02.09.2022

VOL. 19 ISSUE 12

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FEB. 9 - 15, 2022

Real Stories

Real People

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Real Change

How an activist group fought to win rights for tenants STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

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Kaela Roeder

The Cover

Annemarie Cuccia

KC Tenants organizing.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KC TENANTS

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

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

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

STAFF REPORTER EDITORIAL INTERNS

Lillian Ballantine, Hajira Fuad, Nate Kral, Jem Dyson, Nick Pasion, Ashleigh Fields, Ingrid Holmquist

ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE

Willie Schatz (Writing), Bonnie Naradzay (Poetry), David Serota (Illustration)

OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER)

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EVENTS

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AT A GLANCE ANNOUNCEMENTS • The office will be closed Feb. 21 for Presidents Day. • If you are interested in certain small jobs around the office, please see Thomas.

Photo courtesy of Matheus Cenali

No Senior Hungry Omnibus Amendment Act of 2021 hearing Monday, Feb. 14, 10:00 am Virtual The Committee on Housing & Executive Administration is holding a public hearing on the No Senior Hungry Omnibus Amendment Act of 2021. People who wish to testify should email housing@dccouncil.us or call (202) 724-8198, at least two business days before the hearing.

Senior Budget Engagement Forum THURSDAY, FEB. 10. 12 P.M. VIRTUAL

Mayor Muriel Bowser will be hosting a virtual senior budget engagement forum. The dial in number for this meeting is 844881-1314. For more information visit budget.dc.gov.

UPDATES ONLINE AT ICH.DC.GOV

Oversight Hearing: Committee on Labor & Workforce Development

Provider Capacity Subgroup to the ICH Leveraging Medicaid Workgroup

MONDAY, FEB. 14 11:00 AM VIRTUAL

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meetings

THURSDAY, FEB. 10, 11 A.M. // VIRTUAL

Strategic Planning Committee TUESDAY, FEB. 15, 2:30 P.M. // VIRTUAL

***For more information, visit ich. dc.gov/events. For as well as meeting info for unlisted working

The D.C. Council is holding a performance oversight hearing about the Department of Employment Services. Sign up to testify by visiting tinyurl.com/ oversight-labor. Email labor@ dccouncil.us to submit written testimony.

• For severe weather, the office follows federal government closures and delays. Search online for “opm.gov/status” or check the admin desk voicemail (x101).

• Ensure your contact information is current if you would like to receive a text whenever the office is closed due to weather or holiday.

• A memorial service for Ayub Abdul will be held at Gethsemane Baptist Church, 2500 Enterprise Road, Mitchellville, MD on Feb. 12 at 10 a.m.

BIRTHDAYS Saul Tea, Feb. 14 ARTIST/VENDOR

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

ACCOMPLISHMENTS CORRECTIONS In our Feb 2 edition, the opinion article titled “Families deserve specialized services to end homelessness,” the author’s affiliation was cut off.

Ivory Wilson

ARTIST/VENDOR

Secured funding from investor more headlines at SteveFollow Leinwand to launch a new StreetSenseMedia.org/news classy walking cane business.

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NEWS

Meet the new executive director of the city’s Interagency Council on Homelessness WILL SCHICK Editor-in-Chief

Theresa Silla. Photo courtesy of Theresa Silla.

I

n the late ‘90s, Theresa Silla, the executive director of the District’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, left her home in Ethiopia to study ecology and economics at Yale University.

But something happened while she was in school that changed the course of her life, and put her on a path that would lead to a career working on issues related to housing and homelessness.

Between her sophomore and junior year, Silla began an internship with a city agency responsible for planning affordable housing developments in her college town of New Haven called the Livable City Initiative. She became hooked on learning the complex dynamics of city development.

“I really got to see the fabric of the city changing around the developments,” she said. “It was so amazing.”

For Silla, the most fascinating part of this work was puzzling together pieces of a larger development plan and seeing how any small change could impact everything around it.

“If you're going to do a development then you have to

think through how things are going to work at that site with transportation, pedestrian flow and access,” she explained.

This experience has since led Silla on a path to a career in helping and advising federal and state governments on policies surrounding affordable housing development and homeless services. Street Sense Media caught up with Silla recently and asked her about her background and experience and about her new role at ICH. Here’s what she had to share.

You went to college to study ecology and environmental science. How did you end up working in affordable housing development and homeless services?

During my time at school, I was extremely disappointed that conservation was so animal centric. It was just so centered on flora and fauna. And a lot of the conservation strategies that

people were employing at the time were displacing people from what they identified as important natural resources. The idea was, “We need to protect the Amazon forests by removing people from the Amazon forest.”

My particular area of focus was West Africa and I did a little bit of research in Cameroon and just all of the national park plans that I was seeing that were created by the Cameroonian government with the support of conservation agencies were all about removing people from the equation. And it just…it just did not resonate with me.

I did not want to participate in something where people weren't at the center. And what you have with urban planning, what you have with affordable housing and homeless services is people are at the center of that.

How did you end up in D.C.?

I went on a training to dive into the details of some of the federal programs that we leverage for building affordable

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housing in the city of New Haven. It was interesting because the training was about how to take federal rules and regulations for funding and apply that to local needs. It was so fascinating to hear from all the other communities that were using these federal dollars.

At the end of the training, I went up to the trainers, and I said, “This sounds like such fascinating work, how do you get involved?”

And they were like, “You know, we were really interested in your questions and the connections that you were making as part of this training. If you're really interested, we're looking to recruit folks just like you.”

So that was how I was introduced to ICF International, an organization that provides technical assistance for HUD. I interviewed with them, and they brought me on board. I worked for them as a HUD funded technical assistance provider, supporting communities across the country on how to make use of federal funding for affordable housing and for community development. That's when I first moved to the D.C. area in 2006. I worked with ICF until 2011.

What kind of work did you do when you first came to D.C.? When did you start getting involved in issues related to homeless services?

For the most part, I was working in community development and affordable housing until the housing crisis happened in 2007. And once the housing market bottomed out, there was a real fear of people being evicted out of their homes, losing their homes, and ending up on the streets and in our shelters across the nation.

