Workers Stranded By Housing Costs
By Mary Otto
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 12, 2005
The Washington region's homeless population rose again for the fifth straight year, and the numbers include many working families who can no longer afford a place to live in the costly suburbs, according to results of an annual survey.
This year's total -- 15,439 -- reflects thousands of parents and children, low-wage workers, and people with mental and physical disabilities, addictions and AIDS.
A majority of the people counted across the region on that single day in January rely on a network of shelters, food pantries and social services to help them. But in one hopeful note, slightly more than a quarter, 4,020, are considered "permanently supported homeless" -- meaning they have found their way to housing programs that support their disabilities and other needs.
"There is some good news: More people are living in permanent supportive housing," said Fran Becker, a Virginia shelter director who headed this year's survey for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
"But," Becker added, "homelessness is not going away quickly."
This year's count represents a 6.2 percent increase over last year's total, 14,537. The increase can be explained largely by the inclusion of Frederick County for the first time and the increase in permanently supported homeless people, Becker said.
The count showed that in several suburban counties, at least half of the heads of homeless households are working. In Loudoun County, 79 percent of homeless adults in families have jobs.
"They are in the homeless system. That speaks to the affordable housing crisis," said J. Stephen Cleghorn of the District-based Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness.
Among the adults counted, 2,700 were suffering from problems that cause them to cycle repeatedly through shelters and hospitals, using a disproportionate amount of the services. Many have needs that could be addressed by a combination of housing and supportive services, a focus of regional efforts now, Becker said.
Prince George's County was the only jurisdiction that showed a substantial decrease: more than 20 percent from 2004. County officials did not return phone calls to account for the decrease.
The annual count -- conducted at shelters, soup kitchens, campsites and social agencies -- attempts to provide a point-in-time snapshot of the homeless population.
Homelessness is often rising most visibly in such places as Washington where housing prices have spiraled out of reach of the poor, said Nan Roman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Based on current rents, a worker in the Washington region must be paid $22.83 an hour to afford a basic two-bedroom apartment, according a study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
And with federally funded public housing, rental programs and Medicaid dollars dwindling, the needs of the poor are increasingly falling on state and local governments, said Linda Couch, deputy director of the coalition. "Counties and local governments are scrambling to make this work," she said. "We anticipate a really hard road ahead."
Shelly Duckett, 40, a Silver Spring mother of three, said she knows about that hard road. The Journeys program that has helped her get sober, maintain housing and get her children out of foster care is facing elimination in Montgomery County's budget.
In the District yesterday, three homeless families were turned away from the city intake center and told there was no vacancy in the system, said Gina Kline, a law clerk with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
Staff writer Theola S. Labbe contributed to this report.