Indeed, 'change' we can believe in....
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hJuMxr4cypQQrwmAm7sZPm0lwC8w
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Before sunrise on Thursday, Frank Mearns will
leave the place he calls home, a stone's throw from the White
House, and join thousands of others in Washington who are upping
sticks and moving out for the presidential inauguration.
But Mearns isn't about to make a quick buck by renting out his
pied-a-terre. Nor is he heading out of town on an inauguration
escape holiday.
He's one of Washington's army of homeless who are being cleared
from the center of the US capital ahead of the historic
inauguration of Barack Obama.
"There's a sweep on Thursday at 5:00 am," Mearns said.
"Everyone's got to be out of here and stay out until next
Thursday," the 37-year-old said.
"Here" is a space on 14th Street and New York Avenue, in the
heart of a zone in the center of Washington that will be closed to
traffic and heavily policed during the inauguration.
"Here" is also home to Mearns and a dozen other homeless people
each night.
Five of his fellow street dwellers work full-time but can't
afford to pay the high rents in the Washington area. Another is a
man who was displaced from his home in New Orleans by Hurricane
Katrina. And there are a handful of women in the group.
"There's a lady who's been on the streets for 10 years and been
raped seven times. She sleeps next to the guy from Katrina and if
he's not here, she sleeps somewhere else. She sleeps here for
safety. She doesn't know where she'll go next week," Mearns told
AFP.
According to Michael O'Neill of the National Coalition for the
Homeless, up to 1,200 people live rough in the security zone,
including on Pennsylvania Avenue, the grand boulevard which the
inaugural parade will march down.
The effort to clear the streets of Washington of its homeless
population was unlike anything that former homeless man David
Pirtle has witnessed.
"I was on the streets when George W. Bush had his second
inauguration in 2005 and it was nothing like this. There were no
large-scale sweeps. I slept on Pennsylvania Avenue the night before
and the night after the inauguration," said the 34-year-old who now
works for the National Coalition for the Homeless.
"But as hard as the administration is going to try to make this
look sanitary, the homeless are not going to be invisible. You
can't make 6,000-12,000 people disappear," he said, citing official
figures for homelessness in Washington-proper and the greater
metropolitan area, including suburbs in Virginia and Maryland.
A dozen shelters will be open round-the-clock in Washington from
Sunday until Wednesday, the day after Obama takes office, to
provide temporary housing for the homeless.
The shelters will be equipped with televisions, showing live
coverage of Obama's swearing-in.
But they have only around 2,800 beds. And "things happen" in
shelters, according to Mearns, who will be staying with an activist
friend for the week.
Between one and two million people are expected to pour into
Washington, a city of 400,000, for the inauguration, some paying
tens of thousands of dollars a night for a hotel room and to attend
lavish inaugural balls.
Given the huge numbers expected, unprecedented security measures
are being put in place to try to ensure that the January 20
inauguration runs smoothly and safely.
"I don't fault the people who are putting this together for
trying to make it a safe event because if there are a couple of
million people crammed into the middle of Washington, it could be a
target for something," Pirtle said.
"But you can do it and work with the community," he added.
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty has estimated that the
inauguration will cost the city some 47 million dollars (35 million
euros), while Maryland and Virginia have estimated their outlay at
12 million and 16 million dollars respectively.
"We are showing our priorities as a nation: throwing a
multi-million dollar party while trying to shovel our poor and our
homeless under the carpet," Pirtle said.
"It's an inauspicious start to our new administration of hope
that Obama wants to work for," he added, blaming city and security
officials rather than the president-elect, who he said was "stuck
in the middle.
Presidential Inauguration Committee spokesman Kevin Griffiths
said he would "check what our interaction has been with the local
authorities about the homeless," and stressed that the organizers
have been at pains to make the historic investiture as inclusive as
possible.