In response to that, HUD started the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP). It was a part of the Recovery Act at that time. And it was really the first time that a nationwide homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing program was made available. And that was really my entrée into homeless services.

Once program dollars for HPRP became available I worked with HUD in setting up a help desk to help grantees answer questions about the program. And then in 2015, I started consulting for the District's ICH, working with the executive director, Kristy Greenwalt, to pull together the city’s very first strategic plan for ending and preventing homelessness in the District.

After we launched the plan, I joined the District full time as a policy advisor, with a focus on singles and veterans. As I'm sure you know, we have three subsystems for veterans, singles, families and youth.

D.C. is far away from your hometown of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Yeah, it is a long way from home. I also feel like this flips the usual dynamic of international development where people from the States or people from developed nations send individuals overseas to do international development work.

Here I am doing the exact reverse. I’m coming from overseas and working on domestic issues and supporting affordable housing and homeless services. This really kind of turns that idea on its head.

How does your family in Ethiopia feel about your work?

Well, my mother definitely feels like I'm doing holy work.

And I know when she's here, she's just so fascinated by my life and work here. She's most fascinated about the fact I'm not interested in driving a car, that I walk everywhere and I take the bus.

I'm from the capital city of Addis Ababa where many people sleep on the streets. Very similar to here, people aggregate to the churches on holidays. Growing up, I remember watching my mom cook as much food as possible to distribute amongst folks that were relying on the church and staying there. People who are sick flock to churches, and stay on the church grounds.

In some ways, it's very similar to here where people find safety and refuge near churches. That was a big part of the landscape when I was growing up.

What is something you wished people better understood about the ICH and homeless services in general?

Homeless services are like the emergency room to a much larger problem. You offer very specific and limited services at the emergency room of a hospital. You have a different wing where you do your surgery. You have a different wing where you provide hospice care. You sometimes even have an entirely different facility for different kinds of medical attention.

It’s really important for people to understand it's the same with homeless services. We are trying to be very focused but we are the ER to a much larger problem of the affordable housing crisis. We need a different set of solutions for the broader problem. And affordable housing is not the same as homeless services, and we shouldn't try to focus on the services to deal with an answer to that broad problem.

What are your priorities as the executive director at ICH? What I'm most focused on is the FY 22 resources. We have a huge influx of resources. As part of this, I’m looking at how we, as a system, are coordinating so that all parts of the system are working well with one another, so that we are matching those resources as quickly as possible.

And once those resources are matched, people are moving into that housing resource as quickly as possible. We are really trying to hone in on that data and identify the different steps and ask how do we speed up these different steps? How do we coordinate better with one another, to move people through these steps faster? And so I think what people can look to the ICH for is that we are focused on not just looking at the data but thinking through it as well.

We also ground the data in terms of feedback from providers and consumers to really understand what the data is telling us about the process that's playing out on the ground.

Deputy Mayor Wayne Turnage once likened us to a “think tank” and that idea really resonated with me. We're bringing together all the different perspectives and really thinking through the pros and cons of different approaches, so that we can help guide the community towards those approaches that will yield us the best outcomes.

Street Sense Media edited this conversation for length and clarity.

HELP! WE’RE LOOKING FOR Become a Street Sense Media volunteer and help further our mission to empower people experiencing homelessness by amplifying marginalized voices and meeting the information needs of people in poverty.

You’ll support hard-working newspaper vendors by volunteering your time, four hours a week, distributing newspapers at the Street Sense Media office.

If interested, please contact Thomas Ratliff thomas@ streetsensemedia.org 202-347-2006 (x103) For more information about these opportunities and other volunter positions, visit StreetSenseMedia. org/volunteer

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NEWS

Group of tenants organize to fight for their rights

BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT International Network of Street Papers

Photo courtesy of KC Tenants

When the members of KC Tenants show up together in their yellow shirts, they come boldly proclaiming their demands on their backs: “What we want is safe, accessible, and truly affordable homes.” KC Tenants leader Diane Charity reads the black print to me over the phone from Kansas City, Missouri, where the tenants union and advocacy group is based. She emphasizes the last demand with a straightforwardness that has come to define the group’s approach to creating change. “Truly affordable homes doesn't mean that these out of state people that come in and get all this funding to make these affordable houses [that are] cheaply made,” she says. “Hike the rent up every year to the point where it puts us out, which gentrifies our neighborhood, and then they act like they're doing us a favor.”

Rather, KC Tenants, made up of members of the city’s communities of renters, fights for cooperative housing, social housing, and a dignified response to the city’s housing, eviction, and homelessness crises. And ever since its formation in 2019, it’s made its demands for a better world known through carefully-researched policy proposals as well as direct actions matching the urgency of the issues they’re addressing.

From leaders chaining themselves to a county courthouse door in an effort to stop eviction court proceedings to confronting city Mayor Quinton Lucas at a protest at City Hall, KC Tenants has never taken it easy on Kansas City’s elected officials. And why would they? Its members experience the harms of the city’s long-standing affordable housing and eviction crisis first-hand on a daily basis. “One of our founding philosophies is that we are the experts on housing,” says Charity, who was a founding member of KC Tenants alongside Founding Director Tara Raghuveer, Board President Tiana Caldwell, and Brandy Granados. “We are the experts because we have the lived experience.”

On the day of our interview (Nov. 18, 2021), Charity and her fellow KC Tenants members were preparing for the organization’s town hall with the mayor in attendance. That evening, organizers led those gathered at the auditorium of a local school, with hundreds more viewing on Facebook live.

It included an opening song, a panel answering questions on social housing and the group’s plans for a housing trust fund, and testimony from renters in the audience on their visions for

housing in the city.

KC Tenants has consistently kept pressure on Lucas to listen to and face the city’s most housing vulnerable residents ever since his election to the office just months after the group was founded. At their dogged insistence, he spent his first night as mayor in the substandard apartment one KC Tenants member lived in with her children, complete with sorely-needed but unprovided repairs and the sounds of gunshots outside. The group’s creative direct action sent a clear message to city officials: Kansas City’s tenants are taking power into their own hands.

