss of family members. One young man remembered losing his sister, Elsie, to the influenza virus in 1920; it was her death that made him, her older brother, Charles choose medicine as his life’s great endeavor. Elsie’s and Charles last name was Drew.

Editor’s Note: Charles Drew pioneered methods of storing blood plasma for transfusion and organized the first large-scale blood bank in the U.S. C.R. Gibbs is a historian and scholar based in D.C. Free lectures, videos, and audio by him are available at PortOfHarlem.net/cgibbs.

1 2 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J U LY 1 5 - 2 8 , 2020

ART

Feeling Alone

T.R.U.M.P., Pt. 2:

COVID-19

BY IBN HIPPS Artist/Vendor

BY RON “POOKANU” DUDLEY Artist/Vendor

I can't breathe In this mother****in’ mask COVID-19, plus my Aunty just passed Now some of my friends getting sick Who woulda thought that a sneeze could get you kilt?

Who woulda thought that a cough could make you die?

George Floyd's another ribbon in the sky That sh** made me puke I never knew a knee could be worser Than a neck on a noose So we riot, we loot ‘Cause when we peacefully protest, And be quiet, They shoot The police, the police They need to be defunded The police, the police They be pulling out their guns quick

Housing is a Human Right

BY JACQUELYN PORTEE Artist/Vendor

Housing is a human right that we all deserve.

The high cost of living has put many people on the verge of sleeping near a curve without four walls.

Housing is a human right that should not be just for some; housing is a human right that everyone should be entitled to.

It is sad to say even the birds have a nest.

But when a man has no place to rest, life can be more than a test.

Housing is a human right, even though rents are high, which makes me want to hang my head down low and makes me want to cry.

Housing is a human right that affects us all.

It does not matter whether the house is large or small.

Housing is a human right that can affect our destiny and even our plight.

No justice No peace Now everybody screaming, “F*** the police!”

Killed a man over a cigarette Shot a kid until he bled to death They even hung a Black women Now they hangin’ Black children Somebody told them to shoot at what’s dark Then somebody told him to shoot at his heart Somebody told them that Black don't crack After he was handcuffed, he got shot In the back 911 or 411?

“Mr. Officer, don’t reach for your gun” “I got a wife an’ three kids, Mr. Officer, can I live?”

Black lives don't matter when we keep dying My mayor told the president, “Stop lying” Instead of finding a cure, took a photo opp Now the coronavirus can't be stopped New cases New deaths They just keep growing and growing, Mr. President.

Ron’s poem “T.R.U.M.P. (The Republican Under More Pressure)” is available at https://www.streetsensemedia. org/article/trump-republican-under-more-pressure/.

A Gazillionaire

BY LATICIA BROCK, PWEEZY VILLAGE Artist/Vendor

If I had the money budget homelessness wouldn’t be an issue.

I’m sick of my homeless people not even having toilet tissue.

But that’s just a small problem. Try this: Finding somewhere to sleep with people always bothering them.

Stealing their credentials. Stealing their clothes.

Even had my shoes stole! Right off Pweezy soles!!

But dang, that’s the peoples’ feelings.

So just give me the budget and I’ll show you what to do with the Real Gazillionaire!

Feeling alone, shaky frigid Bones.

No one know my pain 360 degree shades of gray and I must say As I walk through the valley of sadness and pain I shall not fear those Happy Days as I pray some day those dark clouds will fade away and the pain of past mistakes my enemies can’t chase.

I treat with Love; instead Love Slaps my face.

Feeling alone, but “Ol” frigid Bone still hanging on to hope (Hope) Hope for what?

Better life, Love and Place to stay.

Hope for what? A better me a better you for some day the son gonna shine for a better view.

So hold your head up so when the wind blows your tears will dry and your struggles shall be at a distance.

Just don’t forget your feets and pull down on defeats.

Just to get here with true sight for now you see it was the rejected one’s famous trials to make you think that He does not exist.

