On August 29, One DC pulled entirely out of the Parcel 42 tent city, literally pulling up their tents and moving on. The homeless who actually sleep there, however, are staying, despite the withdrawal of support by One DC from this now 7 week long land occupation. Read More & Audio | Video-featuring interview with Eric Sheptock

After three years of organizing and a two-year rent strike, residents at Marbury Plaza have won a major victory. The owner of the 672 unit building located in southeast D.C., the Lightstone Group, has agreed to provide $5 million for repairs to the property. The Washington Post reported that the funds will be used "to repair or replace roofs and heating, air-conditioning, hot water and building-access systems. New windows will be installed throughout the complex, which includes two towers and several garden-style apartment buildings… A walk-through of the complex in 2008 by building inspectors and the tenants' association found about 825 housing code violations, the association said, including the presence of mold and widespread electrical outages."

Linda Leaks is a community organizer. In order to protect the District of Columbia's remaining public housing stock, Leaks travels throughout the city, in her car. At least she did.

On the afternoon of Friday, August 8th, Leaks was pulled over by D.C. police for driving an unregistered vehicle. Rather than simply giving Leaks a ticket, she was handcuffed, arrested and not released until 2:30 AM, without her wallet, ID or money. Read More | Audio

On Thursday, April 19th, a crowd of around 60 made up of McCarley Gardens Tenants and their supporters gathered across the street from St. John Baptist Church on the McCarley Gardens property to voice their opposition to the sale of their homes. The rally was called by the McCarley Gardens Tenants Association along with Buffalo Tenants United, and was the first mobilization in a campaign to defend McCarley Gardens.

Participants of the rally were asked to sign petition cards to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), asking HUD to keep to their restructuring agreement with the owners of the property, St. John Baptist Church. This agreement calls for the land where McCarley Gardens sits today to remain affordable housing until 2035.

Rev. Chapman has stated his interest in selling the land to the University at Buffalo for their medical corridor, a plan that Chapman believes will help to revitalize the Fruit Belt neighborhood. The McCarley Gardens Tenants Association however, cites concerns of gentrification, and of course, the mass eviction (or possibly relocation) of the McCarley Gardens community. read more

The recent chaos that erupted when 30,000 people waited hours in the Atlanta, Georgia heat to receive applications for subsidized housing is a mere symptom of a worsening national problem. The housing market appears to be on a never-ending downward spiral, with the much-discussed "recovery" always around the next corner.

McCarley Gardens Rally Thursday 6pm at Michigan and Goodell

The McCarley Gardens Tenants Council has been in a precarious situation for months. As part of UB’s 2020 plan, the university hopes to buy the land that McCarley Gardens affordable housing complex is situated. The land will then be put to use as their new medical campus. This places nearly 500 residents of McCarley Gardens up against some of the most powerful people in the region.

The University at Buffalo currently forecasts a need for seven times more land than it owns in the area around Roswell Park. Universities throughout the country have made similar moves to buy large portions of particular neighborhoods. The result is usually the same. The current residents and local businesses of the neighborhood are pushed out by the rising property costs. Tenants in particular face the worst of this, as they don’t benefit in any way from the rising costs of housing or the new, more expensive businesses.

As universities also regularly do, they have partnered with local organizations to make their move more palatable. St. John Baptist Church, the same church that owns the McCarley Gardens and stands to gain millions from its purchase, is pushing a “community development” plan to bring more investment to the Fruit Belt. This investment is being pushed as a great move for the Fruit Belt community. But, if we accept that the community is the people in it, then we should know that this sort of investment will not help the people of the Fruit Belt. It will definitely help incoming businesses, students, and the new, more affluent residents of the neighborhood. However, as gentrification regularly shows us, the current residents will be forced to move into a neighborhood just like the one they’re in now.

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A developer is building a housing complex in Huntington Beach and is removing the remains of some 80 Indigenous people.

Bolsa Chica is a significant Southern California Native American Site which dates back about 9,000 years and was once a thriving ceremonial site of the Tongva and Acjachemen Nations. The site is referred to archaeologically as the Cogged Stone site (CA-ORA-83) which once covered over 120 acres of the Bolsa Chica mesa.

Cogged stones are unique to Bolsa Chica. The only other place in the world they have been found is Chile.

