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Dec
Patient, Elijah, and nurse Ann at Joseph's House.
Volunteer
“I visited him every day,” Anthony said. “It scares me that I’m in the same place. But he was a fighter to the end, and I’m going to carry the legacy on.”
Joseph’s House, a three-story brick townhouse in a leafy residential section of Adams Morgan, has been providing compassionate care to the dying for 21 years. The building has accommodations for nine residents at a time and serves about 40 residents each year.
Founded in 1990 by Dr. David Hilfiker, then working at a nearby medical recovery shelter for the homeless, Joseph’s House originally served African-American men with end-stage HIV/AIDS. As more effective treatments became available for those who could afford them, the hospice evolved.
“Today we welcome women as well as men,” says Patty Wudel, the organization’s executive director, “and people with end-stage cancer and other terminal diseases.”
Wudel also notes that in recent years, the house’s residents are more likely to suffer from mental illness and active addiction. Also, higher numbers of non-English and non-Spanish speaking residents have created a need for volunteer translators.
According to Bill Burns, a Navy retiree and a member of the hospice’s board, Joseph’s House has three primary goals: providing physical nurturing, offering spiritual companionship, and promoting a sense of self-worth and dignity. That spiritual companionship runs both directions, he says, benefiting the staff and volunteers as well.
Burns, who has been volunteering for the last two and a half years to help cook breakfast on Friday mornings, says: “I find it inspirational.”
The nursing care at Joseph’s House is high-quality, and the facilities are clean and comfortable. The first floor houses a large dining room centered on a long polished wood table where residents share communal breakfasts and evening meals. A large colorful mural illustrating scenes from hospice life fills most of one wall. And at the far end is a mantle piece containing cards of remembrance for the recently deceased.
The spacious living room contains several stuffed couches and armchairs, a widescreen television, a small piano tucked into one corner and a computer on the opposite side of the room. It serves as a meeting room, entertainment center and the place where memorial services are held when a resident passes away.
A long, L-shaped kitchen, leading out to a side porch, completes the first floor. The kitchen is one of the most popular rooms in Joseph’s House. Residents, staff and volunteers share the cooking; snacks are available in the refrigerator; and it’s a place people just like to hang out.
The second floor has four bedrooms with five beds. Additional bedrooms are located in the basement.
References to family and community come up often in conversations with the residents and staff.
“These people here are my family now,” Anthony says. “They’re concerned about you as a human, not as a walking disease.”
Yared, an Ethiopian refugee who has been at Joseph’s House for nine months, agrees with Anthony. “The food here is good. The people are good. They treat you like family.”
For Yared that includes the opportunity to participate in the communal kitchen where he sometimes prepares doro wat (chicken stew) and shiro wat (a chickpea curry) for communal meals.
Eric Ogden, who served as a Jesuit volunteer at Joseph’s House 10 years ago and now teaches fourth grade in New York City, returns each summer for two weeks to fill in for the regular volunteers on vacation. “Joseph’s House is the definition of community,” he tells a group of visitors. “It’s so easy here to love everyone around you. It recharges me.”
Ajax the dog at Joseph's House.
Joseph’s House, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with an annual budget of slightly more than $1 million, suddenly found itself facing serious financial challenges two years ago.
Until 2009 it had relied on government grants and contributions for up to 75 percent of its funding. The recession reduced that assistance, with government funding now accounting for only about 45 percent of total expenses.
To help make ends meet, the organization’s board turned to foundation grants and individual donations. They worked to increase online donations and became more innovative in their private fundraising. For example, the hospice developed an unusual and innovative outreach program by sponsoring educational breakfasts for visitors interested in learning more about the hospice and its work.
Twice a month, over coffee, juice, muffins and fresh fruit, small group of staff and volunteers spend an hour or so talking with visitors about life and death at Joseph’s House.
Street Sense readers interested in learning more about Joseph’s House can find additional information, including a 10-minute PBS video documentary, at the hospice’s website: www.josephshouse.org.