Now it all on you to be true to the one who really guided you through for those “Ol”’ frigid Bones need worry no more: WELCOME HOME MY SON

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 1 3

Stop the Matter

BY AYUB ABDUL Artist/Vendor

Recently a lot of attention has been put on the killing of African Americans. Killings are bad, whether African Americans or other ethnic groups are the victims. We need police to be a part of the community and to not alienate themselves. When the police feel part of the community, the killing stops. All lives matter.

Peaceful demonstration at John Marshall Park on June 12, 2020.

PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE/CHOICE PHOTOGRAPHY (CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM)

Black lives matter

To me, all lives matter

BY JEWEL LEWIS Artist/Vendor

Our government should rent a big hall and have everyone who goes to the protests sign in and submit their complaints. This will stop them from tearing up our city. Questions should be asked one at a time and dealt with properly. This way everyone feels they are heard. It’ll make us feel as though we are important.

Everyone who comes into the hall will have to show ID; that way, if any property is destroyed, we can identify who did it. At the door, temperatures should be checked to monitor for coronavirus while also letting the people be heard. It will be a lot more peaceful and everyone who wants to protest- including the disabled- will be able to. We’re scared to go down to a rally, but we’ll be more comfortable with coming to the hall. Our people have opinions, too.

Effigy

BY FREDERIC JOHN Artist/Vendor

When we transition off this sphere, there is it seems somewhere for us to go.

Graven images adorn only An earthly place, ergo They journey ends right here-Some they are but hulks of bronze or stone Statues, plinths,betray No feelings, No fear, Handy Andy Jackson drove the tribes to a barren waste.

His kicking steed and cockaded face?

I once never safed.

No it has no place In this growing boy’s life.

Likewise to shaggy old Captain Pike!

We canna’ impose From a fallen Five seared repose, “Appomattox” in Lyceum Mourned the Shuttering of slaver stocks.

Neither brown nor white His skin was keen.

They dragger him off it seems.

But we of flesh and blood and Soul-Our lives matter...

Entirely whole.

BY KYM PARKER Artist/Vendor

No one person can be ruled. God made us all.

No one man can be king.

No woman can be queen.

Pain is everywhere. Blessed in His eyes.

So, why can’t we love each other?

We say we love God, so why not all of us show peace, love, grace, respect for all?

Peaceful demonstration at John Marshall Park on June 12, 2020.

PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE/CHOICE PHOTOGRAPHY (CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM)

Peaceful demonstration at John Marshall Park on June 12, 2020.

PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE/CHOICE PHOTOGRAPHY (CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM)

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / J U LY 1 5 - 2 8 , 2020

FUN & GAMES 9 2

Intermediate Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 20, Book 2

2 6 4

7

8

1

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

6

4

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

3

2

2

7

8

4 3 2 9 8 5 6

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

4

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

1

3 9 6 1 7

5 4 6 7 3 5

3 2

1

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

2

1 6

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

1 6

4 8 3

7

5

2

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

2

5

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9 4

8

7

© 2019 KrazyDad.com

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each #6 3-by-3 block contain all of the Sudoku digits 1 thru 9.

5

7

Sudoku #7

2

SUDOKU: Fill in

you use logic you can solve the without 7 If the 6 puzzle 4 3 1 guesswork.

9 8 5 2 7 blank squares so that a littleeach help? row, The hints page the puzzle.

3 Need 8 3 4 2 shows 1 9a logical 6 order 5 7to solve Use it to identify next square you should solve. Or use the answers page each columntheand if you really get stuck.

9 each 3-by-3 block 7 8 5 2 4 3 6 9 1 contain all of the 4 5 6 8 7 3 2 4 1 9 digits 1-9.

1 1 3 2 9 6 4 7 5 8 8 4 9 7 5 8 1 3 6 2 LAST 2 EDITION’S 8 7 1 3 2 6 9 4 5 6 PUZZLE 9 2 6 4 7 5 1 8 3 SOLUTION >> 3 5 4 8 1 9 2 7 6 5

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

7

9 5 4 1 8

3 2 6

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

Freedoms Chained, Peace Within If you didn't get caught, did you really do it?

