Opinion

Alive and Well: a review of Eve Ewing’s ‘Electric Arches’

Mike Wold reviews Eve Ewing’s most recent collection of poetry about the experiences of being a black woman in Chicago.

Our Tent City

Laticia Brock describes her time living in “Tent City” and the experiences she shared with the people she lived with.

A Weak Response to Bigotry

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfel of the Ohev Sholom (the National Synagogue) criticizes the city council for its weak response to Councilmember Trayon White’s anti-Semitic comments.

Ben Carson’s False Promises on Homelessness

Maria Foscarinis, the founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, explains why Ben Carson’s plans to end homelessness do not consider the actual needs of those experiencing homelessness.

Rapid re-housing clients decry program and ask for pathways to employment

Several families who have received rapid re-housing subsidies marched nearly two miles from Virginia Williams Family Resource Center to the headquarters of the D.C. Department of Human Services, to voice their concerns about the program.

Who Will End Youth Homelessness?

Is life tough? Ask young people who are experiencing homelessness. On the first day of spring, despite heavy snow, I left for work at 5 a.m. to supervise our delivery crew unloading the latest edition of Street Sense. A few blocks away from the office, I saw a young man on the street, probably 14 years old, asking for money for breakfast. He is not alone in his circumstances. A 2017 study shows that there are 4.2 million adolescents and young adults in the U.S who are experiencing homelessness.

I see what I see

Most of what you see in the actions and behaviors of homeless people is trained and conditioned behavior. Those responsible manipulate most of us and protect themselves, their power. Lots of what transpires in this world is not by happenstance. While everyday events seem spontaneous or isolated, unraveling before your eyes, the system in which they occur is by design. Like laboratory rats, monkeys and guinea pigs in a grand experiment, some of us are rationed just enough, some of us are forced to endure scarcity and some of us are privileged with excess.

Republican ‘Work Requirements’ Won’t Work

New food stamp work requirements under consideration on Capitol Hill would put harsh, punitive red tape and time-consuming new restraints on program participants.

D.C. Adult Literacy Programs Are Under Threat

A woman whom I tutored in reading stunned me years ago when I mentioned the Vietnam War. Even though we both grew up in the 1960s and 70s, she never knew it happened. She didn’t know about World War II or many other events of which most American school children would have a foggy grasp.

Pay it forward

I wake up in the morning with different thoughts in my mind. At my age I do a lot of reminiscing about the past, whether it be good or bad.

Time will always be more important

A look at time and how we spend it

Crime near the Capitol

I was robbed on the 30N bus on the night of April 26 at 12:55 a.m. The crime was committed blocks away from the Capitol building, the bus stop near the  intersection of Constitution Avenue and 7th Street, NW.

Knowing your self-worth

A look at Street Sense’s public image and what it means to be a vendor

Wage theft

A look at wage injustices

To everyone at Street Sense Media

Sheila White thanks Street Sense for what it does for the community.

A smile

A look at the importance of smiling

We’re all in the working class

A look at what work means to people experiencing homelessness.

Transit riders, rise up!

Sigute Meilus writes about the need for transit-riders to organize and advocate for their needs.

Trump’s insulting food stamp plan

Leonard Hyater, Jr. highlights the shortcomings of President Trump’s food stamp plan with regard to people with diabetes.

Quite a life, indeed

Angie Whitehurst writes about the most recent biography of Carol Schwartz, and about the history of the District.