As in other American cities, renters in Kansas City face rising rents, a dearth of affordable housing, and a general attitude of disdain for the many struggling with housing insecurity and homelessness. But in recent years, by harnessing the power of grassroots organizing, an extensive, months-long research project examining other cities, and unrelenting hope, KC Tenants has managed to achieve big wins for the city’s tenants. These included successfully advocating for the city’s adoption of an historic Tenants Bill of Rights in 2020. “All of

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Photo courtesy of KC Tenants

these politicians that talked so condescendingly towards it said, ‘We'll write that ordinance for you and then we'll get it passed.’

And we said, ‘No, you won't. You won't write anything because you don't live our experience,” remembers Charity about the fight for the Tenants Bill of Rights. In her eyes, the group rejects a local tradition of polite passivity and confrontation avoidance known in the area as ‘Kansas City Nice’.

The kind of determination KC Tenants uses to keep public officials engaged and held accountable to their constituents may go against the grain of ‘Kansas City Nice’. However, Charity surmises that sticking to a ‘Kansas City Nice’ attitude does nothing for the fight for truly affordable housing. “We're saying we're not taking that BS anymore. We do have rights and we will stand up,” she says. “We're that beam of light that people are saying, 'Wow, These people have the nerve to think that they're going to get the world as it should be instead of surviving the world as it is. And that is what we're doing. We know it can be better.”

Kansas City, smack dab in the Midwest in a Republican-led state, is often overlooked in the national conversation about the US’s housing crisis. And yet the KC Tenants union’s successes and structure — which includes a hotline, a team that researches and crafts policy, a team that organizes tenants unions, and a team that helps tenants fight evictions as well

as unfair and illegal housing practices — offers a model of possibility for fed up tenants worldwide.

It entered 2021 in high gear, proclaiming the months ahead the Year of the Tenant, beginning with Zero Eviction January, during which the group’s members took direct action to delay more than 900 eviction hearings that month. Then, after months of advocacy and organizing, the group helped win funding for an Office of the Tenant Advocate to enforce the Tenants Bill of Right in Spring 2021. It ended the year with another major victory: the city council passed an ordinance providing legal counsel to tenants, no matter what their income is. Drafted and pushed by KC Tenants, along with fellow advocacy groups the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom and the Missouri Workers Center/Stand Up KC, the historic program is slated to be in place by summer 2022. Now, the union is pushing for an ordinance it drafted for a People's Housing Trust Fund that calls for the city to divert funding from policing and tax incentives for developers into permanently establishing and maintaining affordable housing.

Though many cities already have housing trust funds in place, KC Tenants hopes to establish one with crucial safeguards in place as far as tenant rights and representation in governance, avoiding creating another “a slush fund for developers and property owners,” as the group says in its fund

proposal released in June 2021. “ “We can fight for something.

We may not get everything, but if we start with housing, that's a start for us. Then we can go on to the next thing and the next thing,” Charity says. “But if you don't have a place to lay your head—to actually sleep and then get dressed to go to school and work the next morning— it's the scariest thing that can ever happen to you, you know? It's unfathomable that people are doing that.”

Though every community has its unique struggles, Charity’s advice for people looking to start their own tenants unions is the same. “Give grace. Give grace to whomever you're speaking with. Listen to them and allow them to tell their story,” she says. “[Whatever] their walk of life, they have that seed of hope in them that things will get better. We spark that seed of hope and it takes us to where we're trying to get to obtain safe, truly affordable housing that's accessible for anyone and everyone. Housing is a human right.”

Ann-Derrick Gaillot is a freelance journalist and writer based in Missoula, Montana. Find more of her work at annderrickgaillot. contently.com.

Courtesy of INSP North America / International Network of Street Papers

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NEWS

Capturing a legacy: Former editor leaves indelible mark on Street Sense HAJIRA FUAD Editorial Intern

A

s a college student, Eric Falquero didn’t know exactly what he wanted to study.

He just knew that he liked to draw.

“I went after an illustration degree, and they didn’t have that, so I did graphic design,” he said. His graphic design experience got him into working for the

school newspaper.

“They wanted someone to make the back cover look really good,” he said.

But once he was in the newsroom, he found himself helping out with a lot more than the back cover.

“Once you’re in there, you help out with everything—run out to take photos or write something quickly,” he said. “I just loved it.”

While still in college, Falquero joined the Street Sense Media team as a graphic design intern in the summer of 2010.

Under the leadership of then editor-in-chief, Mary Otto, who occupied the role from 2010 to 2014, Falquero helped out with the layout of the paper, as well as brand marketing and other promotional materials.

In the middle of that summer of 2010, Otto found herself in a bit of a tight spot. The paper’s big issue of the season was coming up, and at the time, D.C. was hosting that year’s Street Soccer USA Cup, bringing soccer players from disadvantaged communities all over the country to the city to play. As the tournament’s official newspaper, Street Sense Media was responsible for enclosing a program for the tournament in its upcoming issue. The problem was, Otto was a journalist who didn’t have much experience with computer layout.

“I was absolutely without help,” she said.

And so, she borrowed Eric Falquero, a young graphic design intern from the marketing department, to help design the program.

“And he, just like magic, put this beautiful program together,” said Otto.

Falquero left his experience interning for Street Sense Media compelled by the idea of a street paper.

“I’d never heard of this model before finding that internship, but once I was there, and saw what it’s all about, I was just really drawn to it,” he said.

In fact, when he went back to school after his summer internship, he was so moved by the street paper model he had witnessed in action at Street Sense Media, he attempted to start his own street paper back in his college town in West Virginia.

Unfortunately, upon discovering that he wasn’t much good at the business side of things, he was only able to get two issues out before the paper had to be put to rest.

But in 2011, Falquero found his way back to the Street Sense Media newsroom. Otto, still occupying the role of editor-inchief, had gotten the chance that year to hire someone to help with the paper’s graphic design. She was thrilled to discover that Falquero was in town again and available.

