2025 Reporting
Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and ICE had some obvious targets. But in the background, homeless folks were also feeling the pain. There were displacements and arrests of homeless encampments, all in the name of keeping the city clean and crime free. Franziska Wild and Madi Koesler from Street Sense Media are here to break down what happened over that month and where DC’s homeless population stands now.
By Julia Karron | Full episode
Since the end of the federal officers surge, local agencies have continued clearings at encampments across the District, all while the Bowser administration encourages former and current occupants to enter public shelters.
As officials and advocates prepare for a couple of clearings across Northwest, at least one resident is telling The Informer that, even with housing insecurity and unemployment, they have no interest in leaving their encampment, nor are they considering a stay in a shelter.
“Everybody was shocked [that] I don’t want to live in a shelter,” said Getachew Gurumu, an unhoused D.C. resident who lives along Arkansas Avenue in Northwest.
The scheduled Oct. 15 clearing of Gurumu’s Arkansas Avenue encampment — a process that includes a full cleanup, biohazard removal and a reminder that the space must remain clear at all times — follows what Gurumu recounted as the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services’ (DMHHS) June visit to the public space.
Gurumu told The Informer that DMHHS officials appeared at the site because of a request he made, six months prior, that the deputy mayor’s office remove resources that accumulated in the space. Gurumu, who appeared at ease with the upcoming clearing, balked at the notion of leaving what he described as a plot of land owned by all congregants of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
“My religion is Orthodox. There is no private church,” Gurumu said on Monday morning. “The Orthodox church means Ethiopian people. That people work [and] they make a church. I built that. Therefore, no one…cannot take me. No one.”
By Sam P.K. Collins | Full story
For 10 years now, if we’re counting correctly, the team at Street Sense has led local newsrooms in a short, focused burst of coverage of homelessness. (More about our local street newspaper’s work!)
It was already a vitally important topic for the public to read about and better understand even before the current presidential administration started specifically targeting our homeless neighbors. But the ongoing nature of the crisis, along with continued cuts to our local newsrooms, means it doesn’t always get the in-depth coverage it deserves.
Our contribution to the project is this, a special holiday edition of our newsletter featuring local newsrooms’ stories from last week.
By Zach Adams, Serena Zets, Gracie McKenzie, and the 7:30 team | Full newsletter roundup
Melvine Perkins has spent years trying to pull herself out of poverty — working temp jobs, applying for rental aid, and doing everything possible to stay in housing. But in a city where rent costs outpace wages and assistance often runs dry, each step forward seems to push her two steps back. Now, after years of fighting to stay in her one-bedroom apartment, she’s again facing eviction.
“It’s just by the grace of God that I have the mental bandwidth to not crash and burn. I’m telling you I have been through it,” she told Street Sense/The 51st. “I’m not in this situation because I want to be.”
Perkins now owes more than $55,000 in back rent, and her landlord has filed for eviction. Climbing out of debt, she says, has felt nearly impossible without more assistance or a higher-paying job — both of which have been hard to secure while also navigating court hearings, legal filings, and the constant paperwork tied to her case. She has agreed to move out by the end of October as part of a negotiated resolution to her case.
“Every day I wake up, I feel like I am in a mental obstacle course,” she says.
Perkins isn’t alone: Last year, completed evictions in the District rose to record levels, with 1,869 households removed from their homes under a court order. That rise marked the largest increase since the year before the pandemic, according to new data from the Office of the Tenant Advocate obtained and analyzed by Street Sense, The 51st, and American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop. And these trends show no signs of slowing down. By the end of June 2025, the city had already recorded at least 1,477 completed evictions, with three months left in the fiscal year, nearing totals seen in the entire year pre-pandemic.
While final numbers for this year won’t be available until early next year, average monthly evictions in D.C. are the highest they’ve been in six years. Before the pandemic, the city averaged about 124 evictions a month. That number dropped sharply during COVID, but jumped to roughly 156 per month in fiscal year 2024 – and has climbed even higher in 2025, averaging 164 each month so far.
By James Jarvis and Taylor Nichols | Full story
On the streets of D.C., many people experiencing homelessness don’t know where to find shelters, which is a problem compounded by public ignorance and shrinking nonprofit funding that threatens essential services.
According to CNN, about 15 percent of D.C.’s homeless population live on the streets. Nonprofit leaders suggest safety and shelter regulations are what keep them away from seeking temporary or permanent housing.
Sophia Palmer, house manager for the Coalition for the Homeless at the Park Road Transitional Program in Columbia Heights, said many homeless people in D.C. are unaware of where to access resources such as shelters.
Many people experiencing homelessness avoid shelters due to safety concerns and fears for their personal belongings. Recent nonprofit budget cuts have further strained shelters, limiting the services they can provide.
By Kadie Fishman and Sophie Milner-Gorvine | Full story
You’ve heard the adage hundreds of times: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Many DC elected officials and government functionaries have been wearing straitjackets for years.
Consider the policies around homelessness and housing that city officials have advanced over the past 20 years, for example. They have basically required appropriating millions of dollars each year to subsidize construction of new apartments, mostly at 50% to 80% of median income. That range has meant that insignificant numbers of units have been available for very low-income residents, many of whom are on the edge of experiencing homelessness if they lose their jobs and miss a mortgage or rent payment, as happened to thousands during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have never experienced homelessness. But when I was a young single mother pinched every day for money, I frequently worried about how I was going to pay rent and buy food.
It’s true DC officials used lots of federal and local money during the pandemic to help mitigate such fears, preventing evictions and foreclosures. Those funds have long since run out, however.
Unfortunately, the District has raced back to its flawed, pre-pandemic approach to creating so-called affordable housing. Simultaneously, officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, seem to be gutting the few laws, like the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), that have been a bulwark for renters against market forces.
The results of this combination of myopia and insensitivity have been more housing instability and persistent homelessness in the nation’s capital.
By jonetta rose barras | Full story
Near the Foggy Bottom Metro station, a man with a slight limp is sweeping up trash and cigarette butts.
He is David Beatty, 67. He uses his own broom and dustpan, saying he wants to make where he and his neighbors live more “beautiful.” “Isn’t that loving your neighbor?” he says.
Until August, Beatty was living in a small homeless encampment near the Lincoln Memorial. It was one of the encampments cleared under President Trump’s federal takeover of the District. The Trump administration said it cleared a total of more than 50.
Beatty is still sleeping outside. Now, he just doesn’t have his tent.
“He didn’t like the way it looked,” Beatty says of Trump. “He wasn’t worried about us.”
Before the federal takeover on Aug. 11, there were 74 encampment locations with a total of approximately 128 residents, according to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS). The Trump administration says it cleared most of those encampments in less than a month.
Nearly two months later, many of the former encampment residents remain in the region, and without housing.
By Sarah Y. Kim | Full story
The cacophony of car horns and screeching brakes at the cross of Missouri and Georgia Avenues doesn’t distract Alan as he makes his way through traffic. Equipped with two bottles of water in his hands, he weaves expertly among the cars, making sure to stop and tell a passerby if their headlight is out or their gas tank door is open. Some notice his tall frame clad in a bright green shirt; others don’t, or pretend not to.
Occasionally, someone rolls a window down and Alan hands them a water. Other times, he hears the familiar lock of a car door as he walks by.
Three years ago, Alan, who goes only by his first name to protect his privacy while living outside, stood near this same intersection. He had $8 and nowhere to go. After buying a case of water and finding a cooler outside of the nearby Walmart, he went to work selling water. Within a week, he learned that if he gave the water away, people gave him more money. In an effort he calls Alan’s Oasis, he’s been giving away water at this intersection ever since.
Alan’s handmade signs speckle the sides of Missouri, announcing to drivers they have come across his oasis. On the median, a giant green chalkboard propped up against a shopping cart reads, “The price you say is the price you pay. Homeless and Hustling. If you can’t afford a water, just ask. Alan will give you one FREE. NOBODY goes thirsty at Alan’s oasis.” Those who look hard enough can make out a frowning face inside the “O” in “homeless.”
The morning of Sept. 24, day 1,242, the sign holds a different message: “Eviction of Oasis TODAY. Stand with Alan.”
By Alaena Hunt | Full story
The annual 2025 Point-In-Time (PIT) count of homeless people in the District of Columbia conducted in January shows there was an overall 9 percent decrease in homelessness in the city compared to 2024.
But the annual count, conducted on Jan. 29 and released in May, shows the total number of homeless youth between the ages of 18 and 24 who self-identify as LGBTQ rose from 28 percent in 2024 to 37 percent this year.
When the data is broken down to show the number of “single” homeless youth alone and homeless youth accompanied by one or more of their children, the 2025 count shows that LGBTQ youth, 18-24, comprised 38.4 percent of all single youth and 9.1 percent of youth, 18-24, with children in “family households.”
Like recent past years, LGBTQ operated, and LGBTQ supportive homeless shelters and transitional housing facilities were operating at full capacity as of this week, according to those familiar with D.C.’s LGBTQ-related homeless programs.