By Hannah Morgan
Editorial Intern
A large Teddy Roosevelt walked across the National Mall Saturday morning in a shirt promoting helping the homeless. He was joined by Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and hundreds of other Washingtonians.
Saturday, November 19, 2011 was the last annual Walk for the Homeless sponsored by Fannie Mae. After 24 years of raising funds for homelessness in the district and around the nation, the mortgage giant, placed in conservatorship in 2008 as the result of the subprime mortgage crisis, announced it would stop sponsoring the large annual walk. From now on, Fannie Mae has announced it will focus on fundraising through smaller, community-based walks around the country. These mini-walks have emerged as an important source of funding, annually drawing tens of thousands of participants and raising millions.Still, local homeless organizations, struggling to help rising numbers of needy people, say they will be sorry to lose the Walk for the Homeless on the National Mall.
Spirits were high, though, as marchers arrived from throughout the region for the last big Fannie Mae event. Gathered by the Smithsonian Metro stop on the mall, sipping coffee and making walking plans, a group of young college graduates affiliated with St. Matthews Cathedral spoke of the importance of being there.
“As young adults with our Catholic faith, we are called to care for those people who don’t have homes in our community,” said Sarah Yaklic, one of the young adult organizers. “We are called to use our faith to change the world.”
A few yards away, gathered at meeting place under signs bearing the letters D through F, a man held a sign that advertised Friendship Place, a homeless outreach center in Northwest Washington. Between small community walks and the big walk on Saturday, Friendship Place claimed over 3,000 volunteers walked for them this fall, said Executive Director Jean-Michel Giraud.
The money raised truly helps the homeless, added Friendship Place spokeswoman Emily Fagerholm.
“The fundraising helps us expand our programs, create more jobs, place more people into housing and get veterans off the street. [The walk] brings our whole community together in a great way,” she said.
Approximately 50 people from outside of the District registered to do virtual walks in home communities as far away as Hawaii, said Geoffrey Millard, who directs the Homeless Veterans Initiative at Friendship Place.
Contingents of students, families, volunteers from organizations such as Thrive DC and N Street Village, walked together, singing, chatting, chanting and tweeting along the way. Currently homeless and formerly homeless people lent their support and their stories along the way.
Alan Bankas, who used to be homeless in D.C., joined in the walk for the first time. His goal was to finish the walk, he said, but also promote Friendship Place, which was able to find him housing within two weeks almost two years ago. “I’m happy, blessed to be here,” he said, “I’m a speaker for the homeless. People don’t understand that just because you have a lot of money, you can become homeless for any number of reasons,” he said.
The walk looped around the Tidal Basin and up the mall, and walkers were cheered on by local D.C. school cheerleading squads and Street Sense vendors. David Denny was one of them.
“Everybody’s here and everybody’s down for the cause, to eradicate homelessness in our communities,” said Denny. “Everybody’s just lively, and I think they are serious about what they are doing.”
by Nicole M. Jones
Editorial Intern
For Wandering Souls, a drama troupe built upon the belief that the transformative power of art should be readily available to all, one good play has a way of leading to another.
Last fall, the players brought free productions of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” to 15 homeless shelters, senior programs, and hospitals around the city. The players came away from Saint Elizabeths Hospital feeling a special bond with the city’s historic public psychiatric institution.
So over the course of this past summer, Wandering Souls Andy Wassenich and Elissa Goetschius returned to the hospital. With the help of Saint Elizabeths staff, they led an intensive playwriting workshop with patients there.
Out of their soul-searching and hard work came “Reflections: Plays From Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital,” a production woven out of ten-minute meditations on themes of recovery, overcoming adversity, and hope. The short plays include “Depression” by Walter Logan, “Broken” Promises by Alane Patterson, “Help” by Walter Logan, “Help Me and My Friends” by Kevin McCain, “Hope” by Walter Logan, “Life Beyond Alcohol” by Lewis Ecker, and “Happiness” by Walter Logan.
