10.13.2021

VOL. 18 ISSUE 37

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OCT, 13-19, 2021

Real Stories

Real People

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Real Change

Calls increase for a guaranteed income in DC. There are multiple ways to a ccomplish it STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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VENDORS Ivory Wilson, Jeffery McNeil, Jermale McKnight, Archie Thomas, Lawrence Autry, Mark Jones, Carlton J.M. Johnson, James Davis, Phillip Black, Joseph Walker, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens, Reginald Black, Sybil Taylor, Conrad Cheek, Evelyn Nnam, Daniel Ball, Charles Woods, Frederic John, Robert Warren, James Hughes, Beverly Sutton, Andre Brinson, Charles Armstrong, Marcus Green, Derian Hickman, Debora Brantley, Jacqueline Turner, Vennie Hill, John Littlejohn, Earl Parker, Patty Smith, Aida Peery, Morgan Jones, Eric Thompson-Bey, Shuhratjon Ahmadjonov, Jewel Lewis, Doris Robinson, Melody Byrd, Gerald Anderson, Michael Warner, Brianna Butler, Donald Brown, Levester Green, Ronald Smoot, Chon Gotti, Joseph Joe Jackson, Sasha Williams, Ron Dudley, Juliene Kengnie, Darlesha Joyner, Ricardo Meriedy, Gracias Garcias, Collins Mukasa, Jemel Fleming, Floyd Carter, Larry Kelley, Latishia Wynn, Curtis Clark, David Snyder, Abel Putu, Chad Jackson, Reginald C. Denny, Jacquelyn Portee, Kunle Henderson, Marcellus Phillips, Rita Sauls, Laticia Brock, Fredrick Jewell, Anthony Carney, Jet Flegette, Patricia Donaldson, George Gray, Wendell Williams, Reggie Jones, Marcus McCall, Henry Johnson, Ayub Abdul, Queenie Featherstone, Corey Sanders, Mary Sellman, Jenkins Daltton, Kym Parker, Don Gardner, Pierre Johnson, Julius Donte’ Turner, Rochelle Walker, Jeffrey Carter, Abraham Aly, Michele Rochon, Anthony Pratt, Carlos Carolina, Morris Graham, Malcolm Scott Jr., Andrew Anderson, James Fuller, Amia Walker, Julius Murphy, Dannitta Jenkins, Lonnie Wiggins, Alex AJ, Julie Fullwood BOARD OF DIRECTORS

AVA I L A B L E

Mary Coller Albert, Blake Androff, Jeremy Bratt, David Cloe, Clare Krupin, Jennifer Park, Michael Phillips, Dan Schwartz, John Senn, Aaron Stetter, Daniel Webber, Shari Wilson, Corrine Yu

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

VENDOR CODE OF CONDUCT

Brian Carome

As self-employed contractors, our vendors follow a code of conduct.

1. Street Sense will be distributed for a voluntary donation of $2.00. I agree not to ask for more than $2.00 or solicit donations for Street Sense Media by any other means.

2. I will only purchase the paper from Street Sense Media staff and volunteers and will not sell papers to other vendors.

3. I agree to treat all others, including customers, staff, volunteers, and other vendors, respectfully at all times. I will refrain from threatening others, pressuring customers into making a donation, or in engaging in behavior that condones racism, sexism, classism, or other prejudices.

4. I agree not to distribute copies of Street Sense on metro trains and buses or on private property.

5. I agree to abide by the Street Sense Media vendor territorial policy at all times and will resolve any related disputes I have with other vendors in a professional manner.

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

6. I understand that I am not an employee of Street Sense Media, but an independent contractor.

Doris Warrel

7. I agree to sell no additional goods or products when distributing Street Sense.

Darick Brown

8. I will not distribute Street Sense under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Charlie Musoff

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10. I agree to support Street Sense Media’s mission statement. In doing so I will work to support the Street Sense community and uphold its values of honesty, respect, support, and opportunity.

DIRECTOR OF VENDOR PROGRAMS CASE MANAGER DIRECTOR OF VENDOR EMPLOYMENT

Thomas Ratliff

VENDOR PROGRAM ASSOCIATES Aida Peery, Clifford Samuels

VENDOR PROGRAM VOLUNTEERS

Jeff Barger, Haley Gallagher, Kevin Jaatinen, Jacob Kuba, Eva Reeves, Mauricio Reyes

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Eric Falquero

DEPUTY EDITOR

INTERESTED IN BEING A VENDOR? New vendor training: every Tuesday and Thursday // 2 p.m. // 1317 G St., NW

Gordon Chaffin

The Cover

Will Schick

Tya Metacalf and Sireal Rochelle hold signs outside the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in late September during a march for basic income.

PHOTO BY WILL SCHICK will@streetsensemedia.org

The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper Originally founded as a street newspaper in 2003, Street Sense Media has evolved into a multimedia center using a range of creative platforms to spotlight solutions to homelessness and empower people in need. The men and women who work with us do much more than sell this paper: They use film, photography, theatre, illustration, and more to share their stories with our community.

Our media channels elevate voices, our newspaper vendor and digital marketing programs provide economic independence. And our in-house case-management services move people forward along the path toward permanent supportive housing.

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

STAFF REPORTER WRITERS GROUP ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Willie Schatz

OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER)

Claire Harvey, Rebecca Koenig, Emily Kopp, Lydia DePillis

INTERNS

Spencer Donovan, Jamaica Kalika, Michelle Levine, Maydeen Merino, Irene Si

EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS

Ryan Bacic, Katie Bemb, Megan Boyanton, Lilah Burke, Lenika Cruz, Kelsey Falquero, Roberta Haber, Allison Hageman, Alison Henry, Priya Rhoehit, Nick Shedd, Andrew Siddons, Jenny-lin Smith, Rebecca Stekol

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EVENTS

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AT A GLANCE

United Way events to help homeless and underseved people in the DC-area Monday, Oct. 12 - Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021 - 9:00 a.m. // In-Person and Virtual Workshops

Basic necessities and resources will be provided across many in-person events and virtual workshops. The effort’s goal to provide equitable access to meet residents where they are and provide resources for those at risk of or experiencing homelessness and those still struggling from the pandemic.

Martin Walker ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JANE CAVE

Hygiene disbrution kits available: • Oct. 18, 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. at Pathways to Housing DC (828 Evarts Street NE ) • Oct. 19, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Manna Choice Market (12301 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring) • Oct. 21, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Hammond Middle School (4646 Seminary Rd, Alexandria)

BIRTHDAYS

More info at www.unitedwaynca.org/pcc

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20

UPDATES ONLINE AT ICH.DC.GOV

Fundraiser: Raise the Roof for Justice Housing 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

One Franklin Square 1301 K Street NE

Ticket cost $60/person. This event supports Jubilee Housing’s mission to create more justice housing—deeply affordable housing with onsite and walkable wrap-around services.

SATURDAY, OCT. 16

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meetings

Gearin’ Up Bicycles grand opening

Housing Solutions Committee Oct. 18, 2 p.m. // Virtual

12 p,m. - 6 p.m.

