10 21 2020

VOL. 17 ISSUE 26

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Residents of a city-run shelter say they endure abuse just to keep a roof over their heads STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper

Caroline Kennedy, Althea Thompson, Lajuan Baylor and other Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter residents wait out on the lawn on Sept. 22.

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.

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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

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NEWS IN BRIEF Patricia Handy Place for Women will close for renovations

Impacted communities candidates’ forum for D.C. Council-At-Large Wednesday, Oct. 21 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. // Online An online candidates forum hosted and moderated by leaders from People for Fairness Coalition, Brookland Manor, Park Morton, Garfield Terrace and other communities around D.C. who have been impacted by DC’s policies.

Register for Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/dc-council-at-large-forum.

Register for Facebook stream: https://tinyurl.com/dc-council-at-large-livestream

THURSDAY, OCT. 27#

UPDATES ONLINE AT ICH.DC.GOV

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Rally to Reclaim Rent Control

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meetings

6:30 p.m. // Freedom Plaza

Youth Committee Oct. 22, 10:00 a.m.

The Community Reinvestment Act and Why It Matters for People with Disabilities

The D.C. Council Housing Committee will be holding a hearing on the Reclaim Rent Control campaign’s omnibus rent control legislation. The rally will be held in Freedom Plaza to demonstrate support for the bill. Free food, mutual aid and emergency rental assistance resources will be available.

1:30 p.m. // Online

Strategic Planning Committee Oct. 27, 2:30 p.m.

Emergency Response and Shelter Operations Committee Oct. 28, 1:00 p.m.

A webinar featuring Michael Morris, founder of the National Disability Institute, on why the CRA matters for people with disabilities.

Register: https://tinyurl.com/ disability-cra-webinar

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Due to concerns raised by the community about the building, the Patricia Handy Place for Women will close down for year-long renovations in November or December based on how quickly they can move the residents, the D.C. Department of Human Services announced during an Oct. 16 phone call with its community partners. The Patricia Handy Place for Women has used the building since 2016, and there have been problems ever since they moved in.

“The problems range from plumbing, to electrical, to the air quality,” said Schroeder Stribling, CEO of N Street Village, which owns the shelter. “It became clear to all of us that the enormity of the issues altogether required a full renovation of the building that couldn’t be done floor by floor”.

Around Nov. 2020, shelter residents will be relocated to a former youth hostel nearby.

Each will be allowed to take two bags of personal belongings with them.

The residents of Patricia Handy have been aware of the renovations and have been preparing to move. While Patricia Handy is closed, the services and support programs that were provided there will be relocated to the former youth hostel.

Renovations will begin during the winter. DHS Director Laura Zelinger said the goal is to help as many of the residents transition to permanent housing as possible. Patricia Handy is expected to reopen in the winter of 2022.

—george.guruli@streetsensemedia.org

MLK Memorial Library reopens The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the main library in the D.C. public library system and a hub for many in the downtown homeless community, reopened with a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 24. It had closed on March 4, 2017, for a three-year renovation.

Concerns about COVID-19 have affected the library’s opening and the main library has limited services for now. The building will be open Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., with deep cleaning being conducted in the hour between those two windows of time. The MLK Library is still offering the Peer Outreach Program, in which Certified Peer Specialists trained through the Department of Behavioral Health meet with people experiencing homelessness to help them obtain important documents, get access to housing, and serve as role models.

According to the D.C. Public Library, Jerome Thomas, one of the peer outreach specialists, can be reached on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. The phone number to reach Thomas is 202-486-4801.

Large library locations throughout the city, including the MLK location, will resume limited operations on Nov. 9, according to a recent press release. These operations include computer access, checking out books, and using restrooms.

Social distancing and the mayor’s indoor mask requirement will be enforced.

—george.guruli@streetsensemedia.org

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NEWS

Low-barrier shelter residents say staff abuse them amid ‘terrible’ conditions during COVID-19

BY ATHIYAH AZEEM athiyah.azeem@streetsensemedia.org

L

ajuan Baylor has been homeless since 2002, and lived on the streets of D.C. for 17 years. She started staying at the Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter in December under advice that it would put her on the fast-track to housing. But 10 months later, Baylor is still waiting. And she says the conditions and abuse at the shelter are wearing her out.

“It’s depressing ... in here, I get sick because I get depressed,” Baylor said. “And that’s not like me. I’m a fun woman.”

The D.C. Department of Human Services conducted a deep clean of the shelter on Sept. 22, casting all its residents out on the front lawn for the day. Usually, lowbarrier shelters like this one on the D.C. General campus in Southeast would open only at night from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. However, it has been running 24/7 since March due to the pandemic.

DHS Chief of Staff Larry Handerhan told Street Sense Media that deep cleans are usually run during shelters’ off hours —but now that residents are in the building 24/7, staff had to temporarily remove everyone.

“This year, we know it’s super destructive,” Handerhan said. “I wouldn’t want to be kicked out of my house for a day.” But the deep clean would help prepare the shelter

for the high-intake hypothermia season, he said, so it had to be done.

While the shelter was closed, DHS ran a resource fair on the lawn, directing residents to fill out a Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tools (SPDAT) form, an assessment that updates a resident’s information in the city’s database to be matched to housing assistance. Other tables at the fair included voter registration resources and help for claiming unpaid CARES Act stimulus checks from the IRS. As Baylor waited on the lawn, she eyed her case manager standing in a tent. Baylor filled out her third SPDAT in July, which produces a numeric score on a “vulnerability index” to triage who is most in-need of housing. When capacity opens up anywhere in the city, the scores are used to identify people whose needs match the type of housing assistance that is available.

Administrators then review this shortlist at a group meeting with case managers who advocate on the behalf of their clients.

This process was put on hold in March as service providers reeled to adapt to the pandemic and related closures. Housing matches through the Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement program resumed on May 4. DHS told Street Sense Media that case work Charner Snow, a Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter resident, sits outside the building during a deep clean on Sept. 22.

PHOTO BY ATHIYAH AZEEM

continued via telephone during this period.

Baylor said she was told by her case manager that she scored high on the SPDAT and qualified for permanent supportive housing, a perpetual subsidy coupled with supportive services. But her case manager has yet to update her on her progress in over two months. She was also approved for Interim Disability Assistance that could help pay for housing, but that was nine to ten months ago.

The morning of the deep clean, residents had to remove all of their belongings, too. While a few had luggage or canvas bags, most were left carrying their things out in black garbage bags provided by shelter staff.

Residents were told they could only bring “two medium-sized bags” into the shelter when it reopened. All residents interviewed for this article said no measurements were given to define this limitation. Only when they lined up to re-enter the building did staff members tell them that, when full, the black garbage bags supplied by the shelter were considered to be bigger than a medium-sized bag. Thus only one full garbage bag worth of items could be brought back in.

“There’s a lot of women here who have been here for a long time,” said Charner Snow, a shelter resident. Snow said long-term residents accumulate belongings through shelter donations.

“This is kind of the unintended consequence of not being able to come in and out all day,” said Amanda Chesney, the executive director of housing and homeless services at Catholic Charities. She said the shelter always had a two medium-sized bag requirement, but as residents accumulated items while self-quarantining in the shelter, they were not regularly screened for the amount of belongings they had.

So for many residents, the belongings they carried out could not all be carried back in.

“Imagine putting your life in two medium- sized bags,” Snow said. “I have to lose … all my stuff to accommodate them? When they should be accommodating me?”