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

Sudoku #2 9 6 5 2 4 1 7 3 8 8 Intermediate 9 20, Book 2 2 4 6 3 by7KrazyDad, 5 1Volume Sudoku 3 7 1 8 5 9 6 2 4 5 8 9 7 2 4 1 6 3 1 4 2 3 6 8 9 7 5 7 3 6 9 1 5 8 4 2 2 5 8 4 7 6 3 9 1 6 1 3 5 9 2 4 8 7

BY ANGIE WHITEHURST // Artist/Vendor 4 9 7 1 8 3 2 5 6

In freedom unchained, We do not stand alone In the place of someone else’s normal Shadowing the unknown one, In front of eyes’ clouded view, Stepping on the unexpected Foretold comings of an overly heated earth, That knew and knew not what was known, or to be known.

So weary of the fear of the why and how, it arrived here.

The who, whom, what, and when Lied to in wait for the unveiled mystery hidden within; And was more afraid of illogical reasoning Of accepting guidance, trust, faith, comfort, and Camaraderie mesmerized by oppressive horror; In the wanton hope of the contained cup of freedom Grasping with the drum of wisdom’s power of over time, Way above the iron age, left before bondage begun.

And the risk to steal away; Without the breath of unrhythmic air Daring to stoke the fire of brave escape and survival.

Waiting for the wind storm’s compassionate break Of non-condemnation to crest calmly on the deep waters Shoring quietly inland unseen Like feathers in the wind, letting go...

Embracing all, as uniquely no different...

Daring the lie, not to tell the truth.

Expecting just one soul, anew Outside of the man-made orbital sphere Stuck on footed earth afire, To awaken humankind’s universe

And then, lie abed in the trust of peace, To opine within, while the rest ponder yet still, An unwanted mystery; the bent behavior of human bondage Beyond abandoned bags of gold, cheap labor, and control Through court house carceral prison pens, Or maybe not.

The chances of the unknown are still to be found, One by one shared together as one....

No difference by color or origin of skin.

Just human, never to be chained again Free is the air and the heartbeat within.

All of these anatomical rivers bleed red.

There is no difference ... except the song chanted words Of peace, love and forgiveness within.

The past is gone and the coveted erasure of pain, Hatred and chagrin is woefully thin.

The sorrow is waiting for a new candle of love, Since the quantum physics of time travel Adversely can yet undo what cannot be undone.

The thought without malice is for unconditional peace Such thoughtful sincere beauty, if only a thought, Is a kindness offered with no regrets.

The embracing of one not within The spinning sphere of today’s unchallenged legacy’s Inherited silver plated peculiar normalcy, Is for sure a sincere peace, If reciprocated with full breath Of one humanity, seen as one and the same.

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

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

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

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

JOB BOARD Third Shift Grocery Stock Clerk Harris Teeter // NoMa This position is responsible for processing, packaging, and stocking products according to grocery standards, cleaning work areas, providing customer service unloading stock, and reloading salvage.

REQUIRED: High school diploma or general education degree (GED); or one to three months related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/harris-teeter-job-opening

Patient Registration Clerk Unity Health Care // D.C.

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

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

// 1 5

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

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 patient registration clerk performs patient registration, schedules appointments, instructs and assists clients with completing paperwork and clinic procedures, and answers and directs all phone calls.

REQUIRED: High school diploma, one year experience in an office setting APPLY: tinyurl.com/unity-health-care-job

Sales Associate Goodwill // Arlington

Full-time The sales associate will be the first point of

contact for customers, maintain the sales floor, ring out merchandise and accurately handle cash register and card machine.

