08 26 2015

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Volume 12: Issue 21 August 26 - September 8, 2015

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The

Summer Reading

Issue!

A Lost Generation:

Improving efforts to count and serve homeless youth in the District, pg 4

Back to School: Free meals and free rides for kids, pg 5

#Katrina10

Ten years later, Vendor/Artist Gerald Anderson publishes his memoir, pg 7

Street Sense aims to serve as a vehicle for elevating voices and public debate on issues relating to poverty while also creating economic opportunities for people who are experiencing homelessness or poverty in our community.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVES www.StreetSense.org •

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WEDNESDAY AUGUST 26 ONLY: see two incredible documentaries by filmmakers C y nt h i a M ew b o r n a n d Sasha Williams about their triumphs over homelessness.

StreetSense.org/film Learn more about Cynthia and hear her beautiful singing voice in our most recent Sounds From the Street podcast: StreetSense.org/audio

COVER ART

Gerald Anderson and Susan Orlins display the book they produced together containing Gerald’s memoir focused around Hurricane Katrina.

PHOTO BY LILY THNEAH

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OUR STORY Street Sense began in August 2003 after Laura Thompson Osuri and Ted Henson approached the National Coalition for the Homeless on separate occasions with the idea to start a street paper in Washington, D.C. Through the work of dedicated volunteers, Street Sense published its first issue in November 2003. In 2005, Street Sense achieved 501 ( c ) 3 status as a nonprofit organization, formed a board of directors and hired a full-time executive director.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brian Carome EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Eric Falquero VENDOR & SALES MANAGER Jeffrey Gray NEW INITIATIVES & VOLUNTEERS COORDINATOR Rachael Buck

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STREET SENSE August 26 - September 8, 2015

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NEWS IN BRIEF MPD Continues to Seek Justice for Joel Johnson The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is still in search of a person or persons who were involved in a homicide on Friday, June 19, 2015 around 10:28 p.m in the 3600 block of Calvert Street NW. The victim of the homicide was Joel Johnson, 53, who passed away from a stabbing.

MPD has released the unclear image of a possible suspect, and seeks help from the public identifying the figure.

more or be greedy. But not him,” said John Mead, one of Johnson’s only close acquaintances, in a previous interview with Street Sense.

Anyone with information should call the police at (202) 727-9099 or send an anonymous message through the department’s text tip line at 50411. Anyone providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible is eligible for a reward of up to $25,000.

- Michelle Goldchain

City Adds Energy to the District’s Environment

Johnson was known as a quiet and reserved man who mostly kept to himself and regularly visited the Georgetown Ministry Center. At the time of his death, he was homeless. “[Johnson] never took more than his share. Other people would try to get

A new wind power purchasing agreement, the largest of its kind by an American city, will save District of Columbia taxpayers $45 million over the next 20 years.

The new initiative, a deal with Iberdola Renewables, LLC, went into effect on August 1st and will supply 35 percent of the District's ’s electricity needs.

“It reduces our carbon footprint by removing roughly 100,000 tons of carbon pollution, and that’s 17 percent of our total government emissions, the equivalent of taking 125,000 cars off the road," Mayor Bowser said during a press conference at the Frank D. Reeves Center for Municipal Affairs on August 12.

"We’re going to save taxpayers money, we’re going to make our air cleaner, and we’re going to make D.C a better place for future generations," she added.

The agreement will supply electricity to D.C Government office buildings, as well as to other District-owned buildings such as libraries, police and fire stations, and

recreation centers.

The District aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2032, and 80 percent by 2050.

Barrett Stambler, vice president of Iberdrola Renewables, said the District benefits from making a 20-year contract with a fixed price because “the price of wind won’t be same today as it will be in twenty years.”

The District received over thirty proposals for the power purchasing agreement, according to Mark Chambers, the Associate Direction for the Sustainability and Energy Division at the District Department of General Services (DGS). The District chose to purchase all of Iberdrola's output from its 46-megawatt South Chestnut wind farm, located in southwestern Pennsylvania.

“The mayor has encouraged us to be bold, and she just said ‘D.C is not a city that is in denial about the climate crisis,'" Chambers said. "This wind power purchase agreement demonstrates that our District is putting those words in definitive action,” he added.

At the same press conference, Mayor Bowser introduced Tommy Wells, who directs the agency that oversees the city's environmental efforts. Wells officially announced that the city will change the name of the Department of the Environment (DDOE) to the Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE). The name change will reflect the agency’s efforts to make renewable energy a priority in the District.

“It is not surprising that the District is adding the word ‘energy’ to the Department of the Environment, because so many of the environmental challenges

that we face today lead directly back to how we approach the generation, consumption, and conservation of energy," said Shawn Garvin, the Administrator for EPA's Mid-Atlantic Region.

Garvin also noted that a reduction in carbon emissions will help reduce smog, which will lower the rate of asthma and other air quality related health issues.

"Because science tells us that climate change is real, and that human activities are fueling that change, these are the kinds of investments that we need to make to avoid the devastating impacts of climate change,” he said.

The DOEE does not just want to provide renewable energy to the District, but also seeks to find way to make that energy affordable. Wells spoke about the Department's goal to provide solar power systems to 130 low-income families.

“We are utilizing solar power to help residents across the District lower their power bills, but we are increasing the amount of electricity we draw from renewable resources, to help protect the future of our planet," Wells said.

According to Wells, that goal should be realized in 250 days with the help of the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU). Wells said that the District will invest $6 million from the city's Renewable Energy Development Fund to help low-income residents gain access to solar power through the National Community Solar Partnership.

"We are helping lower financial barriers and expanding renewable energy access," Wells said.

-Colleen Cosgriff

Thank You for Sponsoring our 2015 Fall Gala!

October 1, 2015 StreetSense.org/gala

Suspected Homeless Youth Crisis Prompts Census

By Lindsey Habenicht Editorial Intern

This past week Washington D.C. made a collaborative effort to better understand and respond to the homeless youth crisis, conducting its first-ever count of all homeless and unstably-housed youth. This includes anyone under the age of 25 who is not supported by a family or in physical custody of the District.

The count, a week-long survey administered by Service providers and city staff, ran from August 17 to August 25 and included youth and young adults who are couch surfing, literally homeless, in emergency shelters, in transitional living programs or temporarily housed otherwise.

Prior to this count, the definition of what homelessness is and is not had been inadequate to fully account for young people.

“I don’t think anyone has really had a clear number of how many youth were in this [18-24] category because they didn’t meet the requirements before,” said Madye Henson, President and CEO of Covenant House Washington. “They either had to be in a shelter or without housing.”

With a broader understanding of who makes up this group of people, service providers can rely on a more data driven

approach to determine how to best serve the homeless youth population. The hope of the youth count is that it will allow advocates and service providers to identify homeless youth by the more expansive McKinney-Vento definition.

The McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act of 1987 is the only major federal response to homelessness. It funds shelters, housing programs, school transportation and admission for children, and more. The act defines homeless as “an individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; an individual or family with a nighttime residence that is a public or private place not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; an individual or family living in a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements; an individual who resided in a shelter or place not meant for human habitation and who is exiting an institution where he or she temporarily resided; and/or an individual or family who will imminently lose their housing, has no subsequent residence identified, and lacks

the resources or support networks needed to obtain other permanent housing.”

By more broadly identifying youth that make up this little-known segment of the homeless population, the District will be better able to expand and tailor the current service systems.

Right now, Covenant House and Sasha Bruce are the only comprehensive and long-term emergency housing services for young people in the D.C. Metro area.

“There are almost no other designated spaces for teens,” Henson said.

Rashid Mills, a 23 year old homeless youth who has been in and out of Covenant House shelters and programs since 2011, knows firsthand that there are not enough spaces for people his age.

The limited support system offered to young people relies on others aging out of the shelter to make room for new youth, according to Mills. He recalled being told that he would get into one youth transitional program if the other person before him didn’t show up.

“If they had the shelter space, then they’d know how many homeless youth there were. We need shelters to be able to count the number of youth [seeking shelter],” Mills said. “But it’s so hard to get in, people don’t even try anymore.”

At age 23, Mills isn’t ready to go into adult programs, and neither are his friends. He explained that they are more inclined to go to a shelter with people in their age range because it’s fun. It doesn’t feel like a shelter, it feels like a young person’s home.

