Bread for the City

This afternoon, the Committee on Housing and Workforce Development has a stellar budget hearing line-up: Housing Finance Agency, Department of Housing and Community Development, and DC Housing Authority. As we’ve talked about before, the proposed DC budget for 2012 includes major cuts to crucial affordable housing programs. The Local Rent Supplement Program, Housing First, and Housing Production Trust Fund are being slashed, on top of devastating cuts to homeless services. These cuts will make it even harder for families already struggling to find or maintain affordable housing in DC.

But the City Council can still restore the funding. We need to tell our elected officials that affordable housing is a priority for DC residents, and we won’t accept these cuts! Make your voice heard with the Continuum of Housing Campaign and housing allies from around the city this evening at 6pm at the Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW.

Last week, I talked to Blache McLeod about the housing cuts. She did finance work as a DC government employee before she got injured and couldn’t work. She’s now on SSI because of her disability. She gets a home health aide for five hours a day, to help with her daily activities and keep her out of a nursing home, and she lives in subsidized housing. Here’s a little bit of what she had to say about the budget cuts:

They are dismissing us because of our economic status. If my rent was not subsidized, I would have to pay $1800 a month. I get $674 from SSI! That’s all I’ve got to work with. It makes me angry that they don’t think about the consequences.

We’re going down individually to beg them, “Save my program?” Instead, we need to go together, and this time we’re not begging. They understand the cameras. They understand the media. We have to let them know, “I don’t like what you’re doing.”

I am here. There’s not a day I’m not in pain, but I am not riding away into the sunset. I’ll be down there every day, in my pajamas, with my overnight bag. As long as we have the Wilson Building, I won’t be homeless. I may be the only one down there, but I won’t stop.

It may not be a lot of us, but once people start to see and hear, they’ll come out. A lot of people don’t watch the news, so they don’t know. You’ve got to get on the internet and hear what’s going on, and then starting talking. You have to come out.

Each of us has a little piece of the puzzle. Our voices need to be heard. We have to fight.

Join Ms. McLeod and Bread for the City staff and clients at the Wilson Building this evening from 6:00 – 7:00 pm. If you can, bring your blankets and a pillow to remind the City Council that if some of our residents don’t have a safe place to sleep tonight. It’s at 1350 Pennsylavnia Ave NW, close to the Federal Triangle and Metro Center stations, and on the 30 bus lines.

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>Since my last roundup post two weeks ago, various corners of the Internet have been buzzing about a Wall Street Journal article concerning the use of various online technologies — Facebook, Twitter, and hoary (!) things like e-mail and plain old websites — by homeless people. While this kind of use of technology is in many ways old news, since Google started giving free voicemail boxes to homeless San Franciscans last year, it does drive home an important point about the ubiquity of computer-mediated connectivity in modern society: we are now at a point where a blogger can ask, half-seriously, whether it would be worse to lose your home or your internet access, and Cory Doctorow can opine that “network access” will be a human right in ten years. On one hand, some argue that network access can be a tool for getting oneself off the streets, and for staying plugged into the broader sweep of humanity; on the other, the differential success of a virtual networking site like I-Neighbors — apparently, the tools work well in communities that are already organized, and complement rather than replace traditional face-to-face bonds of local community — suggests some need to curb our enthusiasm about the transformative effects of online communication.

>We are in the home stretch with the City budget! Each Committee has had hearings for the agencies within their purview and, as of the end of last week, all of the Committees have voted on their Mark-Up Reports.

A number of good things came out of the Committee mark-ups — overall, it was an encouraging process for the sake of critical safety net programs, especially given the scale of the budget crisis. Last week, Beyond Bread posted about the Judiciary Committee’s approval of funding for civil legal services to the poor.

Now, we find out that some other things SOME and BFC care about—access to food, housing, homeless services, and income supports—have support for needed funding as well.

Most notably, the Public Works and Transportation Committee, chaired by Councilmember Jim Graham, moved to generate revenue that would prop up quite a few programs that are essential to the health of low-income communities. (Graham has been working hard at this recently: after budget cuts last fall, he fought successfully for increases to parking meter pricing; but those funds were ultimately redirected to general funding, as opposed to specific social service programs.) This time he put forth another proposal that would generate revenue from DC’s Street Sweeper Cam Initiative. The initiative calls for mounting cameras on street sweepers and photographing the license plates of illegally parked cars. Tickets would generate an estimated $6.8 million of revenue for Fiscal Year 2010.

A slew of new $40 parking tickets isn’t likely to warm the heart, but look at what the generated revenue would go to fund:

• $2 million to the Local Rent Supplement Program
• $1.5 million to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
• $750,000 to the Housing First Fund
• $750,000 to the Home Purchase Assistance Program.

The committee also identified $2.9 million in additional revenue through a previously unnoticed accounting error, and recommends using this money to restore the cost of living adjustment to the standard income tax deduction, since the loss of a cost of living adjustment would be in effect a regressive tax measure. This is another smart, just move that was advocated by the Coalition for Community Investment (in which Bread for the City and SOME are both active members).

We extend a big thank-you to Councilmember Graham for truly diligent work in finding this funding, all of which will help the entire District of Columbia to weather the economic crisis and stay poised for a quick recovery.

These increases are crucial, but they barely scratch the surface of need. Homeless families can tell you that – and it’s not hard to find them, since this year has seen a 25% increase of homeless families in DC.

And, of course, the Committee process so far has only offered forth budget recommendations; now, it’s up to City Council to act on them. And it’s up to us to hold them accountable. The first vote on the budget by the Committee of the Whole is next week, on May 12th. Express your support for these recommendations by emailing City Council at dccouncil@dccouncil.us.

You can also use SOME’s Action Tool to write to City Councilmembers to tell them that additional funding is needed. And the Fair Budget Coalition will rally outside of City Council (1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW) in support of affordable housing, TANF, and homeless services, this Wednesday at noon 12-1. It’s during lunchtime, and a great opportunity to help out your low-income and homeless neighbors.

Stay tuned for more details as things unfold this week. (And for a more detailed description of the budget calendar, see the DCFPI Budget Toolkit.)

Councilmember Jim Graham, stepping up big-time.