A central theme that binds the separate small plays is a deep sense of humanity and kindness, said Becky Peters, artistic director of “Reflections. “
“In the plays themselves I was always struck every time I watched the show by the overwhelming desire to help someone else. The playwrights were told they could write about anything they wanted and they chose to try and help someone,” said Peters.
“Here’s a group of folks who we might be inclined to think need the help – but that’s not how they see themselves. Instead they want to give as much as they can.”
This was the third year that the Wandering Souls toured with free performances With each of their projects, they have hoped to open channels of communication and community. So after rehearsing “Reflections” at Saint Elizabeths and the Church of the Pilgrims, near Dupont Circle, the troupe, including Luke Cieslewicz, Lex Davis, Melissa Hmelnicky, Maya Jackson, Julie Roundtree and Akil Williams took their show on the road.
On October 1, the show premiered at Saint Elizabeths and after performances at Bloombars, a nonprofit community space, and Church of the Pilgrims. At the last performance there October 30, the crowd was small but the laughter filled the church to its high ceilings.
And once again, the Wandering Souls were living out their mission, shaped by convictions that the arts have the power to fuel the imagination, encourage personal growth and unite individuals and communities, and that the arts offer riches that should not be seen as luxuries, but freely available to all.
“The play was mainly accessible to every and anyone, but mainly those who have silenced stories,” said actress Maya Jackson. “We brought a different perspective, especially those considered fringe stories. “
Creating, producing and watching the play had a strong impact upon the people in care at the hospital said Wandering Souls co-founder and executive director J.J. Area. He said the hospital staff found that patients began connecting more after seeing their experiences mirrored in the production.
“The project was very therapeutic for the playwrights,” said Area. “One woman began communicating more after the production of the play.”.
And the production team reveled in watching their audiences react and reading different emotions.
“I love watching the audiences connect with the work and hearing their immediate, visceral reactions and after the shows having this common experience as an immediate connector between us,” said Peters. “This gives us a wonderful jumping off point to get to know one another and eliminate that sometimes awkward thought of ‘what do we have in common’ with this person I just met.”
Anyone interested in bringing Wandering Souls shows or classes to his or her community organization should contact Becky Peters directly at becky@wanderingsouls.org
By Hannah Morgan
Editorial Intern
With cold weather quickly approaching, the District of Columbia has yet to identify enough overnight shelters to house the number of homeless families who are expected to need beds.
Each year the city’s Interagency Council on Homelessness prepares an official Winter Plan which lays out how local human services agencies and organizations will meet their obligations under district law to protect homeless men, women and children from life-threatening conditions.
During the official cold weather season, which stretches from Nov. 1 until March 31, a hypothermia hotline is set up and when freezing conditions hit, outreach workers distribute blankets and vans are deployed to get people to safety. Hundreds of additional cold weather beds are set up in churches, shelters and other facilities around the city.
In the wake of the nation’s long recession and housing crisis, the rising number of homeless families is stretching the city’s shelter system to the breaking point.
“New information from just the last few days may require the District to rethink both its Winter Plan and the allocation of resources within the shelter progam,” city human services director David A. Berns testified at an October 20 roundtable hearing held by the council’s Committee on Human Services.
Officials and advocates who develop the Winter Plan each year calculate the number of beds that will be needed using data on shelter use during previous years and changes in the city’s homeless population.
This year’s count identified 6,546 homeless men, women and children living in the city. The total was roughly the same as in 2010, but it also reflected a four percent decrease in homeless single people and a seven percent increase in families over the previous year. A total of 858 families, including more than 1,600 children were included in this year’s count.
The Winter Plan has estimated the city will need emergency shelter for 366 families, but only 309 emergency spaces have been identified, 57 short of the spaces needed.
Last winter, motels and hotels were used to provide overnight winter shelter during nights of overflow at the city’s family shelter at the former D.C. Genera Hospital. Some of those families have since been moved to D.C. General, though the city has tried to refrain from placing new families at the shelter in recent months order to free up the necessary beds for the new winter season beginning Nov. 1.