1811 Rhode Island Ave NE

Strategic Planning Committee Oct. 26, 2:30 pm // Virtual

Gearin’ Up Bicycles, a nonprofit shop that trains D.C. youth to become bike technicians, moved to a new space.The re-opening celebration will feature a local DJ, food trucks and refreshments, face-painting and cyclist portraits

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

Info/RSVP: tinyurl.com/jubile-fundraiser

Info/RSVP: tinyurl.com/Gearin-Up-Reopening

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

CORRECTIONS •

In last week’s edition, the opinion article “The US made the right call on refugees” was printed as saying “I as well as others in America know that once we do a preemptive strike against another country, we have to rebuild it, not bring in its refugees. They are not a fabric of our own nation.” However the second sentence should have said “They shouldn’t be part of the fabric of our own nation. But, they are today.”

•

Also in last week’s edition, two captions related to the article “DC government removes tents, injures one resident, houses others, and deploys concrete barriers to enforce a ‘pedestrian passageway’” included two misleading captions. The photo that showed a tent was not the tent that was picked up by a front loader with a person still inside. And the photo of a woman holding a megaphone was not an unhoused resident, but a housed resident in the area.

•

It has come to our attention that the fiction story “A foster care failure” published in our Sept. 15 edition was plagiarized from a Facebook video. It has been removed from our website.

Martin Walker Oct. 19 ARTIST/VENDOR

Vincent Watts Oct. 19 ARTIST/VENDOR

VENDOR PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS • The October Vendor Meeting will be held on Fri, Oct 22, at 2pm.

• Vendor surveys are coming up again -- ask Leo, Darick or Thomas about taking a quick survey and getting 10 papers.

• Vendors can bring in a complete CDC vaccination card for 15 papers.

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NEWS

What’s the difference between a guaranteed income and a universal basic income?

BY WILL SCHICK will@streetsensemedia.org

I

t was 2018 when the Rev. Wendy Hamilton, a 2022 candidate for D.C. delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, first learned about universal basic income (UBI). Hamilton, who has lived in D.C. since the late ‘80s but grew up in a small industrial town in Ohio, was reading a New York Times article that featured Andrew Yang, a presidential candidate for the 2020 Democratic primary who campaigned on UBI. There was just something about this idea that made sense, she said in a recent interview. Hamilton thought about how her family, friends, and neighbors in her hometown had once worked in factory jobs that have since been automated and taken away, and how the sudden loss decimated the town, Portsmouth.

If there had been a universal basic income, Hamilton surmised, the town might be a very different place today. She said that her family and friends experienced a lot of stress due to uncertainty around their financial futures. Although Hamilton opted to stay in D.C. after graduating from Howard University, she still thinks about the impact UBI could have had on family members who stayed.

“If my grandparents had known they had at least $1,000 a month coming in once they learned that they had lost their jobs, perhaps they would have had a different outcome — perhaps they would have had a little bit more hope,” Hamilton said.

She said her grandparents became depressed at the time because they did not have the financial means to leave the town, and stressed over how they would make ends meet.

Soon after reading the New York Times article, Hamilton reached out to Yang and began working on his campaign as a spiritual adviser. The idea has stuck with her ever since. UBI is now at the center of her own campaign platform, which is focused on addressing income inequality in D.C. Hamilton is not the only one who was overtaken by the idea of UBI. Since Yang’s primary campaign, dozens of cities across the country have been experimenting with different forms of income programs. There’s even a D.C. UBI Coalition, a partnership of more than a dozen area nonprofits, community foundations, and charitable organizations. The D.C. Council has deliberated guaranteed income programs since at least 2018, when the Office of the Budget Director for the D.C. Council published a feasibility study.

The study estimated that the implementation of a large-scale guaranteed income program targeted at the city’s lowest-income earners would cost about $40 million in its first year, and $82 million over the course of four years. David Grosso, then an at-large councilmember, spearheaded the debate over the minimum income level needed to live in the city, and pressed the District to explore implementing basic income programs.

Ultimately, the high projected cost of the idea turned Grosso and other legislators away from pursuing it.

“The government cannot afford to provide the subsidies that the study suggests are needed for everybody [to] live in the District at the desired minimum income,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said when the study came out.

Grosso, who had initially introduced the idea to the city, agreed.

“In the end, I think we were all a little bit sticker-shocked by how much it would cost,” he said.

Gary Murray, a senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, holds a sign calling for a guaranteed income. PHOTO BY WILL SCHICK

But proponents hope now is the time to rally support locally.

In late September, Hamilton marched alongside approximately 50 residents and activists to press Mayor Muriel Bowser to join a group of mayors across the country who have committed to supporting guaranteed income programs. Mayors in surrounding jurisdictions such as Alexandria, College Park and Takoma Park have publicly declared their support for such initiatives. The idea has also won the backing of mayors in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Denver, and Los Angeles, among many others.

As UBI programs are established across the country and region to address poverty, it is becoming increasingly important to have an accurate understanding of the different models and how they work.

UBI is broadly meant to refer to programs that provide a fixed amount of money on a regular basis to everyone regardless of their income level. Though the concept has gained popularity in recent years — and garnered attention as a key element of Yang’s presidential campaign — the idea is not new. It has been a feature in public debate since at least the 18th century. President Richard Nixon considered introducing this practice in the United States in the 1970s, although, critics at the time dissuaded him from pursuing the idea by arguing that people would engage in more reckless social behavior if they knew they could rely on a social safety net. Concerns over automation replacing people’s jobs and the onset of the pandemic, however, have propelled

this concept back into the mainstream.

Melody Webb, executive director and founder of the local nonprofit Mother’s Outreach Network, leads the D.C. UBI Coalition. Participating groups such as Bread for the City, the Greater Washington Community Foundation, and Ward 6 Mutual Aid call for the implementation of basic income programs. Webb said that while there seems to be growing support for UBI across the city and country, there are also misconceptions.

UBI is the idea that everyone should have access to a minimum income that supports their basic needs as human beings, according to Webb.

This idea is generally more politically attractive since it targets everyone, she said, but it can be difficult to implement.

“When a benefit is available to everybody across the board [such as] public school, there’s less of a stigma, and there’s more political support for it. ” Webb said.

However, with limited money, governments may find it difficult to implement a universal basic income program that benefits everyone. If so, she said, the government may want to target their support to those who need it the most. And this is the concept behind “guaranteed income” (or “minimum income,” to use the term in the D.C. Council study), a variation that provides no-strings-attached cash to people thought to most need it based on their socio-economic status.

Despite the distinction, politicians and advocates often use

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the term “UBI” to apply to a broad variety of programs — not just to UBI under the traditional definition. So the term sometimes refers to other programs meant to address income inequalities, such as guaranteed income programs and earnedincome tax credits (EITC).

In its latest budget, the D.C. Council incorporated both programs, allocating $1.5 million for a new guaranteed income pilot program and establishing a new basic income program based on an EITC. So what’s the difference between the two?

