Issue Position: Safe, Affordable and Vibrant Communities

Issue Position

✶ Safe, affordable and vibrant communities

Delegate Washington supports efforts to prevent violent crime and attend to the needs of victims and survivors while addressing the socio-economic root causes of crime and preventing recidivism. Building strong relationships between the community and police where both constituencies feel respected, included, and safe is a good start.

Additionally, in Baltimore City, we need more affordable housing so our communities can thrive. Too many working people and their families live in a cycle of housing insecurity or homelessness. This is particularly hard on for young adults.

As a Delegate she has:

supported proven violence prevention programs like Safe Streets, and emphasized increased employment opportunities
Worked to secure funding to end youth homelessness and remove barriers to employment and healthcare
Increased opportunity by expanding the number of foster care recipients and homeless youth who can receive tuition waivers for higher education
treated substance abuse as a medical problem, not a criminal problem
provided additional grant money to serve homeless youth programs,
fought for better homelessness services by strengthening the decision making authority of the Interagency Council on Homelessness
If elected to State Senate she wants to:

increase gun control by expanding background checks, banning assault weapons, and closing gun show loopholes
allow realigning state and local housing expenditures to meet the critical housing needs of low-moderate income workers
increase availability of both permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing which are proven methods to help people stay housed
fund after-school programs and job training which have shown proven results in other cities across the nation. These programs help reduce crime.
invest in police reform by practicing community policing and increase civilian oversight of police departments with independent civilian review boards with subpoena power
design and fund a comprehensive crime prevention plan that treats violent crime seriously while supporting violence prevention programs and emphasizes increased employment opportunities
fund a comprehensive crime prevention plan that secures arrests and convictions for repeat violent offenders,
abolish mandatory sentencing,
Turn schools into community centers where students can get a quality education but also have school sites where adults can get social services after school hours such as job training, healthcare, legal aid, etc.
establish centers that provide legal aid, alternative dispute-resolution practices, and mediated restitution

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