The History of Homelessness in Washington, D.C.: Part III, 1994-Present

Through the early 1990s, the basic approach of the District government was the emergency shelter, generally providing service from roughly 9:00p.m. to 5:30a.m. There were very few full-service facilities, and very little long-term shelter. Homelessness had been seen as simply a housing problem. 

Finally, in the mid-1990s, under the Clinton administration with Henry Cisneros as head of the Department of Housing and Urban Developm3ent (HUD), homelessness became a priority, both at the federal level and in D.C. specifically. 

The D.C. Initiative, proposed in 1993, changed the way the district looked at homelessness and continues to shape the city’s homeless programs. The federal government pledged $20 million over a period of five years to be used for turning D.C.’s fragmented homeless service system into an integrated “Continuum of Care,” building cooperative relationships between shelters, medical resources, and other support services, showing that the implications of homelessness went beyond simply not having a place to live. Furthermore, the continuum focused attention on long-term care to include job training, drug treatment, mental health services and domestic violence counseling, according to the executive summary and final report on the Homeless Initiatives Demonstration Program prepared for HUD in March of 2001. 

Prior to that, because D.C. was the nation’s capital, Clinton believed that it was best suited to demonstrate the effectiveness of a Continuum of Care, and so the District was the first of six areas awarded a Cooperative Homeless Initiatives grant, in 1994, which was followed in 1995 by an Innovative Project Funding grant allocated to “aggressive outreach efforts targeting the most vulnerable and difficult to serve homeless people.” 

The Community Partnership administered the $20 million grant for the Prevention of Homelessness, and the initiative did succeed in creating the desired Continuum of Care. 

The structure set up under the Initiative continues to serve the District’s homeless system, and the Community Partnership has maintained its role as coordinator of homeless services for the city. 

Fred Karnass, former Deputy Secretary at HUD responsible for overseeing homeless and HIV housing programs, pointed out, “the federal budget for homelessness doubled during the Clinton years.” 

Even so, the D.C. Initiative did not seem to address the housing crisis. “It seems like every year,” Karnass said, “there was a conversation about affordable housing,” and though the Continuum of Care made great strides in meeting the needs of the city’s homeless, some statistics argue that the rate of homelessness in the city actually increased between 1995 and 2000. Furthermore, the establishment of a Continuum of Care did little to create increased service facilities. 

“In D.C.,” Karnass added, “you’d think there would be a lot more room for the new kid on the block, but most of the shelters have been around for about 25 years.” 

Under the current Bush administration, homeless programs continued to be a priority. In 2001, amidst mixed public views, president Bush established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, paving the way for religious groups to apply for federal funds to use towards public service programs. 

During a 2001 visit to D.C.-based organization So Others Might Eat(SOME), Bush announced that more than $1 billion in federal grants would be issued to homeless programs, and in February 2004, the president issued an Executive Order allocating nearly $4 billion for faith-based and other community service organizations. 

In 2002, Philip Mangano was appointed Executive Director of Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH), a HUD council dedicated to coordinating various federal agencies and programs focusing on the delivery of housing aid services to homeless families, which had been dormant for some six years. Several months later, ICH announced a partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services and The Department of Veterans Affairs that would allow them to provide $ 35 million in permanent housing and critical services to long-term homeless people. 

In 2004, D.C. joined a group of 20 other cities in launching a 10-uear plan to end homelessness. D.C.’s effort was titled by Mayor Anthony Williams “homeless No More.” There are three central goals of the plan: use local and federal resources to increase homeless prevention efforts, develop and/ or subsidize at least 6,000 more units of affordable housing by the year 2014, and actively coordinate mainstream social services for homeless continuum of care residents. 

Even as the 10-year plan is being carried out, homelessness continues to be a major problem in the nation’s capital. Just this past year, several shelt3ers were closed and housing costs continue to rise. Though the FY 2005 Continuum of Care budget was increased, the recently announced FY 2006 HUD budget has been cut 11.5%. 

According to statistics from the Fannie Mae Foundation, on any given day, roughly 14,000 people are homeless in the District. Nearly half are families; one third are children. Regionwide, roughly 100,000 low-income households live on less than $10,000 a year. 

Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless points out that, to many D.C. residents, homeless people have become “part of the urban landscape.” There may, however, be hope. Stoops said that working with the homeless appears to be a very popular volunteer activity, with a very high percentage of young people “having had interaction with homeless people in a positive way.” 


Issues |Housing


Region |Washington DC

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