An EITC is a tax-refund program that is directed at low- and moderate-income earners. Basically, the program allows for people who don’t make a lot of money to pay less than they would otherwise in taxes, and to receive a larger refund. The new D.C. EITC program will disburse the refund in monthly payments rather than once at the end of the year, and also increase the proportion of the federal tax credit it matches from 40% in 2021 to 100% by 2026.

But Webb points out that while an EITC can help low- and moderate-income families overcome some financial hardships, there are limitations to the idea. Namely, it applies only to people who are working.

While Webb said she supports the expanded EITC, she believes the best way to tackle poverty and dismantle racial barriers that have disproportionately impacted Black families in the District is to remove any bureaucratic limitations that limit participation in income programs.

Opposition to guaranteed income programs can sometimes be framed around stereotypes some have about those who access public benefits, “When we talk to people about guaranteed income, there’s this recurring theme of: ‘People ought to earn support’ and ‘People are lazy’ and ‘People don’t have the ethic to merit aid from the state,” Webb said.

She worries that EITC inadvertently reinforces stereotypes about people who are poor since it requires them to work in order to benefit. For her, there’s a mistaken but widespread belief that unemployed people are only interested in benefiting off the labor of others. But many Americans, Webb said, face barriers to consistent employment and often struggle to keep their jobs due to familial commitments that make it harder to earn a consistent income. Under UBI and guaranteed income programs, she said, the idea is simple: Everyone deserves to

have the means to meet their basic needs.

Michelle Rochon, a Street Sense Media artist and vendor, said she is not so sure how she feels about universal basic income.

While Rochon said she would be happy to receive a monthly windfall, she is concerned the extra cash would negatively impact other public benefits she expects to eventually receive, such as Social Security.

“I don’t want to get to that part of my life and somebody says … ‘We were doing universal income and guaranteed income, so you’re not going to get as much as we projected when we sent you a statement [for Social Security],’” she said.

Webb said apprehension about the unintentional creation of what is known as a “benefits cliff” is something people involved in advocating for these programs often discuss. A benefits cliff occurs when someone’s income surpasses the eligibility criteria for continued access to whatever assistance they might be receiving.

While there are several ways to ensure that people don’t lose access to their existing benefits, Webb said, implementing them can be somewhat complicated, especially when it comes to federal benefits. For her, the most effective way to avoid this is by having federal and local authorities issue “benefit waivers” to ensure continued access to other public benefits. Another method could be to not count such cash transfers as reportable income, potentially by treating them as a gift for tax purposes.

In any case, Webb said that it is important for governments — both at the local and federal level — to implement programs that care for people who may already have “fallen through the cracks.”

Among those who may not have steady access to current public benefits are people who are experiencing homelessness and people who are undocumented.

Webb said her nonprofit organization often works with mothers whom the government has separated from their children, generally due to not being able to provide them with safe, stable housing — an outcome that is often driven by the lack of financial resources.

When children are taken from their parents in such scenarios, Webb said it creates several second- and third-order effects, since programs such as Medicaid and food stamps may be tied to having children at home.

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Guaranteed-income programs like UBI can give families an added level of financial security that allows for them to remain together, advocates say.

But in practice, Webb said that local governments and basic income advocates have yet to work out all the finer details of how to implement guaranteed income programs.

Likely, the design of such programs would depend heavily on the needs in individual jurisdictions and might focus on families that are “lower-middle income” or solely on families living below the poverty line. It would also depend on availability of funding.

Over the summer of 2020, a nonprofit partnership called Thrive East of the River — which consists of Bread for the City, Martha’s Table, ​​Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative, and the 11th Street Bridge Park — implemented its own guaranteed income pilot program, distributing $1,100 in monthly payments for up to 500 families for five months. Early in the pandemic, the partnership launched the program, raising funds from individual donors and various community foundations.

Hope Fultz, a researcher who worked with the nonprofit partnership, said she saw firsthand how the cash infusions changed the lives of various families.

Thanks to the cash provided by the guaranteed-income program, Fultz said, the nonprofit partnership helped a woman who had lost her job and car. With the extra money provided, the woman was able to get her car back and provide for her children again.

As part of her work, Fultz said, she regularly interacts with families making minimum wage and struggling to make ends meet.

“All these families got impacted by the pandemic pretty hard,” Fultz explained.

Kym Parker, a vendor and artist for Street Sense Media, spent two years in a shelter before moving into housing after receiving a voucher two years ago.

She said a monthly payment of $1,000 would have made a world of a difference and would have probably enabled her to live in an apartment somewhere rather than a shelter.

This article was co-published with The DC Line.

Approximately 50 residents and activists marched down Pennsylvania Ave to city hall to call on the Mayor to support more basic income programs.” PHOTO BY WILL SCHICK

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NEWS

DC scrambled to shelter unhoused residents in hotels after COVID hit. What did we learn from PEP-V?

BY COLLEEN GRABLICK DCist

I

n the months that Lee Simmons stayed at the men’s low-barrier shelter on New York Avenue, he says he worked with his case manager every day to try to get out. The provided meals were helpful, but most other aspects of life there — crowding, bugs, and occasionally witnessing drug use — were unbearable.

“It was the worst,” Simmons says. “I was assigned a caseworker, and every day I called her, and talked to her, and said ‘listen, get me out of here.’”

Then, one day in January 2021, she called and said “Mr. Simmons, start packing.” He had been approved for a hotel room through D.C.’s Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable Individuals (generally shortened to PEP-V).

Launched more than 18 months ago, the program places unhoused residents most at-risk of falling seriously ill if they contract COVID-19 into hotels leased out by the city’s Department of Human Services — an effort to prevent the transmission of coronavirus in the city’s congregate shelters.

Unlike the shelters, or a previous shelter-hotel housing service where residents reported poor conditions and abuse by contractors, providers and residents have reported markedly better results with PEP-V’s model. Residents have access to on-site medical care, in addition to their own bathroom and a quiet place to sleep.

Where congregate shelters brought the anxiety of coronavirus transmission and sleepless nights, Simmons says his PEP-V space at the Holiday Inn on Rhode Island Avenue offered relief.

“I had my own room, and I just said thank you Jesus,” Simmons says.

Now, he is one of roughly 390 people to have exited a hotel and into permanent housing — PEP-V’s ultimate goal. Unless a resident chooses to leave on their own, they can remain in a room until they are matched with an alternative housing option.

PEP-V has been extended through the remainder of 2021, thanks to an extension of government funding, but its future beyond is unclear. City officials have previously said they wouldn’t extend the program after federal dollars run out.

But residents like Simmons and housing advocates say the program’s successes — not only in preventing death and illness from COVID-19, but in providing dignified shelter — demonstrate the need for its continuation, even beyond the pandemic.

Meeting an urgent need As coronavirus swept through the city last year, D.C. started to place unhoused residents who had certain medical conditions or were over 80 years old, as well as those who were quarantining after COVID-19 exposure, into hotels. Within a month, a waitlist emerged as more and more residents received referrals for a hotel room.

The city would also revise the requirements for who would qualify for PEP-V several times, ultimately extending eligibility to any unhoused resident age 55 or older.

