Reply to Bowser Spreads the Wealth opens homeless shelters in each DC ward

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]http://ich.dc.gov

Start your journey here. Read about the homeless situation in DC as well as the game plan to address it.

Recognize that you have well over 1,000 homeless families in DC (and that's likely a lower estimate than reality since it's based on the point in time count). Recognize that there are well over 2,000 homeless kids in DC. These families must live somewhere. These children must go to school somewhere.

I realize that some of you feel like you worked hard to afford your nice home and good school. That's fine. But you live in DC, and DC has a homeless family housing crisis. Fortunately, the mayor is doing her best to address the problem (whereas many communities simply ignore the problem and waste so much money on emergency responses and services like shelters, ambulances, ER visits, etc.).

Data proves that the best practice is to disperse families in need of assistance throughout the community as opposed to segregating them in the poorest neighborhoods.

The bottom line is this: if you don't like it, then you can leave. Move WOTP. Move into a gated community in the burbs. Nobody will make you stay. It just seems so odd to me that city folk are getting hysterical over this. I mean, you live in DC...a city with a homeless family housing crisis...what do you expect? If you want a homogenous neighborhood, then look elsewhere.

I'm sure someone will say, "Why should we leave? We bought our home and want to stay!" That's fine. You can stay. Nobody will make you leave. But please realize that these families are lifetime DC residents. They aren't transplants. Their DC roots run deep...generations. They can't leave because they have nowhere to go. These are people suffering the effects of generational poverty. They've been failed by the education system. They've been failed by the child welfare system. Their communities have been over-policed, they've been criminalized (and so have their parents, brothers and sisters), and they are saddled with court imposed fines and debt that propel them into a never ending cycle of crisis. They live in a world that you can't even begin to comprehend. It's beyond sad. It's a rather hopeless existence.

Having worked in this arena for two decades, I count my blessings everyday because I realize that my life has a great deal to do with the fact that the deck wasn't stacked against me when I was born into a two-parent home with loving, well-educated, healthy, mentally stable, employed parents who themselves had a well-resourced family network. And I focus my career and pro bono work on doing whatever I can to try to improve the system for those who unfortunately entered the world with the cards stacked against them.

I honestly think that you'll be pleasantly surprised when you realize these plans ultimately have zero impact on your lives. I truly believe that.

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I am living 4 blocks from one of these shelters, and have no issue with it - as I feel the homeless crisis is one we all must deal with together. But your post annoys me. Why say "you" and not "we" do you work in DC and not live here?  Or are you one of those transplants who just are seperate.

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