If the Congress and President Obama cannot agree on a plan to raise the debt limit then the Federal Government will go into default. There have been all kinds of dire predictions about what will happen to the US economy should this happen. The financial industry claims that Congress not only needs to raise the debt ceiling but they also must cut the deficit by something like $4 trillion if the US government’s credit rating is to remain in good order. In response, the Democrats have advocated raising taxes on the wealthy which, naturally, the Republicans refuse to do. So, What does all this mean for those of us whose incomes are low?
However this gets resolved, you can be sure that Congress will do it’s best to close the deficit by cutting programs that help the poor. It won’t work of course as those programs don’t make up enough of the budget to make a substantial difference in the deficit even if they were entirely eliminated. The axe will fall next on entitlements like Medicaid and Social Security which also have a disproportionate impact on low- and moderate-income folks. So, as usual, the wealthy will do fine and the rest of us will continue to struggle.
Jasmine Archer of Different Avenues, a DC Nonprofit working for reproductive justice by and for girls and women of color, examines how the budget cuts will affect youth in the above digital story. Here’s her introduction: I did a digital story on the budget cuts and talked a little about how it’s going to affect us as a people. Image if they cut WIC (Women Infant Children) how many mothers and children will be hungry, or image if they cut health care, how many people wouldn’t be able to afford their medication. I wonder do they imagine how it will affect us as a people mentally, physically, and emotionally, or how the budget cuts can create violence and depression.
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.
If you haven’t already heard, we didn’t win the income tax brackets. But we did win one progressive revenue source which is helping to pay for our other collective win: Millions in restorations to safety net services! And it is directly due to OUR PRESSURE! Check out this news report from the day before the vote:
But Jack Evans is already trying to undo $13 million in possible restorations in order to repeal the progressive revenue that did make it in the budget–a progressive revenue, incidentally, that HE VOTED FOR. He even wrote an email to other Councilmembers telling them “You need to help us”. They don’t seem to give up, but neither do we. Click HERE to take action to make sure all new revenue will go towards services and not a tax repeal.
WHAT DID WE GET IN THIS BUDGET?
Let’s start with SAFETY NET FUNDING RESTORATIONS
Restorations were either funded in the budget, or promised future funding in a list of priorities if the June revenue forecast reveals the city will be getting more money than Council thought. (It is widely estimated that there will be additional funding that can be used to start funding the priorities in the order the Council has laid out.) Here’s a table to show you how restorations stand (there may be adjustments here and there as the final budget is analyzed, but this should be fairly accurate):
Services
Cuts
Restorations in Budget
Restorations IF more $$ in June
Homeless Services
$20.5M
$17M
$2.2M
Housing Prod. Trust Fund
$18M
0
$18M
Interim Disability Asstnce
$4.8M
$1.2M
$3.3M
TANF
$5M
$4.9M
0
Childcare
$2.2M
0
$2M
Children’s Mental Health
$7M
0
$6.4M
Victim’s Services
$3M
$4.1M**
0
Healthcare Alliance
$11M
0
0
Housing 1st rent subsidies
$4M
0
$1.6M
TOTAL:
$75.4M
$27.2M
$33.5M
**To help cover Victim’s Services cuts, the Council used $2.8M from the Domestic Violence Shelter Fund. For more information about the potential restorations and the list of priorities check out this post on the District Dime.
This is an incredible accomplishment. We did not get everything this city needs, we need to keep fighting to protect what we did get, and only time will tell how much of the $33.5M in future promises will actually be delivered. But as the Exec. Director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Patty Mullahy Fugere, told us: “In my 20 years here at the Legal Clinic, I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many council members express concern about maintaining a safety net for our low-income and homeless neighbors. It was a very welcome change.”
And this is because of your calls, emails, and participation in the numerous rallies, council visits, and actions in the past 3 months. (Seriously folks: early last week we heard that Homeless Services would only be getting $4M. By Friday (a few hundred calls, emails and a Safety Net Reality Tour later) that number had jumped to $17 million.)
And now on to PROGRESSIVE REVENUE:
We lost the income tax by two votes from two Councilmembers we had considered staunch allies until something happened in the back rooms of the Council. Tommy Wells and Marion Barry voted against the income tax, joining Cheh, Catania, Bowser, Kwame and Orange. For their votes in our favor, we profusely thank Michael Brown, Graham, Thomas, and our two newest safety net superheroes, Mendelson and Alexander.
Though we didn’t get the income tax, we did close the exemption on the out-of-state bonds tax which is projected to bring in a comparable amount of revenue. This was pretty amazing as it was a centerpiece of last year’s SOS campaign but it was not widely supported then. It became clear this bonds tax was just a gimmick intended to be repealed when the June revenue forecast is likely to reveal the city has a bit more to spend for this year. Kwame had written in language stating that he would use some of the extra revenue from the June forecast to “buy back” the tax. But Wells impressed us when he managed to pass an amendment to take out the repeal and redirect the funds to safety net services. He gets major props for that move.
ACTION POINT: Now Evans, Cheh, Kwame and Catania are plotting to take away the $13 million earned by Wells’ amendment, money that is currently promised to Homeless Services, Interim Disability Assistance, the Housing Production Trust Fund and Children’s Mental Health. CLICK HERE to call the Council today to make sure this doesn’t happen!
Thanks for all your hard work during this campaign. This budget vote revealed a real shift in priorities, a shift made because of the pressure mounted by all of you!
We need to keep up the fight before the final budget vote on June 15th, but I’m sure we can do it! Let’s start today by calling our Council members!
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).
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