10 18 2017

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VOL. 14 ISSUE 25

Real Stories

Real People

LOVE WINS,

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The Cover A Sept. 30 march at the capitol building organized by the group Showing Up for Racial Justice.

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

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EVENTS

// 3

NEWS IN BRIEF HEALTH

Hundreds march for equal access to healthy food

Community members say one grocery story is not enough for an entire city ward

Councilmembers Trayon White and David Grosso stand with residents at the Oct. 14 “Grocery Walk.”

THURSDAY, OCT. 19

PHOTO BY JAMES MARSHALL

Project Homeless Connect 10 am – 4 pm Kennedy Recreation Center // 1401 7th St NW United Way of the National Capital Area has partnered with more than 10 local agencies and nonprofits to put essential services under one roof for the nearly 8,000 people living in shelters or on the streets in our nation’s capital. Services include Medical & Podiatric Care // Legal Help // HIV Screening // Haircuts // Housing Information & Referrals // Breakfast or Lunch // Veterans Assistance // Voter Registration // Employment Services // Hygiene Kits.

Comedy Night Fundraiser to Support Survivors of Domestic Violence

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting calendar

Oct 21 // 6:30 pm - 9 pm 13611 Old Annapolis Road Bowie, MD 20720

A night of food and laughter that helps raise $$$ for abused women and children in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Organized by Marketplace 4 Change. A “Thrive Award” will be given to a survivor at the end of the night.

Marketplace4Change.com/charity

Medicaid Work Group (WG) Oct 18, 2 pm // 64 NY Ave NE Veterans NOW! Work Group Oct 19, 10 am // 1500 Franklin St NE Strategic Planning Committee Oct 24, 2:30 pm // 64 NY Ave NE Tenant Barriers Work Group Oct 25, 10 am // 1200 U ST NW Shelter Capacity Monitoring WG Oct 25, 12 pm // 64 NY Ave NE Emergency Response Committee Oct 25, 1 pm // 64 NY Ave NE Youth Work Group Oct 26, 10 am // 64 NY Ave NE

Breast Cancer Awareness Party

Oct 28 // 10 am - 1 pm 1310 Southern Avenue, SE I #2042 Washington, DC 20032 Through AmeriHealth Caritas, Purposely Involved N’ Keeping Individuals Educated (P.I.N.K.I.E.) Party members receive breast cancer screenings, and learn about the importance of mammograms in a comfortable, supportive and fun atmosphere filled with music, dancing, and even Zumba classes!

Conference Room 1

Keep up with community events, at StreetSenseMedia.org/Calendar

THE EXCHANGE Leacy Burke

@elizabethleacy

Obsessed with the new app. Downloading and paying the vendor took less time than trying to find my wallet in my bag. http://streetsensemedia.org/app 7:15 PM - 11 Oct 2017

A crowd of about 500 community members chanted “Healthy food on our plates, food justice in Ward 8!” as they marched the two miles that separate the Giant—Ward 8’s only grocery store—and downtown Anacostia. On Oct.14, community members gathered for a “grocery walk” to protest D.C.’s striking disparity in healthy food access. Wards 7 and 8 contain only three full-service grocery stores, which pales in comparison to Ward 6, which boasts ten. The problem has persisted for years. In 2010, the FEED D.C. Act was passed to incentivize new grocery store developments east of the river, but has proven ineffective to date. Several more recent measures are also moving through D.C. Council committees. Ward 8 Councilmember Trayvon White is fed up with food injustice. “It’s not only not right, it’s criminal that we don’t have access to healthy food,” he said at the grocery walk.

—james.marshall@streetsensemedia.org INCOME

Study tracks growing wealth divide Discriminatory practices that once kept Black residents out of the economy set the stage for gentrification, according to a new Georgetown University report.

As more young and affluent residents move into the city, long-time residents are easily priced out and displaced. The report’s recommendations included government intervention to provide pathways to affordable housing, home ownership and smallbusiness support, reported The Washington Post.

HEALTH

Bowser calls on Congress to reauthorize Children’s Health Insurance Program On Oct. 13, Mayor Bowser and 29 mayors from around the country sent a letter to Congress urging immediate action to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which expired on Sept. 30. If Congress refuses, Washington and all 50 states will no longer receive new funding to cover low-income children for fiscal year 2018 and beyond, according to a press release.

Keep reading at StreetSenseMedia.org/News

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NEWS

An expert talks proven solutions to ending homelessness

BY JAMES MARSHALL

Dr.

Dennis Culhane’s work as a University of Pennsylvania professor of social policy has been instrumental in housing policy.

His research led to a federal mandate to implement data systems for tracking homelessness so cities and states could receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Seen by many as the leading academic authority on homelessness, Culhane published a groundbreaking study in 2002 that followed 10,000 homeless people with serious mental illness in New York, half of whom got supportive housing, half of whom did not. In addition to the humanitarian arguments for supportive housing, the eight-year study illustrated an economic one, too.

“Certainly, the quality of life difference was enormous,” Culhane said. “From an economic perspective, those who were housed didn’t get hospitalized as often, they didn’t get arrested, and they weren’t in shelters — so they reduced their use of services such that it was almost a break-even situation.”

The study has been replicated more than 50 times with similar results since his initial report.

In September, Culhane spoke at a D.C. fundraiser for Open Arms Housing, a local nonprofit that provides housing and services such as medical treatment and employment counseling to chronically homeless women. Street Sense Media interviewed Culhane about the path to ending homelessness. Open Arms Housing Executive Director Marilyn Kresky-Wolff joined the conversation.

Culhane: Advocates are right in arguing that these are poor people that really need a housing voucher. The problem is that we don’t have housing vouchers in enough supply to support this crisis homeless population.

The point of the rapid rehousing program is to get people out of homelessness as fast as possible so they don’t get stuck there. It’s like the emergency room of the homeless system—a crisis intervention program intended to stabilize people.

If someone is coming to you in a crisis, you have to help them. It has to be done in a timely way because every day that a person is homeless they’re exposed to victimization and all the hazards of living an unprotected life on the street. It’s not a long-term intervention, but it’s an intervention that is in reach in terms of the funding available.

7,473 people were experiencing homelessness in Washington D.C. as of January 2017

1,470 chronically homeless people

Street Sense: What effect has HUD-mandated data collection had on the study of homelessness?

Dennis Culhane: We now see two types of homelessness: a small group of people who are homeless for long periods of time — a year or more — and a large group of people, about 85 percent of the population, that is homeless for relatively brief periods of time.

We call that chronic homeless population vs. crisis homeless population. Over time we’ve figured out that we have interventions that are well-suited to each of those populations.

For the folks that are experiencing chronic homelessness, the supportive housing programs are pretty successful. They run at about an 85 percent retention rate. They’re basically providing a permanent housing voucher plus support services that help people find housing, move in and get integrated with the community.

For the people experiencing crisis homelessness, we’ve developed a new intervention called rapid rehousing that helps people negotiate the crisis they are in; they may have had family conflict, a hospitalization, or a sudden loss of a job.

Rapid rehousing is intended to be a crisis intervention program that helps get people back into an apartment or shared living arrangement as quickly as possible.

Marilyn Kresky-Wolff: Rapid rehousing is controversial in D.C. The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless is very much questioning whether it works. It is hard to keep getting funding for it when some of the advocates aren't promoting it.

PHOTO BY JAMES MARSHALL

james.marshall@streetsensemedia.org

When SSDI was designed in the 1930s, it was basically a welfare program for elderly people who didn’t have a work history. Then it was extended to people who were working-age with a disability, and the most common workingage disability is a severe mental illness. If severe mental illness had its onset at age 40, then it would not be the same issue.

Street Sense: How would you describe the cause and effect relationship between homelessness and mental illness?

Culhane: It’s an affordable housing problem. When there is competition for scarce resources, the people who are the most vulnerable are the ones who are going to lose out.

People with mental illness or other disabilities have a harder time competing in that marketplace because it’s harder to identify places to live, to get landlords to accept them, and to access treatment, so they are at multiple disadvantage.

