TCP Fails To Pay CCNV For Operating Homeless Shelter

The below posted excerpt is by guest author Louise Thundercloud. Louise Thundercloud's Profile Page is on the Peace Communities Online Community found by clicking here. I looked up The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness and found the above photo and added it.

Love for the people,
-T. Love
black man f.l.u.f.f.

------------------------------------------------------------
TCP Fails To Pay CCNV For Operating Homeless Shelter

Yesterday I posted a short, undetailed message about a certain DC homeless shelter that was abruptly closed (which I'll soon delete). I have since done my homework and found out what happened and why. So, here it is.....

The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) has not paid CCNV (the Community for Creative Non-Violence) for its services for 2 months. CCNV took action so as to exact payment yesterday. Before I give any further explanation of yesterday's situation, I must first explain everyone's role.

The Government of the District of Columbia has a Dept. of Human Services (DHS). DHS has contracted out many of its homeless services to The Community Partnership (TCP) which in turn contracts out to the actual service providers such as CCNV and Catholic Charities. (Those homeless services that don't fall under the purview of TCP are administered by the Coalition for the Homeless, which answers to DHS.)

CCNV (the Community for Creative Non-Violence) is one of 3 homeless shelters in the former Federal City College. The others are the John L. Young Women's Shelter and the Open Door Women's Shelter. (CCNV has beds for men and women.) The building also houses DC Central Kitchen which feeds one meal per day to most of DC's 6,000 plus homeless and a Unity Healthcare office for DC's homeless. Every hypothermia season a temporary drop-in center is opened in the basement of CCNV for approximately 150 overnighters/walk-ins (all men) to stay warm. The majority of those at CCNV have reserved beds from night to night.

The building is actually owned by DC Government. It was wrested from the Reagan Administration and given to the city through the protests of many homeless people under the leadership of Mitch Snyder, with Mitch having gone on a 51-day hunger strike.

Finally, I can get to the jist of the story. TCP has failed to pay CCNV for running the drop-in center. They've not paid CCNV for its services for the months of January or February of this year. (Checks are due by the 15th of each month.) The unpaid staff had been holding meetings about this problem for several weeks. Finally, they decided to make a power move. So, on February 19th, the staff told all of the men in the drop-in center that they were quitting and that they, the shelter occupants, had to leave. The staff also called the media. They had to call the cops for the residents who failed to leave. Some residents also began to make calls, some to the media. DC Government's Dept. of Human Services was also called. They promised to take care of the matter. (Let's remember that it was TCP who failed to pay CCNV, not DC Government or DHS.) The shelter staff has promised that, if they don't get paid today, they'll do the same thing again, possibly longer. This could get really ugly.

I also want to point out that TCP's head is on the chopping block. Earlier on that same day I attended 2 hearings at the Wilson Bldg. In the latter one, I heard the director of DHS say that he was seriously considering getting rid of TCP. (They are in the last year of their contract.) He, Clarence Carter, has decided that many of the functions of TCP can and should be done by the employees of DHS. In these hard economic times, we must trim the fat off of government. He wants to get rid of the middle man, which in this case is operated by a woman -- Sue Marshall. He commended the agency's work, but maintained that he must save money. About an hour and a half after that hearing ended, I got word of the CCNV drop-in center fiasco. This serves as an additional reason to get rid of TCP. Things aren't looking up for TCP right now.

Other CCNV business.....

I did a video in December in which I described the caseworker role that I will take on. I've not done any casework per se. However, I AM working for CCNV in another capacity -- as a homeless advocate.

There are rumors circulating about the possible sale of the Federal City Shelter (the entire building). One such rumor claims that Georgetown U. has already bought the building. THE TRUTH: Georgetown U. has the first right of refusal on the building. This means that, if DC Government decides to sell the building, Georgetown U. would be the first to be given the option of buying it. I've yet to receive definitive word of any sale.

leadership. This latest move has indicated that the homeless are ready, willing and able to stand up and fight for their rights. That's not to speak of the fact that security is often increased at the John A. Wilson Building (City Hall) whenever the homeless and their advocates show up to speak up for their human rights. At one such event this past September, the security at the Wilson bldg. cited the actions of a certain woman from the group Mayday DC during a rally more than 5 years ago as their reason for increasing security when the homeless and their advocates showed up. She had gone out on the 5th floor ledge to unfurl a banner explaining the DC Government hates the homeless.(There is a lawsuit taking place due to people having been denied access to a government building.)

For those who plan to help the homeless, CCNV could use donations of cleaning supplies for the building -- bleach, amonia, rags, mops, mop heads, pesticides. We are not in dire straits yet. The building IS adequately clean for the moment. However, the afforementioned items are in short supply.


CCNV is a self-supporting entity. Apart from using a government-owned building, they don't get anything else from the government for the majority of their services. They don't get paid for caring for the 700 people with reserved beds. They DO get paid for providing shelter to the 150 men of the drop-in center, which is only open during hypothermia.

Originally Posted by Eric Sheptock

This full comment left on the below blog post titled: Looking at Fem2pt0 and the Feminist Web

Oyeronke Oyewumi, author of

• "Multiculturalism or multibodism: On the impossible intersections of race and gender in the American White feminist and Black nationalist discourses. Western Journal of Black Studies."

• African Gender Studies: Conceptual Issues/ Theoretical Questions (edited). Palgrave /Macmillan: New York (forthcoming 2005)

• African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood, edited. Africa World Press, Trenton: New Jersey (2003).

• The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis: Minnesota (1997).