The demand for family shelter has continued to grow. Since April 1, a total of 1,007 families have applied to the city for beds, according to the Interagency Council on Homelessness. .
With some families classified as priority one because of their critical needs, officials relented in mid-October and began moving some of them into D.C. General ahead of the official beginning of hypothermia season.
“By the end of today, we expect to have placed 37 priority one families into shelter,” Berns told the committee, “While we are not surprised that there is some pent-up demand for shelter, if these same large numbers continue into the winter, the capacity determined under the Winter Plan will not be sufficient.”
Committee Chairman Jim Graham, who presided over the session, spoke of the enormity of the problem, and of the emotional turmoil homeless families experience, particularly in the winter, uprooted and desperate, sometimes struggling to take care of children in stairwells and in bus stops.
“Stability is necessary. If we are not raising families well, we are just bartering for problems in the future,” Graham said.
As it exists currently, the city’s inadequate system cannot promise that stability to many desperate homeless families, said Amber W. Harding, of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
“Families that seek shelter are often discouraged from applying and entering shelter at every step of the way,” she said. “This occurs despite the fact that families are staying in many inappropriate or life-threatening environments – in their cars, at bus stops, in hospital waiting rooms, and in unheated hallways or vacant buildings.”
Sue Marshall, of the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, told the roundtable that the number of families leaving shelters for permanent and stable housing was extremely low, and advocated for more housing placements, in order to open up more family shelter beds this winter.
While the average fair market monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the District is $1,506, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Marshall told the committee the average homeless adult living in a family has an income of about $600 per month.
Many members of the district’s homeless community came in from the streets to share their stories from last winter with the committee and their fears for the one that is coming.
One woman said she was worried about losing her bed at her shelter because she has been sleeping outside with the Occupy D.C. protesters to advocate for homeless issues and the needs for homeless people who cannot speak for themselves “like my friend, she is 61 years old, she doesn’t speak any English, she can’t call the hotline and understand about shelters.”
Then a disabled father , the sole caretaker of his daughter, spoke.
“I’m scared for my daughter,” he said, worrying they might be split up and placed in separate shelters and that she would not know how to get to school.
Another woman said she was living in the streets, in anticipation of shelters opening their winter beds.
“We can’t wait till it’s freezing,” she said, “We need shelter all year round!”
Graham listened to all of the witnesses, providing each time to voice their opinions and stories. He vowed that this year, “We are not going to be caught in the middle of this without the answers.”
As the meeting proceeded, no easy answers emerged.
By Sarah Hogue
Photojournalism Intern
In a matter of days, Occupy D.C. created its own civilization A slew of sleeping bags were partitioned off in one part of Freedom Plaza. In other places, there were tables for food and first aid and legal services, and a spot with paint to make posters.
“Wall Street for Sale,” “Democracy, Community, Dignity,” “End Afghan War.” “War is a Social Disease.”
Everyone just wanted his or her voice to be heard.
While an army of protesters occupied Wall Street, throngs more chose to come to Washington, bringing with them heartfelt causes, grievances against the way things are, or pleas for change.
They began converging on October 6, the 10th anniversary of the U.S. decision to enter Afghanistan. Many stayed on through the weekend. A few said they did not plan on leaving until they got what they came for.
“I bought a one-way ticket,” said Don Anderson, a veteran of the Vietnam war. “I’m here for the duration.”
Anderson said he believes that veterans of wars aren’t given enough support when they come home and that through negligence, many more could end up like him, paralyzed from the waist down.
Others like Debra Sweet, director of The World Can’t Wait, spoke of much broader frustrations with the U. S. government and fears for the entire planet.
“We have to raise our voices and be in the streets because this is intolerable. It’s not only the situation on the streets of the United States, where people are homeless, unemployed, desperate, dying for lack of health care, dying for lack of hope,” said Sweet. “We’re losing our humanity by being in an empire that’s doing this to the rest of the world.”