REQUIRED: 6 months previous work experience APPLY: tinyurl.com/goodwill-job

Cashier/Stock Clerk Argyle Market and Deli // Mount Pleasant

Full-time, night shift // $14-$14.50/hour Candidate will manage cash and card

transactions and stock shelves. Must be able to obtain a D.C. liquor sales and food handler’s license, but it is not necessary to have one already.

REQUIRED: None APPLY: tinyurl.com/deli-job

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

Dining Room Attendant Meriwether-Godsey // Tenleytown

The dining room attendant will transport food to the dining area at an independent school, maintain clean dining areas, assist servers, remove dirty dishes and linens, and reset tables and service stations.

REQUIRED: High school diploma or equivalent. Must be able to pass FBI background check and TB testing.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/dining-room-attendant

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

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

The topic of the story:

BACK IN ACTION!

I’m Still Strong

BY GERALD ANDERSON Artist/Vendor

Honestly corona did affect me about working, seeing my customers and selling my books.

But most of all, I wish this for all the Street Sense supporters and for all the vendors: When we get the new papers and start selling papers again that people still buy them and everything and all the vendors remain making they money and everything and taking care of what they have to do.

I like the way the new marches are going on. As I look round, and sit out at night, and see the march, I like that no violence, no crime committed, or nothing. Everyone leaving safe and then going back home safe.

Honestly, tell you, I see it all. I see it all. I can’t wait to get into my book “Inside DC: Corona”.

I tell you my book gonna be a great book so be looking for it. I can’t tell you when it’s gonna

drop or when I’m gonna finish it, but it’s gonna be a great book. I love sharing my story with everyone I got up this morning I really didn’t feel like moving too much but then I say to myself, “Can’t stay down, gotta get up.”

I’ll be so happy when we start back selling papers. I can sell some more of my books. I miss all my customers, my friends and stuff.

Thank God we made it and that we be alright, and things opening back up in the City for everyone. As I pass by the restaurant, look like everyone having fun, enjoying theyself.

That’s what we supposed to do, get this City back together.

Love and peace to everyone. Take care, be safe.

Stay safe

BY MARY SELLMAN Artist/Vendor

Artist/Vendor Jeffery McNeil selling our July 1 edition at a farmers market on Sunday, July 5.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHELLE SARA KING / @MSKINDC

I’m kinda sad because I heard on the news the other day a lot of people have died. A lot of people are not working. I haven’t been able to work much.

I get scared. I be takin’ a risk sometime when I come out because I don’t know what will happen.

I feel I’m blessed about the paper restarting. A lot of people will start to trust me more because we have the paper.

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

Happy Haikus

BY QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE Artist/Vendor

I’m back, I can’t lack Reading me a favorite Newspapers are great Reading me is great I’m back in print, just that great We all still create Read me again, fine Black and white ink, line by line Read me read me fine

I got my place!

BY DAN HOOKS // Artist/Vendor

After being homeless since 2012, I now have my place. I’ve been waiting since Oct. 2019 for my place, but I’m now in my own apartment.

The wait was so, so long, but I thank GOD for all He has done. I also want to thank Street Sense for making this happen. I’m still in need of a lot more things for my apartment. I do want to thank Chandler Jayaraman who’s running for At Large D.C. Council. I met him at Eastern Market some time back. He has helped me in so many ways and I thank God for him. Here’s a man who didn’t know me from anywhere but has helped me so so much with the things I’ve needed for my place.

It’s not every day you run into people like him. He has taken his time to help me a lot. I feel he will be the best At Large D.C. Council. He’s a person who reached out to me, again someone he never knew a day in his life. He has been there like no one else has and I thank God for him, always. I also thank Street Sense. I joined them on a Tuesday; by the next Tuesday I had my place. It’s said I got my place faster than any one at Street Sense Media. I am so thankful for all who have helped me and will be helping me. I still need all kinds of help with my place.

Again, I want to thank God and all the people who have helped me become no longer homeless.

From your vendor JULY 15 - 28, 2020 | VOLUME 17 ISSUE 19

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