On the sidewalk of one of Washington D.C.’s busiest neighborhoods, a grieving woman stood.
Through teary eyes, she remembered Dominique Ratiff. Ratiff lived as a vibrant staple of the Dupont Circle street community, dancing daily outside the circle’s CVS. Ratiff was stabbed and killed in Dupont on Dec. 30, according to a police report. He was 36 years old.
“He was a beautiful young man,” Dana Silva recounted, standing outside the CVS where Ratiff also panhandled while experiencing homelessness and housing instability. “Not a blood relative, but Dominique was part of my family.”
Silva, who said she met Ratiff when she herself was homeless, watched as suit-lined crowds bustled past her.
“I just want to give a message,” Silva said, her warm breath visible in Dupont’s cold afternoon air. “This corner will never be the same.”
Born in the District, Ratiff grew up in the city to live a vibrant and energetic life, those closest to him recount. Ratiff was talented and generous, dedicating much of his time to helping a community hidden behind the city’s hustle and bustle. Ratiff’s death plunged the circle’s homeless and courier populations into a somber quiet.
Ratiff was known among the street community as a talented dancer. Nearly every afternoon, he spent time performing outside the Dupont Circle CVS.
“He loved dancing. He loved his God. He loved helping people,” Ratiff’s cousin Sean Thomas said. He believes Ratiff was born with his gift for spirited dancing.
After growing up in the District, Ratiff moved to Florida for several years. There, he tried to make a career out of dance, Thomas said. Ratiff then returned to the District, where he danced in street performances outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
“You would think these kids were about to fight, but they would just start dancing,” Thomas said, speaking of the performances. “It was cool.”
On top of his dance, Ratiff spent his time volunteering at Charlie’s Place, a Dupont-area homelessness resource center run out of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. It provides food, clothes, and case management services.
Sean Thomas stands with his partner Dana Silva in the clothing room of Charlie’s Place. Photo by Gabriel Zakaib
After Ratiff first visited Charlie’s Place for hot meals in 2016, the center brought Ratiff onboard as a regular volunteer. Ratiff worked in the kitchen and cut guests’ hair. Eventually, Ratiff transitioned to managing kitchen operations, Charlie’s Place Program Director Reggie Cox said.
“Whenever I would come up to him, he was always having a good conversation with people,” Cox said.
Ratiff recruited his cousin, Thomas, then homeless, to join Charlie’s Place around the same time he began volunteering there. “He’s the reason I started working here,” Thomas said, noting he currently works as the assistant floor manager and cuts hair as his cousin once did.
Ratiff spent years living without a stable home, Cox said. He had an apartment in Southeast Washington at the time of his death, the police report and Cox suggested. Still, Ratiff often spent his time on the streets of Dupont Circle or at Charlie’s Place, Cox said.
“A lot of people go back to the streets because that’s what they know – that’s what drives them,” Cox said.
Many people experiencing homelessness who obtain housing through government assistance programs continue to spend time on the street, Cox said. Adjusting to a housed environment can spur a host of issues for previously homeless individuals, who have to break old ways of thinking and adopt new patterns of life. It’s an especially taxing transition when an individual’s social circle remains on the street. Like Ratiff, many guests at Charlie’s Place are housed but remain active in the program and on the street, Cox said, noting the draw of familiar habits and people.
“Just because people are panhandling, it doesn’t make them beneath someone else. It’s about community,” Silva said.
On the streets of Dupont Circle, Silva called out to the constant flow of mid-day traffic, thinking of Ratiff: “When the baby grows up, where does the village go?” Standing in the same place where Ratiff used to spend his afternoons, Silva asked the people around her again, this time, with tears, “When the baby becomes a man, where does the village go?”
Ratiff had brothers, sisters, and a mother that loved him, Thomas said, though they could not be reached for this story. Ratiff also had a second family – that of the street. Their love for Ratiff is abundant. Ask for him in Dupont Circle to find ears perking up. Ask for him at Charlie’s Place to uncover a community that loved him.
Why Ratiff danced, none of his friends knew. But Silva, standing on Ratiff’s spot outside the Dupont CVS, offered an explanation.
“His dancing – he was praising the Lord.”
