Homeless Services

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Homeless Services

The Downtown BID has the only non-governmental, clinically-based outreach team for the chronically homeless in Washington, DC. By working with property managers and business community leaders, and by collaborating with city officials and leading service providers, the Downtown BID aims to facilitate dialogue and build consensus to provide for the housing needs of Downtown's homeless, while decreasing the number of people living on the streets and in shelters.

The Downtown BID partners with city government and about 20 other service providers to incorporate best practices to end homelessness. Our six-person homeless outreach team provides street-level intervention to move individuals beyond homelessness to independence.

Program Services Areas

Outreach Services - provide comprehensive outreach services through a professional team, aided by Safety, Hospitality and Maintenance employees (SAMs)

Social Services and Mental Health Programs - find solutions to prevent and eliminate homelessness, rather than maintain it

Shelters - reconfigure shelters to move people beyond homelessness more quickly and use shelters as temporary housing

Street Food Programs - find alternatives to serving meals on the street and in parks and connect people to vital services and pre-housing programs

Education - use resources to get property managers, elected officials and other government decisionmakers, and the public to help homeless people in a positive way

Housing - adopt creative housing initiatives that focus on a person-centric approach to combating chronic homelessness

Funding - find a financial solution to mitigate homelessness

Facts About DC Homelessness

6,044 homeless single persons and families were counted in the January 2008 enumeration
Homeless persons increased by 5% from the 2007 count
2,184 persons are chronically homeless
378 persons were estimated to be sleeping on the street
Average age is 49
1,264 suffer from chronic substance abuse
521 are severely mentally illness
One in 10 has a severe mental illness co-occurring with chronic substance abuse
20% of homeless have chronic health problems
133 persons are living with HIV/AIDs
582 have been victims of domestic violence
11% are U.S. military veterans
468 do not speak English as their first language
734 homeless persons have lived in jails, prisons, hospitals, foster care, mental health or substance abuse treatment facilities or other institutional settings in the past, an 11% increase from the 2007 count

DC Shelters

About 13,000 single adults and 2,800 adults and children in about 530 families use emergency shelter every year
The 14% of single adults who use more than 180 nights a year use 57% of DC’s shelter capacity annually
At least 50% of DC’s shelter capacity for single adults would not be needed if all long-term shelter stayers were moved to permanent supportive housing

Source: Urban Institute

Source: Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness

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