V.O.I.C.E. Internal Action October 18, 2009

Sunday afternoon, 500 V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) leaders from congregations all over Northern Virginia -- including Saint Anthony of Padua -- met at Freedom High School in Prince William County to review the accomplishments of V.O.I.C.E.'s first year lobbying for justice and to plan for the next year.  Among the key accomplishments were:

• Secured a total of $100,000 in additional funding for the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic to hire a full-time dentist, increasing services to low-income adults by a projected 2,000 dental visits in the next year according to Tom Wilson of the Dental Clinic.

• Preserved or mitigated reductions in affordable housing funds in a very tight fiscal year.
• Secured Governor Tim Kaine's commitment to work with V.O.I.C.E. to expand dental services for low-income adults in his biennial state budget.
• Secured commitments from Senators Webb and Warner to address 150 immigration backlog cases and to secure a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Napalitano -- as reported on in the New York Times.
• As reported by St. Anthony parishioner, Particia Gomez Rivas, organized tenants in Culmore/Vista Gardens apartments to document housing code and safety violations resulting in the Fairfax County Fire Department inspection and issuance to the property manager of over 600 fire code violations -- which have been fixed with the support of Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross.

• Organized tenants in Alexandria Bland Public Housing Development to document housing and health code violations and electric utility overcharges -- leading to commitments by the Executive Director of the Alexandria Housing and Redevelopment Authority to address these with calculation of utility bill reimbursements.
• Held a 1, 200 person action on July 20th with Governor Tim Kaine and Senator Webb's Chief of Staff -- as Gov. Kaine noted, "You've got to be impressed as an elected official when 1,200 citizens come out on a hot Monday night in the summer with only a few days notice."

As Gov. Kaine noted, V.O.I.C.E. is about citizen power -- encouraging elected officials to act for justice.  In the next year, we are already laying plans for expanding V.O.I.C.E.'s congregational membership, securing additional training, and working directly with our state delegates and senators -- as well as the new Governor -- to give voice to the weak and the powerless.  For more information about V.O.I.C.E. or to be added to the parish Social Justice email list, please email fred@stanthonyparish.org.

V.O.I.C.E Public Action on Monday, July 20, 2009

In the words of Governor Tim Kaine, it was an amazing sight -- an overflow audience of over 1,000 people including a large contingent from St. Anthony of Padua gathered at T.C. Williams High School on a rainy Monday evening in mid-July to have their VOICEs heard on the need (1) to better serve the poor by providing dental care for adults and (2) to expedite the incredibly slow immigration processes for citizenship. Governor Kaine, Senator Webb's Chief of Staff, and the other assembled political leaders were clearly impressed by the turn-out!






Having heard the testimony of individuals in our area who suffer from the lack of dental care and how it impacts their life, Governor Kaine said that until V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) leaders met with him, dental care for adults in Virginia was not on "his radar." However, after having met with the V.O.I.C.E. leaders and now hearing citizens of Virginia telling of the impact the lack of dental care had on them, dental care for adults was very much on his radar. Having successfully added dental care for more than 100,000 children earlier in his term, he pledged to do as much as he could in his remaining six months in office to find money for a pilot project.




V.O.I.C.E. members then heard from members of Dar-al Hijrah Mosque about their frustrating experiences with applying for permanent resident status and even applying for U. S. Citizenship. The stories of unexplained delays and lost records were truly amazing.

Senator Webb's Chief of Staff, Paul Reagan, agreed on behalf of Senator Webb (who had a Committee vote and could not attend the meeting) to help try to set-up a meeting with Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Homeland Security department or her senior staff. He expressed Senator Webb's concern about the continuing delays in processing citizenship paperwork. To help concretely demonstrate the real extent of the problem, Fr. Grinnell presented Mr. Reagan with a large box filled with cases were immigration paperwork was unreasonably delayed.

Governor Kaine added his support and noted that one of his parish priests had his paperwork rejected because his medical exam was over a year-and-a-half old -- except the paperwork had been filed on time and had just sat on someone's desk! Senator Warner, who was also tied up in Congress, sent a letter of support.