Belongings that didn’t make the cut were left strewn across the shelter’s lawn for several days. In the end, shelter staff carted them away in garbage bins and threw them in the dumpsters behind the building. Althea Thompson, a shelter resident, said a staff member told her they would be requesting a truck to throw out all the remaining bags outside. All bags have been cleared off the lawn as of Oct. 6, according to Elizabeth Beltran, a shelter conditions expert at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

“Some people don’t have clothes no more,” Thompson said, two days after the deep clean. Frustrated, she repeatedly said, “I’m tired, I just want to get out of here.”

Due to COVID-19, city shelters are supposed to provide access to beds 24/7. Some residents, like Althea Thompson, have lived day and night at Harriet Tubman for much of the health crisis. She transferred from the King Greenleaf Recreation Center’s hypothermia shelter in May, and has maintained a bed at Harriet Tubman for four months.

One night in July at 11 p.m., Thompson went outside to smoke a cigarette. The shelter allows residents 15-minute breaks to smoke after the shelter “lights-out” policy

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begins at 10 p.m. But Thompson said a shift change happened and the overnight staff barred her from re-entering the building.

She was only allowed to re-enter after she called her community support worker (CSW), Shai-dam Akwo, to help talk to staff and resolve the situation over the phone.

CSWs are third-party individuals who help connect lowincome people and people experiencing homelessness to mental health resources. Akwo isn’t expected to mediate such situations, but he said this was the fifth time he’s had to intervene.

“Staff look at the people like they are outcasts, that they are nothing. That they are failures,” Akwo said.

Baylor and Thompson’s experiences are similar to those of five other residents at the shelter who were interviewed for this article.

Beltran has spoken to eight women at Harriet Tubman since May, five of which still remain there. According to her, all eight women detailed a unanimous experience where staff completely separate themselves from the residents in a way that feels alienating.

All residents interviewed for this article said attempting to resolve situations with staff or the contracted security guards does not work as they protect one another. Several residents said they filed grievances about staff or guard behaviour to the front desk this summer, but have never heard anything back.

Chesney, the Catholic Charities executive, said she had not heard complaints about staff behaviour until Street Sense Media brought this up to her.

“Anytime I get a report of something like this … from a resident, whether anonymously or in person, we are obligated to investigate,” Chesney said. “We encourage clients to let us know if anything is going on that is really not in line with our values and expectations of staff or vendors on site.”

She encourages residents to directly call the Catholic Charities anonymous whistleblower hotline, 1-877-426-7060 or 202-266-3069, where complaints will supersede staff and file directly with the Housing and Homelessness Services office.

Handerhan was also not aware of complaints of verbal abuse by security guards that were brought up in an interview. He said residents can file Incident Report Forms with DHS’s oversight unit, the Office of Program Review, Monitoring and Investigation (OPRMI).

“We want people to [send complaints] directly to us, so we can address it,” Handerhan said.

The Legal Clinic has documented 311 complaints from Tubman residents over the years, five of which are still open.

There may also be confusion among residents on which phone number to call, as residents are given multiple hotlines for various services. Snow said she called the DHS shelter hotline in March to ask for shelter during the hypothermia season, and was promptly given a bed at King Greenleaf Recreation Center. She transferred to the Harriet Tubman Shelter in May, and has called the same number she used to access shelter 3 to 4 times in the past five months to complain about poor treatment and conditions. Snow said she has yet to receive any response to those complaints.

The nonprofit that is contracted to manage the shelter hotline, United Planning Organization, said in an email that they do not handle shelter complaints.

Strict Regulations Baylor receives mental health treatment from NYA Health Services, and takes medicine for a mental illness. Tubman is the first shelter she has ever stayed in, and she was not fully aware of its strict regulations.

A standard regulation for DHS shelters, pre-pandemic, is for clients to keep all items off their beds and to remove all belongings when leaving the shelter. Staff members would

throw away anything on top of a bed if it has been left empty for a period of time.

Once, Baylor had her “important papers” and medicine on her bed, left in the morning, and came back in the evening.

“They threw away all my important papers and my medicine,” Baylor said. “I had to be rushed to the hospital … because I didn’t have my medicine.” Baylor said she later dug through the dumpsters behind the shelter for her medicine, but could not find it. The only thing staff members left was her slippers at the foot of her bed. Baylor stated staff filed a report for her at the front desk, but nothing came of it.

DHS contracts The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) to run D.C.’s homeless shelters, and TCP in turn contracts Catholic Charities to run a portion of its emergency/low-barrier shelters. According to residents living in these emergency shelters, complaints about “strict rules” are common. Families who stayed at an emergency overflow shelter in a hotel in Northeast, also contracted by TCP, called the temporary shelter “the compound.” The rules state children could not eat their meals alone, run in corridors, or play outside.

When contacted for this article, TCP’s only response was to redirect questions to DHS for comment.

“They treat us like we’re in jail,” Snow said. She talked about how, despite the shelter being open 24/7 for the pandemic, residents who do not check in at the staff front desk between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day risk losing their bed. On top of that, residents say they have a 10 p.m. “curfew.”

“I don’t get why we gotta check-in if we have curfew. And they can see you!” Thompson said. “They can see you in here all day. And if you don’t go to the front desk and say you’re checking-in, they say you ain’t checked-in.”

Amanda Chesney, the Catholic Charities executive, told Street Sense Media that it isn’t a curfew, but that the shelter initiates a lights-out policy at 10 p.m. Most residents interviewed referred to it as a curfew.

As for the 5p.m. to 7p.m. check-in period, Chesney said that is when the shelter can perform health screenings for every resident to check for COVID-19 symptoms.

“We have been given nurses [by the Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services] to help with those screening times, and that is the time that the nurses are on site,” Chesney said. She

// 5

emphasized that residents who want to visit family or have obligations that keep them outside the shelter after 7 p.m., can arrange scheduled absences.

However, there are instances where staff may miss a scheduled absence.

Snow works overnight shifts at Target, and sometimes has to take extra shifts that make her miss her check-in. Once, while Snow was at work, staff bagged up all of her belongings.

“And went through my bags. I had my cashew nuts and stuff in there, and they gave it out to the other residents,” Snow said.

She believes the staff was being malicious. “They knew I was at work, they was just being funny.”

All residents interviewed for this article say the shelter does not provide breakfast — only juice, granola bars or fruit cups.

Diabetics like Snow cannot have any of those options. She settles for eating instant noodles and drinking coffee. “But I can’t get to the hot water in the morning for my coffee,” Snow said. She and other residents say staff members prevent them from using the microwaves or accessing the hot water machines in the morning.

Handerhan, the DHS chief of staff, said he was not aware of this restriction.

Beltran, the Legal Clinic attorney, said she has also been told that residents cannot store anything in the refrigerator, and the explanation staff give to residents is a lack of space.

“There is one incident when a resident had to store their medication in the refrigerator,” Beltran said. “And they were denying her access to the refrigerator.”

She said another attorney had to bring the case to court, and a hearing was held. The resident was eventually allowed to store the medication in the refrigerator.

Faulty Infrastructure “Harriet Tubman is unique, in that they are using a generator as a power source,” Beltran said. Several residents reported the building ran on the generator for two to four months.

“The lights go off and on, off and on,” Snow said.

