“I’ve
people moved into housing using case management services
In 2013, we began offering case management services to help anyone, including vendors, with their needs — from obtaining identification cards and emergency cash for bills and food to accessing supportive programs and applying for housing vouchers. Our team builds long-term relationships with our vendors and other clients to understand their needs and help them create plans to achieve their goals.
people, including artists/vendors, used case management services in 2023,
Physical and mental health services, emergency cash assistance and housing services were provided hundreds of times throughout 2023.
of whom were new clients.
Abel Putu, Aida Peery, Al Edmonson, Akindele Akerejah, Amia Walker, Andre Brinson, Andrew Anderson, Angie Whitehurst, Anthony Carney, Beverly Sutton, Brianna Butler, Cameé Lee, Carlos Carolina, Charles Armstrong, Charles Woods, Chon Gotti, Chris Cole, Clinton Kilpatrick, Conrad Cheek, Corey Sanders, Daniel Ball,
Darlesha Joyner, David Snyder, Debora Brantley, Degnon “Gigi” Dovonou, Denise Hall, Dominique Anthony, Don Gardner, Donté Turner, Doris Robinson, Earl Parker, Eric ThompsonBey, Erica Downing, Evelyn Nnam, Floyd Carter, Frederic John, Frederick Walker, Freedom, Gerald Anderson, Gracias Garcias, Greta Christian, Harriet Fields, Henrieese Roberts, Henry
Johnson, Invisible Prophet, Ivory Wilson, Jacqueline “Jackie” Turner, James Davis, James Hughes, Jeanette Richardson, Jeff Taylor, Jeffery McNeil, Jeffrey Carter, Jemel Fleming, Jenkins Dalton, Jennifer McLaughlin, Jermale McKnight, Jet Flegette, Jewel Lewis, John Alley, John Littlejohn, Josie Brown, Juliene Kengnie, Kenneth Middleton, Kym Parker,
Laticia Brock, Lawrence Autry, Levester Green, L. Morrow, Marc Grier, Marcus McCall, Martin Walker, Mary Sellman, Maurice Carter, Melody Byrd, Micheal Pennycook, Michael Warner, Micheal Warren Stevens, Morgan Jones, Nathanial Piscitelli, Nikila Smith, Patricia Donaldson, Patty Smith, Peaceful Tobias, Phillip Black, Queenie Featherstone, Rachelle
The Cover
COVER ART BY CARLOS CAROLINA, COVER DESIGN BY LEELA WAEHRER
Ellison, Rashawn Bowser, Reginald Black, Reginald, Denny, Ricardo Meriedy, Richard “Mooney” Hart, Rita Sauls, Robert Vaughn, Robert Warren, Rochelle Walker, Ron Dudley, S. Smith, Sasha Williams, Saul Presa, Shuhratjon Ahmadjonov, Sybil Taylor, Tasha Savoy, Tony Bond, Tonya Williams, Vennie Hill, Wanda Alexander, Wendell Williams
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ashley McMaster, Blake Androff, Clare Krupin, Corrine Yu, Jonquilyn Hill, Matt Perra, Michael Phillips, Nana-Sentuo Bonsu, Shari Wilson, Stanley Keeve
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Brian Carome
Homeless shelters for individuals in D.C. were full or nearly full for much of April, according to shelter monitoring reports, leaving people with few options but to sleep outside.
To respond to the demand, D.C. opened 80 additional shelter beds in May: 40 for women at Eve’s Place, and 40 for men at Emery. On May 29, the most recent night for which data is available, 40 men and 33 women slept in the extra beds, which will stay open through the summer.
While the May shelter occupancy report isn’t yet available, the April report, prepared by The Community Partnership, shows a system under strain. On an average night, 98-99% of shelter beds were full, with just 11 beds open for men and five for women, including on nights when seasonal overflow shelters that have since closed were available. Shelters were often full by 8 or 9 p.m., the report shows.
Because of the high occupancy rates, men were turned away from low-barrier shelters 215 times in April, according to a turnaway summary also prepared by The Community Partnership. Women were turned away 171 times. At two of the city’s shelters, people were turned away on twothirds of the days in April.
The high occupancy rates come after about 700 seasonal shelter beds that opened over the winter to offer protection from hypothermia closed throughout March and April. Advocates and people experiencing homelessness have warned for a few years when these shelters shutter, year-round shelters can be overwhelmed. The problem intensified last year — after shelter closures, including the Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable Individuals (PEP-V), D.C. lost more than 500 shelter beds.
Without PEP-V or seasonal overflow beds, there are 335 low-barrier beds for women, 697 for men, and 40 for LGBTQ+ individuals, according to D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) slides presented at a May 22 Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) meeting. Another 144 specialty beds are available for men, but they are not low-
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
Darick Brown
DIRECTOR OF VENDOR EMPLOYMENT
Thomas Ratliff
VENDOR PROGRAM ASSOCIATES
Aida Peery, Chon
Gotti, Nikila Smith VENDOR PROGRAM VOLUNTEERS
Ann Herzog, Beverly Brown, Madeleine McCollough, Roberta Haber
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Annemarie Cuccia
barrier, meaning it’s unlikely someone would be able to walk up one night and get a bed.
The city has high hopes new beds in two non-congregate shelter sites will relieve the current pressure on shelters. The Aston and E Street are set to open in August and November, respectively, according to DHS slides. Together, the sites will add 290 beds split between men and women and will offer options for people who prefer individual rooms or who want to go into shelter with a partner or adult family member of another gender. Until then, overflow beds are the city’s best answer. D.C. opened the new 80 overflow beds in early May, ahead of a slew of encampment closures in Foggy Bottom. According to a DHS representative at the ICH meeting, the city initially offered the new beds to encampment residents displaced by the closures, but opened them to anyone in search of a shelter bed the week after the closures. By 2028, the city hopes to have a total of 1,733 year-round shelter beds, an increase of more than 500 beds from this year, a DHS representative said at the ICH meeting. In addition to the noncongregate sites, D.C. will be opening new shelters and sites currently closed for renovation to expand access to shelter in the city.
DEPUTY EDITOR Donte Kirby
EDITORIAL INTERNS
Margaret Hartigan, Nora Scully
GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN
Leela Waehrer
ARTISTS-INRESIDENCE
Bonnie Naradzay (Poetry), David Serota (Illustration), Leslie Jacobson (Theater), Roy Barber (Theater), Rachel Dungan (Podcast), Willie Schatz (Writing)
OPINION EDITOR (VOLUNTEER)
Candace Montague
EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS
Annabella Hoge, Anne Eigeman, August Ditcher, Benjamin Litoff, Cari Shane, Casey Bacot, Chelsea Ciruzzo, Dakota Bragato,
□ The office will be closed Wednesday, June 19, for Juneteenth. Therefore, the next issue of ‘Street Sense’ will be available on Tuesday, June 18.
□ The June vendor meeting will be Friday, June 28, at 2 p.m. Join us for pizza and conversation!
□ Sell copies of the Street Sense Media Photography Book with your papers! You pay $5 wholesale, you sell them for $20.
□ Find a list of vendor announcements and other useful information just for you at streetsensemedia. org/vendor-info.
Jet Flegette
June 12
ARTIST/VENDOR
Read this democratically elected code of conduct, by vendors, for vendors!
1. I will support Street Sense Media’s mission statement and in so doing will work to support the Street Sense Media community and uphold its values of honesty, respect, support, and opportunity.
