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August 9: My Source Gets a Job
Today’s Event: I find out that a homeless father who is one of my favorite sources has been hired by Vincent Gray‘s campaign. When I first met the man, he’d been homeless for months, living with one of his young kids at D.C. General. He sent me photographs of the horrible living conditions: no working air conditioners on his floor, moldy walls in the winter, indifferent case managers. And now he’s working against Mayor Adrian Fenty, whose Department of Human Services my sources describes in the same way Fenty describes Gray’s 1990s incarnation of the agency: “poor, very poor.”
Influence: Mildly pro-Gray. Every candidate hires unemployed, homeless, and poor people to help with street work. But in this case, the man who was hired reminds me of one of Fenty’s most conspicuous failings.
Net impact: Still leaning Gray.
But: After reading Downtown Rez‘s smart analysis in my last homeless-services related post, I feel like Fenty does deserve some credit. Even though it took my source months and months to get an affordable place to live, he was eventually able to find a subsidized apartment that fit his needs. If Fenty ever ditches Ron Moten and hires Downtown Rez as his de facto spokesperson, then I’d have even more rethinking to do.