Concerns of a Senior Citizen

This post is the first by Donna Hendricks, a Rep Payee client who we’ve raved about before. She is passionate about the issues of affordable housing and mental health, because funding for those programs impacts her personally, so she's been a regular participant in the budget discussions each Friday from 11:30 - 1:00 at our Northwest Center. Last week she sat down to share her opinion on the DC budget cuts.

What happened to the homeless? What happened to low- and middle-income people? They got lost in a crowd. What happens to us, the money we need to live, to eat, just to survive, and depend on?

I’m a 61 year old woman who has been homeless and now has a roof over my head. But with the budget cuts, I live in fear of my rent being cut, fear of being back on the streets. Not only do I have mental health issues, I have physical health issues too. I have no use of my knees any more, and other problems. I’m scared of what would happen if I became homeless again.

I don’t need the pressure. We don’t need the pressure.

We have an overpopulation of the homeless already, so what’s going to happen when they close all the shelters for singles, when they end programs like IDA (Interim Disability Assistance) and stop building affordable housing?


If these cuts happen, more people will be homeless, which will drive them to mental illness, drinking, drugs, and other things they’ll do to survive and belong. When you’re homeless, it can feel like nobody cares. It’s lonely. You have no place to take a bath, no roof over your head, no necessities. It’s a hopeless situation.

Our Councilmembers need to hear from people who’ve experienced these things. It’s very important to voice our opinions. Otherwise they won’t know what it’s like. And if they don’t know what’s going on, what can they do about it? They’ll ignore the situation. They’ll keep their priorities in the wrong place. Streetcars and convention centers instead of homeless shelters and affordable housing. They think so much of the well-to-do that the low- and middle-income get forgotten. People who are really wealthy should pay their fair share, which isn’t happening right now.

So please, do all that you can to not make me homeless again.

Editor’s Note: You can join Donna and other clients and staff at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, May 3rd at the John A. Wilson Building, as we rally together with the Continuum of Housing Campaign at CNHED and Latino Economic Development Corporation. Help us tell the City Council that we need funding for the housing to keep our neighborhoods healthy and whole.

Susan Jackson: Homelessness Advocate

This post is by Nathan Karrel, an intern with the Advocacy Department. He sat down recently with Susan Jackson, a former Bread for the City client and homeless advocate, who offered to share her story with us.

Washington DC has 5,518 individuals living in homelessness. Susan Jackson, born and raised in DC, is one of those adults. Recently, I sat down with Susan to speak with her about her activism and her struggle with homelessness. Susan shared that as a homeless resident, she’s had a difficult time getting access to nutritious food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. This challenge is what Susan links to her early onset of diabetes. Nearly 9% of DC adults have diabetes, ranking it 4th highest in the nation for the percentage of people with diabetes in the general population. Susan noted that her homelessness was also exacerbated by the lack of shelters and transitional housing afforded to women. As she said to me, “Many women are living on the streets because of the lack of adequate space…Women are not at the forefront of anyone's mind; it’s only when an advocate, like myself, stands up and asks pointed questions about shelter space for women is it even discussed.” Through a District social worker, Susan became aware of N Street Village in Northwest DC. N Street Village provides housing for low-income and moderate-income individuals and families. As a member of the N Street Village community, Susan found the stability that allowed her transform the difficulties of her homeless situation to advocate on behalf of the homeless women in the District. “My experience of being homeless has afforded me opportunities or lessons of how to advocate for myself and my needs and in doing so caused me to advocate for others,” she said. “It’s not something that I set out to do, but I believe that it is necessary and I can't see myself doing anything else.”

If you want to learn to advocate like Susan, Bread for the City invites you to Winning a Better Budget: Dinner and Action Session, 5:30 to 8:00 pm Tuesday, April 12th at our Northwest Center. (If evening doesn't work for you, you can join our weekly luncheons from 12:00 to 1:00 pm each Wednesday at our Southeast location and Friday at our Northwest location.) Susan is a face behind the statistics of homelessness and poverty. She has struggled with adversity to become a powerful advocate on behalf of women in situations of homelessness and poverty in the District. She is pursuing a Human Services Administration Certificate at Catholic University, is a well-respected presence in the Logan Circle neighborhood, and active in food policy council organizing and the Fair Budget Coalition. Follow her inspiring example at Winning a Better Budget next Tuesday.

