Dear Chairman Brown:

In large measure due to your leadership, over 1500 District residents struggling with homelessness have been sleeping a little easier since May 25th.  Especially in these challenging fiscal times, we at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless want you to know how very grateful our community is that the Council was able to make significant progress in closing the funding gap for homeless services, averting a potential crisis for DC’s shelter and transitional housing programs.  We appreciate your efforts to restore some funding to IDA and TANF, as well.

But our collective work is far from done!  We need you to urge your Council colleagues to be faithful to the list of priority restorations adopted at the first vote on the Budget Support Act.  If the economy continues to improve as we all so desperately hope it will, dedicating additional revenues to these programs will enhance the quality of life for residents throughout the District.  More and more, our neighbors from every quadrant and every ward are articulating their support for vital services…and their willingness to contribute to the resources needed to ensure that every District resident has an opportunity to thrive.

Several years ago, you and your colleagues deemed the District of Columbia to be a “Human Rights City.”  That is a moniker that must continuously be earned, not simply declared.  The budget that was initially submitted to the Council strayed far from that distinction; the budget that you passed puts us back on course.  We are confident that under your leadership, starting with the final passage of the Budget Support Act as it is presently configured, DC can be faithful to the principles that a human rights city must embrace.  We look forward to partnering with you in the weeks and months ahead toward that end.

With kind regards,

WLCH

Guest blog post by Stephanie Niedringhaus

Each day, as I walk between Washington’s Union Station and my office, I see people who are either homeless or in difficult housing situations. I buy Street Sense from some, chat with others. Whether I am walking past or stopping to talk, I am always conscious of the U.S. Capitol just behind me. The contrast between what happens there and the circumstances of people on the street couldn’t be starker.

Many of us know there is an enormous wealth gap in the U.S., but too few recognize this gap as a moral and political issue. Each day, super-wealthy individuals and corporations use their influence in Washington to increase their wealth and power. So where is the power of all the people I meet on the street? How have things gotten so out of balance in a democracy such as ours?

First, a few statistics, taken directly from my organization’s wealth gap campaign website:

• The wealthiest 1% of our population own more than 90% of us combined.
• The wealthiest 10% of our population own more than three-fourths of our nation’s wealth.
• The median African American household has less than ten cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth owned by the median white family.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth. The problem comes when disparities grow so enormous that they create harm – and that is what we are seeing now. When I see limousines and motorcades driving by people selling Street Sense, I realize how far down the road of inequality we have traveled.

On Capitol Hill right now, politicians go out of their way to push for budget cuts that decimate housing and other programs for people in need. Could we instead lower budget deficits by increasing taxes on the super-wealthy? House Speaker Boehner replies that tax increases are off the table.

On May 19, my organization launched an education campaign – called “Mind the Gap!” – to address the wealth gap. Within the first 24 hours, we received far more visitors to our website than ever before so there is clearly pent-up anxiety about this issue.

We invite you to check out our Mind the Gap! campaign website at http://www.networklobby.org/campaign/mind-the-gap and to speak out for economic justice.

Guest blogger Stephanie Niedringhaus is the Communications Coordinator for NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.