Community Action : Campaigns

Full details of Neighbors' Consejo's position statements, testimony and public comments can be found here.

HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT

Prevent the Displacement of La Casa Shelter

La Casa Resident Support Committee Leaders

Background
Neighbors' Consejo convened the La Casa Resident Support Committee in June 2002 to prevent the displacement of the city's only bilingual emergency shelter and inpatient substance abuse treatment program.

Since that time shelter residents have taken critical action based on the residents' strategy and leadership development work. Together we are walking the talk and charting out who has the power and how decisions are being made about their lives and the future of La Casa bilingual services.

Who's making decisions? How are they making decisions? Who are they listening to? What are they saying about poor people and about the rights of people without homes?

 wake up everybody campaign news letter (7.19Mb)

Update
Congratulations La Casa Leaders! The National Capital Revitalization Corporation votes to revise Parcel 26 Land Disposition Agreement to maintain overnight shelter and social services in addition to SROs in new facility!

Copy ANC 1A Resolution
Copy ANC 1D Resolution
NCRC Land Disposition Agreement News by Neighbors' Consejo (November 2003)
Thank you and congratulations!

Next Steps
La Casa resident leaders continue to engage the National Capital Revitalization Corporation and city officials. Since the vote, residents have met several times with NCRC President Ted Carter. Plans are underway to identify a transitional site for the shelter while construction for the new building takes place.

La Casa leaders continue to work for a strategy that will include full replacement of both overnight and transitional beds in temporary and final program sites.

Take Action Support This Campaign
Show the video Struggles on Irving Street to your classmates, tenant association, or up close with friends in the privacy of your home.

Write a letter to Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and Council Member Jim Graham around current campaign issues for site transition and full replacement of capacity.

Hypothermia is Not an Option

"How many lives will be lost in this city before decision makers give as much attention to eliminating poverty as they do to building baseball stadiums?" asks Najiya Shana'a, executive director for Neighbors' Consejo. Over the last five years, fifteen people died outside on cold nights in Washington, D.C.

Hypothermia Alert 2004-2005
The Hypothermia Hotline number is 1-800-535-7252.

Each year, Neighbors’ Consejo bilingual outreach teams conduct night-time hypothermia watches throughout the neighborhood. Over the winter of 2003-2004, we made more than 400 contacts in the neighborhoods of Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan. On fifteen occasions this past winter our hypothermia watch teams called for medical intervention to help residents severely at risk of hypothermia. See NC leaders providing testimony and speaking out on this issue.

Take Action Support This Campaign
Learn more about the city's recent efforts to increase hypothermia bed capacity and the increasing need for centrally located shelter for the growing number of homeless individuals and families. See the Winter 2004-2005 policy report written by Andy Moffat. Contact Andy directly with your questions and comments.

Go to Neighbors' Consejo Facts for Action listings under Advocacy Tools for more analysis on the state of homelessness and over-flow situation at Columbia Heights shelter locations.

Action Analysis of 2004-2005 Winter Plan

Save a Life This Winter

Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning Means More Affordable Housing for Families

Neighbors' Consejo joins the city-wide MANDATORY INCLUSIONARY ZONING CAMPAIGN. This fight from neighborhoods across the city calls for a percentage of units in each new housing rehabilitation or construction to be set-aside for moderate and low income residents. It is one tool in the solutions needed against displacement and homelessness.

Through the Comite de Liderazgo, Accion y Fuerza (NC Leadership Action Committee), NC participant leaders are planning out neighborhood actions to support this city-wide campaign. To learn more about this campaign in Spanish, check out:

Spanish Fact Sheet, Inclusionary Zoning Campaign

Take Action Support This Campaign
Sign a postcard or send a letter directly to Mayor Anthony Williams, make your voice heard before the D.C. Zoning Commission and learn more about the campaign at its central site www.dciz.org.

Protect Our Civil Rights: The D.C. Language Access Act

Background
Have you ever called 911 for an emergency, but had a hard time explaining yourself because you are learning English? Do you know someone who has visited D.C. Central Detox but walked away because no one there could speak to him or her in Spanish? Do you know a child who interprets for his or her parents in the neighborhood public clinic, tenant court, or at the DMV?