In her award-winning book The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (University of Minnesota Press, 1997), Oyeronke Oyewumi makes the case that the narrative of gendered corporeality that dominates the Western interpretation of the social world is a cultural discourse and cannot be assumed uncritically for other cultures. She concludes that gender is not only socially constructed but is also historical. Furthermore, she points out that the current deployment of gender as a universal and timeless social category cannot be divorced from either the dominance of Euro/American cultures in the global system or the ideology of biological determinism which underpins Western systems of knowledge.

Born in Nigeria and educated at the University of Ibadan and the University of California at Berkeley, Oyewumi has been widely recognized for her work. The monograph Invention won the 1998 Distinguished Book Award of the American Sociological Association and was a finalist for the Herskovitts Prize of the African Studies Association in the same year.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The below post is actually my full comment that I left today on the below blog post titled: "Looking at Fem2pt0 and the Feminist Web."   I originally posted it on the comment section of the Blog Womanist-Musings that I highly recommend to everyone.  You can find the below post by clicking here.

Love for the people,

-T

p.s.

Be sure to read the below post first to understand the comments are below.

---------------------------------------

First, I want to apologize for the long post, but I feel it is extremely important regarding how people of color feminist blogs may (or may not) be recognized or linked to by others. Someone said:

"If anyone should be on the list however it is you Renee, for me it was a relief to find you this past year, whether I agree with you or not, you have more to offer than feminism 101, a pretty boring discourse for me, you offer a larger view and I appreciate it. Here is to hoping you crop up on many lists in the future."

I echo the above sentiments, 10,000 percent.

-----------------------------------------

I do not, however, agree with the below statement:

"First, feminism is not an entity or a body; it's an ideological orientation to the world and our participation in/with it. So "feminism" cannot omit anyone from the conversation. And any women's studies program that I know of does NO SUCH THING as you claim.

"As a Ph.D. candidate with a secondary area in Women, Gender, Body, and Race Studies, I would be very interested to know some current scholarship on this claim.""

I don't agree with that statement but since a request was made for some scholarship I thought I'd provide a few (especially for all those who might stumble across the request on this blog)

------------------------------------------

Hamer, J., & Neville, H. (1998). Revolutionary Black feminism: Toward a theory of unity and liberation. Black Scholar

hooks, b. (1991). Ain't I a woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press. hooks, b. (1991). Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem. Boston, MA: South End Press. Hudson-Weems, C. (1995) Africana Racism: Reclaiming Ourselves (3rd ed.), Michigan: Bedford Publishers.

Hull, G. T., Bell-Scott, P. & Smith, B. (eds.). (1982). All the women are White, All the Blacks are men, but some of us are brave. Black Women's Studies. New York: Feminist Studies.

Mansbridge, J., & Smith, B. (2000). How did feminism get to be "All White?" A conversation between Jane Mansbridge and Barbara Smith. American Prospect

Nadasen, P. (2002). Expanding the boundaries of the women's movement: Black feminism and the struggle for welfare rights. Feminist Studies

Oyewumi, O. (1999). Multiculturalism or multibodism: On the impossible intersections of race and gender in the American White feminist and Black nationalist discourses. Western Journal of Black Studies

------------------------------------------

You can start there. If you want more just do what I did and type in "feminism excludes Black women" in a search engine and you'll come up with wonderful articles with titles such as "African-American women's feelings on alienation from third-wave feminism: a conversation with my sisters."

That article was written by Aretha Faye Marbley, an Associate Professor and Director of Community Counseling in Counselor Education at Texas Tech University and Regional Six Director and President for the Texas Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education. So, I guess you could consider that scholarship. *happy laughter*

I also agree with the statement "feminism has a history of silencing women of color." And I am a Black male feminist person of color, who took a major in Philosophy, and a minor in Women's studies and co-founded the Radical Feminist Distro, and I go around the country giving workshops at conferences such as Z Media Institute (founders of Z Magazine) on ending Patriarchy and currently helping with the Radical Feminist Library at the Freeschool Community... and in my opinion feminism has a history of also silencing Black male feminist persons of color as well. Many of the reasons for that are understandable, but also very divisive to the movement for ending patriarchy.

I also started a feminist blog and I did it only after I was part of a conversation on a popular feminist community blog and several people had a lot of surprisingly racist comments when I spoke up for the fact that Nike oppresses women, children and people of color worldwide, and then they (along with the owner of the blog) tried to defend Nike. Today I went to that same feminist blog and someone said they might become a "fan" of Bill Gates after one of his latest publicity stunts, and someone else on the same feminist blog said he is a personal hero. Actually used the word “hero.”  And when I spoke up about it some of the exact people attacked me about the Bill Gates issue who attacked me the first time about the Nike issue.  I even gave links to prove everything I said but that didn't help.

I actually love that feminist blog because it was the first place I found out about the Oscar Grant murder which in turn led me to research other unarmed people being killed by police worldwide but when I see the world's largest oppressors of people of color like Nike and Bill Gates being promoted or called a Hero it confirms that we desperately need more people of color feminist blogs and I would very much like to see more feminist people of color individual and community blogs and I am very glad to see that Renee was recognized. It could not have happened to a better feminist.

Sorry for the long post, everyone. I thought it was immensely noble of Renee to start this discussion (especially after having won the award which is usually when people stop questioning award selction procedures and racism like Will Smith! *happy laughter*) because it is painfully needed.

Frederick Douglass, who helped to organize the Seneca Falls Conference for Women's rights in 1848 along with other feminists once said: ."If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will."

Keep up the great work, Renee... and all those who support her blog. You are bringing the thunder and lightning and because of it you are making progress not only for the people of color feminist movement, but for the movement to end patriarchy that ultimately benefits everyone and it is beautiful to behold.

Love for the people,

-T

“Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman." -- Andrea Dworkin