DC is a magnet for the homeless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homelessness is DC seems less bad than most other cities I've lived in. In fact, it really didn't here exist until Reagan kicked the people out of St. E's.

Homelessness definitely existed. For the record, most homeless people aren't deinstitutionalized crazy people. There is a lot of mental illness but it isn't what you think. There are tons of people who end up out on the streets who just have had bad things happen to them.

We need to get past the stereotypes about homeless people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one comes to DC because they are homeless. They become homeless because DC is so expensive. MD's numbers have gone down because they don't turn anyone away from shelter in the winter.

Go to Miami Beach, where it's warm all year round, and then report back. That's where people actually migrate to if they're already homeless....

This makes no sense. There's more affordable housing a $3 Metro trip away from any point in DC. The idea that MD's numbers are far lower per capita than DC's "because they don't turn anyone away from shelter in the winter" is touchingly naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I blame the lack of affordable housing in DC...I don't find it particularly useful to separate our various jurisdictions into totally separate entities. A homeless person from Montgomery County can step across Carroll Street in Takoma Park and instantly become a homeless person in DC. A homeless person in Virginia can walk across the Key Bridge and become a homeless person in DC.

Nothing like the convenience of self-refuting arguments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in social services, and we talk about this a lot.

There are a lot of reasons for DC's high numbers of homeless people - children and adults. I blame the lack of affordable housing in DC. You can hem and haw all you want, but the reality is that there is almost no affordable housing for families in DC, especially not in safe neighborhoods. It doesn't exist, and people become homeless every day because of this.

Mental illness and drug addiction are responsible for homelessness in many instances. Many addicts are not able to work. Not all addicts are single adults - some of them are young people with children. Many communities have strong cultural aversion to treating mental illness because it's believed to be a character flaw, so people resist treatment that could otherwise help them to stabilize.

I don't find it particularly useful to separate our various jurisdictions into totally separate entities. A homeless person from Montgomery County can step across Carroll Street in Takoma Park and instantly become a homeless person in DC. A homeless person in Virginia can walk across the Key Bridge and become a homeless person in DC.

One of the things that one of my colleagues who works with homeless veterans told me that I thought was interesting was also that DC has a lot of mentally ill homeless people come here because it's the capital - not because they heard that things are hunky dory for homeless people in DC, but because they have a fixation with Obama, or Congress, or whatever else that is unique to this city.

As for the policy shifts, I think some posters may be a bit confused. By law, DC must provide shelter to FAMILIES seeking shelter year-round. Mandatory shelter for individuals is only in effect during hypothermia season. It's not that anyone anywhere can get any kind of services they want in DC just by asking whenever they want to.

Sure, but the funds to help them does come from separate entities, which is why people do care. A lot.

No kidding. I just think that it's helpful to remember how close these jurisdictions actually are and stop pretending that what happens on the DC side of the river isn't the Virginia side's problem.

As a collective the DMV can't even get Metro to function. Hoping for a tri-state solution here seems unlikely.

If that's truly the case, then DC has a moral imperative to push as much of the problem out to MD and VA as it can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This problem of homelessness is great in many big metro areas. SF is terrible and Seattle is even worse. LA too.

Some cities do "dump" their homeless elsewhere by giving them a one-way bus ticket out of town. It's shameful.

Your scare-quotes should be around "their" not "dump". And the solution to this is to fund homeless services at the national (or at least the regional) level. Otherwise a race to the bottom by the various jurisdictions is obviously going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the tent community that has formed on the under passes behind the Kennedy Center (Whitehurst Freeway ramp)?

Formed? That community was there when I moved to DC, in 1986.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Per the report, DC ends up having to count, accommodate and place the homeless without particularly considering their residency or eligibility.

How exactly do you determine the residency of a homeless person?

In DC, there are multiple ways defined in the law: utility bill; lease; and a few others. Of course, one of the others is a "written verification from a verifier" Which means that if you say you're from DC, then you're from DC.

(iv) Written verification by a verifier who attests, to the best of the verifier’s knowledge, that the individual or family lives in the District voluntarily and not for a temporary purpose and has no intention of presently moving from the District.

https://beta.code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/code/titles/4/chapters/7A/subchapters/I/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps they should look at providing incentives for staying with family members. And if they don't have family in DC, then why stay here?

Really, who in their right mind would move to a place they have never been to before, with no money and no connection to anyone? It's one thing to have no family. It's another to have no one who can give you a job, no friends to lean on.

Don't migrants and refugees do it all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's policies have made it the dumping grounds for the Mid-Atlantic's homeless:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Homeless-Population-Has-Jumped-14-Percent-Survey-Says-379011131.html

In DC, homelessness has gone up 14%, while decreasing everywhere else

This is honestly a disaster. How exactly have we proven we can take care of homeless? WHY did Bowser extend the year round right to shelter??? Are we just trying to be san Francisco of the east? san Francisco sounds so gross. I think every council member and the mayor should house a homeless if they pursue these policies. And if we are taking in all of md and va homeless it's time for that commuter tax. Yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one comes to DC because they are homeless. They become homeless because DC is so expensive. MD's numbers have gone down because they don't turn anyone away from shelter in the winter.

Go to Miami Beach, where it's warm all year round, and then report back. That's where people actually migrate to if they're already homeless....

This makes no sense. There's more affordable housing a $3 Metro trip away from any point in DC. The idea that MD's numbers are far lower per capita than DC's "because they don't turn anyone away from shelter in the winter" is touchingly naive.

Um, affordable housing in this area, really?
Go to any major southern city where prices are lower and it's warmer, and you will see lots of homeless. I've seen more homeless in Raleigh and Atlanta than I've seen here. I think there is more public transport here that everyone rides.

Heck, we even saw homeless living in big box store parking lots in Kansas this year. First time I had seen that as a KS native.

[Anonymous]

Uh no sorry. I lived in AZ during college, you really don't know what a homeless problem is.

There will always be homeless problem because they have closed the mental institutions. Our mentally ill citizens have no place to go.