Families In District Struggling For Shelter

D.C. native Kishi Washington, 25, says she hasn't lived with a parent since she was 3 months old. She and her 12-year-old brother are seeking housing. (By Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)

The number of homeless families seeking shelter in the District has more than doubled in the past decade, a problem worsened by rising rents and a steady decline in the supply of low-cost housing. City officials say the situation has created a crisis and have asked landlords to delay evicting tenants who are unable to pay their rent.

Two years after Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) announced his "Homeless No More" initiative, an ambitious plan to "end homelessness as we know it" by 2014, top officials in the Human Services Department are scrambling to find available housing space before temperatures plummet.

Williams's plan called for building 3,000 housing units for low-income families, in line with a nationwide trend to move away from temporary shelter toward more comprehensive programs that combat poverty.

"Homeless No More is a long-term plan that doesn't address the short-term crisis which is occurring right now," said Kate Jesberg, who served as interim director of the city's Human Services Department until her retirement at the end of last month. She and her successor, Brian L. Wilbon, worry that many families might have no place to live by the end of the year.

A total of 2,839 families applied for emergency shelter in fiscal 2006, which ended Sept. 30, according to the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, the nonprofit organization that administers the city's homeless services. That is a decrease from the peak of 3,326 in 2004, but fewer housing units are available than previously, officials said. In fiscal 1996, 1,406 families applied for shelter.

Deputy Mayor Brenda Donald Walker said the city is "on target" with Williams's plan, having built 300 units of transitional housing in the first full year of implementation. "We've made tremendous progress," said Walker, deputy mayor for children, youth, families and elders. But she acknowledged that demand for shelter, especially for families, far exceeds supply.

The number of such transitional housing units is dwarfed by the growing problem. Because of rising housing prices in the District, fewer affordable apartments are available. Between 2000 and 2004, according to a report by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, the District lost 7,500 apartments priced at less than $500 a month. Housing officials say that more than 50,000 people are on waiting lists for a spot in public housing or through local aid or federally subsidized voucher programs.

Jesberg said she is so concerned that some weeks ago, as interim director of the human services agency, she urged a vice president of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, the city's biggest housing lobby, to encourage building owners to delay evicting tenants. She asked the public housing authority director to do the same. Jesberg said she wanted landlords to give the city a chance to implement a new $7 million rental assistance program.

The building association understands the concern, a spokesman said. Michael Kelly, executive director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority, said decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Many families who get into emergency shelter often can't afford to move out, according to Jesberg. The average length of stay in a District shelter two years ago was four months, but now the average is 18 months, according to numbers provided by the Community Partnership. "We have more people coming in the front door than . . . can get out of the system," Jesberg said.

Kishi Washington and her brother are among those caught by the public housing problem. Washington, 25, was unable to get help last month at the city's homeless intake center at 25 M St. SW, where she learned 350 families were ahead of her on an emergency shelter waiting list. Out of 1,394 D.C. families that applied between January and August, only 160 received assistance.

"I'll have to go down my friends list and see if there's somewhere we can go," Washington said in a soft voice, after she had called her case worker to check whether a shelter spot might have come available.