OUR STORY
CASE MANAGEMENT 3
people moved into housing using case management services
In 2013, we began offering case management services to help anyone, including vendors, with their needs — from obtaining identification cards and emergency cash for bills and food to accessing supportive programs and applying for housing vouchers. Our team builds long-term relationships with our vendors and other clients to understand their needs and help them create plans to achieve their goals.
people, including artists/vendors, used case management services in 2025,
42 of which were new clients.
THE TEAM
VENDORS
Abel Putu, Abraham Aly, Archie Thomas, Aida Peery, Akindele Akerejah, Amia Walker, Andre Brinson, Andrew Anderson, Angie Whitehurst, Anthony Carney, Apollos Robinson, Bailey Green, Beverly Sutton, Brian Holsten, Brianna Butler, Cameé Lee, Carlos Carolina, Charles Armstrong, Chon Gotti, Conrad Cheek, Craig Thompson, Cynthia Herrion, Daniel Ball, Darlesha Joyner, David Snyder, Debora Brantley, Degnon Dovonou, Dominique Anthony, Don Gardner, Donald Davis, Donte Turner, Drake Brensul, Elizabeth Bowes, Elynora Houston, Eric Glover, Eric Thompson-Bey, Evelyn Nnam, Faith Winkler, Flegette Rippy, Frederic John, Frederick Walker, Gerald Anderson, Gloria Prinz, Gracias Garcias, Greta Christian, Henrieese Roberts,
Henry Johnson, Invisible Prophet, Isaiah Brookings, Ivory Wilson, Jacqueline Gale, Jacqueline Turner, James Davis, James Hughes, James Lyles III, Jay B. Williams, Jeanette Richardson, Jeff Taylor, Jeffery McNeil, Jeffrey Carter, Jemel Fleming, Jenkins Dalton, Jennifer McLaughlin, Jewel Lewis, John Littlejohn, Josie Brown, Julienne Kengnie, Kenneth Middleton, Kendarius Tucker,
Kym Parker, L.Q. Peterson, Laticia Brock, Lawrence Autry, Leo Hughes Jr, Levester Green, Marc Grier, Marcus McCall, Maurice Carter, Melody Byrd, Melveon Harp, Micheal Pennycook, Michele Modica, Morgan Jones, Nikila Smith, Nitin Khanna, Patricia Donaldson, Patty Smith, Paul Martin, Peggy Jackson Whitley, Phillip Black, Qaadir El-Amin, Queenie Featherstone, Rachelle
Ellison, Rashawn Bowser, Reginald Black, Reginald Denny, Ricardo Meriedy, Rita Sauls, Robert Vaughn, Robert Warren, Rochelle Walker, Ron Dudley, Ronnell Wilson, S. Smith, Sasha Williams, Shawn Fenwick, Sheila White, Shuhratjon Ahmadjonov, Starchild BLK, Steve Miller, Sureyakanti Behera, Sybil Taylor, Tasha Savoy, Tim Holt, Tonya Williams, Victoria Green, Vincent
Physical and mental health services, emergency cash assistance and housing services were and are being provided hundreds of times throughout 2022 to 2025.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ashley McMaster, Blake Androff, Clare Krupin, Chris Curry, Cole Ingraham, David Grant, Jonquilyn Hill, Matt Perra, Michael Vaughan Cherubin, Nana-Sentuo Bonsu, Stanley Keeve
Watts, Warren
Stevens, Wayne Hall, Wendell Williams, Wendy Brown, William Hargrove, William Shuford, Willie Futrelle, William Young, Zero
The Cover
COVER PHOTO BY JAMES JARVIS, COVER DESIGN BY KEVIN AKAKPO
NEWS IN BRIEF
Rachel Pierre poised to be the next head of D.C. social services
ALAENA HUNT Editorial Intern
The D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS), which oversees homeless services in the city, is set to have a new leader. This summer, the mayor nominated A.D. Rachel Pierre, who has served as the acting DHS director for the last year, to permanently take on the role.
At an Oct. 9 D.C. Council Committee on Human Services hearing, 13 people testified in favor of Pierre’s confirmation as DHS director. Ward 3 Councilmember Matthew Frumin, who chairs the committee, indicated the body sees Pierre as an effective manager capable of leading the agency through rough times.
DHS, which has over 1,200 employees, is charged with making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in the District. The agency oversees programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Permanent Supportive Housing vouchers. In the past several years, the agency has focused on addressing family homelessness, which Pierre said has reduced 61% since 2015.
D.C.’s social services are now contending with decreased funding and increased federal oversight. Several programs DHS administers, including rental assistance, food assistance, and new vouchers for people experiencing homelessness, will have fewer resources this year than in the past, making this a potentially challenging time for the agency. Pierre began her career in human services 20 years ago as a social worker. She received her master’s in social work from Howard University and holds a master’s in business administration from the University of Maryland. Those who testified on her behalf cited her combination of social work and business experience as one reason they believe she will excel as director of DHS.
In her testimony, Pierre emphasized her experience, saying she has “consistently proven that operational efficiency and financial sustainability don’t require compromising client services; in fact, they can enhance them.”
Pierre said she hopes to continue to focus on homelessness prevention and diversion, drawing on her personal experience. When Pierre gave birth to her daughter years ago, she said she found herself in need of
Rita Sauls
Oct. 24
ARTIST/VENDOR
BIRTHDAYS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER
Brian Carome
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
Darick Brown
DIRECTOR OF VENDOR EMPLOYMENT
Thomas Ratliff
VENDOR PROGRAM ASSOCIATES
Aida Peery, Chon Gotti, Nikila Smith
VENDOR PROGRAM
VOLUNTEERS Ann Herzog, Aiden Eisenschenk, Beverly Brown, Madeleine McCollough, Roberta Haber
the kinds of services DHS provides, giving her what she called a unique perspective on the agency.
Those who testified praised Pierre’s experience working both as a social worker and at DHS. Sandra Crewe, dean emerita and professor of social work at Howard, said, “I appreciate the opportunity to support a true social worker.”
Pierre began her social work career as a program manager and then the director of clinical operations at Lutheran Social Services. After that, she worked at Pathways to Housing, one of the city’s main homeless services organizations, as the director of programs and then the chief operating officer.
Christy Respress, the president and chief executive officer of Pathways, said Pierre “is never content with the status quo, and she constantly has her eye on improvement and innovation.”
After Pathways, Pierre moved to DHS, starting during the pandemic as the administrator in the Family Services Administration, where she oversaw homeless services. At the time, she served under Laura Zeilinger, who was DHS director for nine years. In 2023, Pierre served as interim director when Zeilinger went on sabbatical. Pierre has again been serving as interim director since January 2025, when Zeilinger left the agency.
As director, Pierre’s goals are to increase homelessness services to single adults, focus on homelessness diversion and prevention, move people into permanent housing faster, and invest further in youth and families, according to her testimony.
“The way I see my role as director, I am here to protect what’s working, fix or cut what isn’t, and create better paths forward,” she said.
Pierre has been involved in some of the agency’s recent innovations, including the Peer Case Management Institute at Howard University. The program helps people with lived experience of homelessness become case managers, and was Pierre’s vision, Crewe from Howard said.
“Lived experience gives me a grounded perspective of the agency’s mission to support the District’s most vulnerable populations,” Pierre said. “Serving as the agency’s next director would in many ways be a full-circle moment for me.”
The committee will meet on Oct. 30 for a markup of the confirmation resolution, before it goes to the council for a vote.
Daniel Ball
Oct. 25
ARTIST/VENDOR
Jewel Lewis
Oct. 31
ARTIST/VENDOR
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Annemarie Cuccia
DEPUTY EDITOR Donte Kirby
EDITORIAL INTERNS
Alaena Hunt, Jelina Liu, Molly St. Clair, Nina Calves, Sachini
Adikari, Ranee Brady, Shani Laskin
WEB INTERN Zachi Elias
GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERNS
Arisha Shumael, Kevin Akakpo
ARTISTS-INRESIDENCE Alexandra Silverthorne (Photography),
Starchild Blk Oct. 27
ARTIST/VENDOR
Morgan Jones Nov. 5
ARTIST/VENDOR
Bonnie Naradzay (Poetry), David Serota (Illustration), Leslie Jacobson (Theater), Roy Barber (Theater), Willie Schatz (Writing), Molly Pauker (Watercolor), Debbie Menke (Watercolor)
EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS
EVENTS AT SSM
ANNOUNCEMENTS
□ The October vendor meeting will be Friday, Oct. 24, at 2:00 p.m. Come for pizza, business, and fellowship!
□ The 2025 Sell-a-Thon is coming to a close! Two $50 prizes at the end of the month. Earn extra points every time your customer fills out the audience survey. Catch the rankings in the admin office!
□ Find a list of vendor announcements and other useful information just for you at streetsensemedia. org/vendor-info.
Abigail Chang, Ben Litoff, Cari Shane, Chelsea Cirruzzo, Dan Goff, David Fucillo, Dhanya Addanki, Franziska Wild, Joy Arkeh, Kathryn Owens, Madi Koesler, Mark Rose, Megan Praschak, Nora Scully, Ryan Bacic, Sarah Eccleston, Taylor Nichols
VENDOR CODE OF CONDUCT
Read this democratically elected code of conduct, by vendors, for vendors!
1. I will support Street Sense Media’s mission statement and in so doing will work to support the Street Sense Media community and uphold its values of honesty, respect, support, and opportunity.
2. I will treat all others, including customers, staff, volunteers, and fellow vendors, respectfully at all times. I will refrain from threatening others, pressuring customers into making donations, or engaging in behavior that condones racism, sexism, classism, or other prejudices.
3. I understand that I am not an employee of Street Sense Media but an independent contractor.
4. While distributing the Street Sense newspaper, I will not ask for more than $3 per issue or solicit donations by any other means.
5. I will only purchase the newspaper from Street Sense Media staff and volunteers and will not distribute newspapers to other vendors.
6. I will not distribute copies of “Street Sense” on metro trains and buses or on private property.
7. I will abide by the Street Sense Media Vendor Territory Policy at all times and will resolve any related disputes with other vendors in a professional manner.
8. I will not sell additional goods or products while distributing “Street Sense.”
9. I will not distribute “Street Sense” under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
10. I understand that my badge and vest are property of Street Sense Media and will not deface them. I will present my badge when purchasing “Street Sense” and will always display my badge when distributing “Street Sense.”
A federal
public health team is engaging with people experiencing homelessness in D.C. The details of its deployment, however, are unclear.