By Lou Chibbaro Jr. | Full story
Meghann Abraham was on the phone with her father when the police arrived. He called Abraham after reading in the national news that FBI agents had visited his daughter’s tent as part of President Donald Trump’s D.C. law enforcement surge. He wanted to make sure she was okay.
As Abraham reassured him, an officer from the D.C. police beckoned her over. Abraham told her father she had to hang up.
“We’re clearing all this up today,” she remembers the officer said.
The next hour was overwhelming and anger-inducing.
As the officers trashed the tents and belongings of her neighbors, Abraham hurriedly sifted through the contents of her life. Between her clothes, mattress, dresser, table, and camping chairs, she debated what she should take. Her boyfriend was at work at the time, so she’d have to carry it by herself — where to, she didn’t know.
For a week in August, people without housing in Washington, D.C. were at the center of Trump’s efforts to consolidate power. Donald Trump labeled them a scourge and used their existence as justification for militarizing the capital and taking control of local law enforcement. At the time, much of the national debate revolved around our democracy and its decay, a debate that has since refocused on troop deployments in Chicago and Portland. But the people targeted were never just political pawns — they were always humans living in the most fragile of circumstances. And, long after the national debate has moved on, they remain haunted by the capital’s new posture toward homelessness.
Street Sense has closely followed six people who were displaced during the takeover. Two of them have chosen to flee D.C. entirely for green space in Virginia. Four have stayed in D.C., including Abraham and her boyfriend. From stairwells to metro stations to the grounds of the Pentagon, they’re all still sleeping outside. All six have lost belongings and suffered exhaustion and physical ailments since their abrupt clearings. None of them are closer to housing.
By Madi Koesler and Franziska Wild | Full story
The National Alliance to End Homelessness filed a lawsuit on Sept. 11 against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over what it claims are unlawful and politically-motivated restrictions on federal housing grants for people experiencing homelessness. A federal judge has since issued a temporary restraining order, blocking HUD from enforcing the new criteria while the case is decided.
The new rules, which HUD released on Sept. 5, applied to $75 million in Continuum of Care Builds grants, which are meant to fund permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. The rules would require applicants to be in jurisdictions that align with the policies and executive orders of the Trump administration, such as cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), restricting urban camping, and signing covenants that deny transgender-inclusive housing. If implemented, these criteria could effectively block several left-leaning jurisdictions from receiving federal housing support.
This reworking of Continuum of Care grants is part of the Trump administration’s larger campaign against homelessness services. The government has cut HUD’s staff by at least 30% and has introduced proposals to slash rental assistance by 40%. And with HUD already operating with fewer staff, the government shutdown on Oct. 1 poses an even greater risk to core housing programs and vulnerable populations the agency serves.
By Ranee Brady | Full story
Following a year of delays, D.C.’s E Street shelter opened its doors to residents Sept. 22, according to the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS). The new, dorm-style shelter expands on the District’s goal to offer non-congregate shelter options for people experiencing homelessness, encouraging more people to move into shelter and acting as a stepping stone toward permanent housing.
The opening of the E Street shelter comes as local government officials and community advocates discuss whether the city is underutilizing the District’s only other non-congregate shelter option, the Aston. As heightened federal oversight in D.C. leads to encampment clearings and Congress threatens escalated enforcement against visible homelessness, advocates worry the city isn’t adequately addressing the growing demand for high-quality shelters.
Non-congregate shelters, also known as bridge housing in D.C., are a high-barrier shelter option that offers residents semi-private rooms and personalized case management throughout their stay. Residents have to be referred to the shelter and meet some qualifications, often proving they’d struggle in communal shelters. This differs from low-barrier shelters, where people can walk in the same day, but do not have a designated space and sleep in rooms with many other residents. After pandemic-era non-congregate shelters closed in 2023, advocates began pushing for the city to replace them with permanent options.
The newest shelter, located at 25 E St., currently has 14 residents and will work toward a full capacity of 190 on a “rolling basis,” according to DHS.
By Molly St. Clair | Full story
Today’s D-Day, isn’t it?” a man said, as he stopped to catch up with a homeless man whose encampment the city was clearing.
The encampment resident had been living beside a local church in Navy Yard for nearly three months, after experiencing several encampment closures this year. Before staff from D.C.’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) arrived for the closure on Sept. 30, he packed his belongings into a shopping cart and moved them across the street, leaving behind a mountain of broken-down cardboard boxes covered in his writing.
During President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, combined local and federal efforts closed 24 encampments. Since the end of the month-long crackdown on visible homelessness, D.C. has continued to conduct standard scheduled clearings. In September, DMHHS scheduled at least three encampment clearings per week, although several were cancelled or moved to early October. The week of Sept. 29, DMHHS closed five encampments, many of which had just one or two residents.
During a clearing near the McPherson Square metro station on Oct. 2, city officials detained the resident, Daniel Kingery, after he refused to move. Officers pulled Kingery off his structure to the ground, pinned and handcuffed him, and took him to a hospital under an FD-12, a measure to involuntarily hospitalize someone due to mental health concerns.
By Shani Laskin and Molly St. Clair | Full story
In the Washington region, homelessness has increased by 19% since 2021: from 8,086 in January 2021 to 9,659 in January 2025, per annual Point in Time counts conducted by eight local jurisdictions. During the same period, the number of families experiencing homelessness went up 52%, from 2,318 to 3,517.
While more than half of the region’s homeless population lives in DC, rates of homelessness are growing much faster in the region’s surrounding counties. DC’s homeless population between 2021 and 2025 only increased by 27 people (a 1% increase). By contrast, Montgomery County saw an increase of 933 people experiencing homelessness during the same time period (a 162% increase).
Some of Montgomery County’s increase may be the result of a spillover effect from the District’s aggressive approach to policing homelessness, aided by additional federal pressure. On the ground, however, the evidence is limited and mostly anecdotal.
Service providers believe changes to the SNAP program and the possible removal of subsidies for health plans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have a bigger effect, and will likely manifest around problems that precede homelessness, such as food insecurity
By Carolyn Gallaher | Full story
As the city moves to increase the number of shelter beds available to the District’s homeless residents, both in response to President Donald Trump’s D.C. takeover and as part of a broader four-year plan, Foggy Bottom’s local housing refuge isn’t yet prepared to up its capacity.
D.C. officials opened the Aston — the District’s first noncongregate housing program — in November 2024 on New Hampshire Avenue in a former GW dorm with a starting capacity of 50 tenants, which officials raised to 100 in January, though it has the space for 90 additional beds. Local advocates have called on D.C. officials to utilize all available beds at The Aston as the Trump administration have ratcheted up unhoused encampment sweeps this year, and shelters around the District have bolstered capacity in response to federal pressure on encampments, particularly after Trump federalized D.C.’s police force in August.
The Aston has remained close to its 100-resident capacity with an average of 91 tenants in its third quarter, according to a quarterly progress report officials released in August.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which includes The Aston, passed a resolution in June calling on Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto to express support to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for increasing the shelter’s resident cap from 100 to 190, staggering the uptick with an intermediate target of 150.
By Bryson Kloesel | Full story
The process to get free or low-cost legal aid for civil issues in D.C. just got easier.
The newly launched D.C. Resource Bridge (DCRB) streamlines the search for legal assistance by creating a hotline — 202-933-HELP (4357) — which people can call to be matched with a lawyer to speak to about their case. The hotline connects eligible D.C. residents to free or low-cost legal services to help with family law cases, issues with public benefits, financial issues, and cases in the D.C. Court of Appeals.
For many people, the stress of needing legal assistance in the first place is compounded by the difficulty of searching for support they can afford. Legal fees for services in family law, one of DCRB’s coverage areas, vary from under $200 to over $400 an hour, according to the website of local law firm Bourdon & Tortolero.
The city has over 50 different legal offices that provide low-cost aid, each with its own coverage areas and eligibility requirements, according to the leaders of DCRB, which was developed by the DC Bar Foundation and is housed in long-time nonprofit Legal Aid DC. The sheer number of legal services creates a vast but tricky-to-navigate legal landscape, a challenge DCRB hopes to minimize with the hotline.
By Shani Laskin | Full story
2024 Reporting
D.C. has increased its efforts against homeless encampments this year.
Why it matters: Homelessness has risen two years in a row, drawing questions around whether the city is being effective in reducing the unhoused population.
The big picture: A Supreme Court decision in June effectively allows cities to ban people from sleeping in public spaces — a ruling advocates argue criminalizes homelessness.
Zoom in: D.C. says the ruling hasn’t impacted its policy.
By Cuneyt Dil | Full story
I saw her multiple times from the window of the Number 33 bus as we drove past Tenley Circle NW: an older white woman seated on the bench fronted by stacks of black containers, her luggage inside a large cart. It didn’t matter the weather — rain, sweltering heat — she was there with all her bags sitting at the bus stop but not boarding any bus.
What was her story?
I promised myself that the next time I saw her, I’d ask that question. She has suddenly disappeared, however.