This was an exciting, energy-filled meeting, but just another step forward in addressing these issues. V.O.I.C.E. leaders will follow-up with Governor Kaine, Senator Webb, and Senator Warner. The next public action on October 18 will be to meet with Virginia's two candidates for Governor and other key elected officials.

Photos courtesy of Scott Engdahl; for a video slide show of the event click here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=12v0vc2l.5ir37k4l&x=0&y=-i6rndj&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_album

Day of Hope

"You are not alone. You have your community behind you." With those words Fr. Tuck Grinnell opened the first Day of Hope program Saturday, June 20th at Saint Anthony of Padua's Corpus Christi School campus. The Day of Hope was a program organized by Saint Anthony parish, Arlington Diocese Catholic Charities, and several other faith congregations in the Falls Church-Arlington-Fairfax area to help provide support and resources to those suffering in these difficult economic times.

As reported in the Catholic Herald ( http://catholicherald.com/detail.html?sub_id=10527 ), "...the Day of Hope reached out to the hungry, unemployed [and] those requiring legal, career or financial counseling." As Fr. Grinnell noted, "This has been a difficult year for many people. People were beginning to lose hope. [They] don't know where to turn, they get depressed and they get passive." By providing free access to resources from various organizations, those who came were able to get advice on how to deal with a potential foreclosure; how to use the internet to find out about job opportunities; get answers to legal questions about issues like leases and employment rights and financial questions about how to plan a budget or how to manage credit, as well as information about governmental and volunteer resources available in our community. Another important part of the day was programs on managing one's health and managing stress in very stressful times.

Encouraged by the success of the Day of Hope, Steve Luteran, Director of Catholic Charities, is planning to organize similar events in other parts of the Arlington Diocese. For those in the Falls Church area, Saint Anthony of Padua parish does provide food, clothing, and counseling services as well as information and referrals on Food Stamps and health services for the poor and the suddenly unemployed. More information can be obtained by calling the Parish Office at 703-820-7111.

Welcome and sign-in for participants and resource providers!

One-on-one resource sessions and information tables.

Volunteers preparing lunch.

V.O.I.C.E.'s Role in Northern Virginia Recognized By the Washington Post

In its editorial on Saturday, May 30th about the upcoming primary elections in Northern Virginia for the House of Delegates, the Washington Post noted that one of the candidates in 52nd District, Rev. Luke Torian, is "...one of the founders of Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement, which brings Northern Virginia congregations together to promote worthy initiatives, including affordable housing and dental care."

Mr. Torian is the Pastor of First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries where V.O.I.C.E.'s founding action was held on October 5, 2008.

V.O.I.C.E. is being heard!

Several V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) members have reported that several local political figures are starting to ask for more information about V.O.I.C.E. If you receive such a query, V.O.I.C.E. now has a web site (www.voice-iaf.org)!!!


However, as Fr. Grinnell noted, "You know you have entered the public consciousness when you even become a source for graffiti." While we certainly do not approve of graffiti, these pictures from the culvert near Saint Anthony of Padua Church show that V.O.I.C.E. has entered the public consciousness of some young people in our community. It is also interesting that the V.O.I.C.E. graffiti is done so as to partly cover up gang graffiti.

In her commentary in the current edition of the Falls Church News-Press, Fairfax County Supervisor Penny Gross recounts her response to the situation in Vista Gardens Apartments. She describes how the tenants, many of whom are Saint Anthony of Padua parishioners, brought the issue to her attention; the rapid response from the Fire Marshal and Zoning Enforcement; and how the Vista Gardens management company was given 60 days to "abate the violations." (The 60 days is up on June 2nd!)