Mental illness is an episodic condition. Their homelessness is occurring usually as a part of a psychiatric crisis. Sometimes people have serious psychotic symptoms and other times they go into remission, go on medication, and are able to manage the disease. If that doesn’t sustain, then they have crises— it’s the nature of the disease. And so, they get hospitalized often for long periods of time. It’s very disruptive. You lose your social connections, your job, your apartment. That often triggers homelessness.

Street Sense: Where is the field of homelessness heading?

Street Sense: You’ve previously said that the disability system is failing.

Culhane: Totally. It’s an absolute crime that we have 50 percent of the homeless population self-report to having a disability.

That means there’s something wrong with your disability insurance system. Our social insurance programs for disability are simply inadequate.

Basically, you get $700 a month if you’re relying on disability. That’s $8,400 a year and the poverty level is $14,000.

We should not be locking people into an almost-40 percentbelow-poverty income just because they have a disability.

We have a disability insurance system in this country that does work. It’s called Social Security Disability Insurance.

But it’s only for people who have a work history of enough years of full-time work. Unfortunately, for people who have a mental illness, the onset of that disease is between 18 and 27.

So they are unlikely to have accrued enough semesters of work to qualify for SSDI.

Culhane: The field has gone in the wrong direction. They want to only serve expensive homeless people so that we can save Medicaid money. And I don’t think that the public is as interested in saving Medicaid money as they are in more efficiently using the money to serve more people effectively.

From an insurance perspective, you don’t want to have only sick people enrolled in your program. You want to spread the savings over a larger group so that you’re pooling the benefit just like you pool the risk.

It’s not a sound actuarial perspective to focus on the expensive people once they become expensive. We really should be targeting the people who are at risk of being a lifelong, high-cost burden on society because they’re not housed.

If we have to make the economic argument to persuade people that this is a morally important obligation, so be it.

But obviously, it’s more than money. It’s about valuing life.

What’s going to bear watching is the politics that emerge around autism. The number of people coming into young adulthood with autism is growing dramatically. These are folks who are quite similar to people with severe mental illness in the sense that they have cognitive challenges. In a place like Pennsylvania, the number of autistic adults in their 20s is going to go from about 7,000 to over 20,000 in the next ten years. There’s a huge housing component to that.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 5

D.C. Department of Human Services told people to “wait” on food stamps. Now it is being sued.

BY NICK SHEDD // nick.shedd@streetsensemedia.org

C

ynthia Carter never had high expectations when she went to the Taylor Street Service Center to obtain food stamp benefits. She planned on a time commitment of a few hours.

“I’m thinking DMV,” Carter said, referring to the time she usually spends at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

It has been two years since that first visit and she is still struggling to receive the benefits for which she qualifies.

Carter, who studies biomedicine at UDC and works for a local restaurant, was at the Taylor Street center to apply for benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known by its former moniker, food stamps.

Carter said that on several occasions she waited in line all day only to receive rushed service just before closing time that failed to resolve her issues. While waiting, she repeatedly called in later and later to work as the line stalled. Often, she had to “take off a whole day of work only to be told, ‘wait, wait,’” Carter said. Whenever she could be seen by service center staff, Carter said she would be told that some critical form, previously submitted, was missing and that she must repeat the process.

Carter is not alone. The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, together with multinational law firm Hogan Lovells and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, recently filed suit against the D.C. Department of Human Services, which runs the service center. The lawsuit alleges that the department is failing its clients and violating the law mandating provision of SNAP benefits.

DHS “systematically and unlawfully fails to provide timely SNAP benefits to hundreds of eligible families in the District of Columbia each month,” according to the suit.

It points to the October 2016 adoption of the D.C. Access System, the computer program responsible for determining SNAP eligibility, as the immediate cause of systemic failures leading to the lawsuit, but the problems at DHS date back further.

“Around 2013 or 2014, the situation was getting more difficult for clients to collect public benefits,” said Jennifer Mezey, an attorney at Legal Aid working on the case.

In May 2014, Legal Aid and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute published a report describing how, due to the “Herculean task” of implementing the Affordable Care Act amid a backdrop of budget-related staffing issues and technological defects, “the promise of a strong safety net has been steadily eroded.”

The authors acknowledged that D.C. was not alone in struggling to meet the administrative requirements of the new healthcare exchanges and Medicaid expansion. In comparison, they argued, the District performed quite well.

Yet relative success does not equate to actual success, and, as the report’s authors pointed out, “these breakdowns translate into real hardship for vulnerable District residents.”

The authors of the report updated its findings in March 2015 testimony to the D.C. Council. They noted the large numbers of benefit seekers lined up outside of service centers before 6 a.m., the unsettling frequency with which clients were told they were at the wrong service center and the repeated return trips required of consumers as a result of suspect paperwork handling practices.

Then, in October 2015, that situation came to a head. DHS was sued over its noncompliance with the 2004 Language Access Act. The suit alleged that limited and non-English proficient DHS customers – often those most in need – were

The DHS Economic Security Administration service center at 645 H Street NE. PHOTO BY NICK SHEDD

effectively denied benefits by a lack of language access services. The office of Attorney General Karl Racine settled the case in December 2016 while promising to provide better language support and participate in a customer advisory group made up of community advocates and government personnel.

On August 28, 2017, DHS was again sued, this time by Legal Aid on behalf of the nonprofit Bread for the City and four D.C. residents struggling to receive benefits. This time the culprit was a computer system update largely funded by the federal government through the Affordable Care Act. The previous system, the Automatic Client Eligibility Determining System, which had run on large mainframe computers since 1992, was replaced by the D.C. Access System (DCAS) in October 2016. Despite a warning from the federal Food and Nutrition Service that “launching a system without having conducted a live pilot is against the intent of the regulations and against our best advice,” DHS Director Laura Zeilinger and her department went ahead with the upgrade.

Almost immediately, severe technical glitches began to endanger the successful and timely distribution of SNAP benefits.

Application processing times jumped from 20 to 90 minutes on the new computer system, according to the court filing. In the three months after the introduction of the new system, the Economic Security Administration missed the federally mandated 30-day processing deadline on 70 percent of new applications for aid. The Washington City Paper also reported major technical problems in the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card system and frequent system outages coinciding with precipitation.

Inefficient processing has heightened tensions between clients and workers, reportedly leading to physical confrontations. “I’ve definitely seen a lot of arguments I thought might escalate,” Carter said.

For fiscal year 2014, DHS reported a “Food Stamp error rate percentage” of 7 percent, almost double its target of 4 percent.

The next year, the last one in the online system, saw a reported rate of 8 percent, but the department gave itself a grade of “partially achieved” after also elevating the target to 8 percent.

A 2016 Food and Nutrition Service report on the rollout of the new system cited in the Legal Aid filing, meanwhile, observed technical errors in 18 percent of cases sampled.

Bread for the City, the direct-service nonprofit organization participating in the case, reported a 54 percent increase in emergency food aid during the period from October 2016 to May 2017 vs. the same period the year before -- and the number of people receiving these food bags increased by 38 percent.

Allison Miles-Lee, an attorney working at Bread for the City for the past nine years, explains that the organization had to temporarily shutter the food bag program due to the immense financial strain heightened demand had caused. “We’re having

to put more time towards SNAP cases, which is impacting our ability to take more clients for our domestic violence and family law practices,” Miles-Lee said. Meanwhile, she says DHS has stopped communicating with Bread for the City and has indefinitely postponed once-regular accountability meetings with advocates.

While she readily acknowledges that multiple factors may be contributing to higher rates of food insecurity, a large chunk of that increase is likely because of DHS, according to MilesLee. She has heard anecdotally from Bread for the City’s food department that a significant number of clients have become food insecure as a direct result of the food stamp program’s flaws. One client of Bread for the City finally became certified for SNAP benefits and then right after getting home received eight email notifications to recertify.

These problems, once again, are not unique to the District.

A web search for “computer rollout food stamp problems” reveals disastrous computer upgrades in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Rhode Island over the past few years. Rhode Island received a letter from the Food and Nutrition Service nearly identical to that received by DHS, warning that the state would proceed “at its own risk.”

The bottom line, according to Jennifer Mezey, the Legal Aid attorney, is that the District government is failing residents.

The question is whether D.C. residents are receiving the benefits they are owed by law.

