Do or Die Homeless

The homeless situation in the District is scandalous. When you look in Southeast and Northeast and even some parts of Southwest, you can find blocks of empty apartment buildings, yet there is only one homeless family shelter in the city. HUD is giving $1.8 billion to the District. Washington is getting money at the city level as well, yet the homeless population is becoming larger. Remember one out of five homeless are children. The family shelter – DC General – is not accepting any new residents. Most of the money the District gets for homeless services is going toward back pay for things like hotels and past medical services.
President Obama proposed a bill to help homeless vets that did not include homeless families. It would be harder to get a bill passed to help homeless families. Then there are realtors that buy up buildings and keep them empty until the price of the real-estate in that area goes up. Then they remodel and start to rent. They are required to offer a small percentage of their units for low-income renters. The problems is that rental of low income housing is more than the voucher that the government gives. This creates a desperate situation for poor and homeless individuals and families. The people complain and landlords say that is their right to charge what they want for their property, leaving the people out of luck and housing!
Sooner or later it will be a desperate situation, do or die for the homeless. No money to live.