2. I will treat all others, including customers, staff, volunteers, and fellow vendors, respectfully at all times. I will refrain from threatening others, pressuring customers into making donations, or engaging in behavior that condones racism, sexism, classism, or other prejudices.
3. I understand that I am not an employee of Street Sense Media but an independent contractor.
4. While distributing the Street Sense newspaper, I will not ask for more than $2 per issue or solicit donations by any other means.
5. I will only purchase the newspaper from Street Sense Media staff and volunteers and will not distribute newspapers to other vendors.
Dan Goff, Grier Hall, J.M. Acsienzo, Josh Axelrod, Kate Malloy, Kathryn Owens, Lenika Cruz, Micah Levey, Miles Wilson, Rachel Siegal, Roman Peregrino, Ryan Bacic, Taylor Nichols, Zach Montellaro
6. I will not distribute copies of “Street Sense” on metro trains and buses or on private property.
7. I will abide by the Street Sense Media Vendor Territory Policy at all times and will resolve any related disputes with other vendors in a professional manner.
8. I will not sell additional goods or products while distributing “Street Sense.”
9. I will not distribute “Street Sense” under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
10. I understand that my badge and vest are property of Street Sense Media and will not deface them. I will present my badge when purchasing “Street Sense” and will always display my badge when distributing “Street Sense.”
2200 families are scheduled to exit Rapid Rehousing.
will they go?
DONTE KIRBY Deputy Editor
Over 2,000 families may be back in shelters or out on the streets as the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) begins removing families from the Rapid Rehousing (RRH) program, local homeless advocacy groups warn. RRH is a short-term subsidy that pays a portion of a family or individual’s rent for a market-rate apartment over a year, with the possibility of a sixmonth extension. During that time, families receive case management and are expected to increase their income so they can remain in housing once the subsidy ends, though few achieve this.
In May, DHS began sending pre-exit letters announcing that due to the housing subsidy program exhausting all funds for extensions, families who have been depending on the subsidy for over 12 months will be removed from the program. For many families, the subsidy was the difference between being in a shelter or the streets during the pandemic.
The program swelled to support over 2,000 families when the city enacted a moratorium on evictions at the start of the pandemic. The moratorium protected any families in RRH who were unable to take over the full rent for their apartments. Many families have been in the program since then and have been through multiple notices of termination followed by backtracking and resumption of rental assistance over the last few years.
Now, Mayor Murial Bowser and DHS say the well of pandemic-era federal money funding the extensions has run dry. The city is facing a $4 billion hole in the budget through fiscal year 2029, including a $700 million shortfall this year. There’s no money for extensions or to house residents while they appeal decisions to cut their services, according to what the mayor and DHS officials said at budget hearings this spring.
But homeless advocacy groups and service providers say there’s little to no plan for what happens to families who are exiting the program. If families aren’t able to take over their rent or enter another subsidy program, they’re left with with two options: the shelter system or the streets.
“If [my client] were to be exited from this program, she wouldn’t have another stable housing option,” Rachel Niegelberg, a lawyer for the Children’s Law Center, said. Niegelberg works with a few families who rely on RRH. One of her clients has received the pre-exit letter from DHS and has been deemed eligible for a voucher, but not yet matched with one. “Realistically, she would wind up in shelter again, which is why she’s in the [RRH] program to begin with,” Niegelberg said.
As service providers rush to find solutions for families, they say some confusion exists about the criteria for a client to be exited from the RRH program, or how to appeal to reinstate the subsidy for a client.
Advocates with both the Children’s Law Center and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless say they are under the impression families who have Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) vouchers won’t be exited from the RRH program before they move into permanent
housing. The gray area comes in for clients like Niegelberg’s, who’ve been in RRH for over 12 months and have been determined eligible for a PSH voucher, but haven’t been matched with one. Families eligible for PSH vouchers are, by definition, chronically homeless and can’t maintain housing by any other means. Those families are left to scramble and make tough choices when an exit letter comes.
“There’s a lot of fear and anxiety that comes with receiving a letter like this,” Niegelberg said about her client. “Especially when it’s shrouded in so much confusion where she doesn’t fully know if she’ll be able to maintain the housing she has, if she’ll be able to get the voucher she’s been deemed eligible for, or if she’s going to be in an emergency situation of having to find shelter for her family.”
DHS did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
D.C. has been here before. In fiscal years 2016 and 2017, the RRH subsidy ran out of money and only 60% of all families whose subsidy ended were able to maintain their housing independently, according to a 2017 report by the Washington Legal Clinic.
The persistent issues with RRH over the years inspired 66 organizations and experts along with almost 400 individuals to advocate for legislative reform of the program. That advocacy resulted in the Rapid Re-Housing Reform Amendment Act, reintroduced in 2023 by D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson after it was left in committee for most of 2022.
The bill would end the program’s 12-month time limit, which advocates say is arbitrary, so RRH participants can only be cut off from assistance after the program has successfully either increased their household income enough to afford market rent or connected them to a long-term housing subsidy. It ensures participants’ rent payments do not exceed 30% of their household income, a standard for housing subsidy programs, while making participation in case management services voluntary. It also requires RRH participants be assessed for housing vouchers within six months.
But the bill has been languishing in the Committee on Housing since February. Advocates such as the Washington Legal Clinic want it passed before the budget for fiscal year 2025 is finalized, to protect the families at risk of being exited from RRH.
The D.C. Housing Authority Stabilization and Reform Board could also vote to prioritize those exiting RRH for federal housing vouchers during its meeting on June 12, according to government officials familiar with RRH.
The D.C. Council, meanwhile, took the first vote on a budget funding 66 housing vouchers for families leaving the program, costing $1.9 million. Mendelson said it was the best they could do in the midst of an extensive affordable housing and rent stability crisis.
“What I’m circulating does not solve the problem with Rapid Rehousing,” Mendelson told the media on May 29 about the council’s proposed budget. “The rest of the programming we offer to try to prevent homelessness or get people out of homelessness: it’s just not working.”
If you ask D.C. lawmakers why they aren’t pushing to fund more housing vouchers in this year’s budget, the answer is always the same.
“We’ve been to this rodeo a number of times. We put a lot of money into vouchers and then find that there are a lot that have gone out the door,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said, referencing the slow distribution of vouchers, in a press conference on May 28.
D.C.’s voucher system has been under strain for several years. In 2022, the city funded 2,400 new vouchers for individuals, a combination of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and emergency housing vouchers, after years of demand from housing providers and people experiencing homelessness. But D.C. was unable to quickly process the number of applications, which surged, leaving people waiting for vouchers for multiple years.
PSH vouchers provide long-term rent support and case management to people who have experienced homelessness for over a year and need support to move into housing.
Since 2022, local housing providers have worked to match the allocated vouchers with clients and reduce the number of unutilized vouchers. To avoid a similar strain on the system, according to city officials, D.C. has also funded fewer new vouchers each year, a trend likely to continue as the council and the mayor debate the number of additional vouchers for fiscal year 2025.
Mendelson’s proposed budget includes funding for an additional 477 vouchers, though only 43 would be PSH for individuals, according to the Way Home Campaign. But regardless of how many vouchers enter the system, housing providers say the PSH system needs further reform.
Although the Department of Human Services (DHS) and District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), which jointly run D.C.’s voucher programs, have tackled a handful of systemic reforms in the last year, housing providers say they still have difficulty approving rent prices and recruiting and retaining case managers, which can delay housing for people experiencing homelessness.
