By Liane Scott, on June 20th, 2011 
On April 15, 2011 the United States House of Representatives approved a Budget Resolution for 2012 proposed by conservative Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan. Ryan’s resolution, if passed, will abolish Medicare and mandate budget cuts totaling $5.5 billion to Housing and Urban Development programs starting in October 2011. All of these cuts target low- and moderate-income people and add up to more than double the amount cut in 2010.
The House budget also calls for work requirements, time limits and rent increases for elderly, disabled and low income tenants receiving HUD assistance. Currently, the House Budget Committee plans to cut 14% of HUD programs across the board, leaving 294,000 Voucher families, 150,000 Public Housing families, and 180,000 Project Based Section 8 families without homes beginning in October. If these cuts are applied proportionately to Washington, D.C., 1520 Voucher families, 1100 Public Housing families, and 1540 Project Based Section 8 families will lose their homes.
Earlier this year, the Save Our Homes Coalition—representing tenants who live in Section 8 public housing programs as well as housing voucher recipients from across the country—coordinated a national day of action to protest the proposed cuts to the HUD budget in Fiscal Year 2011. Nineteen cities participated in a series of actions that took place on Valentine’s Day, including Washington, DC. Grassroots Media Project ally, Judith Hawkins of Valencia’s It Is What It Is Mobile Talk Show, along with Project trainees from Different Avenues, Grace Ebiasah and Jasmine Archer, produced the following video.
As a result of the nation-wide “Have a Heart-Save Our Homes” rallies, like the one shown above, as well as other pressure from the Left, deep cuts to HUD rental housing programs were avoided. However, Republicans have again called for deep spending cuts. This time they are tied to the increase in the US debt ceiling, which must be voted on by August 2 to avoid a US government default. To avoid further cuts, tenants are urging support for alternative revenues by taxing the wealthy and closing loopholes for giant corporations that paid no federal taxes in 2010.
According to US Uncut, a self-described grassroots movement taking direct action against corporate tax cheats and unnecessary and unfair public service cuts across the United States, Bank of America paid no federal income taxes in 2010. In fact, BOA received a tax refund of $666 million—despite record profits and lavish taxpayer bailouts. US Uncut and others estimate that making large corporations pay their fair share would generate as much as $100 billion per year. If BOA paid their fair share at the supposed “corporate income tax rate” of 35%, $4.2 billion in cuts could be avoided—enough to prevent the deep cuts to HUD rental programs proposed by the House Budget Committee for FY 2012.
To that end, low income tenant leaders and organizations from across the nation will come together June 21, to urge the US Treasury to “Tax the Cheats and Save Our Homes.” The National Alliance of HUD Tenants and local organizations Empower DC, ONE DC and the Community for Creative Non-Violence urge everyone suffering under DC’s affordable housing crisis to join them at the following rally at the Bank of America and the US Treasury.
Tax the Cheats, Save Our Homes Rally Tuesday, June 21, 2011 10:30 – 11:30 am 730 15th Street NW (Bank of America) Washington, DC 20005
Tuesday’s demonstration will feature tenant leaders from across the nation gathered in Washington, D.C. for the annual conference of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), the nation’s only national tenants union. They will be joined by tenants and homeless people from DC, including Empower DC, ONE DC, and the Community for Creative Non-Violence. For more information, contact Empower DC, affordable housing organizer Linda Leaks at 202-234-9119.
By Binnie Katti, on May 30th, 2011 
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.