Additionally, youth programs try to offer a hands-on intervention approach geared towards helping young people get on their feet before they enter the cycle of chronic homelessness.

Only a year away from not qualifying as a youth in the District, Mills still wants this support.

“It’s like they’re saying, you’re growing at 17 and 18, but at 22 we don’t care about you anymore. If you can’t get yourself stable in that period of time, it’s like you’re left for dead,” he said.

When asked what his ideal youth shelter and support system looked like, Mills said it would be clean and private – with enough staff and space to serve the specific needs of each young person’s situation. Mills imagined a shelter where he could be surrounded by peers and have access to case management, financial training, and job readiness programs. He also suggested a higher age cap.

While the District follows suit with the rest of the country in conducting an annual Point-in-Time Count (PIT) of its general population, homeless youth are vastly underrepresented. Of the 7,300

people expected to be on the streets on any given night, the 2015 PIT Count assumed that only seven of those were unaccompanied minors.

But Mills can prove otherwise without leaving his neighborhood.

“Five of my best friends are all couch surfing. They don’t have their own place; they don’t have their name on the lease.”

Mills said. “People haven’t come to terms with the fact that they’re homeless because it’s just the way it’s been.”

Many young people don’t recognize what homelessness is. It can take months for them to accept the situation they are in before they make themselves available to receive services and be counted. Without a proper count, service organizations are unable to provide the necessary capacity.

Homeless residents under the age of 25 are often excluded from the count because they find themselves housed, but in unstable situations.

“Think of how many people just aged out of their parents houses. They’re not in a stable position to be able to get an apartment. What do you think ends up happening to them? They end up homeless,” Mills said.

During this time of economic hardship, households are being stretched and young people are often being asked what they’re bringing to the table. There are immense pressures to contribute.

“They look at me like I’m not making a contribution to the household, so why am I in their house,” Mills said. “You don’t want to stay somewhere you’re not wanted.”

To get the most realistic count of young people experiencing homelessness, Covenant House aimed to survey each of the young people in its residential programs, as well as those who come onsite for classes and those met during street outreach.

As Street Sense went to press, Covenant House reported the completion of 67 surveys and expected to meet its goal of surveying 100 young people.

Unfortunately, some of the most vulnerable people making up the District’s homeless youth population may not know about the count at all. When asked if he’d go in to be surveyed, Mills responded, “Go in where?”

This may be the root of the crisis: youth want to show their need but they don’t know how.

With the count in its first year and the number of homeless youth historically difficult to quantify, there is a lot to be learned regarding best outreach methods for engaging this population.

“Any point you’re doing [the survey], you will get some representative number and it starts the process,” Henson said.

STREET SENSE August 26 - September 8, 2015

BACK TO SCHOOL

“Kids Ride Free”

Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation

By Michelle Goldchain, Volunteer Starting August 17, 2015, all public school students and public charter school students in Washington, D.C. can ride Metrobus, DC Circulator and Metrorail to and from school for free. Mayor Muriel Bowser enacted this new ruling with the kick off of the “Kids Ride Free” program. According to a press release, the new program will save an average family with two children up to $600 over the course of the school year. “‘Kids Ride Free’ saves families money and gets kids to school safely and on time,” said Mayor Bowser. “Expanding the initiative to include Metrorail will give our young people more public transit options, which is especially important to the 75 percent of

By Lindsey Habenicht and Dottie Kramer, Editorial Interns

District students who attend schools outside of their neighborhoods. My Administration is committed to creating pathways to the middle class for District residents and we all know that starts with having access to a quality education.”

Private and parochial school students will need to register to receive the Metrobus pass. All students who are ages 5 to 21 are eligible to enroll. To receive the free pass, a DC One Card is required. To enroll, go to dconecard.dc.gov and register the DC One Card. Afterwards, go to dconecard.dc.gov/manage, sign in with an email address and click the eligibility button under “Transit Subsidy Selection.”

PHOTO BY RJ SCHMIDT/FLICKR

ABC

By Ronald “Pookanu” Dudley, Vendor/Artist I’m moving, I’m moving like a child.

I see, I see like an owl.

My daddy said that he likes my style Then he took a picture ‘cause he likes my smile.

A is for Apple B is for Boat C is for candy, C is for coat.

D don’t ever…

F is for fail.

G is for go.

Listen everybody.

H just makes me happy I is for intelligent. I’m intelligent.

J just makes me jump...

HIGH! K is for key to life M-N is morning, noon and night.

O is for orange P is for pie Q is for queen R is for ride, S is for start T is for Tuff U is for Urnanus V is for Venus W is for wave X is for xylophone Y if for you Z is for zoo, zebra Written and recorded with my daughter Brooke e. Listen on StreetSense.org!

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Back to School Baggage

By Ken Martin Vendor/Artist I have to buy a backpack this year as I do every year. While my daughter already has several brand new bags, from various sources. I have to buy her a specialty bag.

Last year was a transparent plastic backpack, so any weapons would be visible to security officers at schools. This year the school officials ask for mesh backpacks!?!

Is that to ensure that any weapons carried remain rust free?

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALABAMA.COM NEWS

As many young D.C. residents return to school this year, they are also returning to the free and reduced meal program. Nationwide, 19.2 million school children rely on this program in order to get a balanced meal each day. This provides relief for many families, because when the school year comes to a close, the meals seem to do the same.

In 2003, the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DCDPR) sought to solve child nutrition problems in the capital by creating the Free Summer Meal Program (FSMP). It was offered to all low-income residents under the age of 18. FSMP is a U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsored program in association with the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).

“OSSE works with government partners … advocacy groups, churches; non-profit community organizations; and program sponsors,” said Victoria Holmes, an OSSE spokeswoman.

Government partners for FSMP include the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor for Education, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, DC Public Schools, DC Public Libraries, and DCDPR. In 2013, one-third of the summer meal sponsors expanded existing services to meet the needs of families who need food in the evening, on weekends, and on holidays.

Although FSMP is now a huge success, it wasn’t always that way.

Outreach was a huge problem twelve years ago. Families didn’t know about the program and they didn’t like the name at the time, according to DCDPR Chief-ofStaff John Stokes.

To rectify the situation, DCDPR ran media campaigns to make the community aware that the resource was available.

DCDPR also gave taste testing to help determine what foods worked well for kids.

“If you make food fun for kids, they really get into it,” Stokes said.

Jointly, OSSE pushed for citywide outreach efforts to market to all populations through the web, grassroots, poster distribution, paid advertising, social media, and most importantly, word of mouth.

Accessibility and proximity of site location is essential to the success of the program, explained Holmes, as it has increased opportunities for families to locate a meal site near to their home.

Providers have also learned from previous years that meal sites such as schools and recreation centers, where children are enrolled for programming, have higher meal service participation.

More than 1 million meals were served in the District during the summer of 2014, and similar numbers are expected in the 2015 assessment, according to the Food Research Action Center (FRAC). The DC Public Library alone served 6,000 meals at 11 locations this summer.

Fifty-nine percent of children eligible for free or reduced price school meals in the District are reached by the program -- which is now number one in the nation, according to a June 2015 FRAC report.

“The D.C. Summer Meals Program is essential to District students, parents, and families while school is out of session,” said Victoria Holmes.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION

What to Read...

Small Plate

By James Davis, Vendor/Artist So the waitress suggests a small plate?

What! She must think I just ate No, I want some pork chops, collards, mashed potatoes and a nice portion of macaroni and cheese Then she suggested I can share, please!

I don't get it, it's sweeping the nation People obsessed with this small plate fascination Small plates are for small minds and small bank accounts I know this to be true on all counts You may say that I'm a trip but how would the waitress feel If I suggested to her a small tip?

Black and White Gorillas

By Michael Craig, Vendor/Artist

A black gorilla and white gorilla, sittin’ under a tree. Every day they would sit here and debate. Based on fur -- each one felt superior.

“The structure of my society is superior,” said the white gorilla.

“But I’m the original man!” said the black gorilla.

They began beating their chests at one another to show their superiority.

Until a sound in the bushes made them curious and alert. They looked at each other.

“Did you hear that?” asked one gorilla.

“Yeah!” said the other.