SHANI LASKIN Editorial Intern
ince mid-September, unusual small groups of uniformed health care providers have been spotted around D.C., speaking with people experiencing homelessness. They aren’t part of the city-funded encampment team or one of the dozens of local outreach organizations normally seen on the streets. Instead, they’re from one of the eight uniformed services in the country — the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS).
According to outreach workers and meetings of homeless service providers, a team of nearly 20 USPHS workers was deployed to work with the city’s Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), in partnership with the Department of Human Services and outreach groups to engage with individuals experiencing homelessness. Since late September, Street Sense has seen groups of corps members six times, often near encampments or service centers. In two cases, Street Sense saw the teams drive away in unmarked vehicles.
The teams of federal health care professionals are a novel and likely temporary addition to the city’s homeless services system, raising questions of what purpose they serve, and whether they may be related to increased federal presence in D.C. following the takeover earlier this fall.
Since the expiration of the executive order that enabled President Donald Trump to federalize the city’s police force, many federal agents, including about 2,450 National Guard officers, have remained in D.C. According to the city’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb, they may stay in D.C. through the summer of 2026, if not longer.
It’s unclear if the USPHS’s presence is part of the aftereffects of the takeover, but some people familiar with the homeless services system find it strange. USPHS corps members, who are primarily trained health care providers, are usually deployed to address public health emergencies such as disease outbreaks or the aftermath of natural disasters. Street Sense was not able to identify another time members aided in a major city’s homeless outreach.
Outreach workers say they have been told the USPHS teams are on 30-day deployments. Street Sense was unable to verify when the deployment started or how long the corps will be in the District, as no government agency, including DBH and USPHS, answered specific questions about the partnership.
Under normal circumstances, the city has several outreach teams which routinely identify and offer help to people living outside. Outreach workers say many of the people the corps is meant to engage with are already connected with service providers in the city. While they say more support would be welcome, for some people experiencing homelessness, it may take months of relationship building before they trust an organization enough to connect with its services — something more consistent local providers say they are best-equipped to do.
“We’re not going to turn down extra help or professional expertise,” Andy Wassenich, director of policy at Miriam’s Kitchen, said. “But let us hire them on a permanent basis. We know our population, and we can help them get to know our population and maybe make a difference.”
The USPHS is one of eight uniformed services in the U.S., along with the six military branches and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps. Members can be recognized by their navy blue caps and jumpsuits of the same color with yellow USPHS emblems.
The over 6,000 corps officers operate across the country and abroad. A relatively small and obscure group, the USPHS’s stated mission is to “advance our nation’s public health,” according to its website. Officers primarily include trained health care providers such as physicians, nurses, dentists, therapists, dieticians, and pharmacists. Other officers may be veterinarians, engineers, or scientists who work in public health-related fields. Aside from city agency-led trainings, it’s not clear what prior experience corps members have with responding to homelessness.
Typically, corps members are dispersed within 36 different federal agencies, including the Indian Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. In 2015, the corps’ deployment and response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa earned the group a Presidential Unit Citation.
The USPHS’ deployment to D.C. comes in the wake of heightened federal scrutiny of visible homelessness in D.C., including Trump’s month-long takeover of the local police force. This crackdown resulted in federal and municipal agencies clearing at least 24 homeless encampments in the District in August. Street Sense reporting found these closures made it difficult for people to stay in contact with the services they regularly accessed as they were shuffled around the city, sometimes ending up much further away from resources.
Throughout the takeover, outreach workers questioned what support the federal government could offer the city’s homeless
services system to help achieve its goal of moving people off the street. The federal government did not, for instance, open shelters for people experiencing homelessness.
The federal takeover added to existing strains on the city’s homelessness services system, including a long-standing shortage of social workers, calls for more resources for service providers, and more non-congregate shelter options, among other issues. According to the 2025 Point-in-Time Count, an annual snapshot on the state of homelessness, there were 792 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
While the corps members expand the number of people doing outreach in the city, some outreach workers worry people may not trust them. They expressed concerns some of the people USPHS is meant to engage with may experience severe mental health issues, which can include delusions and paranoia. For them, the presence of unfamiliar uniformed officers, whether they’re from the FBI, National Guard, or USPHS, may be more harmful than helpful.
In the long term, Wassenich said he believes the city needs more holistic solutions to homelessness. He finds the idea of public health workers devoted to addressing the issue to be a promising start.
“I think some of it is rather well-intentioned. I don’t want to dismiss it out of hand,” he said. But he is skeptical corps members will be able to make much progress if they’re only working with people for a month.
“I think there are those of us who work in homeless services in Washington, D.C., and are like, ‘This is great. Give us the money to hire these same folks on a long-term basis,’” Wassenich said.
Members of the U.S. Public Health Service in Liberia in 2014. Photo courtesy of Staff Sgt. Gustavo Gonzalez / Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
HeRise: New halfway house for men to open in D.C.
RANEE BRADY Editorial Intern
Anew halfway house for formerly incarcerated men is set to open in Ward 7 on Dec. 1. The facility, called HeRise Growth Center, will be the only halfway house for men in D.C after the closure of Hope Village in 2020, founders say, adding a crucial resource for them as they leave prison.
He Rise will be located in Deanwood on Sheriff Road NE and plans toHeRise will be located in Deanwood on Sheriff Road NE and plans to serve up to 24 residents. The facility, which founders and incoming residents describe as “luxury,” offers 16 individual units, a full kitchen, laundry room, and community center. The staff will also offer financial literacy and entrepreneurship classes to residents.
HeRise staff said they hope to secure a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which would allow incarcerated men to be referred to live in the center as they near release. But for now, HeRise will operate as a private halfway house and plans to accept residents who have recently left prison or were formerly incarcerated through an intake form.
Andrane Gordan, founder and president of HeRise, said the halfway house will fulfill a desperately needed gap in the community. Hope Village, a 304-bed halfway house in Southeast D.C., closed in April 2020 after more than 42 years of operation. While the expiration of the facility’s contracts with the BOP led to its closure, Hope Village faced years of complaints from residents for a lack of services and unsafe conditions.
“When I went to the jail, I went to talk to the guys, and I heard the need — the cry out for help with the gentlemen,” Gordan said. “There are so many programs for women, for women with kids, but not that much help when it comes to the men. A lot of times, they have to fight for help.”
Since the closure of Hope Village, HeRise founders say that D.C. has not had a halfway house for men, though there is one small facility for women. Another facility, which has already received a contract from the BOP, has been in the works for several years but has not yet opened. While HeRise does not have a contract that would allow prisons to directly release people to the program, like Hope Village did, founders say it will still serve as a place for returning citizens to find their footing in society.
Halfway houses are a community-led resource that prevent homelessness and provide a place for people to move into as they transition out of prison. Formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public, according to a report from the Prison Policy Initiative. Places like HeRise can keep people from unsheltered homelessness, which is often associated with a higher likelihood of reoffending, according to research from the D.C. Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
HeRise’s new facility will house men for six to nine months, depending on their pretrial or probation status. The building includes ADA-compliant units, both single and double-occupancy rooms, a fitness center, and a computer lab, according to Gordan. She said HeRise will emphasize entrepreneurship skills to help residents find employment.
“We’re an entrepreneurial-based halfway house,” she said. “That doesn’t mean everyone has to be an entrepreneur, but the foundation of entrepreneurship teaches you a lot of skills that are good for life in general.”
While HeRise’s number of residents may seem small in comparison to the hundreds of beds at Hope Village, research suggests that “smaller, more-homelike, treatment-rich environments” are more likely to reduce recidivism than large facilities, according D.C. Justice Lab. In fact, many of the grievances from Hope Village’s former residents stemmed from overcrowding and the lack of personalized services.
For incoming residents, HeRise represents stability, something many people struggle to find after incarceration. Darren Miller, a reintegrated citizen who spent seven years in a Maryland prison and has been home for two months, said reentry has been challenging.
“When you come home from prison, you don’t want to go back to [prison] and make the same mistakes you made. We all keep a better mindset of, ‘man, when I get home, I gotta do this for myself,’” Miller said. “I gotta do this because I don’t want to come back to this predicament of being told what to do and losing my rights.”
Miller plans to move into HeRise when it opens and has been a part of efforts to organize HeRise as a media and wellness specialist. He said the support system and structure of the program could make all the difference.
“HeRise is a great platform for the men that are in those predicaments, trying to stay out of harm’s way, trying to make a bigger impact for their life, and trying to do better as a foundation for themselves,” Miller said.
To Miller, the opening of HeRise is especially important for D.C. because, since the closure of Hope Village, men returning home from prison in the District have had no local halfway house. Instead, they are sent to facilities in other states, such as Maryland, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. That distance, he said, often separates men from their families and support systems at the exact moment they need stability most.
Miller said this also means men often have to choose between getting a job in whatever city or state they were put in or being close to their families in D.C., presenting another barrier to employment. If HeRise gets a contract with the BOP, then men directly released from prison can finally have a place to rebuild their lives close to home.
“Say we find a job out in another city that’s not close to our relatives or our support, and we start working that job, then we come back to our city, then we lose that job,” Miller said.
That’s something HeRise founder Gordan has seen as well. Her motivation for creating HeRise came from personal experience, as she’s played the second parent role for her nieces and nephews, all of whom have fathers who have been incarcerated.
“I figured I would be part of the change,” she said. “Even if I couldn’t change their dads, I could reach someone.”
HeRise Community Outreach and Engagement Advocate Jewel Stroman said the mission of the halfway house also resonates deeply with her as an advocate for people experiencing homelessness in D.C.
Stroman was an ANC candidate in 2018, is the founder of Rise Above, a community supply hub in Wards 7 and 8, and has helped house about 300 families experiencing homelessness.
“Before I was an advocate, I was homeless. And before that, I was formerly incarcerated,” Stroman said. “That’s something I’ve never been ashamed of or tried to hide, even when I was running for ANC. It’s part of who I am.”
When the facility opens later this year, Miller said he hopes HeRise can offer formerly incarcerated people a chance to start over and build a life after incarceration, like Stroman has.
“I don’t think guys want to mess this up. Just having the halfway house is a big step because we’re thinking on our part, ‘if we don’t have this halfway house, what’s the next step for us?’ So why would we want to mess this up? Why would we want to put a bad stigma on something like this that’s going to be great for our city?” Miller said.
Gordan said that stigma is something she’s determined to change. She hopes HeRise can help combat the misconception that halfway houses are crime-ridden and dangerous, encouraging people to see them instead as places that bring communities together and give people a new lease on life.