Almost a year after the pandemic started, with the number of people waiting on a hotel room nearly matching the number of people residing in PEP-V housing (more than 600), councilmembers and housing advocates called on DHS

to expand the program, and take advantage of newly available federal dollars.

For the first several months of PEP-V’s operation, about three quarters of the program’s funding came from the CARES Act. But in February 2021, newly inaugurated President Joe Biden directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover the entirety of the program’s cost through Sept. 30, and retroactively reimburse any local money spent on emergency non-congregate housing.

Lee Simmons now has his own apartment near Logan Circle, after living in a PEP-V hotel room for seven months.

PHOTO BY TYRONE TURNER (WAMU/DCIST)

This past August, as the highly contagious delta variant drove up coronavirus case rates, FEMA pushed that funding deadline to November 30 — and DHS said the city would continue running the program through at least the end of the year.

Amber Harding, an attorney with the Washington Legal Clinic, says that it’s evident — given the risks posed by delta, the still lagging vaccination rates among unhoused residents, and the approaching hypothermia season — that PEP-V desperately needed to be extended.

“None of this is rocket science. Of course it protected people from getting COVID,” Harding says. “When they opened up PEP-V, the number of deaths completely stabilized. When they didn’t have enough PEP-V spaces, people were dying. It’s very clear PEP-V has saved lives and minimized transmission.”

While PEP-V appears to have helped prevent hundreds of residents from contracting coronavirus, unhoused residents in the city still face disproportionate rates of infection compared to the rest of the population.

As of Oct. 4, the city’s Department of Human Services reported 591 total cases in emergency shelters since the beginning of the pandemic — nearly 18% of the number of residents who were counted as staying in emergency shelters during the last point-in-time count. That is roughly double the general population.

While staying in the low-barrier shelter, Simmons said he was tested for COVID-19 and frequently checked for symptoms — but that did little to quell his anxieties while living in a crowded space.

“I was scared because I was sleeping around a bunch of men. There was one time where we were mandated to take a test, the swab in the nose. When my ratings came back saying I was negative, I was like ‘thank you’” he recalls.

“But then I said…’well, how long will I be negative?’ I had to make a move.”

After weeks of repeatedly checking in with his case manager, he was connected with PEP-V through his case manager, and moved from the shelter into the Holiday Inn on Rhode Island Avenue. As a part of the program, case managers are assigned to link each PEP-V resident with government housing programs, depending on what qualifications they meet. Seven months after he moved in, Simmons secured a permanent supportive housing voucher and found a studio near Logan Circle.

Some parts of his stay at PEP-V might not have been ideal; PEP-V residents are required to meet a curfew each evening, and there are limited with what items they can bring into their rooms, like alcohol. Street Sense Media previously reported allegations from PEP-V residents that bed bugs infested their rooms at the Fairfield Inn on New York Avenue and that the curfew cut time with loved ones short over the holidays.

But if it were not for PEP-V, Simmons says he wouldn’t be sitting, giving an interview in a space that for the first time, is his own.

“Yeah, there were times where I had to fall back, and say “okay, I had to swallow that pill,’” Simmons says. “But if it’s gonna put me in a better situation that I’m in now, why not?

Lessons learned Laura Zeilinger, the director of D.C.’s Department of Human Services, says that the city may consider backfilling spots as residents exit PEP-V housing through this fall, something the department stopped doing in the spring when it appeared that the program would need to demobilize by the end of September.

During a provider briefing last month, when asked how long the program will be extended, DHS officials answered honestly: they didn’t know.

In an interview with DCist/WAMU, Zeilinger couldn’t say what PEP-V’s future looks like into the winter.

“It may become necessary to backfill…so we’re working closely with other city agencies, and as we look towards winter months and what may be needed as well, as well as rates of COVID in the community…we’re really still considering and are putting together our final planning strategy around that, so unfortunately I cannot give you a definitive .”

With the recently passed fiscal year 2022 budget funding housing for more than 3,000 people experiencing homelessness, Zeilinger says every resident living in PEP-V currently should

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Lee Simmons, 62, lived in PEP-V for several months before moving into his own apartment. PHOTO BY TYRONE TURNER (WAMU/DCIST)

be connected with some form of housing when the federal funding ends and the program may need to shut down.

“People will all be matched to a resource to help them move to permanent housing,” Zeilinger says. “We’re going into the fiscal year… with more opportunities to house people than we have had really ever in our history.”

But while the future of PEP-V hasn’t been announced, advocates want the program to last beyond the pandemic. Karen Cunningham, the executive director of Everyone Home D.C., says the bridge PEP-V built between residents experiencing homelessness and government-supported housing resources serves as a lesson to be learned about trust-building, and offers a blueprint for future housing solutions.

“I hope that we can learn from this success and continue to use this model for something like bridge housing, where folks who are living outside, but maybe aren’t ready to move into permanent housing can go, and be safe, and stabilized and get help preparing all the things that they will need to be in permanent housing,” Cunningham says. “The pandemic forced us to do some things just to keep people alive and learn some really good lessons, and point us towards new things so that we can try to treat people with more dignity.”

For several reasons, residents experiencing homelessness may not want to enter a shelter, but may be more willing to accept a private room or a place of their own, with privacy, according to Christy Respress, the executive director of Pathways to Housing D.C., a housing provider that worked with the city to plan the original PEP-V model.

The program was intended to protect vulnerable people experiencing homelessness from COVID-19, but the benefits

extended far beyond that goal.

“We cannot underestimate the value that having PEP-V has had on people’s health outcomes, both physical and mental,” says Christy Respress, the executive director of Pathways to Housing D.C., a housing provider that worked with the city to plan the original PEP-V model. “When you are forced to stay in a setting that is open and intensely populated with other people, that is a form of ongoing trauma for people.

That lack of privacy, the lack of ability to sleep really well… sleep deprivation is, is one of the worst forms of torture we can do to ourselves and other people.”

D.C. is currently trying another approach that circumvents the shelter system and moves people directly to permanent housing: a new pilot program is clearing out encampments around the city and placing residents directly in apartments.

It has drawn a mixed response from advocates, who generally support programs that get people experiencing homelessness into housing but oppose the city’s plans to permanently shut down the encampments as part of the effort and question whether it has allowed people to essentially jump a long line of people looking for housing.

Meanwhile, pandemic-era solutions to the housing crisis are sticking around in other states. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently invested more than $2 billion in Project Homekey, an initiative born of the pandemic that purchases hotels, apartment buildings, or homes and turns them into housing for residents experiencing homelessness. Following California’s lead, Oregon launched a similar program, Project Turnkey, in order to house people displaced by wildfires.

In D.C., lawmakers have advocated for similar solutions.

Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau and Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie have both called for the city to fully purchase the PEP-V hotels and convert them into permanent supportive or affordable housing — funding that was made available in the American Rescue Plan.

Zeilinger previously told DCist/WAMU that the city wants to avoid using hotels as housing, after ending the hotel-shelter service in 2020, but that conversions of hotels may be possible — although that process could take years, likely too long for anyone currently living in a PEP-V room.