In fiscal year 2024, the District funded 230 new PSH vouchers for families and individuals. According to Mendelson, DHS believes all vouchers will be fully utilized by the end of the fiscal year in September. But the pathway from unhoused to on a voucher is time-intensive, according to providers.
“The goal is within 90 days, but we have people that have been waiting for a voucher for over a year,” said Shauna Figueroa, the vice president of housing services for Friendship Place, a housing nonprofit.
The application process is notoriously difficult: Providers have long bemoaned the previous tedious forms, which were nearly 40 pages long and often required hard-to-access information.
The Lab @ DC, a research design team based out of the Executive Office of the Mayor, has been working on streamlining the application process after a 2023 report highlighted several areas for improvement in the current voucher system, including the lack of accessibility in the previous application process.
The new application, which was fully adopted by the District on April 1, is much simpler.
“There’s now a core application that is much cleaner and a minimum of around 13 pages that everyone will complete, and then there’s the supplement, depending on someone’s circumstance,” Karissa Minnich, the civic design manager at The Lab, said.
The team focused on reducing redundancies in the forms, as well as improving accessibility by reducing legal jargon.
According to Minnich, The Lab has seen a decrease in the time it takes people to complete an application, as well as an increase in the number of returned applications.
Providers at Jaydot, which runs a voucher program, noted that the application redesign has quickened the timeline for clients’ application approval.
“It’s a shorter, more user-friendly application,” said Nicole Jean, the director of programs at Jaydot. “It’s quicker to get approved and getting the applications to DCHA is smoother for the agencies.”
Despite the positive feedback regarding the application redesign, providers highlighted many roadblocks — some of which were included in The Lab’s 2023 report — that impede housing their clients.
In conversations with Street Sense, several providers discussed issues with rent reasonableness. After a 2022 report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development highlighted several issues with DCHA’s management of the voucher system, such as overpaying landlords and approving vouchers without checking market rates, DCHA began utilizing HUD’s required standard for rent reasonableness in July 2023.
Rent reasonableness requires housing authorities to determine whether rent for subsidized housing — such as for a voucher recipient — is reasonable, or matches that of similar, non-subsidized units nearby.
But despite its goal of creating affordable housing for people using vouchers, providers say the approval process for the rent reasonableness forms, also known as the Request for Tenancy Approval (RFTA), can be lengthy, leaving people unhoused as they navigate the paperwork.
“We’ve had where it’s taken a month to get us a yes or no on whether the RFTA was approved, and that’s frustrating, because every week we’re reaching out [to DCHA],” said Jean. “And now we have to start from the beginning again, and of course, clients are frustrated.”
Jean said clients waited four to eight weeks for RFTA approval. DCHA denied delays, and in a statement to Street Sense said the average processing and approval time for a completed RFTA is five to seven business days.
Individuals are also only allowed to apply to one apartment at a time, and then must wait for RFTA approval or rejection before they apply for another. According to a mentor with the D.C. Family & Youth Initiative (DCFYI), people waiting for approval also must pay for rental applications out of pocket, meaning numerous RFTA rejections can cost several hundred dollars for prospective renters and delay housing opportunities.
“It’s just really unfair,” said Susan Punnett, who is on the board of directors for DCFYI. “People get vouchers and aren’t able to use them.”
Providers also said they’re still having difficulty recruiting and retaining case managers, who are responsible for housing people by connecting clients with vouchers and supporting them through the voucher process.
Figueroa, who oversees case managers for Friendship Place, says that while staffing has improved somewhat, amid compassion fatigue and issues with financial compensation, it’s been hard to manage caseloads.
“People want to see and feel the reward instantly, but it’s not an instant gratification type of job,” said Figueroa. “It’s sometimes thankless.”
At Friendship Place, the caseload for individuals is between 20-25 per case manager and 14 for families, which is largely determined by the number of referrals made by DHS. According to a statement from DHS, the case-to-client ratio varies between 15-25 based on the program type.
The case manager shortage is not a recent phenomenon. For years, D.C. has suffered from a shortage of personnel to process housing claims. The 2023 Lab report emphasized the shortage impacts the caseload, which in turn exacerbates turnover as managers work with a higher number of clients.
DHS adopted several strategies to reduce the burden on case managers, including modifying the credentials to reduce barriers to entry, hosting a job fair for providers, and, in 2023, offering hiring and retention incentives. The organization is also in the midst of a collaboration with Howard University to train residents with lived experience of homelessness as case managers.
Case manager shortages have also affected government agencies. DCHA is now restructuring its Housing Choice Voucher (HCVP) program to alleviate the burden on its own case managers.
“The HCVP department is undergoing a reorganization to determine a more equitable workload distribution among our housing specialists and coordinators, who serve as the direct point of contact for HCVP participants,” a DCHA spokesperson wrote in a statement in Street Sense.
According to DCHA’s statement, the reorganization will give specialists and coordinators a caseload size that “will allow them to devote more attention to each participants’ needs.”
Moving forward, housing administrators hope to continue improving the ease and accessibility of the housing process. At The Lab, the next project is standardizing client communications between various providers and government agencies.
“As we started to engage with residents and voucher holders, we started to see how much communication and dignity a better process can provide,” Sam Quinney, The Lab’s director, said. “We keep coming back to our resident researchers about how important these small things around communication can be.”
Providers also stressed the need to center finding housing for people experiencing homelessness.
“This isn’t another homeless person, this is a person and they need a house,” said Figueroa. “If all agencies put the needs of the participant at the center of the work and that was the mission for all organizations, it would make it a lot easier.”
The council will meet on June 12 to consider the budget.
a row, according to the 2024
Homelessness increased in Washington, D.C. by 14% over 2023, according to this year’s Point-In-Time (PIT) Count results, released in May. Homelessness is up 12% across the region, and older residents are the fastest-growing group of unhoused people.
This is the second consecutive year homelessness has risen in the District, after several years of reductions since the city released its first plan to end homelessness in 2016. Last year, homelessness increased 11.6% in D.C. and 18% in the region.
Every year, communities across the United States participate in the PIT Count to measure the scope of homelessness on a single night. The 2024 PIT Count for the D.C. region took place on Jan. 24. Volunteers surveyed people who are unsheltered and living outside or staying in emergency shelters.
The results come as the nation awaits the looming verdict in the Supreme Court case, Johnson v. Grants Pass, which will impact the rights of people who are unhoused and unsheltered nationwide. Locally, the D.C. Council will soon take its final vote on the fiscal year 2025 budget, which includes limited funds for preventing and ending homelessness.
Data from the PIT Count is not 100% accurate, according to the United States Government Accountability Office. Still, it’s the only nationwide measure of how homelessness changes over the years.
The PIT Count, by nature, is a count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. The transitory nature of homelessness means the PIT Count doesn’t reflect homelessness throughout a full year. In D.C., local data often shows at least twice as many people experience homelessness over a year as are counted in the PIT. The PIT Count also relies on the definition of homelessness set forth by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is narrow and excludes, for instance, people experiencing homelessness but staying with a family member.
A report by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in 2017 titled “Don’t Count on It: How the HUD Point-inTime Count Underestimates the Homelessness Crisis in America,” highlights how the data collection methods can also lead to inaccuracies, given the PIT Count relies on volunteers to carry out the survey. The report says the methods used by HUD and/or PIT Count volunteers can lead to a significant undercount, missing people who may be living in their cars, or residing in places not explored by those conducting the count.