In 2023, as many as 139,098 homeless people nationwide were aged 55 and older; 63,644 or 46% were sleeping on the streets. In the District, 32.9% of homeless individuals are over 55 years old. Interestingly 37.3% of the country’s homeless population is Black and 49.7% is white — a notable contrast to the situation in DC, where 75.8% of homeless individuals identify as Black, African American or African.
The elderly are the fastest growing age group experiencing homelessness, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal government has estimated that the number of unhoused seniors could triple by 2030.
By jonetta rose barras | Full story
Every year since 2016, the team at Street Sense has led local newsrooms in a short-term, focused burst of coverage of homelessness. It’s a vitally important topic for the public to read about and better understand. But the ongoing nature of the crisis, along with continued cuts to our local newsrooms, means it doesn’t always get the coverage it deserves.
Our contribution to the project is this, a special Saturday edition of our newsletter featuring local newsrooms’ stories from this week.
Read 7:30DC’s roundup of this week’s coverage here.
By Zach Adams, Kieran Pierce, Giuliana Viglione, Serena Zets, and Gracie McKenzie
As soon as the sun rose, the polyester walls of Cherie’s tent felt suffocating. This summer, she had to make sure to not spend too much time in her tent during the day—for fear of passing out from the heat.
“I would toss and turn in my tent, unable to fall asleep most nights,” Cherie said in an interview with the Voice.
This summer was the third hottest in D.C.’s history, with the district seeing triple digit temperatures for the first time since 2016. During one July heatwave, D.C. experienced four consecutive days of highs over 100. One day reached a scorching 104, a temperature which the Washington Post reports the city has only reached 12 times prior.
Temperatures this high are difficult for everyone—not just people living outside. But, Cherie is one of many—more than 9700 individuals—who endured this record-breaking summer while experiencing homelessness. And staying cool and healthy during periods of extreme heat is very difficult for those living in encampments.
By Eddy Binford-Ross, Sophia Jacome, and Maggie Sasone | Full story
Every Sunday evening, the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown opens its doors to people experiencing homelessness for a family-style dinner.
Washington, D.C. has one of the highest rates of homelessness compared to other states in the country. The point-in-time (PIT) count conducted on a single night each January showed that 9,774 people in the region’s eight wards were either living on the street or in a temporary shelter.
2024 is the second consecutive year that the District saw an increase in homelessness. The issue is compounded by fewer investments in housing and other social services and the city’s move to close major encampments in May.
The Holy Trinity is one among the network of institutions around Georgetown that have stepped in to help. It began serving hot meals from its stoop at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Sharon Xie | Full story
Around 11 a.m. on Sept. 4, a fight broke out in the basement of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.
The church is home to the Downtown Day Services Center, a key gathering place for homeless people managed by the neighborhood’s Business Improvement District, and things were getting heated in the center’s cafeteria. According to witness accounts forwarded to Loose Lips, a BID outreach worker punched one of the center’s clients in the face after an argument, prompting a brief wrestling match.
Just as these conflicts have escalated, the D.C. Public Library has launched a new push to more aggressively prevent people from sleeping in and around the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. This has overwhelmingly impacted the many homeless people who gather at the newly renovated downtown space, as library police officers are freshly charged with chasing off anyone resting, lying down, or camping in the building or on the sidewalk under its large overhang. Not coincidentally, LL hears the BID has worked closely with library officials on this effort, launched in mid-August, which has led to several homeless service organizations losing contact with their clients as those folks are pushed elsewhere. Service workers and advocates have complained to LL about the policy’s abrupt rollout.
By Alex Koma | Full story
Open any tour book about Washington, DC and you’ll undoubtedly find world-class art institutions filling its pages. Descriptions of the Smithsonian museums, national galleries, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and more will entice you to engage with art inside architecturally stunning buildings. But there’s another kind of art in DC rising from the ground up, in a place you’d least expect it–the street.
It’s the kind of art that isn’t meant to impress critics, but gives life to those exiled from our cultural feast. It embodies hope and faith. It reframes existential struggles. It comes from the heart of our unhoused neighbors who make meaning on the margins of society.
Wouldn’t this practice be deeply spiritual?
That’s what I pondered earlier this year after picking up my first copy of a biweekly newspaper called Street Sense from a sidewalk vendor in Cleveland Park. A vendor/artist, to be exact, which is the role that 97 current participants embrace in the street newspaper’s low-barrier income program to end homelessness in the DC area. My neighborhood vendor/artist, clad in a blue apron vest, pocketed $4.50 out of the $5 I gave him.
That’s the business part of Street Sense Media, which incorporated as an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet in 2005. Today, the organization is part of the International Network of Street Papers, which consists of over 90 street papers in 35 countries–all of them sold by people experiencing poverty, homelessness or other forms of marginalization.
By Maria De Los Angeles | Full story
Last year, Leslie Boyd lost her steady job of three years. When her company downsized, it eliminated her department, and soon after, she lost her housing.
“I never thought I’d be experiencing [homelessness],” she said.
Suddenly, Boyd had to learn how to sleep outside, where to find public restrooms, and ways to maintain her appearance. Something she didn’t anticipate? Not knowing what to do when her period came.
“I had to go into a public bathroom, take a whole bunch of tissue, and use those,” Boyd said. “I ended up having to double up on pants, just in case blood got on one of them.”
Boyd is not alone. For people experiencing homelessness across D.C., period products can be inaccessible and costly. The National Organization for Women found that the average woman spends around $20 on menstrual products per cycle, meaning these products can be cost-prohibitive for those experiencing homelessness.
By Sydney Carroll | Full story
How many maintenance requests can go unanswered before a tenant should get the city involved, sue, or withhold rent? The process of making sure a building is up to D.C.’s housing code can be arduous, a fact the tenants of one Southwest building know all too well.
Luis Macias-Montenegro has lived at Capital Park Tower on G Street for nine years, the last two with his husband, Bill Townsend. Since last year, Macias-Montenegro has tried to get the building management to address security concerns, rodent infestation, and issues with the fire alarms in the apartment complex, filing complaints with the D.C. Department of Buildings (DOB), the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and, eventually, D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General. The complaints, filed in 2023, led to a DOB inspector visiting the building and issuing a violation to the owners of Capital Park Tower, Macias-Montenegro said.
In fact, the DOB database currently shows the property has 71 open violations of the housing code, dating back to 2018. The agency has issued 110 Notices of Infractions at the property since fiscal year 2020, including nearly 50 the building management has yet to pay the resulting fines for, totaling $66,000. These aren’t uniquely high numbers, and DOB says the number of outstanding infractions the building has doesn’t make it an outlier, but they represent an issue tenants across the city face.
By Donte Kirby | Full story
Evictions are on the rise in D.C., with an estimated 1,493 people currently set to be forcibly removed from their rental homes — the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic, and close to pre-pandemic levels when much less emergency rental assistance was available.
Housing and legal advocates fear the problem will deteriorate further after the D.C. Council unanimously passed a bill last week weakening the eviction protections of the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), an initiative designed to help low-income residents pay their rent in an emergency.
With just 33 available affordable rentals for every 100 extremely low income rental households and a waitlist for housing vouchers that has been closed for the better part of the last decade, D.C. renters are struggling more than ever to keep up with rent payments. An estimated 14 percent of tenants are behind on rent, the primary reason for evictions in D.C.
But D.C. has some of the most robust eviction protections in the country. If tenants know what their rights are, they can better use them to stay housed – or at least get a more favorable outcome. We’re not lawyers and this isn’t legal advice, but we rounded up tips from lawyers, tenant organizers, and housing advocates for when you or a neighbor are facing an eviction.
By Abigail Higgins | Full story
In October 2022, a damning audit of DC’s Housing Authority identified 82 violations of federal policies. Two years later, the DCHA is making only halting progress.
The agency’s mismanagement has had real world consequences. Two-thirds of the unhoused people who died in DC last year had a housing voucher, but were still waiting for an apartment at the time of their death. Housing may not have prevented these deaths, but they would have occurred under more dignified circumstances.
The Mayor’s decision to use a DCHA program (vouchers) to bailout a Department of Human Services program (Rapid Rehousing) speaks to a wider set of problems facing DCHA. One is HUD’s decision to adopt repositioning, a policy that stabilizes housing authorities primarily by allowing them to downsize. Indeed, even though HUD requires housing authorities to find alternatives for tenants dislocated by repositioning, it doesn’t require them to maintain the size of their housing stock over time. This means when there’s an emergency, like the one the city faced when funding dried up for Rapid Rehousing recipients, there’s no give in the system to absorb them. A second, related dynamic is a lack of political will to cover the true cost of the city’s homelessness and low-income housing problem. The city’s political establishment seems to have largely reconciled itself to reduced services, with most arguments happening around the edges of existing programs.
By Carolyn Gallaher | Full story
The D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) finalized the city’s winter plan last month as the District heads into hypothermia season with shelters nearly full.
ICH voted Sept. 10 to approve the city’s winter plan for fiscal year 2025. The plan will be in effect from Nov. 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 and outlines additional resources and expanded shelter capacities intended to keep people experiencing homelessness safe during hypothermia alerts and cold weather emergencies. As the city does each year, D.C. will increase access to shelters and transportation services. This year, the city also hopes to improve communication about the location and transportation schedules for warming buses and sites.