The recently adopted 2022 budget doesn’t specify any hotels planned for purchase, but does include a “game changing” investment in more permanent supporting housing vouchers, using revenue from a tax increase on wealthy residents.

For Simmons, going from the shelter to his room in a PEP-V hotel felt like a 180 degree turn. Now, finally connected with an apartment of his own through the program, he says he wakes up “thankful” every day. A trained cook (and a good one, he adds), Simmons has worked in several D.C. kitchens in his life. Now, for the first time, he’s cooking in own.

“When I was in the shelters and stuff, they’d say “Mr. Lee, where are you going?” and I couldn’t say my home. I would say ‘I’m going to my spot,’ he says. “Now when someone asks ‘where are you going?’ I say ‘I’m going home.’”

This article was part of DCist’s 2021 contribution to the DC Homeless Crisis Reporting Project, in collaboration with Street Sense Media and other local newsrooms. The collective works from 2021 and previous years are published at DCHomelessCrisis.press. You can also join the public Facebook group or follow #DCHomelessCrisis on Twitter to discuss further.

8 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // O C T. 1 3 - 1 9 , 2 021

NEWS

Meet the neighborhood commissioners of Foggy Bottom who advocate for people experiencing homelessness

BY WILL SCHICK will@streetsensemedia.org

Yannik Omictin, 21, is a recent graduate of George Washington University and a neighborhood commissioner in ANC 2A, representing south Foggy Bottom and the west side of the National Mall.

PHOTO BY WILL SCHICK

O

n an early Friday morning in October, Foggy Bottom advisory neighborhood commissioner Yannik Omictin stood alongside a grouping of tents on Virginia Avenue NW and answered questions from unhoused constituents in the area. Omictin, 21, only just graduated from nearby George Washington University with a bachelor’s in geography and political science this past spring; he won a 2020 write-in race in a single-member district consisting primarily of several GWU residence halls. Yet he is already well-known across the city for his work advocating for the rights of people experiencing homelessness in his neighborhood.

Omictin does the walks weekly, though usually not on his own or in the morning.

Each Friday, he accompanies a group of community service volunteers and activists for a tour around Foggy Bottom to ask after the needs of the unsheltered residents living in the area. Omictin says that other elected members of ANC 2A join in on the evening treks with People for Fairness Coalition and Ward 2 Mutual Aid. “We just check in on people to make sure that they’ve got what they need. And

we have supplies on hand [such as] snacks and toiletries and other essential items,” Omictin said.

He added that they also help unsheltered residents get in touch with case managers in instances where they don’t have access to a phone.

On this morning, two people living in an encampment along Virginia Avenue NW asked Omictin about the District’s new pilot program that promises to connect encampment residents with housing vouchers.

They also asked some questions about planned encampment closures at New Jersey Avenue and O Street NW, the NoMa underpasses at L and M streets NE, and the area surrounding the intersection of E Street NW and 20th and 21st street in the Foggy Bottom area as part of that program.

Omictin said that many people are still confused about the city’s plan to permanently evict people from several large encampments and place them into housing. What’s most confusing about the new program, he said, is how the city is marketing the idea.

“One of the most dangerous pieces of the narrative that’s being woven by the Bowser administration — and also by people who are rather dismissive of unhoused people — is

this idea that housing is this thing you can just give people,” Omictin said.

The housing process, he points out, is much more complicated. After being awarded a housing voucher, a person still has to search for and apply for a home to live in. And landlords have been known to discriminate against prospective tenants once they learn the tenant is reliant on a voucher to pay rent.

Omictin has also advocated for the D.C. Council to invest more in general to help the unsheltered residents living in his jurisdiction, including funding for sanitation interventions such as mobile showers more accessible to people who are experiencing homelessness.

Evelyn Hudson, another commissioner on ANC 2A and a regular attendee of the weekly walks, said she is also concerned with how the city plans to manage the new pilot that connects unsheltered residents with housing vouchers while simultaneously evicting them.

The full commission has not taken a stance on the program.

“All I’ve heard about it is that the mayor has transitional housing. Where is it?” Hudson asked, skeptical that all of the people displaced will obtain homes through the city.

At the end of September, the District said it would provide temporary housing to any

of the encampment residents who were on its list to receive housing. A week later, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage said people approved but waiting for housing would be able to enter the PEP-V program. Pandemic Emergency Protection for Medically Vulnerable Individuals provides hotel rooms in place of a shelter bed for people medically vulnerable to COVID-19.

Even so, not everyone at the first sites cleared as part of the pilot program ended up in housing.

Hudson, a native New Yorker, came to D.C. 20 years ago and initially worked as a teacher for children with special needs within the city’s public school system from 2001 to 2005. Graduating with a bachelor’s in English language arts in 1976 from Hunter College, Hudson said she initially intended to become an English teacher.

But she opted instead for special education after someone persuaded her to consider it.

During her time at D.C. Public Schools, Hudson says she regularly battled the bureaucracy to get more resources and resolve issues with her pay. Eventually, she lost her job — though not without taking away some valuable lessons in dealing with difficult people.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

When Hudson thinks about the District’s new plan to connect unsheltered residents with vouchers, she says she’s reminded of her own past experience with housing.

From 2005 to 2011, Hudson stayed at a shelter until she found stable employment and secured permanent housing. Drawing on this experience, Hudson says she wants more answers from the city about how it plans to connect people living outdoors to housing.

Since 2011, Hudson has been a regular participant in programs offered through Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides services to people experiencing homelessness.

She says her involvement there has helped her maintain a connection to her unhoused neighbors through the years. She regularly listens to concerns they raise about issues ranging from lack of sanitation services to traffic safety. Hudson says she wants to be sure to use her position in elected office to represent all her constituents, whether they are housed or not.

She also says she would be concerned if the city’s plan ends up being to simply relocate all the unsheltered people living in her neighborhood into a single isolated building just so they are out of sight.

“What’s the problem with homeless people all [living] in the same place? You’re re-creating something that is worse than you had the first time,” Hudson said.

// 9

She added that years ago, she lived in public housing in Brooklyn,and saw first-hand the problem of concentrating poverty all in one place. For this reason, she says she’d prefer that the city ensure that landlords adhere to the law and not discriminate against prospective tenants who have housing vouchers.

But, Hudson cautioned, any city plan to connect people to housing resources should be coupled with other services, such as drug and alcohol abuse counseling and mental health and wellness resources.

Echoing the sentiment, Omictin noted that many of his unhoused neighbors rely on counseling and other services offered by nearby providers such as Miriam’s Kitchen.

Hudson — was first elected just one year before Omictin in 2019 — said she is inspired by the work of her colleague on ANC 2A. While she said she doesn’t always agree with how they approach their work, she knows that they are all doing their best to help.

Part of helping includes using their positions to ask the city tough questions. For Hudson and Omictin the most important one right now is straightforward.

“Why does a promise of housing have to be followed up with a threat of eviction?”

Omictin asked.

