15 ARRESTED IN PROTEST OF D.C. CUTS IN RENT AID

Fifteen demonstrators were arrested yesterday after they blocked traffic for about 35 minutes on Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets NW, two blocks from the White House, to protest the District government's cuts in a housing assistance program.

The arrests took place after about 100 protesters, made up of housing advocates and homeless people, tried to enter the District Building to see Mayor Marion Barry about the city's freeze on issuing new rent subsidies under its Tenant Assistance Program because $10.1 million in available funds had already been obligated.

Barry, whose offices were picketed by the protesters this week, announced Thursday that he would reinstate the program for 643 families who had been told their certificates to participate would not be honored.

But housing advocates said they were not satisfied with the mayor's response.

"We want the full funding," said Keary Kincannon of Housing Counseling Services, one of several groups involved in the protest. "The problem is a huge problem: the lack of affordable housing."

The Rev. John F. Steinbruck, pastor of Luther Place Memorial Church and N Street Village, said the situation "is getting worse and worse."

The freeze came at a time when 6,400 applicants had qualified for the program and were awaiting subsidies, officials have said.

Shouting, "Mayor Barry's got a home, now we want one of our own," the protesters were refused entry into the building.

They marched around the corner and onto Pennsylvania Avenue, bringing traffic to a halt about 1:30 p.m.

About three dozen police officers converged on the scene as the protesters, joining hands, stood behind a bed, a chair and a baby's crib in the street. The demonstration drew a crowd, including several D.C. Council members who came outside.

Council member Charlene Drew Jarvis (D-Ward 4), who has sharply criticized the Barry administration for curtailing the rent subsidy pro-gram, persuaded some of the demonstrators to get out of the street.

As Jarvis, who was joined by council member Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5), talked to some of the protesters on the sidewalk, police began warning the others who remained in the street that they would be arrested for disorderly conduct.

Those arrested were taken to the 1st District police station, where they were later released.

Housing advocates said they plan to continue to put pressure on the government to provide more funds for the tenant assistance program.

In a letter sent to City Administrator Carol B. Thompson yesterday, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Inc. said the "funding shortfall problem in the TAP program . . . dramatizes the incredible unmet need among the District's low-income families for rental subsidies and affordable housing units."

The group gave the District government several options for increasing financing for the program, including transferring funds for homeless shelters to the program, which provides permanent housing.

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