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, the DHS provided the following in a statement to Street Sense Media by email: “Any major systems change or implementation comes with complications, but we are already seeing real improvements.

Residents are spending less time waiting to be interviewed at service centers, twenty-five percent fewer customers are having to actually visit a service center each day and our capacity has increased and is allowing us to serve 50 percent more families every day.”

There is some hope for people struggling to receive benefits.

The kinks in the new computer system, while not re solved, have been smoothed to the extent that there is a relatively quick fix if clients go to Bread for the City or Legal Aid, according to Miles-Lee. Even without direct access to make changes in DCAS, advocates from those two organizations have been able to work with DHS to call attention to individual cases and get problems resolved so residents can receive the aid they need. But she worries about all those who have not received adequate information on how to get help.

“I think most of it is about communication,” Carter said, reflecting on her experiences attempting to receive benefits at DHS service centers. “I think when they’re honest and trying to be straightforward, they’re doing their best.”

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These D.C. residents are banding together to keep housing prices down

T

BY LILAH BURKE // lilah.burke@streetsensemedia.org

of a certain income level. Owners still get to walk away with some equity from the sale, and the house stays affordable, no matter how neighborhood property values change.

A typical community land trust is governed by a board, one equally split between the land trust residents, community members, and housing and nonprofit experts. Residents pay a small monthly land lease to the trust, which helps cover operating costs and works as a warning system. If a resident hasn't been paying their land lease, that might signal they are struggling financially, and the board could intervene with workforce training and work with the homeowner to prevent foreclosure.

The equitable development task force is also planning to coordinate workforce training and prioritize residents from Wards 6, 7, and 8 in hiring for post-construction jobs.

“Affordable” can have many meanings, especially in D.C., which has the highest income inequality of any metropolitan city in the country. “When we use the word affordability, I think a lot of people initially

ask the question, ‘Well, affordable for who?’” Perry said.

“Incomes, especially in the footprint of the bridge park, are lower than the average for the greater Washington area metropolitan region,” said Adam Maloon, vice president of affordable housing at City First Homes. “Some people will say that 80 percent of [the area median income] is affordable. Well, who is that affordable for?” Eligibility for housing assistance is often decided by how much a household earns as a proportion of the area median income. The median income for an individual in the D.C. metro area was $76,020 in 2016.

According to Maloon and Agava, when the Bridge Park project reached out to Ward 8 residents, they found significant community will for a land trust of this kind. The project team formed a monthly community land trust advisory committee, made up of two-thirds Ward 8 residents and business owners. City First Homes is advising the committee and project on the technical specifics of the trust.

“It has always been a community-driven and equity-first approach,” Perry said. “We went

MAP COURTESY OF CITY FIRST ENTERPRISES

he 11th Street Bridge Park project will build D.C.’s first elevated park, utilizing the remnants of a demolished vehicular bridge connecting the Navy Yard and Anacostia neighborhoods, across the Anacostia River. While new public works often generate jobs and economic activity in a neighborhood, they can also raise its profile and subsequently its price tag.

In anticipation of rising housing prices around the new park, the Bridge Park group’s equitable development task force is planning to create the District’s first community land trust to encourage homeownership and maintain affordability. The land trust is part of the group’s equitable development plan, which they hope will maintain affordability, mitigate potential displacement, and ensure that increases in employment, health, and safety are actually felt by current residents.

The park’s "impact zone" east of the river, including the Anacostia and Fairlawn neighborhoods, has some of the highest unemployment and child poverty in the city.

More than 20 percent of the area's residents are unemployed, and over half of the children live in poverty. Homeownership is also low — renters occupy 73 percent of houses and apartments in the area, compared with an almost even split of renters and owners west of the river in Capitol Hill.

Parks and amenities, especially novelties such as an aerial park, often bring improvements to a neighborhood. But these improvements often don't serve current residents, who may be pushed out by rising housing prices.

Planners of the park, a project of Ward 8 based nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River, are taking lessons from similar developments, such as the BeltLine in Atlanta, an ongoing project to convert an abandoned railroad into trails. Where it has been built, housing prices have escalated, displacing low-income residents, according to Pamela Agava, the operations manager at City First Enterprises. The social-justiceminded bank holding company is advising the equitable development task force.

“We’ve seen some of the negative consequences of development to communities, and we wanted to be able to counter that,” said Vaughn Perry, the park’s equitable development manager.

The leading idea on the task force to preserve affordability in Ward 8 is a community land trust. Land trusts of this kind can potentially maintain housing affordability for decades.

When homeowners buy a dwelling on a community land trust, they buy only the structure, not the earth beneath it. The land itself is owned by the trust, a nonprofit entity.

The homeowner can afford to buy the home at a fraction of its market value. A restrictive covenant on the property ensures that it can only be sold for a similar cost and to people

out to the community and had hundreds of meetings to just first ask the question, ‘Is this something that the community even wants?’”

Sheldon Clark, an architect who lives in Ward 8 and a member of the community land trust advisory committee, has heard mostly positive things from community members. Still, he emphasizes that it is difficult to reach everyone.

“People have to recognize that to be able to show up at a community meeting, you kind of already have to come from at least a little bit of privilege,” Clark said. “You’re not picking up kids at that period of time, or you’re not trying to feed your kids at that period of time, or you’re not at work at that period of time.”

The group is trying to reach residents on social media and with door-to-door walks.

Though the Bridge Park is set to open in 2019, the land trust will likely move at a slower pace. Perry indicated they would like to hire an executive director for the project and acquire at least two properties for the trust in the next year. Though Perry believes sustainable community land trusts require somewhere between 250 and 400 units, the project will likely start with a pilot of 10 to 15 units to demonstrate capabilities and budget, potentially earning a partnership with the city.

Acquiring the properties may require building from the ground up. The equitable development team is in early conversations with Mi Casa, a nonprofit affordable housing developer and potential partner to build some dwellings in the area. “Community land trusts are often agnostic about how properties are brought in and what exactly they look like,” Maloon said.

The units may be scattered or include rentals. For small businesses, a land trust can provide a low rent, so business owners can stay in the neighborhood and provide their goods and services for below-market value.

As part of a larger investment in Wards 7 and 8, JP Morgan has provided a grant to the project, $3 million of which will go to acquiring properties for the trust.

Clark emphasized that the land trust is not the single answer to preserve affordable housing in the District. “The idea of a community land trust is not a panacea. It’s not a cure-all for affordable housing or to address all the housing issues that we have in the area. But it does have the opportunity to provide a much lower price point for people to purchase a home and get into home ownership,” he said. Clark stressed that although homeowners wouldn’t receive all of the price appreciation from the home, they would still take away more than they would if they were renting. “The idea is that this is kind of a stepping stone to get people into market-rate housing,” he said.

Perry stressed that the land trust is flexible to community interests. “We’re not developers. We’re not a for-profit organization,” he said. “As we need to pivot, we pivot.”

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Homeless youth are finding community at a downtown drop-in center

BY BETHANY TUEL bethany.tuel@streetsensemedia.org

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very Monday, 45 to 60 homeless youth find refuge at a downtown church. Just over a year ago, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Sasha Bruce Youthwork and the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District (BID) came together to open a drop-in center where homeless youth can stay for a few hours, receive necessities, and connect with both resources and peers.

“It’s been amazing to see how people embrace this as their home,” said Rev. James Ross from First Church.

The church, located at 945 G St NW, reached out to the Downtown BID when they noticed an increase in the number of homeless people in the area. They knew the nearby library, which had been an unofficial center for people to go to, was closing for renovations, and they wanted to help ensure people could access services they needed.

Members of the Downtown BID and First Church determined that unhoused youth were the most in need, which led them to contact Sasha Bruce Youthwork, an organization whose mission is to improve the lives of runaway, homeless, abused, and neglected youth and their families. “Sasha Bruce had recently launched a drop-in center, which is full-time, and that was the model that we decided we would use,” Ross said.

Each organization brought its own set of resources to the table. The church had space, funds, and willing volunteers; Sasha Bruce had expertise in working with homeless youth; and the Downtown BID had access to more funds.

Once a week, food, board games, movies, and books are made available at the center for the youth to enjoy. The activities help build community, both among the youth and between youth and staff. Each Monday, they go through 35 pizzas, as well a fruit and water.