Evelyn Hudson is a neighborhood commissioner in ANC 2A, representing Northwest D.C.’s Foggy Bottom area. PHOTO BY WILL SCHICK

1 0 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // O C T. 1 3 - 1 9 , 2021

OPINION

Frustrating debates on racism with uneducated people

BY KENRICK THOMAS

The older we get, the more obvious racism becomes. But not everyone can see racism, and that makes some people doubt whether it’s as obvious as it seems to us, or even if it exists. In case you had doubts, let me be clear: Racism is alive and well in this country.

Why should you take my word for it? Because I’m Black, period!

People who don’t experience racism can’t always see it, but it’s here. It’s in the DNA of the United States because this country was built on racism. Racism is a systemic structure that is designed to oppress a group of people, which results in having a high poverty rate, high unemployment rate, high incarceration rate, and plenty more. Just think about it: African-American/Black people have some of the highest poverty rates in all 50 states in this country, and white people have some of the lowest. In 2019, the African-American/Black overall poverty rate was 18.7 percent, while the white poverty rate was 7.3 percent. The median household income for African-American/Black people was $46,073, whereas for white people it’s $76,057. That’s not all: The U.S. incarcerates its people at a higher rate than any other country in the world, and Black people are far more likely to be in prison than white people. There’s no denying that racism exists in the U.S., but getting people to understand it is the problem.

The effects of the pandemic have impacted the Black community tremendously, which is another example of systemic racism. Black people are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. Black people are three times more likely than whites to get COVID19, more likely to have preexisting conditions, less likely to have health insurance, and

more likely to work at a job that doesn’t accommodate remote work, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Black people have been fighting for equality in this country since walking off the slave boats. We never played on a level playing field and because of that, we must work harder than our white counterparts to succeed. We have made progress, but we still have a long way to go. Black people are still being killed by police officers while sleeping in their bed, during traffic stops, and playing with a toy outside — and the police officers can go home the same day and almost nothing is done about it.

The reason why changes aren’t happening fast enough is that it’s not happening to white folks. People typically don’t care much about something if it’s not affecting them.

We need more people to care about racism, because whenever it’s raining in the white community, it’s storming in the Black community.

Stop arguing with Black people about racism, just listen and learn. There’s no reason for people who don’t experience racism and refuse to read books, articles or watch documentaries to have a counterargument against someone who’s studied it and experienced it their entire life. It’s rude and offensive. Arguing with Black people about racism, when you’ve never experienced it, is foolish.

Kenrick Thomas is the communications and events manager for Bread for the City..

Apply for housing

BY DONTÉ TURNER

Applying for housing is like playing the lottery. They say it’s supposed to be for people with low-income to no-income. So why is there always an excuse as to why there aren’t enough housing vouchers?

In my opinion, housing vouchers are just another way to increase taxes and spend the money on whatever. I’ve been homeless for two years. I qualify for everything they claim is for homeless people.

They say if you keep up with all appointments and checkpoints, you’ll be housed within a year or two.

Well, case managers don’t call, don’t turn in files or necessary info to the right people in time, or at all once you’re assigned to them. They don’t give you proper information, let alone the right service. They tell people what things or processes are without any proof.

Most people that are homeless -- 85% of whom are Black -- don’t know what to do in their position, so they just take the case workers’ word for it. I’ve heard them lie to their clients. But, of course, a client won’t listen to someone that’s in their same position, and half are too lazy to do the research.

So applying for housing is a fight people are not prepared for. One thing for sure, we sure don’t need certain case managers because they are useless.

Donté Turner is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

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

• Want to share firsthand experience?

• Interested in responding to what someone else has written?

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

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

Please send submissions to opinion@streetsensemedia.org.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 11

ART

My friends and supporters inside the nursing home and out joined me for a birthday celebration. PHOTOS COURTESY OF GERALD ANDERSON

Birthday update

BY GERALD ANDERSON Artist/Vendor

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for keeping me in prayer. Prayers are being answered. I’m starting to walk better now.

I get to come out to Street Sense. It’s amazing to get where I am from when it happened, when I broke my back. It make me feel good every time I am able to get

up and walk. It’s a lot of pain, but if you read the book, you know what it say: No matter what happens, I’m gonna stand.

And I thank everyone for coming to my birthday get together out at my nursing home. We had a good time. The clients said they wish they could eat some more

of my favorite meal with me, which y’all know is chicken.

It’s amazing how you can come from the street and build a family that don’t stop. What I mean by don’t stop is that I don’t even gotta ask who visit me, if one misses, the other fill in the spot.

I would like to thank Thomas, Melissa, and Robert. Especially all my staff workers at the facility that I’m in down at the nursing home. It be a lot of asking around in there if I’m gonna do a book on the place when I get out.

Yes I am.

Just gotta keep following me and stay

with me. It feels so good to be out on this day. Hoping that I see some more faces that used to come along to my station that support me with my papers and books.

Hope to be back soon cause I know ya’ll miss my writing and wondering what’s going on with me. I know everyone miss me. But just remember, every time you come up the escalator: Gerald Anderson’s first book, “Still Standing: how an ex-con found salvation in the floodwaters of Katrina,” is available on Amazon.com.

Friendship can last a lifetime

BY JULIUS MURPHY Artist/Vendor

Friendship is something I really value. I have at least three friends who go back with me to childhood. We stay in contact with each other through phone calls and visits.

They are very dear to me. One of them died recently, and it bothers me that he has left this life. He was the one that went back farthest with me. I really miss him and wish he was still around.

His name was Johnny Moore and from first grade until he died, we were best friends. It’s sometimes hard for me to accept the fact that he’s gone. I always thought that he’d be the one that outlived me. He was a very caring and loving person. Because of his departure, there’s a void in my life. I loved him unconditionally.

We were very close from first grade through fifth grade.

Then I was transferred to another school. For three years, we didn’t really see each other. Then in the eighth grade, I ran into him. We actually had our first and only fight.

It was the first time we had seen each other after about three years. We were at a friend’s house that I had met

during our absence from each other’s lives. I think I acted like we had not known each other before. I believe this made him angry. But after that fight, we never had any animosity with each other and became even closer.

He eventually made me the godfather of his daughter.

He never asked me to be her godfather.

One day we were talking and he told me that I was his daughter’s godfather.

It really surprised me because at the time, I was very sick as a result of using LSD and was receiving mental health treatment. This showed me just how much he cared for me. If I had any disagreements with anyone, he always took my side. He was closer to me than my brothers. I loved him dearly and miss him every day.

I don’t think I’ll ever have a better friend than Johnny.

It bothers me to this day that I missed his funeral. I was

in treatment in an institution for my LSD abuse and when I heard he was dead, I didn’t want to believe it. His wife died about two weeks after him. I believe from a broken heart. She couldn’t go on living without him. He was that kind of guy.

I believe he was the kind of friend you meet only once in a lifetime. I know he’s in Heaven right now with Jesus. I look forward to seeing him there. He became a Christian at the age of about 28 and let me know that he was disappointed in me for taking so long to convert after him.

He knew I knew the truth but was running away from it. But he loved me in spite of myself. He was indeed my best friend ever.

I think about him every day and wish he was still here with me but I know he’s in a better place and wouldn’t wish he was not there.

