Friendship Action Network
Friendship Action Network (FAN): March Update!
Welcome to Oversight/Budget Season!
There are SO many important things going on, and we really need your support.The mayor’s budget this year will be tight, and we need all the advocacy we can get to help keep her from putting that on the backs of our most vulnerable residents. Through our coalitions, we will be engaging with both the mayor’s office and the DC Council members.
In addition, I will be testifying for Friendship Place tomorrow for the second time this month, (sometime mid-afternoon) and will do so again after the Mayor’s Budget is released. You can watch my testimony HERE.
Here are TWO immediate actions you can take this week!
1) Sign on to our coalition partner’s asks for the Mayor’s Budget. We support The Way Home Campaign’s budget platform, and you can too by clicking the link!
2) Join us This Saturday at the Poor People’s Campaign March. 32 Cities around the country will all be marching at their state houses to highlight policies that hurt poor and low-wage workers. We will be meeting at 10 Am at the Church of the Epiphany in DC.
Ways you can help AFTER this Week:
1) Join Us for Friendship Place Honors on March 20th! We will be honoring Council Member and Housing Committee Chair Robert White and Kate Coventry, Deputy Director of Legislative Strategy for DCFPI, at our event this year for their years of service fighting to end homelessness in DC. Click on the highlight to sign up!
2) If you are passionate about finding solutions for our older participants experiencing homelessness, or know someone who is, please join our next meeting of the Coalition on Aging and Homelessness. We will be meeting March 18. Just Email us!
3) Friendship’s Annual Walk is just around the corner on April 27th. This year’s event will have activities for families AND pets! Please join us at the Lincoln Memorial to draw attention to homelessness in DC by signing up HERE.
One last important item affecting our work at the National Level.
The Supreme Court is hearing a case that will affect homeless services across the country. Johnson V. Grants Pass is a court case brought by several municipalities seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that said that cities/towns could not punish people for being homelessness (through fines or arrests) if their locality did not have enough shelter to house everyone that is homeless. Overturning this ruling would mean local governments could criminalize homelessness, potentially even resulting in jailtime for non-payment of fines. You can find out more about the hearing on April 22 HERE, and follow SCOTUSblog.com for additional coverage of Supreme Court activity.
Thank you for supporting Friendship Place!
Lynn Amano
Director of Advocacy