“It was just an answer to my prayers, that he could come back and work,” she said.

From then on, Otto and Falquero worked closely together on the paper in a small office on the top floor of the Epiphany church. They collaborated often, Falquero focusing mainly on production and Otto concentrating on editing.

“We basically shared one full-time position for several years,”

Eric Falquero. Photo by Will Schick

she said. “It was like working in a kitchen or something.”

When Otto left her post as editor-in-chief of Street Sense in 2014 to continue her pioneering work as a medical journalist covering health care and poverty, Falquero was a natural choice for her successor.

“When I left in 2014, I couldn’t have asked for better hands to put the paper in, honestly,” she said.

As editor-in-chief, Falquero implemented several highly important and consequential changes to Street Sense that have proven vital for its continued success and growth as a publication.

For one thing, he took the paper from publishing biweekly to weekly in April 2021. According to Falquero, it was a long, hard road getting there, but it was a decision driven by the desire to induce sales and income for vendors while also being able to “better serve folks” by offering them more up-to-date information.

He also introduced the practice of beat reporting to Street Sense. While editor-in-chief, he grappled with the problem of how the paper could provide the most in-depth and useful stories for its readers. Falquero credited Anna Riley, a former Street Sense intern, with showing him the solution. Riley kept pitching education stories all semester long, because it was an issue area she was interested in. What Riley was able to do by going back to the same sources from one story to the next and developing in-depth knowledge on the subject matter inspired Falquero to formally implement beat reporting, or that “structure of getting folks to focus on particular issue areas,” into the Street Sense Media newsroom.

Another pivotal change Falquero spearheaded was partnering with other local media outlets. Street Sense’s first collaboration with other news outlets occurred in 2014, when Falquero noticed how many vendors were trying to raise the public’s awareness of an annual vigil held on a national day of remembrance to honor those who died while homeless the previous year.

He decided to recruit other street papers around the country to cover events in their own cities being held to honor that day.

The experience, Falquero said, “showed me what was possible in partnering with outlets.”

In May 2015, he seized another opportunity to work together with other local newsrooms, as opposed to competitively or in isolation, after taking note of the San Francisco Chronicle’s effort to organize media outlets in the city for a day-long coverage of the homelessness crisis, so that the various outlets weren’t all repeating the same story about the crisis, but covering different aspects of it. Falquero replicated the San Francisco Chronicle’s project by organizing local media outlets in D.C. to coordinate coverage with Street Sense of the homelessness crisis in the city as well. Street Sense has since organized the project, the D.C. homeless crisis news blitz, every year.

While the institutional and operational changes that Falquero implemented while editor-in-chief were important, he said Street Sense Media wouldn’t be what it is without the talented and dedicated people—the interns, vendors, case managers, reporters, editors and other staff members—who make up the paper.

“All of the vendors and other colleagues that I’ve had are just incredible and I’ve been able to learn so much from them,” he said.

When asked about Falquero, the people he claimed to have learned a lot from had a thing or two to share about him, as well.

The unlikely photojournalist Street Sense vendor Sheila White never saw herself as a writer. That all changed when she met Falquero.

“He got me into writing,” she said. “I never thought I would see myself doing stuff like that, by me being homeless, and everything, and when I got with Street Sense, and I met him, he changed my life a lot.”

White might never have enrolled at the University of the District of Columbia as a photojournalism and political science

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career in journalism.

The visual artist

When Sybil Taylor lost her father in 2015 and was going through a difficult time, she recalled how Falquero was there for her when she needed support.

The two have known each other since 2008. Now, Taylor feels that she can “talk to Eric about anything.”

Taylor is a Street Sense vendor who, in addition to being a writer, is a collage-artist as well. In addition to being a close friend and confidant, she said that Falquero encouraged and supported her in her work.

For many of her articles, Taylor likes to include curated playlists that go along with the theme of the article and add a further layer of depth for the reader. Falquero helped make that vision into a reality for her. Taylor would pick out the songs, and Falquero would put together a playlist in the format of a YouTube video that could then be included at the end of her article.

“It was quite a few videos that he put together for me,” Taylor said.

Eric Falquero, David Denny, and Scott Lovell visit the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016.

student had she not met Falquero, either, she said.

“Because of him, I want to be a photojournalist,” she said.

While the two were at Street Sense Media together, he steadfastly supported and encouraged White in her writing.

White said how, during the writing process, whenever she would come to Falquero with ideas, he was always there to listen with an open ear and would offer her his insight and input. Moreover, he pushed White to improve her skills and reach her full potential as a writer.

“When I’d write my articles, he’d make me think more, he’d be like, ‘You know, you can do better than this.’”

But in addition to being a mentor, he was also a friend.

“It’s just hard to explain, you know, how a good friend he is. It really is. It’s hard for me to put it in words,” said White.

“He’s gonna be truly missed at Street Sense, by mostly all the vendors, especially the old vendors.”

The community advocate When Nkechi Feaster first began working as an advocacy and community engagement specialist at Street Sense, she made an offhand remark to Falquero in a conversation the two had shortly after they had met, in which Feaster casually mentioned her love for old-school movies and TV shows.

“I’m very nostalgic,” she explained.

Feaster didn’t think much of it. But to her surprise, soon after that conversation, Falquero presented her with the first season on DVD of the late ‘70s TV show Mork and Mindy.

Feaster was moved by how Falquero had thought to give her that just based on one conversation that they had with each other. To her, it demonstrated how Falquero truly paid attention and listened to what people had to say to him.

“And from then on,” she said, “I was like, you’re never getting rid of me now.”

Formerly homeless, Feaster would later go on to occupy the role of manager of artistic workshops at Street Sense Media, a role that entailed engaging closely with vendors. Feaster said she often relied on Falquero’s help in learning how to best assist vendors.

“He just had a great rapport with the vendors,” she said, adding that he knew them both on “a business and personal level.”

Feaster eventually moved on from Street Sense Media to become co-owner of Service to Justice, a collective of social service providers, artists, and activists committed to dismantling structural racism through organizational change.