Together they moved over to the bushes to check it out. Then a zebra popped his head out from behind the bushes!

“Man, what’s all this black and white stuff about?!” the zebra exclaimed.

“I’m black AND white. And you’re both gorillas.”

***

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES DAVIS

The Joy of Tolerance Respecting others who are as different from you as you are from others, will make your heart smile.

The Woman in the Window

By Patty Smith Vendor/Artist I had come back to Washington, DC. I had come under sad circumstances. My Aunt passed away, and I was grieving. I lived in a rooming house on University Place. The owner said that I would have to move, he didn’t want to see me grieve. I moved around the corner to Fairmont Street. A week later a young man called me on the telephone, asking to come and see me. We met and ever since then he always came to visit me. My table was at the window and I was trying to get practice my typing. At the time I was doing temp work as a legal and medical secretary just returning from the army.

We had talk about my problems and how my Aunt died.

He gave me the courage to go on with my life. When the rent was due and I needed money again, he suggested that we started a typing service for the Howard University students. He brought friends over from Howard for me to type for them. Eventually I started going to other schools in the area like Georgetown, John Hopkins and George Washington, typing for all of them.

Unfortunately I couldn’t make enough money doing this in Washington, so I moved back home and typed for schools in Pennsylvania. That is my story, the woman in the window.

Building and establishing a stronger level of acceptance will make you grow and feel stronger, which will make your heart smile.

The freedom you receive from letting others be free will make you heart smile.

So be tolerant, open-minded, open-hearted, respectful, and accepting.

Make everybody’s heart smith!!!

Looking Out For #1

By Ken Martin, Vendor/Artist

There are many books that have had an altering effect on my life. But no nonspiritual material I’ve read over the many years has had the impact of “Looking Out for # 1” by Robert J. Ringer.

Ringer, who is a great example of ANYONE CAN BECOME HOMELESS was a neighbor of Jack Warner of Warner Brothers.

He lost his lease and was forced to live in a Ryder truck. From riches to rags and back again. Ringer uses examples from his life experience to remind of things in our own experience that need revisiting with new perspective. With humor, illustrations and hurdles, the author tackes us over life’s obstacles like people, friendship, crusade, family, finances and more.

All the while demonstrating that rational selfish produce better results than does the irrational.

I read this book, a bestsellter in 1977, while it was still on the New York Times Best Seller list in 1981 and during my first year of recovery from Alll. 35 years later the book isstill relevant and selling and I’m still sober. Ive recommended this book to the participants of every program I’ve workedand I recommend it very highly to you. Tell me: “What are you doing today that’s more important than Looking Out for #1?

– Robert Ringer

A Critique: “The Story of an Hour”

By Patty Smith Vendor/Artist

ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARA POLLARD

Word had come to a Lady that her husband had died in war. The news came and it shocked her. Her sister was at her bed side. She had been a sickly lady. After getting over the shock. She one day was in her room alone thinking. I am now free of him. She laid on her bed, looking out the window, life just came alive. Birds were singing, flowers looked more beautiful than ever before. Later that night there came a knock at her door. In stepped her husband, explaining to her that he was just wounded in the war. The shock killed her.

Patty is working with the original 1894 piece “The Story of An Hour” found here: www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/

STREET SENSE August 26 - September 8, 2015

5

COVER STORY

In 2013 I Met a Homeless Ex-Con; Now He’s a Published Author

By Susan Orlins Volunteer

Describe your writing process.

My story come to be a book, because every week I meet up with my editor and we sit out at different places—Starbucks, Panera, Astro Chicken. She ask me questions and writes on her computer. Then we share the stories in Street Sense.

Susan Orlins and Gerald Anderson work together on Anderson’s book “Still Standing.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF LILY THNEAH

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, and the city drowned. When Street Sense vendor Gerald Anderson began writing about rescuing Katrina victims, he was homeless.

Now he lives in a recovery home and has just published his memoir.

After meeting every week for 18 months to tell me his story, Gerald’s "My Katrina" series from the pages of Street Sense has been transformed into “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina.”

For Gerald, a brewing storm meant an opportunity to break into cars, stores, and homes. He would then buy drugs and land in jail. From age 15 to 37, a cycle of drugs, crime, prison was all he knew.

But when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees broke, Gerald's focus shifted, and he called upon skills he had learned behind bars to tend to those who were trapped.

Using a boat they found at an evacuated house in the Garden District, Gerald and his homeboys battled chin-high floodwaters to rescue victims (or their bodies): a woman in labor, an old man without legs, an addict with a bullet in his chest.

He and his friends looked after families and elderly in the projects “just like if we was protecting the President’s house.”

“Still Standing” is more than a tale of struggles when the levees broke. A gifted storyteller, Gerald weaves reflections on life before Katrina into the narrative.

“The neighborhood I came up in, you sit on

the porch, and it like watchin’ a wrasslin’ match. You see the ladies, the hustlers, the dogfights. If there ain’t men doin' violence, women be fightin’ about men.”

Gerald also reflects on using his wits in prison, where he grilled cheese sandwiches by ironing them inside brown paper bags. In Louisiana State Penitentiary, he lived with his father for the first time and realized, “My daddy got a little care about me.”

Gerald's memoir illuminates a man’s life that is tested by floodwaters and given new meaning by his rescue efforts.

His voice and cadence lend immediacy to his riveting story.

Recently I asked about his life as a street paper vendor and as a published author: How did it feel to finally hold a copy of your book?

It feel terrific, great, real great. Why? I know I can do it. It’s a big joyful thing to me, it motivate me, like when somethin’ get me down, I think about the book and about when I was on live TV and it motivate me.

Talk about when you first believed “Still Standing” would actually become a book.

I just kept workin’ hard. One Street Sense customer say to me, “You stayed out in the snow, sleet, and rain to write this book. You were homeless but you did this.” A lot of people say—“it’s rainin’, you gotta go home.” I say, “it can’t be no worse than Katrina. I’m stayin’.”

What has been your proudest moment since publishing?

My proudest moment this week, somethin’ amazing! I never thought this would happen—it’s big like Katrina to me. On Friday me and the judge and my editor sit face to face, the judge chair facin’ me! Sittin’ in the courtroom where they sit the criminals at with the lawyer. The same table I sat at when the judge sentence me to the drug treatment program.

The judge shake my hand, and then it’s like we sittin’ in a coffee shop. With the judge! After we tell some stories, I sign “Gerald Anderson” in the back of the book for her, right next to where I thank her for sendin’ me to the program.

Describe a typical weekday.

When I wake up it be about 3:45 in the morning. I smoke me a cigarette, wash up, and make my coffee. My clothes already be laid out. I sit on the side of my bed, say my prayers. I go to sleep sayin’ prayers and I wake up sayin’ prayers. Why so many prayers? That’s how blessed I am to be here.

Then I take the Metro and go to McDonald’s. I get to Gallery Place at around 6:30 a.m. to sell my papers. I set the papers out and play my music. When I see the people comin’, that’s when I get into action. I motivate my customers by sayin’ “Good morning, good morning,” and they say they be happy to see me and hear good mornin'.

It slows down at about 11. If I make enough money, I say to myself, “I’m goin’ to Astro Chicken.” The rest of the afternoon, I stay by the Metro. A few customers come talk to me, ask about my next chapter, what I did for the weekend. It’s a great, great feeling — the network, like family, I built up.

I stay for the evening rush hour until about seven, and then head home. I mingle with people on the Metro goin’ home.

I been tellin’ them about my new book.

I bring chicken home, and then I start watchin’ a movie. I like all Madea movies.

And I like the Teddy Bear movie.

I say my prayers, lay out my clothes, take a shower, have my coffee, and go to sleep at nine.

What motivates you to work so hard selling papers and then also to write a book?

Because at one time it was like I gave up.

But now, selling Street Sense and writing my story—it like a big great activity to me.

It rock my body. It like club music, hip hop, go-go, that’s how it make me feel. I know I got somewhere to go, somethin’ to do, people who care.

What have your customers said about your book?

When I show them my book, my customers say they can’t wait to get it. They say they love the big move I’m makin’ and they love the way I didn’t give up. I didn’t let the damage of Katrina take care of me. It took some time, but I took advantage of it and took a new way of livin’.

Is there anything you’d like to say to your customers?