She described the staff shutting off the generator at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the deep cleaning in order to get residents out of

Residents wait outside of Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter, most of them carrying out their belongings in black garbage bags, on Sept. 22. PHOTO BY ATHIYAH AZEEM

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NEWS

Althea Thompson, a Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter resident, sits right outside the building during a deep clean on Sept. 22. PHOTO BY ATHIYAH AZEEM

the building. Three other residents independently recalled the same series of events from that morning. Because the electricity was cut off, residents could not use the elevator and had to vacate the building using stairs.

Electricity issues date back to May 2019, when WJLA reported 100 shelter residents endured a complete power outage, going two nights without lights or ventilation.

Jones said she called PEPCO, an electrical company that services D.C., on the morning of the deep clean, and customer service told her that the shelter, Building 27 on the campus, was not in their system. This led several residents to believe the building is not even connected to the electrical grid.

Unbeknownst to shelter residents, Building 27 was taken off the generator and put back on normal power on Sept. 22, the day of the deep clean.

“Building 27 on the D.C. General campus remains on the electrical grid,” said Keith Anderson, the director of the Department of General Services, in an Oct. 6 statement to Street Sense Media. DGS said a “faulty feeder,” or wiring circuit that feeds electricity into the building, went down on July 13, and that DGS has worked with PEPCO to rectify the issue. “While this work was being performed, the building was operating from generator power,” the statement continued.

Additionally, Anderson said the D.C. General campus is listed and metered as one entity, so PEPCO would not have Building 27 itemized in their system.

Multiple residents said they were unaware that the electrical issue was rectified. But Jones confirmed on Oct. 7 that she no longer hears the generator.

Another infrastructure issue is airflow. The building used for Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter is a former morgue. Resident’s rooms have windows that are sealed shut. DGS said that some of these windows, when built, were not intended to open.

Any belongings they were not allowed to bring back into the shelter were thrown away. PHOTO BY ATHIYAH AZEEM

“The air is better now, since they did the deep cleaning,” Thompson said, a week afterward. “Before that, the air [conditioner] went out completely [on Sept. 18,] so there was no circulation there because the windows don’t open.”

Another resident said there was no air for two weeks in October 2019. “Clients called emergency, emergency comes and says it’s 98 degrees inside,” said the resident, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to avoid backlash from shelter staff. “There’s no air coming in or coming out. It’s sealed windows.”

“This summer I’ve been laying on the floor,” Jones said, “It’s the only cool place for me to lay because I can’t breathe.”

In 2012, the former morgue was vacated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Then-Mayor and current Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray, at the time, described the move to The Washington Post as a necessary upgrade due to air circulation concerns.

DGS said they are aware of the air circulation complaints and have been working periodically to rectify the issues this year. The department said they are waiting on parts, expected to arrive this month, to fully fix the building’s chiller units — a component of HVAC systems crucial for weather between summer and fall, where temperatures can swing from 40° to 70° daily.

In 2014, residents at the Harriet Tubman Women’s Emergency Shelter, then located within a crumbling wing of the D.C. General Hospital, were relocated to the former morgue as a temporary location.

The hospital, which also served as the District’s only family shelter, was closed in October 2018.

Handerhan, the DHS chief of staff, confirms that the location is still temporary, but they will also be renovating the building.

He confirmed that among other renovations, the sealed windows are an issue DHS will be working with DGS to rectify.

The city’s 2015-2020 strategic plan to make homelessness “rare, brief, and nonrecurring” included replacing its lowbarrier shelters once the new family facilities were near completion. According to a September 2019 progress report on implementation of the plan, development of a replacement for the 801 East Men’s shelter was underway, and funding had been set aside for the replacement of Harriet Tubman.

An update to the plan, covering the next five years, was expected to be approved this spring but delayed due to the onset of the pandemic. A draft of that plan, reviewed at a Jan 30 Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting, included the objective to “Identify land, develop design concept (based on feedback from stakeholders, including clients with lived experience), and complete construction of Harriet Tubman replacement facility (project already funded).”

“But really, the hope is that people move to housing,” Handerhan said. He noted that in November 2019, DHS received a $3.1 million annual rent subsidy to run permanent supportive housing facilities in the Hill East campus, where D.C. General is situated.

Mayor Bowser also allocated $16.3 million toward housing vouchers and housing assistance — like the permanent supporting housing program — for fiscal year 2021, which began Oct. 1.

“It is a top priority within the DGS Portfolio Division to identify a new space for [the Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter] for DHS,” Anderson said in the DGS statement. The department posted a solicitation for land or existing buildings to relocate shelter residents on March 2, and is still open to offers.

Responses to the solicitation can be submitted electronically to charleen.ward@dc.gov.

Handling the COVID-19 Outbreak On March 29, Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter received its first positive case of COVID-19.

A number of the shelter’s residents have been in quarantine since then — with two saying they’d been in quarantine three times each. Individuals who tested positive stayed in separate rooms at the Days Inn on 4400 Connecticut Ave NE and other hotels that were contracted to quarantine people experiencing homelessness.

Jones recalled a 70-year-old woman who was symptomatic of COVID-19 that she said was made by staff to sit outside the shelter building for 12 hours on a rainy day, with no food, water, or access to a bathroom.

“I tested positive [for COVID-19] in April,” Jones said. “I waited 3 days before I told the staff” to avoid similar treatment.

Jones is one of the two residents who said they had contracted COVID-19 three times.

“If you go to quarantine, there is no guarantee you will be tested,” Jones said, referring to her personal experience. “Some of the women have got to quarantine and returned without being tested. And they’re not retesting to make sure you don’t still have the virus in your system before you return.”

Following the shelter’s first coronavirus case, Beltran was told by her clients that staff vacated a floor for deep cleaning due to a possible COVID-19 outbreak. Sixty to 70 residents on that floor were sent to a dining room on another floor, crowded alongside other women in the shelter, according to Beltran.

Jones and Thompson recalled this incident, stating the dining room was so crowded they could barely breathe.

Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a stay-at-home order on March 30, but exempted people experiencing homelessness. The order urged shelters “to use COVID-19 risk-mitigation practices in their operations.”

Rooms in the shelter contain at least five bunk beds, with 10 residents in each room. Every resident interviewed said the beds are not spread out, and no social distancing guidelines have been implemented.

Beltran described one case of staff punishing residents for COVID-19 outbreaks.

“A staff member came down with COVID, and they blamed the [women experiencing homelessness] using the bathrooms,” Beltran said, “and then they denied access to bathrooms.”

“I feel like these women carry the entire burden of society on their shoulders.” Beltran said. “There aren’t high representations of COVID-19 in the homeless populations, but I feel like they are being blamed for it ... maybe that’s why the women are being treated differently.”

DHS introduced a new Pandemic Emergency Program for Highly Vulnerable Populations (PEP-V)in May. Sheltered or unsheltered people experiencing homelessness above the age Shelter residents had to leave belongings they could not carry back in on the lawn outside the shelter. PHOTO BY ATHIYAH AZEEM

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

of 55, or who are otherwise at high risk of complications due to COVID-19, may be transferred to these temporary locations for extended quarantine and treatment.

Unity Health Care is contracted by DHS to provide medical services to shelters like Harriet Tubman. They have been tasked with referring shelter residents to PEP-V sites.

Jones, Snow, and Thompson said they were not told about PEP-V, and later found out that staff had already picked women to transfer to the sites without informing all residents. “[Staff] did not offer it to us. They took 15 people of their choosing to go into PEP-V,” Jones said. “Some of the girls found out and started asking. We’re on a waiting list. And what we were told [is] we’re still waiting ... especially ones with certain lung conditions, we shouldn’t be waiting.”

