MANY OF YOU MIGHT NOT READ THIS BUT I FEEL IT NECESSARY TO GIVE THIS INFORMATION TO THOSE AROUND ME IN AN EFFORT TO GIVE A HOME TO THE HOMELESS>>>>THIS IS MY MEAGER OFFERING>>>SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO AND SPREAD THE WORD…
Join in the FUN!
Homes Not Jails Housing Takeover!!
WHEN: Wednesday, July 19, at 11:30 am
WHERE: We will meet at the corner of Georgia Ave. and Hobart St.'s NW (across from Everlasting
Life), and then take a short walk to the building we are occupying.
All are also invited to help out at the Preparation Meeting on Tuesday, July 18, at 7pm at the
Josephine Butler Park Center at 2437 15th St. NW (next to Malcolm X Park). If you feel inspired
to be a potential arrestee for this action, you should come there to hear the legal briefing and
you should also contact homesnotjailsdc@yahoo.com as soon as possible.
Homes Not Jails, along with a homeless family, will be taking over an abandoned building to
provide immediate emergency housing for homeless and displaced people. We intend on improving
the building and securing it as a permanent residence for low and no-income tenants, including
this family of four that has been homeless for about three years and would like to be united
under the same roof, in a permanent, affordable house.
All are invited to join in the fun. There will be music, trash pick-up and repair work. Some
important roles we need filled are jail support volunteers, police liaisons, someone to drive a
(stick) pick-up truck for trash, someone to provide a jail support vehicle, and more potential
arrestees. We can provide training for things like liaisons and jail support at the meeting on
the 18th. Please write homesnotjailsdc@yahoo.com if you are interested.
Why are we doing this takeover? If you take a quick look at the streets of DC, two things are
immediately obvious. There are abandoned buildings everywhere and there is a huge population of
folks sleeping on the streets, often right in front of those vacant buildings! By the estimates
of DC’s own Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), 1,450 people are without any
shelter and 6,600 people are in emergency or transitional shelter. According to DC’s Housing
Authority, almost 10,000 families are on the waiting list for section 8 housing and can face
years of waiting. A homeless family can wait six months or more for emergency shelter.
Meanwhile, the DHCD also publishes that 29,000 units of housing lie abandoned in DC.
Housing is a human right! It’s a right that far outweighs the right of any developer or
landlord to profit. Homes not Jails believes that simply asking the city to stop evicting
people or to help the homeless is not enough. We all know that politicians are easily corrupted
by corporate money at the expense of human need. We are taking it upon ourselves to provide
housing instead of waiting on the government to do the right thing.
It’s time to take down the boards!
If you have any questions please feel free to call 202-297-4430 or write to
homesnotjailsdc@yahoo.com.