A total of 9,774 people were experiencing homelessness in the D.C. region at the time the PIT Count was conducted, according to a report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG). Eight jurisdictions in the area were included in this count, and nearly all reported an increase in people experiencing homelessness between 2023 and 2024.
This year, D.C. accounts for 5,616 of those unhoused on the night of the PIT Count, according to the report. Rates of homelessness in D.C. increased the most amoung jurisdictions in the region.
On May 13, D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS) shared the results of the 2024 count. Despite the rise in homelessness last year, the press release said out homelessness is 12% lower than in 2020, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. D.C. and Alexandria are the only jurisdictions where homelessness has not increased between 2020 and 2024, according to the PIT Count.
In the District, homelessness among unaccompanied individuals increased 6% from 2023, and homelessness among families increased 39%. D.C.’s past reductions in homelessness were largely based on changes in the family system. Family homelessness remains 30% lower from 2020, pre-pandemic. 2024 is the second consecutive year homelessness rose in D.C., despite efforts and interventions to support those unhoused in the area, such as funding for housing vouchers and rental assistance programs.
Across the last two years, a higher percentage of people experienced homelessness in the District for the first time, DHS Director Laura Zellinger said in the May 13 press release. DHS is, for the coming year, committed to continuing to “build on and invest in proven solutions and innovative approaches to enhance our system for District residents facing homelessness,” said Zellinger.
A notable trend in this year’s data is that when compared against other age groups, the greatest share of single adults experiencing homelessness in the D.C. region were above the age of 55. On the evening of the 2024 PIT Count, two individuals over the age of 90 were housed in emergency shelters. This is in line with national trends, where older adults are the fastest-growing age group experiencing homelessness, making up nearly half of all unhoused people. As the region’s population continues aging, providers will
need to adjust their responses to homelessness to better meet the needs of older adults, according to a press release from COG.
Data obtained from the COG, which compares literally and formerly homeless statistics in the greater Metropolitan Washington area, shows while the numbers of those literally homeless rose from 2022 and 2023 according to this year’s PIT Count, the number of people in Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Rehousing, or other permanent housing has increased by over 10,000 since 2023.
In this context, to be literally homeless is to be lacking a fixed or adequate nighttime residence or shelter, according to HUD.
In the greater D.C. region, the number of people who are in permanent housing and no longer experiencing homelessness has increased by 57 percent since 2020, according to COG. In 2024, 13,956 people were in Rapid Rehousing programs, 15,592 people were in Permanent Supportive Housing programs, and 5,342 people were in other permanent housing.
Homelessness increased among several groups in the region. In the D.C. region, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness found in the PIT Count was 328, a 3% rise from 2023.
D.C. saw an increase in those unhoused who are LGBTQ+, with 12% of those surveyed identifying as LGBTQ+. Regionally, 527 people surveyed identified as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, an increase from
the 349 people who self-identified in the 2023 count, and the 347 people in 2022.
With respect to racial demographics, systemic and historical disparities persist. Black residents continue to be the largest racial group experiencing homelessness, making up 67% of single adults surveyed on the night of the 2024 PIT Count. That disparity is even more severe in D.C., where nearly 85% of those experiencing homelessness are Black, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
The most pressing question from the 2024 PIT Count is: what has caused the surge in homelessness in the nation’s capital for the second year in a row?
One factor is the affordable housing crisis. D.C. has continued to face a chronic shortage of affordable housing options in recent years as rent rapidly rises and there is glaring economic insecurity and troubles for lower and middle-income working residents, despite wage increases. Inflation continues to outpace wage growth, causing economic stress for many.
Economic instability and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic also persist. An end to COVID-era housing protections such as eviction moratoriums and Emergency Rental Assistance Programs (ERAP), supported by federal pandemic relief funding, have led to a 3% increase in homelessness between 2020-
2024, according to the COG. As COVID-era housing protections have ended, the amount of people experiencing homelessness has risen.
In D.C., funding for many homelessness programs peaked in the few years following the pandemic, including funding for housing vouchers. However, investments have declined over the last year, and in 2023, DHS was subject to budget cuts, which providers warned could affect many programs.There is more need than there are substantial and sustained investments in programs that are serving this need, said Rodney Lusk, chair of the COG Human Services Policy Committee and Fairfax County board member, in a press release by COG on May 15.
While the PIT Count is an imperfect measurement of homelessness, it informs policy budgets and public attitudes for the year following its release.
Given that the PIT count is used largely to determine how resources and funds are diverted towards addressing homelessness in a given city or area, the 2023 and now 2024 count, if anything, demonstrate a need for more consistent efforts to support unhoused residents of D.C. and the Metropolitan Washington area at large, advocates and providers say. While investments towards programs and resources are included in the
2025 FY budget, the funding “falls wildly short of the need, especially given the surge in homelessness,” according to a blog post by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
D.C. faces an uphill battle in addressing the needs of those unhoused in 2025. As the fiscal year 2025 budget is finalized, the ongoing crisis of homelessness looms large. Despite Mayor Muriel Bowser’s stated commitment to increasing investments to address the needs of residents experiencing housing instability, funding for programs aimed at preventing and ending homelessness is at risk.
As it stands, the budget before the D.C. Council provides for investments in strategies to address homelessness, including but not limited to: $26.9 million for ERAP, $80 million for the Housing Production Trust Fund , and funds for over 450 housing vouchers. It is notable that Bowser, in 2015, committed to allotting at least $100 million annually for HPTF. Generally, funding for addressing homelessness in D.C. remains lower than in previous years.
Should cuts persist as they did in 2024, it is likely that by the 2025 PIT Count, there will be no positive progress in lowering the rates of unhoused D.C. residents, warn the Way Home Campaign and similar budget advocacy groups. Advocates and D.C. Councilmembers say that if there are no changes soon, things will not get better. As a May 31 article by Miriam’s Kitchen put it, “Housing saves lives, but only if we fund it.”
Ten years ago, they didn’t have a spot at the table. Now, they make space for others.NORA SCULLY Editorial Intern
Sitting around a table at Miriam’s Kitchen, the founding members of the People for Fairness Coalition knew the District had a problem.
They had firsthand experience with the city’s homeless services — and their flaws. Motivated by necessity, the members felt the city ignored people experiencing homelessness when making policies that directly impacted them. So they decided to advocate for themselves.
“That was a space where I started learning about what to do next,” founding member Albert Townsend said.
Now, the city is working to help people with lived experience of homelessness get the necessary tools to advocate for themselves and others by training them as case managers in a first-of-its-kind program.
D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS)’s new peer case management program will train people who’ve experienced homelessness to become case managers who work to end homelessness for others by connecting them to resources and support.
About 600 people applied for the program. The first cohort began orientation on March 14. Together, 40 participants will complete three weeks of computer literacy classes and seven weeks of training at Howard University, followed by 80 hours of practicum with community organizations with outreach programs for people experiencing homelessness.
When participants graduate from the program in July, they will have a certification in peer case management, and the connections to work with D.C.-based homeless service providers across the city.
“The hope is that folks who are coming to this case management program, they have this opportunity to use this experience and move into other spaces, like policy or management,” said Rachel Pierre, the administrator of DHS’s Family Services Administration which oversees the case management program. “This will be a pipeline to bridge out into the homeless services system.”
