We long for the day when no lives will be lost to homelessness. In the meantime, the greatest honor that we can pay to those who died this past year is to re-commit ourselves to doing all that we can to ensure that every District resident has a place to call home.
In Memoriam
We honor those who died homeless this year….
Clearing encampments addresses a visible symptom of the District’s homelessness crisis, not the crisis itself.
The current manner in which the District is clearing encampments violates the Constitutional rights of encampment residents, which is the basis for a class action lawsuit recently filed against the District over its encampment clearing practices.
The Final Homeless Services Reform Amendment Act: Where We Stand
In the midst of DC’s affordable housing crisis, the majority of the DC Council chose to limit access to emergency shelter.
Significant Progress on the Plan to Close DC General
Last Tuesday, the DC Council made changes to the Mayor’s proposed legislation to close the DC General family shelter and voted unanimously in favor of the bill. (It requires two votes to become law). We strongly support the changes to the bill and urge the Mayor and Council to work out any remaining kinks and expeditiously finalize and pass this important legislation. The new version of the bill maintains the overall approach proposed by Mayor...
No Guarantee of Shelter for Homeless Youth in Winter Plan
Last Wednesday, November 13, the Interagency Council on Homelessness convened a special meeting to discuss and vote on the addendum to the District’s Winter Plan that would guide how homeless youth should be served this winter. The Legal Clinic, along with many others in the community, had expressed concern that the prior draft did not adequately plan to meet the need of unaccompanied youth, and that no District agency was embracing...
