Blog 1 Post E

 

Washington D.C

    Washington DC has a population of 632.323 according to mayors.org report.18.2% of the Washington DC population lives under the poverty line. This is a number that is significantly increasing year after year. According to the report, the number of homeless families increased by 7.4 % and 8.5 % for individuals over the course of a year. An approximate 12,000 people were homeless in January according to the findings of  Metropolitan Washington Council of Goverment. This data was concluded based on head counts of people sleeping in the open and shelters, according to Chole Morello in a Washington Post article. Per preforming research many statistics largely differed. The reason for this inaccuracy is we have to take into consideration many of these are head counts and a large portion of the "homeless" may not identify themselves as homeless for a variety of reasons. Also these head counts in vast consist of individuals receiving services, however someone who is "couch" surfing is also homeless but not included in head count because they do not receive services.The faults in measurement largely affect many aspects of alleviating hunger. If we fail to know how many individuals need assistance, how do we know how many services we need to provide? 

       

           The largest shelter available in Washington DC is Federal City CCNV. This particular site contains 1350 available beds. It also provides many other services to about 2500 individuals in need. Motel beds are also an innovative way to provide beds for the homeless. Currently about 280 families are sleeping in motel beds on the city's expenses according to Morello. Approximately 300 families are also residing in an emergency shelter that was previously DC General Hospital complex. 

          As previously discussed, the lack of accurate measurement of the homeless is an area that needs improvement in order to alleviate homelessness. Accurate measurement would bring more light to the issue and perhaps encourage more organizations and goverment officials to prioritize this issue. Prioritizing is one of the largest problems in issues such as hunger and homelessness. Washington D.C has changed aspects such as increasing the minimum wage every year, however it is not enough. Priority is key, if enough priority would be placed on these issues the state would have the drive to be innovative and create more programs to efficiently alleviate homelessness.

 http://foxtravelandtours.com/old-ref/New%20Folder/assets/washington%207.jpg

 http://mayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2013/1210-report-HH.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/number-of-homeless-in-dc-region-rises-as-rents-increase/2014/05/14/db4638e4-dac4-11e3-b745-87d39690c5c0_story.html