The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-01)

B2 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, APRIL 1 , 2022

BY MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLER

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser
(D) will launch a “strike force” this
summer to bolster Black home-
ownership, she announced Thurs-
day — marking the city’s latest
effort to help longtime residents
amid growing disparities in who
can afford homes in the District.
The strike force will be asked to
form recommendations on how to
use $10 million in funds Bowser
allocated for Black homeowners
in her proposed fiscal 2023 budg-
et, she said in a news release. Its
members, who will be appointed
by Bowser in June, will include
nonprofit leaders and community
representatives with expertise in
housing, real estate and finance,
among other industries. They will
have about four months to finalize
proposals.
The announcement comes as
Bowser seeks a third consecutive
term as mayor in a city where
displacement of longtime resi-
dents remains a top concern. In a
February Washington Post poll, 14
percent of D.C. residents called
housing, or the cost of housing,
the city’s top problem — second

only to crime — although that

number is down from 23 percent

in 2019. More than 6 in 10 resi-

dents rated Bowser negatively for

her performance in creating and

maintaining affordable housing,

and her opponents have criticized

her administration’s efforts to pre-

vent low- to moderate-income

residents from being priced out of

their homes.

In r emarks s he delivered T hurs-

day, Bowser discussed her own

experience buying her first home

two decades ago for $125,000 with

the help of a nonprofit program

for home buyers. She said it is now

worth about $600,000, an invest-

ment that allowed her to buy an-

other house “and think boldly

about my daughter’s future.” Just

34 percent of Black residents own

their homes in the District com-

pared with 48 percent of White

residents, she said, adding that

“disparities across our wards are

pretty significant.”

Deputy Mayor for Planning and

Economic Development John Fal-

cicchio pointed to new data pro-

vided by the Urban Institute, a

Washington think tank, that

shows between 2016 and 2020 a

first-time home buyer with the

average household income of a

White resident in D.C. — about

$194,700 — could afford more

than 70 percent of homes sold in

the District, including all homes

sold in predominantly Black

Wards 7 and 8.

In contrast, a first-time home

buyer with the income of an aver-

age Black D.C. household — about

$72,900 — could afford just 8.4

percent sold in that time frame,

Falcicchio said.

It’s a discrepancy that has wid-

ened since the period between

2010 and 2014, when a first-time

home buyer with the average

White household income could af-

ford 67 percent of homes sold in

the District, while those with the

average Black household income

could afford 9.3 percent.

Falcicchio said the city’s hous-

ing agencies, including the D.C.

Housing Authority and Depart-

ment of Housing and Community

Development, among others, will

be charged with carrying out the

group’s recommendations start-

ing in the fall.

Parisa Norouzi, executive direc-

tor of the advocacy group Empow-

er DC, said the strike force should

prioritize D.C. natives and people

who have already experienced dis-

placement in the city. She hopes

they will conceptualize ways to

better utilize and expand tools like

housing vouchers to ensure the

city’s lowest-income residents can

benefit.

“If we’re talking about real op-

portunities to transform people’s

economic conditions, that’s where

we should start,” she said. “It’s

hard to have a lot of excitement at

the announcement because we’ve

seen so many programs ultimately

benefit the upper side of the af-

fordable housing community,

rather than deep levels of afford-

ability.”

Falcicchio said the strike force’s

work will be supplemented by re-

searchers from the Urban Insti-

tute as well as Howard University,

who will assess the effectiveness of

city’s other signature housing pro-

grams, like the Home Purchase

Assistance Program (HPAP) for

first-time home buyers and an in-

clusionary zoning program aimed

at boosting the city’s affordable

housing stock.

In recent weeks, Bowser has

detailed other budget initiatives

to help residents remain in the

District, including a $4 million

commercial property acquisition

fund that offers eligible busi -

nesses a down payment of up to

$750,000 to purchase commercial

buildings. Her budget proposal

also boosts funds for the HPAP

program and other residential ser-

vices for low-income homeowners

and seniors.

THE DISTRICT

Bowser plans $10 million e≠ort to support Black homeownership in city

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s “strike force” announcement comes

as she seeks a third term in a city where housing remains a concern.

Poll shows more than

6 in 10 critical of mayor

on affordable housing

traveled in the D.C. region. At the

speedway, drivers were also given

gift cards and letters sent from

supporters.

Marston said drivers have rec-

ognized that the protest is a

“marathon and not a sprint,” with

truckers rotating through the

demonstration, leaving to work

and earn money, and then return.

Although Marston said he was

unable to say exactly how much

money the convoy has spent or

what remains for the westward

trip, he said that “there’s definite-

ly enough to convoy back.” He

said that donations and expenses

slowed once the convoy arrived in

Hagerstown b ut that he hopes the

truckers setting out for California

will draw more attention and do-

nations.

“The convoy needs to raise its

profile and get back on the road

and, you know, get back on the

news,” Marston said. “It’s hard for

the American people to get excit-

ed around driving around a Belt-

way.”

Karina Elwood, Michael Brice-

Saddler, Steve Thompson and Peter

Jamison contributed to this report.

has named as its executive direc-

tor a Texas woman who authori-

ties allege violated the terms of

her community supervision after

pleading guilty to felony fraud

and exploitation charges in 2020,

The Washington Post has report-

ed.

About 90 percent of the contri-

butions were from small donors

— people hearing about the con-

voy online, or through news or

friends — with most financial

contributions being no more than

$1,000, said Christopher Mar-

ston, who is listed in the founda-

tion’s incorporation paperwork

as its president, secretary and

treasurer.

He estimated that when the

convoy was traveling across the

country, fuel costs were about

$50,000 to $70,000 a day. While

the convoy was in the D.C. region,

daily fuel costs were about

$30,000, Marston said. There are

also other costs associated with

the convoy, he said, such as lodg-

ing, renting the speedway and

security.