“If you have teenagers, they eat you out of house and home.

And [these teenagers] don’t have a house and home to eat out of,” Pam Lieber, the program manager at the drop-in center, said.

Snack packs are provided for the youth to take with them when they leave. First Church has also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner and held a scarf, hat, and glove drives for the program participants.

The downtown youth drop-in center opens every Monday at First Church, 945 G St., NW. PHOTO COURTESY OF FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Sasha Bruce also combs the streets to connect with young people who do not attend the program. An outrach van, run by Mia DeJesús-Martin, is packed with snacks, condoms, water, and other supplies. They also offer free HIV testing.

“Outreach is about meeting basic needs in the moment and then encouraging and making those referrals for young people to access later down the line,” Sasha Bruce employee Lorie Davidson told Street Sense.

Lieber said many members of the public have misconceptions about homeless youth. People may see them being loud and may view them as disrespectful and lazy. “If you spend time getting to know them, they’re really smart young people,” Lieber said. As she spoke, TreVell, a young man who has been attending the drop-in center for over a year, came up and gave her a hug goodbye.

TreVell was unaware of the drop-in center until one day while leaving work he encountered someone passing out flyers about it. He came to visit and the staff explained that this was a safe place to get necessities and feel at home. At the time he did not have anywhere like that.

The center has helped TreVell connect with people his age in similar situations. “There was a lot of people that I knew on the outside, before I even knew that … they were in the same situation I was,” he said.

The center and its resources also helped TreVell obtain housing. He has been in a stable housing situation for almost a year.

“There is help. I was in the situation where it was me for myself. I was just providing for myself,” he said. During that time in his life, TreVell slept in laundromats or airports, taking his clothes to work with him in a duffelbag. When he first found out about the drop-in center, he would come just to be able to get some peaceful sleep. In most publicpalces, he had to remain alert and be attentive to his surroundings. Here, he could finally rest.

“The center provided me with a safe environment where I didn’t have to worry about any of that,” TreVell said. “The more people who know about the drop-in center, the better.”

Staff members have learned a lot since the center opened.

Lieber was surprised by the depth of the need for mental health services among young people. “Chronic mental health issues amongst the older homeless population is something that’s pretty common and you expect it,” she said. “But I wasn’t expecting that from our younger kids, and yet that’s something we see on a regular basis.”

Additionally, staff have learned what is truly important to the youth. “Beyond the games, beyond the movies, giving people a sense that there’s a place where they belong, reminding people that someone cares about them, I think that’s what’s most important,” Rev. Ross said. “What has been affirmed for me is that young people are young people. They want the same things that other young people want. They want safety, security, and somebody that cares about them.”

Davidson agreed. According to her, it is important that young people know, “even if I mess up, they care about me, even if I mess up a second time, they still care about me — they’re not going to give up on me.”

Youth and staff members alike acknowledged that there is always more to be done. “One thing that is a challenge is that there are so many young people who are in need of access to housing,” Davidson said. The District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2018 Winter Plan states that there will be 28 beds available in the District of Columbia for unaccompanied minors, which is an increase of six beds since last year. The Winter Plan notes that using an average three-week length of stay, the beds for unaccompanied minors will provide shelter for approximately 390 youth over the course of a year.

The mayor’s plan to end youth homelessness by 2022, released in May, calls for an increase in the number of beds for young people ages 18-24, as well as additional youthspecific resources for programs such as rapid re-housing, which provides short-term rental assistance and services with different levels of assistance. There will be 52 shelter beds, 152 transitional housing beds, 72 rapid re-housing beds, and 37 permanent supportive housing beds.

Despite these added resources, there is still a need. “When we close our doors each night, there are kids that don’t have any place to be,” Lieber said.

// 7

STREET SENSE MEDIA ARTISTS RECAP OUR 2017 CELEBRATION

As I helped my fellow photographers set up their work at this year’s annual celebration, we unpacked the equipment and assembled the easels. Then it was time for the photo selection. Among those chosen for auction was a colorful family captured by relatively new vendor Marcellus Phillips. It was indeed worthy of compliment, and that was exactly what I did when he arrived.

To my surprise, he was aglow with artistic pride before I finished my sentiments. The photo had already sold! This was a moment of deja vu for me, as I recalled the joy of my first photo sale. Of course, it took me much, much more time to reach that plateau.

PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN

My brother Will, it was good to see him and his lady friend at the Street Sense Media showcase. He is not only a good friend of mine, he is one of my favorite customers. The event was so nice. I felt like a celebrity walking on the red carpet. If you didn’t attend this amazing event, please feel free to join us in September 2018! And as always, THANKS FOR READING. PHOTO BY CHON GOTTI

Me and the wifey enjoying ourselves with Mr. Leon Harris from Channel 4 news. He rushed to take this picture with us before emceeing our event. She didn’t want me to share this picture, so I may be in a heap of trouble! But as you can see, we had so much fun.

PHOTO BY CHON GOTTI

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How 2 men are convincing members to leave the Ku Klux Klan STORY BY ADAM SENNOTT | IMAGES COURTESY DARYL DAVIS Real Change, Seattle

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aryl Davis wasn’t surprised when he saw White nationalists carrying tiki torches through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Davis, a Black musician and author, personally knew some of the people who were marching. He said the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which supposedly spurred the protests, “had nothing to do with why they were there.”

“They were there for one reason and one reason only,” Davis said. “They were there to incite the first steps of a race war.”

Davis is an expert on White supremacists, specifically because he knows so many of them. He has spent nearly 30 years befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan, and convincing them to turn their backs on an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “the most infamous — and oldest — of American hate groups.”

Davis, who said about 40 to 60 members have left the group directly because of the friendship they developed with him, also works with Scott Shepherd, a reformed former grand dragon for the Invisible Empire: Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee. In his work, Davis sheds light on White supremacist organizations and those who join them.

Despite their efforts, Davis and Shepherd say White supremacist groups are using the rhetoric of President Donald Trump and his administration as a foothold to further their agenda, all while trying to legitimize racism in the public eye.

“What you’re seeing are people coming out from under the rock, from under the carpet,” Davis said. “They’ve always been here, but now with the new administration in power they feel a little more emboldened to show themselves more.”

Protesting the removal of Confederate statues gave them perfect cover, Davis said.

“Anytime you’re going to have a gathering on public property — especially if it’s a protest, march or a rally, or

maybe you’re going to sell lemonade and hot dogs — you must have a permit. ... You cannot go to the city and put down on the application, ‘I want to start a race war,’” Davis said. “So, they put down that they are the descendants of their great, great, great ancestors, who fought in the Confederacy, and they want to preserve the heritage of the Confederacy, and they want to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue.”

If the march was actually about the statue and Confederate heritage, Davis said, they would have also invited Black and Jewish descendants of Confederate soldiers who also support preserving the statue of Robert E. Lee. “Instead they excluded them,” Davis said. “And they chose to march through the University of Virginia campus with their tiki torches, and down the streets of Charlottesville shouting anti-Semitic and anti-Black epithets.”

Shepherd, who also worked as an organizer for David Duke’s National Association for the Advancement of White People, said he was “blown away” when he saw people marching in the streets unmasked and carrying tiki torches.

“It’s more of a dangerous thing now than it was when it was just the Klansmen in the robes and hoods,” Shepherd said. “They’ve reached the point where they feel like their views are accepted by a lot of people in this country.”

Like Davis, Shepherd said that White supremacy groups are trying to dilute their image in order to appear legitimate and accepted by the general population.

“They’re using the term alt-right and they’re trying to separate themselves from the wellknown or the mainstream White supremacists,” Shepherd said. “But the alt-right is nothing but

“The Klan is meticulous when it commits acts of terror. Those outside the inner circle don’t even know who they are, preventing law enforcement from penetrating to find the organizers.”

SCOTT SHEPHERD reformed former grand dragon for the Invisible Empire: Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

a White supremacist movement.”

Their goal is to be viewed as “a civic group,” Shepherd said.

Trump’s response to the violence helped to normalize their image, Shepherd said. The president took too long to condemn the action, wasn’t specific and wasn’t harsh enough.

