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Empower DC Packs Council Hearing on Housing Authority Budget

By Grassroots DC, on May 5th, 2014

Cross-posted from the DC Independent Media Center written by Luke

On the 30th of April, Empower DC brought well over 100 DC public housing residents and supporters to pack Muriel Bowser’s hearing on the DC housing authority budget, which contains zero money for repair or renovation of traditional public housing.

Instead, the city applied to HUD for money to DEMOLISH three properties and thankfully these funds were refused. Almost all the attendees at the hearing were either residents or supporters of public housing, and for once witnesses did not have to sit through hours of testimony from developers before being permitted to speak.

A witness reported that Muriel Bowser was the only Councilmember present at the hearing, and she sat “stone-faced” through all testimony except when she was directly singled out for criticism. Several witnesses said they would not vote for her for Mayor even if she was the only candidate running.

Reverend Hagler called out the City Council for committing a “moral sin” by budgeting only $50 million for all the DC Housing Authority out of a total city budget of $11 billion while surrounded by massive wealth.

Click Here to view the entire hearing.

2 comments - (Comments are closed)   Gentrification, Public Housing   , , ,  

DC Budget Hearing: DOES and the Workforce Investment Council

By Grassroots DC, on May 3rd, 2014

 

3 comments - (Comments are closed)   Adult Education, Education   , ,  

Save Public Housing and Fund Needed Repairs Call To Action

By Grassroots DC, on April 27th, 2014

Cross-posted on behalf of Empower DC

CALL TO ACTION!!! Forward this message far and wide and join us for an important rally and then to pack the room for the DC Housing Authority budget hearing:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 12 NOON WILSON BUILDING 1350 PENNSYLVANIA AVE, NW (Accessible by Federal Triangle or Metro Center Stations) Rally outside followed by packing room 412 Bring ID to enter

Bus transportation is being arranged from public housing communities. To request transportation, testimony support or for more information about how you or your organization can support the Public Housing Campaign contact Schyla at (202) 234-9119 x101 or housing@empowerdc.org.

WE MUST PRESERVE & IMPROVE DC’S TRADITIONAL PUBLIC HOUSING

We stand united in support of preserving and improving our traditional public housing communities which serve a critical role in the affordable housing landscape of DC. We support a moratorium on the emptying and demolition of currently occupied units. We support improving and reopening units that have been left vacant due to disrepair.

Traditional public housing is a public resource which must be managed to serve the needs of current and future residents who can not access other private and subsidized housing because of multiple barriers. Public housing is the only permanently affordable housing owned by the city which ensures housing is available to people based on their income, with no bottom threshold and without utility costs, where families can remain intact and residents are supported by tight knit social networks.

WE HAVE LOST TOO MUCH

Due to completed and planned demolitions of public housing through the federal HOPE VI and Choice Communities programs and DC’s “New Communities” program, DC’s public housing stock has been decimated in recent years from over 11,000 units to only about 7,000 remaining units – at least 500 of which are currently vacant due to disrepair or pending demolition. During the same time the need for truly affordable housing has increased and DC has quickly become an unaffordable city to live in for low income working people and the most disenfranchised families and individuals.

THE NEED IS GREAT

The desperate need for traditional public housing is evidenced by:

– 7,000+ residents experience homelessness on any given day in DC[i]. In March of 2014, the city had 827 families in shelters including 1,591 children.[ii]

– Over 70,000 people were on the city’s waiting list for affordable housing in DC when it was closed last April[iii]

– The loss of over half of DC’s low cost rental housing units in only 10 years time, from 70,600 units to only 34,500[iv]

– The market rate cost of housing has skyrocketed to $1,500 or more for a two bedroom apartment, for which one would need to earn $60,000 per year or $29 per hour to afford.[v]

Housing vouchers and the private market can not adequately replace the need for public housing. Neither can job training or education programs. The people currently served by DC’s public housing communities include:

– over 15,000 residents – over 50% of whom are above age 50 – 23% have disabilities – With an average household income of $13,000 per year, or the equivalent of 35 hours per week at minimum wage[vi] PUBLIC LAND FOR PUBLIC NEEDS

Traditional public housing is the only form of permanently affordable housing in DC that is on public land and held in the public trust to serve the needs of current and future generations. The extremely high cost of real estate in DC is a barrier to creating more truly affordable housing. Public land is a precious resource with which we are able to provide for the long-term needs of our city. These lands must no longer be privatized and converted into middle and upper income tracts with time-limited (usually only 15 years) affordability covenants. STOP DISPLACEMENT

The loss of traditional public housing is worsening DC’s homelessness crisis, and has contributed to the push-out of over 40,000 African American residents from our city within the time period of 2000-2010.[vii]

Public housing demolition and redevelopment is promoted by the “deconcentration myth” which assumes it is detrimental for low income residents to live in a clustered area, and that individual lives improve when residents are dispersed. These assumptions are not supported by concrete results, in fact several scholars have documented the detrimental impact of the loss of social networks, stable housing, sense of place and identity.[viii] The underlying stereotypes against public housing and its residents are discriminatory and blame people for . . . → Read More: Save Public Housing and Fund Needed Repairs Call To Action

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Community Organizes to Stabilize Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary School

By Guest Contributor, on September 11th, 2012

We haven’t had a post about Bruce Monroe for a while, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s been going on there. Here are two reports and a video about recent developments.

