WASHINGTON, DC – Successfully ending homelessness requires collaborative local, regional and national partnerships because no one entity can tackle this pervasive problem alone. When all parties work together, homeless individuals and the community at large benefit, according to the Downtown DC Business Improvement District’s (BID) latest leadership paper.
The report, “Ending Chronic Homelessness in DC: A Unified Strategy,” notes that the Downtown BID Homeless Services Team has identified and reconnected more than 700 homeless individuals to families and service providers since 2008, and the number of homeless people living on Downtown streets at night has dropped to 73 in January 2010 from 139 in January 2008 due to a Housing First model that steers homeless individuals toward independent lives and away from the streets.
The Downtown BID reduces chronic homelessness through a unified approach involving other DC BIDs, the city, service providers and nonprofit organizations. Recent developments include working with or using:
- The DC Public Library – to provide an innovative outreach program for the homeless
- Martha’s Table – to connect former homeless individuals to groceries and clothing
- Common Ground – to create diverse housing stock for the formerly homeless and low-income residents
- A Vulnerability Index – to identify and prioritize the street homeless population to qualify for housing
“Expanding our network of service providers, advocates, policy makers and government officials working on behalf of the homeless community can only lead to more, and we believe, improved strategies to confront homelessness,” said Richard H. Bradley, the Downtown BID’s executive director.
The Downtown BID contracts with Pathways to Housing DC and partners with more than 20 other public and nonprofit entities to plan and implement homeless social services. The BID provides direct services through two coordinated programs, its Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST), consisting of 12 specially trained members of the Downtown Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance team, known as SAMs, and the Downtown Homeless Services Team, which consists of six workers—a clinical director, two social workers, a certified addiction counselor, a licensed psychologist and a community support worker.
The leadership paper is the seventh in the Downtown BID’s occasional series of working papers to foster dialogue about critical issues relating to Downtown Washington’s economic, social and physical environment. In October 2008, the BID published its first homeless paper, “Homelessness Downtown: Moving People from the Street to Independence,” which outlined the organization’s commitment to combat homelessness through innovation and collaboration, and by being accountable.
Among the other highlights in the latest leadership paper:
- A profile of Chet Grey, the Downtown BID’s director of Homeless Services, and Jonathan Ward, clinical director of the BID’s Downtown Homeless Services Team
- An overview of DC government efforts to end homelessness
- Statistical facts about DC’s homeless population
- A map showing homeless services and facilities in the Downtown BID area and where homeless persons were located in a homeless count taken on January 27, 2010
“The BID’s philosophy is that homeless individuals are part of the city’s fabric, too,” says Grey. “And like every other citizen—Downtown workers, residents and visitors—we need to serve them. At the same time, we’re not about maintaining homelessness or enabling the homeless; we’re about finding solutions to people living on the streets.”
For copies of the leadership paper, please contact Chet Grey at 202.661.7575 or chet@downtowndc.org. The report is also available on the Downtown BID’s website at www.downtowndc.org/homeless.