“There are a lot of stigmas behind halfway houses, and I think it all lies in the people behind them,” Gordan said. “It’s not that halfway houses aren’t a good source; they play an important role in reintegration. They provide structured living. When you’ve done 20 years anywhere and come back to society, things have changed. It’s important to have a halfway house that helps you understand those changes.”
The HeRise facility will house between 17 and 24 men. Photo by Ranee Brady
Andrane Gordon (fourth from left), Jewel Stroman (second from right) and Darren Miller (far right) at an Oct. 10 event promoting HeRise and addressing community concerns. Photo courtesy of HeRise
D.C.’s plan to cut poverty in half by 2026 still hasn’t been released
SACHINI ADIKARI Editorial Intern
Acity plan to significantly reduce poverty in the District by 2026 and eliminate it entirely by 2036 is still in the works, nearly three years after the group tasked with making the plan first convened.
The D.C. Commission on Poverty submitted its first report on ending poverty in the city in June, according to public meetings held this summer, but it is not yet public. During the meetings, members of the commission said the report is “antiquated” and the group was not fully satisfied with it, but they let it move forward to meet a deadline outlined in their bylaws.
“If you’re looking for a full understanding of what the commission believes in terms of poverty and policy reduction, I wouldn’t follow that report per se,” Ty Grooms, a senior policy advisor to the director of the Department of Employment Services, which oversees the commission, said at a meeting in July.
While the commission has been working on the report over the last several years, poverty in D.C. has been increasing. In 2024, the poverty rate in D.C. was 17.3%, up 3.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to a D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute analysis of 2024 U.S. Census Bureau data. From 2014 to 2024, census data shows the poverty rate for Black D.C. residents never fell below 21.3%, and in 2024, it reached a decade high of 30.5%. D.C.’s poverty level is far above that of the nation at 10.6%, the analysis states.
The D.C. Council first introduced a bill creating the commission, tasked with reducing poverty in the District, in 2019. The bill took effect in 2021, setting up the commission and ordering it to create a report with suggestions on how to cut poverty in half in the District by 2026. The commission began meeting in late 2022.
According to the group’s bylaws, its first povertyreduction plan was due one year after 13 members of the commission were appointed.
The first 12 members were appointed in November 2023, with two more in January 2024 and two in October 2024, according to records from the D.C. Council. Today, only 10 of these members remain on the commission. DOES did not respond to questions about the commission’s work, including when the report was due, in time for publication.
of something that is making somewhat of a difference in this city in terms of poverty reduction.”
Commissioners unsure about the report’s accuracy today
Commission members expressed concern during the group’s July meeting their report on poverty in the city was outdated and not reflective of all commission members’ views. Commissioners said the report, once it is public, will not reflect recent cuts and policy changes from of federal and local governments, since much of the data used in the report dates back to June 2024.
produce the report, though the group did have the opportunity to review, question, and vote on it.
“When we voted on a final, on a final basis to approve it, we acknowledged that it might not say what each of us would have written if we had together written a report,” Masliansky said.
Commissioner Robert Warren said at the same meeting that while he likes the report the commission submitted, it “falls short” in certain areas. He said as an advocate for housing, some of the wording in the report is not as “intentional” as he wanted it to be for community members affected by poverty. Fewer than 20 people “actively living in poverty” contributed to an interview or input on the report, acting Chair Elijah Moses said at the June meeting.
The commission met publicly for the first time this year in June, according to commissioners’ statements at meetings. The commission has held three public meetings this calendar year so far, on June 24, July 22, and Sept. 30, with a fourth scheduled for Oct. 28. The commission’s bylaws state the group must have at least four community listening sessions annually, but the group has not held any listening sessions so far this year, according to commissioners.
During a meeting, commission members said they submitted their report sometime before June 2025, nearly a year and a half after 13 members were first appointed to the commission. Grooms said at the commission’s August meeting the report had been with the deputy mayor’s office since July and the mayor’s office since August.
“I want this group to be successful.” Grooms said at the June meeting. “I want this group to really feel like it is part
Commissioner Nechama Masliansky said the group was “obligated by law” to issue a report within a certain time period, so commissioners did not object to the report.
“That does not mean we had complete buy-in on every word of it, or that it’s as complete an expression of our own concerns and priorities as members of the commission,” Masliansky said.
The group worked in tandem with Medici Road, a contracting service hired by the Department of Employment Services to write up the report, according to commissioners. Masliansky said commissioners worked on the report all of 2024, but the group did not often meet officially because it lacked a quorum. The report, according to Masliansky, consists of recommendations brought forth by the contractors since the commission lacked the opportunity and the structure to
Commissioner Khadijah Williams said at the July meeting that for the commission to establish its credibility and value, it is not a “good look” to share a report that is out of date, but she hoped they could use the report when moving forward with future initiatives.
“We are not wasting the money that was put forth with this report if we are looking at it with fresh eyes and thinking about what can be applied and what lessons it pulled that we can use to inform what we recommend this time,” Williams said.
Changes in the commission
Since its inception, the commission has undergone several leadership and membership changes, leaving it with several open seats.
The commission’s bylaws state it should consist of 19 members appointed by the mayor, with eight ward representatives and 11 at-large representatives. The commission should also have eight ex officio members, who represent agencies in the District, like the Department of Human Services, according to the bylaws. The commission is led by a chair.
There’s been turnover at both the leadership and member levels. During the June meeting, Grooms said then-Chair Marla Dean wanted to step down. In the September meeting, Moses was voted by the group to be the new chair, while Williams was voted as interim vice chair.
Currently, none of the ward-specific seats open to individuals from each of D.C.’s 8 wards with lived experience of poverty are filled. The last two ward members officially left the group before June, Moses announced during the July meeting. Sherry Pate, Ward 5 Community Member, and Absalom Jordan, Ward 8 Community Member, stepped down sometime before then, according to internet archives.
Curtis Smith, a DHS employee and a non-voting ex officio member of the commission representing the agency, said during the June meeting he had been reprimanded by DHS for supporting the commission and that individuals had attempted to “quiet” it.
A DHS spokesperson wrote in an email to Street Sense the agency supports the commission’s mission, though they did not comment on Smith’s specific allegations.
“DHS supports the mission of the DC Commission on Poverty and is an active participant in the group’s work,” the spokesperson wrote.
Illustration by Arisha Shumael
A deposit-based bottle recycling program could offer homeless communities an opportunity to make
MOLLY ST. CLAIR Editorial Intern
Anew proposed bill to create a depositbased bottle reclamation program could provide some homeless and low-income D.C. residents with a small but steady monthly income.
The Recycling Refund and Litter Reduction Amendment Act of 2025, otherwise known as the “bottle bill,” would implement a 10-cent deposit for every bottle or can purchased in D.C. Shoppers would pay the extra charge up front, and then the deposit would be paid back to whoever returns the bottle. Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who introduced the bill, said the 10-cent per container rate could create a “substantial” revenue opportunity for lowincome residents, who could collect and turn in abandoned bottles to supplement their monthly earnings or pay for necessities.
“When I tell people about this, they see that opportunity,” Nadeau said. “And it’s not just collecting the containers, there’s also a lot of jobs that are going to be created. So there’ll be businesses that collect containers from restaurants, from corner stores. You know, there will be people who work at the redemption centers.”
Canning, the process of collecting discarded containers and turning them in for a profit, has existed in the U.S. since the first bottle bill passed in Oregon in 1971. In the 10 states with bottle bills in place, the profession provides an accessible option to earn an income. People can collect disposed bottles and cans from their communities and turn them in to local redemption centers or participating restaurants. In New York City, canners earn an average of $119 a week, according to a report from Sure We Can, a cohort of canners in Brooklyn.
The proposed D.C. legislation would require the city to set up redemption centers in every ward, according to Nadeau. Some redemption centers could work as a “reverse vending machine,” where canners could deposit their cans in return for a receipt they cash out at the facility. Nadeau said other locations could operate as a “bag drop,” allowing canners to leave bags of containers at a local restaurant or store. The bags would be counted by the facility or a bottle collection business, and the money would be later deposited in an online account. The proposed bill would require all stores that sell bottles to double as a redemption center, with an exception for small stores.
The bottle bill has generated some controversy among local business owners, largely unrelated to the revenue opportunities it could create for low-income residents.
On Oct. 1, bottle bill advocates and opposers spent over 11 hours testifying at a public hearing. Environmental advocates in support of the bill said the promise of receiving a deposit back could increase people’s incentive to recycle their cans, meaning fewer bottles would end up on the streets and polluting the Anacostia River. Advocates also highlighted the entrepreneurship opportunities the bill could create for low-income residents, many wearing shirts with the slogan “Earn Cash, Cut Trash.”
Ryan Castalia, who serves as the director of Sure We Can, testified about the benefits of New York’s bottle bill, pointing to canning as a “low barrier,” lucrative career opportunity that has risen in popularity in New York. Castalia said the organization serves over 1,000 canners actively working across Brooklyn.
“Professional canners are invested in their communities; they return to the same places, and for this reason, they don’t leave a mess when they gather materials,” Castalia said. “I know recyclers who have sent their kids to college one bottle or can at a time.”
a profit
But opponents, including the beverage industry, posed questions about the burden on businesses that sell bottles and cans, and raised concerns the bill would raise beverage prices.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and her Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development have come out against the bill, saying it will make it harder for businesses to operate in the District. Some local businesses, like breweries, are concerned about paying handling fees for accepting the recycled cans and fronting the costs to add necessary new labels to bottles, according to reporting by The 51st.
Though the bill could create opportunities for low-income residents, some also have concerns it could raise costs for the same group. Reverend Kip Banks leads the East Washington Heights Baptist Church in Ward 7, which operates a food pantry. Banks said he hears concerns from unhoused residents about the high cost of living in D.C., an issue he fears this bill could exacerbate.
“It’s a pressing concern because poverty is getting worse,” Banks said at the hearing.
Nadeau countered the comment, saying there is “no evidence” from other bottle bill states that costs go up, since the 10-cent fee is a deposit consumers are entitled to get back when they return their cans.
“I just want to make sure that we’re not spreading misinformation, because the way a deposit works is that we want you to get the
money back, we want those containers to go back to the store, and that’s really important,” Nadeau said at the hearing. “We’re not raising prices.”
Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who co-introduced the bill, told Street Sense he’s been “disappointed” to hear opposition to the bill that dehumanizes homeless D.C. residents, like claims people would be haphazardly rummaging through trash around the city. Allen said these assertions are incorrect, citing the success of canning organizations, like Sure We Can, in which 14% of canners are unhoused.