As of Oct. 8, DHS reported only 11 new positive COVID19 cases in shelters in the last 48 days. But Thompson and shelter resident Caroline Kennedy say they cannot be sure, as COVID-19 testing is not mandatory at the shelter.

“Look at us out here,” Thompson said on the day of deep cleaning, pointing toward dozens of women experiencing homelessness out on the lawn, sitting close to one another.

“This is how we are everyday on the inside ... and they don’t make it mandatory that people take the test!”

Staff and Security Guard Abuse All residents who talked to Street Sense Media say they are being abused by staff members and security guards.

“I haven’t been on meds for 20 years, now I’m back on meds,” Thompson said. “Because this place is terrible, I’m telling you...this is the worst place I have ever been in my life.”

Guards are personnel under Prince Security Services, contracted by DHS. At the moment, Prince Security and TCP are being sued for paying guards below minimum wage.

On approximately Sept. 11, resident Monique Frederick was walking down a staircase when a staff member “ran up behind me, as if they were trying to push me down the stairs to the point that I had to stop,” she said. “I asked why are you on my heels like that?” Frederick said the conversation between her and the staff member was not productive, so she went back to Monique Frederick, a Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter resident, sits outside the building during a deep clean on Sept. 22.

PHOTO BY ATHIYAH AZEEM

her room. Then a shelter security guard came to her room and asked her to vacate her bunk. “[The guard] said ‘Monique, you gotta get your stuff, and you gotta go,’” Frederick said. When Frederick went to the front desk to ask why, she was told she was being terminated from the shelter and that the police had been called “because they said I tried to put my hands on [the staff member.]”

Frederick requested the shelter show MPD footage from the security cameras, which would show she did not touch or push the staff member. She said the staff refused, stating they did not have access to the cameras. Frederick said she went back to her room, and MPD, the security guards, and the staff dropped the issue.

“I don’t feel safe. If this is the staff and the guard, and they did this one time, they’ll try it again,” Frederick said. She and other residents said staff members and shelter guards constantly threaten residents that if they do not abide by the shelter’s rules or restrictions, they could risk losing their bed. “‘[We’ll] take your bed, take your bed, take your bed.’ It’s like they hold it over our head,” Frederick said. “It’s a daily threat, every day.”

Residents say staff members and guards constantly distance themselves from residents.

“The staff refers to the first floor as the ‘ghetto’,” Beltran, the Legal Clinic attorney, said. Several residents confirmed that the staff call the newly renovated second floor the ‘penthouse.’

“There seems to be an extreme amount of classism,” Beltran said. She brought the use of this language to the attention of a Catholic Charities staffer, who seemed immediately defensive.

“She said ‘Did you hear [Tubman staff] say that?’” Beltran said. “I was like, what do you mean did I hear them say that?”

Beltran said questioning her and Harriet Tubman residents’ integrity like that was inappropriate and unprofessional, and it seemed like the staffer did not actually wish to resolve the issue. “[Residents on the upper floor] get extra time on the TV,” Thompson described. She was careful to note there isn’t any preferential treatment of who gets beds on the upper floor, only more benefits for those who were lucky enough to claim a bed there.

Jones recalls an incident where a staff member pulled the fire alarm at midnight on Christmas day last year.

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“As we went back in, I heard [a staff member] say...‘I get a kick out of waking them up in the middle of the night to have a fire drill,’” Jones recalled. “What type of cruel and inhumane person is that?”

Residents report being insulted by staff and security guards daily, called names behind their backs, and talked to like children.

“They talk about me like a dog,” Jones said. “‘She ugly, she fat, she sloppy.’ And this is the staff!” She remembers one former staff member who would intentionally cause strife between residents, picking and choosing which of them could receive treats like ice cream, “like we’re children.”

“I had one security guard tell me that if I don’t like the conditions, well I could go back to sleeping in my car,” Snow said.

“That’s not acceptable language,” Handerhan said.

Residents also reported seeing donations come into the shelter but rarely receiving them. On top of that, Jones, Thompson and Snow have seen staff rifle through and claim donations for themselves first.

“The other day, a donation came in: Bleach, toilet paper, Oodles of Noodles, food snacks, juices, oil. They don’t cook in here. So why did y’all accept cooking oil?” Snow said.

Jones described church volunteers attempting to donate clothes outside the shelter several weeks before the deep clean.

She said the staff told the church group that residents could not take these clothes back into the building.

“They made them throw [the clothes] into the trash,” Jones said. “Mind you, a lot of these women don’t have clothes.”

“The way we receive donations has changed during [COVID19,]” Chesney, the Catholic Charities executive, said. Safety regulations have tightened to the point that donations not vetted by the nonprofit’s Central Service Office cannot be brought in.

“Truly with safety in mind, we can’t.”

Residents who wish to complain about the shelter staff and conditions can file grievances at the front desk of the shelter.

But Thompson said she has filed two and Frederick said she has filed four. Both have yet to hear anything back.

Snow said she kept a diary of her everyday life, and what was going on in the shelter, but “that also disappeared.”

“The staff and the guards … they downgrade us,” said Baylor, the resident who recently completed her third SPDAT. “We need someone to put us up, but they’re putting us down.”

Chesney said she will look into all complaints brought up during the interview.

“This is serious. Never do we want a resident to feel unwelcome or uncared for,” Chesney said. She hopes residents will use the whistleblower hotline to directly send complaints to her office, or voice their concerns during the shelter’s monthly town hall meetings.

“I want to hear from them,” she said. “Their voices are certainly important to me and important to my team.”

Handerhan said DHS has increased cultural competency training in their shelters this year to help staff understand the struggles people experiencing homelessness have to endure.

“It’s intended to make sure we do more than just make sure people feel safe, but that people feel dignified and empowered while they’re there,” Handerhan said. “That’s really what the whole system should be about.”

For Baylor, the way staff members treat her and talk to her, and the constant delay in getting housed, has had a negative impact on her mental health. On the morning of the deep clean, she said she hadn’t slept in two days.

“When someone has been homeless since 2002,” Baylor said, “I’m ready to get up, get out of here!”

This article was first published as part of our 2020 contribution to the DC Homeless Crisis Reporting Project in collaboration with seven other local newsrooms. This year’s 20-article collection is available at DCHomelessCrisis.press.

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VENDOR PROFILE

King of the Road: Saul Aroha Nui Tea’s path to healing through puppeteering

BY JAKE MAHER jake@streetsensemedia.org

S

aul Aroha Nui Tea describes himself as a “climate refugee:” He recently moved to D.C. after forest fires in California and a dispute with his landlord, a former friend, persuaded him that it was time to leave the West Coast.

The move to D.C. was just the latest in a life of frequent change. Tea, born in 1975, says he spent about 20 years hitchhiking across the country and has been to D.C. and every one of the 48 contiguous states state except Delaware.

“The guy in that old song, ‘I know every handout in every town and every lock that ain’t locked when no one’s around, king of the road?’ That was me,” Tea said.

The cartoons from his childhood have become some of his most important influences. “It was Jim Henson that saved me all this time,” said Tea, referring to the creator of the Muppets and Sesame Street.

Tea had an abusive childhood. He has lingering PTSD from being physically beaten at a Catholic school in his hometown of Milwaukee. “The only place I had safety in all that time,” he said, “was watching the Muppet show, Sesame Street, all that stuff.”