The additional shelter beds are especially crucial this year as D.C. is heading into hypothermia season amid continued reports of shelters nearing or reaching capacity. On the night of Oct. 1, for instance, only five beds for men were vacant, and only two for women. Hundreds of people who don’t rely on shelter year-round seek beds each winter to escape the cold, so the city is expected to need an additional 726 overflow beds this winter.
By Fiona Riley | Full story
Residents of the Greater Washington region are struggling to catch up and keep up financially. New data gives us a window into the lives of our region’s residents, and the precarity they face at a time we all hoped would be more prosperous.
While nearly a third of the region’s residents worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage in early 2020, that number has now increased to 52%. This comes at a time when the Covid relief programs and policies that helped many weather the worst of the pandemic are being significantly scaled back or eliminated entirely. The erosion of these relief programs combined with other factors such as inflation have led us to a Covid relief cliff — a point in time where individuals are standing at a precipice without the ability to rely on supports that helped many survive these last few years.
While the entire region is struggling to keep up with costs, precarity continues to be concentrated in certain parts of the region. 20% of residents across the region reported struggling to buy food or medicine–a high figure in and of itself–but among Washington, DC residents, that number increases to 30%. DC residents also struggle to pay for housing. 17% of DC residents experienced times in the past twelve months when they did not have enough money for adequate housing, compared to 11% of residents across the region.
By Darius Graham | Full story
D.C. closed nine encampments, did “full-clean ups” at six others, and postponed two scheduled closures due to bad weather between Aug. 27 and Oct. 8. This is an increase from the same period in 2023, during which D.C. closed two encampments and did five clean-ups.
On Oct. 2, Leon, the only resident of an encampment on the corner of 16th and New York Avenue NE, moved his belongings across the street before The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) closed his encampment. That morning, Leon called the upcoming encampment closure “a form of oppression.”
The next day, Oct. 3, DMHHS closed an encampment along a fenced-off hill in Eckington behind a high-rise apartment building with signs advertising it was “now leasing.” Andre, 43, was the only resident present and protested the clearing. He told Street Sense the city had closed the encampment once before in 2022, and he lost all his possessions, “lost everything.”
The city did not remove Andre’s belongings during this closure, however, as they were the furthest from the fence under the highway tunnel and fell beyond the perimeter of the engagement, according to DMHHS employees. City workers did remove the tent, mattress, and belongings of another resident, who Andre said worked from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and thus wasn’t present.
By Carolina Bomney and Tierra Cunningham | Full story
Security staff employed at 801 East Men’s Shelter voted to unionize in an election held on Sept. 9. Officers, including full-time and regular part-time security officers and special police officers, cited being underpaid and undertrained, as well as not receiving benefits or the necessary safety equipment for their roles, as major reasons for unionizing.
801 East Men’s Shelter in Ward 8 is one of the city’s largest low-barrier shelters for men experiencing homelessness, with 396 beds and a daytime service center. It’s located on St. Elizabeth’s East Campus, owned by the District, and managed by D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS), which contracts out to various service providers.
The security staff at the shelter are not directly employed by DHS, but by a third-party company known for parking management, USP Holdings.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) website, officers generally voted in favor of unionization, with 39 of the 60 staff who voted supporting the effort. However, the NLRB has not yet certified the outcome of the election. USP has also filed an objection to the union vote, the grounds for the objection aren’t publicly available.
By Franziska Wild | Full story
DC is facing a multitude of housing issues, from affordability to lawsuits against “bad” landlords. DC Councilmember Robert White, who leads the Council’s housing committee, joins us to talk about whether anyone can afford to live in DC, what’s going on with the city’s homeless programs, and what the government ought to be doing to create more housing in general.
By Micheal Schaffer | Full episode
With less than half of the school year completed, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) has already received notifications from 2,600 public school students who are experiencing some form of housing insecurity — including stints at a local shelter or doubling up with other family members.
Some school leaders, like Nikia Harrod, said they expect the numbers of self-reporting families to increase in the coming weeks and months, especially as she and other DCPS Connected Schools managers help families overcome fear of D.C. Child and Family Services Agency involvement.
“We prioritize building those relationships. Once we do that, families’ housing status comes out,” said Harrod, the Connected Schools manager at John Hayden Johnson Middle School in Southeast. “From there, we’re able to reach out to families to see the resources they need.”
DCPS Connected Schools, a program that has turned public schools into community resource hubs since 2019, has a presence in 20 District public schools, including several within the Anacostia High School and Ballou High School feeder patterns. This is thanks to a combination of local dollars and grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
Read the full story for D.C. Council, DHS & D.C. Housing Authority Different Takes on Voucher Snafu
By Sam P.K. Collins | Full story
The LGBTQ operated and LGBTQ supportive homeless shelters and transitional housing facilities in D.C. are operating at full capacity this year as the number of homeless city residents, including LGBTQ homeless residents, continues to increase, according to the latest information available.
The annual 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) count of homeless people in the District of Columbia conducted in January, shows that 12 percent of the homeless adults and 28 percent of homeless youth between the age of 18 and 24 identify as LGBTQ.
Representatives of the LGBTQ organizations that provide services for homeless LGBTQ people have said the actual number of LGBTQ homeless people, especially LGBTQ youth, are most likely significantly higher than the annual PIT counts.
Among other things, officials with LGBTQ organizations, including the D.C. LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, are calling on the city to expand its funding for LGBTQ homeless programs to keep up with the need to address the increasing number of LGBTQ homeless people in the city.
By Lou Chibbaro Jr. | Full story
Imagine two single parents raising toddlers in D.C. One makes an annual salary of $65,000, while the other earns $11,000 a year by working part-time. Their financial situations seem quite different; the parent paid more has much more money at their disposal, right?
Financial analysts say not necessarily. These Washingtonians likely have similar amounts to spend each month, and not because one uses their dollars more judiciously. Experts chalk it up to a phenomenon known as the benefits cliff.
In the United States, many public assistance resources — like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — are based on income. For people with the greatest financial need, public benefits programs make it possible to pay grocery bills, child care costs, and even rent.
Generally speaking, the less someone earns, the more resources they receive. But these programs also come with income restrictions, which cut residents off from benefits as their salaries rise. For a person earning $65,000 a year, this gap in coverage can stall their spending power at nearly one-eighth of their actual salary, making the road to higher earnings rocky.
By Jack Walker | Full story
Wesley Thomas said he opted to sleep on the streets of Foggy Bottom and West End for 29 years because he didn’t want to enter the District’s congregate shelter system, where he’d be required to share a room with strangers.
Thomas, who moved off the streets in 2017 and now helps people experiencing homelessness access temporary and permanent housing, said he avoided shelters because he was uncomfortable staying and storing his belongings in a room that lacked privacy. The Aston — a former GW residence hall on New Hampshire Avenue — is slated to open this year as the District’s first of its kind noncongregate shelter, which Thomas said will offer residents seclusion and security that he couldn’t access in shelters when he was experiencing homelessness.
District officials purchased The Aston from GW in August 2023 for $27.5 million with the intent of converting the space into a shelter that offers private living spaces to medically vulnerable people, mixed-gender couples, families with adult children and people waiting to move into permanent housing. D.C. kept the former residence hall’s roughly 100 single “studio-style” rooms with en-suite bathrooms, kitchens and air conditioning, and replaced its flooring, upgraded security and IT infrastructure, added administrative spaces and repaired the underground garage.
Officials initially slated The Aston’s opening for November 2023, but a slew of complications — including challenges securing a provider, two lawsuits attempting to halt the shelter’s opening, months of repairs and building code violations — delayed the shelter’s opening five times. Officials most recently projected its opening for Oct. 1 and selected the shelter’s inaugural 50-person cohort but postponed the debut indefinitely late last month after the building failed an inspection due to insufficient fire exits and “door closers.”
By Ella Mitchell and Fiona Bork | Full story
People experiencing homelessness come to Foggy Bottom for its safety and local support resources, though an influx in community complaints over the last year have led to more encampment evictions, advocates say.
Advocates from D.C. homelessness nonprofit organizations said unhoused people often settle in Foggy Bottom after city and National Park Service officials evict them from encampments in other parts of the District because the neighborhood is safe and has a community of unhoused individuals. But advocates said complaints from Foggy Bottom residents about a lack of encampment cleanliness over the last year and a new no-camping rule in D.C. have led to more encampment clearings, which pose safety risks for many unhoused people who lose their community, belongings and connection to outreach workers when they’re forced to relocate.
“The encampments in Foggy Bottom are, for many people, the encampments of last resort in D.C.,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, the campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center and a former outreach worker for Miriam’s Kitchen, a Foggy Bottom-based homelessness nonprofit.
By Rory Quealy and Shea Carlburg | Full story
Housing and shelter advocates across D.C. are working to close the voting gap for homeless individuals in the month leading up to the presidential election, ensuring that everyone has a chance to fill out a ballot.