“I think that Eric has a great heart to help,” she said. “That’s something that screams from his core. He wants to help people.”

The award-winning journalist Journalism, as Mary Walrath-Holdridge described it, is a tough, hard, and brutal industry.

Nevertheless, she’s managed to not just stick it out in that industry, but thrive in it as well, owing in no small part to the mentorship that the now 25 year old reporter found in Eric Falquero when she interned at Street Sense in 2016.

“Even when it was really hard, and I considered switching careers, definitely my experience at Street Sense, under Eric specifically, has been the thing that has…kept me pursuing journalism,” Walrath-Holdridge said.

One day, while interning at Street Sense, she got a tip about the eviction of a 66-year-old blind man confined to a wheelchair, James Jones, from the largest homeless shelter in the D.C. area. Jones was found sleeping on a sidewalk outside of the shelter, the Community for Creative Non-Violence, or CCNV. According to Jones, “[They kicked me out because] they said I couldn’t take care of myself.”

Walrath-Holdridge took that tip and ran with it, diving into a searing months-long investigation into a pattern of mistreatment and wrongdoing at CCNV. By interviewing both current and former residents of the shelter, she gathered eyewitness accounts of physical violence, corruption and manipulation by shelter staff.

She credits Falquero’s support and encouragement, and “him giving me the leeway to investigate what I wanted to do,” for the reporting she was able to do for that article, which ended up winning best “Non-Breaking Story” in the prestigious Dateline Awards from the D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Eventually, Walrath-Holdridge would go on from her internship at Street Sense to occupy her present-day role as senior editor at Newsweek and to develop an award-winning

The minister who gave up on writing Reverend John Littlejohn had given up on writing after growing tired of submitting articles that never ended up being fully edited and published. He’s a licensed and ordained minister who has also been a vendor at Street Sense for the past 11 years.

When he met Falquero in 2018, everything changed.

According to Reverend Littlejohn, one day, Falquero “said he was cleaning computers out, and he found one of my articles in there, half-edited. And he wanted me to come in and see, can he have me fully edit it.”

After that, Reverend Littlejohn started writing again.

Falquero, he said, gave him the boost that he needed, and as well as the confidence and courage to continue writing.

The power of the paper Connecting with vendors and assisting them in the writing process is one of the many things Falquero described as having especially enjoyed while serving as editor-in-chief.

“There’s so much talk, at least in our circles, since we cover it so much, about how dehumanizing the experience of homelessness is. How you can feel invisible, how folks can walk right by you,” he said.

He described how, as “an action of reclaiming your identity and broadcasting to the world a piece of yourself,” the act of publishing is “pretty radical” and can serve as a powerful antidote to the dehumanizing experience of homelessness.

Street Sense vendor Robert Warren, who has also referred to Falquero as a mentor of his, echoed that same sentiment.

“When you’re talking about a paper where you have people who are in survival mode… Those folks in the community, you know, they really need to be able to engage their voices and give them a chance to have an opinion and express that opinion and get that out there to their blogosphere,” Warren said.

For Falquero, leaving the paper he spent ten and a half years helping to produce alongside people who endlessly inspired him was never going to be easy.

“I’m sad to pull back from this community a bit, and will miss my colleagues dearly,” he wrote in his goodbye letter to Street Sense Media.

It’s safe to say that they will miss him too.

1 0 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // F E B . 9 - 1 5 , 2 022

OPINION

Why did Mary Cheh blame homeless people for crimes they didn’t commit?

BY JEWEL STROMAN

On Thursday, Jan. 27, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh called an emergency community press conference outside of the Days Inn on Connecticut Avenue in Van Ness to address what she called “a spike in crime in Ward 3” following a shooting at the hotel that left four people wounded and one young lady dead earlier that day.

Any violence is terrible, but Cheh’s explanation for it was wrong and offensive.

“The fact of the matter is that our crime rate has gone up,” Cheh said, to a crowd of onlookers. (Police data actually show that it’s gone down.) “And I believe it has a lot to do with the fact that there has been irresponsible and mismanaged behavior by the Department of Human Services. They are putting people in buildings over here who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, and who are mentally ill. They are doing them a disservice, and they are doing us a disservice.”

“We are victims, if you will, of people who are acting out because they are troubled, and they need help.” Cheh then called for an increased police presence that would include a beat cop on Connecticut Avenue, and criticized proposals that would prevent juvenile offenders from being charged as adults.

Cheh immediately faced backlash from many people on Twitter, who called her comments racist and insensitive, pointing out that people who are homeless are victims of crime far more often than housed people. According to last year’s Point in Time count of D.C. residents experiencing homelessness, 86.5% of unhoused adults are Black.

Ward 3 is the highest-income ward in the city, and also has the fewest units of subsidized housing. Many housing advocates and even some ANC Commissioners have called for more income-based units, which require more subsidy in Ward 3’s expensive neighborhoods, where housing voucher recipients often face illegal discriminatory practices from landlords.

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh. Photo courtesy of Aimee Custis Photography

Besides, DHS says it wasn’t even paying for people experiencing homelessness to stay at the Days Inn, since it has been moving away from housing people in hotels.

I reached out to Cheh to get her comments for this piece. She emailed back that she supports housing first, but wants to know, what comes next? “I think it’s negligent of DHS to put people in apartments and then leave them to fend for themselves, even though some clearly need services for addictions or mental health issues,” she wrote.

That might be true. Still, such statements paint people lacking stable housing with a broad brush. It’s a kind of misguided ignorance I’ve had to deal with daily as an advocate for people experiencing homelessness. Some folks think everyone who is homeless has a drug problem or mental illness.

I would have loved to see Cheh bring forth solutions and engage with housing advocates. Instead, she went on TV and blamed unhoused people for a rise in crime without any evidence. That puts a target on the backs of homeless and formerly homeless Black people in her ward, opening them up to increased harassment from police officers and other forms of criminalization.

If Cheh truly supports housing first, she should issue a public apology for her racially charged and harmful statements, which were rooted in and perpetuate false narratives about the homeless community.

