Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) Now Open for Applications Twice Per Year

Restaurant Bridge Funding Application Now Open 

Today, the District opened the application for the next phase of the Bridge Fund, specifically for our local restaurants (https://coronavirus.dc.gov/page/bridge-fund). This important funding can be used to support general operational expenses such as rent or mortgage payments, docking expenses, payroll, insurance, fuel for mobile vendors, or utilities, as well as expenses incurred related to winterization or COVID-19 preparation. If you're a Ward 6 restaurant or food service business, you should get an application in as soon as possible using the link above.

One-Time $1,200 Check for PUA Recipients

On Monday, the Mayor announced a one-time stimulus payment of $1,200 for recipients of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, relief for workers who do not qualify for traditional unemployment benefits. The funding will be sent to anyone who qualified for PUA benefits prior to Nov 30, 2020. The checks will be automatically sent on a rolling basis to PUA recipients this month. As usual, please reach out to my Constituent Services team if you are having a hard time getting your benefits. You can reach anyone on my team here: http://www.charlesallenward6.com/contact

The 2020 Brickies were Just What We All Needed

Last week we held our 14th annual, and first-ever virtual, Ward 6 Brickie Awards. And I know I felt uplifted and rejuvenated by all of the great work and sense of community I could still feel over the computer screen. I want to congratulate our winners, each of whom has done incredible work to serve their neighbors during a truly challenging year. If you missed it, you can watch the hour-long program here or check out the Hill Rag's recap here. I certainly would encourage it as a way to get to know the work of our awardees. Here's who won a Brickie this year: 

Neighbor Award: Allion McGill (pictured right) for her fast work to coordinate thousands of volunteers in the early days of the pandemic to help neighbors with grocery and errand runs or getting food.
 
Public Service Award: Donte Lucas, of DC's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, who has been one of the key folks running the Emergency Operations Center that coordinates all of the District's efforts to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. 

Business Award: Erik Bruner-Yang, whose restaurants have put DC and H Street on the culinary map over the past 10 years. But when the pandemic hit, Erik pivoted to an idea he had to raise funds to pay restaurant kitchen staff to prepare meals for essential workers, hungry neighbors, and front line health care workers. The Power of 10 Initiative has spread to 30 restaurants in multiple cities as a way to save jobs and fight hunger, having now served more than 275,000 meals. And it all started right here in Ward 6. Check out their work here: https://www.powerof10initiative.com/

Community Organization Award: Presented to GOODProjects, a nonprofit founded by three DC natives who met on the football team at Georgetown. GOODProjects is intensely focused on serving families living in Greenleaf, Syphax, and James Creek public housing to lift 500 families out of poverty by 2030. But when the pandemic hit, they recognized that many of the kids they work with regularly would fall behind or struggle with virtual learning. So they created a safe space at Greenleaf where students could have access to internet, laptops, and the support of teaching professionals while doing their virtual learning. Check out their work here: https://goodprojects.org/

Civic Pride Award: Maurice Cook (pictured right), who is the Executive Director of Serve Your City, which has taken on the work of being a lead agency in the Ward 6 Mutual Aid group. Maurice has been the glue (or the sticky gum as he joked during the Brickies) for more than a decade in service to uplifting Black and Brown students to provide them with opportunity and exposure to new experiences and activities. During the pandemic, he's been a central mover and shaker in collecting virtual learning supplies, helping families with applications, distributing food and masks, and so much more, working in tandem with dozens of nonprofits. Check out their work here: https://www.serveyourcitydc.org/

We also tried to use the Brickies as way to support our local restaurants by encouraging folks to order out for dinner that night if they could, and several Ward 6 businesses got into the spirit with a special Brickies menu or dish. Thanks to everyone and hope some great meals were enjoyed all around!

Zoo Lights Express Comes to Ward 6 December 12

It's a little holiday cheer, 2020 style. While the National Zoo is closed as part of COVID-19 precautions, the annual holiday favorite Zoo Lights is hitting the road. And it's coming to Ward 6 this Saturday, Dec 12, from 6-8 pm. Here's the route. Please be sure to physically-distance and wear a mask even though we are outside. 

