Another Difficult Winter in Store for D.C.'s Homeless

Last winter, with a record 55 inches of snow, was a harsh one for Washington, D.C. The city's homeless outreach quite understandably was unable to reach and assist many of the street homeless in their time of crisis, as roads became impassible and all above-ground metro service was halted. The city was literally shut down.

D.C. Central Kitchen, which provides food to all city shelters, was unable to deliver some of the meals, causing those without money to go hungry or go to the park in hopes of being fed by church groups and other do-gooders. Those with money had to fight their way through knee-deep snow to buy a meal at McDonald's. Many people could do little more than sit around for days on end, as they waited for their streets to be plowed and life to return to normal. With last winter having been a "perfect storm" of troubles for D.C.'s homeless, this hypothermia season is shaping up to become more of the same.

While the severity of last winter may have been unpredictable, local government was given fair warning, despite some people's statements to the contrary. In July 2009 dozens testified in front of a city councilman about the shortage of shelter and the fact that many shelters were at or near capacity in mid-summer, creating grave concern about how the city would deal with the spike in shelter usage that always occurs in winter. During that hearing a video was shown in which various homeless people described their need for shelter. The last interviewee had died in June — just three days after being videotaped.

During a post-winter hearing, D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, who oversees the Department of Human Services, seemed appalled by reports of over 200 families being crowded into a shelter that was made to accommodate only 135 and of male employees having sex with female residents. During that same hearing, he addressed news reports of a shelter employee arrested for dealing drugs at the shelter. Councilman Wells maintained that there was sufficient shelter for single men and women, but said that we needed more shelter for families. The city admits that it still lacks sufficient shelter for families, which leaves one to wonder why Wells and his colleagues still haven't fixed a problem which they became aware of 15 months ago.

In keeping with the city's way of closing shelters right before the onset of hypothermia season (officially Nov. 1 to March 31, or any time the temperature dips below 33 degrees, according to D.C. law), officials closed the La Casa Shelter late last week. A replacement shelter is slated to become available soon at the D.C. General Hospital campus several miles away (in a part of town where many former La Casa residents are reluctant to move).

Though DHS is in the process of housing 90 men from the 90-bed La Casa, we learned from the 2008 Franklin School Shelter closure that as many as 1,000 men used its 300 beds in a three-month period. Using a prorated guesstimate, it is safe to assume that as many as 300 men relied on La Casa over the last three months, due to people using different shelters from time to time as well as the street homeless coming indoors during bad weather.

D.C. law requires that all homeless people be provided with shelter when the temperature is 32 degrees or below (including the windchill factor) or 95 and above (including the heat index). So, as the street homeless who are accustomed to receiving services in the Columbia Heights neighborhood seek to go indoors this winter, they will be forced to go to another neighborhood or sleep outdoors. Sadly, some will choose the latter — and possibly die because of their choice.

As if that's not enough, the city is presently grappling with a projected $175 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year that began on October 1st, 2010. How much of that burden the homeless will have to shoulder remains to be seen. DHS will most likely spend as much as necessary during hypothermia season, re-assess the budget in April and cut services for the last half of the fiscal year. Increased spending on homeless services will serve as the justification for reducing services later on.

And so, with government officials having not learned from past fiascoes, it's "first and ten, do it again." They were warned in July of 2009 about the impending shelter shortage and then heard testimonies which proved just how accurate those dire predictions became. Help hold D.C. accountable for how it treats its most vulnerable populations!

Photo credit: Daniel Lobo