They served us. How are we serving them?

In honor of those who have served, I would like to take a minute on the day following Veteran’s Day to recognize the hardships many Veterans face once they return home. Many Veterans are at risk for homelessness. As of the latest count, 14.5% of D.C.’s homeless population in non-family emergency shelter are veterans. We here at Bread for the City seek to understand the issues specific to Veterans, so that we can better direct our efforts in reaching this specific portion of the homeless population.

(Learn more about Sherita's work with veterans in this post.)

You may be wondering what about Veterans makes them more at risk for homelessness.

A 2010 study from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness shows that veterans have high rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and sexual trauma, especially for women. Especially high rates are experienced by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, due to repeated deployments. Repeated deployments causes an increased strain in family relations and leads to an increased risk for serious injury. These factors also significantly impact a Veteran’s ability to form trusting relationships once they are back home. Social isolation often puts individuals at higher risk for homelessness. PTSD can contribute to substance abuse problems and relapse. Mental health problems, such as TBI or otherwise, can result in cognitive impairment. Difficulties in social relationships and difficulties in controlling temper or impulses could affect potential for employment and retention of jobs.

There are exciting local and national initiatives under way to support Veterans, such as the recent news that 405 veterans have been placed in Permanent Supportive Housing in the last year and the expansion of federal funding for services for homeless families.

What we want is more success stories like Mr. Klink, Veteran of Vietnam who suffers from PTSD. He worked with Sherita Evans a year ago and had this to say when we interviewed him for the blog:

"Sherita assisted me in getting into the place where I’m established now. When I ended up on the streets of DC, a case manager with the homeless division suggested that I could get specific help at Bread for the City. I was tired of jumping in and out of shelters. Sherita directed me to the Vet Center at Chesapeake House. And even though I didn’t meet all the criteria—I didn’t have 60 days clean—I was able to talk to the people and they were ready to give me a stable, sober environment. Today I have six months clean time and my own home."

We salute our veterans for their service to our country and we hope that we can serve them in their hardships in the honorable manner they once served our country.

Burgers and Hot Dogs and Corn - Oh My!

Last Thursday, clients, volunteers, supporters and staff of Bread for the City gathered for our Third Annual Parking Lot Picnic. We grilled out, chilled out, and celebrated our shared passion for the work of Bread for the City.



View the entire photo album on our flickr page.




Check out our video recap of the event below. (It's only 2mns!)




Major props go out to our two sponsors for this event: B.K. Miller Meats & Liquor and Giant Food. Without their generous support, this event would not have been possible.

Hope to see you next year!

Why ID? Yet Another Barrier to Vulnerable Families

I’ve gained a huge amount of knowledge in my time here at Bread for the City, and I am so grateful for that knowledge. However, there have been some things that I’ve learned that I’m not so glad to know.

Last week, I talked to a client who had been denied access to the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, which is the gateway to shelter resources for homeless families. She was turned away because she did not have a photo ID. I was shocked to hear this, and at first assumed that maybe it had just been an exceptional situation. But through some phone calls my supervisor discovered that it is current policy at the Family Resource Center to require photo ID in order to enter the building.

This made me feel frustrated and completely helpless.

One of the things I’ve learned doing this work is how difficult it is to get an ID in DC. A DMV ID requires a birth certificate. Both cost money. A DHS ID requires a visit to 645 H Street. It is not a quick process. And if an individual or a family is seeking shelter, they are already in crisis; there could be any number of reasons why they don’t have their ID.

Homeless families are already facing very real barriers -- more than ever because of cuts to DC's safety net services. To require formal identification from such families just to be able to go through an intake process… well, that doesn’t work out very well in my head. I’m sure the staff over at the Family Resource Center are overwhelmed as well. But they are there to serve families that are already powerless and hopeless. Is this additional barrier appropriate?

Fortunately, one of the great things about working at Bread for the City is that the staff has so many connections and resources. We called our friends down at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and they reacted as we had. They agreed that is unacceptable for the Family Resource Center to turn people away due to lack of ID, and reported that they would take care of things. It felt good to know that the situation was in competent hands.

