From Atlanta to DC

 Earlier this month we had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC with tenant leaders from the Housing Justice League for the National Alliance of HUD Tenants(NAHT) national convention. This has been our fourth year attending the conference which is a gathering of HUD tenant leaders from around the country along with tenant/community organizers and representatives from ally organizations. The conference is an excellent opportunity for tenants to share and develop strategies to preserve, improve, and expand affordable housing in their complexes and communities. Here in Atlanta we've learned so much over the years from the amazing HUD tenants that helped form NAHT, several of them have organized such strong tenant associations that they have actually collectively negotiated negotiated with complex owners to purchase the building they live in.


This years was year was a highlight for us as both Housing Justice League and American Friends Service Committee received awards in recognition of our victories over the last year.

This years was also special because we had the opportunity to join the Poor Peoples Campaign for their day of action. Many of us marched to HUD and witnessed over a dozen committed faith and community leaders block the doors of HUD's office demanding better living conditions and more peopled centered policies. It was truly inspiring to be surrounded by so many people with such deep commitment to real economic justice.

The following day NAHT held a rally against Trump's proposed HUD cuts on the steps of the MLK memorial statue. If passed Trump's HUD budget would include deep cuts and much stricter work requirements. The cut's impact would put over 5k Georgia families at risk or homelessness and rent hikes that would be difficult to survive for those on fixed income. From there we went to visit congressional members and lobbied against the proposed cuts before saying our goodbyes and heading back to Atlanta.

Conferences like NAHT are important. They give us the opportunity to compare notes, inspire and be inspired by each other, to celebrate our work, explore how to more effectively, and leave with our imaginations on fire!

Big thanks to all who contributed to Housing Justice Leagues tenant training crowd source fundraiser as it helped cover the cost of three tenant leaders attending the conference!

Poor Peoples Day and Dr King's Legacy

Today is a day to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King, and for many in Atlanta it's a day to retrace the great man's foot steps from Peachtree street, down Auburn avenues, all the way to Ebeneezer Baptist Church.

This year I had the extreme honor to March as a dignitary for the second year in a row and speak at the rally at Ebeneezer. Usually AFSC organizes an anti-war contingent in the march but this years mobilizing efforts went toward supporting the efforts of Occupy Our Homes Atlanta in building a large housing justice contingent in the march.

Knowing that I was to speak in the march I spent a great deal of the last few days thinking about what brief comments I might say from the stage. It my be a cliche, but Dr King's work and writing has done more to inspire my work and life direction then anything else.

This week I've been thinking a lot about poor peoples campaign, the last campaign Dr King organized. In November 1967 Dr King and the SCLC organized the campaign to address economic injustice and housing for the poor in the United States, the aim was to rebuild America's cities. The Poor Peoples Campaign didn't just focus on poor black people but addressed all poor people. Dr King labeled the campaign as "phase two" of the civil rights movement- setting goals like gathering activist to lobby Congress for an "Economic Bill of Rights", Dr King also saw an crying need to confront a Congress that demonstrated a hostility toward the poor yet provided an over abundance to the military industrial complex.

Under the "Economic Bill of Rights" the Poor Peoples Campaign asked for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor with an antipoverty package that included housing and a guaranteed annual income.

Martin Luther King Jr wanted to shut down Washington DC. Poor Peoples Campaign was to be the longest running protest in the nations capitol. Dr. King intended to dramatize the suffering of the nations poor by bringing them to the capitol. Poor people would live together on the national mall, between the capitol and the Lincoln memorial- and engage in widespread civil disobedience. King wanted to force the federal government to deal with poverty.

After Kings assassination the King family, along with the SCLC, decided to go on with the campaign to honor King. On May 12th, 1968, the first wave of protesters showed up. One week later Resurrection city was built on the Washington Mall, a settlement of tents and shacks to house protesters. Demonstrators were sent to various federal agencies to protest and spread the message of the campaign. Sadly the campaign lacked the leadership and momentum Kings involvement might have brought.

The combined setbacks of RFK's assassination, and a series of bad press further limited the campaign success. Failing to force a response from lawmakers, the poor peoples campaign closed camp on June 19th 1968.

It should come as no surprise that many veterans of the civil rights saw the Occupy movement as an extension of Dr King's work and legacy.