Since 2016, he’s been channeling those comforting memories into his own puppetry as a form of therapy. His latest work is a multi-part folk opera featuring a cast of the “Hell’s Bottom Congress of Puppets.”

His first work for Street Sense Media was based on a Street Sense Media writers’ workshop prompt asking writers to reflect on the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Tea gathered his notes and ideas for certain puppet characters and wrote a song celebrating her life.

For this project, he’s taken a step back to create a collection of Weird Al-style parody takes on popular songs for the puppets to sing, centered around his observations on the experiences of poor people. The folk opera will also provide more background information on the characters he’s been working on for some time.

His first draft of the project, he acknowledged, lacked in accessibility for the audience. “For me, as a childhood PTSD, active schizophrenic trying to get things to make sense using seven-dimensional media like print and puppets and music and stuff like that,” he said, “that’s a whole lot for someone to take in at first glance.”

Part of the challenge is that Tea’s work draws on a personal mythology built on a wide range of experience and thought.

Tea developed his puppetry working as a camping outfitter for a program for veterans with PTSD in California. He would put on puppet-emceed talent shows for the community when they went on a camping trip to enjoy a fireworks-free Fourth of July.

“The drum circle until you’re tired around the fire, and then when everyone’s exhausted they take turns off of the drums,

Saul Aroha Nui Tea and the puppet LMNOP Soup. PHOTO BY RODNEY

CHOICE, WWW.CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

and then you can sit and talk comfortably in the middle of the drum circle around the fire — the PTSD scenario that comes out of that is incredibly transformative for a lot of veterans, and that’s what I focused on for my adult life,” Tea said.

Animal rights is another of the themes in his work and the inspiration for the character LMNOP Soup, an elephant, based on his time working for the Barnum and Bailey Circus in the early ‘90s before an experience with a member of PETA persuaded him to leave the organization.

But the most important foundation of his puppetry is his favorite Muppet, Oscar the Grouch.

All of his puppets are made from material he’s found scavenging in garbage cans. The puppets in the Hell’s Bottom Congress of Puppets are made from trash from the Logan Circle area, known in the 19th century as Hell’s Bottom, then a notoriously dangerous part of the city.

Tea prides himself on working with recycled materials and rejects a culture of disposable goods, which he considers to go hand-in-hand with traditionally European values and specifically land-use practices. He drew parallels between the gentrification of Hell’s Bottom — the District refused to renew the liquor licenses of any bars in the area in 1891 leading to an increase in the value of the neighborhood — with the more recent gentrification of Logan Circle and the District as a whole. D.C. was ranked as the city with the 13th highest proportion of gentrifying neighborhoods by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition this year, a drop off from 2019, when it was the highest ranked.

“All the real trendy white people have moved there now and it’s a real nice place and everybody loves this neighborhood on 14th and U — and man, are there a ton of people just dying outside their doors,” he said. “Oscar the Grouch is crawling out of garbage cans around here and his goal is to tell everybody, ‘Guess what? You’re false, you’re freaky and you’re fraudulent.’”

A concern for marginalized people is at the core of his puppeteering. He said that the basis of the folk opera would be the experiences of poor people, and he is outspoken about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The Black Lives Matter movement is very, very simple,” he said. “It’s because for 150 years, the people in this country weren’t allowed to get loans if they weren’t standard colonial white people.” The Federal Housing Administration refused to offer mortgages to Black people from its founding in 1934 until the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.

Indigenous cultures are also a major source of inspiration for Tea, who said he identified with the protagonist of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” He said he has camped extensively with members of the Hopi and Dineh nations and derived his puppets in part from Hopi kachina dolls. Kachina dolls are figures that represent spirits of animals or ancestors

or of deities and elements that are part of the Hopi religion.

Tea is at a time of transition in his life. He legally changed his name in January of this year to Saul Aroha Nui Tea, after realizing through therapy that his given name triggered flashbacks to traumatic incidents from his childhood. “Saul Tea” is meant to sound like “Salty,” and Aroha Nui is used as a greeting and pleasantry by the Maori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Tea said he spent a year in Rotorua, New Zealand, in 1992 with a half-Maori family as part of a high school student exchange that had a profound impact on him.

He recently began wearing an eye patch over his right eye because after an injury to it he’s suffered persistent hallucinations of children being abused, part of the trauma from his childhood.

Part of his reason for coming to D.C. was hearing the NPR program Studio 1A, broadcast by local station WAMU, housed in American University in D.C. From being chosen to read the rules and policies to the room at various 12-step program meetings, he discovered he had a natural voice for radio, and was encouraged by people he knew to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. Hearing the broadcast from D.C. was the push he needed to move to the District.

After moving to D.C. and chatting with a Street Sense Media vendor, Tea realized that the writing, podcasting and film classes offered were a good opportunity to expand his work in puppeteering. Broadcast journalism is the long-term goal, but for now he’s focusing on perfecting the Hell’s Bottom Congress of Puppets. He relates them to a metaphor he heard while camping with the Lakota and Blackfoot tribes, when he was told that if promoting understanding and harmony and other Native American values were “gloves” that fit his hands, he should wear them.

The puppets, Tea said, “are things that are clearly good gloves to my hands as therapy tools.”

The Hell’s Bottom Congress of Puppets float, featuring Lereoy Samson, a guitar-playing jazz rainbow, Dead Sea Salty the snake, LMNOP Soup the elephant, and Sycorax the Gigantopithicus, who is a keyboard-playing witch. PHOTO COUTESY OF SAUL TEA

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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Real Talk About Truth and Deception

BY SAUL TEA Artist/Vendor

This is page one of a 12-part song book accompanying the “Hell’s Bottom Congress Of Puppets” folk opera, created by Saul Aroha Nui Tea. The song is loosely inspired by The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Look for the rest of the opera in future editions of Street Sense and find music videos made with puppets of the characters, along with more information about the project, at congressofpuppets. blogspot.com

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OPINION

The White House is visible behind protesters marching in D.C. to call for justice for Breonna Taylor on June 3, 2020. PHOTO BY TED EYTAN / FLICKR

103 seconds is not enough

BY WENDELL WILLIAMS

A

s I was sitting reading the latest issue of Street Sense, I started to reconsider my commitment to not voting in the upcoming presidential election. At a market where I distribute my papers, I had several interesting conversations about voting and my reluctance to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. I tried to explain my ambivalence and I was told how important the election was to them, for reasons like climate change, the virus, the economy and many other seemingly important issues affecting them and so many people like them. But none of them directly mentioned the most important issue to me and many others of color right now. Oh, they used current common buzzwords like “social justice” and “police reform.” To my ears those words are generic as using the word Kleenex to describe all tissue products. I need a politician that I’d vote for to talk about this issue from the general to the specific — anything else is unacceptable to me. I am not interested in hearing a shotgun blast approach hoping to pacify me over my concerns. For the solution to the number one problem that affects my community, I want a politician to get up in front of the American public and give concrete solutions to the problems that cause my relatives and friends to be in danger even when they are pulled over for something so simple as changing lanes without signaling on the way to the convenience store as Sandra Bland was, or buying or selling a single 50 cent cigarette, as Eric Garner was. I’ve heard people say that climate change is the issue of their life, others say the environment or the economy, but for many like me, our major concern is being able to receive a traffic ticket for minor infraction and not be killed.

Joe Biden had a whole two minutes in the debate to directly focus on his plan to stop this carnage, but chose to spend it engaging President Donald Trump about who was more of a supporter of law and order.

