Blog / Advocacy

Last week, the DC Council held a joint committee hearing to address several Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) related bills. Bread for the City staff member, Kathleen Stephan, along with multiple community advocates testified in support of Bill 21-0736 Improving Access to ID Documents Act of 2016. This act was co-introduced by Council-members David Grosso and Yvette Alexander in acknowledgement of the financial burden that obtaining an identifying document poses for low income residents.

In the following excerpt from her testimony, Kathleen explains the need for fee waivers for identifying documents such as a birth certificates, non-drivers IDs and licenses…

Welcome to “Chairman’s Corner”, where our Board Chair, Paul Taskier, will write about a variety of topics that impact Bread for the City and indeed the community and nation at large. We invite you to Read, Enjoy and Share!

Economic viability in our society rests on three legs: education, employment, and housing. Of the three, having housing is arguably the most important. Without a place to live, achieving an education or retaining a job poses an almost insurmountable obstacle.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program ensures that children have their most basic needs met despite the economic hardships their parents face. However, under current law, DC will cut 13,000 children from all cash assistance this October, simply because their families have reached the TANF time limit.

This harsh rule ignores the reality that cutting off families before they are ready will push thousands deeper into poverty. This is why Bread for the City supports the DC Public Assistance Amendment Act of 2015, which will create exemptions and extensions for families who need more time to continue on the path to self-sufficiency. This series of guest blogs will share various perspectives on the need for a more flexible time limit. More information can be found atTANFisalifeline.org.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program ensures that children have their most basic needs met despite the economic hardships their parents face. However, under current law, DC will cut 13,000 children from all cash assistance this October, simply because their families have reached the TANF time limit.

This harsh rule ignores the reality that cutting off families before they are ready will push thousands deeper into poverty. This is why Bread for the City supports the DC Public Assistance Amendment Act of 2015, which will create exemptions and extensions for families who need more time to continue on the path to self-sufficiency. This series of guest blogs will share various perspectives on the need for a more flexible time limit. More information can be found atTANFisalifeline.org.

Last night, Mayor Bowser held her third and final budget forum of 2016 in the complex of the Greenleaf public housing buildings, though few residents seemed to have been invited to the event. About a dozen Bread for the City clients (including Greenleaf residents), organizers, and allies attended the forum to demand more funding for affordable housing in the mayor’s FY 2017 budget.

According to the mayor’s own numbers, just 2% of DC’s $13 billion budget is spent on housing, despite wide agreement that DC is in a housing crisis. That’s about $280 million per year – just half of what the city spends on the police department.

This past Monday, Bread for the City’s Kathleen Stephan along with several others from the BFC community testified at the DC Council oversight hearing of the DC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

The hearings serve as annual check-ins with DC agencies about their work, and are an opportunity for community members to raise any concerns.

At the hearing, Kathleen gave an overview of why ID access is so important and the scope of the problem:

The U.S. Pays Reparations to Holocaust Victims … What about its Own Victims?

This blog is re-posted from: http://jewschool.com/2016/02/39122/strange-case-reparations/

In the first decade of DC’s experiment with public housing redevelopment, at least two of the New Community Initiative’s (NCI) four guiding principles have repeatedly been left by the wayside: Build First, and the right of residents to return to their communities.

A functional Build First would keep residents in quality affordable housing near their original homes during redevelopment; Right to Return would mean no new barriers on their ability to come back.

After a Public Roundtable on these issues last week that was powerfully charged by Bread for the City leaders’ testimony, the DC Council appears to be getting serious about a vision of NCI that truly works for public housing residents.

On February 2nd, less than a week after a dozen Bread leaders and staff testified on NCI, the Council unanimously introduced a resolution to…