Help ensure that much-needed Human Services funding is restored to the DC budget.
The group of mostly homeless homeless advocates who’ve been meeting at the CCNV (Community for Creative Non-Violence) Shelter every week since April 26th, 2011 for Shelter, Housing, and Real Change (SHARC) will make a final push on Monday, June 13th to ensure that funds which Mayor Vincent Gray sought to take away from Human Services is restored by the DC Council.
We will impress upon the DC Council the need to go beyond simply funding shelters and to ensure the continual creation of AFFORDABLE HOUSING across the city as well as LIVING WAGE and other policies that will empower the poor community and enable them to become self-sufficient.
WE WILL NO LONGER SIMPLY ORGANIZE FOR SHORT-TERM GOALS LIKE SAVING SHELTERS AND RESTORING FUNDING FOR SERVICES THAT MAINTAIN HOMELESSNESS.
WE WILL DEMAND THE CONTINUAL CREATION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING ACROSS THE CITY AND THE REALIZATION OF HOUSING AS A HUMAN RIGHT!!!!!
People who DEMAND
“Shelter, Housing And Real Change”
will meet at:
The CCNV Shelter
425 2nd Street NW, Washington, DC
Nearest Metro station: Judiciary Square (Red line)
Buses: D6 and D3
Monday, June 13th
11 AM
To march to the Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania ave. NW
Feel free to bring signs with you. Or you can make signs from 10 to 11 AM.
SCHEDULE
We will begin to gather at CCNV at 10 AM,
march at 11,
arrive at City Hall by 11:30,
speak to councilmembers and their staff until 12:30 PM,
and have regular 1 PM meeting at CCNV.
Now that we have a Council budget vote that may partially restore funding to safety net services in DC with an out-of-state bonds tax and zero increase in income tax for high-income residents, what happens next for people who depend on the city for housing needs?
Friendship Place's Welcome Center in Northwest Washington.
One answer lies outside the government altogether. Non-profit homeless service organizations like Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place receive only around 21% of their funding from the city, a figure that may soon decrease. Friendship Place depends mostly on corporate and private donors to provide temporary and long-term housing along with other services. Will this dependence become the de facto direction for all social service organizations in Mayor Gray’s “One City”? And if so, what does this mean for the direction of social services themselves?
Carolyn Darley (aka Candy) is a beneficiary of one of Friendship Place’s most successful programs, “Neighbors First”, which moves highly vulnerable homeless people into apartments without preconditions. The partially city-funded program is based on the “housing first” model which refuses to blame homelessness on mental illness, substance addiction, or other personal characteristics.
This spring I had the honor to hear and film Carolyn’s story on finding a home through the assistance of Friendship Place and throughout her lifelong struggles. As a Black woman and Panamanian immigrant who completed her degree at George Washington University and worked in nursing, Carolyn shares an important perspective on DC homelessness that is not often seen.
Homeless service advocates marching to the Wilson Building. (Photo by Roshan Ghimire).
On May 18th, around 100 homeless people and homeless advocates gathered at the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) shelter to participate in the “March to Save Homeless Services”. This event was organized to protest budget cuts that could lead to the loss of funding for a number of homeless services and the closing of city shelters next April. After marching along E street to the Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the group met with a “Reality Tour” event organized by Save Our Safety Net DC. The marchers joined with activists interested in restoring funding for all social service programs, and not just homeless services. Over 200 people crammed into the Wilson Building to protest budget cuts soon to be introduced by Mayor Vincent Gray’s city council. If these cuts go through, vital social services for some of DC’s most vulnerable residents will be lost.
Binnie and I spoke to Robert Warren, a formerly homeless advocate for the People’s Fairness Coalition, and Blair Rush, a current CCNV shelter resident, to get their views on the budget cuts and what it will mean to them. Robert has had problems with the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) which provides assistance with rent to individuals and families at risk of becoming homeless as well as those exiting homelessness. As federally funded programs like the HPRP fail to provide sustainable assistance to people facing homelessness, local cuts to homeless services in DC will only make things worse for residents.
Robert Warren inside the Wilson Building. (Photo by Hazal Yolga).
Blair Rush interviewed with her service dog Kelo inside the Wilson Building. (Photo by Hazal Yolga).
Blair faces having her Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) cut off. Initially, Mayor Gray’s proposed budget cuts sought to eliminate all funding for the Interim Disability Program. Although Chairman Kwame Brown’s as yet unfunded proposals would result in some funding being restored for IDA, there are still over three million dollars of cuts on the table. This will mean hundreds of people will lose their IDA income and over a thousand will remain on a long waiting list. IDA provides a lifeline for many DC residents and cutting it will have devastating results for over a thousand people who currently receive it.
The DC Fiscal Policy Institute notes that these budget cuts are coming at a time when a large number of low-income DC residents are still experiencing unemployment and are unable to provide for themselves and their families in the wake of the recession. Cuts to homeless and other safety net services in the District will only worsen the situation for homeless, unemployed, low-income and struggling residents.
Save our Safety Net DC is organizing an emergency action where activists will gather again at the Wilson Building at noon on Tuesday, May 24th. This will be the last chance to ask the city council to vote against 19 million dollars of budget cuts to social services. So far, Chairman Kwame Brown has refused to raise taxes at all for DC residents. Activists from Save our Safety Net DC and other DC residents and advocates for restoring funding for social services argue that these harmful budget cuts could be avoided through a small increase in income tax for those residents earning in excess of 100,000 dollars per year. This would be an alternative to what many claim is the balancing of the budget on the backs of the poor.
People crowd into the corridors of the Wilson building outside councilmembers' offices. (Photo by Roshan Ghimire).
On any given day in the District of Columbia, 12,000 children, families, and individuals are homeless and or in need of food; 82% of these families are headed by single women. As we approached the Thanksgiving holiday, reporter Brenda Hayes and producer Rebecca Steadwell sought out the city’s homeless as well as those who help to meet their needs and asked them one simple question. Are you thankful? Their report gives a candid glimpse into the day-to-day reality of the District’s neediest residents.
Organizations highlighted in this piece include the Community for Creative Non-Violence and DC Central Kitchen who help to provide over 600,000 meals a year to DC residents. Although CCNV relies entirely on donations to fund its operations, DC Central Kitchen receives upwards of $50,000 a year from the District government. That may change as the DC Council decides how to fix a $175 million budget shortfall. But DC Central Kitchen and organizations like it don’t have to end up on the city budget chopping block.
Rather than more cuts, it is time for a balanced approach that includes progressive revenue. Right now DC’s top tax rate (8.5%) starts at $40,000 a year. City leaders should create a new tax bracket of 1% more for income over $200,000. The revenue raised can help preserve the programs we are thankful for. If you care about this issue, send an email to Chairman Gray and ask him to take a balanced approach and protect the programs you care about.
Empower DC set up the PEOPLE’S SOAPBOX for the first time at last weekend’s Black LUV festival. In our first edition, Brian Anders has some ideas about how to deal with homelessness and DC’s affordable housing crisis. Do you agree with him or not?