It was the opportunity he had to win my vote, and he failed miserably. He and Trump both spent a grand total of 103 seconds combined on the most important issue of every Black person’s life.

So it is with this backdrop that I have no choice but to join the legion of people in this country who are one-issue voters. They traditionally are not chastised nor have their sincerity questioned for taking their stance, unlike the booing and disrespect that followed the players’ demonstration of solidarity with Black Lives Matter at the opening NFL football game. I find it peculiar that over the years these same Black players have been asked to demonstrate their support for everything from breast cancer to the troops, and no one would’ve thought about disrespecting those efforts.

Joe Biden had a whole two minutes to directly focus on his plan to stop this carnage, but chose to spend it engaging Trump about who was more of a supporter of law and order.

It was then I realized that I had to become like many others who simply vote in their own special interests, because the public at large really doesn’t care enough about me to show their support by observing a few moments of silence.

Some of my cherished longtime friends and supporters are proud one-issue voters. Some of those friends, I found out after the 2016 election, had voted for Trump and these are righteous people but justified their votes because he claimed to be against abortion and would overturn Roe v. Wade. Some voted for him because he vowed to protect Israel. When people say that, I would wonder to myself just how many abortions Trump may have paid for, since we publicly know he doesn’t

use protection, even with strippers and porn stars. But it doesn’t seem to matter to them when they feel the person will act in their special interests. Why can’t I do the same without being talked about and questioned even by those in my own community and family?

Recently I inadvertently tuned to a conservative radio talk show after the news hit about the lack of indictments in the Breonna Taylor case, and I was reminded again just how many Americans view me and others who look like me. We’d get less support from this group than if someone was defending the killers of puppies. The things said on that show reminded me of how a defense lawyer’s strategy sometimes is to blame the victim. This is what some are doing. While I agree with the finding that cleared the officer of murder, I see something else went unnoticed in all the dicussions over their findings.

But those up and down the chain of command in these types of incidents are equally responsible.

This is just the latest of a long line of shootings and murders by the police that have gone unpunished. An indictment means nothing — prosecutors, it’s said, can indict a ham sandwich. I want to vote for a candidate who promises that they will do everything in their power if elected to see these perpetrators be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Why do cops get to play by a different set of rules when most of us in our jobs, if we make an egregious mistake that seriously harms another individual, are held accountable? If I’m a doctor and commit malpractice, I am held accountable, but if I’m a police officer and I am egregiously wrong, I’m not, because of the system that gives police unions so much power that no one individual officer will dare break ranks and testify against a fellow officer. I, like many African-Americans, think defunding the police is crazy.

We need them — but we don’t need them policing our communities like they’re in Baghdad.

But if my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren are not safe, then it’s not safe for me to vote for a candidate like Biden who said nothing in the most important 103 seconds for me and many other African Americans.

Wendell Williams is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

Coronavirus: The road to vaccine roll-out is always bumpy, as 20th-century pandemics show

BY SAMANTHA VANDERSLOTT

I

f you have been following the media coverage of the new vaccines in development for COVID-19, it will be clear that the stakes are high. Very few vaccine trials in history have attracted so much attention, perhaps since polio in the mid-20th century.

A now largely forgotten chapter, summer polio outbreaks invoked terror in parents. Today, restrictions on gatherings and movement in the efforts to control COVID19 have been a huge strain on society, but in the 1950s, parents locked their children in stifling hot buildings during the summer with windows sealed shut because they were terrified polio would somehow seep through the cracks in the wall.

The development of the polio vaccine in the U.S. in 1955 was a moment of global celebration. Reaching that point involved millions of citizens raising funds to develop the vaccine, political goodwill by the bucket-load and a driven public-private scientific collaboration, with scientist Jonas Salk at the helm. Children across the US were enlisted in one of the largest clinical trials in history.

Clearly, setbacks and challenges occurred along the way, even once the vaccine was being rolled out. In a shocking episode called the “Cutter incident,” a failure in making and inspecting the vaccine by a California-based firm called the Cutter Laboratories led to children getting polio from the vaccine, which contained viable poliovirus.

The incident led to a major tightening of federal regulations to ensure production safety. It also resulted in new laws being passed that prevented vaccine manufacturers from being sued.

(The fear was that drug manufacturers would not want to develop vaccines without being protected by the law.)

A lack of urgency for vaccine uptake quickly set in. It is taken for granted that children are vaccinated routinely, but this acceptance took time. In the early era of vaccination, it was a tool against epidemics and people expected to be vaccinated during an outbreak. Through health education

and communication, funding of immunization services, and political support across party lines, vaccination was promoted as a central pillar of public health globally.

Promise of an AIDS vaccine When the next big plague of the 20th century hit — AIDS — naturally it was vaccination that would be looked to. Within a short time of scientists confirming HIV was the cause of AIDS in 1984, the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, Margaret Heckler, announced that a vaccine would be ready

The public’s desire for a vaccine is balanced against concerns about the speed of vaccine development, wariness about new types of vaccines, and mistrust of pharmaceutical companies, governments, and the “health establishment.”

in two years. The high expectations and hope instilled in vaccination were not surprising, particularly following the eradication of smallpox from the planet in 1980. However, an AIDS vaccine proved to be unattainable.

Unfortunately, many aspects of HIV infection make it very difficult to develop a vaccine. Instead, it has been antiretrovirals — a group of drugs that inhibit various steps in the HIV replication process — that have proved to be the most effective

A need for peace

New pandemic, same problems Today, COVID-19 is the latest public health crisis that cannot be separated from politics and society. Fear of this disease, and whether it is taken seriously and seen as important to protect against, will play a major role in the support and uptake of a vaccine.

Most people want to return to a “normal life,” and a vaccine is the most reliable way to achieve this. However, the public’s desire for a vaccine is balanced against concerns about the speed of vaccine development, wariness about new types of vaccines, and mistrust of pharmaceutical companies, governments and the “health establishment.”

Public action in communities has been evident throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in neighbors supporting the elderly and those unable to leave their homes by delivering groceries and medication, as well as compliance with government health messaging, and willingness to take part in medical trials.

But national political stakes for a vaccine remain high with politicians using “vaccine deals” to bolster popular support and win elections.

The acceptance of vaccines is fragile, so when leaders promote their country’s vaccine with clear political motivations, it can knock the public’s confidence and draw intense scrutiny.

As with the polio vaccine of the past, the world is watching.

Samantha Vanderslott is a research lecturer at the University of Oxford. Courtesy of The Conversation / INSP.ngo.

Join the conversation, share your views

BY ANGIE WHITEHURST

Every year in September, The Peace Alliance lobbies for a U.S. Department of Peace and asks supporters to call, visit, plan activities and send a virtual pie to members of the U.S. House and Senate. Being from D.C., I sent a pie to my non-voting representative Eleanor Holmes Norton. Hopefully, a “peace” of pie will ease the way to a more successful, happy productive America and world.

The week’s events were overtaken with the sorrow of the death of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, judge, lawyer, advocate for women’s rights, voting rights and equity for all regardless of race, color, creed and gender.

The week was also followed by the grand jury proceedings of the police involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor followed by national protest in response to the verdict.

strategy for treating AIDS. The stigma of AIDS was also an inhibitor for controlling the disease. Health officials at the beginning of the AIDS crisis coyly referred to the transmission being through “bodily fluids,” instead of specifying blood and semen. This led to misunderstandings about the disease being spread through touch.