Designed partially to remedy a shortage of case managers that has worsened housing voucher delays, the DHS program embodies an emerging prioritization of people with lived experience with homelessness in policy-making and advocacy. Activists have pushed for an expansion of the roles and spaces created for people with lived experience with homelessness for years, and many see this program as an extension of this work.
Across the country, there has been a rise in the number of people with lived experiences in the room where decisions about homelessness are made — a change in the status quo, according to Reginald Black, a former Street Sense Media
“For a while, people who were actively experiencing homelessness weren’t even in these rooms where their fate was being decided”
vendor and member of the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH).
“For a while, people who were actively experiencing homelessness weren’t even in these rooms where their fate was being decided, making decisions about shelters, making decisions about how we’re going to distribute vouchers,” Black said.
Without a voice, people’s lives may be upended or changed without their input. If the city closes a shelter or decides to reduce the number of vouchers it allocates, for instance, that can have a direct impact on the lives of people experiencing homelessness. Black wanted to remind people that whatever someone’s feeling about the issue of homelessness, those who are experiencing homelessness feel it just as much, if not more.
“You’re offended that people are bringing the problem to your doorstep, but isn’t that the same as a homeless person? If they’re in an encampment, a shelter, that problem is on their doorstep,” Black said.
While DHS’s peer case management program is the first of its kind, the city has several programs that seek to expand the role of people with lived experience. It’s not just a local change, however. State governments across the country have slowly shifted to bring more people with lived experience to the table.
The D.C. ICH requires a minimum of three and a maximum of four people with lived experience to serve alongside directors of various agencies to work to end homelessness, as mandated by the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act in 2009. The HEARTH Act
mandated the creation of ICHs across the country, expanding the number of people with lived experience involved in the decision-making process.
To Townsend, now the director of lived experience and innovation for the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), there is an important difference between being involved in decision-making and solutions-making. The former can mean just approving an already prepared policy, while the latter includes people with lived experience in the process of creating solutions from the beginning.
His position at the NAEH, launched in 2023, echoes a recent push by various state governments and advocacy groups to institutionally structure boards and governing bodies to include people with lived experience. For instance, the California ICH added a Lived Experience Advisory Board that started meeting in the fall of 2023, and Baltimore added a Lived Experience Advisory Committee.
In the District, the city has also expanded its work to create more space for people with lived experience, including the D.C. Youth Advisory Council, a youth group bringing together people of various backgrounds, including some who have or are currently experiencing homelessness. The Youth Advisory Council and the Consumer Engagement Working Group, which works to increase the participation of people experiencing homelessness in the ICH, both inform and support strategies to end homelessness.
The peer mentor program represents a new governmental pivot toward recruiting people with lived experience into the homeless services process directly. But while the program is new, people like Rachelle Ellison, the assistant director of the People for Fairness Coalition, have been doing this work for years.
“I always knew I was going to work with the unhoused population with co-occurring disorders because who better to help them than me?” she said. “I’ve been where they’ve been, I’ve walked in their shoes. I slept in McPherson, I slept in the Church of the Epiphany. Now I do peer mentoring.”
To Ellison, trust is the essential element behind peer mentoring. For people experiencing homelessness who may mistrust government services, making an initial connection with a peer mentor can make the difference between receiving a voucher or not.
“We can build rapports faster than people that don’t understand or people that are just booksmart. They know we’ve been where they’re at. I’m not scared to go anywhere some people are scared to go,” Ellison said.
Building trust is harder than it used to be. When Ellison was transitioning to housing, it took nine days to move off the streets into an apartment. Now, it can take years for people to
get off the waitlist for a voucher, adding to feelings of mistrust and hesitancy.
And when the system is slow to process individual claims, it can have a devastating impact on people’s lives. In 2022, at least 77 people died without a home, over half of whom were in the pipeline to obtain housing through a voucher. For peer mentors, this tragedy can hit closer to home.
“I didn’t know I was capable of holding someone’s hand while they died until I did it,” Ellison said. “Watching people die, watching my friends — I’ve buried so many of them.”
While people with lived experience know their expertise can provide a needed perspective, they say it can also make the work even harder. Even working in policy and advocacy extracts a personal toll on people with lived experience.
“You have to sacrifice more of yourself to help create the solution. If you need the solution, you have to stretch yourself more than everybody else in the room,” Black said.
Rob Robinson, a senior advisor with Partners for Dignity & Rights, remembers several New York administrative meetings about homelessness where he was the only one in the room with lived experience.
“You want people to be valued, you don’t want to just use them,” he said. “I’m not just here for a photo opp or to shake hands. No, I’m going to challenge you guys to come up with real solutions.”
While government advisory positions are more frequently compensating people with lived experience, that’s not always the case. Black emphasized that because of the personal toll required from people with lived experience to participate in solutions-making that directly impacts them, compensation is even more important.
“You couldn’t get paid enough for this work,” Ellison said with a wry smile.
The DHS peer case management program will compensate students for the entire time they are in the program at $17/hour, including educational and practical training.
“This program is just the first step toward offering more career opportunities for people experiencing homelessness”
While there are currently no plans to expand the program, Pierre hopes that the success of the first cohort will enable them to launch a second.
To Black, this program is just the first step toward offering more career opportunities for people experiencing homelessness, including outside of homeless services.
“We should have a program that sets people up to be government employees, that should be elected officials. We should be looking at all our jobs in the city, from top to bottom, to try to get people into those career paths wherever the person might be,” Black said.
Townsend also called on governments to shift away from accountability measures that retroactively approve or disapprove of actions and toward direct inclusion. His policy experience — built from years of local advocacy and coalitionbuilding — now has a national impact.
“Right now we are invited to the table, there’s not a space carved out,” Townsend said. “When I started that work it wasn’t really common.”
Although his role and the DHS program are the first of their kind, Townsend is optimistic they won’t be the last.
“I may not be a person who can make the change but I can open the door so other people can come in so we can start the change process,” he said.
Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg’s “Alienable Right to Life” art piece is a living, open-air collage and sculpture that challenges the right to bear arms versus finding freedom from our fear of each other. When exploring the outdoor, bigger-than-life exhibition, one will find names and notes about those lost to gun violence.
While, “Say their names” is a theme and verbal action, Firstenberg challenges viewers to see not one name but hundreds of names all at once. The magnitude of the numbers and names listed on the flag cannot help but grab one’s heart, trigger remembrance of the people, and connect how they died and what can be changed to address gun violence.
For instance, John McNamara of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis lost his life to gun violence in Maryland. I read about the mass shooting and saw the video clips on the news. How awful, I thought. The story, not really a story, but a traumatic event no one wants to remember. So sad, and easy to forget until last Wednesday. We were leaving the Wilson Building after attending an action with the Fair Budget Coalition asking the mayor and D.C. Council not to cut the financial safety net and services for the people residing in Washington D.C.
Back to the story: John McNamara could not fight for his life as it was taken by gun violence. We met his sister-in-law Jan McNamara at Freedom Plaza in front of the awesome sculpture collage. The American flag had LED lights backed by a printed Constitution of the United States. Each strip, which together made a flag, contained rows of names of those felled by gun violence. The largesse is overbearing. To see all those names… One might think, “Have that many people really been killed by weaponized guns?” Yes, I’m afraid so. Could their lives have been saved and their families spared the grief?
The words of others are told 30 feet away on a circular maze decorated with stripes and stars on the inside. Written on the walls were personal notes and names from visitors about people they knew, heard about, or thought about after seeing the exhibit. The eye’s attention could not miss the social justice exhibit protesting gun violence.
