Homelessness

The tent Chris Cole lived in was a sauna. It wasn’t even 7 a.m. and she could already feel the sun. Her thin roof offered little protection as the temperature outside climbed to 95 degrees. She could hardly breathe. She had to get indoors.…

Doug had a housing voucher, but he was still sleeping outside.  Three days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, he boarded a train to DC on the promise of a job. When he arrived, he learned his start date was delayed. The place he had…

Olivia Rodriguez-Nunez still remembers dancing around in a jumper at the age of 4. If she undid the buttons on the side, it felt like she was wearing a dress. The thrill that thought gave her — commonly called gender euphoria — was one of…

DC’s voucher waitlist is 37,000 people long, but the city government is only planning to fund 20 new vouchers for the residents on it.

Vicki Paige was determined not to move. As she settled into a wrought-iron garden chair in Columbus Circle across from Union Station, she watched with skepticism as her neighbors packed for the day’s encampment removal. “The police will…

Dr. Catherine Crosland, medical director of emergency response sites at Unity Health Care, remembers an older man she used to care for — one of the first people admitted to DC’s Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable…

Yulyia Demetria needed a job. She didn’t need training, having worked in customer service before. She didn’t need to spend a year learning hard skills. She just needed a steady income to move herself and her son out of a domestic…

Flo White thought she had it all figured out: go to college part time while working two jobs to pay the rent on her new apartment.  And for a while, it went well. For the first time ever, White felt as though her life was going…

Local housing advocates thought they had prevailed in their long-standing push to allow people seeking housing vouchers to self-certify their eligibility, but they’re crying foul after the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) distributed guidance…

Housing advocates across the District are demanding that the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) reform the way it administers housing vouchers so people experiencing homelessness can be matched sooner with a place to live. On Feb. 9, DCHA’s Board…

Meet Foggy Bottom advisory neighborhood commissioners Yannik Omictin and Evelyn Hudson, who have used their elected office to advocate for the rights of their constituents experiencing homelessness.

As extreme weather persists and increases nationally, floods, excessive heat and poor air quality in the District disproportionately harm those living outside, people of color and people living east of the Anacostia River.  Donté…

How does someone experiencing homelessness in the District find housing? Here’s what you need to know about coordinated entry and the process for finding housing if you’re homeless in DC.

Some families living in rapid rehousing (RRH) received letters in the mail last week informing them the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) would be terminating their rental subsidies on Oct. 31. The letters, dated Aug. 17, contradict an…

More than 1,000 families who have stayed in the rapid rehousing program (RRH) beyond its usual time limit due to the pandemic are receiving an official extension — and some may get an extra reprieve along with job training. No one in…

During the pandemic, families living in rapid rehousing have not been required to move out once their time in the program ends. Now, with the publicly declared health exemption coming to an end, many program participants are growing…

Keith Pollard, the deputy director of youth housing programs at SMYAL (pronounced “smile”), knows just what it’s like to come face to face with discrimination. He began his advocacy work with the organization in 2015 because he “always…

At a quarter past 3 on a recent weekday afternoon, Alexander, an unsheltered resident who lives in a tent, was trying not to cry. Alexander, who agreed to an interview under the condition he not be photographed or fully named, has been…

For years, many homeless residents in DC lived in Franklin Park, located on K Street NW. Not only were tents a permanent fixture on the park’s grassy lawns, but nonprofits such as Martha’s Table used the park as a base for homeless…

Taylar Nuevelle is not a social worker. She is not a representative working on behalf of a government agency. She is not a wealthy philanthropist feeling charitable. She’s a disrupter with a very specific cause: helping unhoused women get…