For peace with nonviolence, 2020 has been one rolling boulder, speeding nonstop amidst the flooding, forest fires on the West Coast, hurricanes, tornadoes and the normal but tumultuous presidential election intertwined with the pandemic of COVID-19, plus the white culture-shock awakening of strategic and systemic racism in the United States, as televised and digitized with the barbaric kneelynching of George Floyd.

All of this is nothing new. These events have occurred before. The only difference this time is our societal awareness and the intolerance of the younger generation, as they prepare to protect, enhance and maintain a freer — and hopefully more peaceful — world.

Angie Whitehurst is an artist and vendor with Street Sense Media.

• 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.

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ART

Thinking of Dan Street Sense Media writer and vendor Dan Hooks died suddenly at the beginning of this month. His family is holding a funeral on Oct. 23 and our newsroom is researching an obituary.

Legacy

BY CARLOS D. CAROLINA Artist/Vendor

I was a man who was blind as a bat at noon Couldn’t “see” anything because of my handicap Then I was lead by a spirit greater than mine From dark to light, it took me; Without sight, it led me Through the wickedness and wildness of the world— Stumbling every step of the way But never once fell on my face Adding fuel to the fire of my soul That brought forth the light in my eye For I was blind, now I can see When I walk, I don’t stumble And if I stumble, I don't fall—

Right now, my heart is heavy, along with other Street Sense family and friends alike. In a twinkle of an eye, you can be history.

My heart and prayers go out to Dan’s daughter, sister, and the rest of the family. There’s no easy way of grieving. Whether the death was slow or sudden, it’s always emotional. The tears come when you’re by yourself, sometimes, but can force their way out when you’re around others, too.

Dan’s memories and writings will live on in our hearts and minds forever. Through times like this, prayer and togetherness helps us move forward and cherish the memories. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Rest in peace, Dan. Love ya! God bless.

— MARCUS GREEN, Artist/Vendor

This is the thing about remembering friends, and even family, that has gone on. No one was perfect. And it’s OK to talk about the good and the bad of a person. We’re all human.

Yes, our hearts are grieved. Some even enroll in griefsharing classes because we miss them oh so much. It’s remembering them, as they were, that will keep bringing joy and happiness to you. We all know the life of our dear friends and family who have passed away.

I can run with the wind I’m free as a breeze The spirit is with me Now you know my legacy.

Battles & Wounds

BY SASHA WILLIAMS // Artist/Vendor

2020 is full of battles and wounds I have to go to store and get food My nerves was bad and I had to balance my moods I am so happy I didn’t lose Onyx ‘Cause I was so stressed I watched her fight in May, June, July, and August I was going to do my best, regardless Nobody can go to the hospital without being nervous I had so much mind on my mind I had so many thoughts running in my head I was feeling worthless But we blessed.

— QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE, Artis/Vendor

Whenever he’d come in the lobby at Street Sense, Dan would talk to whoever was in there. He was friendly, upbeat. I didn't know him that much. But when I sat there and I looked at his picture when I heard he passed, all I could think was, “God rest his soul.”

Peace be to you, brother.

— DANIEL BALL, Artist/Vendor

If you knew Dan and would like to submit a memory of him or a tribute to him for publication, or if you would be open to being interviewed about his life, please email ericf@streetsensemedia.org.

Onxy at the ER in the summer.

PHOTO BY SASHA WILLIAMS

Photo of a movie poster featuring Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther.

COURTESY VYN RASKOPF / FLICKR

A fallen hero, a grim reminder

BY MARCUS MCCALL Artist/Vendor

Since I came home from incarceration on June 27, I've been trying to get health insurance and a supplemental food source.

Less than two months later, the wealthy and seemingly healthy Howard University graduate who starred as Jackie Robinson and the Black Panther — Chadwick Boseman — died from colon cancer. He was a very gifted young Black man who was taken from his loved ones at only 43.

It's scary as hell to be living with no health insurance. I’m doing my best to take my health seriously and stay safe during this pandemic!

Burggj on Tarmac

BY FREDERIC JOHN Artist/Vendor

Raging raging: Readily staging, Always cage-ing.

“Ragggh! Stop the Monster—She tells Nothing but LIES!!

(But wait—The worm hath entered Prospero’s enclosure, master Burggj…

Might your spittled screed, Yet be Quash’d? If so, still the chopp’r’s blade.)

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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Agree to Disagree

BY REV. JOHN LITTLEJOHN Artist/Vendor

Black Science

BY RON DUDLEY, A.K.A. “POOKANU” Artist/Vendor

I'm so dark that they call me “Black Shadow” My science DNA say I'm Black like my afro My momma and my daddy so Black that they blue Mixed with purple, the world wanna know who's Blacker than you My skin so dark that it eat up lotion My skin so Black they wanna keep me from voting My hair so nappy that it be breaking my comb My father so Black that he never came home My momma so Black she breastfeeding your babies Black science, Black science is the science of slavery Black past, Black past, Black future, Black future Malcolm X, Martin Luther — the police a shoot ya’ George Floyd and all the others If you Black, if you Black The world gonna make you suffer See, they laugh and joke When the lights go out I'm so Black that I'm broke So I can't fight this bout They call me “Black Recursion” ‘Cause I talk to myself I’m so dark, I’m so dark They say I'm burning in hell They still call me n**** Say I'm the scum of the Earth Black science, Black science I been Black since my birth My skin so dark that It eat up lotion My skin so Black they wanna keep me from voting My hair so nappy that it be breaking my comb And my father so Black that he never came home BLACK SCIENCE. Pookanu published his first book of poetry, “My Science Project,” in 2019. His latest CD, “Father’s Day,” is available at pookanu.bandcamp.com.

One definition of “agree” is to have the same opinion about something, while “disagree” is to have or express a different opinion about something.

Do you agree or disagree with ending homelessness for good? I myself agree 100% with doing whatever is necessary to end homelessness nationally and internationally.

But is it really possible to set aside irreconcilable differences when so much seems to be at stake in today’s world?

That’s one of the questions the apostle Paul answers in his New Testament letter to the Romans. Writing to readers caught in social, political, and religious conflict, Paul suggests ways of finding common ground even under the most polarized conditions.

According to Paul, we can agree to disagree, in order to work together when it really matters. He said the key is to recall that we will each answer to the Lord, not only for our opinions but also for how we treat one another in our differences.

It is truly a blessing when we can give cheerfully to those in need, and receive cheerfully from those who may have more than they need. Amen!

Nowadays everybody is talking about going hard and no one is talking about God. Everybody wants to be in control, wants to be a leader but never a follower. But they are lost, with no information or directions when all they have to do is bow down and ask the Lord to be the guide.

Proverbs 3:5-7 says “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”

The Holy Bible also says in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Conditions of conflict can actually become occasions to remember that there are some things more important than our own ideas — even more than our interpretations of the Bible.

All of us will answer for whether we have loved one another, even our enemies, as Christ loved us.

Now that I think of it, I remember that I used to talk about how good it is not just to agree to disagree — but to do so with mutual love and respect.

Father, please enable us to be patient and kind with those who don’t agree with us about anything or everything.

We can agree to disagree, in love.

As we continue to delay ending homelessness, and hundreds of thousands of people suffer, I am left feeling like I am the problem and not the solution. I feel like I am revenging and not forgiving. I feel once again that I am dividing and not uniting. I feel like I am disagreeing and not agreeing.

