Homes Not Jails DC is an autonomous group of individuals whose mission is to
end homelessness and to abolish the prison industrial complex. (See Our Principles
Of Unity)
Homes Not Jails' Story:
The first HNJ chapter started in San Francisco in 1992 to advocate for the use
of abandoned, vacant housing for people experiencing homelessness. The group's
direct-action squatting tactics seemed more than appropriate for DC, which boasts
over 29,000 units of vacant housing, and thousands of people sleeping on city
streets. Homes Not Jails DC was formed in June of 2000.
Homes Not Jails DC holds that housing is a human right that far outweighs developers',
landlords', and real estate speculators' "rights" to profit. HNJ takes abandoned
buildings both publicly and covertly to address DC's growing crisis of homelessness.
Through publicized takeovers, HNJ raises awareness of the need to utilize vacant
buildings for the many thousands of people who can't afford housing in DC.
Recognizing that our government would be reluctant to utilize vacant buildings
for people who need housing- and recognizing that people need housing now- HNJ
also seeks to support covert squatting in abandoned buildings.
HNJ employs a variety of tactics to bring light to the connection between the
growing prison industrial complex and increasing poverty and homelessness.
About Homelessness
The two main causes of the US's increasing homelessness are a diminishing supply
of affordable housing combined with growing poverty. Our increasing poverty
is directly caused by the declining value of minimum wage and by the decline
of public assistance.
Rents in most cities are on the rise and subsidized housing is quickly diminishing.
In DC, over 18,000 people are on the waiting list for Section 8 housing, and
over 10,000 people are on the waiting list for public housing. Individuals and
families are often left waiting on these lists for years. Moreover, once someone
obtains a Section 8 housing voucher from DC's Housing Authority, they are hard-pressed
to find any landlord that will accept it.
There is nowhere in the US where a minimum-wage worker can afford market-rate
rent, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. In DC, a minimum-wage
worker would be forced to work over 100 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom
apartment at market rate.
Employment often provides no relief from homelessness. For example, temporary
day laborers in DC often face homelessness in addition to constant exploitation.
Often the cost of transportation, equipment, and meals prevents them from saving
any money from their labor for companies such as Waste Management Inc., in Maryland.
A US Conference of Mayors Report recently found that in 30 US cities surveyed,
one in five people experiencing homelessness is employed. In many cities not
surveyed, the number was even greater.
Other factors that contribute to homelessness include corporate globalization,
lack of affordable healthcare, domestic violence, mental illness and addiction
disorders.
Gentrification
In many cities, gentrification is pushing low and no-income people out of their
communities. Lower-income areas of cities are allowed to decay for years through
redlining and city neglect, creating thousands of abandoned units of housing,
and then are gradually redeveloped for middle and upper-income people.
Government policies actually encourage wealthy real estate speculators to sit
on empty buildings waiting for property values to rise, while people sleep on
the streets. US Housing and Urban Development, which auctions off thousands
of vacant buildings at market-rate, actually spends millions maintaining a stock
of vacant buildings; even heating them in the winter to prevent pipes from freezing.
Meanwhile, DC saw at least seven people die of hypothermia on the streets in
the winter of 2000-2001.
Other city policies encourage DC's growing gentrification. For example, in March
2000, the District government published a list of "hot properties"- buildings
with so many housing code violations that they were threatened with condemnation
and demolition. Theses buildings were all located in neighborhoods with many
low-income people of color, and almost all happened to be in neighborhoods near
new Metro Stations, where there was great potential for developer and landlord
profit. Further, over the protests of many concerned citizens, most of those
properties to date have been closed and the tenants displaced. Rather than investing
in keeping the buildings affordable, the District has used this and related
policies to open areas up for profit.
Homes Not Jails believes that we can, and we must confront the policies that
keep poor people homeless, starving, and struggling while banks, developers,
and landlords continue to profit. The time for action is now. As many organizers
have said before us: "You only get what you're organized to take!"