Carol Morello’s article in today’s Washington Post “Number of homeless in D.C. region rises as rents increase,” is a must-read.
The Metropolitan Council on Government’s Homeless Services Planning and Coordinating Committee has managed a regional point-in-time enumeration since January 2001 to provide a snapshot of the number and distribution of homeless persons in our region. Itsreport – released yesterday – demonstrates that unprecedented numbers of young, single parent families in the nation’s capital are struggling to survive.
As a nonprofit organization with 40 years of experience offering shelter, transitional living and positive youth development activities for homeless youth and families in the District, we have many ideas on how to address this travesty. In fact, we have taken a leadership role in pushing new legislation sponsored by Jim Graham, Mary Cheh and Kenyan McDuffie through the DC Council, which if fully enacted, could end youth homelessness by 2020. Read about this important bill here.
The need to increase the District’s affordable housing stock is undeniable. And with the city hundreds of millions of dollars in the black, there should be no excuses to doing just that – and to implementing proven, homelessness prevention strategies. Click here for some of our ideas about that.