Let us pray for, and work together with love for, an end to homelessness!

Voting is our shared responsibility

BY AYUB ABDUL Artist/Vendor

It is each of our jobs, as citizens, to be concerned about the most important issues in this country. Right now, those are voting and how the votes are counted.

I personally believe that voting is important because people died for the right to vote. This is what a democracy is all about.

Being able to vote is a way to express your ideas and influence how our country is managed. We grant the power to govern.

This is a particularly funny year because of the virus and the election. We can walk in our ballot, or mail it using a postbox. Most people are concerned about contracting this coronavirus, so they are sending in their votes by mail. Early voting in D.C. doesn’t even begin until Oct. 27, yet the Washington Post reported the board of elections had already received 60,000 ballots on Oct. 15.

The president made unsupported claims that voting by mail could be fraudulent. And after many reports in August of mailboxes being removed and letter-sorting machines being shut down across the country, I was encouraged to see more postboxes on the street recently.

A few years ago, a USPS box was taken off my block and now it's back. Have you seen any other new ones? Did you see any taken away?

The FBI assures the American public that there won't be any tampering with the mail. The experts and the Postmaster General assure us that there won't be a problem with the personnel handling the mail, handling will be prompt.

PHOTO BY AYUB ABDUL

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A / / O C T. 2 1 - N O V. 3, 2020

FUN & Answers Sudoku #1 4 8 GAMES 7 9 6 2

1 7 9 6 4 by 8KrazyDad, 3 5Volume 1 20, Book 45 Challenging Sudoku 3 5 1 9 7 6 8 4 2 5 2 8 6 9 7 4 1 3 6 3 9 1 2 4 5 7 8 1 4 7 3 8 5 2 6 9 2 6 3 7 5 9 1 8 4 8 1 5 4 6 2 9 3 7 9 7 4 8 1 3 6 2 5 2

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© 2019 KrazyDad.com

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each #5 3-by-3 block contain all of theSudoku digits 1 thru 9.

SUDOKU: Fill in 9 2 the blank squares so that Need a littleeach help? row, The hints page the puzzle.

2 shows 6 1a logical 5 3order9 to solve 7 4 8 Use it to identify the next square you should solve. Or use the answers page each column and if you really get stuck.

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

5 puzzle 3 7 4 guesswork.

1 8 6 If you use logic you can solve the without

LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION >>

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

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

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How many cowards, whose hearts are all false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars; Who inward search'd have livers white as milk?

-- Shakespeare

6 3 9 4 6

Challenging Sudoku by KrazyDad, Volume 20, Book 45

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

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

Me and the mayor’s project

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

BY IVORY WILSON 8 6 9 7 3 5 1 4 2 Artist/Vendor 3 1 8 2 6 9 4 5 7 6 coronavirus 9 2 5 7came, 4 my 3 1longtime 8 Even before the customers and readers have been missing me.

For 4 5 7 8 1 3 2 6 9 the past nine months, I’ve been living here at the Abrams 9 for2 veterans 3 4 on 5 7 6 8 1 Hall apartments the former Walter 1 to 4 honest, 3 8things 2 5here 7 be 6 are 9 great Reed campus! And at my older age.5 8 6 9 2 1 7 3 4

Many thanks to staff from Street Sense for suggesting I look into it. Special thanks to our former case manager, Sudoku Colleen! And #6it certainly took a lot more than that to get me in there. But my supporters helped work wonders. 6 1 7 9 8 4 3 2 5 5will2 soon 4 1 chapter 6 9 8and 7 release I’ve kept busy3writing, two of my story2“The Big Fat Rat,” which follows 4 5 1 3 6 9 7 8 the organized crime among the District’s seediest rodents.

4 one6 many 2 years 8 7 9 5 3 1 I wrote chapter ago and featured it in 7 of1 you6 who 4 remember 3 2 8it. Dean, 9 Street Sense, for5those the boss, is back!

I even illustrated his outfi t.

I will 8 3 9 2 5 1 6 4 7 begin writing the story for the paper every other week.

Stay tuned! 7 2 6 4 9 8 1 5 3

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Bufon Long azury lach hovers.

Actual berde soo callez forth, "Ca, vor grassis ond clud!"

BY FRANKLIN STERLING Artist/Vendor

You can read chapter one, which was released in eight 5 at3 https://tinyurl.com/BFR-part1.

7 6 2 8 9 4 1 2016, episodes throughout

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

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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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All services listed are referral-free Academy of Hope Public Charter School 202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Place NE aohdc.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ House // 202-328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd., NW christhouse.org

Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 marthastable.org

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

Community Family Life Services 202-347-0511 // 305 E St., NW cfl sdc.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

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

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE Línea de salud del comportamiento

1-888-793-4357

Laundry Lavandería

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 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

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

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

// 1 5

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

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volunteers Become a Street Sense Media volunteer and help further our mission to empower people experiencing homelessness.

Collaborate with our vendors and make a difference in their lives and yours!

You’ll support our vendor corps by volunteering your time, four hours a week, to distribute newspapers, mail, and other resources at the Street Sense Media office.

If interested, please contact Rave Neely Operations Manager raven@streetsensemedia.org

HALLOWEEN REFLECTIONS Haunting Violence

(Make it stop!)

BY ROCHELLE WALKER // Artist/Vendor

Halloween can be a trick or treat Witches, ghosts, scary things Using candy, sweets, and parties To celebrate October 31 This year, a day before the Lord’s Day It is a trick of the devil, not a treat from the Lord How many have lost their lives on October 31?

So many that when you get to November You can't say “thank you” on Thanksgiving Day But Black lives matter Playing at being scary may lower your blood pressures But being killed will give you no pressure Witches, ghosts, scary things God shed his blood for us Not to kill us but to LOVE us!

Long-time District residents will remember instances of violence on Halloween night over the years: Two teenagers were fatally shot in 1999; six people were shot in 2011; four people were shot in 2014; a group of “as many as 20 teenagers or children” attacked a Georgetown student in 2016; and one man was fatally shot in 2018.

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

From your vendor OCT. 21 - NOV. 3, 2020 | VOLUME 17 ISSUE 26

Rest in peace, Karl

WWW.INSP.NGO

BY JEMEL FLEMING // Artist/Vendor

Karl Jackson was my friend and classmate at Our Saviour Lutheran School where I grew up in the Bronx. He was the son of a nurse and a postal worker and went on to become a computer programmer at Morgan Stanely.

My former classmate was murdered on Halloween night in 1998. He was 21. I was living in the D.C. area by that time, but I attended the funeral.

You can read all about the murder in the New York Times article, “The Violent Legacy of a Halloween Prank.” Karl and his girlfriend, Darlene, had been driving to pick up her son, Clyde, when a group of teenagers threw eggs at the car. Karl got out to confront them.

Another article from November 1998 said my friend

drove away after the argument but that at least one of the egg-throwers, a Brooklyn-area man, got into a car and pursued them. The police said he caught up to them and shot Karl in the head several blocks away from the first incident. The assailant was 17 when he was arrested and was sentenced to 20 years.

I’m sure Karl’s mother doesn’t want that story to ever leave the internet. It can’t bring my friend, a Black male, back. But it can preserve his memory, and remind us to be kind and be safe. There is a heartbreaking picture of Karl and his mother at the top of the article, taken on his birthday in front of a Red Lobster weeks before he was killed. Thinking of you, Karl. RIP.

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