Jewel Stroman is a formerly homeless advocate for people experiencing homelessness.

Every little Black girl ought to be like Condoleezza Rice

BY JACKIE TURNER Artist/Vendor

The person I most admire is Condoleezza Rice. When I first saw her on TV, she walked with an air of class and knowledge.

President George W. Bush had nominated her to be the Secretary of State. Can you imagine that? A young Black woman as Secretary of State!

My smile was so big I think my teeth were bright with pride.

Before the war in Iraq started, I watched her talk on TV about getting to the bottom of who was hiding weapons of mass destruction. At that moment, I thought that this woman was also brave. She had a doctorate in political science, and had been an outspoken professor. She impressed me.

I don’t think there has been anyone like her since. She was a shining example of someone who had beauty, brains and class.

She broke a glass ceiling and caused everyone to admire her.

When a person looks up to someone, it is because that person is doing something good and worthwhile. When a person is first in their field, it fills others with pride. Women need persistent role models.

In my day, there were only a few women who held leadership jobs. This might sound funny but in my neighborhood, most of

the women had jobs working as cooks or as daycare providers. None of them could ever imagine being the Secretary of State for the United States. While most had gotten past high school, few went to college.

Fo r s o m e r e a s o n t h o u g h , Condoleezza was unique. We are the same age. When I first saw her get nominated to Secretary of State, I thought, “if only that was me.” She made me feel like I had a chance at something big. Or that people after me would have better opportunities Rice on a visit to Iraq in 2006. Photo courtesy of 447th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs for themselves.

President Joe Biden has been saying that he wants to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. That is a lifetime appointment, not only raised children, but have also shaped our society. and it would be the first time for a Black woman. Black women It’s time a Black woman has a chance to do so on the nation’s have long strived to improve this world we live in. They have highest court as well.

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// 11

Why race shouldn’t be a factor in choosing Supreme Court Justices

BY JEFFERY MCNEIL Artist/Vendor

If you fly an airplane, are you looking for diversity or someone who won’t crash a plane?

Standards are required to become a neurosurgeon. Would you be comfortable working in a high rise if the architects were hired because of their race? If standards are required for medicine, aeronautics, and building skyscrapers, why is there a greater emphasis on diversity when picking a Supreme Court justice?

Of course many judges of color meet the same standards that white judges do. But Joe Biden’s pronouncement that he will choose a Black woman above all others isn’t good for Black people, or for America. And it’s particularly odd considering his predecessor’s approach.

When Barack Obama was president, Black women were the Democrats’ most loyal foot soldiers. Barack Obama received the gift of three vacancies on the Supreme Court. MSNBC’s Joy Reid never demanded that Obama nominate a Black woman for the highest court, and he never did. Instead, Obama chose Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and a white man, Merrick Garland, because character content was more important than skin color.

Now that a white man is a president, putting a Black woman on the Supreme Court is the top priority for the Black bourgeoisie. However, much of the Black community doesn’t want a first — but rather someone who will fix their schools,

arrest criminals, and encourage parenting over promiscuity.

Biden won 87% of the Black vote in the 2020 election. Today, Biden’s approval rating among Black voters has plummeted from 83% last April to 64%.

Members of Biden’s own party, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, blocked the Build Back Better The U.S. Supreme Court. Photo courtesy of Adam Szuscik// Unsplash.com spending plan and voting rights legislation.

Black progressives argue the Supreme Court doesn’t reflect he would do so from the get-go only did her a disservice, and America, and that selecting a Black woman brings diversity. the rest of America as well. Hiring because of past injustices But African Americans already have representation: Clarence doesn’t heal past wrongs, but instead creates resentment. Would Thomas. Putting another African American justice on the bench the black community be happy if a Republican said the only takes away a seat from an Asian, Native American, or LGBTQ qualified candidates are white men? person — reminiscent of signs that read, “Irish need not apply.”

It does nothing for me if America’s new justice is Kamala And 76% of Americans disagree with hiring judges based on Harris or Lori Lightfoot. I want an American judge, not race. someone that considers themselves hyphenated.

Even if he planned to appoint a Black woman, announcing

Chemical Kris and the ‘homeless count’

BY FREDRICK JOHN Artist/Vendor

Great to be a leaseholder at age 62. Especially if one eases into a humble bright space in their place of birth - Foggy Bottom - two blocks from the warm brick of Columbia Hospital (my natal cradle) - one block and a half from St. Paul’s K street, where my beloved mom and dad’s remains are interred.

More than that, St. Mary’s Court had old acquaintances I’d made around the `Hood since returning from my Broadway adventures to the north. Chris C., a guitar playing carpenter, a witty perpetual leprechaun; Wild Billy, a chef with a paralyzed hand, yet still able to whip up a smokin’ souffle; Lord Rick, who since immortalized most of DC’s most gorgeous models in his giant glossy photo-prints.

And then there was Sergei. Serge Tolstoy, the bona fide greatgrandson of the lordly Russian author of “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina.”

A 25-year resident of my dear community, Sergei, who enjoyed the moniker ”Homeless Count,” which accompanied one of countless magazine pieces, covered by his cordial smile - topped by a fluffy cossack hat of rabbit fur.

He greeted me that first week in the lobby with a cordial “Aaah…I remember you from Bowie Race Track…you usually lost.”

I retorted, “Yes, but I rode equestrian in a prep school. Must have developed a liking for the ponies at that time!”

Serge snorted, adjusted his neck scarf, and beckoned toward the dining area. “Come on then, boy - let me show you your place at the table.” The ‘Count’ was never without silk paisley ascot, and/or matching foulard, even when it graced a worn navy windbreaker.

“Chemical Kris, aah” Serge would sigh as I demonstrated

Sergei Serge Tolstoy. Photo Courtesy of Fredrick John

how to leach precious orange juice from the forbidden cafeteria glass into a surreptitious server bottle. “You‘re a good thief!

Just like me,” he chuckled.

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ART

Relationships can always get better CARLOS CAROLINA Artist/Vendor

I believe relationships can always be strengthened by love and respect. Times change, and love and respect change with time. People come and go, that’s life.