“One of the ways that people have attacked the bill, they say, you’re going to have people who are just going to be rummaging through your trash cans, leaving trash all through your alleys, and it’s a very dehumanizing description of something that, frankly, won’t really happen that much,” Allen told Street Sense.
The bottle bill’s next stop is a hearing before the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, which Allen chairs, on Nov. 15. The bill would then have to pass in the full council before moving on to Bowser’s desk. While a majority of the council supports the bill, Bowser is opposed and has said the legislation is “bad for business,” potentially setting up a conflict between the two branches.
D.C.’s “bottle bill” would create a deposit-based recycling program for bottles and cans. Photo courtesy of Nick Fewings / Unsplash
D.C. renters face record eviction levels amid dwindling aid and rising housing costs
JAMES JARVIS AND TAYLOR NICHOLS Freelance Reporters
Melvine Perkins has spent years trying to pull herself out of poverty — working temp jobs, applying for rental aid, and doing everything possible to stay in housing. But in a city where rent costs outpace wages and assistance often runs dry, each step forward seems to push her two steps back. Now, after years of fighting to stay in her onebedroom apartment, she’s again facing eviction.
“It’s just by the grace of God that I have the mental bandwidth to not crash and burn. I’m telling you I have been through it,” she told Street Sense/The 51st. “I’m not in this situation because I want to be.”
Perkins spent nearly a decade cycling in and out of homelessness after losing her Maryland house and her nail salon business during the 2008 financial crisis. She lived for several years in a women’s shelter in Northwest D.C. It wasn’t until 2020, when she got a job tracing COVID-19 cases for the city and received a housing subsidy from the city’s Rapid Rehousing Program, that she was able to move into a Ward 6 apartment that cost $1,800 a month.
“I remember thanking God that living that nightmare was over,” she says. “I looked forward to a good night’s sleep and taking a hot bath.”
But Perkins lost her housing subsidy in late 2021 when she hit the program’s one-year cutoff. A few months later, her contract job with D.C. Health ended, leaving her with no income and no safety net. She received emergency rental assistance from the city twice over the next two years, which covered a few months of her missed rent but not enough to catch up. Perkins eventually landed a new job at the U.S. Census Bureau, bringing in just over $1,000 a month, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace with her rising rent.
Perkins now owes more than $55,000 in back rent, and her landlord has filed for eviction. Climbing out of debt, she says, has felt nearly impossible without more assistance or a higherpaying job — both of which have been hard to secure while also navigating court hearings, legal filings, and the constant paperwork tied to her case. She has agreed to move out by the end of October as part of a negotiated resolution to her case.
“Every day I wake up, I feel like I am in a mental obstacle course,” she says.
Perkins isn’t alone: Last year, completed evictions in the District rose to record levels, with 1,869 households removed from their homes under a court order. That rise marked the largest increase since the year before the pandemic, according to new data from the Office of the Tenant Advocate obtained and analyzed by Street Sense, The 51st, and American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop. And these trends show no signs of slowing. By the end of June, the city had already recorded at least 1,477 completed evictions, with three months left in the fiscal year, nearing totals seen in the entire year pre-pandemic.
While final numbers for this year won’t be available until early next year, average monthly evictions in D.C. are the highest they’ve been in six years. Before the pandemic, the city averaged about 124 evictions a month. That number dropped sharply during COVID, but jumped to roughly 156 per month in fiscal year 2024 – and has climbed even higher in 2025, averaging 164 each month so far.
Advocates say the District’s eviction surge is not the product of a single policy shift but the collision of several forces —
dwindling rent assistance, the rollback of laws meant to protect tenants, and the end of the pandemic eviction moratorium — in a city with some of the steepest rents in the country. And now they worry a new law, the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants and Landlords (RENTAL) Act, which the council approved last month and is designed to move eviction cases through the courts more quickly, could intensify those pressures.
“At the end of the day, it is actually pretty simple. It’s very unaffordable rent and a drawback of tenant protections and supports that are causing this kind of deluge of evictions,”
Daniel Del Pielago, housing director with Empower DC, a grassroots tenant advocacy group, tells Street Sense/The 51st.
More evictions, advocates say, means more people trapped in a cycle of poverty that strains city services — from emergency shelters to hospitals — and makes it harder for the District to retain residents and curb its growing unhoused population, which fell by 9% in 2025 but remains among the highest percapita in the region. And while completed evictions offer one measure of the crisis, they represent only a fraction of cases. Tens of thousands of eviction cases are filed in D.C. each year, most of which don’t result in a person being formally removed.
Research from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab shows that even just an eviction filing on your record — whether or not it results in a tenant being removed — can have lasting consequences. Tenants who face eviction often struggle to rent again, as many landlords treat any filing as a red flag. They also face a higher risk of job loss, as the stress and instability of eviction can interfere with work schedules, commuting, and overall performance.
For Perkins, just having a landlord file against her has made life harder — from renting an apartment to passing a credit check or landing a job.
“Displacement causes years of financial hardships,” Perkins says. “Rental ledgers do not reflect the truth of a person’s character.”
A tale of two cities
For some tenants, one layoff or missed paycheck can be enough to send their lives into free fall. When Carolyn Steptoe lost her job at a D.C. law firm in July 2024, she was optimistic her savings would be enough to cover the roughly $2,600 rent on the two-bedroom apartment she moved into after her home of 20 years faced foreclosure.
By fall, her savings (and her retirement) had run dry. Steptoe, who is in her mid-60s, applied for help through the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), which provides short-term aid to tenants behind on rent. The program covered about three months of unpaid rent, buying her some time. But by early 2025, still without a job, she fell behind again. Over the next six months she accrued more than $10,000 in arrears — debt her landlord is now using to try to evict her.
“You do the best you can because you’re living in D.C., where economic disparity is rampant and housing is very expensive,” she says, calling the District “a tale of two cities.”
And she isn’t far off base. A 2022 Brookings Institution report found white households in D.C. earned a median income more than three times higher than Black households. The study also found a $156,000 gap in median home values between white and Black residents, and that Black renters were nearly twice as likely to spend over 30% of their income on housing. In fiscal year 2024, half of all evictions occurred in majorityBlack Wards 7 and 8, according to city data. Those wards
account for about a quarter of the city’s renters. Tenants there are far more likely to spend more than half of their income on rent, according to a 2018 report on evictions in the District by Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. A separate Urban Institute analysis published in 2023 found these inequities stem from decades of disinvestment and discriminatory housing policies that have left Black residents disproportionately vulnerable to eviction and displacement. But it’s not just lower-income neighborhoods east of the Anacostia that are seeing a spike in evictions. Wealthier, majority-white wards have experienced some of the steepest increases in evictions — albeit from a much lower baseline.
In 2024, completed evictions surpassed pre-pandemic levels in every ward except Ward 4 — and the sharpest jumps came in neighborhoods that typically see the fewest cases, according to data obtained and analyzed by Street Sense, The 51st, and IRW. Compared to 2019, Ward 1 saw a 41% increase, Ward 2 was up 90%, Ward 3 rose 88%, and Ward 6 climbed 83%. By contrast, wards that already had the city’s highest eviction totals — 5, 7, and 8 — saw much smaller increases, ranging from 7% to 33%.
Through the first nine months of fiscal year 2025, which runs from fall 2024 to fall 2025, that trend has continued. Wards 1 through 4 and 6 have already logged more completed evictions than before the pandemic, with Ward 3 seeing the sharpest rise — up 73% compared to 2019. Meanwhile, Wards 5, 7, and 8, which usually see the highest volume of evictions, have so far remained below pre-pandemic levels, though that could change once fourth-quarter data are released.Though the exact cause of the rise in filings in neighborhoods that previously saw few evictions are unclear, advocates say they could be linked to several factors, such as the end of pandemic-era assistance, rising rents, and landlords relying more on court filings to recover unpaid rent.
Fighting for scarce aid
The rise in evictions has unfolded against the backdrop of a defunding of rental relief aid programs and weakening tenant protections that once acted as a backstop to keep people from losing their homes.
During the pandemic, federal relief through the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan enabled the District to expand the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Before COVID,
the program served only a few thousand households a year on a budget of less than $8 million. But between 2020 and 2022, federal aid pushed that number into the tens of millions, helping thousands of residents stay housed. Combined with the city’s eviction moratorium, it prevented a wave of removals.
When the moratorium lifted, landlords began filing cases that had been on hold during the pandemic. At first, ERAP and other federal relief programs helped blunt the impact, with more than $60 million available at the program’s peak in 2023. But as that federal money ran out, the city did not replace it. By fiscal year 2024, ERAP funding had fallen to $27 million. This fiscal year, just $8.6 million is budgeted.
When the city reopened applications last November, residents requested more than $20 million in rent relief within six hours, exhausting the year’s funding almost immediately. ERAP has not opened for applications this year.“I am really bracing for this new fiscal year, because that $8.6 million is going to go like the speed of light,” says Amanda Korber, managing attorney for D.C. Legal Aid’s housing unit. “I think it’s gonna get ugly, and I think it’s gonna get ugly fast.”
While the city shrank the emergency rent assistance, it also began rolling back pandemic-era tenant protections for applicants. Earlier versions of ERAP required judges to automatically pause eviction cases when tenants had a pending application. But under changes approved last year, it’s now up to judges to decide whether to delay a case. The law also added new documentation requirements for tenants and narrowed what qualifies as an “emergency situation,” making it harder for some applicants to be approved.
Supporters of the legislation say it is meant to help landlords recover unpaid rent faster by making the eviction process more efficient, citing concerns from property owners and lobbyists who argue cases can sometimes take a year or longer to resolve.
“This is a big problem, because the housing provider isn’t getting any money. They’re basically renting the unit for free,” Alex Rossello, the director of policy communications for AOBA, a local real estate industry group, told Street Sense/ The 51st. “If you have a number of these in a building that heavily hits the finances of the building.”
A rollback of tenant protections
The rollback of those protections culminated this year in the most significant overhaul of the city’s eviction process in years – the RENTAL Act. The law, passed Sept. 17, includes several provisions housing attorneys say will significantly impact tenants. These include shortening the notice landlords must give tenants before filing an eviction for nonpayment of rent from 30 days to 15, removing the requirement to include rent ledgers and payment histories with filings, and giving judges greater discretion over whether to pause cases when tenants have a pending rental assistance application.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that pretty much every single eviction procedure related provision of the [RENTAL] Act would tend to make it easier for a landlord to evict their tenant,” says Adam Marshall, housing managing attorney for the Family Preservation Project at the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, which is funded by the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency.
