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State News Release - August 13, 2002 |
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DC Statehood Green Party |
| Statehood Greens Blast Eviction of Olive Branch and La Casa. |
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THE D.C. STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "We call the eviction of the Olive Branch Community and La Casa a symptom of D.C. government's gentrification rampage," said Michele Tingling-Clemmons, D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate for the at-large seat on D.C. Council. "By displacing two of the most important organizations that serve the homeless, the needy, and immigrants in the name of upscale development, the city is saying 'Get lost!' to all but the wealthy." The Olive Branch Community, which the Statehood Green Party has supported for several years, is about to be evicted from its longtime home at 1006 M Street NW. Olive Branch has found a tentative new home, but it has been forced to reduce its community and its services, including distribution of groceries to needy families. "The brave Olive Branch activists who have stood up to Mayor Williams' closure of emergency shelters for the homeless are now living in his favorite brand of public housing -- jail," said Adam Eidinger, Statehood Green Party candidate for D.C. 'Shadow' U.S. Representative, who attended an August 9 rally against the eviction, at which several people were arrested. The city is also about to shut down La Casa, D.C.'s only bilingual emergency shelter with on-site drug treatment, to make way for condominiums on La Casa's site next to the Columbia Heights Metro Station. "The drift toward gentrification has become a rip-tide," said Jenefer Ellingston, D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate for the Ward 6 seat on Council. "Public housing is demolished for rehabilitation, Section-8 has a long, long waiting list, and homeless shelters are overcrowded and closed. The number of homeless, now at 13,000, will spill into the street. Forcing out the poor isn't just a shame in itself. It's a signal to low and moderate income working people that property taxes and rents will skyrocket, that there are plans for your neighborhood that don't include you." "The politicians running this town have been slashing valuable public services," noted Tingling-Clemmons, who formerly headed the State Agency for Special Nutrition and Commodity Distribution Programs and expanded D.C.'s Summer Food Program to provide food for 21,000 children a day last summer. "People in Columbia Heights have been forced from their homes by housing inspectors for living in neglected, overcrowded housing. Mayor Williams obeyed the Financial Control Board's final wish and destroyed D.C. General Hospital, our only full-service public hospital. And it will get worse, as the city builds new sports facilities and accommodations, especially for the 2012 Olympic bid, and thousands of affordable housing units are lost and never replaced. We need to reverse these policies, or tens of thousands of D.C. residents will lose their homes." D.C. Statehood Greens have joined Olive Branch and La Casa supporters, such as the new group Mayday D.C., in demanding that D.C. government recognize food, housing, jobs, and health care (including mental health and drug treatment) as legally protected human rights. Statehood Green candidates have made strengthened rent control and living wages and restoration of the Tenant Assistance Program and Interim Disability Assistance a major part of their agenda. "I support Mayday's call for all publicly owned property in D.C. be placed in a special land trust to protect it from real estate speculators," said Adam Eidinger. "Without such protections, we're letting Mayor Williams and D.C. Council turn D.C. into a feeding trough for predatory real estate firms, developers, and other corporate interests." "We need to save La Casa, and find a new, permanent site for it as well as help it expand to serve women and families, and we need to restore Olive Branch so it can provide desperately needed food, shelter, and services," added Statehood Green activist Henry Moses. MORE INFORMATION |
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State News Release - August 13, 2002 |
Home | Press | State Press |