“And I think that was giving the green light to the White supremacist movement that they be able to do this more and more and get away with it,” Shepherd said.

Though Trump did later condemn the violence in harsher terms, Shepherd said, “It was a little bit too late.”

Shepherd said that Trump didn’t realize when he blamed both sides for the violence that the “good people and fine people that he was talking about” got mixed up in the crowd and started carrying Nazi flags and White supremacist paraphernalia.

“That’s where they stopped being fine people,” Shepherd said.

Despite efforts to mainstream their image, Shepherd said behind the scenes White supremacists are using racial slurs and support having Black people separated from White people or even “sent back to Africa.”

“In the background, they’re talking about race wars and arming themselves,” Shepherd said. “They’re really preparing for a violent confrontation.”

Shepherd said that the Klan is meticulous when it commits acts of terror. He said an inner circle plans and executes acts — cross burnings or other violence. Those outside the inner circle don’t even know who they are, preventing law enforcement from penetrating to find the organizers.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

The Klan also promotes a lone-wolf system, where supremacists will commit acts of violence on their own, Shepherd said.

Shepherd said he remembers the 1981 murder of Michael Donald, a 19-year-old Black man who was murdered by two Klansmen, according to NPR. The Southern Poverty Law Center later sued the United Klans of America on behalf of Donald’s mother.

A $7 million judgment bankrupted the organization and forced it to close. At the time, Shepherd was a member.

Shepherd quit the White supremacy groups he was involved with in 1990 and said he takes “full responsibility” for everything he did.

Shepherd is unique among Davis’ friends in that he had already left his life as a White supremacist when they met. Most others have not.

Davis said he first became interested in meeting members of the Klan when he was 32. He wanted to know how people could hate someone they knew nothing about.

He started by having his secretary set up an interview with Roger Kelly, the grand dragon and eventual imperial wizard for the state of Maryland, Davis said. The secretary did not tell Kelly that he was meeting with a Black man.

Kelly and his bodyguard were stunned when they arrived at a hotel room for their meeting, Davis said.

“They were thinking either they got the wrong room number, knocked on the wrong door or [that] this was an ambush,” Davis said.

At the beginning of the interview, Davis said whenever he would reach for his Bible to refute one of Kelly’s religious arguments or for a new cassette to record the interview, the bodyguard would reach for his gun.

Eventually everyone began to relax when Davis said he heard a “strange noise.”

Davis said he jumped up from his chair and was ready to leap across the table and tackle Kelly and the bodyguard.

“I perceived it to be an ominous, threatening kind of noise,” Davis said.

When Davis jumped up from his seat, Kelly’s bodyguard reached for his gun, and the three of them stood there staring at each other, not sure exactly what had happened, Davis said.

It turned out the noise came from a soda can that had cascaded against melting ice inside a bucket in the hotel room, Davis said.

“We all began laughing at how ignorant we all were,” Davis said.

It was “a teaching moment,” Davis said. “Ignorance breeds fear.”

Daryl Davis and Scott Shepherd visit the Whte House.

When the interview ended they agreed to stay in touch, Davis said.

“I began calling him and inviting him to my gigs,” Davis said. “And he would go, and he would bring his bodyguard.”

Then Davis said he started inviting him to his house, and over time Kelly started coming without his bodyguard.

After Kelly was promoted to imperial wizard, Davis said he started getting invited to his house to see Kelly’s “Klan den.”

“He began inviting me to Klan rallies,” Davis said.

“So I’d go to these Klan rallies and watch them light up this big cross on fire and parade around [and] all that stuff.”

As their relationship grew, Davis said Kelly “realized that he’d been wrong, and he quit the Klan.”

Then, Davis said, he gave him his robe and hood.

Davis documented their relationship in his book “Klan-destine Relationships: A Black Man’s Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan.”

From there Kelly went on to meet other members of the Klan and make similar bonds, which culminated in his documentary, “An Accidental Courtesy,” in which Shepherd appeared.

Shepherd said he has been working to make amends for his actions.

In March 2013, the Klan was planning to hold a rally in Memphis, and Shepherd reached out to the imperial wizard who organized the event and asked him not to come, according to Fox19.

Shepherd said the Klan leader was not happy to hear from him.

“The voicemail was very angry, the language was like bathroom graffiti,” Shepherd told the station. “They blocked their numbers, so it’s a typical cowardly behavior to hide their numbers and hide behind their masks.”

Still, he warned residents not to attend.

“Don’t show up, always take it seriously. They’re dangerous people. They’re dangerous because of their anger,” Shepherd said at the time.

He also speaks to classrooms about the dangers of the KKK and other groups.

“That’s basically what my mission is,” Shepherd said. “To try to prevent these young people from being sucked into that stuff.”

In January, Shepherd and Davis participated in a panel at the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

As he sat next to Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest daughter, Bernice, Shepherd apologized for all of the terrible things he’d done.

“In my past I did a lot of terrible things, I said a lot of terrible things, I said a lot of terrible things about Dr. Martin Luther King,” Shepherd said to the audience. “Of course, I had no idea what I was talking about, learned it from other people.

“But there’s no excuse, I did it anyway,” Shepherd said. “And I extend my apology to everyone.”

King described his words as “redeeming.”

“What my father sacrificed his life for is what brought this possibility into being,” she said.

Davis said that at that moment, he realised his efforts were helping Dr. King’s dream come true.

“There we were on the red hills of Georgia, a former KKK leader who was all White supremacy and separating the races, sitting down at the table of brotherhood with the daughter of the man who died, giving his life dreaming to see these very people do just that,” Davis said. “It was indeed a very redeeming moment and I was very proud of everyone there.”

At the same time, he noted how “shameful it was that a Klansman could apologize to Black people, but the U.S. government will not apologize for slavery.”

“We have come a long ways,” Davis said. “But still have a long ways to go.”

Courtesy of Real Change / INSP.ngo

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OPINION: We must hold each other accountable

BY HENRIEESE ROBERTS Artist/Vendor

The Black Women's March and the March for Racial Justice were here in Lincoln Park in D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 30. My fellowship with Baltimore community members has allowed me to attend several “Showing up for Racial Justice” events lately.

The SURJ at a local church was the most informative group to work with because we spent a whole day in conference together.

The building block of change is the commitment we make as we develop new relationships. We must have a vision for the selves we desire to become. Our covenant consists of the many promises we make to each other, sealed with accountable acts that allow us to recognize our growth as we work to build a society where we are all free.

Here are a few photos with the SURJ march, people interested in creating a just and equitable future for our communities and country. It is groups like SURJ and the People's Institution for Survival and Beyond that will help us learn how to undo racism and organize communities.

Photos by Henriees Roberts

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OPINION MOVING UP:

How tech can help you eat for less

BY ARTHUR JOHNSON

The R. L. Christian Community Library at 1300 H St. NE in 2008.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NCINDC // FLICKR

Remembering the Robert L. Christian Community Library

BY KEN MARTIN

The October 4 edition of Street Sense had a short mention of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ward 6 affordable housing project. I’m sure it means a lot to Mayor Muriel Bowser and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen for political preservation purposes. It will also mean a lot to the incoming 33 tenants and leaseholders. I expect not so much to the gentrified surrounding community or even most of the latter generations of residents in the neighborhoods connected.

Yes, it will mean a lot to some, perhaps, but not as much as it does to me. You see, 1300 H Street NE has very special meaning to me.

As the article states, it was once home to the Robert L. Christian Community Library. The library was named for teacher, family man and community activist Robert Lee Christian, whose tireless efforts to improve life in our neighborhood brought determination to people struggling to maintain their status and progress toward upward mobility. It soon became a neighborhood hub.

Before its opening it was the Trinidad Library on Montello Avenue NE. I know because I helped pack the books for the move with Sherry Hardy, the newly appointed community librarian. Mrs. Hardy was a wonderful, kind-hearted, unsung individual, a dedicated inspiration in that community, mother of Terry and a person some neighborhood kids called “Ma.” Shortly after the library opened, I helped form a “friends of the library” group.

We received a grant donation from the Georgetown Library Friends Group to use as seed money for fundraising and held a few annual events each year to raise money for children’s activities and books. We supplemented the shelves with purchases and donations to maintain and eventually increase readership. The family of Robert L. Christian was always there to support our efforts, and the library was a source of community pride.