When she proposed the legislation in February, Mayor Muriel Bowser pointed to applications for up to $144 million in housing preservation funding — requests from 69 affordable housing projects seeking bridge and gap financing to cover operating costs, repairs, and debt — as evidence many property owners were struggling to keep nearly 8,000 affordable units from falling into distress.
“We basically created a system that in large part still persists that burdens housing providers and renters with outlandish levels of rental debt,” says Rossello.
Data from the D.C. Housing Finance Agency found tenants owed more than $21.5 million in back rent in 2024 across 105
properties financed or monitored by the agency. Delinquency rates were highest in Wards 7 and 8, the wards with the highest eviction levels.
The data shows a steady rise in delinquencies since before the pandemic, climbing from $3.7 million in 2019 to $13.5 million in 2024.
“As you can see from the underwriting assumptions, this is unsustainable for normal operations,” a spokesperson for the housing finance agency told Street Sense/The 51st.
The RENTAL Act is supposed to stop that rise. But Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George says she worries it will only deepen the problem by pushing more residents into instability at a time when the city’s safety net is already fraying. She argued faster filings and shorter notice periods may help landlords recover unpaid rent more quickly, but at the cost of displacing families who are already struggling to stay afloat amid low wages, rising rents, and gaps in social support.
“I ultimately voted against the RENTAL Act because I reject the premise that evicting our residents is the only way to stabilize affordable housing providers,” she says. “We cannot displace our way to an equitable D.C.”
Beyond band-aid solutions
Lewis George’s concerns reflect what many housing advocates have been warning for months: without stronger protections and long-term solutions, the District’s eviction system will continue to punish residents who fall behind for reasons largely beyond their control.
But advocates stress that the current trajectory is not inevitable. They point to steps city leaders could take to blunt the crisis, including restoring ERAP funding, expanding subsidies, and strengthening right-to-counsel programs so tenants have free access to legal help in court.
The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute says the city would need to commit at least $100 million a year to ERAP alone to prevent mass displacement. But even that level of investment would only address part of the problem. The deeper issue, advocates say, is the lack of affordable housing.
“We need to be funding ERAP because… It’s really the only tool for people facing eviction, but we also need to be investing in affordable housing so people aren’t in a position of needing ERAP to begin with,” says Kate Coventry, the deputy director of Legislative Strategy for the policy institute.
Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who also voted against the RENTAL Act, says ERAP was never designed to be a long-term fix for D.C.’s housing crisis.
“ERAP is meant to be an eviction prevention tool in the simplest sense,” Nadeau told Street Sense/The 51st. “It’s not supposed to be something you go back to every year. It’s supposed to be for when something goes wrong.”
Leah Hendey, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute, says the District’s housing market lacks both “deep subsidies,” which cap rent at 30% of a household’s income, and “shallow subsidies,” which provide smaller, time-limited offsets to help households just above the poverty line manage rent. Without both layers, families are left paying rents that far exceed what they can afford, with no buffer for emergencies.
Her team’s 2024 analysis estimated D.C. would need an additional $380 million annually for deep subsidies, $153 million for shallow subsidies, and $76 to $108 million for ERAP to meet the scale of need. Even if ERAP were fully funded, she noted, it cannot substitute for long-term affordability. “We don’t have enough money in the system for housing assistance, and the rent is too high for many households in the District to afford,” she says.
Nadeau says the city needs to address deeper structural problems, including stagnant wages and the shortage of affordable housing. She pointed to D.C.’s Housing Production Trust Fund — the city’s main tool for financing new affordable housing — as an example of how local investments have fallen short. While the fund helps developers build or preserve income-
restricted units, Nadeau says it hasn’t produced enough deeply affordable housing for the residents most at risk of eviction.
“None of it’s enough,” she says.
Advocates argue that failing to act will cost more in the long run. They warn shortfalls in housing assistance will mean more families pushed into homelessness, a heavier strain on shelters and emergency rooms, and deeper inequities in who gets to remain in the city.
“A person’s home or housing forms the base of any type of success that person will experience,” says Natasha Bennett, managing attorney at Bread for the City.
Fighting to stay housed
Without these interventions, tenant attorneys argue, more families will be displaced, not because they choose not to pay rent but because the systems meant to keep them housed are underfunded and riddled with barriers. The result is more residents living on the edge — one paycheck, one medical bill, or one missed paperwork deadline away from losing their homes.
Zoila, a single mother of three living in Ward 4, earns about $2,000 a month cleaning homes — less than rent for her two-bedroom apartment, which costs $2,375. She says her problems began soon after moving in, when she discovered severe mold that damaged her furniture and clothes. Despite repeated complaints, she says the landlord painted over the problem rather than fixing it.
“They knew about these bad conditions,” Zoila, who asked to use only her first name for fear of retaliation, says through a translator. “I never thought they would take me to court because they knew about the bad conditions.”
She says she had to stop paying rent temporarily after spending much of her limited income replacing her family’s furniture, which had been ruined by mold. In D.C., landlords must follow housing code standards, and if they don’t, a tenant may be legally entitled to a rent reduction.
But when the landlord later sued her for nonpayment, the judge ordered her to pay rent into the court while repairs continued. Zoila was ultimately able to avoid eviction. But housing advocates worry that when the eviction process is sped up and less assistance is available to insulate tenants on the edge, renters like Zoila and Steptoe will have fewer avenues to protect themselves.
Steptoe landed a new job in July as a paralegal at a Reston law firm that pays six figures, but she’s still trying to catch up. She now pays about $1,500 a month into the court under what’s known as a protective order while her case moves through D.C. Superior Court. She’s hopeful it will be dismissed, saying she’s gathered evidence her building’s management has violated D.C. housing codes, which would give her justification for withholding some rent. More than that, she says, she’s fighting to show her neighbors — many of whom are on fixed incomes or have lost work themselves — that they don’t have to give in and leave their home if they fall behind.
“No one wants to be homeless,” she says.
Zoila told Street Sense/The 51st she no longer owes rent but lives with constant uncertainty as winter approaches, when mold problems worsen. She says she’s afraid to apply for ERAP again, worried it could trigger another court case.
“I’m thinking of finding a second job, but my life is very hard with my kids,” she says.“I want to pay my rent. I know it’s my responsibility,” she added. “But I’ve suffered with these conditions, and it feels like there’s no help. Every year the rent goes up, and people here barely make enough to eat.” This reporting project is a collaboration between Street Sense Media, The 51st, and American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop. It was reported with support from SpotlightDC: Capital City Fund for Investigative Journalism. This story was edited by Abigail Higgins of The 51st and Annemarie Cuccia of Street Sense Media. Aarushi Sahejpal of the Investigative Reporting Workshop was the data editor and Will Sytsma contributed data analysis.
Equine therapy
INVISIBLE PROPHET
his summer, I had beginner equine training which provided instructions for brushing, walking with a lead, and the overall handling of a horse. There was a mouthpiece and bridle which included headgear, lead or rein, and straps. The saddle and cover placement are crucial for riding, with emphasis on the importance of a cinch, billets, back cinch, and the connect strap. These are all key elements for safety as a rider, trainer, and lead person. Another instruction was to listen to the horse’s body language as well as yours. Like we do, horses have personalities, along with good and bad days. Each horse has its purpose, with levels of training from no to high experience, which is paired with a horse’s personality and behavior.
TThe training was beneficial, and I experienced an awesome encounter with a horse named “T.” She used to be a runner who is now retired with sore legs. I researched locations for equine therapy for myself. Some places have grants for certain groups of people and not for others. Some insurances may pay for equine therapy for clients with certain health conditions. The therapy is expensive, and if someone can afford it, it is the best investment for mental health.
When we were working with the saddle, “T” became concerned about us mounting her. As I held her lead, I caressed her head and reassured her we were just training and would not mount her. She calmed down and loved the pets on her head while she observed our behavior with her. When I stopped caressing her head, she booped my belly to continue with her pets. She was a lovely experience. I feel animals deal with their mental health, too. I know it may not seem real; however, with the little time I spent with “T” she let us know when it was time to end her training sessions. She wasn’t having any more walking and talking with saddle and billet instruction. So we led her back to her stall. The trainer paired each person with a horse that would work with us as volunteers. I thought this was a great observation on how the trainers acknowledge human and animal behavior, and compare our energies together.
In an EBSCO summary written by Nancy W. Comstock in 2024, some of the therapeutic uses of equine training are outlined:
“Equine therapy, also known as hippotherapy, utilizes horses as a therapeutic aid for individuals undergoing physical, occupational, or psychological rehabilitation. This approach can benefit a wide range of individuals, including those with physical disabilities like cerebral palsy, as well as those facing emotional and cognitive challenges such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The therapeutic interaction with horses helps improve physical abilities through the movement and dynamics of riding, while also fostering emotional connections that can enhance mental health.”
Even though I had one day of training, it was so beneficial to my mental health. My energy and emotions shifted, and this experience was an educational opportunity to address mental health. I couldn’t afford the therapy sessions; however, this inherited trauma brain allowed me to forget those who have continually created harm in my life. I guess joy and happiness were felt in a nanosecond. A volunteer experience is just as great as a therapy session. Any organization needs volunteers who are extremely dedicated and passionate about assisting in barn work, training, therapy sessions, and horse feedings, or other needs if asked.
Volunteers help run many locations within an organization. Individuals can sit on a board, and whether they assist or volunteer, I don’t know. The trainers I met during my session were phenomenal, especially the trainer with whom I worked. They were as gentle as our horse named “T.” Of course, everyone’s experience will be different than mine. An experience is according to how we embrace healthy therapy techniques, and others might not have the ability to do so without a caregiver’s assistance in repetitive sessions.
A study conducted by the University of Missouri, Columbia, and published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science in October 2017 found horses working with adults affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) did not adversely affect the horses, and many horses who are older or otherwise who would have been euthanized may benefit from continuing to be of service. There is also an opportunity to adopt retired horses at reasonable prices and provide equine training as an owner. So, equine therapy also saves a horse’s life as well as a human’s life. That’s a win-win for mental health therapy.
Invisible Prophet is an artist/vendor with Street Sense Media.
Domestic workers in D.C. demand dignity
JOSIE BROWN
n November 2022, Street Sense reported on domestic workers’ long struggle for recognition as the D.C. Council prepared to enact a historic new law. That law — the Domestic Workers Employment Rights Amendment Act — gave the right to a written contract with their employer and extended protections against employment discrimination to more than 9,000 nannies, cleaners, and caregivers in the District. Three years later, organizers say the work is far from finished.