I spoke with this client the next day, and she had gotten into the building without any resistance, and was in the process of working with someone.

I think I learned two important things in this situation last week. First of all, I was reminded that sometimes other agencies put in place rules or requirements that aren’t ever going to make any sense to me. That’s just how these things work. Secondly, I was reminded that in the times when I feel completely helpless, there are often others to whom we can go for assistance. Last week, the folks at Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless felt like superheroes to me. I’m so grateful that there are people like them that we can call on.

Finding self-worth in the face of homelessness and hunger

[Louise Thundercloud is a familiar face here at Bread for the City, and an active community member engaged in various efforts for progressive change. Louise submitted this post to the DC Food For All, and we're pleased to cross-post it here. —ed]

As the definition of what constitutes a homeless person evolves and changes—widening to include those who house-sit, those who live in friends’ spare rooms, or basements, or cars, or hotels, etc – I think solutions to some of the very nasty by-products of homelessness need to be found.

The most odious problem is hunger – more importantly, hunger that limits the scope of your choices of what to eat. This issue is related to the problem of very low self esteem: feeling as though you deserve only what is given to you, because you feel so terrible about yourself. I am referring to the lack of empowerment felt by most homeless people, & it compounds when someone had very low self esteem prior to becoming homeless.

When I began my climb out of being homeless, I began to get very angry at my lack of control over the more basic things, what I ate. I began to refuse to eat, preferring to sleep away hunger.

Hunger is the manifestation that accompanies having no job, and being completely dependent on others for food. What if the homeless had other choices, which include fresh organic vegetable or fruits, that they can earn in exchange for volunteering their time at a health food store or urban garden?

Someone told me about a food co-op which would allow me to volunteer & use my volunteer hours to purchase organic fresh foods. On my first shift I felt myself feeling more capable & less at the mercy of others. I had choices & my work gave me those choices.

Fortunately for me, I did not become homeless with a lot of the baggage many do, I didn’t have completely crushed self-esteem, just interrupted self-worth.

Homelessness strips you bare of your humanity. You feel like scum. You often look like scum, & people generally either do not notice you, or they do with malice & disgust. Negativity is very easily absorbed & once it has been absorbed, it is very hard to shake, especially when you are homeless.

So here’s my question: since low self-esteem leads to repeat homeless, shouldn’t self-esteem building be offered more often to end the cycle of homeless? Where food is concerned, couldn’t more opportunities be aimed directly at the homeless community in the form of shift work, enabling the person to earn groceries they want & are able to fix themselves, thereby providing an avenue for empowerment?

Having worked several times as a volunteer at a health food store, I know how busy things get. Having more able bodied volunteers would enable to permanent staff more time to take care of their customers. Also shift work allowed me to learn about different movements: human rights, environmental, peace movements. Other kinds of connections can be made, as well as other solutions can be found for ending some very perplexing problems. Perhaps ending homelessness could be one of them.

The homeless can play a large role in addressing hunger in the homeless community, & open a dialogue on how homeless people can play a large part in ending the cycle of homeless & low self –esteem in their community.

Isn’t it empowering to feed oneself what one wants, instead of having to eat what is put in front of you, particularly food that you really don’t want to eat? I know that having that choice put self-determination & empowerment in my hands.

Louise Thundercloud
Homeless 1991-1993

Help the Homeless Walk -- 2 Days Away!

Look how much the Help the Homeless Walk is!!

Join Bread for the City this Saturday on the National Mall for the Help the Homeless Walk. It's only $25 for adults and $15 for youth (age 25 and younger). Bread for the City gets 100% of your registration fee, and you get a snazzy t-shirt, some exercise, and if you're lucky, we'll let you hold the cool BFC banner. (See above-- it's really fun)

Register here: http://bit.ly/31xXuP. Don't forget to choose Bread for the City as your beneficiary organization!

Hope to see you there!

Street Sense Silent Auction Fundraiser on Thursday

Our favorite local newspaper, Street Sense has been busy: it recently upgraded its website, recorded a theme song with Peaches (!), and now is having its 4th annual silent auction fundraiser this Thursday. As Sommer wrote yesterday on DCist, this great publication needs the community's support during to survive during this recession. And anyway, this event always has good food, an interesting crowd, and compelling speakers. Highly recommended!