The convoy’s website includes

fuel reimbursement instructions

for drivers on days the group

Griffin spoke at the speedway

after his federal conviction for

trespassing in the a ttack on the

U.S. Capitol. According to a You-

Tube video dated March 26, Brase

told those gathered around a

campfire at the speedway that if

he had been in D.C. that day, he

would have entered the Capitol.

The move to California comes

as the Unity Project — an anti-

vaccine activism group that has

supported the convoy — is en-

couraging its supporters to fight

the same proposed California

mandate bills and is listed among

the Defeat the Mandates rally’s

partners and sponsors. Paul Alex-

ander, who was an official in the

Department of Health and Hu-

man Services under President

Donald Trump, is listed as the

Unity Project’s chief scientific of-

ficer, and he often rallied convoy

members at the speedway.

As the People’s Convoy traveled

across the country and rallied in

Hagerstown, it claimed to have

amassed more than $1.7 million

in donations. That was collected

by the American Foundation for

Civil Liberties and Freedom,

which was launched last year and

residents have reported harass-

ment and attacks by convoy mem-

bers. The demonstration against

vaccine mandates and airing of

other right-wing grievances has

morphed in recent weeks into

drivers honking their horns

through city streets.

Brase rallied supporters by

calling pandemic-related man-

dates an infringement on their

freedoms, and previously said the

group would not leave until there

was an end to the national emer-

gency declaration in response to

the coronavirus. The group also

called for Congress to hold hear-

ings investigating the govern-

ment’s response to the pandemic.

Brase and others met with Re-

publican lawmakers inside the

U.S. Capitol and gave Sen. Ted

Cruz (R-Tex.) a ride from the

speedway into D.C. for a news

conference. But the convoy did

not accomplish its goals. The

group now says that even raising

awareness of the protest counts

as a success.

Some convoy supporters have

bragged about being a part of the

Jan. 6 insurrectionist m ob. Cow-

boys for Trump founder Couy

of President Biden and Vice Presi-

dent Harris, and bragged about

storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan.

6, 2021, as part of the insurrec-

tionist mob.

Still, some of the group’s sup-

porters and drivers expressed

frustration online about the con-

voy’s plans for California and said

they plan to stay at the Hagers-

town Speedway in the hope that

more convoys will arrive and

amid promises by organizers that

the People’s Convoy will return.

It’s not clear how big a presence

those remaining will have or what

they plan to do. Lisa Plessinger,

the speedway’s general manager,

said she told protesters she needs

her space back by April 7 because

of races scheduled for April 9.

Brase, who left Hagerstown

this week, encouraged other con-

voys to head to the nation’s capi-

tal.

“We’re all in this together; it

doesn’t matter which group you

represent,” he said Tuesday on

Facebook Live. “The fight is still

in D.C., 100 percent.”

The lead group’s departure to

California is a potential reprieve

for the Washington region, where

miles northwest of D.C. where
they have been based since arriv-
ing from Southern California on
March 4, researchers cautioned
that some participants may re-
main in the region while others
will return home to their local
communities armed with more
misinformation.
Landis said the group hopes to
inspire more people to join the
protest of certain proposed bills
in California, and Brian Brase, the
convoy’s de facto leader, who is
from northwest Ohio, has mused
about running for a school board
seat.
“The convoy is everywhere,”
Sara Aniano, a Monmouth Uni-
versity graduate student who
studies the social media rhetoric
of far-right conspiracy theories,
said about the anti-vaccine man-
date movement. “Those people
are everywhere and they will run
for office, and they will vote and
they will try to be in charge of
running elections and ballot
counting and poll watching.”
Although inspired by Canadian
demonstrators who occupied
downtown Ottawa to protest pub-
lic health measures including a
rule barring unvaccinated truck-
ers from crossing the border, the
tactics employed by the People’s
Convoy were different: Rather
than occupying the city, they em-
barked on hours-long demonstra-
tions that amounted to sitting in
traffic on the Capital Beltway and
later driving in the District. The
protest kicked off in Adelanto,
Calif., on Feb. 23 despite many
pandemic-related restrictions at
the federal and local levels al-
ready being blocked or rescinded.
Landis said the convoy is head-
ed to Los Angeles to attend an
April 10 anti-vaccine-mandate
protest organized by Defeat the
Mandates — the same group that
rallied on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial in January, attracting
thousands of people from across
the country including anti-vac-
cine crusaders such as Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and Robert Malone.
Anti-vaccination leaders have
seized on the uncertainty sur-
rounding the coronavirus pan-
demic to propel their once-fringe
movement into the homes of mil-
lions of Americans, dissuading
families from receiving the coro-
navirus vaccines — some of the
most effective medicines in hu-
man history — during a pandemic
that has killed more than 978,000
people in the United States. Brase
said in a Facebook Live talk that
he will be a guest speaker at the
Los Angeles rally.
The People’s Convoy brought
together parents concerned
about vaccine mandates for their
children, health-care workers
who refused to be vaccinated and
members of the Three Percenters,
part of the self-styled militia
movement, and those who believe
QAnon conspiracy theories, in-
cluding false claims about satanic
child-sex-trafficking rings. Chris-
tian nationalism was evident in
the group’s frequent prayers and
invocations of biblical battles.
Some have urged citizen’s arrests

CONVOY FROM B1

Convoy leaves D.C. area after weeks spent snarling tra∞c

RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST

A slimmed-down “ People’s Convoy” rolls out of the Hagerstown Speedway on Thursday e n route to stage protests in California, where the legislature is considering pandemic-

related public health measures that are opposed by the trucker group. Convoy organizer Brian Brase encouraged other convoys to come to Washington to stage protests.

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