I personally had a friend, a good person to me, but due to the lack of respect that gave other people, they had a hard time being liked or understood. When I respectfully pulled this person up to talk about respect,

they respectfully let me know that they weren’t taught respect but would like to learn how to respect.

This was one of the realest things that I have ever heard. It makes me want to teach this person how to respect and I do this by sharing love and giving them advice. Love keeps you involved, but respect will take you far.

Be careful how you treat your guests JEFFERY J. CARTER Artist/Vendor

Once upon a time, I was in Planet Fitness Gym on New York Avenue sitting at a table reading a newspaper when a old man wanted to sit next to me when there were two other tables that were vacant. I was in a bad mood and didn’t want to be bothered. I wanted to be alone.

So I told the old guy, “please don’t sit here, there are other tables you can sit at.” Then I thought about it and I said to myself that this person might be a angel of God. We as good people should be careful how we treat the people who are poor and homeless, because they could be the angels of God.

So, I caught myself and invited him over to sit with me and then I ask him to have a cup of coffee at Mama’s Organic on New York Avenue. We went to Mama’s Organic and I treated him to a hot cocoa and a veggie sandwich.

When I told him I was studying for my GED, he said that he used to be a school teacher. He said that he could help me, so we exchanged cell phone numbers after we ate and we departed. To this day, I believe this man was a angel of God.

Stayed fly

BY CARLOS CAROLINA Artist/Vendor

You, we stayed fly, Like the bikes we glide.

Shook hands with made up raps.

Witty with words, So we made up raps, Whenever I needed a helping hand Always knew I had a helping friend.

And it was vice vice Now you gone, I’m still here and so hurt; And to move on without you Is gonna hurt, In deep thought, I shed tears Of past years; Now years just passed, And though my tear I crack A smile from when I seen you last Nice bikes, Ride fast with bright lights, Through the struggle, with each other Hard times don’t last, Some think it’s sad how we brag, Sometimes we do it to laugh, Like, you know, we stayed fly.

For Will

QUEENIE L. FEATHERSTONE Artist/Vendor

W = Willing to help others I = Impeccable L = Lovable L = Likable S = Successful C = Calm all the time H = Honorable I = Ignites others C = Consistent in his ways K = Knowledgeable This special poem to Will is just a small way to welcome him, and say thank you for taking on the position as chief editor of Street Sense Media. In this short time at this position, he has already shown these attributes, and certainly it has been noticed. Welcome my dear chief editor, with much happiness to you, and great success to you !!!

Lord of Mercy

BY LEVESTER GREEN Artist/Vendor

Some things you just can’t take back! Left the Ledge & there was NO getting back! That was that...What was left was to embrace for impact!

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 1 3

2022 - 2023 JACQUELINE TURNER Artist/Vendor

In the future I would like to see less sickness in the world and more human communication and interactions. I’m not talking about virtual hugs but real ones. I feel the world is getting less human and becoming much more technical. I want people to stop destroying the earth, the waterways, the

air, and I want people to stop killing animals. Some of these things will never come back! Respect each other and believe in something besides money and power. I wish I could watch people dance to songs without curse words and that we all had pleasant thoughts for each day.

Blessings MARCUS MCCALL Artist/Vendor

Continue with the blessings God has given you and pray in the spirit every day. You are a born-again, spirit-filled believer.

You’ll never be the same! Find a good church that boldly preaches God’s word and obeys it. Become part of a church family who will love and care for you as you love

and care for them. We need to be connected to each other. It increases our strength in God. It’s God’s plan for us. Make it a habit to watch the Believer’s Voice of Victory Network and become “a doer of the word, who is blessed in his doing” (James I: 22 - 25).

Friends

I hope you dance!

BRIANNA BUTLER Artist/Vendor

If you are up early in the morning, you can hear the whistle of the air. I hope you dance to your heart’s content. Dance till life is pleasant. Dance when someone asks for your hand. Dance till the morning light shines down for you to smile and cheer. I hope you dance, I hope you dance!

ROCHELLE WALKER Artist/Vendor

I will always love you. two friends that are joined together let no other friends put them under. I will always be your friend. A friend you cannot live with and cannot live without, and I will always be your friend and I will always love you.

Friend for life Friend forever Friend in need

Friend in love Friend in me Friend with me

And I will always trust you. I will always be there when you need me. I will always support you. I have all my friends with me. One, two, three.

P.S. I don't have too many friends

A good leader REDBOOK MANGO Artist/Vendor

A good leader will lead by example, not with words, The tongue is a blessing, but also a sword, A gift, a curse, a riddle, a parable, A leader is one who knows how to gamble, Life is a gamble so make a wish. You never know what numbers the dice might ditch.

OnlineCrosswords.net

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E M E D I A // F E B . 9 - 1 5 , 2022

FUN & GAMES

Novice Sudoku Puzzles, Volume 1, Book 1

7 4 1

9 8

3

4

6

Novice Sudoku Puzzles, Volume 1, Book 1

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

6

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

6 33 9

2 5 3

1

7

3

2

1

4

3 7

7 9 5 8 4 6 2

3

4 2 5

2 8 6

1

© 2013 KrazyDad.com

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each 3-by-3 block contain Sudoku #4 all of the digits 1 thru 9.

If you guesswork.

5 use 2 logic 7 you 1 can6solve 8 the4puzzle 9 without 3

Need 6 a little 8 help?

4 7The3hints9 page 2 shows 5 a 1 logical order to solve the puzzle.

Use it to identify the next square you should solve. Or use the answers page if you really get stuck.

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

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

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

5 3 7

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

1 8 9 7 2 5 6 3 4

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

7

6

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

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4 1

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8

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5 6 7 3 2 9

puzzle’s answers: tinyurl.com/SSMcross-02-09-2022

<< LAST EDITION’S PUZZLE SOLUTION

It may be true that human beings make more mistakes than computers, but for a real foul up, give us a computer anytime.

5

1.City on the Arno 5. Inspires with wonder 5.9.

