Washington, DC: Housing activists arrested - please call mayor, council

Mayday DC:
http://www.infoshop.org/maydaydc/index.html

August 9, 12 p.m. - A group of Washington, DC housing activists who occupied the Franklin School in downtown Washington this morning were arrested and escorted out of the building at 11:30. The four activists entered the unused building early this morning and locked themselves in to protest a series of recent decisions by the city government that have aggravated the mounting problem of homelessness in the district. These include the closing of La Casa, which provides services to Latina women and families and the eviction of Olive Branch House, an activist and service community that fed and provided other services to the city's homeless.

The Franklin School occupation attracted a crowd of some 25 people, who chanted and shouted support for
the four activists who barricaded themselves in the building. The occupation brought a large crowd of police and firefighters, including a police helicopter.

Mayday DC, the coalition that organized the protest, said the arrestees were taken to the Fifth District police station.

Mayday DC is encouraging the public to call the station to demand release of the four, and also to call Mayor
Anthony Williams at (202) 727-2980, District Council chair Linda Cropp at (202) 724-8085, and District Council
member Harold Brazil at (202) 724-8156 to express opposition to district policies that are destroying services
for the homeless. Washington DC has failed to maintain an adequate level of low-income housing and is
instead turning over properties like the Franklin School as well as city office buildings and even DC General
Hospital to private developers. Meanwhile, the district's homeless population is growing steadily into the tens
of thousands.

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