The library was the place where I met a Benning Library desk supervisor, displaced

by a fire, who would become my wife and another significant participant in library and H Street activities. Her ties to that community dated back to her birth, as her family resided across the road on Wylie Street.

It means a lot to me as an advocate for the homeless, because the Robert L. Christian Library was among the first in D.C. to embrace the homeless and create accommodations to encourage inclusion at a time when many patrons found homeless folk offensive. Mrs. Hardy would provide toiletries and even storage for plastic bag luggage for homeless patrons during their visit. She later created rules about size of packages because things eventually got difficult to contain. After all, it was only a kiosk sandwiched between Pierce and Blair School shelters and later Wheatley, with a host of halfway houses nearby.

The Robert L. Christian Library provided clients of the McKenna House transitional program their third piece of identification. For many of these men, it was their first ever adult library card. The welcoming atmosphere and access to resources was invaluable.

The library was also the information source for Near Northeast. You could find details there on any event that affected the community. And if there wasn’t a flyer, staffers Sherry Hardy, Herbert Dean, Matilda Nedab, or Lisa Hook could give you the lowdown.

Robert L. Christian Library is deeply engraved in my memory and my heart! I truly hope that this mention stimulates enough interest to consider the significant contributions of Sherry Hardy, and that they might house a small library within their retail space. I am thankful that the powers that be remembered that the modest but significant structure demolished to create housing (and offer some affordable units), was originally built as a monument for a man who wanted housing for all, and will renew his name at a new community memorial.

Ken Martin is a Street Sense Media vendor and advocate for people experiencing homelessness.

It is very expensive to live in the District, and one of the biggest expenses is food. In Washington, D.C., many people have not only high incomes but the added benefit of a generous expense account to help offset the cost of dining with clients, which means they are immune to the effects of rising costs.

It may be tough to find a good, affordable meal, but it’s possible. Through the use of different advances in technology, there are ways to eat without going broke.

Use apps if you have a smartphone. Almost every major chain has an app, and they can save you lots of money. For example, McDonald’s has an excellent app that constantly gives you good deals. Other chains like Burger King have similar apps, and chains like Hardee’s actually have reward programs where you earn points based on your purchases. Domino’s and Pizza Hut also have reward programs.

Opt-in to restaurant text messaging. For example, Subway will send you a text message every week featuring a good deal. I just used mine to get a $3 sandwich that would have normally cost about $5. Not every location accepts these deals, however, so double-check.

Use deal websites. Companies like Groupon and Living Social offer deals for a small price, and you get a lot of value in return. At the time I am writing this, I found two great deals. One is for an Ethiopian restaurant called Seba Dereja on Georgia Avenue (the deal can be found on both sites): $20 worth of food and drink for $10. The other is for a place called Half Smoke on Florida Ave: $20 worth of food and drink for $12.

You might wonder if this is legitimate, and I will tell you it definitely is. Businesses are willing to take the loss because it gets you into their establishment; they figure if you like it and return (obviously paying full price on subsequent visits), then it was worth it. And it’s worth it for you, too.

Arthur Johnson is a volunteer writer focusing on finance and economic issues in his column Moving Up.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LEA LATUMAHINA // FLICKR

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Hurricane response efforts are sorting people into deserving and undeserving poor

BY MARIA FOSCARINIS

This piece originally appeared at TalkPoverty.org in collaboration with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Hurricanes Irma and Harvey delivered a devastating one-two punch to Texas and Florida, forcing millions to evacuate and leaving thousands displaced. Now, as emergency responders try to help hurricane victims cope with the aftermath of the storm, previously homeless residents are taking a particularly hard hit.

In Florida, as officials rushed to open emergency shelters for those forced from their homes by Irma, some residents who had been homeless before the hurricane were forced to wear bright yellow bracelets to mark their status. In St. Augustine, previously homeless people reported that they were not only forced to wear wristbands, but that authorities warned newly homeless hurricane victims to stay away from people with the yellow bracelets because they were criminals, thieves, and drug users.

One woman described her experience to a local service provider this way: “They treated me like I was non-human, insulted me and others … [They] separated us from other people.”

In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a community volunteer said that previously homeless people—including some in wheelchairs—were turned away from hurricane shelters and later directed to the Volusia County Fairgrounds, which served as a segregated shelter for pre-hurricane homeless people. A homeless man in Daytona Beach said, “[We] were treated like animals … like we got a disease or something.”

The unequal treatment of “pre-hurricane homeless” people versus “hurricane homeless” people was not unique to Florida.

One Houston service provider told me, “There was definitely a treatment of people who had been homeless prior to the storm that was different … [they were] told that they needed to go to agencies that are part of the city homeless service system, rather than receive services within the [hurricane] shelter.” They were then de-prioritized for assistance too, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote in an email to Reuters: “If an individual was homeless pre-disaster, they may not be considered for Housing Assistance and Other Needs Assistance, which both require successful verification of pre-disaster occupancy.”

The reality is, none of the people who were homeless before the storms were living “pre-disaster” lives. Before the hurricanes struck, they had already fallen victim to more routine disasters: a lost job, eviction, health crisis, domestic violence, untreated addiction, or mental illness. Any of these can lead to homelessness because of the manmade disaster that is the biggest driving cause of homelessness today: the crisis in affordable housing.

After decades of cuts to federal housing programs—which shrank as a share of gross domestic product by 30 percent between 1996 and 2016—only 1 in 4 of those who are poor enough to qualify for housing assistance currently receive it. At the same time, as many cities experience luxury development booms, lower-income people are being displaced from

Florida Air National Guardsmen from the 125th Fighter Wingne at one of 11 shelters opened in Duval County to protect citizens from Hurricane Irma. PHOTO COURTESY OF MASTER SGT. WILLIAM BUCHANAN // FLORIDA AIR NATIONAL GUARD

the private housing market. As inequality deepens, poorer Americans must crash with families and friends, live in their cars, seek refuge in emergency shelters, or try to survive on the streets.

For those living in public, there is also the risk of being fined, arrested, and even jailed. Increasingly, cities across the country are passing and enforcing laws that make it a crime to sit, sleep, and even eat in public places. Over the past ten years, such laws have increased dramatically throughout the country—including in some of the same cities that rushed to the aid of hurricane victims.

In Houston, some 6,000 people were homeless pre-Harvey, and emergency shelters had long been full. But instead of helping homeless residents, the city passed a new law just before the storm making it a crime to sleep on the street—punishable by fine, arrest, and incarceration.

The slew of storms will now worsen the already tight housing market—the destruction of millions of properties will increase demand and drive rents higher. This will likely hit lowincome people particularly hard, since they are more likely to live in flood-prone areas or in shoddy, unsafe housing, making their residences particularly vulnerable to ruin. Not surprisingly, these disasters disproportionately

affect people of color, who are not only more likely to be poor, but also more likely to be homeless. Those unable to receive housing assistance will be left to fight for space in overflowing emergency shelters or to live on the streets.

People often come together with generosity in the face of natural disasters, as they can remind us that we are all vulnerable to nature.

But as Harvey, Irma, Jose, and now Maria have shown, the reality is that some of us are both more vulnerable and more likely to be excluded from help and human decency.

A coalition of organizations is now advocating for new policies to ensure a fair and just recovery—and to prevent those who are most vulnerable from being stigmatized, excluded, and tagged with special bracelets during future natural disasters. Responses to natural disasters must be equitable, both during and after the crisis. They must recognize the needs—and humanity—of those made homeless by natural disasters and those made homeless by manmade disasters.

Maria Foscarinis is the founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and a board member of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Money and basketball

BY PHILLIP BLACK

Four assistant college basketball coaches charged with taking bribes and other similar offenses were arrested on Sept. 26. Two of those charged are James Gatto of Sports Global Marketing, who allegedly paid $150,000 to two high school players to attend two universities that had contracts with that company, and Chuck "The Rifleman" Person, an assistant coach at Auburn who played for 17 years in the National Basketball Association.

There is so much money in college basketball!

Many people think college athletes should get their fair share of the money.