On the third day of the occupation of Freedom Plaza, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader made an appearance to show solidarity with the protesters.
“The word ‘occupy’ is very important. [The corporations] have taken the country from us, and we’re going to re-occupy it, and run it!” said Nader in his 20-minute speech.
Each day at the occupation was filled with classes, talks, marches, singing, performing and conferences, all in hope of finding more supporters.
Timothy Strayer, from Los Angeles, came to Occupy D.C. and shared what he knew to other protesters about how non-violently resist when authorities got involved. Audrey Bomse, a lawyer for the National Lawyers Guild, advised protesters about how to abide by the law, and provided legal help if they got arrested.
Jimmy Dunson, from Food Not Bombs, offered meals to the occupiers.
“Part of what we do at Food Not Bombs is feed people…and also challenge the system that creates poverty, that creates hungry people,” said Dunson. “We want to supply people’s immediate needs as we challenge the system of oppression.”
Many of those at Occupy D.C. said they came to Washington to demand change now.
Donna Vogelpohl, a 60-year-old blackberry farmer from Oklahoma, said she wants change for the future.
“I’m here because I have grandchildren,” said Vogelpohl. “And I want my grandchildren’s grandchildren to have clean air, eat healthy food, have clean water, and I want them to be able to marry whoever they want to and I want them to only read about war in textbooks.”
While Vogelpohl’s stay at Occupy D.C. ended on Monday, October 10, she said she would continue her work for change back home in Oklahoma.
“Somehow they’re doing it in New York,” she said, “and I think we can do it here.”
By Hannah Morgan
Editorial Intern
“Kick over the wall, ‘cause government’s to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D’you know that you can use it?”
- Clampdown, by the Clash
Robert Egger, an original member of Street Sense’s board of directors and the president of DC Central Kitchen (DCCK), is a bit of a punk rocker. He is all about shattering the power of the system.
Egger is keeping an eye on the Occupy protests sprouting up around the country, and, unlike many of his peers who have been alive to witness great social movements like those led by Ghandi, MLK and Caesar Chavez, he believes in the energy and power of those out on the streets. Street Sense's rock star intern Hannah Morgan sits down with non-profit champion Robert Egger to get his perspective on the Occupy ____ protests and what comes next.
Egger sees this array of protests as a long-time -coming outpouring of frustration with our current system. He says it is fueled by two large age demographics: the Baby Boomers – who have seen protest before and wish to return to The People’s ability to change the country, and their children – who have been raised to expect an entirely different status quo.
The U.S. population of people under 25 has reached 90 million, and Egger notes this entire generation has been raised doing service. (For many of them, a minimum number of community service hours is required to graduate high school.) He believes it is the money this generation possesses , what Egger calls the “poor people’s pennies”, that can rock the system and take the protests to the next level.
“This is the beginning of a re-association. The streets rule the system—when a generation learns to discover they can harness the power of the dollar;” the spenders in the streets, rather than on the hill, will have the power.
Using global technology to spread the word on reliable companies for young consumers to patronize can make more of a difference than yelling in the streets, Egger said. For example: non-profits can use the power of Twitter and Facebook to list decent companies for consumers to spend their money with. Steering the dollar away from greedy corporations (which these protesters can all clearly agree is a problem) makes changing the system possible.
“Poor people’s pennies have the power to shatter the notion of the system’s power,” he said, “You don’t have to be a .org or a .com to change America, you don’t have to choose between making money and doing good.” Egger believes this young generation, who is “poor, plugged in and pissed off”, has the power to vote with their dollars. He calls this purposeful purchasing “buycotting”: effectively boycotting corporations for bad behavior buy purchasing from more reliable companies instead. This would force the other businesses to clean up their act, just to compete in the free market.
Because so many progressives are running the Occupy protests, Egger believes they all share a like-mindedness: a belief in a lifestyle that is new, sustainable and totally different from those familiar to Wall Street tycoons.