I“Domestic work is the work that makes all other work possible,” said Alana Eichner, co-director of the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). “Families can go to their jobs because someone is caring for their children, their elders, and their homes. Yet this labor has always been undervalued.”
The DMV chapter has been organizing since 2017, reaching workers in D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia, and recently expanding to other parts of Virginia. Larissa Costa, the chapter’s organizer for Washington, D.C., and a former nanny of 10 years, says the challenges are deeply personal. “I remember trembling when I had to ask for wages I hadn’t been paid,” she explained. “Now I can be there for workers who don’t know what to do — to listen, to support, and to provide options.”
Organizers spend their days meeting workers in libraries, churches, and bus stops, teaching them about their rights, helping them negotiate with employers, and connecting them to legal partners, such as First Shift Justice Project, a non-profit organization that has a lawyer on staff to support domestic workers. The NDW DMV chapter has regular programming, including workshops, trainings, and communitybuilding events. For example, it has hosted trainings on occupational health and safety (since domestic work involves heavy lifting and toxic cleaning products), CPR, storytelling for advocacy, and “Know Your Rights” sessions with lawyers. NDWA calls on workers to join its organizing. If you are a nanny, a cleaner, or a home health aide/caregiver and would like to learn more, you can call or text the NDWA DMV chapter at 202-524-3835. The organizers will connect you to upcoming events and trainings. If you are someone who hires a domestic worker to work in your home, you can learn about your responsibilities through Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network (domesticemployers.org).
“A law on paper doesn’t change anything unless workers know their rights. Our work is to support and empower workers in their important contribution to society.” Eichner said.
For Costa, it comes down to equality and dignity: “We are caregivers, and our work is essential. We deserve respect, rights, and recognition.”
You can also email Costa, NDWA DC organizer, at lcosta@domesticworkers.org.
Josie Brown is an artist/vendor with Street Sense Media. She worked on this article with Larissa Costa of the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance.
Big, horrible bill
AIDA PEERY
Watching President Donald Trump and his wife signing that big horrible bill on TV with the biggest grin on their faces, as if to say, “We don’t like people that aren’t billionaires.” Millions of people are going to die in America. It’s not just people of color, but a lot of white folks will die too — all those who rely on SNAP, Medicaid, and Medicare. Hospitals and a lot of clinics will end up closing.
Rural areas in the states will end up going back to nothing, as clinics, doctors and nurses have to pack up and leave. They have to survive, too.
I have worked since I was 14 years old, and every time I got paid, my gross earnings didn’t match my take-home. The government took taxes out for workers' compensation, health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and if you decided to participate in a 401k plan it took money out for that too!
Social Security! Nobody asked me if I wanted all these taxes taken out of my check, but I still had to file my taxes. Now 50 years later, we have a bunch of uncaring Republicans who are billionaires who don’t want to pay their fair taxes to cut up millions of people's Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security! I paid into those taxes.
Ain’t nothing cheap or free in America. All these distractions. Two Americans, one who lost his life, and another rapper, Bad Bunny, who is Puerto Rican and doing a 30-minute halftime NFL show. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Jimmy Kimmel is a comedian, for Christ’s sake. What we Americans need to be watching and talking about is that Trump isn’t being a good president for all people who have fewer resources.
Puerto Rico isn’t getting free health care! They pay taxes to the USA! While they are working in America, their taxes are being taken out of their paycheck too!
Why aren’t we talking about the thousands of Ukrainians, Afrikaners and Afghan refugees who left their homeland to come to America because of their civil wars? Nobody is talking about who’s really getting free health care, food stamps, and Medicaid and SSI/SSDI. We know for sure it’s definitely not Brown, Black or white folks who really need their medication for pain to survive or to be among the living.
Homeless people weren’t homeless all of their lives. They worked at one point. They too paid their fair share of taxes. All of you people who voted for Trump, how is it going for you in your new economy? Prices haven’t come down yet. They’re going up. Oh, I forgot gas prices always go up and down. But you can’t eat or drink gas.
Just couldn’t stand for a woman to be in the Oval Office for four years.
Going up
GLORIA
PRINZ Artist/Vendor
Haters are my elavators.
My one and only true fans.
My fans make me go low and high.
I start getting disrespected, to react!
Why must I talk?
Why do you want me to react negative?
The beginning
NIKILA SMITH Artist/Vendor
ART
I never could be the perfect daughter; I wasn't seen, only when it was time to work out. I was your human punching bag, ashtray, something to spit on; I was nothing to you. Was your childhood so messed up that you would give birth to a punching bag? Now D.C. is teaching hurt people hurt, it's funny how when you're expressing this thing called hurt, no one hears you until it becomes a saying. I'm hurt and broken, but I gave birth to love and perfection. I would walk through all this to get my family back. I have been missing for so long. I'm different. My sight has dust around it, but I can still see. My best friend was in my sight, after all these years. I still see him out of the corner of my eye. I love him, but I will always be his special punching bag. I used to fight back with my hands, but growing into a woman has taught me to leave it all up to God. I never pray for the restoration of my marriage; I have learned to be specific with my prayers, just let God bless me with what I deserve.
I'm not showing up for a last goodbye
That seems cruel
I have changed, but others stay the same I'm carrying this load alone
It's been heavy all my life
Growing up, I never saw the beauty in you
Just pure hatred
Small acts of kindness, killed by evil
Cruel To Be Kind covers my heart
The fact that you will be leaving
Leaves me numb
Grief hides behind my heart
Not cold, but my touch isn't warm
Please have mercy on my heart
The one I have
From you being too cruel to be kind
I don't want harm to come to you
I pray for life
But father has the last word
I'm angry I don't know how to feel
I'm lost and broken
This is because of a lack of you
The warmness
I should have received
You wished death upon me
But I was already dying
I have life to change life
Love is in and outside of me
I couldn't see it til you threw me away
Maybe you were the start
Of me being put out on trash day
My life has been through a couple of train wrecks
But I'm building up a new track
With a secure route
Cover me Lord
LEO HUGHES JR.
Artist/Vendor
He was as young as can be when he first hit the block 13 years old, with a pocket full of rocks
Mind on paper, ignorant of the world that’s around him
And not even knowing the police had surrounded him
But he broke free, his first encounter with the streets
He knows rule #1: don’t get caught by the police
So he took it in stride, rolled up a jay, hopped in his ride
Counting his precious money and enjoying his precious high
One life to live, which means he has one to lose
Don’t wanna live being broke, so it’s that game he chose
Which is bad news, the game was good from the beginning
To make him think he was winning
While the devil stood there grinning
Just
God
a hand from
WILLIAM HARGROVE
Artist/Vendor
When tomorrow comes, I’ll be on my way, feeling frightened of the things I don’t know. When tomorrow comes, though the road is long, I look up to God in the sky. In the dark, I’ve found I won’t fly. I got all I needed when I got you. I look around me; life’s not bad, knowing you have me, God. So I kick-start my heart, so I’m still loved by you. I’m stuck in the dark, but you are my light. I see the shadows long beneath the mountain, but I’m not afraid when the rain won’t stop. God, you light the way for me. I got all I need when I got you. I look around me, and I see sweetness when you, God, are in my life.
Illustration by Nikila Smith
Aida Peery is an artist/vendor with Street Sense Media.
Time of trouble
DEGNON DOVONOU Artist/Vendor
Sometimes we face situations in which no help is available. Despite how hard it is, we must believe and keep moving forward with resilience,
How sweet the patience when it exists with no single negligence, How hard when we struggle and mingle alongside diligence.
Once the choice is made, the decision to live life with no sorrow, pain, or grieving prevails,
We must live without leaving our children an unhappy future and no mercy, or children, who’ll represent the next generations and will come after us, might have no legacy.
How many people before us were unhappy and never achieved their dreams before living this life?
What do we do to deserve all this, to continue, suffering, being helpless, and all the time, broken?
You were homeless and found a shelter, then a new journey for housing started.
Now, you’re housed, and the journey as a jobless person started. You went to the job market, and they looked at your background and saw you’ve been homeless,
From there begins another situation of suffering in abhorrence. None dares to give you the least second or chance to start anew, Everyone says they refuse stigma, but they’re the ones who do it within reference.
One way or another, we must remember the same stigma still exists with interference.
Nobody dares to talk about it, but it is still there in essence. I run to all the cities, trying to look for the minimum wage but till now, none to see,
Riding the whole country, fighting for the smallest opportunity.
How much longer do we have to wait for?
How many more places and faces do we have to run, encounter counter by counter?
We’ve created a business, but they said our credit score’s low. Pepco and internet bills are due; food and water are scarce.
One day, hopefully, we’ll have someone who’ll be there for minimal help.
Even if tears are flowing, there is no comfort, Even if sadness is spreading, there is no support. Feeling alone and by himself, feeling non-existent, But you still belong to this world, always show pride. And remember after all, we have no choice but to keep hoping, Hoping for a better future to come.
Even if we didn’t make it the way it was supposed to be, We must believe children will dare achieve it. With them we’ll grow, together we’ll form an everlasting team, A team not of losers but of doers, achievers, and winners.
Resilience
FREDERICK WALKER
Artist/Vendor
Outside, as night covers me in the darkest, blackest pit
I thank the spirits for letting me be and not letting me fall into it.
I am tough and I had enough
ROBERT WARREN Artist/Vendor
A day in the wonder years of an impoverished kid before I became a little person, just to remember.
My auntie dear, my uncle’s wife, was like my second mommy in my little eyes.
I would wake up every morning at first sunlight to find my dear aunt preparing the family breakfast.
My question was always what can I do for a penny, a nickel, a dime I could trade in at the corner store for something sweet.
Two pop pops for a penny would have met my need, which would be breakfast to eat.
My auntie dear smiled and put a nickel in my hand, and before I could say thank you, I turned around and ran outside to the backyard to play in the dirt before going to school. I had to put in my way.
A thought came to mind before I met that little friend of mine and his mother.
Who would watch us run to kindergarten class each day as little boys? We ran the same way every day.
Yea, I thought I’m a big boy and I’m tough with a nickel in my pocket.
That would be enough for that banana dream pop at my corner store on my way. Think about it no more.
Sitting on the corner watching the cars ride by, eating my banana dream pop, waiting for my friend so we could rock and roll.
We kindergartners ran and played with so much soul.
Next thing I know, a speeding car blew me off the curb and threw me far. Looking over, I saw he ran a red light and was out of sight.
I lay in the road not feeling any pain. I was later told I had been hit to the back of my head, nearly to my brain.
Lying in an ambulance, feeling like something’s not same, could I be to blame for sitting on that curb thinking I am tough?