Watch the video below or at Friendship Place’s YouTube channel. You can also read more about the semester-long program of which the video is part, Unseen and Unhead: Documentary Storytelling in the Other Washington.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eayfRKNbPpc
By Guest Contributor, on May 27th, 2011 Cross-Posted from Save Our Safety Net
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 . . . → Read More: DC Council Budget Vote Run Down
By Liane Scott, on May 15th, 2011 
Time is almost up. The city budget is scheduled for a vote May 25, 2011. There are still a couple of things you can do to keep the outrageous cuts to the social services from happening. Call, email, or visit the members of the council who remain against the proposal to increase taxes on DC’s wealthiest citizens by a mere .4 percent. There names and contact information follow:
Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans 202- 724-8058 jackevans@dccouncil.us
Council Chair Kwame Brown 202-724-8032 kbrown@dccouncil.us
At-Large Councilmember David Catania 202-724-7772 dcatania@dccouncil.us
Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser 202-724-8052 mbowser@dccouncil.us
There’s also one more rally. The details follow:
Critical, Unified Fair Budget Action: Social Services Walking Tour Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW May 18th, 11 a.m. -1 p.m.
Even if the budget passes with a slightly more progressive tax code, many cuts to social services will remain. DC’s progressive activists work hard for positive outcomes during budget season, but the low- and moderate-income residents who are most affected by these budget cuts must deal with them year round. We should be organizing year round. The following video, “How to Be an Affordable Housing Advocate,” suggests that we stay informed about legislation and that we hold our elected officials accountable however and whenever possible. Enjoy.
By Liane Scott, on May 3rd, 2011 
According to Wikipedia, Ivy City is a small Washington, DC neighborhood located on a triangular strip of land in the central part of DC’s Northeast quadrant. It’s bounded by New York Avenue to the northwest, West Virginia Avenue to the east, and Mt. Olivet Road to the south. The neighborhood is surrounded on all sides by significant landmarks: Gallaudet University (across Mt. Olivet Rd.), Mt. Olivet Cemetery (across West Virginia Ave.), and Amtrak’s Ivy City yard (across New York Ave.).
Better Days in Ivy City
I give you all this information because unlike Columbia Heights or Anacostia, Ivy City is not well-known. It has long been a tight-knit, working-class, African-American community with a proud history. But as the economy changed–the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad went away, warehouses closed down–what was once a thriving neighborhood became blighted.
This of course is not uncommon. Many of the District’s neighborhoods have their own histories of decline, but for some revitalization or outright gentrification has turned things around. While U Street, Georgia Avenue and even the long-neglected H Street corridor have seen major changes, revitalization projects in Ivy City have been proposed, promised and abandoned.
Those who look closely at revitalization in neighborhoods like Columbia Heights and Shaw may consider the residents of Ivy City fortunate. Relatively few native or even long-term residents have been able to remain in those other neighborhoods. Ivy City may not have the amenities that come with gentrification but it has not had the displacement either. Question is, will that last. The city is again planning projects that would promise revitalization, but will it come without displacement?
That is the question first time filmmaker Sean Furmage is preparing to answer in a documentary about Ivy City that he’s recently begun working on through the Grassroots Media Project. The project will be a part of his course work as a PhD candidate at American University. An introduction to the project is posted here. In it Furmage focuses on two recently proposed Ivy City redevelopment projects. The first, the Adaptive Reuse of Alexander Crummell School was scheduled to begin last summer, but it looks now like the city is trying to surplus the school instead. The other is the Ivy City Special Demonstration Project which will bring 58 units of “affordable” housing to the community, but it is unclear how many of those units will ultimately be awarded to current community members.
Furmage’s documentary will look at the struggles between local residents and the city council, developers and non-profits and their contrasting visions for the future of Ivy City. What’s posted here gives you a flavor of the finished documentary, which we hope will be complete by this fall.
Empower DC is currently seeking out residents of Ivy City to join the campaign to save the historic Alexander Crummell School from for-profit developers. As is clear from the video, Ivy City residents who have the time and inclination to be active want to keep Crummell as PUBLIC property, for use by the community and residents city-wide – to RESTORE the school for uses that benefit the community, serve community needs and preserve the history of the school and community. For more information, and particularly if you know anyone from Ivy City, join the Facebook campaign to save Crummell School.
|
Subscribe to Blog via Email
|
Comments are closed 