College basketball brings in more money than professional basketball. Plus, many college basketball coaches are paid higher salaries than pro basketball coaches. Several lawsuits have been filed over whether college athletes can form a union and whether they are eligible to be paid.

The situation may be worse in high school basketball. Hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands among star high school players and coaches. Because high school players often come from poor families, they are susceptible to taking money to be sponsored by athletic shoe companies. Many college coaches are paid more than their university presidents.

As if those facts were not worrisome enough, several universities, the University of Texas likely foremost among those, have their own television networks.

The money trail goes on and on. When all is said and done, though, I think college athletes will be paid.

Philip Black, “The Cat in the Hat,” is a Street Sense Media vendor.

PHOTO OF MONEY COURTESY ANDREW MAGILL // FLICKR.

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ART OUR CUSTOMERS:

Michael Carome

BY DAMON SMITH // Artist/Vendor

On a recent afternoon in Dupont Circle, I interviewed one of my longtime customers, Michael Carome. He’s an advocate and nonprofit worker at Public Citizen and he is a great guy. The day we talked, I was pretty depressed by everything I’m going through. But our conversation really turned that around.

Mr. Carome has been an anonymous customer of mine for over a year and never let on any affiliation with our newspaper.

But he has a special interest because his brother is the executive director of Street Sense Media. So, to me he was just an average citizen, like many customers, who support giving the homeless people of the world a greater voice. And we need people like that, people like Mr. Carome, people like you.

Damon Smith: Mr. Carome, how was your day?

Michael Carome: My day was good.

And where did you go to school sir?

I grew up in Cleveland and I went to undergraduate college at Georgetown University. Then, I’m a physician, so I went to medical school in Cleveland.

So you’re a doctor by trade, but you put all that aside to do what you do now?

Yeah, I left clinical practice several years ago to join Public Citizen and took a different path into the medical arena.

We’re a nonprofit consumer advocacy group and we fight against the corporate interests that dominate government. We seek to represent the average citizen who needs

protection from unsafe work environments, unsafe drugs and medical devices and unsafe products. We work for stronger policies and regulations to protect the average citizen.

That’s great sir. And me being the average citizen — thanks for your protection of the people. So you’re doing a great cause for the greater good. And you seem like a very educated guy, so you could be doing a lot more things for capital gains. What drives you to do what you do?

There are many people who aren’t able to represent their interests before government and it’s very rewarding to engage in work where we can seek stronger consumer protections and improve public health.

So how does that go into what you do dayto-day?

I direct our health research group and we focus on issues related to patient safety, such as making sure the Food and Drug Administration is appropriately regulating drugs. We also do work on occupational health and safety — so we push for stronger regulations to protect the health and welfare of workers.

Is that challenging sometimes?

Yes, but it is always interesting.

And I appreciate it, Mr. Carome. As a consumer and as a person in public, I’m always asking “Well, who’s looking out for me?” And every day I walk past people like you who are looking out for me. So I appreciate what you do. It’s actually uplifting. So back to homelessness, sir.

Michael Carome. PHOTO BY DAMON SMITH

We’re an industrialized society and you’re a professional person. What are your views on homelessness as a whole? Do you think the government is doing enough?

I think anyone who works in Washington, D.C., or any city, can’t help but notice that homelessness remains this mysterious, chronic problem in this country. And unfortunately, at the local level, at the state level and at the federal level, not enough is being done to help eliminate homelessness in this country. We have a government that’s more interested in promoting the interests of the wealthy and corporations — not helping the average citizen who needs help, and that includes the homeless population.

And this is coming from you, an educated, upper-middle class gentleman.

He goes out of his way to make things

My Purpose

Three years, feels like yesterday

My divine purpose is where I set my goal. That's a long-term objective, the future of my life.

Getting a job is at the top of my list. And uplifting my customers' spirits, along with my own, is not far behind.

Humor, music, and the love from customers helps me achieve that purpose. Taking care of my kids and grandkids is always high on my list too.

So, out there in newspaper-land, I'm interested in employment. If you know someone, that knows someone, please send them my way. Thanks for your support and God Bless!

This month has a rush of memories for me. Three years ago, my father, may he rest in peace, was going in for surgery. He was diagnosed with colon cancer. We all went to visit and shared Halloween with him. We laughed over spooky decocrations, showed our love, and shed our tears.

He knew that he was going to pass soon and wanted to spend every moment with us. Between the hospital, our home and hospice — he was in an ambulance every other day. We prayed and prayed.

By Marcus Green // Artist/Vendor

We gave him the best Thanksgiving he ever had and made him feel special at Christmas, singing carols and sharing cocoa. We brought in the 2015 New Year in 2015, watching the Super Bowl and snacking together.

He was strong and pleasant, despite the pains. Sometimes he would cry about not wanting to depart from us. Mom and Dad spent Valentine’s Day together one last time. They were unable to celebrate their wedding anniversary one month later. On February 20, his life ended. Gone but not forgotten. We love you dad, forever.

By Sybil Taylor // Vendor/Artist

better. With homelessness, myself formerly homeless, I’m trying to do something better for mankind and Street Sense is a voice for the unheard. So Mr. Carome, what would you like to see people in power do for the homeless?

I think the solutions are obvious. We need the government to invest more money in developing affordable housing and reaching out to homeless individuals and providing them pathways to finding their way out of homelessness. And that involves providing education, job training and resources.

Instead of spending billions of dollars or trillions of dollars of tax breaks for the wealthy — we need to invest more money in programs that will help the homeless.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Staying in School Being a student at D.C. Literacy makes me really happy.

But it is also very challenging. Most recently, I was one point short of passing my math test to qualify for GED school.

But I'm not giving up. I know God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will help me hang in there. They didn't bring me this far to leave me now.

By Elizabeth Bryant // Artist/Vendor

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Lessons from my work As a Street Sense vendor I have many new and unexpected experiences when I'm selling the paper. I learn more about the public and our society every day and every time I sell a copy.

I’ve created meaningful relationships with my customers and a good working relationship with my colleague, another vendor who sells in the same area as me. I learned by his example to treat everyone around me with respect and to let rejection pass over me.

Sometimes people will give you strange looks, like they don't know why I'm approaching them. Other times I might say "have a nice day," only to have the person I greeted give me a nasty or aggressive look. That used to get to me.

But now I let it go, and more than once people have stopped and come back to chat with me. Or they remember me the next time.

It's feels good to slowly build those relationships with positive communication, a good attitude, and respect in our community. I've worked every kind of sales job you can think of: door-to-door, telemarketing, sidewalk vending... but this unique.

Some people don't understand the paper either. This is a job, one that I'm grateful to get up and go to every day.

So it is my goal to help all customers understand we are here to make a positive change in life for both ourselves and our world. Every time someone buys a paper it motivates and encourages me to take another step forward in life.

By Marcellus Phillips // Artist/Vendor

Fall is not going well Hey y'all, the Beautiful One is back!

As you know, fall started out badly with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and the mass shooting in Las Vegas. So, even though fall is only about a month old, I've spent the last two weeks getting ready for the winter months! My two cats are fine. They send their best wishes.

Please keep people who lost their lives, their homes, their possessions, and their livelihoods in your hopes and prayers.

See you next time. Stay tuned!

By Betty Everett, a.k.a. “The Beautiful One,” Artist/Vendor

// 1 3

Tolerable Life In my life, each day can be kind of crazy.

The same can be said for yesterday and tomorrow.

The Walk of Fame at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE SNODGRASS // FLICKR

Up and down, round and around is what I’ve been through.

I’m always hold up, and grow and grow.

When I came out the womb, I didn’t know what God would put me through. But justice and peace is all of me and what I strive to be.

Knowing me is like knowing a priest — because I care.

Outback is where I spend most of my time at the restaurant. Or I'm doing educational progress and reminiscing. Sometimes trouble and lip gloss is all I need.

But health care is for everyone and supplemental food stamps should be too.

In my life, each day can be kind of crazy. The same can be said for yesterday and tomorrow.

By Angela Richardson // Artist/Vendor

A musical experience

BY CONRAD CHEEK JR. // Author/Vendor

I recently acquired a CD that I hadn’t heard in more than a couple of decades. It took me back to a time when I first heard it on the radio and purchased it as soon as possible.