Those who live in D.C. do not need a “permanent residence” to vote. Instead, those without permanent housing can list P.O. boxes, homeless and other advocacy shelters or a friend or family member’s home when registering. According to the District of Columbia Board of Elections, citizens can use an occupancy statement from a homeless shelter as proof of address if they utilize same day voting and registration.
Despite these laws, only 10 percent of homeless people vote in elections each year, partially due to a lack of resources and attention from politicians, says Courtney Cooperman, manager of the Our Homes, Our Votes campaign for the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
By Cara Halford | Full story
2022 Reporting
On a late summer morning in Springfield, Missouri, Lymon Sanderson stood in front of his 400-square-foot house and drank in the vibrant oranges, blues and greens of his neighbors’ homes.
Sanderson lives in a tiny home community known as Eden Village. It was built by a religiously affiliated nonprofit called The Gathering Tree to provide people without homes a place to live.
Tiny homes have become popular in recent years with hundreds of communities popping up all across the country. Some municipalities have embraced this trend and found that tiny home communities could provide a way to build more dense and affordable housing to the people who need it most.
By Hannah Loder | Read the full story
Mayor Muriel Bowser has introduced the Career Mobility Act Plan, a rent and income support plan that started its pilot phase at the end of September. This “Career MAP” program aims to help 600 selected families with transitioning out of homelessness by providing personalized career support, up to $10,000 in cash, and rent assistance.
The program seeks to aid a specific set of families who do not require permanent housing vouchers but may face a “benefits cliff,” which occurs when an increase in income edges a family out of eligibility for public assistance. In these cases, the total take-home pay of a family actually decreases due to the loss in benefits. The families selected for the program are currently participating in the Family Re-Housing Stabilization Program, which offers a 12-month rent subsidy for families facing this benefits gap.
By Nora Scully and Franzi Wild | Read the full story
A year after D.C. launched a pilot program to clear homeless encampments, approximately 72% of those in the pilot have been housed.
Why it matters: The CARE program – which prompted an outcry when a Bobcat removing tents at one encampment lifted a man inside a tent — divided the city when it was introduced last fall.
By Chelsea Ciruzzo | Read the full story
Don’t expect me to mince words here. The DC government and, thus, the entire city, particularly low-income residents, have been drowning in high-cost mediocrity and breathtaking incompetence for decades. Some of the adverse consequences of that reality were recently laid bare in the assessment of the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) conducted by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Three of the five primary issues that HUD assessors identified in their 72-page report as contributing to the agency’s abject failure to administer its Housing Choice Voucher and its public housing programs are connected to inadequate or poor management and abysmal oversight by the agency’s board. Add local elected officials to the class of the irresponsible, including Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Council — especially at-large Council member Anita Bonds, whose Committee on Housing and Executive Administration is charged with overseeing DCHA.
By Jonetta Rose Barras | Read the full story
Amid a regional housing shortage and rising rents, Montgomery County is grappling with a complex issue: How to create more housing.
Officials have proposed ideas like building more housing, including designated affordable units, near Metro stations. And they are considering allowing single-family neighborhoods to be rezoned to allow different housing types, like duplexes and triplexes. Many of these proposals are included in the new general plan, Thrive Montgomery 2050.
But the plan and its proposals have drawn both praise as well as vocal opposition. Residents, including many homeowners, are concerned that measures to increase housing density could change the character of neighborhoods, cause environmental damage, and increase traffic. On the other hand, some worry that the plan doesn’t do enough to address affordable housing and racial equity.
In this hour, Kojo Nnamdi talked with local officials, advocates, and residents about housing in Montgomery County, and the path forward.
By Kojo Nnamdi | Listen to WAMU 88.5 at 1 p.m., or stream afterwards
Women across America are significantly less likely to experience homelessness than men, a disparity that is particularly high in D.C., where rates of homelessness are roughly three times higher among men than women, according to data from the Homelessness Research Institute.
Being outnumbered by their male counterparts means unhoused women face particular challenges, including disproportionately experiencing sexual assault and struggling to access services that cater to their specific needs, such as housing and health care. Women’s shelters in the District often run out of beds and lack adequate security, leaving women vulnerable to attacks and the many other perils of sleeping outdoors.
Gaspard Le Dem | Read the full story
Imagine being 17 years old without a parent or guardian or a permanent place to call home when housing costs are soaring, and high inflation is driving up the cost of food and other necessities. When well-educated, financially stable Washingtonians are tightening their financial belts because of the uncertainty, it is a frightening time to be trying to figure things out on the District’s streets.
There are more than 1,300 youth experiencing homelessness in the District. And young people of color and those identifying as LGBTQ+ are disproportionately represented.
By Rachel White | Read the full story
The Wanda Alston Foundation states on its website that it made history in 2008 when it opened D.C.’s first transitional housing program solely dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth ages 18 to 24 experiencing homelessness.
As part of that program, the foundation, named after the late and beloved LGBTQ rights advocate Wanda Alston, has since opened two more LGBTQ youth homeless facilities, including one that opened last year that also made history.
Referred to as Renita’s, it’s a two-bed, two-year transitional housing program believed to be the first known such facility focused specifically on serving homeless transgender men of color.
By Lou Chibbaro Jr | Read the full story
Amilcar Benitez’s home, as well as his neighborhood in Harmony Place, has gone through immense transition in the past year. Last fall, the owners of the mobile home park along Richmond Highway (Route 1) in Fairfax County were looking to sell and pursued an offer from a real-estate investment company. Benitez and other Harmony Place residents quickly worked with the county and an Alexandria-based community organizer to create a counterproposal. If accepted, a local nonprofit would own and manage the park, backed by county financing — a model the county now regards as a template for future ownership proposals. But in December, the park owners closed on the deal with the investor, Six Rock Properties, for $1.5 million less than the proposal arranged by tenants.
“I personally tell him, ‘Look, you’re trying to take our opportunity,’” Benitez recalls. “You have a lot of money. And this is a low-income community.”
By Eliza Tebo | Read the full story
In 1982, Stepping Stones Shelter made history as the first homeless shelter for families in Montgomery County, MD. Today, it’s best known for its location in Rockville’s historic Dawson Farmhouse and for providing about 30 families with housing and services each year.
Stepping Stones houses families of all shapes and sizes; two-parent families, single parents, multigenerational households and anyone with custody of a minor. The shelter’s Hope Housing Program also provides permanent supportive housing for two families with disabled heads of household. Stacey Gold, Stepping Stones’ executive director, has navigated five years of growth and change at the shelter. Street Sense Media spoke with Gold about carrying on the shelter’s legacy.
By Sophia Thomas | Read the full story
The first days of D.C. fall were gray and gusty this year, with temperatures that slipped into the 40s and rain that wavered between a drizzle and a downpour for days. The remnants of Hurricane Ian, whose forces devastated parts of North Carolina, Florida, and Cuba, dumped two inches of rainfall in the first five days of the month – already more than half of the monthly average for October, according to the National Weather Service.
While some D.C. residents mourned the loss of canceled weekend plans, Michael Allen, a 69-year-old Tennessee native who has lived outside of Union Station for the past five years, was hoping that his tarp would keep him dry in spite of its many holes.
By Colleen Grablick | Read the full story
If you don’t know to look for it, Friendship Place is easy to miss. From the outside it could be mistaken for any other house, dwarfed by the commercial buildings beside it on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown. But for those who seek it out, Friendship Place, a nonprofit that provides services to people experiencing homelessness, can be life-saving.
Friendship Place first opened in Tenleytown 30 years ago as a community-led effort to support homeless people in the wealthiest part of Washington.
By Gabe Castro-Root | Read the full story
Image: Backyard cottage Accessory Dwelling Unit, Winchester, VA. BeyondDC // Flickr
Eden Village is a complex of tiny homes that has helped mitigate homelessness in Missouri. But could it work in D.C.?
As part of the 2022 Homeless Crisis Reporting Project, City Cast DC was joined by Street Sense reporter Hannah Loder to see if the District could adopt something similar.
By Bridget Todd | Listen to the full podcast
Reporting
Nearly 40 years ago, Shepherd’s Table was just a tiny soup kitchen in the back of a church in Silver Spring, Md. Today, it’s a fully functioning facility, serving over 500 nutritious meals a day and offering essential goods and services to every individual that passes through its doors. Manny Hidalgo is the executive director at Shepherd’s Table. Street Sense Media spoke with him about the organization’s services, the people it serves, and how it was affected by the pandemic.
By Sophia Thomas | Read the full story
2022 Reporting
As the pandemic waned, Vivian Tatabod, a nurse in Prince George’s County, says she noticed many of her neighbors in her apartment building getting evicted.
“When people were going through so much,” she says. “Stuff outside, thrown out, families, struggling to find a place.”
Rent in her building, Takoma Towers, recently shot up — in Tatabod’s case, by $400 per month. She says she’s paid her rent while working on the front lines, treating elderly COVID-19 patients. Recently, she was contracted to work at DC Prep to help with COVID-19 testing. While working, she was also raising two children on her own.