Oh and a ps: there are special 2-for-1 coupons available in the current print issue of the paper, so pick one up and grab a date. --ed

The Details

WHAT: Street Sense Silent Auction

WHERE: WVSA Arts Connection, 1100 16th Street, NW, Grand Room, Washington, D.C.

WHEN: Thursday, October 8, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON (October 5, 2009) – On Thursday, October 8th, Street Sense, Washington’s newspaper written and sold by members of the local homeless community, will host “Bidding for Change, its fourth annual silent auction. Over 50 items, donated by members of the local business community and individuals, will be available. All proceeds benefit Street Sense and, by extension, its network of homeless writers and vendors.

Items available in the auction include:

* Tickets Washington Wizards and Capitals games,
* Tickets to the Strathmore and Studio Theater
* A Bethany Beach getaway
* A Lush gift basket
* Handmade pottery
* Tickets to the Newseum
* Gift certificates to Brassiere Beck, Big Bear Café, Busboys and Poets, and Café Saint Ex
* Signed photographs of Alexander Ovechkin and Antawn Jamison
* Many other wonderful items.

“We so appreciate the support of our many donors to this year’s auction,” noted Laura Thompson Osuri, former Street Sense Executive Director. “Without the support of the local community, we could not continue our mission to raise public awareness on the issues of homelessness and poverty in the city, which is more important than ever as we face increasing homelessness in the face of the current economic crisis.”

This is the fourth year of the silent action, and the first held at the WVSA Arts Connection. During the event, Street Sense vendors will read poetry and one will be singing the Street Sense song.

Road to Recovery: SOME captures success on video

[Another post from our new intern, Liz Whitehurst. —ed]

Last week, I blogged about the Invisible People project, which brings “the face and voice” of homelessness to the web. Locally, SOME’s “Success Stories” show us the powerful stories of DC residents who are moving out of poverty.

“My thing was that I was gonna die shooting dope,” says Lenny Ferguson, looking straight ahead. “Without a doubt, that’s what I thought. I had no idea that I would ever be clean.”
But when Tracy Monson met Lenny, he was well-dressed, carrying his dry cleaning and an iced tea from Starbucks. “It was hard to imagine him ever being on the streets,” says Tracy, who is Manager of Special Events and Marketing at SOME.

Lenny’s was one of several stories filmed this spring as part of a story collection effort that began with interviews conducted in 2008 with 10 graduates of SOME’s addiction treatment program. That series of interviews was initiated by SOME’s addiction counselors and social workers, who were looking for ways to encourage SOME’s clients who were dealing with addiction to enter treatment. “The goal was to have people who had gone through the process speak to them through the videos,” said Tracy.

SOME counselors engaged SOME’s recovery community in the process of screening the footage and editing it, using those who had gone through treatment to help decide what was most compelling.

The result is a series of five-minute videos, which now play in the waiting room of SOME’s Dining Room for the Homeless at 1st and O streets. “While folks are waiting, they can hear these people’s stories,” says Tracy.

In particular, Lenny’s story resonated with Tracy; her hope is that people like him will serve as an inspiration to others. “I wish more people could hear stories like that and really understand…that things can turn around completely,” says Tracy.

Lenny’s expression is unchanged as he describes his own transformation: “The old days I would wake up a lot of times with no money, sick, nose running, eyes running, couldn’t hardly stand up, didn’t know if I was gonna get enough money to go get some dope,” says Lenny. “Now I wake up, the birds sound good, the sky is beautiful, everything around me is beautiful.”

More recently, filmmaker Thom Wolf shared the experiences of formerly homeless families through interviews filmed at SOME’s Zagami House. On the SOME website, Letitia’s story is featured alongside Flash presentations that provide a virtual tour of the building and trace its transformation from an abandoned shell to a fully-renovated, 12-unit apartment complex.

Looking forward, Tracy wants to use video to reach a different audience: “We’ll work with the advocacy department to capture stories, both that are inspiring but also that help us to affect change in the city by having people speak to the challenges that they face and the things that are needed to help people move people out of poverty.”