Your friendship and kindness mean so much to me. It is essential in my drug recovery and success publishing this book.

What is your family’s reaction?

Oh! My family call me and they be just as happy as my Street Sense customers!

Visit Gerald’s website, www.katrinastillstanding.com, where you can purchase the book; see upcoming events such as his talk at Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Library at noon on September 10; and more — all in time to mark the Katrina tenth anniversary.

BOOK COVER COURTESY OF LILY THNEAH

How I Got Here

By Darlesha Joyner Vendor/Artist I was born September 27, 1990 to Minette and Shelton Joyner. I was born HIV positive.

I have three children, Alicia, 5 years old; Shelton, 3 years old; and Jasiah, 2 years. My kids are HIV negative so are their Fathers.

My life growing up as HIV positive was kind of difficult. My Mom passed away when I was 4 years old. My Dad passed, when I was 7 and my Grandmothers 16 and 14. I was teased in school. A lot of people did not want to sit by me in the cafeteria or class.

I lost my job at Ledo pizza because I told people at my school about my HIV status and they told my manger. She said she had to let me go. I started working at Six-flags then carnival after that summer youth employment and now I sell Street Sense.

How It Feels To Emancipate

By Ashley Strange Editorial Intern

Knowing that in a couple of days you will no longer have support from the Child Welfare Agency is scary.

Children or young adults who have been in the foster care system and emancipated out at 18 or 21 experience financial problems, homelessness, or both. This fact can bring feelings of frustration, fear, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Many foster youth don’t have the support of their families; once they emancipate, all of the responsibilities are on them. This is not to say that youth who’ve emancipated shouldn’t have responsibilities, but how many 18 and 21 year olds can fully support themselves? Aftercare services are provided, sometimes; however, it still is not enough. A $1,000 gift card to Target can help furnish your home; that is, if you can afford a home at 18 and 21. Rapid Rehousing is available for one year to help emancipated youth pay rent, but what’s next after their one year is over? Youth usually have until the age of 23 to use Rapid Re-housing, but many youth cannot finding housing by then. Finding employment is hard, but many youth manage to find a job. But what happens if you’re in college full-time and grades start to slip

because you’re working to try to survive “adulthood?” And with little experience and no college degree yet, youth most likely will not be able to find jobs paying more than the minimum wage.

Welfare is available; well, kind of. The Welfare system expects emancipated youth to live on $60 a month in food stamps.

Once you emancipate, it’s as if your life is over. Can we truly tell someone on the verge of emancipation, while considering the cost of living, that this is enough?

My transition preparation started when I was 20 years old. Two weeks before I emancipated, I began to panic and cry. I wrote a letter to the director of the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, who at the time was Brenda Donald, to ask her for help with getting everything that I needed before my birthday. I was not able to get everything done; however, she did speed up the process on the most important issues.

On the day of my 21st birthday, I sat at my best friend’s house and cried. I was afraid. Afraid of going back to the life I lived before I entered foster care. I also felt abandoned. I spent five years in the foster care system, coming from a life of poverty, being around drugs, and seeing people be killed. Within those five years I felt safe, and I had gained the confidence to go back to school, graduate, and make

it through my first three years of college with grades that surprised many people, including myself. But once the encouragement from the system is gone, you just feel like giving up again.

This is the same feeling that many other emancipated youth feel when the day of “adulthood” arrives.

For me, each month is a struggle. Being a full-time college student while stressing over whether or not you can afford to pay your phone bill, buy new clothes, or buy “real” food is a lot to take on. And on top of all of this, you now have to try and find another place to live.

My foster mom allowed me to stay with her, but she charged me $350 of the $659 that I receive monthly from SSI. I am left with a little over $300, with which I have to buy toiletries, pay my phone bill, pay for medication, cover transportation, try to get my hair done (can’t go to work with messed up hair), pay for printing and copying credit for school, and try to buy new clothes. Being a frugal person and creating a budget every month, along with therapy, has helped me survive.

Poverty doesn’t have a distinct characteristic. When I come to work or go to school, I present people with a smile, joke when appropriate, complete assignments...etc., but deep inside I’m actually hurting.

Local Artists Gather to “Paint Out Poverty”

By Bardia Saeedi, Artist-in-Residence

The Art Bus, painted for Homelessopoly.

Vendor/Artist Robert Williams (right) with another Paint Out Povert artist.

The "I Have a Home Here" art bus made an appearance at the first annual Painting Out Poverty festival in Southwest D.C. on Saturday, August 16.

While at the festival, some Street Sense Interactive Art Group participants along with other festival at-tendees created art for the current bus project, called Homlessopoly. This life size monopoly game aims to take the players through the everyday life of the people with unstable housing.

The Paint Out Poverty festival brought artists and community organizers together to collectively explore the arts for the means of touching the lives of the less fortunate. Panel speakers and others discussed some important issues around the subject.

The art bus was painted with gold “$” signs in the spirit of the monopoly game.

The signs also point out the one-sided role of money in our community. The mission of the art bus is not specifically to raise money for housing sit-uation, there is no direct ask. In this context, the “$” signs symbolize the fact that the bus is the "money."

"I was inspired by the panel's powerful discussion on the transformative and healing power of art," said Paulina Sosa, an event organizer for Painting Out Poverty.

One of the most important goals of this effort is community engagement and the coming together of different groups and organizations to create art, to create a support infrastructure and to have fun. Painting Out Poverty’s first annual event was a great success in the context of this goal.

"For me, the event was proof that there is a real organic hunger to collaborate and partner; to create use-ful dialogue and discussion; and for the community to use its voice to speak out," Sosa said.

Events like Paint Out Poverty are a perfect opportunity for the "I Have A Home Here" project. The art bus is currently under construction for more art and will make its next appearance at Figment DC, September 26 – 27, in Anacostia Park D.C. Bardia Saeedi leads the Street Sense Interactive Art Group. Photos by Vendor/Artist Ken Martin.

Vendor/Artist James Davis manning a table about the Interactive Art Group.

Event organizer Paulina Sosa.

A young community artist shares her work.

PHOTOS BY KEN MARTIN

STREET SENSE August 26 - September 8, 2015

FEATURES

City and the American Dream

By Daniel Roche Volunteer At a young age I was once asked to draw the world so I drew a city.

This was no ordinary city. Its builders chose to carve the city out of a mountain.

Towards the base of the mountain rested the slums. The further one elevated vertically towards the mountain peak, one would notice the more luxurious and posh the lives of the city’s inhabit-ants became.

There were no roads or automobiles in this city. Citizens were forced to remain and interact in the neighborhoods they were born into. The only mode of transportation was a gondola line that ran from flat land all the way up to the mountain’s peak.

I showed my father this drawing of a city later that day after school. He was puzzled. He asked me why I perceived a city to be this way.

To this day I am not sure why I deliberately chose to create slum when there doesn’t have to be. I do not know why I chose to provide higher quality of life for people that could afford to live at the top of the mountain.

There seemed to be an inherent truth that I was lead to believe about a city that I could not re-fuse when attempting to create one.

If we look at the city described above and the dream that its creators sought out to achieve, the results in my opinion are quite startling. What’s more startling is that the city described above is quite typical in many class structures seen around the world. The difference between the city described above and others like it around the world are purely aesthetic.

The values however are quite similar.

The ideal city is the opposite of the city described above. The ideal city exists to enable the indi-vidual or a people to achieve a dream. The city acts as the medium between the individual and the vision that the individual or the people has.

In this ideal city, sub-division between those with privilege and those without is declared an injus-tice because this city exists in order to achieve

a greater good, collectively.

In this ideal city the hope for its future does not reside in its current leaders but it’s emphases on the children for they shall be the ones that inherit the city and will choose to do with it as they please.

History has proven this notion to be the truth; all the way from the academies of Greece, to the industrial neighborhoods of Lowell, to the mega cities of China.

A truly great city as declared by Reyner Banham in his documentary titled, Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles once said that, “A truly great city offers a man (and woman) a mechanism for imposing his own style and his own vision on the rest of the world.”It was for this kind of thing that the young William Shakespeare came to London already choking in appall of coal smog . . . a rotten city in many ways but the only place that a young dramatist could make it and get his style through to a larger public at that time. It was for this kind of reason that generations of painters were prepared to starve in the garrets of Paris. . . It takes a city to support style and craft, but it takes a very great city indeed to impose that style on the rest of the world.”