But two months ago, that contract ended and she lost her job. Now, she too is facing eviction.
By Sarah Y. Kim | Read the full story
2021 Reporting
It was 2018 when the Rev. Wendy Hamilton, a 2022 candidate for DC delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, first learned about universal basic income (UBI). Hamilton, who has lived in DC since the late ‘80s but grew up in a small industrial town in Ohio, was reading a New York Times article that featured Andrew Yang, a presidential candidate for the 2020 Democratic primary who campaigned on UBI.
But proponents hope now is the time to rally support locally. In late September, Hamilton marched alongside approximately 50 residents and activists — including organizers of the DC UBI Coalition — to press Mayor Muriel Bowser to join a group of mayors across the country who have committed to supporting guaranteed income programs. Mayors in surrounding jurisdictions such as Alexandria, College Park and Takoma Park have publicly declared their support for such initiatives. The idea has also won the backing of mayors in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Denver, and Los Angeles, among many others.
By Will Schick | Read the full story
On Monday, a bulldozer at a NoMA encampment clearing picked up a man who was still inside a tent, reminding housed residents about the unsafe conditions unhoused folks face. As City Paper reported, the incident heightened concerns about how Mayor Muriel Bowser and District officials are running homeless encampment clearings throughout the District. On the heels of the event, City Paper took a look at how District residents who have experienced homelessness own their stories of struggle and empowerment. One such story is chronicled in the upcoming D.C.-based documentary Street Reporter, slated to screen in the District later this month. Co-starring Street Sense Media photojournalist Sheila White and SSM reporter Reggie Black, the doc follows White beginning in 2019, as she returns to school in her late 50s and pursues her journalism dreams while staying at a women’s shelter.
By Ambar Castillo | Read the full story
In 2018, and again in 2021, D.C. Housing Authority Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Neil O. Albert approved contracts totaling millions of dollars for a female companion whose architecture and design firm has failed to deliver on the first contract and is under-qualified for the second.
In neither case did the CEO of Moya Design, Paola Moya, disclose her personal relationship with Albert; nor did Albert disclose his personal relationship with Moya—even as he approved both awards in writing.
Observers say that Albert is allowing the city to take over DCHA’s public housing portfolio and spin it off to Bowser’s friends in the developer community so they can build mixed-use projects with so-called “affordable housing” units that are beyond the reach of residents who earn between zero and 30 percent of Area Median Income, known as “AMI.”
By Jeffrey Anderson | Read the full story
This one-day news “blitz” was organized more than a month in advance and centers around enterprise stories that highlight solutions, connect to people with lived expertise facing homelessness, and investigating persistent problems.
A core tenant of our collaboration is that we avoid duplicating each other’s story assignments to ensure we cover as many different aspects of poverty as possible.
However, outside of this project, unexpected events this week drove many local media outlet’s attention and underscored that homelessness is a crisis in our community.
Approximately 60 people were evicted from two underpasses near Union Station. While the stated goal of the closure was to make the sidewalks more accessible for pedestrians, concrete barriers were placed where the tents had been, making the space usable by no one. In one case, city workers picked up a tent with a front loader to dispose of it and a person was still inside. The person was pushed into a metal guard rail and taken away in an ambulance but reportedly returned to the area that night and was not injured. Whether they had been able to move in yet or not, only half of those displaced from the encampments had been connected to housing at the time of the closure. Some of those who did not receive housing moved to another encampment — a park at New Jersey Ave. and O St. NW — that is scheduled to be closed next month. And that night, a resident of the NJ and O encampment, which sits next to a fire station, died in a tent fire.
Here are stories produced by our partners:
Street Sense Media: DC government removes tents, injures one resident, houses others, and deploys concrete barriers to enforce a ‘pedestrian passageway’
Street Sense Media: DC is moving some encampment residents into housing. What about those not “on the list?”
DCist/WAMU: D.C. Suspends Clearing Of NoMa Encampments After Unhoused Person Hit By Bulldozer Driver
DCist/WAMU: Fire At D.C. Homeless Encampment Leaves One Person Dead
Axios DC: D.C. pauses homeless encampment clearing
Axios DC: No-tent zone resistance grows as city moves forward
Washington City Paper: Unhoused Man Picked Up By Bulldozer During Encampment Clearing
Greater Greater Washington: COMMENTARY: DC needs to get our house in order before we order people out of theirs
Georgetown Voice: D.C.’s new approach to public spaces leaves out encampment residents
GW Hatchet: D.C. officials pilot program to shut down E Street homeless encampment
Each Friday, Yannik Omictin accompanies a group of community service volunteers and activists for a tour around Foggy Bottom to ask after the needs of the unsheltered residents living in the area. Omictin says that other elected members of ANC 2A join in on the evening treks with People for Fairness Coalition and Ward 2 Mutual Aid.
He and Evelyn Hudson, another commissioner on ANC 2A and a regular attendee of the weekly walks, are concerned with how the city plans to manage the new pilot program that connects unsheltered residents with housing vouchers while simultaneously evicting them.
By Will Schick | Read the full story
As the D.C. courts gear up for a flood of eviction proceedings, many homeless and housing-insecure District residents continue to make last-ditch appeals to landlords, case workers and housing advocates to prevent their precarious conditions from worsening.
For one District resident, each new day brings uncertainty about whether she will remain in a District rapid rehousing program that, for six years, has allowed her to stay in increasingly expensive apartments at well below the market rate.
Thousands of District residents facing eviction have applied to STAY DC, a financial assistance program that covers rent and utility costs. However, the program has been mired in controversy for what’s been described as a convoluted application process.
Over the last few weeks, D.C. Council Chairperson Phil Mendelson (D) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) repeatedly clashed about the program.
By Sam P.K. Collins | Read the full story
Launched more than 18 months ago, the program places unhoused residents most at-risk of falling seriously ill if they contract COVID-19 into hotels leased out by the city’s Department of Human Services — an effort to prevent the transmission of coronavirus in the city’s congregate shelters.
Unlike the shelters, or a previous shelter-hotel housing service where residents reported poor conditions and abuse by contractors, providers and residents have reported markedly better results with PEP-V’s model. Residents have access to on-site medical care, in addition to their own bathroom and a quiet place to sleep.
PEP-V has been extended through the remainder of 2021, thanks to an extension of government funding, but its future beyond is unclear. City officials have previously said they wouldn’t extend the program after federal dollars run out.
By Colleen Grablick | Read the full story
As extreme weather persists and increases nationally, floods, excessive heat and poor air quality in the District disproportionately harm those living outside, people of color and people living east of the Anacostia River.
Living outside or in poor housing conditions increases the risk of exposure to pests, insects, mold and extreme heat, all of which can accelerate health issues like asthma, according to Neil Boyer, who chairs NAACP DC’s Environmental and Climate Justice Committee. Health issues caused by poor living conditions also disproportionately affect Black residents in wards 5, 7 and 8, Boyer said.
“These are the kinds of things we need to look at when we’re linking climate change and illness — in an environmental justice perspective,” he explained.
By Kaela Roeder | Read the full story
There are thousands of unhoused people in Washington, D.C. There are also thousands of vacant apartments. For the founders of Vacant to Virus-Reduction (V2VR) the solution seems obvious: offer them the housing.
In spring of 2020, V2VR outlined a plan in which the D.C. government invests in the D.C. community by directly matching unhoused people with vacant, taxpayer trust fund-financed housing. Under current policy, the city allows these properties to remain vacant.
When V2VR was launched last year, there were 9,826 vacant units in D.C, according to an official count done by Costar Group. As of July 2021, that number had increased to 17,614.
By Margaret Hartigan and Deena Eichhorn | Read the full article
Mere hours after workers finished laying sod on the last Friday of September, elected officials, government staff, and D.C. residents attended a reopening ceremony for Franklin Park.
Bowser’s remarks were interrupted by Chandra Brown, an unhoused woman, who sat in the front row next to the VIP guests. While the mayor was speaking, Brown’s demeanor changed and she began to yell. The interjection did not appear to be a reaction to any specific comment.
“Black Lives Matter [is] going to Hell!” yelled Brown. She commented on her struggle to get help for housing, healthcare, and freedom from police harassment, but after a few sentences, she was whisked out of her seat by a woman who identified herself as a fellow D.C. resident.
By Gordon Chaffin | Read the full story
Skyler Kelley, 27, began hosting Wine-Down Jazz Nights a year ago as a way to support people like her: single mothers who’ve experienced or are experiencing homelessness in D.C. Kelley often asks ticket holders to bring donations for gift cards to the supermarket Aldi and supplies like diapers and wipes to hand out to mothers in need. But the jazz nights are just a prequel to a set of grander ambitions, including her goal of becoming a “social entrepreneur,” running her own nonprofit and coffee shop, and of inspiring other women to follow in her footsteps.
When she’s not serving up coffee as a barista at Peregrine Espresso in Union Market, the Germantown, Md. resident is fundraising for the future Brij Coffeehouse & Juicebar, a coffee shop of her own she plans to open in Northeast D.C., if things go her way.