—Liz Whitehurst

Revealing the Invisible People: Homelessness and Social Media

[Today we welcome Liz Whitehurst, our new intern! —ed]

Coreen from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

The very best summer of my life was spent working at a drop-in center for homeless women. Amid the chaos (serving coffee, baking brownies, answering the door, etc) I would sit down with one of the regulars and listen to her stories. They were sometimes fascinating, often discouraging or even horrifying, but each story gave me insight into the lived experience of poverty.

What I love about Mark Horvath's Invisible People project is that it captures stories like these and brings them to millions. What's more, it allows the homeless people he meets on his travels across the country to speak for themselves.

Each person's story is unique, and the videos capture some of their complexity and common humanity. Some people look embarrassed in front of the camera, while others seem just happy to be talking to someone. Anger, fear, gratitude, and longing are all captured in their faces and words.

Take Juan in St. Petersburg for example. When asked to describe what homelessness is like, he simply says "Well, it really sucks. It's hard." Take Coreen in Nashville, who fled an abusive partner. When asked to describe what homelessness is like, she says "It's scary, but it's better than what I was in." And then there's Walter in Chicago who describes his daily experience as part of something bigger: "Even if you are homeless and you have nothing, if you have a purpose, you have all that you need."

Annemarie's story stood out to me because it adds to the ongoing conversation on this blog about the digital divide that exists in communities that lack internet access. Annemarie uses Twitter to connect with friends and social service agencies. Although her access to the internet isn't consistent, she can use twitter via her cell phone: "It's great for venting. Sometimes I just need to get something out to someone and a million people can hear it. It's good to know I'm not the only one who experiences these problems."

And through Twitter, Annemarie met Horvath – and her voice has been amplified even farther. I’m listening still.


So I'm on the lookout for more online places where homeless men and women are speaking out. Leave a comment or tweet if you have a suggestion.

—Liz Whitehurst

Street Sense gets Web Presence

Our friends at Street Sense have a great new website! The site was produced by Community IT Innovators (CITI). They’ve also recently launched a channel on a neat user-generated aggregation service called MIXX that culls homelessness news from all over the country. (You can find it through the “Homelessness Headlines” section towards the bottom of the front page.)

These are good steps forward. Street Sense’s street-vendor model is an innovative and popular way to engage homeless people in production and vending of their own publication, and each issue contains voices that rarely get heard even on the internet. Street Sense can now share its messages, beyond the street, as part of a broader dialogue.

For instance, we found out about this interesting program in an article called “Crossing the Digital Divide” by Laura Dean:

Helping homeless people become technologically savvy is the cornerstone of Lou August’s business partnership between his technology company, Wilderness Technology Alliance, and D.C.’s largest shelter, the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV).

The idea behind the business model is to build a self-sustaining, technology company that is managed and operated by the homeless, while providing an outlet for D.C. businesses to take advantage of high-quality training programs and refurbished computer systems offered by WildTech-CCNV staff members.

The technology center located at the shelter provides training classes, job search skills, software training classes and Internet access to the nearly 1,000 residents of the shelter. The benefits of the technology classes offered at CCNV reach far beyond the people that reside at the shelter. A $99 computer class is offered every other Saturday to low income residents of Washington, D.C. WildTech-CCNV endeavors to give each participant who completes the class a free, refurbished Pentium-4 computer.

Sounds like a promising attempts to address the Digital Divide problem we discussed here last week. If you’ve had experience with this program, or are aware of similar programs that we should check out, let us know!

Beyond Bread: Budget Cuts and Growing Needs

~More and more Americans are asking where to go to receive social services, says the New York Times. This new group of people experiencing poverty and homelessness is comprised mostly of families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs due to the recession. For the first time, they are having to ask for help and are realizing that they have no idea how to go about navigating both non-profit and government-funded social service programs.

~According to a report by the Brookings Institution, unemployment rates have grown faster in DC suburbs than in the city itself.

~The About Homelessness blog asks “Why are people homeless?” and provides information on the four different types of homelessness that the National Alliance to End Homelessness focuses on.