Inspires wonder Track with circuits 9.13.

Track circuits Fateful day in the Forum 13.14.

Fateful day in the Forum Enfold 14. Enfold 15. Two under par 15. Two under par 16. Be silent 16. Be silent 19. Auditory organ 19. Auditory organ 20. Jambalaya ingredient 20. Jambalaya ingredient 21. Go over again 21. Go over again 22. Fuel container 22. Fuel container 23. Riddle-me-___ 23. Riddle-me-___ 24. Time for a break 24. Time for a break 27. Evaluate again 27. Evaluate again 32. NASA problem part 32. NASA problem part Penn of "The Game" 33.33.

Penn of “The Game” 34. Circus routine 34. Circus routine Holds opinion 35.35.

Holds an an opinion 39.

Dutch commune 39. Dutch commune Word with Corn or Bible 40.40.

Word with Corn or Bible "Jungle Peace" author 41.41.

“Jungle Peace” author Returns to original 42.42.

Returns to original condition condition 45. Type of arrangement Type arrangement 46.45.

Film starof Wallach 46.

Film star 47. Kidney, e.g. Wallach Kidney, 48.47.

Build a fire e.g. under Build adown fire under 51.48.

Touched Touched down 52.51.

Commotion 52.

Commotion 55. Refrained from talking Refrained from talking 58.55.

John on the radio John for on quarters the radio 59.58.

Dollars for quarters 60.59.

SiteDollars of the fabled forges of the 60. Site of the fabled forges Cyclopes the Cyclopes 61.ofTrotsky or Spinks 61.

Trotsky or Spinks 62. Puts a stop to Puts a stop 63.62.

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Down 1. He reached his peak 2. Brainchild 3. Tea-leaf reader 4. Poisonous snake

© ONLINECROSSWORDS.NET

1. City on the Arno

1 2

9

Find the solution at https://onlinecrosswords.net/7128

Across Across

Sudoku #5

5

This is the Daily Crossword Puzzle #3 for Jan 13, 2022

5. Porch shader

31. Kind of wool 33. Dagger of yore 1.

He reached his peak 43. Ancient German 18. Out-and-out 7. Relaxation 36. Late-night name 2.

Brainchild 44. "Maximus to 22. Antler part 8. Watch secretly 37. Monastic auxiliary 9. Facial hairreader 38. Type of sign Gloucester" poet Charles 3.

Tea-leaf 24. Not pickled 45. Appels, in fencing 10.Poisonous Eastern titlesnake German 4.

25. You may43. beAncient bursting 47.Gloucester” Towheadedpoet with it 11.Porch Additional 44. “Maximus to 5. shader 12.Total One of Adam’s boys Charles 48. One of Adam's boys 26. Ceremonial 6. practices 45. Appels, in fencing 15.Relaxation Fencing swords 49. Act as arbiter 7.

27. Spins around 17.Watch Asian apes, casually 47. Towheaded 50. Comic strip pooch 8. secretly 18.Facial Out-and-out 48. One of Adam’s 28. Bridge seat 51.boys Arabian Sea gulf 9. hair 22. Antler parttitle 49. Act as arbiter52. Sax for Bird 29. Like a beaver 10.

Eastern 24. Not pickled 50. Comic strip pooch 30. Diving acronym 53. Eat elegantly 11.

Additional 25.

You may be bursting with it 51. Arabian Sea gulf 31.

Kind of wool 54. Fiery gem 12. One of Adam's boys 26. Ceremonial practices Sax for Bird 56. "Look ___ ye leap" 33. Dagger 52. of yore 15.

Fencing swords 27. Spins 53. name Eat elegantly57. Bigwig in D.C. 17.

Asianaround apes, casually 36. Late-night 28. Bridge seat 54.auxiliary Fiery gem 37. Monastic 29. Like a beaver “Look ___ ye leap” 38. Type of 56. sign 30. Diving acronym 57. Bigwig in D.C.

Down 6. Total

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

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

2375 Elvans Road SE 2204 Martin Luther King Ave. SE

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

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

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

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

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

for someone to bus tables and support Cheesecake servers by refilling drinks and clearing plates.

REQUIREMENTS: Must be able to lift 50lbs So Others Might Eat (SOME) // 202-797-8806 71 O St., NW some.org

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

APPLY: tinyurl.com/Cheesecake-Busser

Busser/Host Tortuga Caribbean Bar & Grille // 514 8th Street SE

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

Tortuga Caribbean Bar & Grille is looking for someone to prepare dining areas and bus tables.

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

stamina to carry heavy trays and stand for long hours.

APPLY: https://tinyurl.com/tortuga-busser

Environmental Services Aide/ Floor Tech MedStar Washington Hospital Center

Full-time MedStar Health is looking for a floor

technician responsible for floor maintenance like waxing and buffing.

REQUIREMENTS: High school degree or Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St., NW // 202-328-5500 legalclinic.org

GED diploma, or 3 years of directly relevant experience.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/medstar-floortech

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

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

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

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

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

Hiring? Send your job postings to editor@StreetSenseMedia.org

QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE Artist/Vendor

CHRIS COLE

The impact of COVID-19 on D.C.

Artist/Vendor

BY MICHELE ROCHON Artist/Vendor

In D.C. I have noticed a large amount of work is being done with the infrastructure.

There are a variety of construction projects involving roads, sidewalk improvements, and housing developments. I have also seen a rise in the number of emergency no parking zones established throughout the city. I think the city should use this rise in construction work to prioritize giving jobs to residents who have lost income due to COVID-19.

The city should also provide incentives to people who are interested in working in e-commerce such as online businesses.

D.C. could also do more to offset transportation costs for people who are burdened with the cost of gas for commuting to work. This could involve expanding the Bike Share Program in DC to include more e-scooters which is good for exercise. And by encouraging the use of more public transportation we could lower emissions which is good for the planet.

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

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FEB. 9 - 15, 2022 | VOLUME 19 ISSUE 12 NO CASH? NO PROBLEM. WE HAVE AN APP! SEARCH “STREET SENSE” IN THE APP STORE

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