"The Little Match Girl" is the story of a poor child who is cold and hungry on New Year's Eve and who sees a holiday feast through a window. During the night the little girl freezes to death and is escorted to heaven, where she is warm and her hunger is satisfied.
The District has far too many of its own little match girls. A third of its children live below the federal poverty line. We have a billion-dollar convention center and plan a richly appointed baseball stadium, but we also have the greatest gap between rich and poor of any urban area in the nation. In the District:
• Some 11,500 children live in families with insufficient income to buy adequate food; more than 3,000 go without food at least one day a month.
• One child in six has no health insurance, and the District has the worst record on prenatal care of any U.S. city.
• The rate of homelessness is three times higher than the national average. Almost 1,000 families with children apply for emergency shelter each year. Of the more than 2,000 children in these families, 1,200 are 5 or younger. Only 300 families are provided shelter each year. Hundreds are on the waiting list for emergency shelter at any time. Yet the District is closing shelters just as winter starts.
• More than 26,000 families are on the waiting list for rental assistance vouchers, and more than a quarter of those who obtain vouchers cannot find apartments.
• Violence is the leading cause of death among adolescents.
Our collective neglect of children is unforgivable when we have the power to make a difference.
JONATHAN M. SMITH
Executive Director
Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
Washington
