PROTEST REACHES A NEW HEIGHT

ADVOCATE FOR THE HOMELESS PERCHES ON 761-FOOT TV TOWER IN NW

A D.C. demonstrator, protesting the plight of the nation's homeless, was perched last night high on a television tower that is taller than the Washington Monument after a dramatic climb that prompted the arrest of two confederates and spawned a street-carnival atmosphere among spectators below.

When Wayne Vorhees, carrying a banner and a walkie-talkie, reached the top of the 761-foot tower for WFTY-TV (Channel 50), he was asked by radio what he planned to do. He responded, "I don't know. I'm scared."

Vorhees, 26, and John Muirhead, 24 -- members of the Community for Creative Non-Violence advocacy group -- planned to scale the structure and remain at the top for several days, according to a CCNV spokesman. The two began the climb about 3 p.m., but Muirhead abandoned the effort after reaching the halfway point.

Muirhead was arrested and charged with unlawful entry and trespassing on government property.

A third CCNV member, Harold Moss, apparently accompanied Muirhead and Vorhees to the base of the tower on the grounds of the 4th District police station at 6001 Georgia Ave. NW, and was charged with unlawful entry.

From atop the tower, which is also used for police radio transmissions, Vorhees unfurled a banner that read "Housing Now," and then appeared to settle in for the night. Police, buzzing the tower in a helicopter, were communicating with him by a radio confiscated from Moss.

"We're just going to wait here until he gets tired, hungry, until he gets bored," said police Inspector Edward Spurlock.

Voorhees had a safety harness and drinking water, officials said.

He descended about 100 feet from the top of the tower last night after CCNV leader Mitch Snyder was brought to the scene and relayed warnings about possible electrical hazards where Vorhees was perched originally. The tower is more than 200 feet taller than the Washington Monmument.

The tower stunt was the most attention-grabbing event in a day filled with housing-related demonstrations. District activists also briefly blocked an entrance to the Capitol and tried to take over vacant federally owned houses.

The District protests, which resulted in at least 42 arrests, were part of a nationwide day of civil disobedience in about 60 cities where the homeless and advocacy groups demanded a larger federal role in the creation of affordable housing for low-income people.

Many of the demonstrations were aimed at drumming up support for an affordable-housing bill pending in Congress, which would require the federal government to appropriate $15 billion a year until 7.5 million units of low-cost housing are created nationwide.

The two men who climbed the District tower drew a crowd of about 100 to the base of the structure, among them a number of small children who seemed to delight in the stunt.

Vorhees and Muirhead are staff members at the CCNV shelter at Second and D streets NW, according to a CCNV member. Vorhees, the CCNV member said, is a self-employed general contractor who has done work on high-rise buildings.

Earlier in the day, the largest group of District protesters, about 150 people, gathered on the Capitol lawn about 11:30 a.m. Wearing blue T-shirts with the inscription "House the Children" on the front and the names of children who live in a District hotel shelter on the back, many of them had spent the night in tar paper shacks and chicken coops erected on the lawn on Wednesday by CCNV members.

At noon, about 40 of the protesters led by Snyder formed a circle at the Capitol entrance at Independence and New Jersey avenues and blocked traffic by sitting down on the pavement.

A police officer's three warnings to the group were drowned out as the demonstrators sang "This Land Is Your Land." As the police began to close in, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who introduced the affordable-housing bill, walked over and got into an argument with Snyder, telling him to avoid getting arrested.

"No way," Snyder said. "This is part of what is happening all over the country."

"This is not the way," Frank said.

Walking away, Frank said: "This is a terrible idea and I am very upset with Mitch. The bill has just been introduced and this is going to make my job harder. This is irresponsible."

Capitol police arrested 36 demonstrators. Thirty-four were charged with obstructing and impeding passage within the Capitol grounds; two more were charged with unlawful entry after they dropped a "Housing Now" banner from the roof of the Cannon House Office Building.

The earliest protest activity of the day began at 9 a.m. when homeless families joined members of the Metropolitan Washington Union of the Homeless in a rally in front of the District's housing department headquarters. Several homeless women complained of unsanitary conditions in city shelters and inadequate assistance in finding permanent housing.

"When you stand up and fight, they label you a troublemaker," complained Jennifer Hill, who said she has lived in a shelter with her two children since March 1987.

Some of the homeless women swapped complaints about shelters during a bus ride to the site of one of seven vacant federal properties that they had planned to occupy. When the bus arrived at the first, 316 U St. NW, one of the women looked at the front yard and said, "Oh, my God." A yellow police line had been placed around the house and nine police officers stood in front.

Four people were arrested before they could reach the steps of the house, and later were charged with crossing a police line.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.