Community groups including Neighbors’ Consejo formed the D.C. Language Access Coalition in 2002 to look for solutions to improve D.C. services for people who speak other languages. The coalition sought ways for the D.C. government to fulfill its obligations under Title VI of the federal 1964 Civil Rights Law. The federal law prohibits national discrimination, including language discrimination. According to Title VI, all public agencies receiving federal funds must provide interpretation and translation services in order for people who do not speak English well to be able to participate in public services. See NC leaders providing testimony and speaking out on this issue.

Language Access Coalition Time Line 2002-2004

Update
This spring, the coalition’s hard work paid off. After thousands of post cards, a series of City Council hearings, several press conferences and many educational meetings, the City Council voted unanimously for the D.C. Language Access Act, and Mayor Williams signed the bill in a special ceremony. The local city law was sponsored by Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham. The law will require each city agency to develop a plan to for language services. The law will provide $1.26 million in additional city funding to implement the services over the next three years.

Language Access Act Victory Newletter

Esther Vargas, Member of NC's Comite de Liderazgo, Accion y Fuerza (Leadership Action Committee) celebrates with Council Member Jim Graham and Isabel Van Isschott of La Clinica del Pueblo.

Congratulations and Thank You!!
On May 5, 2004 the Language Access Coalition celebrated the victory with a party including teatro, an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, poetry and speeches. Oscar Leyva and Ester Vargas were among several participants who received a certificate honoring their participation in the campaign. The party was decorated with hand painted banners stating “Many Cultures: One Voice” in five different languages. Thank you to Neighbors’ Consejo banner makers Elena Hung, Carlos Serritos, Jose Argueta, Alonso Argueta, Gabriel Cedillo, Oscar Leyva, and Jose Cruz.

Congratulations to Neighbors’ Consejo participants & staff who testified before City Council and collected thousands of postcards to help pass the D.C. Language Access Act:

Rosa Alcantara
Arnoldo Borja
Marnie Brady
Federico Castañon
Ana Maria Canata
Oscar Flores
Oscar Leyva
Luis Ortiz
Wilman Pacheco
Daysi Perla
Najiya Shana’a
Ester Vargas
Martin Wera

Next Steps
The work to pass the law took time, and now the real work begins to see the law implemented. The community, coalition members, and allies will need to continue the work to make sure the plans are put into action. In the coming months, the D.C. Office of Human Rights will hire a city-wide Language Access Director to work with government agencies to coordinate services. Several city officials, including representatives of the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, will visit other cities in the United States to gather information on best practices for language access. The Office of Human Rights will convene agency representatives in public meetings to develop plans.

Take Action Support This Campaign
You can be part of the D.C. Language Access Coalition by monitoring the implementation of the law. Coming soon in 2005, you will be able to down-load a documentation form from this site to request investigations directly to the D.C. Office on Human Rights about language access concerns you may have encountered. Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to contact Elena Hung about this issue.

HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT

The Right to Recovery for All

Turned-Away from DETOX? ? No Bilingual Staff?
On the Waiting List for Methadone? ?
Looking for help for yourself or family members? ?
Want to support residents recovering from drugs and alcohol?

We all have the right to recovery from addiction and trauma. More than 60,000 people in Washington, D.C. are in need of substance abuse treatment. Approximately 5,000 residents in need of treatment are adult Latinos. See NC leaders and staff providing testimony and speaking out on this issue.

Support the Right to Recovery:
Stop the down-sizing of D.C. treatment services!
At the moment of the difficult decision to seek treatment, D.C. has denied many of her people the right to recovery.

• Provide detox.on demand; expand D.C. medical and social detox.services. Renovate D.C. Central Detox to provide a hygienic and hospitable center for men and women going through withdrawl and beginning their first step into treatment.
• Expand city methadone services.
• Expand treatment options, including inpatient programs and programs for women with children through capital and operations funding.

Invest in treatment and save money!
For every $1 spent on substance abuse treatment an average of $7 is saved in costs associated with criminal justice, health care and social services.

• Implement Medicaid-reimbursement financing.
• Spend, yearly, the full annual allotment of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant monies given to D.C. by the federal government.

Provide access to existing treatment options!
The implementation of the Choice and Drug Treatment Act (voucher system) has made it difficult for many residents to reach community-based providers.

• Streamline certification & reimbursement process for non profits.
• Create neighborhood-based intake system.
• Provide bilingual services in all areas of treatment.

For more information on these and other campaigns contact Director of Advocacy, Marnie Brady.