And of course he doesn’t just talk the talk, he also walks the walk. Egger is, in addition to maintaining his responsibilities as president of DCCK, launching a new non-profit called CForward. The organization will bind together multiple non profits across the spectrum, from arts to housing to homelessness and the environment, just to name a few. He hopes to discover common beliefs and traits that will unify them all, direct the organizations toward smart and sustainable investments, and elect strong people to represent their voices in governmental bodies in order to make change happen.
“The future of philanthropy will be how you make, or spend, your money everyday… not the check you write to charity at the end of the year,” Egger said before he dashed off to call his kitchens to discuss dropping off meals to the protesters.
By Anna Katharine Thomas
Editorial Intern
After seven months of moving from couch to couch, William Wheeler finally realized that he did not have a safe place for his two school-age daughters to stay when they came to visit him.
“They don’t live with me, but I do get them every weekend. At least I try,” said Wheeler. “Not having a stable place for them to come and comfortably enjoy themselves — that is my biggest issue.” HPRP assisted William Wheeler to find a job and is helping to find a suitable apartment, providing critical help in stressful times.
Wheeler is one of a million Americans who has received aid from the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) since its formation in 2009.
Under the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), HPRP has provided $1.5 billion dollars to local communities to help struggling families keep a current home or find affordable housing. To put this sum in context, spending $1.5 billion to save a million people from homelessness averages out to about $1,500 per person.
Ashley Gammon, a representative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), explained that many of the program’s beneficiaries are struggling homeowners who exhausted all their resources and were on the verge of homelessness when they sought assistance from HPRP. About a quarter of the people served were already on the street or relying on emergency shelters when they entered the program.
Along with help finding housing, HPRP provides access to employment specialists for participants looking for a job.
After a participant receives a callback, the employment specialist will work with the participant to prepare him or her for the interview, according to Wheeler.
“She makes you feel confident and good about yourself,” said Wheeler. “Your situation isn’t the prettiest when you are dealing with them, because you are homeless, you are unemployed.”
Wheeler had been in the program for less than a month when he saw results. Coming off of a year and a half without any callbacks from jobs, HPRP helped him arrange to go back to work towing. He also has an appointment set up at Macy’s to interview for a second job.
Out of all the people helped, “the latest data shows that fully 94 percent of people assisted by HPRP successfully found permanent housing—and nearly two out of every three of them were homeless for less than a month,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in his prepared remarks for a September, 2011, press conference.
In addition to the report about the million Americans they have helped this year, HUD announced that it was awarding $1.6 billion in grants from the Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Program to a number of housing facilities, and $216 million to new homelessness facilities, according to Gammon.
Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a well-known conservative think tank, believes that the fact that homelessness did not dramatically increase in the face of the current recession is a success story for the Obama administration, but it is only one battle in the ongoing fight against homelessness.
“Part of what they did there is an accelerated movement out. If you look at the data, I think they moved some long term homeless out of the shelters and into transitional housing. So I think the program seems to have worked pretty well,” said Rector.
According to Rector, when the recession eventually ends, America will still need to address the issue of why people are poor. He suggested that instead of cutting programs that provide aid, those programs should be refined to prevent homelessness in the future.
Sep
By Allen Hoorn
Vollunteer/Vendor Manager
Hoping to raise money and awareness for issues relating to affordable housing, a group of young adults made a stop in Washington, D.C., recently as part of their 600-mile, two week bike trip from Richmond to Philadelphia. While many college students were busy this summer with high-level internships on Capitol Hill or are taking in the rays at Virginia Beach, these men and women chose to
spend part of their summer volunteering with Bike and Build to raise awareness of the issue that,together with poverty
itself is a major contributing factor to homelessness in the United States.
Capital Ride, as this particular tour is called, is a regional ride designed to give participants the opportunity
to contribute without being required to spend their entire summer riding in one of the longer cross-country trips
sponsored by Bike and Build, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia. Typically, riders spend four days a week riding
their bike on the tours. As part of the tour, riders also spend two days a week volunteering with organizations in the community building houses.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BIKE AND BUILD: a Capital Ride participant cruising down a trail in Northern Virginia.
