Call to Action: Help End Homelessness in DC

By Liane Scott, on May 13th, 2013

Tell DC Council to Invest in the Programs that will End Homelessness for DC Residents! Visit this link: http://bit.ly/10bBDQw

As part of the FY 2014 Budget Support Act (BSA), DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray has proposed significant changes to the Homeless Services Reform Act (HSRA), the law governing homeless services in DC. Not only will the proposed changes do little to resolve the crisis of family homelessness, but if enacted, could cause significant harm to homeless residents.

Nearly 200 DC organizations signed on to a letter to the Mayor asking him to withdraw these amendments from the BSA because they had not been vetted by stakeholders and because such significant changes deserve their own legislative process. Councilmember Graham is now leading the effort to remove these amendments (Subtitle D, The Homeless Services Reform Amendment Act of 2013) from the BSA and has introduced them as stand-alone legislation, which will give the public and stakeholders an opportunity for meaningful input.

As Fair Budget members, we know the best way to address homelessness is to ensure that housing is provided right now to DC residents experiencing homelessness, not by implementing changes in the law that could negatively impact both families and individuals.

That’s why we want to tell the DC Council to invest in housing and to support Councilmember Graham’s efforts.

The solution is housing! With a total investment of $8.5 million in the Housing First Program, $10.3 million in tenant-based Local Rent Supplement Program vouchers, we can end homelessness for 300 homeless families, for every DC senior, and for every resident with HIV/AIDS. And an investment of $5.1 million in supportive housing, shelter beds, and wrap-around services will help end homelessness for over 100 chronically homeless youth.

Go to this link to email the DC Council today!: http://bit.ly/10bBDQw

Then Join the Fair Budget Coalition at the following event:

The “ONE CITY NEEDS” Lobby Day Action Wed, May 15TH 10:00am-12:00pm At the Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW)

For more information please email: janelle@fairbudget.org or call 202-328-5513

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Neighborhood Groups Oppose Luxury Hotel In Adams Morgan

By Liane Scott, on September 1st, 2012

The Issue as told by the Washington Post in their article Developer Seeks to Give Adams Morgan a Taste of Luxury with Hotel Project:

First Church of Christ at Euclid & Champlain Streets in Adams Morgan.

For the past six years, developer Brian Friedman has been pushing a complex project that he says would reinvent Adams Morgan as a bustling attraction at all times of day, not just in the evenings. He has proposed transforming a historic church, formerly the First Church of Christ, Scientist, into a 174-room luxury hotel. His plan calls for preserving the church building and constructing a 10-story connecting building behind it, where there is now parking.

And he is asking for the city’s help, suggesting that the new hotel not be required to pay property taxes for 15 years after opening. The problem as defined by the Champlain Street Neighbors: We are largely immigrant families who have invested blood, sweat, and tears to make Adams Morgan the hip spot it is considered today.

We have lived through the rough times of this neighborhood and persevered despite crime and poverty so to forge a foundation of diversity and vitality that very few, if any other DC neighborhood possesses. Yet, despite our rich history and investments here, we have been left almost entirely out of the process and discussion of one of the biggest projects in recent Adams Morgan history. Whether purposely or not, our voices have not mattered to local decision makers at all.

The treasured diversity of Ward One and Adams Morgan has already been under attack, but now this luxury hotel project will be take displacement issues to new heights, literally, with a proposal which seems to defy logic for a residential community and threatens our very existence in the neighborhood we helped to build.

There are countless problems with a project of this size and of this proposed use for our families, some of whom have lived here for thirty years.

A luxury hotel will increase our rents or put pressure on our landlords to evict us and sell their buildings. It will bring traffic of major proportions to a street full of kids who attend the two local schools within two blocks. Taxis will be streaming up and down our narrow residential street effectively reducing pedestrian safety while giving rise to more exhaust pollution as vehicles idle at the hotel entrance on Champlain Street. Hotel waste will pour into our collective sewers and other hotel uses will seriously tax our residential water, gas, and electric utilities. The small businesses we patronize will face increasing rents and taxes, forcing them to close and be replaced with chain stores. The noise of the 18th Street Party Zone will come further up into our residential community and hotel rooftop shenanigans will keep our families up at night. The multi-year construction will literally shut down our street and disrupt our lives in a major way — essentially harassing us out of our homes with nasty construction noise and dust.

We do not want this luxury hotel which has been discussed without any heed of the concerns for our families which will be directly impacted.

We need help! We want to protect what affordable housing and diversity we have left. Can you help us?

Adams Morgan Residents for Reasonable Development Protest the Proposed Luxury Hotel at Unity Park Chanting, “Comunidad Si, Hotel No!”

The local organizing group Adams Morgan for Responsible Redevelopment asks, “why has Jim Graham pushed through a $46 million tax gift for a luxury hotel, while small businesses get no help and social services are cut?!” Their list of concerns is even more extensive than Champlain Street Neighbors’. According to Adams Morgan for Responsible Development the proposed hotel:

Won’t create jobs that pay a living wage and won’t afford workers enough money to actually live in Adams Morgan, let alone raise a family. Won’t bring the day-time foot traffic being touted by developers–wealthy tourists won’t likely patronize mos neighborhood-serving ‘mom and pop’ retail and commercial stores. Won’t provide enough revenue from hotel guests to outpace increases in commercial rents and increasing costs of goods. Will increase residential rents and property taxes–eliminating what is left of affordable housing in Adams Morgan. Will displace families and residents living in affordable rental units in proximity to the proposed hotel location. Will significantly increase traffic and noise and pollution on residential streets_impacting pedestrian safety, especially the safety of our kids. Will bring the weekend . . . → Read More: Neighborhood Groups Oppose Luxury Hotel In Adams Morgan

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What Do Bruce Monroe Elementary School & the Takoma Educational Campus Have In Common?

