A fight for affordable housing

WASHINGTON, D.C.--On Valentine's Day--and what felt to be the first day of spring in D.C.--more than 60 people came out to the Russell Senate Building to defend affordable housing with the message "Have a heart, save our homes."

With Congress and the Obama administration looking to cut the deficit on the backs of working people, this protest brought a human face to the cuts--with demonstrators forming a picket line outside the building carrying signs that said, "Don't balance the budget on the backs of poor people" and "We the people need housing, No cuts to Section 8."

The demonstration was organized by local non-profits Empower D.C. and One D.C., who joined with hundreds of tenants from across the United States for this coordinated day of action.

In D.C., more than 5,000 low- and moderate-income families who are dependent on the housing choice voucher or who live in a project-based Section 8 unit or public housing are facing the risk of losing their housing assistance if the 21 percent cut to the discretionary spending budget is adopted by both houses of Congress.

Because D.C. is not represented in the U.S. Senate, groups of people who live in Section 8 buildings in the city visited Senate offices, including Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin's office, while the picket was taking place outside.

When meeting with Hill staffers, protesters demanded that the Senate commit to fully funding the Department of Housing and Urban Development by preventing budget cuts, expanding funding for 1 million new Section 8 housing assistance vouchers and reducing subsidies to wealthy property owners to pay for housing for the most vulnerable.

Sen. Cardin's housing and budget legislative assistant expressed sympathy to the messages and personal stories from people who would be directly affected by budget cuts, but warned that a government shutdown and deep cuts were still a probable reality that communities across the U.S. might face. He also expressed that many Democratic legislators disagreed with cuts being proposed by both the Republican Congress and President Obama.

Adrienne Black, one of the speakers and an activist with Empower D.C., said, "I'm out here to today because it took me 10 years to get a Section 8 housing voucher and I'm not just going to let them snatch it away."

"I live in a senior citizens residential community and these cuts would affect my community," said protester Harold Belmar.

Multiple speakers, including Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, referenced the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt as an example of what protest can accomplish. As Benjamin put it, "[P]eople's uprisings are in the air. We need to use the money for what people need, not on these wars."

As austerity continues to be on the agenda for the Obama administration and Congress, we need to build a strong movement that challenges politicians to cut corporate welfare and defense spending, rather than attacking low-income communities and families.