A Growing Problem
A significant portion of low-wage earners in the United States are at risk of experiencing homelessness, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. While home values may have plummeted over the last couple of years due to the financial crisis and mortgage meltdown, actual housing costs, especially at the lower end of the spectrum, have increased while wages have
dropped significantly. For an increasing number of families, one accident, unexpected bill or unforeseen circumstance can threaten the loss of housing and an episode of homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness cites the lack of affordable housing for low-wage earners as one of the largest contributors to a person experiencing homelessness. Along with falling wages, the foreclosure crisis and high unemployment rates the lack of affordable housing has contributed to rising homelessness. More families are finding themselves struggling through periodic episodes of homelessness in recent years. And many homeless people, in spite of working, cannot earn enough to rent a place to live.
In a report from earlier this year, NAEH found that 72 percent of people experiencing poverty in the United States also experience severe cost burdens associated with housing. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in its latest report on the subject, estimated that 7.1 million households in the United States fall into the Worst Case Needs category, an increase of more than a million households over the last 5 years. Households in this category make less than half the median income for their area and are paying more than half their monthly income on housing expenses. Those experiencing severe cost burdens as a result of housing are several times more likely to experience homelessness than those who are not experiencing severe cost burdens.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BIKE AND BUILD: Brandon Hall and Michael Padon measuring twice and cutting once on one of their Build Days on Capital Ride.
Stemming the Tide
Major government programs have dedicated vast resources to addressing the issue of affordable housing. Each year, HUD allocates approximately $2 billion to more than 600 state and local jurisdictions to increase the stock of affordable housing and to provide
tenant-based rental assistance for low- and very low-income households. Through the HOME program started in 1992, affordable housing stocks have been increased by more than a million units. While that number looks large on paper, with worst case needs being 7.1 million households for a year, the problem is outpacing the governmental solution, leaving much of the work in this area to faith-based charities and individual contribution.
That’s where groups such as Bike and Build and their Capital Ride come in.
“Even if you don’t have a lot of money to donate, you still have your time to offer,” says Molly Jacobs, a first time participant in Capital Ride. Jacobs hopes that her efforts will inspire young people to get involved now and to continue service to the community throughout their lives.
In addition to raising pledges, participants in Bike and Build directly help the communities they visit by spending days on construction sites. Since its inception 8 years ago, Bike and Build volunteers have raised more than $2.7 million and donated more than 80,000 hours on construction sites, mostly through partnerships with Habitat for Humanity.
More important than the amount of money raised through one event or the hours spent building houses are the lessons learned on the road as well as the people met along the way. “Wemet people who are weekly volunteers and it made me see how easy it is to
make a difference in my community,” Jacobs says. “The riding was spectacular, and I met people that I hope will be life-long friends.”
The contributions of groups such as this cannot completely eliminate the need, but their effort illuminates a problem which is even more real to many American families than debt ceilings and tax structures: Where are we going to live next month?
If you are interested in getting involved with the Bike and Build program, visit www.BikeAndBuild.org for more information.
By Sara Hogue
Photography Intern
Target and Heart of America combined forces to renovate and open 5 school libraries in the district and on August 26, Amidon-Bowen Elementary was a recipient of this charity. In addition to renovating the library and outfitting it with new technology and books, Target gave every child and their sibling who went to the school seven new books. The families of the students received a few grocery bags of healthy food donated from Target, so as to promote healthy bodies and healthy minds.
Many Street Sense vendors are talented artists – they write stories, create original poetry, take beautiful photographs…
In fact, we receive so many stories and poems from our vendors and their friends that we often have to hold off on publishing them to make room for news stories.
This issue is dedicated to celebrating the artistic skills of our vendors. Grab a copy of the Summer Reading Issue to help celebrate their skills, too.