The visitors were tourists, the curious, and those who came specifically for the exhibit like the young people from GOODProjects. They brought students, many of whom live in high-risk communities with more than their fair share of gun violence. They came to see the exhibit, write their names, and tell their stories.
My name is mental illness. I reside in a lot of people. I can change your emotions, thinking, or behavior. I can make it so you have a problem functioning in social life, work, or family activities. I try my best to keep you from seeking treatment. I like it when you’re ashamed.
Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 13, 2023, 30.7% of adults in the District of Columbia reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. I don’t discriminate. I love children too; 10.49% of D.C. youth had at least one major depressive episode in 2020.
It is a myth to say people with mental health problems are violent and unpredictable. The fact is people with mental health problems are no more likely to be violent than anyone else. Life is not over with a mental illness. You can still live your life with me, but you have to get the treatment and medication you need to have a happy, fulfilling life.
You may hear voices as a symptom of some mental health problems, but not everyone who hears voices is mentally ill. Hearing voices is a common event called “an auditory hallucination”. One in 10 people will experience it at some time in their lives. People who hear voices experience them differently, from how often they hear them to
what they sound like or say. People may hear voices because of traumatic life experiences that can be linked to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, stress, worry, sleep deprivation, extreme hunger, recreational drugs, side effects of prescription drugs, mental illness,
I would like to thank all of my customers who have supported Street Sense. I find joy when customers purchase a Street Sense newspaper, supporting me and supporting Street Sense. It puts a smile on my face every day. I love meeting new people and seeing their interest when they get a newspaper. I love it when I show my daughter the times I write or when she asks me to read a Street Sense newspaper and she gives me her feedback. My daughter loves that I am happy working at Street Sense.
Supporting myself and my daughter is very important to me and you all make that happen, which is why I am writing this thank you piece. It has been a rough last few years for me when the pandemic hit and things had to change drastically, but you all continued to show your support in purchasing Street Sense. I just want to thank you for making things happen for me and the other Street Sense vendors. I’ve been working at Street Sense for quite a while now and I love what I do. I love meeting my regular customers, as well as new faces purchasing a newspaper.
Thank you so much for being a part of this journey that I have loved. I’m able to breathe again and provide for myself and my daughter. I appreciate each and every customer for their support. I hope everyone expresses their gratitude to people who have made a change in their lives because it really makes people feel good for their contributions in empowering a life.
Thank you for listening!
mixing up this pot of life, with some tough ingredients when I wasn’t looking, a whole bottle of abuse fell in that gives the taste of trauma
I was doing good at the beginning of the recipe but I tried a new flavor
this recipe has been passed down from generation to generation sauteed in stigma, to give it a lil kick
always fighting for sanity, that didn’t feel like mine
I was that girl, that was seduced by suicide coming from a neighborhood rich with drugs but poor with people
my family members, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe depression. Schizophrenia was first officially recognized 100 years ago, bipolar has been recognized since 1850, and the first case of depression was recorded by a Greek physician in the 5th century B.C.
questioning life, becoming a mother to be happy stirring up mental illness inside me wandering around thirsty and hungry seduced by nothing you could see breaking down from memories inside me
so I threw out the recipe and followed the one G gave to me
ABEL PUTU
Artist/Vendor
I run into people talking about a wheelchair basketball league in D.C., but we can’t get one made. We need to talk to the owner of the Washington Wizards to do one in Capitol One, because lots of professional teams have wheelchair basketball, but not the Wizards.
We practice in Silver Spring, but it’s been a while with the pandemic, and then my place got flooded. We want to have a whole league that people will be able to come and see. I pray it will get better, that we’ll be able to do wheelchair basketball, bring the community together, and make a difference. I want to make it better for the kids to come and see wheelchair basketball.
When we lose someone, it is normal for us to grieve for our loss.
When we love and lose someone, we go through pain. Why do we let the pain get us?
I feel the pain in my soul, I feel depressed. It’s always in my soul; it will never go away. To be lost, to lose, to know that grief.
To wake up, to sleep with that feeling of loneliness.
Have you ever heard of the pink cloud? Well, it’s about people who get overenthusiastic when they receive a little bit of treatment or recover a little bit. Maybe after a month or two of treatment, they become complacent and think they got this thing. But they don’t know that after being on drugs and alcohol for years and years, it takes a long time to recover and fully readjust your mind to being clean.
This process is not easy to conquer. It takes resetting your mind and it takes strong boundaries to stand up and take care of yourself. Healthy boundaries mean being assertive and respectful when it comes to saying no, even to someone who has taken advantage of you in many, many ways. That means standing up for yourself and walking away, even when they refuse to accept your no.
I’ve had the pink cloud over my head a time or two. There have been times I thought I had the gift of knowledge on how to take care of myself. I thought I would never pick up alcohol again. But little did I know that would be much harder than I thought it would be. First of all, the challenge is being able to stay away from bad influences and ways of thinking that take you back to your old ways. Stay away from places where you enjoy getting high or drunk or thinking that you can just have one drink because one is going to be enough. It never is.
So yes, I am back in the program again. This is about my seventh time trying to get this thing. It’s very hard for me, but each time I come back I learn something different, something special I can use towards my recovery. Having support is a very big thing when it comes to recovery. You need someone there to talk to when your mind goes places you don’t want to go, someone to hold your hand when you say, “I just want one drink, just let me have one.” We look out for each other in this program and watch each other’s back. We’re like a big family.
So this is just a reminder for all of you who get that pink cloud syndrome. Remember this thing is not easy and it takes a long time. Some people are strong-minded and can make it without a program. Not everybody is like that. Some people take time and struggle with routine work on their mindset.
For me it’s work. I work very hard to stay clean. So I’m back for the umpteenth time. I’m trying my best to save my life by staying clean for the rest of my life. So if you’re on the road I’m traveling, be safe, be strong, and stay sober and clean.
BRIANNA BUTLER
The most important life lesson my parents taught me was: don’t care what people say about you. They don’t know you, so they have no business judging you. If you let others’ opinions get in your mind, you might be putting yourself in a box that’s hard to get out of. Enjoy your life and what it has to offer.
My parents also made sure to tell me, “You are smart in your own way, so use your gift and talents to get ahead and accomplish your goals. Never look down on yourself. Always look up where your help comes from, even when you make mistakes. We all make mistakes because we are all human beings. When things trip us up, we learn not to stay down and we rise up stronger.”
Remember that you are here to salt the land with your gifts. Use your gifts to bless the lives of others. Always take care of yourself. Have an open mind and heart to new ways of thinking about what’s best for you.
Look and see the beautiful person you’ve become. Everyone can make a difference in another person’s life. You will achieve your goals when you think good thoughts and strive to overcome all obstacles.
ANTHONY CARNEY Artist/Vendor
Turn on your faith and fly
To your highest self
Go to the edge and fly high
Focus on being your best self
You can do it when
You believe in yourself
Fly high and reach for the sky
Fly high like the wind
Spread love
A way to say I need a supernatural intervention
Not meant to arouse the scientific approach but rather alert the world of a silence seldom heard
Conversely spoken with a sound of urgency touching the depths of the soul
Designed to reach heaven where the god of love sends angels to rescue the least of us
Interceding for one another without judgment but with cause He faithfully whispers strength, power, grace, and mercy to all who need a healing of the mind, body, and soul
No matter the size of the storm that has overtaken us
The sun will shine and the moon will glow and prayers will be answered
This I know
You’re giving me the blues
The silent treatment has its own hue
Gray is its color
Black and white
It even has an odor
I can’t seem to sleep knowing that you’re mad
But I can’t help but be mad, mad that you’re sad
It’s time for your test, take the certification exam
Will we rise or will we fall
Is this mayhem
Or is it a new world order
Me taking care of me the way I’m supposed to
I’ve grown wings while you’ve been away
A phoenix rising from the ashes
Sashaying all her own way
I’m a very showy peacock
I can’t help that you make my heart stop
Why have you gone away?
