LISTEN TO LINDA LEAKS
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The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has proposed cutting $100 billion from the non-military federal budget for fiscal year 2011. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to act. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Republicans were “blindly swinging a meat ax to the budget when they should be using a smart, sharp scalpel.” Monday, Feb. 14, activists will join with those impacted by the proposed 21 percent cut to Housing and Urban Development to deliver Valentine’s Day cards to senators asking them to “Have a Heart – Don’t Take Our Homes.”
In the District of Columbia, there is “a severe housing crisis,” said Linda Leaks, lead housing organizer for Empower DC. “We’re looking at about 30,000 people on the waiting list for… subsidized housing, public housing. And we’re looking at something like 16,000 or so people who are without housing at all, who are called homeless… We have more than 50 percent of people [who earn $30,000 or less] paying more than 50 percent of their income for housing. And the situation is getting worse.”
“There are almost three million people in this country that live [in] subsidized [housing],” said Leaks. “In conjunction with tenants around the country who are facing the same issue of losing their housing without having any resources or any place to go, what we’re doing is [putting together] a coordinated action on Valentine’s Day… In the District of Columbia, what we’re going to do is… deliver “Have a Heart” postcards with the story of people… who are about to… lose their housing and their family and what it means [to] them. Because we want to put a face on the people who are going to be hurt by these cuts.”
“We want to… continue to be in the face of the congress so they can see, they can look eye to eye at the people who are going to be hurt. Because what happens is [that congress members] leave their jurisdictions, Ms. Boxer and Ms. Patty Murray and those folks, they leave Washington state, they leave California to come to D.C… Yeah, they go back every now and then to their jurisdiction where they see their folks, but on a daily basis they see lobbyists while they’re here in D.C. They don’t see their constituents. And so what we want to do here in D.C. is raise our voice for all of the people who are about to be hurt by this housing issue. And we want to do it on a regular basis and see if we can get something done.”
For more information about Monday’s protest contact Linda Leaks at (202) 234-9119 or lleaks1@juno.com
(Cartoon courtesy of the Washington Examiner)