On February 22, 2013, Community of Hope’s Executive Director, Kelly Sweeney McShane, wrote an open letter in response to the recent news coverage about the crisis with homeless families in Washington, DC. This letter highlights her thoughts on the solutions to ending homelessness in the District.
Greetings,
If you live in the DC metro area or read our news, you have no doubt learned about the 600 homeless children stuck at DC General, the city’s largest emergency shelter for families.
It’s been in the Washington Post, on Channel 9 news, and on WTOP. Regardless of how you learned about these children, I agree it’s time to talk about it.
What do the 600 homeless children in the DC General shelter need? For those of us who work with these families daily, the answer is simple:
To end homelessness, families need housing.
Community of Hope ended homelessness for over 260 families last year, including 591 children. In order to ensure that there are no more children warehoused at DC General, we have to fix the overall system. Everyone agrees that shelter is no place for a child. But, after decades of a broken system, change is slow. Emergency services are not the permanent solutions we should be adding.
Community of Hope and partner, Transitional Housing Corporation (THC), came together to outline the following items that we believe are the necessary components for system change:
- Assessment and Prevention –We are now assessing up to 500 families who are homeless – many are at DC General now. Our tool helps match the needs of the family with right amount and type of resources.
- Short-term rental assistance and support services (AKA Rapid Rehousing) – Some families just need 3-9 months of rental assistance and help finding an affordable apartment and a job.
- Long-term rental assistance and case management (AKA Permanent Supportive Housing) – Designed for chronically homeless families (usually 10% of all homeless families), this resource has kept 98% of these families – many who were stuck at DC General for a long time – stably housed.
- Affordable housing – The high cost of housing in this area limits opportunities for families in shelters. The $100 million fund recently announced by Mayor Gray is a great start, especially if it will target residents at the lowest income levels.
So why haven’t we solved the problem yet?
System change isn’t easy. We must stay the course, even in times of crisis. We need to advocate for effective housing solutions, not more shelter. We need landlords to work with us to rent to families, even with short-term subsidies. We need to keep the sense of urgency going all year long – not just in cold weather.
I’ve shared with you before that Community of Hope, THC, and the District government have the opportunity to implement several of the best practice components for the first time with funding from the Freddie Mac Foundation. It’s their willingness to re-think the system – and your faithfulness as well – that mean these 600 children won’t be stuck in the shelter for as long.
As a faithful friend of Community of Hope, I wanted you to hear about the big picture. We can end homelessness. We are doing it every day. But there is still more to do. Thanks for your partnership in continuing to help another 600 children (or more) in the year ahead.
With hope,
Kelly Sweeney McShane
Executive Director
P.S. There is so much more to share on this topic. You can read about some of the families we’ve helped in the Stories of Hope section on our website.