~We’ve been spotted all over the blogosphere this past week, but we missed the ongoing coverage we've been getting on The Slow Cook blog, where both our Gleaning program and the Save our Safety Net campaign have been highlighted. Thanks for reading about, blogging about, and supporting our initiatives!

Helping Other People Clothe People

Bread for the City’s clothing bank (in our Southeast center) is always hopping with fresh, free inventory and lots of folks coming through in search of business and casual wear. We get plenty of donations from the community, which we greatly appreciate.

For our allies over at So Others Might Eat, the need is more acute. SOME works with a clientele that is generally more chronically homeless than the people we see here at Bread for the City, and one of the many challenges of homelessness is that you can hardly keep clean sets of clothes lying around. (I wonder how these people in Baltimore store their running shoes.)

SOME’s Tracy Monson tells us:
“We need all types of men's summer clothing for the more than 30 gentleman whom we outfit each day.”

Contact Tracy if you’d like to donate your summer clothing.

And, because they are just that awesome, SOME let me know that other organizations like Martha’s Table are also in need.

National Poverty News Roundup for 14 July

[I'm going to be unavailable for several weeks, so these semi-weekly updates are going to go on hiatus until sometime in August. But they will resume then.]

If we take seriously two propositions about the contemporary media landscape -- that visibility is key to driving policy, and that virtual spaces are at least as important as traditional print outlets if not more important -- then it follows that online visibility for poverty and homelessness are critical to focusing public attention and crafting compelling policy solutions. I've talked about the wired-but-homeless before, but here's a different twist: courtesy Computer Sim Games, I recently found out about Alice and Kev, an experiment in The Sims 3 involving a poor and homeless family (a father and a daughter) whose creator/player is attempting "to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes." And blogging the experience, of course. I find the unfolding story oddly compelling -- not because it is a "realistic" depiction of homelessness or poverty, of course, but because it is among the most creative uses of virtual spaces to raise awareness of these issues I have seen. Yes, it's fascinating to see people using Second Life for stakeholder conferences, and the kinds of "apps for democracy" that people are coming up with are quite innovative. But homeless sims? That's a special kind of creativity.

Speaking of policy, lots of intriguing things seem to be happening around urban policy and planning in the past few weeks. This Brookings report indicates that the populations of cities nationwide continue to grow, perhaps as people flock inwards from the suburbs in search of the employment opportunities afforded by economic diversity -- and the opportunity to cut their commute-times. How convenient, then, that the 2010 budget contains funds for a number of new inter-agency initiatives, including a renewed focus on sustainability and the revitalization of neighborhood networks. Perhaps we are seeing the instantiation of what Rob Goodspeed calls "the new normative planning," characterized by a commitment to "high density, mixed-use urbanism" and a real move away from the automobile-dependent landscape architecture of suburbs. That architecture, as we have learned, is implicated in a variety of problems, from impoverished inner cities to the need to import food from long distances away -- with a correspondingly high carbon footprint. Maybe mixed-use city spaces should press urban gardening even further, along the lines of this recent initiative to allow beekeeping within the limits of New York City. Or maybe the lessons of Will Allen's urban farming operation should be taken to heart. In any event, the kinds of cities that are being envisioned and developed will not look like the cities of the past, and with any luck, they will not be beset by the same problems of persistent poverty.

As food pantries across the country continue to report an increase in client visits, it is heartening to hear of local and federal initiatives to keep feeding families with school-aged children during the summer months when the school-year free and reduced lunch programs are on hiatus. It's heartening to hear that the G8, a summit meeting often known for a focus on macroeconomic stability, has committed to a multi-year initiative to combat global hunger. And it's deeply heartening to hear of local initiatives like this book club in Boston, primarily made up of homeless men. Such humanizing moments should not go unacknowledged or forgotten; working for the end of poverty also, and perhaps ultimately, means working for the end of a refusal to acknowledge the humanity of others, and what more human activity is there than getting together in a small group to discuss a topic of mutual interest?

The Future's so bleak, I gotta wear sunscreen

We recently posted about the shelter crisis in DC here at Beyond Bread – but the magnitude of the problem did not hit me until the latest request for Helping Other People Help People came in from Miriam’s Kitchen.