Let us not judge a city’s greatness on behalf of its public buildings or architectural beauty, but its ability to create progressive thinkers and wonderful people.

It should be our sole objective as inheritor’s of the city to do just that!

Daniel Roche is an aspiring architect and writer. His interests include architectural theory, design education, and social issues within the urban context. This essay began during an independent study at The Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning with Professor David Dewane. The essay was an investigation into the responsibility that the city throughout history has had to its inhabitants to ensure highest quality of life and to serve as a catalyst for change and growth.

Young and Young

By Andre Brinson, Vendor/Artist I’ve noticed teenagers buying Street Sense papers. I am so impressed to see them reading and trying to understand what homelessness is about.

It gives me joy to know the fight will continue to help people and improve their lives (thank God).

My daughter was coming to to see me and we will go to North Carolina together. She had an operation and I want and need to be with her.

Thank you God.

9

COMICS & GAMES

EVITABLE PUZZLES OF DELIGHT: MATCH THE ORIGINS

By Franklin Sterling, Vendor/Artist

A BAD ROAD TRIP

By Chris Shaw, “The Cowboy Poet” Nats took the stage, But the D-Backs flipped the page!

Ugh--In Chase Field, Few Triumphs did we feel; For, our "Boys" often yield A Passel of Runs-To the Other Side.

(Ineptitude is hard to hide!)

If our home town crew Had nerves of Steel, Would that not Broach a Worthy Shield For Washington's Pride?

So why groan, Mister Rendon, Are you and Werth, in LA,

Afraid to progress in this Way? Alas, Dodgers take their mighty Whacks- Across Our stumbling swinging Hacks!

An eight-three win was succeeded by the Ultimate Sin-- a Pair of Shut-outs, Alas, the skeptics may sigh, "Cowboy, you baseball fraud," Nay, friend I maintain a loyal cause: We'll yet finish over 50-50, For the ultimate Glory Of our Blest' Capitol City!!

*Answers to be printed in September 9 edition of Street Sense ANSWERS FROM 8/23: 1. Cutting Contests - American Jazz, 2. The Secondary Rattle - Shamanism 3. The Repetend - The Book of Forms, 4. Rashid al-Din - Medieval Iconodule, 5. Dunadh - Waelses 6. The Kearny Cross - U.S. Army, 7. Cromlech - Prehistoric Man, 8. Scytale - Sparta, 9. Middle Name: B (dot) - Lithuania, 10. Samuel Rosenstock - Romania, 11. Sardanapalus - Indefinite Origin, 12. Dyinous - Vodoun, 13. The Terrestrial Monster Strip - Mayan Civilization

STREET SENSE August 26 - September 8, 2015

11

OPINION

Congress’ Opportunity to Invest in Adult’s Futures

Dear US Postal Service

Congress left town this summer without considering the Labor-HHS-Appropriations bill in the full House or full Senate. The bill advanced by the Senate Appropriations Committee would reduce funding for adult education programs below the level that both houses of Congress passed with bipartisan support last year. Simultaneously, D.C. literacy organizations have been working hard to help D.C. adults improve their reading and writing.

In Washington, D.C., “the nation’s most literate city,” more than 90,000 adults are functionally illiterate, according to the Washington Literacy Center, and this substandard skill level is a driving force behind the income disparities in our city.

It’s not just Washington. Other large metropolitan areas share similar adult education statistics, and low-literacy impacts rural areas too. District residents can take pride in the adult education and literacy organizations in our city. Adult education instructors--such as Riley Grime at Southeast Ministry (SEM), Jessica Wabler of the YWCA-National Capital Area, or Scott Stafford of Literacy Volunteers and Advocates - National Capital Area (LVA - NCA)--help adults struggling to overcome their learning gaps.

Adult literacy and education is not an abstract budget line to those who help adults struggling to master the skills most Americans take for granted. It involves helping the grandmother raising her grandchildren to obtain her GED so she can better provide for them. It involves the young high school dropout who realizes that education really does matter.

Plenty of kids in middle class households, including this writer, experienced academic problems in elementary or high school. But they often obtain help from parents who have the time and skills to

Re: Mail service for persons living in homeless shelters, group homes or other institutional settings

By Steve Lilienthal Volunteer

work with them, or who can afford to hire a tutor.

In less affluent families, the learning gaps of the parents often become the inheritance of the children. And many of these children end up at schools that are unable to provide the help they need. Despite their bad experiences in school, many adults come forward to improve their basic skills.

Arthur Brooks, President of the centerright American Enterprise Institute, recently participated in a panel discussion about poverty at Georgetown University. Brooks said that people from backgrounds of poverty should not be considered as “liabilities to manage.” He argued that a “human capital” approach should be taken in which people in poverty are viewed as “assets to develop, because every one of us made in God’s image is an asset to develop.”

Following Brooks’ logic, adult education and adult literacy funding represents a monetary investment that can yield future dividends. A recent report from The Community Foundation for the National Capital Area illuminates the importance of helping adults to improve their skills and knowledge. “Charting the Course: An Opportunity to Improve Workforce Development in D.C.” declares that 60,000 District residents are “locked out” of participating in the local economy due to their lack of a high school degree.

Thanks to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), positive changes can occur to help the city better integrate job training in the District of Columbia with available jobs. Performance measures will help to ensure accountability. To take advantage of this training, low-income learners will need support in the form of programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps).

Many adult learners are working in lowpaying jobs while supporting a family. Time is money, and asking low-income workers to devote time to educational training without providing additional financial support is unreasonable.

Now, Congress is holding the line on WIOA funding for adult education and family literacy in this year’s Labor-HHS Appropriations bill. Given Congress’ reputation for tight-fistedness, that’s rather good.

Yet, funding falls more than 8 percent below the reauthorization level that Congress passed last year. Meanwhile, according to the literacy advocacy organization, ProLiteracy, existing resources permit only 3 million of the estimated 36 million Americans to receive help from adult literacy and adult education programs.

The Labor-HHS-Appropriations funding bill is out of committee in both the House and the Senate, but the bill is unlikely to be taken up by either body. According to a senior education professional who is not part of the government, it will likely be rolled into whatever end-of-year funding deal that is determined.

Too many Americans remain in a holding pattern. Below average skills are limiting their opportunities. America can make a stronger commitment to investing in people to fulfill their potential because a more literate America will be a more able country. But achieving that goal requires investment. Can we make that commitment as a country? Let’s see how Congress answers that question this fall.

Steve Lilienthal is a freelance writer.

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week is September 21-26.

In the Name of God, Gracious and Merciful master have to make sure the slave doesn’t rise above them.

In my opinion, an evil entity took over after the assassination of President Kennedy. The strength of the black American people was taken when a Lyndon Johnson came into power. Young, strong, black Americans, strong in mind and body were drafted and separated from family and country. Those that refused to go were imprisoned for at least five years. This was a way to rid the threat of the rise of Black America. They were sent somewhere to deny the freedom of another country and change their way of thinking. These Black men were changed

Date: July 5, 2015 As someone who has stayed at various homeless shelters from time to time, and who has been receiving mail at Bethesda CARES, a non-profit agency which serves homeless, low-income and disabled people, I ask for your advice and help with two problems concerning mail regulations and service.

1.The USPS will not forward mail I receive at Bethesda CARES to my new address. This is a major problem not only for me but for hundreds of thousands of people in the USA who do NOT have a street address and must get their mail at one of the hundreds of non-profit agencies that serve homeless people. The US Mail must serve all people equally.

2. Assurance Wireless, Life Link and the other vendors for the free phone service (available to low-income people who receive SNAP and Medicaid benefits) will not mail our free phone to General Delivery or to a PO Box, they insist on a street address.

This deprives me and others of a federal benefit paid by US taxpayers which should be available on an equal basis to every citizen who qualifies.

Please help me with these two problems. Since I can’t get my phone, please send me a response by email or to my new mailing address.