I loved him dearly and miss him every day.

1 2 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // O C T. 1 3 - 1 9 , 2021

ART

The Alameda 2014-2019

BY MICHELE ROCHON Artist/Vendor

Waging War: Quiet the

voices, silence the demons

BY REGINALD DENNY Artist/Vendor

Hello to all my Street Sense family and friends. It’s been a long time coming, but change gon’ come!!! This world in which we live is spiraling out of its orbit on a daily basis.

I believe we are living in perilous times. We must be ever so careful because distractions will easily take us off of our square if we do not pay attention always. What looks good may not necessarily be good for us. The very thing or person we put our trust in will sometimes fail us and now we are sitting here bumping our thumbs together as if that’s going to rectify the situation that has befallen us.

We laugh, we cry, we live — and then we die!

It is as simple as that. No man is an island and no man stands alone. I heard it said that people who got people are the most blessed people in the world! We all need somebody. I need you, you need me, we’re all a part of God’s body.

We must be ever so careful not to get hooked up with these kinds of people who have nothing else to do but to disgrace our name in an attempt to belittle us and to bring us down to the minutest level. God forbid!!!

We have to be careful how we speak, what we speak, and who we speak it to, because we will be held accountable for the words that come out of our mouths. Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap. And every idle word will definitely be judged and condemned.

How we interact with people is key in shaping us to be the best us we can be. Taking time out to understand the next person can sometimes aid and assist us in our decision making with

things concerning us. Keeping an open mind is very important for our growth.

We also have to be careful not to be driven by our emotions. We can’t always help our fellow man, no matter how much we desire to do so. It is sometimes way beyond our control.

So, if it don’t fit, don’t force it. Things will play out just the way it was intended. We have to sometimes get out of the way and let the cards fall where they may. At the end of the day, all will be revealed. The battle is not with many but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God our father to the pulling down of strongholds. The war is waged in our minds, which is where the true battle is fought. A lot of times we give the devil enemy too much credit for our downfalls, mishaps, and things — when in fact it’s the voices in our own heads that rule, supersede, and govern our lives. We have to be mindful in discerning those voices. There are both good and evil voices and we need to learn to gravitate to the positive and not be hoodwinked or bamboozled by those opposing voices.

A lot of times, self can be the motivating factor for our demise. We have to learn to separate the meat from the bones. We need to be ever so careful to try the spirit by the spirit to see if they are from God. May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from another.

I heard it said that people who got people are the most blessed people in the world!

As the leaves turned yellow, red, and orange — falling from the trees in the fall facing E. Northern Parkway — a real infusion of peace, calm, and beauty engulfed my daily life.

My old address, 6109, means to me: 6 the number of man, 1 new beginnings, and 9 I'm walking in the fullness of God To be truly alive is to tap into the God force within and allow Him to showcase His beauty through creation such as children playing outside of my window, birds flying past, and the quiet solitude that comes from being alone and really focusing on short and long-term goals.

May every human being tap into that God force that is discussed on most Saturday's and Sunday's in Christian churches that teach the incorruptible, infallible, never ever changing solid rock, the "Word of God." God is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I love His personality, not what he can do for me. God is so stable.

Please avail yourself to the beauty that is all around you. Joy is an inner knowing of true peace that infiltrates the human being on an emotional, spiritual, biological, interpersonal, legal, generational, and psychological level.

I can't wait to have that early morning meeting time with God again to hear his soft voice and plans for my day. What a comfort to know that God cares about every facet of my life. I hope you find your peace one day.

Starting over with my best foot forward

BY MARCUS GREEN Artist/Vendor

For the most part, Street Sense is a positive organization with love from case management, vendor staff, volunteers, interns, editors, etc.

I’ve been adjusting to unemployment. And it’s been promising. Most companies are moving forward. I need to work on my customer service skills.

Homeless people get overlooked most of the time. All of us have a duty to share our blessings. I give to the homeless community, but also the people that give to me.

A lot of the time, we don’t support those who support us. I believe in paying back and also paying it forward. My outlook is plain and simple: let my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. I’m humbled by this process.

I never thought I would get to be 60. God is good. Signs will come.

Adhere to them and your life will move on. I don’t know what my life holds for me, but it looks good. My support system is great and I’m happy.

Thanks for all your support! Be safe and keep on reading. God bless.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 1 3

Dreams

Joy

BY LATICIA BROCK Artist/Vendor

BY ROCHELLE WALKER Artist/Vendor

What bring Joy Some say Joy began inside Some say God didn’t give it to you Some say you was born with it But where did it come from?

Joy is a gift that bring something It’s existences I am joyful about Sometime you don’t know how I feel Just see how I acts: Happy, happy about something, someone, or a special place Question is, how did I get it?

Smile

FREE GAME:

Demand my keys by a welcome mat On the grounds where I once sat Begging for help from an angel or two Waiting on a truck to deliver food Losing my ID, bugs on my fleece Waiting for Social Security, it takes two weeks Empty tents looking for parking Virtual learnings, dogs is walking Mental health matters daughters causing scenes Wake up, wake up from my shattered dreams

Your struggles give you strength

Stay down till you come up

BY MARCUS MCCALL Artist/Vendor

BY JAMES FULLER Artist/Vendor

A hustler need a hustler. Like, you gotta have somebody that’s a go-getter like you. Someone with the same mindset. You gotta get somebody on the same level as you.

One person can’t be a breadwinner. That s***’s backwards. That’s why people can’t handle you.

They go where it’s easier. Keep applying pressure!

Strength doesn’t come from winning. Your struggles give you strength.

When you’re going through it and decide not to surrender, that is strength. When you walk in any room, look for the four Ms: the money, the muscle, the mouth, and the muzzle. Respect all four. and don’t underestimate none! Free game.

You got to be a strong-minded person to go through what I went through in life. This story, the struggle was real.

But I had some pretty awesome times, too. Let’s start with the past: I grew up in D.C., lived in some of the best neighborhoods and some of the worst ones. But my favorite was Park Chester by the Barry Farms rec center in Southeast.

My mom used to make me say my address, 2639 Birney Place, SE, every day before I left to go to school — just in case I got lost or stolen. Even though if you stole me, you would bring me back in a heartbeat. I was one of the bad but respectful kids. I’d smile and grin in your face and be the devil behind your back.

I stayed in trouble, like this one day I remember bumping

into my friend Keith: “What’s up?”

“S*** man, chilling. My mother looking for me, she trying to make me take a bath!”

“Aw s*** man, I seen her earlier. She asked me have I seen you and she curse when I said ‘no.’”

I pounded him up, kept on moving, coming down the back stair in Park Chester. Coming through the building. Guess who grabs the back of my shirt?

Ma smacked my head and said, “Caught you, little bastard!

Get your a*** in that house and take a bath!”

And that’s how life started for me as I can remember.

I laugh now. I wouldn’t change s*** for the world.My life.

