It’s February, and Real Change is getting down to the business of 2018. We are focused on what we do best: creating success for our vendors, bringing people into action and building the broad and caring community that leads to change.
Last year, this newspaper provided opportunity and a voice for 717 homeless and very low-income vendors. Every one of them has a story. Every one of them has found hope and power through your support.
Twenty-seventeen was, by nearly any measure, an awful year; 2018 already feels different.
Last year, unsheltered homelessness increased, affordable housing became more scarce, homeless sweeps reached a fever pitch, and the numbers of homeless people dying on the street rose to a record high. In response, our communities found their righteous anger and mobilized.
Now housing and homelessness is at the top of the city agenda.
This year began with an $11 million boost, funded by a one-time property sale, for housing projects that will make an immediate difference in our city’s capacity to get people inside. While this new capacity will only make a small dent in the 40,000-some new units of affordable housing King County needs, it’s progress.
These new resources exceed what was allocated at the launch of former Mayor Ed Murray’s “State of Emergency” two years ago and were announced with far less posturing and self-congratulation. I take that as a good sign.
The city is also grappling with a new progressive tax to raise funds for homelessness and housing. This is one more outcome of a year of organizing and action.
On the state level, the Washington legislature flipped blue in late-2017 and will only become more so in 2018. If enough gains are made, our upside-down, regressive and inadequate approach to state revenue might get the reform we desperately need.
And, if we can make it to November 2018 without nuclear disaster, constitutional crisis or civil war, the hard-right regime in our nation’s capitol will almost certainly have their hands tied by a Democratic legislature.
I think the message for 2018 is that democracy isn’t dead yet. Not even close.
Hope is what makes change possible, and as much as President Donald Trump and the politics of despair have tried to take that away, it hasn’t worked.
In 2018, I don’t see anyone lying down. I only see people standing up.
In 2018, I don’t see anyone lying down. I only see people standing up.
So, amidst all the hope and chaos and mobilization for change, what is Real Change doing?
In short, we’re tending to our greatest superpower, building the community that leads to vendor success and empowered action.
Here’s a few things to look forward to.
The Undercaste, Real Change’s new podcast that leverages vendor voices and policy allies to bring in new readers and activists, will launch later this year. Real Change is focused on staying relevant in a shifting media landscape.
Our Emerald City Resource Guide, a pocket-sized listing of homeless resources, will put the power for change in homeless people’s hands. The guide will debut with 40,000 copies this February.
A new focus on marketing through radio ads, social media and public events like our Feb. 7 noon pairing of local celebrities with vendors in Westlake Park, will help more people learn that Real Change is the gateway drug to community connection and political empowerment.
The fight for federal land to build new affordable housing at Fort Lawton will become a test of Seattle’s will to bring new resources to the fight against homelessness. In a city where rising land values severely limit the ability to produce cheap housing, objections based on fear and prejudice against the poor cannot be allowed to stand.
We will employ new online tools to bring our readers into action, and build support for the change we need. We will continue to highlight vendor voices through our newspaper, public testimony and speakers bureau. We will be strategic about allyship, and use our reach and power to support communities that are under attack.
Real Change is about vendor success, community support and movement building. In 2018, we’re focused on building hope and power for the change we need. Your support makes all of this possible. Thank you.
Tim Harris is the Founding Director Real Change and has been active as a poor people’s organizer for more than two decades. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1994, Harris founded street newspaper Spare Change in Boston while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace.
Wait, there's more. Check out the full Jan. 31 - Feb. 6 issue.