At that time, I was a student at McKinley Senior High School. The album was released in ‘69, but I first heard it a couple of years later during an 11th-grade class trip to Hershey Park, Pennsylvania.

I recall sitting in the center of the back seat of the bus — the perfect position to hear the stereo effect of this new musical composition that combined an orchestra with an R&B/soul/rock band. It was May 1971 and this type of innovation was unprecedented.

I don’t have the literary skill to describe the ebb and tide of the musical experience that I had when my Dad and I listened to it for the first time on the stereo. But here is my attempt to interpret the sound effects that brought us so much joy at that time.

The album I speak of is Isaac Hayes, “Hot Buttered Soul.” There are only four songs on the LP and my dad came walking down the stairs to the basement when he heard the dynamics at the end of the first song.

“What are you listening to son?” he asked.

I told him and he sat down to hear the second song, “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.”

This one features The Bar-Kays as the band, harmonic female background singers, Isaac Hayes on the piano and an ever-present bass guitar groove.

The last lyrics of the song say “Let me stop procrastinatin’ / Standin’ hear, and narratin’ / Find my emancipator, she’s a love educator” and then goes on to mention some anatomical parts of the brain before a rhythmic groove begins. The piano and lead guitar have stereophonic interludes with the piano on one speaker and the guitar on the other, culminating with a pulsating crescendo!

The second song that my dad heard, “One Woman,” is soulful with a message. Then the final song on the LP has the full orchestra, the band, the background singers and Hayes playing the heck out of a Hammond B3 organ as he interacts with the lead guitar coming out of the other speaker. The sound of the organ shifts from side to side until the band finishes the song.

Finally, my dad experienced the dynamics of the first cut on the LP, “Walk On Bye,” the faint sound of which brought him downstairs to begin with.

“How much did you pay for this album?” Dad asked me.

“Four dollars and thirty-five cents,” I told him.

He knew that he had given me five dollars for my weekly allowance, which was adequate for the early ‘70s. Yet he gave me another $5 on the spot. I’ve always thought that he enjoyed the album more than me because he had a true understanding of the lyrics.

To this day, I will never forget seeing Isaac Hayes live at Constitution Hall in the mid ‘70s.

What a show!

An-dingr They draw a star or god.

Wannes the forthoht ov god wer thus emptiness new t’ express...

BY FRANKLIN STERLING // Artist/Vendor

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / O C T. 1 8 - 3 1 , 2017

FUN & GAMES Untitled LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION

1

2

3

4

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

5

DOWN

Across

LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION >>

Down

1. Non-time-limited affordable housing assistance with “wrap-around” services (2 words)

ACROSS A number 3. former name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 1. non-time-limited affordable housing2.assistance withreleased by the federal government that is supposed to represent the combined income of an Program (2) "wrap-around" services (2) 3. Former name for the Supplemental Nutrition

average household in your region. IT is often used to Assistance Program (2 words) 5. a sense of ______, the most important service provided 2. # released by federal government that is supposed to eligibility for housing assistance (acronym) by the downtown youth drop-in center (1) represent the combined income of ancalculate average household 5. A sense of _________, the most important service in your region and is often used to calculate eligibility for 4. The only grocery store chain in Ward 8. (1 word) provided by the downtown youth drop-in center (1 word) housing assistance (acronym) 4. only grocery store chain in Ward 8 (1)

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

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

COMMUNITY SERVICES

SHELTER HOTLINE Línea directa de alojamiento

(202) 399-7093

YOUTH HOTLINE Línea de juventud

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE Línea directa de violencia doméstica

(202) 547-7777

(202) 749-8000

Housing/Shelter Vivienda/alojamiento

Education Educación

Health Care Seguro

Clothing Ropa

Legal Assistance Assistencia Legal

Case Management Coordinación de Servicios

Food Comida

Employment Assistance Assitencia con Empleo

Transportation Transportación

Showers Duchas

All services listed are referral-free Academy of Hope Public Charter School 202-269-6623 // 601 Edgewood St., NE aohdc.org

Bread for the City 202-265-2400 (NW) // 561-8587 (SE) 1525 7th St., NW // 1640 Good Hope Rd., SE breadforthecity.org

Calvary Women’s Services // 202-678-2341 1217 Good Hope Rd., SE // calvaryservices.org

Food and Friends // 202-269-2277 219 Riggs Rd., NE // foodandfriends.org (home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc)

Foundry Methodist Church // 202-332-4010 1500 16th St., NW ID (Friday 9am–12pm only) foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities

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

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

Sasha Bruce Youthwork // 202-675-9340 741 8th St., SE // sashabruce.org

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

So Others Might Eat (SOME) // 202-797-8806 71 O St., NW // some.org

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

St. Luke’s Mission Center 3655 Calvert St., NW // 202-333-4949 stlukesmissioncenter.org

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

Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW // thrivedc.org

Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 2114 14th St., NW // marthastable.org

Unity Health Care // 202-745-4300 3020 14th St., NW unityhealthcare.org

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

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

Christ House // 202-328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd., NW // christhouse.org Miriam’s Kitchen // 202-452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave., NW // miriamskitchen.org

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

Community Family Life Services // 202-347-0511 305 E St., NW // cflsdc.org N Street Village // 202-939-2060 1333 N St., NW // nstreetvillage.org Community of Hope // 202-232-7356 communityofhopedc.org

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

D.C. Coalition for the Homeless // 202-347-8870 1234 Massachusetts Ave., NW // dccfh.org

Father McKenna Center // 202-842-1112 19 Eye St., NW // fathermckennacenter.org

1-888-793-4357

JOB BOARD Newspaper Carrier, The Washington Post Part-time, contract Will start job around 2:45-3 a.m. and finish before 6 a.m., be paid per paper delivered, dependably deliver papers 7 days a week, and build your own route.

REQUIRED: Driver’s license, reliable access to a vehicle.

APPLY ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/y9b9sm8o Dental Receptionist Northwest D.C., convenient to Metro Full-time Ideal candidate has great communication skills, excellent phone etiquette, and is able to multi-task.

APPLY ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/y9l4ll2y

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

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

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE Línea de salud del comportamiento

Laundry Lavandería

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

// 1 5

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

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

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

National Community Church 201 F St, NE // 202-544-0414 (Wednesdays 6 p.m., Dinner and Bible Study) Union Station Area // 202-544-0414 (Sundays 11am-12pm, bagged lunch)

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

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

For more detailed information and additional listings,visit StreetSenseMedia.org/Service-Guide

Receptionist, Yelp Washington, D.C. Will greet people, maintain logs and front desk supplies, work with management and security, coordinate and schedule events, and produce monthly e-newsletter.

REQUIRED: Proficiency in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Microsoft Office, and working on a Mac. Bachelor’s degree preferred.

APPLY ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/ybk4dpas Automotive Apprentice/Entry Level Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC Rockville, MD | Full-time/part-time Will change oil and/or transmission fluid and filters, install batteries, check electrical systems, install and perform tire maintenance, and road test vehicles.

R E Q U I R E D : 1-2 years of automotive mechanical diagnosis, problem-solving, and repair experience. Ability to install parts which include shock absorbers and exhaust systems.

Certifications a plus but not required.

APPLY ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/y79o9npe Editor/Writer, Clutch Dupont Circle, DC // Part-time, hourly Will use AI-driven software to convert audio, proofread, edit, write, master content guidelines and standard operating procedures, utilize multiple online tools, learn basic SEO best practices, and contribute to editorial community by mentoring, ghostwriting, copywriting, etc.

REQUIRED: Bachelor’s degree; Experience: 2 years editing, 2 years written communication.

APPLY ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/ybrf9c23 Parking Attendant 2318 Mill Rd, Alexandria, VA Full-time, M-F 2 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Will ensure positive experience for clients, maintain work area, park and retrieve customers’ vehicles in a timely manner, use Impark parking systems to conduct transactions, and calculate money owed by clients.

REQUIRED: Required: 1+ years experience in a customer service related industry, valid driver’s license, ability to drive automatic and/or manual shift vehicles, ability to drive in confined spaces.

APPLY ONLINE: https://tinyurl.com/ybvqoh9p

OCT. 18 - 31, 2017 VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 25

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