Sincerely, Gary J. Minter General Delivery Las Vegas, NV 89165 Email: garyjminter@yahoo.com

DC Police Shooting

By Barron Hall, Vendor/Artist

Here in the nation’s capital there are American black people living in slavery. In the nation that is supposed to lead the so called “free world,” they live and survive with the reality of invisible chains. Their self-appointed master is man’s law. The word of God says manmade law is unjust and not His. This so called law in America is meant to oppress and control Black Americans. A man or woman who is kept in a state of oppression daily, finds themselves in a state of survival by any means necessary. Knowing this, the men who have held the title of

By Gary Minter Former Vendor/Artist

By Ricardo Meriedy, Vendor/Artist from god fearing to killers. With no one here to protect Black American families and neighborhoods, our enemy subjected us to new terrors: Drugs, guns and crime against each other. It has gone on like this generation after generation. God says you reap what you sow. So America our downfall will be yours as well. You reap what you sow. Shame on the beast that owns America. Black America we are a people who have suffered much by this beast called master. But the god who has brought us out of so much, says hold on, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Black America we should be ashamed of how we treat each other.

A woman was shot by a police officer on August 8, after she refused to drop a knife. I understand the police officer was protecting himself, but he could have taken more precautions than he did.

Many men and women are getting shot in the District and most of them are using some type of illicit drugs. This woman turned out to be using synthetic drugs with PCP. Once the police officer acknowledged the victim was under the influence, he should have approached the situation differently. I just wish the police would handle someone who is discombobulated much better.

The Street Sense Writers’ Group is led by writing professionals and meets every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. The group’s goal is to develop ideas and collaborate on the next great issue of Street Sense.

How Our Children Wake

Staying Strong

By Charles Davis Vendor/Artist To stay strong we must always have faith in our hearts.

When I was growing up, my father taught us very well about faith. Sundays we had to go to church, no matter how horrible the weather was.

When I wake up in the morning, I always praise God. When I first started with Street Sense, I knew I had to be strong to do this because I sold newspapers before and the faith just kept me going. Ever since my friend Andre Brinson brought me in to Street Sense, I have been moving on. Sometimes selling these papers is boring. I want to leave, but I don’t. So, Street Sense family, whatever you do, stay strong because selling your papers brings more good days than bad.

About My Family

By Latishia Graham Vendor/Artist My mother’s name is Diane and she is retired. She used to work at the Capital building but was in an automobile accident in 2010. She had to learn to walk again. So God has blessed her. Through it all.

My father’s name is Mike. He is a hard worker and has two jobs. But now he has only one, because of his heart. He was also in the same car with my mother when the accident occurred. Also God has blessed him through all his troubles.

My older brother’s name is Thomson and he is very laid-back. He lives at home and sometimes goes out with his friends. He is 42 years old and was born in 1972.

My youngest brother’s name is CJ and he is 18 years old. He has a job.

My daughter, Tiffany is 25 years old. She is a mother of a 1 year-old boy. She is married and living with her husband. She got married August 30, 2014.

My other daughter’s name is Joy and is 18 years old. She likes to do hair. She just graduated from high school. And is going to college and has a job.

My son’s name is Darrell, Jr. He is 1 years old, is laid-back and goes out to see his friends and loves to dance.

By Jackie Turner Vendor/Artist

ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLES DAVIS

The Beautiful One

What I Enjoy

Hey y’all, it’s me again. The beautiful one from North Carolina. I went to a lot of neighborhood cookouts this past week.

Great food, music and people.

Twice last week a homeless man and woman bought my Street Sense newspaper and others gave without buying the paper.

Great, huh!

While selling newspapers, I saw a very well-dressed African-American female.

She looked like she was 80 or close to it. She had a walker. While passing her, she asked me for a cigarette. I continued walking because very seldom do I see women begging/asked for cigarettes.

When I realized what she said, I thought about giving her a cigarette but I didn’t.

She was dressed very nicely, her hair in place. I did not want her to smoke because the smoke would get in her clothes and also I thought she might have Alzheimer’s and didn’t know where she was at the time.

To all who have a place to stay or financial stability, count your blessings and thank the “higher power” for your good luck. Sadly, homelessness and poverty don’t care about age, gender, and race.

We also live in a time where anyone of us could be homeless.

Be nice to people. Join the Family.

Now, y’all be safe until next time.

I really enjoy all the sign seeing in DC. I enjoy talking. The spirit moves me in His way. It makes me feel good. I feel the Spirit touch me in ways that I never have in the past. It lifts me up high and then brings me back down. I love the way it tells me things and keeps me feeling strong. I love to keep strong and do things that make me feel good. I have high standard for my life. I am highly motivated in whatever I do.

By Betty Everett, Vendor/Artist

By Darren Kelly, Vendor/Artist

Where to be me.

By Teddy Leggett, Vendor/Artist All my life, I’ve been you, him and them.

All my life, I have listened to you, him and them.

All my life, I have been safe with you, him and them.

All my life, I have just found me.

My Name is Elizabeth Bryant

By Elizabeth Bryant, Vendor/Artist

I have a lot on my mind. So sometimes I say something that I wish I hadn’t said.

Right now I miss my daughter and grandson a lot. But my big mouth got me in trouble and I hope she forgives me because I really hurt her.

Staying away is hard. But I love them anyhow. How can I love them and hurt them too? Life teaches us some hard lessons, and this is really hard. I pray all the time and cry sometimes but deep down inside I hope things change. Am I stupid?

I wake up with the sound of the phone ringing Monday - Friday at 8 o'clock. This is when my sisters are leaving for school and it's time for me to get dressed for school.

I have no dad. My mother leaves for work at 4:30 because she works an hour drive from home. I am eight. I walk two blocks to school and that begins my day.

I wake up at the sound of my mother's voice saying, "Wake up. It's 6 o'clock." I have to be at school at eight, but it takes an hour to get to school. My dad leaves at 7 o'clock, my mom at 7:15. I catch the bus. I am 13.

I wake at 6 o'clock by the sound of the alarm. I rush to get dressed. I have to be at work at 7 o'clock. After work I go to school at 12 o'clock. I am on work study.

This is my last year of high school. Two hours work at 5 p.m. Fours work before school and four hours to get my last two credits. I am 17.

I wake up at 5 o'clock when I hear my mom and dad talking. Mom is getting my things together for daycare along with my brother and sister who are in second and third grade. We eat and dress and get in the car. We drop off Dad, then my brother and sister. I get to daycare at 8 o'clock.

I am 4.

MY IDEAL: Melody’s Apartment

By Melody Byrd Vendor/Artist My ideal is I’m not homeless anymore. I got an apartment doing fine it is a nice experience to have a good life. I am getting my life in order. God is good and I hope I have a good time.

STREET SENSE August 26 - September 8, 2015

VENDOR WRITING

Hello America, I’m Back

By Benjamin Lester, Vendor/Artist

W

ell, hello America, I'm back and I have truly missed you all. I hope and pray that each and every Street Sense vendor/ supporter is in the very best of gods' great and loving care. I would like to bring to the attention of all readers a very special book of poetry, "The Rose That Grew from Concrete." Written by the last, "Tupac Shakur." His words and poetry are so inspiring, I just want to share a few of his poems with Street Sense. Thank you all for your kindness and support.

The Rose That Grew In the Depths from Concrete of Solitude

Sometimes I Cry

"Autobiographical"

"Dedicated 2 Me"

"Tupac Amaru Shakur"

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete Proving natures' laws wrong it learned 2 walk without having feet Funny it seems but by keeping its dreams it learned 2 breathe fresh air Long live the rose that grew from concrete When no one else even cared

I exist in the depths of solitude pondering my true goal Trying 2 find peace of mind and still preserve my soul Constantly yearning 2 be accepted and from all receive respect Never compromising but sometimes risky and that is my only regret A young heart with an old soul how can there be peace How can I be in the depths of solitude when there R 2 inside of me This duo within me causes the perfect opportunity 2 learn and live twice as fast as those who accept simplicity

Sometimes when I'm alone I cry because I'm on my own The tears I cry R bitter and warm They flow with life but have no form I cry because my heart is torn and I find it difficult to carry on If I had an ear 2 confide in I would cry among my treasured friends But who do u know that stops that long to help another carry on The world moves fast and it would rather pass u by than 2 stop and c what makes u cry It's painful and sad sometimes I cry and no one cares about why

friends about how responsible and good to them David was. Here friends would come over to play whist or bridge periodically and were from the neighborhood. She remembered one occasion at her house.

