With family homelessness up 25% since last year, dozens of concerned citizens gathered at the D.C. City Council offices on Thursday, July 2, to deliver a letter to Mayor Adrian Fenty and council members regarding the District of Columbia’s shelter space shortage.
Protesters, which represented a coalition of 50 signatory organizations and hundreds of citizens and shelter residents, delivered the coalition’s independent research on unmet shelter need to council members and staff before reconvening to deliver their letter to the mayor.
Shelters “are seeing more people than ever before” and “the entire system is at capacity,” said the Homelessness Emergency Response Workgroup, which authored the letter.
As one solution, protesters suggest reopening emergency beds that are available during the colder months, when the District is legally obliged to offer emergency housing to those who need it. Unlike past years, demand for shelters is not declining as the weather warms.
Shelter quality is also a concern raised by protesters. “They are extremely unsafe and unsanitary,” reported one shelter resident.
According to the coalition’s report on unmet shelter need, 20% of homeless shelter users refuse to use shelters because of unsanitary conditions and 16% refuse to use shelters because of their affiliated violence and crime.
Clarence H. Carter, Director of the Department of Human Services, said the District has a strategy to address homelessness that emphasizes housing instead of shelter space.
“More emergency shelter is not the most humane or enlightened way of ending homelessness,” said Carter, though he said he recognizes that shelter capacity continues to be an issue.
City Council staff said they understood the protesters concerns but also had to worry about the city’s budget shortfall.
“You’re preaching to the choir,” said Adam Maier, director to the Committee on Human Services, told the protesters. His committee must develop the budget for shelter programs for submission to the mayor.
One member of the coalition pointed out the potential savings to the city if it invested more in shelters and could avoid emergency medical costs. A recent study of the homeless in Massachusetts revealed a per person annual savings of $17,625 on Medicaid claims if an individual did not have to sleep on the street.
Unfortunately, Maier said he would be “extremely surprised” if new shelters were created as the city struggles to maintain existing ones.. “Are we going to be able to hold onto what we’ve got? I don’t know.”
