Lessons From the DC Budget Fight

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truth-out.org/gop-style-democrats-moving-sell-out-poor-liberals-lessons-dc-budget-fight/1307991449

It's been less than two weeks since a guerilla campaign by local activists managed to restore about 20 percent of $131 million in budget cuts targeting Washington, DC's, neediest residents - with little help from the mainstream media, which essentially ignored a looming shutdown of the city's shelter, poor and disabled aid services that could have thrown thousands into the street. The city's reluctant Democratic leadership only bowed at the last minute to under-the-radar pressure to reverse some of the most obvious, draconian cuts with $27 million in restorations, especially services to the homeless.

Andy Silver, an attorney and organizer with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, has an optimistic perspective on the shelter crisis that was averted: "People need to be creative. You can still win without mainstream media attention."

Other sources familiar with the lobbying to restore homeless funding point out that some leaders in the local downtown business community were concerned about the impact on the city's image and tourism. There was a real prospect of a PR nightmare if 1,500 homeless single adults and 300 families wandered the streets after shelters closed down. So, they pressured city leaders to save the shelter system in the same week that liberal activists stepped up protests at the District's city hall, the Wilson building, with a "Reality Tour." One influential voice was developer Benjamin Miller, who wrote in The Washington Business Journal:

"It is unacceptable to cast 1,500 homeless people out on the streets of the District, but that is surely what will happen if the D.C. Council fails to restore year-round operation of shelters for single homeless adults. I am asking my colleagues in the business community to reach out this week to D.C. Council members and urge full funding for homeless services. This is one of those rare opportunities for the council to do right by business, by the taxpayers and by our most vulnerable residents."


More at the link --