And then I look up to see my mother running towards me with a look of fear and tears in her eyes.
My first thought was Mama, don’t cry, I’m tough and will be alright.
Waking up again, and something is saying to me,
“Don’t go into the light, it’s not your time yet, you have to make sure that your mama’s alright.”
I closed my eyes and woke up to the voices of women nearby. One said, “What’s wrong with his mother, he’s so dirty, right?” I thought to myself, “My mother is the best, if they only knew she never put up a fight. She lets me play in the dirt every day, right?”
And when it was time to wash, I played hide and go seek, and it was always a hard time finding me.
You see, I had cousins and a big brother who used to punch on me. You have to be tough for a little boy living in poverty.
So I told my mama I’m tough and after that car blew me far, I had enough of my cousins and brother punching on me.
No more fighting in their little boys’ league, no more big people punching on me. I became a little person who believed in defending my little friends from any big bullies I saw. My mama said I really wasn’t all that tough, but I surely was sweet as can be. It was always some sugar candy for me.
Dear customers and new friends
WAYNE HALL Artist/Vendor
I want to thank you for your kindness and support each time you purchase a copy of Street Sense from me. What may feel to you like a small act of kindness carries tremendous meaning in my life. I never thought of being a writer. Sometimes you just go where life takes you and try to make the best of it. Please note you are helping me build stability and hope for a brighter future.
The minimum donation of $3 is more than just a transaction. You are acknowledging my efforts, giving me a chance to work with dignity, and showing me I still have a place in the community. (Shoutout to the Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market, the most loyal and understanding consumers of my art!)
Selling the paper not only gives me a way to earn income but also teaches me daily life lessons about communication, responsibility, and, most importantly, perseverance. Some days are rough, I will say. But each day I’m reminded people do care about me and my life’s status. Street Sense is a powerful form of community connection, and I’m grateful I’m a part of it. When you support any of our vendors, you support a movement that values human dignity and the second chances to which everyone on the planet is entitled. Every copy I sell boosts my confidence I’ve made the right decisions in life and enables me to live with no regrets. For that, I thank you. Just know you make a difference in people’s lives who share the common struggles of homelessness
The accident
GERALD
This is the third and final of Gerald Anderson’s stories on his bicycle accident of last year, and how he handled hospitalization, surgery, and getting back to what he loves most — seeing and talking to his customers outside the Gallery Place Metro station.
I remember sayin’ “Just don’t let me die.” They said, “You’re not gonna die.”
I was feeling something painful behind my neck. So the surgery guys got me ready, and they put me out. When I woke up, I was groggy, and all I could remember was my surgery doctor showing me something that he had taken out of my neck. He says, “This is what was botherin’ you,” and he throws it in the trash. I never saw what it was.
I’ll tell you, man, it was a hard time. I tell everyone in this world, “Whatever you do, try not to hurt yourself. Try not to.” I was bleeding inside. And I could have died. My family would never know how I died. The whole thing, man, it was a hell of a trip. I missed my spot. That’s all I was wondering the whole time, you know, is who’s gonna be in my spot when I come back? But here I am, back in my spot. I got steel in the back of my neck, and I’m goin’ be in pain the rest of my life, but I’m back out here.
When I’m alone, that’s when it hurts. When I’m with people, talking to people, it’s different. I’m OK then. You gotta be a strong man. And I am strong.
ANDERSON Artist/Vendor
Got it! Finally
LEVESTER GREEN Artist/Vendor
I’m making my mark now that I’ve finally gained this solid ground and foundation! I still consider it a bit of a cracked foundation. You know, like the Liberty Bell or slavery in the linings of the birth of our nation of independents, united! I can stake my claim as part of the fabric now of the American spirit and achievements of its dreams for each and all! I still have more as a second half since my first two books of poetry were combinations of both my accumulated poems over the years as well as quick quibs and quips assembled over my seven years spent homeless! Finally checked them off of my bucket list! My greeting card of D.C.’s bucket listings is available on Second Story Cards as well as a few others you all might like celebrating the D.C. spirit including GoGo music’s birthplace! Here in the nation’s capital! Now that I have my poetry underhand, and yes I do have yet even still a few more renditions to go, I can make way for my photography and photojournalism for which I receive credit via The Societies of Photographies based in the United Kingdom. Perhaps you could Google my ventures? So I look forward to that leg of my journey that’s been stalled due to these rude people attached to these voices in the wall! They’ve quieted down a bit but I still struggle to attain my moments of peace and clarity. So I’ve turned to initiating AI technology a bit as my artistic creative side has budded up once again. I’ve also lined up my illustrations for publication as maybe a coloring book or just a book of my doodles and creations. I’ll take my inventory once again since, as I’ve been reporting, I’ve been having intrusions and I now only have my current living quarters for all of my belongings and “intellectual property.” So I’d like to utilize my Sticker Mule account as an outlet for my designs because I don’t have any available yet through Second Story Cards, but my focus is on my personal struggle and these subliminal forces underlying so close and near to my ears when I’m trying to steer my career through these social media companies. My talent and technology have met up as if it t’were about time that they met! NightCafe is an excellent creative outlet but another one I’m having trouble gaining from as I am unable, due to technical glitches, to register my identification. Still attempting to achieve my independence, as well as the branding from my book titles. Plenty more to look forward to just at an impasse currently but it has dragged on now for over three and a half years! I’m more than ready to get back into the editing of my Street Sense Media themed book, Commitment2Communicationz, which will be available via Xlibris Book Publishing. Still wondering why it became so difficult after three published books already? Is it that I included Street Sense Media in my plans but it made no plans to help me publish since it is what it do and it already have my work registered with them digitally!? Go figure!? Calculating the obvious like see, C!
Oct. 31
Witches, bats, and ghosts
Shall come out all night
Let the trick-or-treat begin
Because it is Harvest time
The color is orange, And their faces are black
Give me a piece of candy, And I will give you a treat
Halloween is fun for you and medon’t you agree?
Ghosts in the street go Boo Boo Who is that in the dark?
Vampires scare you, While dogs start to bark
Jack-o-lanterns grin with a smile
While we walk a mile
Kids in costumes, From princess to clown
Trick or treat all over town
Knock on doors and eagerly say Trick or treat, everybody
What’s under there?
Beware
Of the house with a creepy sound
There are big and little teeth
Scaring all the skeletons away
The times we are living in
RACHELLE ELLISON
Artist/Vendor
The times we are living in are up in the air
The Trump Administration doesn’t play fair
All human needs are cut from the poorest of the poor
When, in all reality, we truly need more
We now have the housed scared they will lose their home,
The unhoused, who have lost hope, just continue to roam.
We have advocates who stand tall in this plight, Ready to use our voices to win this fight. We have to do more to change the stance, So racial justice and equality can be advanced I refuse to lose with so much at stake, I mean, we are talking about human beings’ fate
So God, please give us the strength to stand with vigor and grit for what’s just and right, Together as one, we need to stand firm in the fight!!
Preternatural visit to Salem
BRIAN HOLSTEN Artist/Vendor
When my mother last saw her father at the wake, she came alone. A vibrant young lady at the age of 22, before she married. No one else came from her inner family. Her memories were ignited by a love for her true hero, who introduced her to a love of animals. Her family’s home base inside a grocery store on Salem’s Washington Street, her hero’s dog named Chopsy, and her cat named Ginger lived throughout the 1950s, but were now lost in a new world confined to housing on urban development grounds. However, she started a family and returned to Salem to remember with her sister and mother and show her son the changes from the past to the present and create a hope for a future, understanding we are living in a changing world. The supernatural’s ghost of the past had bound together with a preternatural world no longer natural to her. How could they return to their father’s store over 25 years later, since it had been owned by someone else, and the family fulfilled their responsibility? The store still looked the same, for the fence was still green, and the aisles that held the product were narrow. There, upon the butcher’s table, was a machine that cut cold cuts, cheese, and meat, as well as, fatally, her father’s hand off in a tragic accident. Was it fate to remember hopes that were endured upon reentry into the past by focusing on with one’s aging eyes, constructors of change, whether it was her father’s casket that held his artificial arm separate from his body, or the cashier machine where her father promised his daughter free candy bars. Then, upon the visit to the House of the Seven Gables on Washington Street, Salem, where she remembered her childhood tap dance lessons, and her father, who hugged her after reading, upon seeing a generation of new children at dance and play.
Autumn
JAMES GREY
Artist/Vendor
The autumn winds blow ever so sound Artistry’s dance, the mind’s race so profound Tyrants lie, nails surround you, lay Resistance is as rare as a needle in hay Debunk the fictitious fiction Debunk the divided friction
Autumn leaves change like the uniform droplets of rain, Change to unique identifiers in the rushing chill of snow. The justification of falsification drags our species Into a complacent march, refusing to grow. Horns of doom, darkness of gloom, Vrooms suddenly throughout the rooms. Love light survives the righteous fight That ignites the darkest night.
Antennas fueled by billions of microwaves suddenly sneer. Perpetual doom of the true cause of the weather is near. Global pretending covers up weather control funnels, Microwaves perpetually heat water, and earthquakes tunnel.
For over 30 years, it’s just another standard autumn.
What to know
WENDY BROWN Artist/Vendor
Content warning: Mentions of assualt
Misery
CARLOS CAROLINA
Artist/Vendor
I miss you forever I wish we could be together
When I had you by my side, It seemed I’d seen the bigger picture But without you in my life, My sunny days are dull as pencils
God, I miss you
Wish I could give you all my hugs and kisses
Reminiscing about the good ol days
I’d never thought I’d see, The day would come that I’d be all alone, Without you here with me
I’m heartbroken, as is my world, Which crumbled at my feet.
Deep inside, I’m slowly dying
With every single memory and fantasy
As I daydream of times we’ll never see
I’m missing you,
As I’m stuck wondering,
“Is you missing me?’
“It’s misery.”
What housed people don’t know about unhoused people (and what unhoused people don’t know about housed people) is CARE is an acronym, but it is also an action word. Someone took me home one night and molested me. He molested me again the next day. Well, one day he beat me. He cut my throat! Where is it better to be homeless? Uptown or the South Side? Uptown, because you won’t make it on the South Side. They’re already virtuous. Their goods are taken or stolen. Their points are forgotten. It feels like I don’t know! It is hot! The staff used shampoo, and she came and helped with cars, trucks, sports, utilities, and more. See, we will cook burgers and hot dogs and then pass out jobs.