Did I tell you to go?
I mean to say stay
Please return my key
Then come back to me
Oh, how I miss you so...
I wanted to rush
But now I need you to move slow
Slow to a pace
Not yours but mine
While you tenderly kiss my face
Are you just taking a break… or Are we done now
And it is what is
Will just be our fate?
WALKER
M is for mourning the U.S. military personnel and honoring the soldiers who died while serving in the armed forces
E is for eating and the cookouts at which we pay tribute to those who are no longer physically with us
M is for Monday, May 27
O is for observing since 1971 when it became a federal holiday
R is for reflecting and remembering I is for our inner peace
A is for all who’ve served the country
L is to learn more about the day’s history
D is for decorating graves with flowers, wreaths, and flags
A is for the art of the red roses and red poppies representing the meaning of Memorial Day
Y is for the year after year of hope and faith in the people who’ve died for us
Content warning: This article mentions suicide, addiction, and assault.
I have been through some things — being molested at age 11, going through two abusive relationships, having a baby at 21, (a baby boy named Micah Jamal Anthony), and losing a baby when I was 27 years old.
I lost my fiance at 27 years old to HIV, AIDS, and chronic alcoholism. I lost both sets of grandparents.
I was infected with HIV at 26 years old. Most die from HIV/AIDS.
I’ve been through domestic abuse twice.
I’m a domestic abuse survivor.
I’ve had four nervous breakdowns.
I tried to kill myself at the age of 20, twice.
I tried to kill myself in 2013 when my son Kenneth was born with health conditions and heart problems. I blamed myself for what happened to my baby. I went to jail for 90 days at D.C. Jail and lost my second apartment.
I had to go live with my mom and dad.
I lost some people who were close friends.
I lost everything I had.
They just set mine and my kids’ stuff outside. I was nobody.
I heard how to get storage and how to earn those things back.
And I learned how to give back to my community.
I am an HIV survivor.
I am an HIV activist.
I am a former sex worker.
I am a former drug user.
I am a mental health activist.
I am a parent of three young kings.
I am a Black woman.
I am a boys’ mom.
I am a bisexual woman.
I am also nonbinary.
I am an activist, volunteer, and community advocate.
I am also a student.
I am pro-choice for women’s health.
All lives matter to me.
Be nice to sex workers.
Be nice to drug users.
I am a HIPS volunteer.
Of all the things I am
One thing for sure, I am A survivor of everything.
When great trees fall if no one hears them then no one knows when the big beautiful monuments topple. Some great trees are hundreds of years old with rough, gnarly textures and many layers of growth. So much fascination about what once was a bud grown into a great tree old enough to fall.
The protest in the streets. The sound of no justice, no peace. Right side, left side, upside down, the world as it twirls around and around like a spinning top. When will it stop? Only the Lord knows. So it’s been told living in an upside-down world.
Juneteenth is coming our way. That’s the new day we celebrate freedom, peace, and equality.
One person, one vote in this upside-down world. Can a convicted felon become president? Is no one above the law? I’m sure the Speaker of the House says he’s a friend of the one accused in this upside-down world.
As the world twirls, we pray for peace in the holy land. As the world twirls, our young folks rock and roll with so much soul their hippie grandparents would be proud of them. We’re living in an upside-down world where women no longer have the right to choose whether to use birth control.
The world is getting old. It’s been told not to kill your children for the threat of poverty. In an upsidedown world made right side up, there would be enough for everyone who needs a healthy meal and a place to call home.
Are independent voters all alone, stuck between “the right” to make America great again and “the progressive left?” Who asks the question, when was America great? Was it before the Civil War, or after Dr. King died, or during the former guy’s presidency? With all these lies told in the upside-down world, who can believe the things we see?
In this upside-down world there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville. How can we sleep in peace in an upside-down world? G-O-D I remember as the world turns upside down, I’m still my brother’s keeper.
Do you think there could be a sleeper pick at the Republican National Convention, if people pay attention to Mr. Smith and vote with some common sense? I know common sense is not so common for people living upside-down.
As the world twirls, some say this election will determine if democracy is going to give way to a dictator. On day one we’ll all have the right to bear arms in this upside-down world.
The world twirls now but get ready for when it stops. The Lord promises justice will be served and the world will be made right side up.
It is hard for me to understand why Street Sense has not reached the masses. I don’t think enough people know that every day of the workweek, the newspaper offers different creative classes.
I also think the paper should have more support.
Homelessness makes people uncomfortable, which is why I think some people shy away from us. That’s called detaching.
What I love about our organization is that it welcomes everyone, even when your skin is the color of molasses.
So, please take time to read the newspaper. If you think the print is too small, Street Sense Media will lend you glasses. And, take note: the truth about the homeless may hurt your stomach, so swallow a few antacids.
This is dedicated to every person associated with Street Sense Media.
Crackdown = on drugs.
Crackdown = money = because they don’t know how to use it in the proper way.
Not All at Once
Across
1. Treaties and other international agreements
6. Island concealed in “Then the dancers do a hula”
10. Plays the kazoo or a wax paper comb, say
14. California/Nevada lake
15. Commits perjury
16. ____ Office (U.S. White House power center)
17. Steamy room for sweaters
18. Hole-making tools
19. Tax-free bond, briefly
20. Common description of a small, but manageable obstacle (4 2wds.) (3,2,1,7) (PROFITABLE MOB anagram)
23. Corn holder
25. “OMG! Spare me!” (initialism/textese)
26. Give a speech
27. What often determines the dimensions of manufactured holes (3 wds.) (5,3,5)
32. Actress Witherspoon
33. “At ____, corporal!”
34. Database command
35. Anheuser-____ Brewery
37. Dawn’s counterpart
41. ___ Adams, signature on the Declaration of Independence (abbr. actually used)
42. Big name in little trucks
43. Equine-inspired phrase that means to be restless to start something (4 wds.) (5,2,3,3)
47. Chinese or Lao, say
49. Anger
50. Family card game
51. A little at a time...or an apt alternative title for this puzzle? (5 wds.) (3,2,3,2,3)
56. When repeated, a vitamin B deficiency
57. Purple smoothie ingredient berries at juice bars
58. Ready to be drawn (2 wds.) (2,3) (NO PTA anagram)
61. Have ____ feeling (just know something, intuitively) (2 wds.) (1,3)
62. Songstress Horne or actress Olin
63. Teatime treat
64. Legis. meeting (abbr.)
65. Staying power, in contemporary slang
66. Character featured in countless children’s stories who may be found in “His visits are always very pleasant affairs”
Down
1. What a qt. has two of (abbr.)
2. Tiny battery
3. Less pleasingly plump, perhaps
4. “Beloved” author Morrison
5. Puget Sound city locale of many events depicted in “The Boys in the Boat”
6. Norway’s patron saint
7. Japanese audio electronics brand
8. “S.O.S.!”