Proposed Metro Service Cuts Would be Catastrophic 

Northwest One Construction Begins on Bringing Affordable Homes Back to Community

Last month the long-awaited project to bring affordable and market-rate homes and retail back to the Northwest One and Temple Courts space of Ward 6 (near Mt. Vernon Triangle and NoMa) finally broke ground after years of hard work. This is a big step forward in bringing more than 200 affordable homes to Northwest One and Temple Courts, a project I've been working on dating back to before I was elected to the Council. When the project is fully completed in both phases, more than 500 new, affordable homes, including one for one replacement for residents who have been waiting. This is a promise long owed to the residents and an issue I've been meeting with residents on and working to see reflected in the final details for years. I'm especially proud of the offerings for families and multi-generational housing, including several four-bedroom townhome style units. I want to give a special thanks to Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) for their tireless work on this project and to the commissioners of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6E. Here's a quick preview of the project from Urban Turf.

Public Safety Omnibus Bill / Second Look Act Passes First Vote Unanimously

The Council also unanimously passed the Omnibus Public Safety and Justice Act of 2020, which contains more than a dozen provisions modifying or strengthening our public safety laws. Of note, it includes a permanent bill banning possession or use of ghost guns, a gun created without a serial number, often by mail-order with parts, or a 3D printed gun. We are seeing more and more ghost guns without a serial number or assembled via a mail-order kit used in violent crimes. The bill also includes updates to improve and get the word out about the District's Red Flag law, which I helped lead through the Council last year.

It also includes the Second Look Act, a bill that would expand a successful re-sentencing effort the District has undertaken in the last three years to give people who were sentenced to very long sentences as young people the opportunity to show they have rehabilitated, learned, and been held accountable. Someone becomes eligible only after having served a minimum of 15 years in prison for their sentence. The bill would expand eligibility up to anyone who committed offense under the age of 25. It is important for this bill to move forward for two reasons. First, at the core of our challenge with mass incarceration are sentences handed out that are longer and more severe for Black people - the data is unbelievably clear about this disparity in sentencing, even among violent crimes. Mass incarceration creates a direct feedback loop into communities experiencing the most violence in the first place. And second, anyone who started serving decades-long sentences as a young person is now at least middle-aged and far less likely to reoffend. This is no longer a hypothetical question. More than 50 men have been re-sentenced and released under existing law. Many have immediately started careers working with young people today who are at-risk of committing a violent crime and none have reoffended violently or been re-convicted. We desperately need their voice and lived experience working to make the community safer in this moment when a pandemic is severing key lifelines to those most at-risk. They are working to not only undo the harm they have caused, but also break the cycle of violence we are seeing play out right now in unbelievably heartbreaking ways. To get a sense of what this looks like, I highly recommend this PBS Newshour profile on one man released under the existing law.

Finally, I want to speak to the role a victim's family or a survivor plays in this process. The application for re-sentencing is a lengthy process, taking upwards of a year or two. It is at the discretion of a judge, who must weigh a number of factors in considering if someone should receive a re-sentencing. If a victim's family or survivor wishes to speak out, in favor of or against a re-sentencing that might lead to an early release, the judge must weigh and consider their perspective. Victims have used their statements to both support and oppose re-sentencing. The judge must also look at how the applicant used their time while incarcerated, including both participating in positive programming, and any and all violations of the rules within a prison. I want to really emphasize that this is not automatic process. Not everyone who has applied has been released in the last three years - judges also deny requests. But those who have are doing remarkable things to help our community, and I think that's very valuable. Here's a good article putting our bill in context with similar efforts around the country: Washington Post: A growing group of prosecutors, who say the job is more than just locking people up, want to help free criminals too

Opioid Overdose Prevention Bill, Putting Health First, Advances

I also want to share that another bill I wrote, which further centers the District's response to the opioid crisis on public health responses, advanced unanimously on first vote. The bill importantly decriminalizes possession of paraphernalia related to personal consumption, creates "Good Samaritan" legal protections for anyone who intervenes to administer life-saving naloxone or calls 911 to report an overdose, and makes it easier for nonprofits serving these neighbors to do so while helping them use safely. These are all best practices if your approach to reducing overdoses begins with harm reduction rather than punishment, understanding addiction requires specific approaches that our criminal justice system is not suited to respond to. Read more about the bill in the Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-opioid-deaths-2020/2020/12/05/95cfba3a-34c0-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html