Please write letters expressing your concerns or offense to the coastal commission Call to action: Please Stop Removal of Native American Cemetery in Huntington Beach by not necessary | YouTube video

Red, a participant in the Peace Camp 2010 protest against the Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban, said that she and about 15 other demonstrators moved to City Hall at 3am on August 11th. The Peace Camp had been at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse since July 4th, and persevered through six Sheriff raids. Although Sleeping Bans have been ruled unconstitutional and overturned in several California cities, including San Diego, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles and Richmond, it is still enforced vigorously in Santa Cruz.

On the night of Monday, August 9th, between 20 and 40 people gathered, many laid out in sleeping bags, for the 37th night of Peace Camp 2010's high profile protest at the Santa Cruz County Building. Around 4:30am on Tuesday morning, eight Sheriff's deputies were ticketing, evicting, and hauling two people to jail. The total number of citations is now 24, with the arrest total at an additional 9, mostly on the same charge of violating California's anti-lodging law PC 647e, a "disorderly conduct" code which could result in jury trials and public defenders.

On August 7th, shortly before midnight, Santa Cruz County Sheriffs began to awaken and arrest 72 year old constitutional lawyer Edward Frey as he slept on the plaza of the County Courthouse. It was the 35th consecutive night of Santa Cruz Peace Camp 2010, a demonstration against the Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban, officially known as M.C. 6.36.010, which makes it a crime to sleep outdoors in Santa Cruz, with or without bedding, at any time between the hours of 11pm to 8:30am.

August 4th marked the 31st day and 32nd night of Peace Camp 2010, taking place at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse to protest the Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban, officially known as M.C. 6.36.010, and provide a safer spot for people to sleep at night. At about 11:15pm, five sheriff's deputies individually approached, awakened, interrogated, warned, and photographed homeless people sleeping at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse.

Plaintiffs from Franklin Shelter will have a hearing on Wednesday, August 4th, concerning pending allegations of Fair Housing Act, American with Disabilities Act & DC Human Rights Act violations. The need for this case to move forward increases daily. The most recent point in time study released by Metro Washington Area Council of Governments indicates continued increases in the numbers of homeless persons in the District of Columbia.1 And while these numbers have increased, the availability of shelter space and permanent supportive housing has remained stagnant and does not to begin to address the rising need. The result can be seen in a commensurate increase in the number of unsheltered homeless-persons living on the street by 176 persons as detailed in the same MCOG report. Other reports and anecdotal accounts not only confirm this statistical picture, but also reveal circumstances more injurious to the health and safety of greater numbers of homeless persons than are indicated in the report. Wednesday August 4th at 9:00 am US District Court for D.C., 333 Constitution Ave., NW in Courtroom 16

Thank you to everybody who wrote Portland City Council and came out to the hearing last night. Council received hundreds of emails opposing development on West Hayden Island and well over 150 people came to the hearing to express their opposition as well. The letters and testimony have been outstanding and demonstrate an amazing depth and breadth of opposition to West Hayden Island Development.

Unfortunately, City Council voted 4-0 (Randy Leonard was absent) to adopt the Mayor's resolution assigning the Bureau of Planning to develop a legislative proposal to allow 300 acres of industrial development on West Hayden Island. The resolution was improved to be more explicit that all development activities would be included within the 300 acres and to require additional analysis into cost/ benefits, alternatives and community impacts, but the bottom line is that the City is now going to spend hundreds of thousands of additional tax dollars moving West Hayden Island closer to development.

Someday this could all be pavement! What's Next

This is far from over. Annexation is still at least a year away. We intend to fight development on West Hayden Island every step of the way and we are planning lots of events over the next year to send an even stronger message. We will continue to need your help.

On the 24th of July, DC temperatures officially rose to 103 degrees according to one WTOP news report. The Parcel 42 tent city continued to hold out, thanks in part to shade provided by the massive pavilion. It was still incredibly hot, even in the shade, anywhere outside in DC on July 24. Tent City and DC homeless sweat while condos, empty offices are cold

On July 15, One DC formally transferred control of the tent city on Parcel 42 (7th and R sts NW) to the community that has grown around it. Hours earlier, activists erected a huge shelter, almost an improvised cabin on the site. Video of shelter raising