Bruce Monroe’s Phase One Modernization Becomes More Robust by Daniel del Pielago, Empower DC Education Organizer

In 2008, the Bruce Monroe Elementary community was tricked by the city into leaving their school on Georgia Avenue and moving to the Parkview school building. The Bruce Monroe community fought hard to get their school rebuilt as promised, but unfortunately the city did not keep its word. At the same time, the community realized that the Parkview building was not in safe condition and definitely not conducive to academic success.

The Bruce Monroe community then decided to focus on getting much needed repairs at their new school (Bruce Monore at Parkview). The school was slated for a “Phase 1 Modernization” which repairs corridors and classrooms but not electrical, heating, or plumbing systems. For this reason, the community knew that a Phase 1 modernization would not be enough. First, the community documented the problems with the school and how it impacted students, teachers, parents, and others. Once these issues were documented, community members were present at any opportunity to advocate for their school with key government decision makers. They continuously kept their community updated on what was going on and on ways that individuals could support their effort for a more robust modernization of their school. All of this hard work and organizing paid off when the city agreed to do more than a Phase 1 modernization, focusing on the issues that the community had documented and said needed to be addressed. This brief summary does not capture all that went into this victory, but being organized and visible was key.

Renovation Preparations by Beverly West, Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary Parent Leader

The preparations for “Phase I Modernization” at Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary School started out in chaotic fashion. It was a stressful matter for everyone involved. It seems that everything was pushed back until the last moment as the teachers and many staff members struggled to finish packing and salvaging valuable resources from their offices and classrooms. Many of the teachers were also unable to complete the students’ year-end reports because the DCPS IT Department had collected their computers and printers days earlier. This was a very uneasy transition for the start of the summer vacation. At least an end-of-year student progress report would have given parents and students a foundation to work towards for next year. Please pray that the reopening of the school will go more smoothly than the closing. The building must be organized people-wise, building-wise, and Lord knows it needs to have a soothing atmosphere to have a successful beginning. In other words, total organization is needed across the school to properly educate the children.

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Battling for Subsidized Child Care

By Sequnely Gray, on June 25th, 2012
Shantise Summers testifies at City Council

On May 14, 2012, members of Empower DC’s Child Care for All Campaign along with their children-otherwise known as the BABY BRIGADE-visited the Wilson Building to educate the city council on the importance of the child care subsidy/voucher program and the challenges community-based child care centers are having on a day to day basis to keep their businesses running. The child care subsidy/voucher program is a federally funded program that was designed to subsidize child care for working families and parents that want to continue their education or seek employment.

As we visited council office after council office with our babies, we were puzzled as to why no one really cared about child care. We got the same answers over and over, “we are focused on getting extra money for the TANF program so that we can get these 6,000 families assessed and back to work or school.” No one even stopped to think that most or all of those TANF families will need subsidized child care to go back to work or school. Even with working parents, providers and teen parents from Anacostia’s New Heights Teen Parents Program expressing the challenges we’ve had finding available slots for our children in child care centers, making ends meet and completing the intake process, we were still unable to get solid support on restoring the budget for child care and making the intake process more accessible.

Despite our efforts, the mayor’s proposed $5.7 million dollar cut from the child care subsidy voucher program was voted into law on June 5, 2012. This budget cut will affect about 400 hundred families who won’t have access to a voucher or will be in jeopardy of loosing their voucher. The budget cut will also make it even harder for community-based and family child development centers contracted by the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) to operate and provide quality child care. Mainly the community-based centers will suffer.

It is very clear that the mayor and the city council don’t know or understand the value of early care and education BEFORE KINDERGARTEN! So, it is our job as parents, providers and community members to work harder to educate these city officials and stand up and advocate for our little people. They are our future leaders and we have to make sure they have the proper tools and support they need to be successful. LISTEN UP!!! DC DOESN’T WORK WITHOUT CHILD CARE!!! SO, LET’S STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITIES AND SUPPORT COMMUNITY-BASED CHILD CARE CENTERS!!

In addition to lobbying the council in their offices, Child Care for All Campaign members Sequnely Gray, Toneisha Johnson and Shantise Summers also testified during the city council’s budget hearing on human services. Coucilmember Jim Graham, Chair of the Committee on Human Services, seemed to agree that the intake process needs improvement. On the otherhand, his implication that providing a subsidy so that parents can meet their child care needs is like providing substance abuse treatment to drug addicts is nuts. In the District of Columbia, child care typically costs $18,200 per year, per child. You don’t have to be anything like a drug addict to need help meeting those costs.

For more information and/or to join Empower DC’s Child Care For All Campaign, contact Sequnely Gray at childcare@empowerdc.org or call 202-234-9119 ext. 103.

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