By Eric Sheptock
WASHINGTON,DC - On Friday, March 11th, 2011 DC Councilman Jim Graham held what would turn out to be one of the most heart-wrenching Human Services budget oversight hearings that I've ever attended. Stories were told of homeless mothers and their very young children being turned away from shelter with nowhere to go. One woman sat in the hearing with her month-old baby who has never slept in a crib or had a place to call home. This is happening in the capital of the wealthiest country on earth, as our government spends billions bailing out Wall Street and fighting unjust wars!
Those testifying included homeless and formerly homeless people as well as service providers. People gave testimonies of how certain programs have helped them and implored the councilman to ensure continued funding for these programs. Others exposed problems with the system. A lawyer from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless (WLCH) suggested that, since DC Government's Dept. of Human Services devises a winter plan each year and the purpose of that plan is to prevent weather-related deaths, they should also keep records of weather-related deaths as a way of gauging their level of success or failure.
As is the case with government all too often, what was once presented as a solution has now become the problem. In response to complaints about the DC Village Family Shelter, the administration of former DC mayor Adrian Fenty closed the shelter and instituted the System Transformation Initiative (STI), a program which housed about 170 families. Now the government claims that it doesn't have enough money to keep funding STI and is "transforming" the System Transformation Initiative into STEAP (Short-Term Exit Assistance Program).
Whereas STI previously had no time limit, STEAP will pay all of a homeless family's rent for the first month and then incrementally over the course of a year, decrease the percentage of rent that they pay. The program will cease to pay the family's rent after a year. Families are screened for the program and may only receive its services if is highly probable that they will become fully self-sufficient within a year. However, it is not very likely that a family's monthly income will increase by more than $1,000 over the course of a year, which means that most participants are being set up to fail.
Four young mothers with children ranging from one month to five years old came under the direction of lawyers from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. They gave heart-felt accounts of how they and their children were turned away by the shelter system with nowhere to go. One mother cried as she explained how that she, with her 3 children -- ages 5, 3 and less than a year-old -- in tow, was told by an employee of the Virginia Williams Family Intake Center that there were no shelter spaces for them and that she was given bus tokens so she could ride the city bus all night with her children in order to stay warm. Other mothers testified that they also were given bus tokens so that they could use the bus as a de facto shelter. (DC Law states that, if there is no shelter space available for a homeless family with small children, then they must be put into a motel room)
All of this just goes to show that the State is not genuinely concerned about its poor and dispossessed. They are giving tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting the budgets for much-needed social services. The silver lining in this dark cloud is that more of the dispossessed are becoming socially conscious and angry at the system which is failing them.
Mother Of A Baby Born Into Homelessness Testifies Before DC Councilman
The Future Is Up to Us
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Workers of the World And Soon-To-Be-Out-Of- Workers of the World, Unite and fight! You have only everything to lose You are worth something to society. You work to make commodities In factories all over the globe. You work to provide services In restaurants, shops, and stadiums. You work For pennies of the real value That you produce. The real value That fills the wallets Lines the pockets Trusts the funds Of those you work for. You consume Commodities And services With your pennies That collect into jars That fill the wallets Line the pockets And trust the funds Of those you buy from. Your funds will decrease With each and every increase In productivity. Each new machine made To do a job better Or send it to someone |
Who will do it cheaper Than you Puts you closer to unemployment. Debt, starvation, and death. As a worker, You are becoming obsolete. As a consumer, You currently watch as your funds deplete. What good is someone Who isn’t a worker And can’t afford to be a consumer To a capitalist society? You are worth nothing to a capitalist society. A capitalist world Filled with men and women World leaders And bankers Who fill their wallets Line their pockets And trust their funds And have absolutely no reason to care About anyone they can’t have work for them Or buy from them In other words, People who can’t make them more money. There will be no good-natured sacrifice For the tired and huddling masses To halt progress and productivity. In the eyes of the capitalist You are not worth more than a machine. You never could be. |
You are a human being. Who needs Food Clothing Shelter. Who will proclaim That you are worth something to society? You will. You will have to. The minority of you may find your place Working at a machine Or building a new machine. Building a damn of mud, Arrogance And naivete To stop the flood Of progress and productivity. The majority of you will end up displaced. Persons without Food Clothing Shelter. Your future is up to you. Workers of the World And Soon-To-Be-Out-Of-Workers of the World, The Future is Up to Us. — David A. Romero |
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