“David is so good. I wonder where we will go on vacation this year. Maybe Africa or Italy” Lisa Stinson said,”Well, I heard about that fox he recently hired. He put her with one of his best men. He is going to train her. She could be headed for his job one day.”

David was now a top supervisor at the FBI. Kim Darby said,”Yeah, but Deedra doesn’t have to worry. The fox is getting married soon, I heard. I wonder how she got such a good job with travel. Did David previously know her?”

“I doubt it. He never said anything about hiring a friend,” Deedra responded.

They continued the bridge game and Deedra didn’t think anything more about it until David told her that an employee had gotten married, but they were not invited because the wedding was intimate and small.

Life continued. David was working long hours, so Deedra and Matt visited the girls in Michigan during spring break, although David would have preferred to have been sent to Fort Lauderdale where young people gathered, but that was out of the question at his age.

One day at the grocery store, Deedra ran in to Ann Gibson, a friend from the card group.

“Hey girl. That woman your husband hired didn’t waste any time. Someone saw her out shopping for baby things. They know who she is and she was telling the clerk that she is pregnant.” (to be continued)

A History of My Father

Black Sisters: Part 1

By Gynette Smith, Vendor/Artist

Deedra Hanley was a happy woman who felt lucky to find a man like David Hanley to marry. They had met in Key West, Fla. when she and a couple of girlfriends had gone there on vacation. David’s brother was there, too. He was from DC and she was working in Chicago. One day Deedra had gone alone to tour a former president’s home.

Deedra and David had not dated in Key West, but they did keep in touch after they both returned home. Over time they had gotten together often, fallen in love, and married. Life had been fairly good.

He had finished the University of Maryland and was with the FBI. She taught middle school, just like she had done in Chicago.

She now taught English at a high school that looked like a castle on the outside and was not far from where they lived.

Initially they had lived in apartments.

Then they moved to a row house. She loved to sit on the porch in the front and watch the people go by. She and David had decided, though, that to give their three children—Andrea, Tamia and Matthew David—better schools to attend, they would have to move.

Deedra thought that she would be despondent and never find house she would like as much. However, they did find one. It was a two family house and was very charming. She could still sit on the front stoop and watch the traffic go by, although there were not as many people walking around as there had been at the other house. Their dog Pasho, a shih tsu, also lived there with them.

The girls had now finished college. They were two years apart and lived in Highland Park, Michigan. They worked there and planned to do postgraduate studying there and eventually marry. Matt was only 16 and still lived at home. He wanted to go to college in Michigan near them.

Deedra often bragged to her girl-

13

By Sybil Taylor, Vendor/Artist

My father was born in Washington, D.C.. He has always been a United States citizen and served in the U.S. army. He was honored and saluted for serving this country. He was stationed at Fort Hamilton in New York on December 18, 1959, where he took up zoology. He served 8 weeks in the army and received a honorable reward for his duty. He also received an early release overseas, in France. He came home on leave to marry my mother on March 12, 1958. My mother met my father in homeroom class. They talked and liked each other, they were a good match.

They always ate lunch together.

My father participated in everything at school. He loved school. He never missed a day of school. He made honor roll a lot.

He was the top student in class, and he took all major subjects: Math, English, Spanish, and Life Skills. He always loved his music class. He played the tuba, along

COLLAGE BY SYBIL TAYLOR

with other instruments, he was gifted. He did his first concert for my mother and grandmother. He really wanted them to come see him perform with his friends.

They were so happy to have seen him perform his selection with the tuba. Then, he got engaged to my mother. He really loved her, and she loved him. He showed her how much he appreciated her. He gave her the world, anything she wanted from him. He made her a queen! During the time that my father was overseas, he sent my mother a present. A lovely rhinestone necklace, bracelet, and ring set.

I was voilet-purple and it sparkled and shined. I was a set that came from France.

All of the pieces of the set sparkled like a diamond ring worth millions. He payed $1,000 for the set. It was all real jewelry.

He really wanted to marry my mom right away. (to be continued)

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAILYDOLLARDOODLES.COM

The Turkey, the Pharaoh and the One Dollar Bill

By Charles McCain Volunteer You probably have a $1 bill in your pocket. It is so familiar to us that we don’t notice the symbols on the bill, yet if you look at them closely, the early history of the United States of America will appear before your eyes.

On the front is a portrait of George Washington, the first president of the United States. To his right is the seal of the Department of the Treasury. That name encircles the top half of the round seal. On the bottom is “1789,” the year the Treasury Department was established.

If you take a magnifying glass and examine the middle of the Treasury seal, you will see a scale with balanced arms, which symbolizes justice. Under the scale is a chevron with 13 stars, which represents the original 13 states. The number thirteen appears five times on the $1 bill.

Below that is a key, which represents the authority of the government.

Turn the bill over and you see both sides of the Great Seal of the United States. On the right is the obverse, or front, of the Great Seal. This depicts an eagle holding 13 arrows in his left talon, which signifies war (as well as the original 13 states), and in his right talon he is holding an olive branch, which signifies peace.

Benjamin Franklin was strongly opposed to the depiction of an eagle, a bird which had, he said, “bad moral character." Instead, he wanted a turkey, “a more respectable bird and...a true original native of America.” He was over-

ruled. The shield on the eagle’s breast has 13 stripes representing the 13 original states as does the constellation of 13 stars above the eagle’s head.

To the left is the reverse of the Great Seal. Two of our most prominent founding fathers, Jefferson and Franklin, who were on the committee which designed the Great Seal (and took six years to do it), wanted the reverse of the Great Seal to show an Egyptian pharaoh in a chariot chasing the Israelites through the divided waters of the Red Sea. They did not get their wish.

Instead, the reverse of the Great Seal depicts an uncompleted Egyptian pyramid built with 13 rows of stones. On the bottom tier of stones are the Roman numerals for 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was issued.

In a semicircle under the pyramid are the Latin words novus ordo seclorum. This translates in English as "a new order of the ages," meaning a democracy without a monarch, a form of government unknown in the world in that era.

At the top of the pyramid is an eyeball and above that is the Latin inscription annuit coeptis which means "providence (or God) has favored our undertakings," meaning the for-mation of the United States. However, given the age of suspicion we live in, I tell people that the annuit coeptis means “we’ve got our eye on you.” And they believe me.

Letting God Do His Part

By Marcus Green, Vendor/Artist First thing is to pray for some things to leave your heart, or to have balance when you are about to make some bad decisions.

Second, you do your part in putting blessings in the

Circle of Blessings, so they will grow and work through others for the betterment of humanity.

Third, you stay consistent with your will being aligned with God's will for you. Help someone along the way, family comes first, then friends, etcetera. Keep the faith, be patient because God always comes through.

God Bless.

Life, Full of Strife

By Debbie Brantley Vendor/Artist Life is a strange tree. A unique, cash register like thing.

It has bar-gains. As a tree it continues upward, to a point.

And it branches out.

In the beginning, in Eden, where did trees come from? Or who, rather? Why are some trees strange?

Scientists know that some trees are strange.

A strange tree will find survival and miracles. Life is sometimes strange and has branches. The Old Testament of the Bible says that you can get lifelike things from trees. In the New Testament, life is compared to a river.

No more strangeness or bargains, but instead, revolutionary thought and the idea of teetotaling.

Life is a miraculous thing. It has been said by doctors that I do not have a life because I was homeless.

Some fruit is strange. Some parts of life are strange. Strange fruit and strange trees, do they go together? Yes. And you should eat strange fruit. The apple is a strange fruit. Because it is hard.

As far as bargains are concerned, where do we get the money to pay for things? A tree is good. So bargains are good. Mankind says no to bargains and investments. Because she would then be able to decide, for one thing.

Someone is making me able, but is requesting attention to a bargain they made up. The bargain is that I will give them a little money in ex-change for a large sum of money.

This way instead of picking and choosing then consuming things which give life, and bargains, I would be like a river in my life.

Because of revolutionariness and teetotaling many of us can't get ahead. I had picked a life full of bargains. Picking and choosing then consuming here and there. Now, with this stranger doing bargains with me I must put up with revolutionaries. People who will make decisions, here and there, for me. She said, "I'm doing this for you."

