News about Homelessness in D.C.

A nationwide study released to be Tuesday by the Chicago-based hunger relief group Feeding America indicates a sharp uptick in the number of Americans relying on food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters for day-to-day survival. In Cook County, the report estimated that more than 678,000 people — including a quarter of a million children — received some form of emergency food last year.

Area census workers encounter challenges every year trying to get an accurate census of the region's homeless population.

With the economy faltering, the number of youngsters living in homes without enough food soared in 2008 from 13 million to nearly 17 million, the Agriculture Department reported last month. Worse, new research suggests that childhood hunger is more complex than previously understood and is unlikely to be solved simply by spending more money for food programs.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Department of Housing and Community Development Director Leila Edmonds have announced the availability of $7.5 million in Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing (HPRP) funds, which are part of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The District will distribute these resources to prevent homelessness and to re-house District residents who are experiencing homelessness.

The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.

D.C. Council members and shelter providers were stunned to learn this week that the Fenty administration has cut $20 million from the city's homeless services budget for fiscal 2010. Advocates said the funding decrease likely will result in shelters being closed, forcing hundreds of adults and children onto the streets within months.

The D.C. government is quietly preparing to take nine homeless people off city streets and put them into publicly funded apartments, playing down any fanfare to protect the identities of the recipients, who are mentally ill.

In defiance of all reason and compassion, the criminalization of poverty has actually been intensifying as the recession generates ever more poverty. So concludes a new study from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which found that the number of ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with ticketing and arrests for more “neutral” infractions like jaywalking, littering or carrying an open container of alcohol.

D.C. officials plan to increase the number of beds available to homeless people by 10 percent in the wintertime in an effort to reduce cases of hypothermia. Advocates for the homeless, however, are worried that even with the increase, there won't be enough beds, as the economy remains troubled. Even though demand is usually low in the summer, space is scarce at shelters.

On Capitol Hill, services employ the homeless to stand in lines to ensure lobbyists are able to get seats at key congressional hearing.