Ashley Lawson, Volunteer and Development Coordinator over at the Kitchen, shared with me:

Right now we need small bottles of sunscreen since most of our guests are in the hot sun all day.

For the many people who are unable to work, being without a home means having no place to go during the day- to take shelter from cold or heat, to use a bathroom, or to eat. During particularly bad summers, the “Hypothermia Hotline” becomes the Hyperthermia Hotline, allowing for a van to come pick up those in need of emergency help. Organizations like Miriam’s Kitchen, N Sreet Village, and others provide spaces for a percentage of people for have their needs met during the day, when shelters are closed.

It’s not enough.

Residents of our city are without shelter, homelessness is rising at the same time our budget for shelter has been decreasing. The funding for safety net programs is being threatened.

Help Miriam’s Kitchen protect our most vulnerable citizens by contacting Ashley, and then tell your council members that now that you’ve done your part, it’s time for them to do theirs.

Declaring Our Interdependence: Safe Shelter for All

Homelessness is on the rise. The number of those reporting unemployment in DC has swelled to over 10%. The need for emergency shelter, especially in this economy, is crucial. Wider Opportunities for Women, along with over 50 other organizations including Bread for the City, formed a coalition to ask the District government to provide increased shelter space. Instead of closing emergency shelters, as the Fenty administration has been doing for the past couple of years, we need to open more.

Though the coalition supports the Mayor’s Housing First program, it insists that until all in need are housed, emergency shelters should not be closed. Family and Women’s shelters are currently at capacity, meaning that many families and women are still left out to sleep in the streets despite dangerous conditions.

Unlike past years, the demand for shelter has not decreased with the warmer weather. In May 2009, shelters in the individual emergency system were in overflow. In addition, the shelters are poor in condition, and many are infested with bed bugs. Those seeking jobs during the day sometimes do not make it back in time to have anywhere to sleep. It is a problem that is deserving of serious attention. Debra, a homeless woman affected by the shelter crisis, said at a rally last week that, “…everybody that’s going through these situations [does] not want to be in these situations… We need a little bit more respect.”

Because of District budget cuts that resulted from the decline in the economy, opening up more shelters is not on the agenda. But, as our letter to Mayor Fenty states, “an important step towards acknowledging [the basic human right to housing] is to ensure that appropriate funds are designated for all three prongs of housing preservation: adequate prevention, safe and sanitary emergency shelters, and affordable housing.”

Sadly, though our joint efforts are concerted, people are still dying on the streets of DC. If this is the reality in the summer months, what can we expect three months from now when winter approaches?

National Poverty News Roundup for 16 June

Tis the season, apparently, to wax poetic about the power of online social networking tools to promote social change. While it probably a good idea to curb our enthusiasm a bit, since the global coverage of social media is somewhat spotty at best, it remains the case that activists in well-connected regions can certainly take advantage of tools like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out. The U.S. government certainly thinks so; among the results of this increased emphasis on transparency and openness, both by government and civic watchdog groups, are two new Facebook apps that you can use to keep tabs on your elected representatives.

Last week we mentioned the increasing numbers of wired-but-homeless people in certain regions of the United States. This week, consider this story about a D.C. homeless advocate -- himself homeless -- who uses online networking tools to overcome the disadvantages of his lack of a permanent place to live, and also a new program in New York City that allows a small number of homeless to attend St. Johns University -- and provides them with "the books, the laptops, the notebooks, the pens, the whole thing." But in this techno-enthusiasm, let's not overlook the continuing relevance of old-school media like public radio, which remains a source of good first-person accounts and inspiring stories like this audio diary of a recently-graduated homeless high school student, and let's also remember the tried and true lessons of community organizing revolving around telling stories, regardless of the medium in which those stories are told.

Tis also the season, of course, for the end of the public school year, which increases demand on food banks as school-aged kids no longer benefit from free and reduced lunch programs. Michael Moore's public theatrical stunt, in which a collection is taken up for a fictional charity called "Save Our C.E.O.s" with the money actually going to local food banks, obviously doesn't raise much money, but maybe it and the film it promotes will raise some more awareness?

National Poverty News Roundup for 9 June

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.