By Elliot C. Williams | Read the full story
Certainly, the square footage dedicated to fresh produce at Chesapeake Big Market is minimal compared to the volume of space in the front of the store occupied by alcohol and tobacco products. But by offering any amount of fresh fruit and vegetables at all as a participant in DC Central Kitchen’s Healthy Corners program, the market serves an essential role in bringing healthy food to Washington Highlands, which lacks a big-name, full-service grocery store.
“A lot of families come down here in the morning, they buy fruits for the kids when they go to school, so they don’t have to travel far away just for the fruits,“ says Kassaye. “When they can just get it right in the neighborhood, you know, that’s just going to eliminate [needing to] travel far away just to get fruit.”
By Bridget Reed Morawski | Read the full story
DC plans to evict the residents of the Shaw park encampment next month, so Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) Wayne Turnage and pilot program lead Jamal Weldon attended ANC 6E’s meeting earlier this week to provide an update on the plans for the park and what will be done to avoid repeating the mistakes made earlier in the week.
The tentative eviction date is November 4th, although the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) intends to give 30 days’ notice ahead of time and had not yet done so as of the Tuesday ANC meeting. Weldon noted that among the changes DMHHS is making to keep encampment residents safe in the future are to have a tighter police perimeter around sites while evictions are taking place and to do more tent checks.
By Nena Perry-Brown | Read the full article
After spending the day working with elementary and middle school students as an art teacher at a local public school, Kyle Scadlock spends most Fridays walking around Foggy Bottom, handing out supplies to individuals experiencing homelessness.
He said helping unhoused neighbors has been a focus of his since moving to D.C. last July. “It’s about supporting our community and especially people that don’t have basic human rights, like shelter, water, food as a result of failed government and failed policy,” Scadlock said.
Scadlock is one of more than a dozen volunteers who participate in weekly outreach to homeless residents in Foggy Bottom on behalf of Ward 2 Mutual Aid, an organization that works to support community members in vulnerable situations, like homelessness or unemployment.
By Zachary Blackburn | Read the full story
Homelessness advocates say that even before the pandemic, D.C. resources for housing programs weren’t able to keep pace — especially with those experiencing chronic homelessness. They say the tax increase can make a dent; it’s expected to fund 2,400 additional housing vouchers over the next year alone, a four-fold increase over recent years, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
“For people who are concerned about encampments and folks who are experiencing homelessness, this is probably one of the most important things we’ve ever done to end it,” says Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), one of the authors of the tax increase.
According to a breakdown from Nadeau’s office, almost half of the 2,400 units funded by the revenue from the tax increase will be directed to Permanent Supportive Housing for individuals, which advocates say will address some of the hardest-to-help people experiencing homelessness.
By Martin Austermuhle | Read the full story
Ask that question of most DC tenants and the answer is sure to be a resounding no — although last week Mayor Muriel Bowser kicked off her annual feast for developers to entice more affordable housing projects. Using federal and local tax dollars, and with the approval of the DC Council, her administration could spend as much as $400 million from the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) to construct and preserve affordable housing.
Despite that historic investment, few believe the money ultimately will help those who are at the extremely low-income level. “It’s a game; it’s almost a scam,” said Robert Leardo, co-chair of TENAC, a citywide tenant advocacy organization that has been at the forefront of affordable housing issues in DC for more than two decades.
By jonetta rose barras | Read the full column
Housing affordability and homelessness have a direct link. Nan Roman, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, told CityLab in 2020 that while mental illness and substance disorders existed before, the major societal change that coincided with widespread modern homelessness was a rise in the cost of housing.
Research bears out that link. A 2018 Zillow study found that areas where people spend more than a third of their income on rent experience more rapid increases in homelessness.
By Libby Solomon | Read the full analysis
Hostile architecture blocks unhoused people from sleeping and using bathrooms, among other necessities, throughout the Georgetown neighborhood.
Examples of hostile architecture include park benches with partitions that make it impossible for someone to lie down and sleep or metal spikes on a heating grate that prevent people from sitting or lying on it to warm themselves. In an effort to contribute to existing documentation of hostile architecture throughout Washington, D.C., The Hoya identified multiple instances of anti-homeless design in the Georgetown neighborhood.
By Paige Kupas | Read the full story
There are roughly 1,200 unhoused residents in Fairfax County, according to the county’s January 2021 point-in-time count. The total number fluctuates significantly over time, as people enter and leave the county and the seasons change.
Getting COVID-19 vaccines to this transient — and highly vulnerable — population is a major challenge for public health staff.
The job can be especially hard in the suburbs. Fairfax County is big, and there’s a lot of variety in where people experiencing homelessness in the suburbs live — shelters, encampments, parks, parking lots, sometimes even deep in the woods. Public health workers doing outreach in the suburbs have to range over a large area, and they have to know where to look.
By Margaret Barthel | Read the full story
A la hora del desayuno, almuerzo o la cena, en Shepherd’s Table nadie presta atención a la línea imaginaria que separa a DC de Silver Spring, Maryland. “Con la pandemia hemos visto a más latinos que vienen desde DC y no les negamos un plato de comida, un abrigo o un examen de los ojos”, dice Evert Vargas, director de servicios sociales de esa organización.
Puesto a enumerar los problemas de los latinos sin techo, Vargas enlista a la falta del idioma en segundo lugar. “Siempre hay alguien que les auxilia con el español, pero lo que más les afecta, les aterra y los cohíbe de buscar ayuda es su estatus migratorio. Viven en constante miedo de ser deportados”.
Por Olga Imbaquingo | Lee el artículo completo
The DC Line and Street Sense Media talked to various homeless service providers and with homeless and formerly homeless people who have navigated this system to ask how to secure permanent housing.
The resulting guide is specific to the resources available to single individuals. The resources available for families differ significantly.
By Will Schick | Read the full story
There’s a new push to give more rights to unhoused people in D.C.
Driving the news: Lawyers, housing advocates, and people experiencing homelessness are getting behind another D.C Council bill that would formally make homelessness a protected class.
Why it matters: The legislative effort comes as D.C. is experiencing a surge in unsheltered people where just this week efforts to clear a tent encampment were paused after a bulldozer injured an unhoused resident in a tent.
By Chelsea Cirruzzo | Read the full story
The Stones House is not like your typical church — it proudly calls itself “the church for the hood.” On a street corner in Southeast, services start with performances from live DJs, groceries are distributed to the community, and hip-hop and go-go music are incorporated into worship.
The Stones House asserts that it is “Where the Stones Live that The Builders Rejected” and welcomes those who may be excluded from other church services, including people with substance abuse disorders or those impacted by the justice system. And the space provides much-needed community outreach, as D.C. launches policing initiatives to be “tougher on crime,” and makes parole and clemency more difficult for those who are incarcerated in the district.
730DC learned more about the community service organization and faith community from Pastor Curtis Thomas III, who co-founded the church.
By Sahar Roodehchi | Read the full interview
Casa Ruby is being forced to slash key services, including its low-barrier shelter, after the Washington, D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) pulled an $850,000 funding grant that sustained its operations. Because the DHS canceled funding, Casa Ruby can no longer offer overnight stays at the Georgia Avenue shelter nor maintain 24-hour drop-in services for those seeking services. Following the Sept. 24 DHS announcement, Ruby Corado, the shelter’s founder, resigned from her role as executive director.
By Paige Kupas | Read the full story
2020 Reporting
Last month, The D.C. Council Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization held the first of several planned hearings to discuss five proposed bills to close loopholes in local rent control.
The District’s rent control law is based on the Rental Housing Act of 1985 and applies to all housing accommodations, however there are exemptions.
Many testified that the law is insufficient to protect renters from facing homelessness or being priced out of the city. And a number of the public witnesses turned out to specifically support separate, more-robust legislation that is expected to receive a hearing in November.
By Aoife Maher-Ryan | Read the full story
Robert Turner used to use the bathroom at Starbucks locations and public libraries in the heart of D.C. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Turner, who is 41 and has lived on the street for five years, was shut out of his usual spots.
“It’s been harder, and you ain’t got no resources during this,” he said while standing outside of Union Station on a recent day, holding his tent in one hand and his sleeping bag in the other. Turner sleeps in different places around the city on different days. He pitches his tent in parks, near office buildings, and outside Metro stations.
For Washingtonians experiencing homelessness like him, the pandemic has made it even more difficult than normal to find public restrooms and places to wash oneself — at the very moment these residents need them most.
By Kelly Anderson | Read the full story
A guaranteed income is a monthly cash payment made directly to any citizen who qualifies with no strings attached. Though it is similar in concept to a universal basic income, it is normally targeted to low-income residents, rather than all residents.
Since June, 25 mayors from across the country have united to call for a guaranteed income at the federal level and have begun studying programs in their cities through Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI). Following the success of Stockton, California’s guaranteed income program, its mayor, Michael Tubbs, founded the organization and began recruiting fellow mayors to support similar models.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has not signed on and her office did not respond to requests to comment.