ROCHELLE WALKER
Artist/Vendor
FUN & GAMES
Across
1. High beam roof part
7. In a lackadaisical and seemingly spiritless manner
11. Big Blue (abbr./initialism)
14. British noble, briefly (RATIOS anagram)
15. Margarita fruit
16. ___ Valley (San Francisco neighborhood next to The Castro)
17. Fundamental operations for a tool, machinery or a team or organization (2 wds.) (4,9)
19. “i” lid?
20. Moody rock subgenre
21. Alpine river (AREA anagram)
22. Feltlike fabric for a billiards or pool table
24. Old German duchy name
26. “Alright, then. Have it your way” (3 wds.) (2,3,6)
29. Dorm overseers, for short (abbr./init.)
32. Prefix with -fugal or -petal
33. White rat or squirrel, e.g.
36. “Put to good ___”
37. Top of some clock faces
40. With 42-Across, criticizing or complaining to certain sports contest officials in an effort to influence their future calls (3 wds.) (7,3,4)
42. [see 40-Across]
45. Female animal whose middle letter, said aloud, has 3 syllables
46. Soccer squat
48. Playground response to “That’s not true!!” (3 wds.) (2,2,2) (SO IT IS anagram)
49. High-pitched sound produced by labored breathing
52. Little ‘un
53. Dream, story or vision that is totally disconnected from reality (2 wds.) (4,7)
56. Swindle
60. Santa ___ race track
61. Have gotten out of bed (2 wds.) (2,2)
64. Start of a Latin conjugation
65. Pay or pen follower
66. Common response to concerns about the dangerous or unhealthy risks associated with pleasurable activities (4 wds.) (3.3.4.3)
70. WWW address (abbr./init.)
71. Dalai ___
72. Fail to 36-Across
73. Mornings, for short (abbr./init.)
74. “___ Brockovich” or “___ go bragh”
75. Scarlett’s first love ___ Wilkes
Down
1. “Whee! We’re off to the ____!”
2. What’s that you’re smelling?
3. Mozilla’s free and open-source browser
4. Nashville sch. (abbr./init.)
5. 11,000-foot Italian peak
6. Almond ___ (candy)
7. Former Romanian president
8. God in the Vatican (Ital.)
9. K-O connectors
10. “That’s right... However...” (2 wds.) (3,3)
11. Facing many dangerous or unhealthy situations (3 wds.) (2,4,5)
12. Alcoholic beverages, informally
13. Vehicle gauge word that follows speedo-, tacho- and thermo-
18. “La la” preceder
23. “Calendar abbr. for one of the 30-day mos.
LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION
25. Estrada of “CHiPs”
27. Recently (abbr.)
28. ____ wonder (singer or group enjoying limited success) (2 wds.) (3,3)
30. Singer DiFranco
31. Shakespearean verse
33. Leave dumbstruck
34. Depressed
35. These might be free on BOGO night at the bar (2 wds.) (4,7)
38. Conditions
39. Prefix with bar
41. Great Pyramid locale on the Nile
43. Pilot’s announcement, briefly (abbr./init.)
44. Purges (of)
47. The “L” in LGBTQIA+
50. Pillbox or porkpie, e.g.
51. Make possible or materially facilitate (BE LEAN anagram)
53. ___ New Guinea
54. Deprive of heat?
55. “Are we there ___?”
57. “Exercise caution”
58. Make smile
59. The root of all evil, proverbially
62. Alma Mater of a so-called “Long Gray Line” that includes, among others, Sec’y of Defense Lloyd Austin (abbr./init.)
63. Pitchfork-shaped Greek letters
67. Egypt and Syria, once (abbr./init.)
68. “I don’t need to hear more” (abbr./init./textese)
69. Show attendees in or to their seats, slangily
ILLUSTRATION OF THE WEEK
This crossword puzzle is the original work of Patrick “Mac”McIntyre. It is provided to us courtesy of Real Change News, a street paper based in Seattle, Washington. Learn more about Real Change News and the International Network of Street Papers at realchangenews.org and insp.ngo.
SHAWN FENWICK Artist/Vendor
COMMUNITY SERVICES
Housing/Shelter Vivienda/alojamiento Case Management Coordinación de Servicios
Academy of Hope Public Charter School
202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Pl. NE
202-373-0246 // 421 Alabama Ave. SE aohdc.org
Bread for the City 1525 7th St., NW // 202-265-2400 1700 Marion Barry Ave., SE // 202-561-8587 breadforthecity.org
Calvary Women’s Services // 202-678-2341 1217 Marion Barry Ave., SE calvaryservices.org
Catholic Charities // 202-772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp
Central Union Mission // 202-745-7118 65 Massachusetts Ave., NW missiondc.org
Charlie’s Place // 202-929-0100 1830 Connecticut Ave., NW charliesplacedc.org
Christ House // 202-328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd., NW christhouse.org
Church of the Pilgrims // 202-387-6612 2201 P St., NW (1-1:30 on Sundays only) churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach
Community Family Life Services 202-347-0511 // 305 E St., NW cflsdc.org
Community of Hope // 202-232-7356 4 Atlantic St., NW 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 North Capitol St., NW fathermckennacenter.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 foundryumc.org/idministry
Identification services
Friendship Place // 202-364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave., NW friendshipplace.org
Georgetown Ministry Center // 202-338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave., NW georgetownministrycenter.org
Jobs Have Priority // 202-544-9096 1526 Pennslyvania Ave., SE jobshavepriority.org
Loaves & Fishes // 202-232-0900 1525 Newton St., NW loavesandfishesdc.org
Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 marthastable.org 2375 Elvans Rd, 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 // 202-939-2076 1333 N St., NW nstreetvillage.org
New York Avenue Shelter // 202-832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave., NE
Patricia Handy Place for Women 202-733-5378 // 810 5th St., NW
Samaritan Inns // 202-667-8831 2523 14th St., NW samaritaninns.org
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 // 202-363-4900 3655 Calvert St., NW stlukesmissioncenter.org
Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW thrivedc.org
Unity Health Care unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699
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, 850 Delaware Ave., SW, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 1151 Bladensburg Rd., NE, 4515 Edson Pl., NE
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 1525 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 1201 Sycamore Dr., SE whitman-walker.org
Woodley House // 202-830-3508 2711 Connecticut Ave., NW
For further information and listings, visit our online service guide at StreetSenseMedia.org/service-guide
Customer Service Associate
Wawa // Washington D.C.
Part-time/Full-time
Customer service associate duties include: greet and engage with customers to ensure their needs are met; prepare food items such as built-to-order sandwiches, beverages, and pizzas as well keeping coffee station clean and organized; operate the cash register, handle payments, activate fuel and gift cards; ensure stores are well-stocked; help keep stores clean and safe; complete store housekeeping duties including cleaning, dusting, sweeping, mopping, emptying trash, and more.
Required: Be able to stand and walk for long periods.
Apply: tinyurl.com/WaWajobDC
Part-time Clerk
Giant // D.C.
Part-time
Our stock clerks know about all of our products and what aisle they belong in. They also restock and organize the shelves throughout the day. When an area needs tidying up, they are on it right away. You may be asked to assist in other ways too, depending on the needs of your store.
Required: Must be able to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds
tinyurl.com/GiantPartTimeClerk
Full-time/ Part-time
Ben’s Chili Bowl is seeking individuals with a commitment to exceptional guest service in the restaurant industry to join our growing family! Bring your positive attitude and a huge smile to our fast-paced environment! Full and part time positions available at the U Street and H Street locations. Flexibility to work weekends, holidays, and nights a plus!
Required: N/A
Apply: tinyurl.com/BensChilliJob
STREET SENSE MEDIA AUDIENCE SURVEY
Street Sense Media loves our readers! Our award-winning newspaper is the core of what we do. Our low-barrier vendor employment program is built upon it. Our journalists cover local issues affecting real people and feature our vendors’ voices, defying market trends in media. So thank you for taking this survey, because we’re on pins and needles to know what you think about our newspaper!
Why do you purchase ‘Street Sense?’ Select all that apply.
To support the vendor financially
To support SSM as an organization
To read content by a specific vendor
For art and opinions from the unhoused community generally
For news on homelessness and poverty
Other:
If you turn down a copy of ‘Street Sense,’ why? Select all that apply.
I always buy it
I already bought it from someone else
Personal financial circumstances
Vendors’ sales pitch wasn’t convincing Cover story didn’t grab my interest
I wanted to buy it but didn’t see a vendor
Other:
Have you ever donated to SSM? Select all that apply. (FYI, making a contribution to one of our vendors is great, but it doesn’t pay the SSM bills.)
Yes
No
I didn’t know SSM needs donations
What’s a program, issue, individual, inequity, or other story in D.C. you want to see more reporting on? Think about an issue where reporting could have a big impact on people experiencing homelessness and homeless services.
What topics related to homelessness (i.e. shelters, encampments, homelessness among specific demographic groups, affordability, vouchers, public housing, the social safety net, homelessness policy) concern you the most?
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
(the following questions are all optional)
What is your age?
What is your gender?
What is your racial/ ethnic background?
Hispanic/Latinx
Black/African American Asian
Native American
Native Hawaiian or
Other (please specify):
What is your household income?
Under $20,000
$20,000 to $39,999
$40,000 to $59,999
$60,000 to $79,999
$80,000 to $99,999
$100,000 to $200,000
Over $200,000
Prefer not to respond
Prefer to self-describe:
What is/was your employment sector?
Arts/entertainment
Education
Figuring things out
Finance/business
Government
Healthcare
Industrial/manufacturing
Law
Media/communications
Nonprofit
Politics
Retail/service
Science/technology
Security/policing
Stay-at-home parent
Student
Other (please specify):
What is the highest level of education you have completed?
No high school diploma or GED
High school diploma or GED
Associate’s degree
Bachelor’s degree
Advanced degree
How do you interact with SSM online? Select all that apply.
The streetsensemedia.org website
X/Twitter
Subscribe to the podcast
Subscribe to the fundraiser emails
Subscribe to the editor’s newsletter
I do not interact with SSM online
Other (please specify):
How often do you visit the SSM website (streetsensemedia.org)?
Several times a year I’ve never visited the website
How long have you supported SSM?
Less than 1 year 1-3 years
3-5 years
Over 5 years
How often do you purchase ‘Street Sense?’
This is my first purchase!
Every two weeks
Monthly
A few times a year
Where would you like to be able to buy ‘Street Sense’ but can’t find a vendor? (Describe an intersection, neighborhood, landmark or cross-streets.)
Of course you love ‘Street Sense!’ But what can we improve? No idea is too small.
If a vendor referred you to this survey, please enter their name and/or vendor number. Misspellings are okay!