9. The Beatles’ “Back in the ___” (abbr./ initialism)
10. Man of La Mancha? (Span.)
11. Palate danglers
12. “Olympia” painter Édouard
13. Snail trail
21. Fed. fiscal agency (abbr./initialism)
22. What 13-Down might do
23. Naval officers (abbr.)
24. Black-and-white cookie
28. “Saving Private Ryan” craft (abbr./ initialism)
29. Kind of coil or car
30. Squid’s ink holder
31. Book end?
35. “Pow!”
36. Strike caller
37. The hart’s desire?
38. Open, as a shirt or blouse
39. Scrape, as the knee
40. Green Hornet’s sidekick
41. Big name in electronics
42. Bruce Springsteen sobriquet (2 wds.) (3,4) (SHE BOTS anagram)
43. Kind of grove
44. Self-help guru Steven R. Covey made a fortune writing about 7 of them
45. Leg bones
46. One of six that a Wordle player has available each day
47. Mahmoud ____, President of the State of Palestine
48. All-out attack
52. Another call that an 36-Down might make
53. Frozen drink whose name sounds like its first 2 letters
54. Orange powder-based beverage purportedly used by the Gemini Mission astronauts (GNAT anagram)
55. Ancient Andean
59. Insect found in Antalya, Antwerp and Antarctica?
60. Word that precede green, grass or gravel Atlanta-based channel
57. “Don’t Bring Me Down” grp.
Not All at Once Puzzle by Patrick “Mac” McIntyre
This crossword puzzle is the original work of Patrick “Mac”McIntyre. It is provided to us courtesy of Real Change News, a street paper based in Seattle, Washington. Learn more about Real Change News and the International Network of Street Papers at realchangenews.org and insp.ngo.
Housing/Shelter Vivienda/alojamiento Case Management Coordinación de Servicios
Academy of Hope Public Charter School
202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Pl. NE
202-373-0246 // 421 Alabama Ave. SE aohdc.org
Bread for the City 1525 7th St., NW // 202-265-2400 1700 Marion Barry Ave., SE // 202-561-8587 breadforthecity.org
Calvary Women’s Services // 202-678-2341 1217 Marion Barry Ave., SE calvaryservices.org
Catholic Charities // 202-772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp
Central Union Mission // 202-745-7118 65 Massachusetts Ave., NW missiondc.org
Charlie’s Place // 202-929-0100 1830 Connecticut Ave., NW charliesplacedc.org
Christ House // 202-328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd., NW christhouse.org
Church of the Pilgrims // 202-387-6612 2201 P St., NW (1-1:30 on Sundays only) churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach
Community Family Life Services 202-347-0511 // 305 E St., NW cflsdc.org
Community of Hope // 202-232-7356 4 Atlantic St., NW communityofhopedc.org
Covenant House Washington 202-610-9600 // 2001 Mississippi Ave., SE covenanthousedc.org
D.C. Coalition for the Homeless 202-347-8870 // 1234 Massachusetts Ave., NW dccfh.org
Father McKenna Center // 202-842-1112 19 North Capitol St., NW fathermckennacenter.org
Food and Friends // 202-269-2277
(home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc) 219 Riggs Rd., NE foodandfriends.org
Foundry Methodist Church // 202-332-4010 1500 16th St., NW foundryumc.org/idministry
Identification services
Friendship Place // 202-364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave., NW friendshipplace.org
Georgetown Ministry Center // 202-338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave., NW georgetownministrycenter.org
Jobs Have Priority // 202-544-9096 1526 Pennslyvania Ave., SE jobshavepriority.org
Loaves & Fishes // 202-232-0900 1525 Newton St., NW loavesandfishesdc.org
Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 marthastable.org 2375 Elvans Rd, SE
2204 Martin Luther King Ave. SE
Miriam’s Kitchen // 202-452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave., NW miriamskitchen.org
My Sister’s Place // 202-529-5991 (24-hr hotline) mysistersplacedc.org
N Street Village // 202-939-2076 1333 N St., NW nstreetvillage.org
New York Avenue Shelter // 202-832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave., NE
Patricia Handy Place for Women 202-733-5378 // 810 5th St., NW
Samaritan Inns // 202-667-8831 2523 14th St., NW samaritaninns.org
Samaritan Ministry 202-722-2280 // 1516 Hamilton St., NW 202-889-7702 // 1345 U St., SE samaritanministry.org
Sasha Bruce Youthwork // 202-675-9340 741 8th St., SE sashabruce.org
So Others Might Eat (SOME) // 202-797-8806 71 O St., NW some.org
St. Luke’s Mission Center // 202-363-4900 3655 Calvert St., NW stlukesmissioncenter.org
Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW thrivedc.org
Unity Health Care unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699
1500 Galen Street SE, 1251-B Saratoga Ave NE, 1660 Columbia Road NW, 4414 Benning Road NE, 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 765 Kenilworth Terrace NE, 850 Delaware Ave., SW, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 1151 Bladensburg Rd., NE, 4515 Edson Pl., NE
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St., NW // 202-328-5500 legalclinic.org
The Welcome Table // 202-347-2635 1317 G St., NW. epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable
Whitman-Walker Health 1525 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 1201 Sycamore Dr., SE whitman-walker.org
Woodley House // 202-830-3508 2711 Connecticut Ave., NW
For further information and listings, visit our online service guide at StreetSenseMedia.org/service-guide
Busser
Mi Vida // 1901 14th St. NW
Part-time / Full-time
Cleaning and clearing tables of dirty dishes, glassware, and silverware, and sanitizing or resetting them. Stocking and ensuring the restaurant has enough supplies. Customer service such as welcoming guests, taking drink orders, and delivering and removing dishes.
REQUIRED: Some restaurant experience preferred.
APPLY: tinyurl.com/MiVidabusser
Janitor
Community Bridge // 4510 Duke St. Alexandria, VA
Part-time
The janitor/cleaner is responsible for cleaning facility areas for “EVENTS DC.” These events are scheduled for seasonal openings. The janitor will clean interior and exterior areas of support facilities, including sidewalks and other specified areas. Janitors are also responsible for systemwide cleaning of bio-hazardous waste in arena facilities restrooms and designated areas.
REQUIRED: High school diploma
APPLY: tinyurl.com/JanitorCB
Food Service Worker
Compass group // 1150 Varnum St. NE
Part-time
Prepares, presents and serves food as needed. Duties include washing, peeling, cutting and seeding fruits and vegetables, storing food in designated areas following wrapping, dating, food safety and rotation procedures, serving customers and utilizing approved food recipes and production standards to ensure proper quality, serving temperatures and standard portion control.
REQUIRED: No previous experience is required.
APPLY: tinyurl.com/foodserviceTP
RITA
SAULS Artist/Vendor
Is the golden family though not Jane as with Calamity Jane. It’s free from pain heartache or strain. Like a high-speed train or a private plane destined to aim where proclaimed with all members aboard respectfully praising the Lord. Whether one generation or four the chosen family is forevermore.
Some days in my life have not been good. I’ve been fired from jobs where I was a hard worker or trying to help others work with me. Yes, it bothered me, but at the same time, those events made me stronger. I could take my difficult and challenging situations and be angry out here, but I choose to be happy and GOOD. We all have a choice about how we conduct ourselves in this world, and I’ve chosen happiness. So, how do you want to conduct yourself in this world?
Peace and love!