By Annemarie Cuccia | Read the full story
A look back at some of the local media’s articles, columns and commentaries from the past year that stand out on the subject.
By Chris Kain | Read the full article
Over the course of the two-month campaign, Pathways to Housing D.C. registered 115 people who currently or previously experienced homelessness to vote.
Pathways staff and volunteers addressed an almost foundational question: how can you register to vote if you don’t have an address to call your own, even more so during an election D.C. is hoping to conduct largely by mail?
They worked to identify mailing addresses for people who might have access to them, and when one wasn’t readily available, used the address of either the Pathways office or the Downtown Day Services Center. That way, people without homes of their own could still get their ballots in the mail.
By Martin Austermuhle | Read the full story
At the beginning of the year, DC’s Office of Planning (OP) filed a zoning application seeking to increase inclusionary zoning (IZ) requirements in an effort to achieve more affordable housing production citywide.
The Zoning Commission is gearing up for another hearing on the topic next month.
Approval of expanded inclusionary zoning would amend the zoning code to require that mixed-use and residential projects that used a map amendment to add density or change the site’s use from non-residential to residential provide 10 to 20% of the residential gross floor area (GFA) as inclusionary zoning, up from the current requirement of 8 to 10%.
By Nena Perry-Brown | Read the full story
Denis Gallegos was two months behind on rent when he came home to find his locks had been changed.
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Lawyers who represent low-income renters in the D.C. area say they’re encountering more stories like this as the pandemic lurches into its seventh month.
The reason, they say, is the extreme economic uncertainty wrought by the crisis, combined with waning government assistance. The region’s jobless rate was close to 7% in August, unemployment benefits are running out, and as many as 715,000 renters in D.C., Maryland and Virginia are now at risk of eviction, according to the Aspen Institute.
By Ally Schweitzer | Read the full story
The federal government describes food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active healthy life.” It is not to be confused with hunger, which “refers to a personal, physical sensation of discomfort.”
Help us.
Euphemisms like food insecurity, food deserts and housing insecurity rile me. They misdirect the public’s attention from critical problems in society — problems that with more competent government managers and a galvanized citizenry could be substantially mitigated, if not solved.
By jonetta rose barras | Read the full column
More than 100 women experiencing homelessness were cast out of the Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter during a Sept. 22 deep clean of the building. While out on the lawn, some told stories of verbal abuse from staff and guards. They say the rules and conditions are pushing them to their breaking point.
By Athiyah Azeem | Read the full story
Over the last few months, some Adams Morgan business owners and residents have pushed for a more aggressive effort to police Unity Park of alleged illegal activity, including drug use, drug sales, drinking, and public urination/defecation. The triangle park, formed by Champlain, Euclid, and Columbia Rd NW, is a popular gathering place for residents, some of whom may be experiencing homelessness. While there may be illegal activity happening at Unity Park, experts Street Justice spoke to say that reactive policing will not solve the multifaceted challenges of Washingtonians who have gathered at Unity Park for decades.
By Gordon Chaffin | Read the full story
Nery Peña and her two daughters, Sadie and Ariella, 6, live in transitional housing provided by Turning Point Center, a two-year housing program for single mothers experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. Prior to coming to Turning Point a year and a half ago, Peña was living with her grandmother in a cramped one-bedroom. Now, the bilingual Pre-K teacher has a two-bedroom apartment in Columbia Heights to share with her daughters.
But as the pandemic hit D.C. in March, Turning Point began restricting visitors within the apartment building, not even allowing neighbors in each other’s units. For a time, Peña and her daughters stayed with Peña’s mother on U Street, where they had more space and the girls could interact with Peña’s siblings.
By Chelsea Cirruzzo | Read the full story
Amid the economic, health and educational uncertainties caused by the coronavirus, an equally virulent pandemic co-exists: the increased instances of intimate partner violence.
On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner or parent in the United States. In a single year, this equates to more than 10 million women, men, and children. Additionally, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, sexual violence, or intimate stalking.
And with schools, businesses, and many outreach services shuttered under COVID-19 mandates, the sudden spike in homelessness among survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence has pushed outreach agencies into new territory.
By
Lindiwe Vilakazi | Read the full story
Rapid rehousing is one of D.C.’s most controversial homeless services programs. This election season, at-large candidates Marcus Goodwin, Will Merrifield, and Mónica Palacio have included reform of the program, or investment in it, as part of their campaigns.
By Lilah Burke | Read the full story
For a day, we walked from Northeast to downtown to speak to people experiencing homelessness. We asked them how the pandemic has altered their lives and what they want people to know ahead of the winter months. Here’s what they shared, in their own words.
By By Jenny Gathright, Elliot C. Williams, and Tyrone Turner | Read the full story
Imagine you’re downtown and you need to use the restroom. Maybe you’re pregnant, diabetic or a runner. Maybe you’re experiencing homelessness and don’t have bathroom of your own. Whoever you are, you don’t have many options.
At noon, we discuss some of the proposed solutions to the lack of public restrooms in the District, and one city-sponsored bathroom-building strategy underway right now.
Produced by Lauren Markoe | Listen here
(Call in at 1-800-433-8850, write to [email protected], or Tweet @kojoshow)
“It’s like being naked, walking around in the streets,” said 41-year-old Marcellus Phillips. “You don’t have anything. It’s hard to have hope. It’s hard to have motivation when you know that you don’t have your name on the lease and you can’t have your own key and go in your own door. You walk around. You watch people do stuff that you want to do, but you can’t because of your circumstances.”
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Going forward, Phillips wants to help other homeless people experience the success he has found.
“Everybody’s story is different, but people tend to look at the homeless and think that automatically they must be on drugs or they must have done this or that,” he said.
By Michael O’Connell | Read the full story
A Street Sense Media analysis determined that only six of the 24 at-large DC Council candidates on the ballot advertised specific plans with measurable goals to address homelessness in their online platforms. We sent them five questions about local poverty.
By Jake Maher | Read the full voter guide
At the beginning of the pandemic, the District enacted an emergency order that put a halt to evictions. However, according to a report from Georgetown University, some landlords are using eviction notices to pressure tenants to pay rent. The report finds that once a tenant is given an eviction notice, a cycle of eviction and housing instability ensues.
And many fear that without any federal relief, the entire region may enter a housing crisis once the moratorium is lifted. Some experts believe that this crisis has already begun in the District.
Produced by Richard Cunningham | Listen here
Call in at 1-800-433-8850, write to [email protected], or Tweet @kojoshow.
When an eviction action is filed, that filing remains on a tenant’s record permanently, whether or not the action was successful. This record can inhibit a tenant’s ability to secure affordable housing in the future, even if the eviction action was denied or found to be unwarranted, or, as is currently the case, filed illegally during the moratorium.
The D.C. Council unanimously passed a bill on Oct. 6 mandating eviction records be sealed after as little as 30 days if the eviction was not carried out and after three years if it was — allowing the courts to seal records sooner at their discretion. The legislation was introduced by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh and Council Chair Phil Mendelson.
By Annemarie Cuccia | Read the full story
Reporting
For the sixth consecutive year, we are pooling our resources and audiences to assess our community’s homelessness crisis. We coordinate coverage to avoid duplication of efforts and broaden the range and depth of our combined body of work.
This collection will be released throughout the day on October 7, 2021, the first week D.C. Council is back in session and just before World Homeless Day that weekend. By doing so, we aim to provide a more comprehensive understanding in our fragmented media landscape. Links to all stories will be added here as they are published.
The many complex factors that keep more than half a million Americans and at least 5,111 Washingtonians living in a state of emergency demand rigorous and sustained reporting from our newsrooms.
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2019 Reporting
When second-grader Relisha Rudd went missing in 2014, the first person to notice was a social worker at Payne Elementary School who works as a homeless liaison.
In addition to highlighting the decrepit and dangerous conditions at D.C. General, the former hospital-turned-family-shelter where Rudd lived, the tragedy of her disappearance also shone a spotlight on the role of homeless liaisons in D.C. Public Schools. These liaisons act as a point person at schools, coordinating between families, the school district, and agencies throughout the city.
Students experiencing homelessness face a unique set of challenges on a day-to-day basis. “They see much higher rates of attendance difficulty. They see higher rates of chronic absenteeism. And they see poorer student outcomes,” Deputy Mayor of Education Paul Kihn tells DCist. Basics like clean clothes and transportation can be difficult when your first priority is determining where you’ll sleep that night.
By Jonquilyn Hill | Read the full article
On Jan. 23, the District conducted its annual Point-In-Time (PIT) count, a survey conducted nationwide to give a “snapshot” of residents experiencing homelessness on a single night. According to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’s analysis of that data, 489 of the 6,521 people experiencing homelessness in D.C. were “transition-age youth,” young adults age 18-24.
However, the D.C. Homeless Youth Census, a separate annual count of local homeless youth that was conducted only four months prior, found there were 1,328 transition-age youth experiencing homelessness in the District. Other than a small window of time, what separated these surveys was the time taken to complete them and the criteria used to determine who was counted as homeless and who was not.
By Gabrielle Wanneh | Read the full article
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