The Problem of Homelessness in Washington, D.C.

Homelessness affects every major city in the United States to some degree. As one of the most visible social issues facing urban areas today, there have been numerous studies on homelessness in the United States that help reveal the scope of the issue. As a part of the 2010 census, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) determined that there were nearly 408,000 homeless individuals in the United States at the time of the census, or about 0.1 percent of the nation’s population (2011). The problem is even more severe in Washington, D.C., where 1.2 percent of the city’s population is homeless (Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments [MWCOG), 2014). Although this is initially shocking, many of Washington’s homeless individuals are receiving some sort of care and shelter. The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness found that only about 550 people in the nation’s capital are homeless with no access to shelter, compared to nearly 7,000 who have access to some form of government-funded or private shelter (n.d.).

Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller believed the first step to solving a problem in society was determining the problem’s root cause. Many of the organizations working to end homelessness in the Washington area are actively investigating these root causes to allow them to better fight this problem. Among the causes identified are an increase in rent without a proportional increase in wages and inadequate and inefficient government assistance to homeless individuals.

Between 2010 and 2014, the homeless population in Washington, D.C. rose 18 percent (MWCOG, 2014). Rent in the Washington area has historically been higher than the national average already, and from 2010 to 2014, rental costs rose even higher without a proportional increase in wages. This reduced the amount of available housing, and left many housing options in the Washington area too expensive for low income families. Many other causes of homelessness, like economic recession and inability to work, could be minimized by lowering the cost of housing. MWCOG wants to target these high costs to reduce homelessness, describing them as “the most significant and persistent obstacle to ending homelessness” in the region (2014).

Currently, many homeless individuals in Washington, D.C. are placed in hotel rooms paid for by the city to give them a place to stay, which can cost up to $3,000 per family, per month (Harding, 2012). Hotels are an easy way to quickly reduce the number of people on the streets, but offer little support to the families living in them. This makes it much harder for the next generation to rise out of poverty. Critics believe this system does not provide a sustainable solution to homelessness in the city. More so, public assistance alone is often not sufficient for a family to afford adequate housing. The National Coalition for the Homeless found that since 2006, Supplemental Security Income alone was no longer sufficient to cover the average rental cost of a studio apartment in the United States (2009). For individuals without jobs or who are unable to work, this means it will be impossible for them to afford housing. Many feel homeless individuals need more government assistance, and that the assistance they are receiving should be used more efficiently.

The best solutions to the problem of homelessness address both the immediate needs of homeless individuals and provide resources to reduce homelessness in the long run. Thomas Jefferson called this concept the balance between the head and the heart, where our head is concerned with the most efficient means of philanthropy, while our heart aims to immediately help an individual who is suffering. The class’s grant should be awarded to an organization that is able to appropriately balance these two different means of assistance. Thrive DC is an organization that works with homeless individuals in the Washington metro area. They do not provide overnight shelter, but are able to provide meals and basic necessities to people in need for no charge. They are also working to help eliminate homelessness by providing resources to help homeless individuals find jobs and get out of poverty. These resources include a 23 week career training program, access to computers for resume writing and job searching, and finance and budgeting workshops.

Thrive DC also has a relationship with the University of Maryland, accepting volunteers as part of Gemstone’s Experiential Internship Program. Thrive’s programs are promising because they allow people to lift themselves out of poverty, giving future generations a chance to succeed and helping to break homelessness’s cyclical nature. Thrive does not, however, address the high cost of housing in the city directly, which many believe to be the largest contributing factor to homelessness.

Habitat for Humanity helps to address housing costs in the area by constructing and selling homes to low income families at below-market prices, helping to bring down the overall cost of housing in the region. Although Habitat is trying to address the root cause of homelessness, it is much less sustainable than Thrive’s approach. Simply providing housing does not inherently give someone all the resources they need to avoid poverty and homelessness in the future. They are certainly doing good work in their community for the people they are able to provide affordable housing to, but are not the most sustainable investment for our grant.

Ideally, the class’s grant would be used to help lower the overall cost of housing in the Washington area, addressing what many see to be the root cause of homelessness. Housing prices, however, are set largely by the interaction of the free market and government rent control laws, making them very difficult to change. The best way to lower prices would be to flood the market with affordable housing, but that would require significantly larger financial resources than we have available. The best use of our money, therefore, is to equip at-risk individuals to combat the problem of high housing costs by helping them find steady, well paying employment. Thrive DC’s programs fit this vision well, making them a promising preliminary candidate for our grant. Further investigation will be necessary, however, to ensure that they are also achieving the goal of using their funding efficiently and effectively, This could include site visits to see Thrive’s programs in action and review of the organization’s publicly released tax information to ensure they are using their funding appropriately. Our grant will have the biggest impact with an organization that doesn’t simply help the homeless in the Washington area, but works towards John D. Rockefeller’s vision of eliminating the problem of homelessness at its roots.

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