Councilmember Pinto and Georgetown BID Pursue Humane Tent Encampment Strategies BY C HR IS TOP HER J O N E S In this pandemic summer, tent encampments of unhoused residents seem to be popping up everywhere across the District. What is to be done? For those suffering homelessness in the harsh urban landscape, how to provide proper care and housing? For the health of the community, how to prevent such encampments -- notable for their unsafe and unsanitary conditions -from arising in the first place? The Georgetowner spoke with Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto and Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb about their approaches to these issues. Councilmember Pinto, serving Georgetown, has made homelessness a top priority. She’s enthusiastic about one of the city’s new pilot programs aimed at alleviating the root causes. “I understand that the challenge of homelessness in D.C. is not new,” she said. “One of the ways I’m working on moving our neighbors experiencing homelessness out of encampments and into housing is through support of a new pilot program through the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS), which would provide targeted care and resources to those in encampments including shelter and housing options.”
By using an individual case management approach, the program seeks to place as many unhoused city residents into permanent housing as soon as possible. “DMHHS is working with the Department of Human Services, the Department of Behavioral Health, and the Department of Public Works to implement a pilot program to begin this summer that focuses on providing intensive housing-focused case management, behavioral health, and substance [abuse] support at some of the District’s largest encampments to get residents into housing quickly,” Pinto said. Many unhoused residents have trouble with the cumbersome paperwork required to apply for housing assistance. So, Pinto’s office is working to simplify the process. “I have also been working with my colleagues to fund resources to move neighbors into housing and streamline the application process,” Pinto said. The Council’s most recent budget will include “significant funding for housing vouchers to move hundreds of unsheltered neighbors into housing as well as provide sustainable housing options so people do not slip into homelessness,” Pinto said. “We’re also working to update the application process so it’s streamlined and housing placements can be made more quickly. My commitment
is unwavering and I feel confident that these efforts will make a difference this year.” At the Georgetown BID, Joe Sternlieb brings -- in addition to his business background -years of experience serving D.C.’s unhoused communities to his job as BID CEO. While he’s highly attuned to the variety of problems tent encampments pose to businesses, visitors and neighborhood communities, he’s also well-versed in the need to provide mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and comprehensive social services to lift unhoused residents into permanent housing. When Sternlieb worked at the Downtown BID twenty years ago, he helped set up the Downtown Day Services Center on New York Ave. NW. The center provides a one-stop, comprehensive social services program -- all under one roof -- for the unhoused community. “This is a subject and an issue I’ve been working on for a really long time in this city,” Sternlieb said. “For a day program, it’s a relatively successful model.” To stem the crisis of homelessness, Sternlieb came to understand, you also have to provide reasonable options for those out on the streets and you can’t just use law enforcement to
make the problem go away. “When I helped create the Downtown Services Center there was a lot of pressure,” Sternlieb recalled. “There were a lot of homeless people panhandling downtown and there were certain people in the business community that just wanted us to arrest everybody and I said ‘you can’t get in the way of people panhandling and doing stuff unless you give them an alternative.’ If they’re panhandling for food, let’s set up a feeding center. If they’re panhandling for bus fare, let’s work out how we’re going to get them bus fare so we can get them to a job. So, we brought 19 different agencies in as partners in the homelessness services center so that people could go to one place to get any service they needed and service providers could talk to each other about their cases.” Sternlieb believes establishing such a comprehensive services program in Ward 2 would be most effective in light of the current crisis. VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM FOR THE FULL ARTICLE. GMG, INC.
AUGUST 18, 2021
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