For the Homeless, a Childhood Finally in Reach

"I think it's excellent," said Falisa Hurt, 41, who has two sons, James Prince, 6, and Robert Lee Prince Jr., 10, with her at the shelter. "The kids don't really have anything to do."

Some of the shelter rules at D.C. Village help preserve safety, but may impede play: Children must be under the supervision of their own parents at all times. That means a parent can never take a break from his or her children; there is no baby-sitting allowed. But some parents have used the weekly playtime to organize an advocacy group pushing for affordable housing and improvements in shelter conditions.

Larson, a social worker at an elementary school in Southeast, started a weekly play program for homeless children as a college student in Minnesota. In 2003 she began Tuesday night visits to play with children at the Community for Creative Non-Violence shelter at Second and D streets NW. When the city's Department of Human Services moved many of the families out of the shelter, enforcing a long-standing rule against families living there, Larson turned her efforts to D.C. Village.

The group has about 60 active volunteers, who are asked to commit to two Sundays a month. All volunteers receive training in working with homeless children and undergo a background check, which a local law firm does for free.

Most of the project volunteers are young, white professionals, a vastly different demographic from the majority African American families at the shelter. But Larson has looked for ways to make the group more diverse. Several Gallaudet University students recently went through training, which was facilitated with a sign language translator, and the deaf students have started to work with the children. Students at the Howard University School of Social Work volunteered at the shelter's holiday party, where each child received a gift and took a picture with Santa Claus, and they plan on staying involved.

Even with the endless smiles and gushing feedback from the children and parents, Larson said, her project is a Band-Aid approach for the serious issues facing the homeless children.

"Children have a right to play -- that's why we exist -- but they also have a right to receive therapeutic services and mental health and health services and developmental screenings," Larson said. She would like to see District shelters have a separate coordinator for children's services.

"This is like dessert, but it's not the meal that they need," she said.