Life is being fought over in the church these days. You have a choice before the testimonies of the blood. I believe that the spirits are acting up, showing their shells.

The Bible says in Exodus that there would be mass confusion con-cerning life. Should or should you not eat of the fruit of the tree of life? Should you eat the apple of the tree or not?

In the book of Ruth, it says that women would have more say so in the land of money. This book later speaks of whoredom as a kind of bargain. Someone beside me whispered, "whoring around and repro-duction are the beginnings of all things." This takes care of the original sin in thought and in deed.

So Eve, Adam's wife, might have made a deal to bring in life through the tree instead of the river. I heard that this bit of play was quite funny. "Comedians," said a friend, "I heard, rely on these several pieces today."

But as they say, mother knows best.

Eve, I guess, knew what was best. She being the mother of all. (to be continued)

The Vanishing Chicken Truck

By Chris Shaw, “The Cowboy Poet”

No, he had no permit.

Tho' his chicken quarter was broiled, Oh yea, it was, to Perfection, One-two-three.

"Jimmy's Bests," may not have had the freshest celery Ripest peaches, or cleanest apples ya' ever did see; Yet they were Real, oh my yes, Tee-Hee. The Rhode Island Cleaning System Was not the fastest, or newest, (But their shirt dyes were Blue-est!)

Hanging Gable's glossy photo over the cash register; Did nothing to stem the cash hemorrhage.

Goins' Sandwiches are gone; And Sunny's Surplus Shop Has “surplused”' out.

Our neighborhood corner stands Have flown quicker than pancakes, From a Shrove Tuesday dinnerGoer's hands!

15

STREET SENSE MONTH DAY - DAY, 2013

COMMUNITY SERVICES Housing/Shelter

Food

Clothing

Showers

Outreach

Medical/Healthcare

Transportation

Laundry

Education

Employment Assistance

Legal Assistance

Academy of Hope: 269-6623 601 Edgewood St, NE aohdc.org

Bread for the City: 265-2400 (NW) | 561-8587 (SE) 1525 7th St, NW | 1640 Good Hope Rd, SE breadforthecity.org

Community of Hope: 232-7356 communityofhopedc.org

Jobs Have Priority: 544-9128 425 Snd St, NW jobshavepriority.org

Covenant House Washington: 610-9600 2001 Mississippi Avenue, SE covenanthousedc.org

John Young Center: 639-8569 119 D Street, NW

Calvary Women’s Services: 678-2341 1217 Good Hope Road, SE calvaryservices.org

D.C. Coalition for the Homeless: 347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave, NW dccfh.org

Catholic Charities: 772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp

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

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

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

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

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

Community Family Life Services: 347-0511 | 305 E St, NW cflsdc.org

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

Foundry Methodist Church: 332-4010 1500 16th St, NW foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities ID (FRIDAY 9-12 ONLY)

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

Gospel Rescue Ministries: 842-1731 810 5th St, NW grm.org

Martha’s Table: 328-6608 2114 14th St, NW marthastable.org Miriam’s Kitchen: 452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave, NW miriamskitchen.org

My Sister’s Place: 529-5991 (24-hour hotline) mysistersplacedc.org

N Street Village: 939-2060 1333 N Street, NW nstreetvillage.org

New York Ave Shelter: 832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave, NE

Open Door Shelter: 639-8093 425 2nd St, NW newhopeministriesdc.org/id3.html

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

Samaritan Ministry: 1516 Hamilton Street NW | 722-2280 1345 U Street SE | 889-7702 samaritanministry.org

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

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

St. Luke’s Mission Center: 333-4949 3655 Calvert St. NW stlukesmissioncenter.org

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

Unity Health Care: 745-4300 3020 14th St, NW unityhealthcare.org

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

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

CELEBRATING SUCCESS!

A Meditation on The Celebration

By Robert Warren Vendor/Artist Sometimes it is hard to celebrate one person receiving housing when you know there are so many others still in need. This week I went to three homewarming celebrations for people I have known for years. All three have a story to tell.

I have seen these people come through the storm. I have heard about their many bad days. Despite that, I have seen them still smile and be ready to help their fellow man.

I hope these events are the first of many really deserving people getting the housing they need. For most of them, hous-

ing is healthcare. And for some of them, it means ending their lives with dignity.

I have lived in D.C. long enough to know that when the city only helps a few, that usually means they plan to build something big and new - but not for the people most in need. As the skyscrapers contin-ue to go up, we're just now housing folks that have been homeless for 10 years, sometimes more.

One of my friends just got a place to live last month. He passed away this month.

His death kind of made me feel like the city plans for a city where most of us won't be around. That is, if we can't find some way to get people the housing that is their human right. Now.

VENDOR PROFILE: MARK JONES

LAST WORD: FAREWELL DEAR FRIENDS

By Dottie Kramer, Editorial Intern

D.C. native, Mark Jones is strong willed and impassioned about people. He has been selling Street Sense for 11 years.

Jones, 57, is the second youngest of ten boys. He describes his family as “beautiful,” adores his nieces and nephews, and loves his five grandchildren, ages ranging from two months to 16 years.

His favorite memory since starting Street Sense is getting a job and a nice apartment.

“The help that I got from people on the street … they done good for me,” Jones said, “They helped me out; helped me pay my rent.”

Jones believes that everyone is good at something and that it’s good to be good.

“Life is what we do,” Jones said.

Jones currently lives in Wheaton and works at Safeway and selling Street Sense.

By Rachael Buck, Director of New Initiatives and Volunteers

“Work ain’t hard,” Jones said, “you just need to stick with it; don’t quit.”

While an avid worker, Jones likes to relax with his bass guitar and loves sports.

He played his guitar, his own original music during the interview, and lamented over how he didn’t have the right pick.

When Jones was a kid he played baseball, football, basketball, and golf. His favorite sport was baseball and he loved the Senators before they left D.C. Even though Jones works hard to be a good person, he understands all too well that bad things happen to good people. His roommate unfortunately died of cancer.

“It was a younger fellow from Pakistan,” Jones said, “He chose me. He was only 25 years old, and he knew he was going to die.”

Jones lived with his roommate for a while before the roommate went back to Pakistan. Jones received a letter after his roommate went back that he had passed away from skin cancer.

Despite his hardships, Jones is incredibly grateful for all the help he has been given.

He stated numerous times that people had been good to him and that he really appreciates the help he’s been given.

He knows the importance of giving back to the community; he said, “If I was to give young people a piece of advice, I’d give them some knowledge.”

Robert Williams 8/22 Levester Green 8/27 Derian Hickman 8/28 Gerald Anderson 9/7 August 26 - September 8, 2015 • Volume 12 • Issue 21

Street Sense 1317 G Street, NW

Nonprofit Org US Postage Paid Washington, DC

Washington, DC 20005

Mail To:

Permit #568

Remember, buy only from badged vendors and do not give to those panhandling with one paper.

Interested in a subscription? Go to page 15 for more information.

Dear Street Sense Family, As my yearlong AmeriCorps term winds to an end here at Street Sense, I want to thank you all for sharing friendship, laughs, hardships, hugs, and love with me!

I have seen that each day you are helping our community build a future without homelessness. Through connecting with customers or sharing your artistic skills, you bring the movement to end homelessness to life. And thus it grows stronger.

Your writing, performances, education for the community, and art speak to humanity and the bright future that you are building.

Please don’t ever give up that fight for a brighter future, for your life and for the community in general. Remember that you

are cared about not only by everyone at Street Sense, but by many customers and people you haven’t even met yet. Remember to let these people know what your goals are, so that they may work with you to make them happen. People working together is what a community is all about.

I will still be volunteering after regular business hours to create the Lessons of Hope Forum Events and will see you all again at Street Sense events and occasionally in the office. I am beginning to work at local non-profit A Wider Circle, starting September 1. There I will also be working on building a future without homelessness and poverty. I look forward to continue working shoulder-to-shoulder with you towards this shared goal.

Sending love and hugs, Rachael Buck

BBQ TO CELEBRATE ALL THE SUCCESSES OF STREET SENSE VENDORS AND ARTISTS THIS YEAR! Open for all Street Sense Vendors/Artists Free Food & Fun Friday, August 28th, 3-5 p.m. *Please tell staff of your successes so we call all celebrate them!