OnlineCrosswords.net

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // O C T. 1 3 - 1 9 , 2021

FUN &#2 Sudoku 6 3 GAMES 8

This is the Daily Crossword Puzzle #7 for Oct 12, 2021

Novice Sudoku Puzzles, Volume 1, Book 20 1

7

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8 9 7 6 Novice Sudoku Puzzles, Volume 1, Book 20 3 1 6 2 4 5 9 8 1 7 5

4

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© 2013 KrazyDad.com

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

3-by-3 block contain If you guesswork.

6 use 1 logic 7 you 9 can3 solve 8 the 4 puzzle 2 without 5

Need help?4 The 1hints 6 page 9 3a logical order to solve the puzzle.

8 a 2little 5 7 shows Use it to identify the next square you should solve. Or use the answers page if you really get stuck.

4 9 3 7 2 5 6 1 8 >> This crossword

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

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

6

2 4

9 3 7 8

1 5

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

puzzle’s answers: tinyurl.com/SSMcross-10-13-2021

<< LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION

1. Walk heavily 5. Norse god 5. Norse godspotter 9. Plane 9. Plane spotter 14. Sightseeing trip 14.15.

Sightseeing Wandertrip 15.16.

Wander Poet ____ Dickinson 16.17.

PoetNot ____ Dickinson processed 17.19.

NotEmbankment processed 19.20.

Embankment AWOL soldier 20.21.

AWOL soldier Pester 21.22.

Pester Average grades 22.23.

Average Longgrades skirt 23.24.

Long skirt again Lease 24.27.

Lease again Labor 27.29.

Labor ____ Cod 29.33. ____ Cod time Historic 33.34.

Historic time GI's club 34.35.

GI’sWater club (Sp.) 35.36.

Water (Sp.) vessels Cooking 36.38.

Cooking vessels Endures 38.40.

Endures Misters 40.41.

Misters Censor 41.42.

Censor Sternward 42.43.

Sternward Originally named 43.44.

Originally named Carson's successor 44.45.

Carson’s Gamesuccessor fish 45.47.

Game fish Encouraged 47.49.

Encouraged Not ever, poetically 49.51.

NotSpanish ever, poetically house 51.53.

Spanish house Attraction 53.56.

Attraction Male vendor 56.60.

Male vendor Shoe spike 60.61.

ShoeAstrological spike forcast 61.62.

Astrological forcast mom Bart Simpson's 62.63.

BartPainful Simpson’s cry mom 63.64.

Painful cry District 64.65.

District Go onstage 65.66.

Go onstage Urgent request 66.67.

Urgent For request fear that 67. For fear that

"He taught me housekeeping; when I divorce I keep the house."

-- Zsa Zsa Gabor

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

8 1 5 6 4 1 Sudoku 8 #4 9 6 7 6 5 9 4 1 2 2 7 3 8 9 2 1 3 6 7 7 4 5 3 8 7 9 2 8 5 4 9 1 9 4 7 6 54 3 428 7 2 9 7 2 4 1 2 1 336 8 5 6 1 8 3 2 4 9 6 1 2 5 4 7 9 5

Across Across

1. Walk heavily

Sudoku #7 8 4 1

Find the solution at https://onlinecrosswords.net/78219

Down 1. Wall support 2. The ____ Star State

3.

Yours and mine Down 4. Athens’ country 1. Wall support 5. Stale 2. The ____ Star State 6. Truthful 3. Yours and mine 7. Ended 4. Athens' country 8. Vermilion 5. Stale 9. Take it easy 6. Truthful 10. ____ Cup (yacht race) 7. Ended 11. Opera singer 8. Vermilion 12. Pub orders 9. Take it easy 13. Whiskeys 10. ____ Cup (yacht 18. Worry race) 21. Angels’ headgear 11. Opera singer 23. Fine rain 12. Pub orders 24. Ward off 13. Whiskeys 25. Eat away 26. Old Roman language 28. Deposes 30. Maturing

31. Thick soup 32. Soothed 18. Worry 46. Not abundant 37. Caveman’s time (2 wds.)

21. Angels' headgear 47. Employs 38. Name tag 48. Mischievous one 23. Fine rain 39. Remote 50. Diner 24. Ward off 46. Not abundant 52. Luau greeting 25. Eat away 47. Employs 53. Pinnacle 26. Old Roman 48. Mischievous one language 54. Outline 50. Diner 28. Deposes 55. Sassy 52. Luau greeting 30. Maturing 56. Inner being 53. Pinnacle 31. Thick soup 57. Extra 54. Outline 32. Soothed 58. Primates 55. Sassy 37. Caveman's time (2 59. Not messy 56. Inner being wds.)

61. Bunny's jump 57. Extra 38. Name tag 58. Primates 39. Remote 59. Not messy 61. Bunny’s jump

Author Gene Weingarten is a college dropout and a nationally syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post. Author Dan Weingarten is a former college dropout and a current college student majoring in information technology. Many thanks to Gene Weingarten and The Washington Post Writers Group for allowing Street Sense to run Barney & Clyde.

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

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For over 30 years, DC Central Kitchen’s Culinary Job Training program has helped more than 1,700 men and women launch culinary careers. graduates work across Washington, DC’s thriving culinary industry, including top restaurants, large hotels, corporate cafeterias, local artisans, hospitals, schools, and universities.

All admitted students receive full

Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 marthastable.org 2375 Elvans Road SE 2204 Martin Luther King Ave. SE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unity Health Care 3020 14th St., NW // unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699 1500 Galen Street SE, 1500 Galen Street SE, 1251-B Saratoga Ave NE, 1660 Columbia Road NW, 4414 Benning Road NE, 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 765 Kenilworth Terrace NE, 555 L Street SE, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, 1717 Columbia Road NW, 1313 New York Avenue, NW BSMT Suite, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 828 Evarts Place, NE, 810 5th Street NW

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

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

scholarships to attend the program, so there is no cost to our students at any point in their training or in the two years of postgraduation support they provide.

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The bodacious colors of fall

Summer lost

BY CARLTON JOHNSON, A.K.A. “INKFLOW” Artist/Vendor

Summer, the best time Days of Earth’s heat overflow Holding fast for night

BY BRIANNA BUTLER

Dear Street Sense Media,

Artist/Vendor

Summer has come to an end. Fall and winter are around the corner. Kids will soon be going trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

We hope as a group we stay safe and healthy, while wearing face masks.

This Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, family and friends will get together again. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Feeling good in the autumn breeze. Look up and see the beautiful blue, purple, and pink to the right, and to the left see the red, orange colors. The artistry of the sky.

Birds twining yellow, orange, and red leaves to furnish their comfy nests.

People are in colorful clothing, twirling and dancing to music on the streets and sidewalks. They’re decorating houses with gourds, and designer pumpkins. They will later eat the pumpkins in delicious pies. Thinking of this brings me to my garden filled with sweet collards and kale to eat.

Next time you go outside, look for all the wonderful colors of the earth in full blast this fall.

Yours sincerely, WARREN STEVENS Artist/Vendor

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

From your vendor, OCT. 13 - 19, 2021 | VOLUME 18 ISSUE 37 NO CASH? NO PROBLEM. WE HAVE AN APP! SEARCH “STREET SENSE” IN THE APP STORE

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