Online tools certainly provide some other intriguing capacities, directed less at the poor and homeless themselves and more at those who work to improve their situations. For example, consider this national map of homelessness assembled by Home Free Organization. Or consider this story about a homeless woman; perhaps the most intriguing thing here is the lead: "I found Joanne via Twitter." The federal government weighs in with data.gov, a massive online portal to numerous public data-sets assembled by federal agencies. Perhaps these sources of data will help the increasingly-common "poverty summits" cropping up around the country as they try to craft effective policy solutions; perhaps the data will allow a better appreciation of the success of programs like the "Housing First" strategy presently being tested in a number of cities.

Obviously data alone won't solve the problems of homelessness and poverty, and neither will marches and rallies -- although marches and rallies, like other activist campaigns, can certainly raise awareness and put pressure on elected officials. But tough policy choices remain. Since quality food is more expensive, do we prioritize feeding as many people as possible, or feeding fewer people well? Does one improve average quality of health care available to Americans, or address the glaring disparities in care and disease prevalence between different socioeconomic groups? What happens when a church's effort to help the poor and homeless starts to displace members of the congregation, thus threatening the survival of the effort itself? And what do we do with the built environments in which we now live, environments that may themselves contribute to poor health by discouraging sufficient physical activity? Tough choices indeed.

Beyond Bread: an Advocacy Win Edition

~This week Bread for the City was delighted to see two things we advocated for come to pass: the expansion of food stamps, and the approval of the “Bag Bill.” As our guy Greg pointed out earlier this week, the food stamp expansion was both overdue and relatively easy to support since the funding for it came from federal stimulus cash. Having said that, the expansion shouldn’t be written off as small. It increases the income threshold to 200% of the federal poverty line (up from 130%), and eliminates the damaging “asset cap” that existed before, and auto-enrolls people in the utility assistance program. The Bag Bill, a piece of legislation that would put a nickel fee on grocery store bags in an effort to clean the Anacostia Watershed, will help the neighborhoods that bank the contaminated river and is good for the environment. Many thanks to the DC City Council for approving these needed measures.

~ We Love DC picked up the story that Councilmember Mary Cheh has introduced legislation that would add the homeless to groups protected under hate crimes legislation. We reported a similar measure being introduced two months ago in Maryland. Can we have a race to see whose will pass first?

~Bread for the City’s new Human Rights Clinic, now open on Wednesday evenings to those seeking asylum, was picked up by the Immigrant Rights blog on change.org, and Nomadsland. The word is getting out!

~There were a couple of notable commentaries this week about the nature of poverty. The always insightful Poverty in America blog had a great write up about the need to change our perception of poverty nationally. The Washington Times had a small but interesting blurb that could really serve as a fact sheet about the homeless population in DC, and Stone Soup Station had a great article about how internet access (when available) can make a huge difference to the homeless population.

Beyond Bread: Nutrition and Rising Homelessness

~Sharon Gruber, our blogging Nutrition Consultant, has been on a spring holiday at the Sustainable Food blog at change.org, producing all sorts of discussions over the Series of Tubes. The subject of her posts are Bread for the City’s Nutrition Initiative--an ongoing effort to improve the health of our community.  One of our major efforts has been providing healthy food including fresh produce to all the low-income residents who utilize our food pantry. A series of cooking classes called Fit for Fun, a Health Peer Education Program, gleaning trips to local farms, and one-on-one nutrition consultations came out of this initiative as well.

~Kathryn Baer let us know about a report published last week by the Homeless Services Planning and Coordinating Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The report states that the number of officially homeless people in the greater Washington area has increased over the past year by 2.4%. Of the 12, 035 people who are reported as “literally homeless” in greater Washington, 6,228 are living in DC. Also important is this statistic: “Twenty-one (21) percent of these persons report severe mental illness; 23 percent have a chronic health problem and 15 percent are physically disabled.” There are currently 1,426 homeless children in DC, up 24% over last year.

~DCPCA’s CEO (and friend of Bread for the City) Sharon Baskerville was honored with the 2009 Community Achievement Award this week by DC Appleseed.

~A big “hey, thanks” to DCist for helping us spread the word about Bread for the City’s new afterhours Human Rights Clinic!