Make a Decision Already, Before Homeless Families Are Left Out in the Cold

by Ted Iobst · 2010-10-15 07:17:00 UTC
Topics:

When I wrote about Washington, D.C.'s impending winter housing crisis last month, I did so with what one might call "a shred of optimism." It appears that shred might have been misplaced. It's been more than a month since D.C. officials promised to improve the city's efforts to house homeless families during hypothermia season. Yet, as hypothermia season stands less than a month away, the District appears unprepared.

There are two key drivers of the city's lack of preparedness: a failure to recognize and a failure to act.

Failure to Recognize: The District's failure to recognize the magnitude of the situation has the potential to have an incredibly negative effect on the city's homeless families. The number of homeless families has already increased by over 10 percent his year. Given the economy, it is likely that figure will continue rise. The number of families already in shelters before winter begins  is also significantly higher than in years past.

According to city officials, instead of building additional family shelter space, they are going to focus their efforts on getting families into transitional housing. The relatively modest transitional housing stock (185 units) combined with the smaller "cushion" of space in family shelters makes this approach difficult to say the least. Further, municipalities adjacent to D.C. are cutting their own homeless services in a good old fashioned "race to the bottom," forcing D.C. to cope with a greater influx of homeless individuals from neighboring areas. Any one of these factors would be a cause for concern. Taken collectively, they suggest imminent, serious problems for the city's homeless population.

Failure to Act: Despite the urgency of the situation, local government has failed to take major action to create additional space for homeless families. Some within the administration have advocated expanding the existing facilities at the District's only family shelter, D.C. General. Others, including council member Tommy Wells and area advocates for the homeless, believe expanding the shelter would only worsen conditions for families there. Another proposal calls for the conversion of a former nursing home into a second family shelter. However, the alternative proposal has been put aside due to a classic case of NIMBYism.

Making sure proposals are well thought out is, of course, important. But when delaying a decision on one can cause more harm than implementing the second-best idea, it's time to act. For the sake of homeless families in D.C., that time is now.

Photo credit: D. Sharon Pruitt

Ted Iobst blogs about hunger, homelessness and poverty in Washington, D.C. at HelpTheDistrict.org and volunteers at Miriam's Kitchen.

RELATED PETITION

Tell DC Government To Shelter Families (With Children) This Winter
SIGN PETITION
586 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
Cow Pies, Poverty and Politics
NEXT STORY:
Is the NCAA Putting Student Athletes at Risk?

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.