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Homelessness and Poverty
Washington, DC
Who is Homeless?
- More than 16,000 people are homeless in Washington, D.C. over the course of a year1
- Families represent 33% of DC’s homeless population. Among the homeless singles population, men account for 82% of those in shelter, and women 18%.2
- The number of homeless families seeking shelter in DC more than doubled over the last five years amounting to 2,839 homeless families in fiscal year 2006.3
- Nationwide, one in 8 children under the age of 18 become homeless, which in D.C. would translate to approximately 1,300 homeless youth,4 far more than the 36 emergency shelter beds for homeless youth available in the District.5
- In the D.C. Metropolitan Area, 26% of all homeless people are mentally ill, 30% are substance abusers, 10% are physically disabled, and 9% are veterans.6
- 19% of individuals and 31% of adults in families that are homeless in D.C. work.7
Who is poor?
- Washington, D.C. has the 4th highest poverty rate in the country, with an overall poverty rate for 2005 of 17.7%.8
- As of 2004, 34% of all DC children under 18 years of age live at or below the poverty line – the highest rate of child poverty in the nation and about twice the nationally average.9
- In the District of Columbia, a worker earning the Minimum Wage ($7.00 per hour) must work approximately 140 hours per week in order to afford a two-bedroom unit at the area's Fair Market rent.10
Is there enough shelter?
- There are only approximately 2,000 emergency shelter beds available year-round for single adults in D.C., and 171 emergency shelter units for families.11
- The wait for emergency family shelter is approximately 6 months, and only 11% of the homeless families that applied in 2006 were placed in emergency family shelter.12
Is there enough housing?
- Washington, DC is the least affordable “state” in the country in terms of housing costs.13
- Rental vacancy rates fell from 2.9% in June 2005 to 2.1% in June 2006, the lowest rate in the nation, compared to a national average of 5.7%, while monthly rent averages jumped more than 7% from $1,722 to $1,894 over the same time period.14
- As of November, 2006, there were approximately 54,000 people on the waiting list for the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) and more than 30,000 people on the waiting list for Public Housing, 16,000 of whom report that they are homeless15
- The total number of occupied public housing units in D.C. declined by 15% between 1998 and 2000,16 and that decline has continued due to the destruction of public housing units under the federal HOPE VI program.
1 The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, Homeless in Washington DC: Point in Time and Annually (2003), available at http://www.community-partnership.org/homeless_facts-2003.pdf.
2 The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, E-Newsletter, Issue III (Nov. 2006).
3 The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (Elissa Silverman, Families In District Struggling for Shelter, Washington Post, 10/22/06 at B-1).
4 C. Raleigh-DuRoff, Factors that Influence Adolescents to Leave or Stay on the Street, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 21(6)(2004) at 561-572.
5 The Community Partnership, ENewsletter, supra, n.42.
6 MWCOG Homeless Enumeration, supra, n.2.
8 National Center for Children in Poverty: Family Economic Security: State Policy Context 2006; U.S. Census Bureau: 2004 American Community Survey, 2005)
9 U.S. Census Bureau: 2004 American Community Survey, 2005
11 D.C. Department of Human Services, The Winter Plan: Protecting the Lives of Homeless People in the Winter of 2006-2007 at 2 (Aug. 28, 2006).
12The Community Partnership, supra, n.6
14 Downey, Kristin. Rents Rise as Apartment Market Is Squeezed. Washington Post, July 5th, 2006
15 District of Columbia Housing Authority
16 Fannie Mae Foundation, supra, n. 29.
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