By Liane Scott, on January 8th, 2012

Both schools have been considered under-enrolled, yet one was demolished and the other completely refurbished. William Jordan, a member of the list serve Concerned for DCPS has some theories as to why. I’ve reprinted them below because I think they are worthy of your consideration.

Posted on the Concerned For DCPS List Serve on January 5, 2012:

Takoma Educational Campus after the Rehabilitation

I would suggest anyone who has followed or participated in the “Bruce Monroe School” over the years to pick up the Wednesday, December 28, 2011 addition of Northwest_Current 12.28.11 . On the front page is an article about the reopening of the Takoma Educational Campus one year after a fire closed the school. The article is relevant to Bruce Monroe because the city and officials, including Councilmember Graham, etc. found a way to address the needs of Takoma doing the very things they told our community and Bruce Monroe stakeholders they could not do months prior to the Takoma fire. It reveals the pattern of dishonesty and political disdain by then Chancellor Rhee and Councilmember Graham toward this community and the population of families and students served by Bruce Monroe.

Bruce Monroe Elementary after the Demolition

The article explains how the city initially planned to make $2 million in repairs but later decided to invest $25.5 million in a complete rehab. Via a bait & switch, Councilmember Graham and Rhee mislead this community into believing that the DCPS capital budget could not be adjusted to do a complete rehab of Bruce Monroe either as part of the redevelopment of the old site or as rehab of Bruce Monroe at Park View as they promised in prior years.

As evidence of what was actually promised, the notes from community meetings in which the future of Bruce Monroe was discussed can be downloaded via the following links.:

Notes_from_Meeting_With_Graham_and_Rhee_4-6-10

Parents_Meet_With_Jim_Graham_March_16_2010

Notes_from_Meeting_With_Graham_and_Rhee_4-6-10

 

Bruce Monroe, Park View & Meyer were closed down as part of the 2008 DCPS Rhee closings supposedly because of low enrollment. It should be noted that Takoma Enrollment was on par with Meyer. However, Bruce Monroe was reconstituted and the students shipped to Park View the least hospitable of all 3 buildings. In fact Park View at the time could have easily been considered dangerous. Despite this Bruce Monroe students were not relocated to the Meyer building which was in much better shape, they went to Park View. In the meantime, Councilmember Graham placed a boxing program in Meyer Elementary, to which he had been funneling earmarks for years with no community or practical oversight. Clearly, Ward 1 closings were not so much about education, but politics and real estate development. Rhee closed schools with minimal responsibility and Councilmember Graham place his political concerns above those of DCPS students or the community at large.

In this case Councilmember Graham and then Chancellor Rhee engaged in operating at one of the lowest political and ethical standards possible under the guise of school reform. To politically punish and breakup the Bruce Monroe school family, they place a school primarily serving working class Latino and African American families in building (Park View) which at the time had become unfit when better alternatives were available. The positive outcome for Takoma when placed in context makes clear the dishonest nature of reform under Rhee, the unethical cesspool that is Ward 1 politics and ultimately the nexus between pay-to-play politics, real estate development and school reform.

William Jordan

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Who Decides the Fate of Bruce Monroe Elementary School?

By Liane Scott, on November 12th, 2010

Have you ever heard the phrase, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu?” The Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe Elementary School thought they were at the table when former School Chancellor Michelle Rhee and soon to be former Mayor Adrian Fenty promised that the school would be rebuilt by the fall of 2011. They sent their children off to Parkview Elementary School on Warder Street NW, out of the site of hungry developers and the passing traffic that helps keeps crime on Georgia Avenue at bay.

While test scores dropped and rodents infested the cafeteria, the $20.3 million allegedly put aside to help rebuild the school seemingly disappeared. The city did manage to come up with $2 million to construct an interim-use park on the site, so as not to remind the community that they don’t have the school they were promised. The first request for proposals that the city put out didn’t garner any serious takers now that Georgia Avenue doesn’t look like the developers dream that it was before the recession. And the latest RFP requires that developers submit two proposals, one for a school with commercial elements and one for commercial development only. No school included. Our presumptive mayor Vincent Gray has gone from saying that the promise made to the Bruce Monroe parents was a “cruel joke,” to “we can only afford one school,” meaning either Bruce Monroe or Parkview.

On August 10th, when the city planned to present this new RFP to developers, the Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe Elementary School, were not invited to the table, as is blatantly clear in the video posted above. But being unwilling to be eaten alive, they showed up in force anyway.

Having community members show up at a meeting that was clearly meant for developers only may help to keep the Bruce Monroe site in the hands of the city’s residents. The Parents and Friends of Bruce Monroe Elementary School are scheduled to meet with Mayor Elect Gray, Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham and Council Chair Kwame Brown on Tuesday November 16. At the Ward One Town Hall meeting, Vince Gray expressed his appreciation for the activism of the Bruce Monroe community and claimed to be an activist himself. Next week will tell us whether he’s also willing to give them a meaningful position at the negotiating table.

To get involved in the Campaign to Rebuild Bruce Monroe, contact Empower DC’s education organizer Daniel Del Pialago at Daniel@empowerdc.org.

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