However, in much more detail, Supervisor Gross describes what she saw when she visited the apartments on Mother's Day along with Fr. Grinnell, parishioners, and members of V.O.I.C.E. She describes how a brand new tenant paying $1,000 a month found an apartment with a moldy and bowed living room and two kitchen drawers without bottoms among other problems. In another apartment she found a stove that was "perhaps the oldest gas appliance I have ever seen" and "needs to be replaced." The third apartment had a bathroom that had no ceiling -- the result of repairs that had been started, but never finished.


As Supervisor Gross sums up, "the focus [of these efforts] is on providing clean, decent, affordable housing for the tenants of Vista Gardens, who have been living in deplorable conditions for far too long." The effort by Fr. Grinnell, the tenants, parish volunteers, and V.O.I.C.E. shows how ordinary people can organize and speak out for justice, and Supervisor Gross' actions shows how government can respond to the needs of the community.

For the full commentary by Supervisor Gross from the Falls Church News-Press click on the web link below:
http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/local/4461-a-penny-for-your-thoughts-news-of-greater-falls-church.html

Mothers Day Procession for Social Justice at Vista Gardens

Following up on the recents inspections done by the Fairfax County Fire Marshall (who found over 600 fire and safety violations) and the Fairfax County agencies responsible for building code enforcement, Fairfax County Supervisor Penny Gross and the Fire Marshall visited the Vista Gardens Apartments complex on a beautiful Mothers Day afternoon.

Supervisor Gross was joined by Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Pastor of Saint Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, and Fr. Jorge Acho, who have been working with the tenants; Saint Anthony parishioners; tenants of Vista Gardens; and members of V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement).

After walking to the complex and visiting several apartments, Supervisor Gross reported that she continues to be concerned by the terrible conditions that the tenants in these market rate apartments are forced to live in due to a long-term lack of maintenance. Many residents have lived there 10 to 15 years without any significant maintenance done to their apartments in spite of requests.

The residents of the apartments are doing their best to maintain the units as cleanly and neatly as they can, but the lack of basic maintenance by the management makes this difficult. As one tenant noted to Supervisor Gross, her work is cleaning homes so she knows how to clean; it's just that when there are holes in the wall, broken cabinets, bathroom and kitchen fixtures that haven't been fixed or replaced in decades, and mold and bugs coming through cracks in the ceiling it is difficult to do that in her own home.

In answer to one question about the lack of screens on windows, Supervisor Gross noted that the property manager has said that 2,000 screens have recently been ordered to fix this violation. However, as she added, anyone who has tried to put up screens knows that doing 2,000 will take some time!

Supervisor Gross noted that the next report from the County is due June 2nd. She is committed to making sure the conditions in Vista Gardens continue to improve. She also noted that the Fire Department and other County agencies will host bilingual presentations at Saint Anthony for residents about fire safety and other issues. Fr. Tuck noted that he, the parish, and V.O.I.C.E. are also committed to making the conditions in Vista Gardens improve without retaliation on the tenants and looks forward to meeting with County officials after the June 2nd report to discuss the next steps.

Fr. Tuck and Supervisor Penny Gross (above) leading the procession after the 1:00 pm Mass with Fr. Jorge (below) and Saint Anthony of Padua parishioners (second below).

Crossing Leesburg Pike as a group going to Vista Gardens Apartments (two pictures above).

A long line of parishioners, residents of Vista Gardens, V.O.I.C.E. members, and members of the Legion of Mary (above two pictures).

Supervisor Gross, Fr. Tuck, and Fr. Jorge visit three apartments (three pictures above) and talk to the residents about the maintenance conditions in Vista Gardens Apartments.

Without even entering the apartments, all could see broken glass in windows (immediately above) and windows that have to held open (second above).

Sr. Agustina leads everyone in the Rosary while Supervisor Gross, Fr. Tuck, and Fr. Jorge visit the apartments (above and two below).

Penny Gross and Fr. Tuck report on their visit to the three apartments along with Scott Engdahl, Pastoral Council President, Fairfax County Fire Marshal, and Maria Calacan, Youth Minister and translator for the day (above and three below).

Photo inside apartment thanks to Scott Engdahl.