Sept. 14 was the day of the primary elections. By now, the results are known to everyone: Vincent Gray won the Democratic nomination for mayor by a considerable margin over incumbent Adrian Fenty. What is not known is what the implications will be for the District, especially for the homeless community. We have heard the pre-election promises. The question is: what will happen in reality?
Adrian Fenty was regarded as a friend of the homeless, too, during his campaign prior to his being elected mayor. He had promised not to close down any downtown shelters. Within a short time, he closed the Franklin School shelter allegedly to make room for commercial construction in its place. It was a preelection promise that was broken, and the reverberations were felt throughout the homeless community. All the homeless people living in shelters then began to worry: which shelter is next? Fenty’s intentions seemed to be to close all the shelters to force the homeless out of the city. Needless to say, the discontent in the homeless community ran deep after that initial betrayal.
Vincent Gray made a special visit for the homeless prior to the election in Franklin Park, a gesture that served to bring him closer to homeless voters. Given the discontent with Fenty and the hopes for better times, Gray won a sizable percentage of the homeless vote. However, those of us who have memories can only wonder if this scenario is to be a repetition of the Fenty experience. If it happened once, it can certainly happen again.
The homeless are the most vulnerable population in the District. Lacking a financial base or even permanent housing, they are easy targets, especially when the government decides to make budget cuts, as we witnessed during the Bush Administration. Finding a sympathetic voice in government is, as a result, very important if not essential. We thought we had that when we elected Fenty, but we were wrong. We have voted for Gray now. Will he be an ally? That remains to be seen.
Being realistic, we have to acknowledge that most politicians say what voters want to hear before elections. Certainly the homeless are not strangers to unkept promises. For example, anyone who knows the history of CCNV knows that promises were made and then broken regarding building the shelter. The struggle to get the shelter built was highly publicized thanks to Mitch Snyder, who took drastic measures such as hunger strikes to bring awareness to the cause.
Adrian Fenty may have lost the primary, but some people have attempted to start a write-in campaign for him. As of Sept. 30, the Facebook page for the campaign had amassed 4,158 members. There are also parallel groups on Yahoo and Twitter. That does not necessarily translate into a victory at the polls, but it does show that he still maintains a certain level of support from people who are ready to be counted.
We have until November to wait for the election to be 100 percent official. We know where we stand now. We’ll have to wait to find out where we stand after the election.
