Homeless Demand Our Aid

This won't be my usual "remember the homeless" column, a staple of winter writings in years past. There will be no profile of some randomly selected street person whom you can either pity with a donation or curse in contempt. Either we're going to put an end to chronic homelessness in America. Or not. And featuring a few more sad faces for Thanksgiving or during the first cold days of the year falls squarely in the category of doing little if anything to solve the problem.

Call me Scrooge. And I'll return the favor. For we only mock this season of peace by the way we treat the poor.

Walking through downtown D.C. the other day, I saw a group of homeless women -- one trembling and hugging herself -- in front of the Martin Luther King Memorial Library. What a place to show off our callous disregard for the suffering of others.

Our typical response: Call the police and have them shoo the homeless away, like flies. Is there no end to the spiritual bankruptcy of a nation so blinded by greed that it will spend billions on Christmas -- to say nothing of billions on war -- yet can't give a home to the homeless?

"Nobody should be without housing," said Linda Kaufman, chief operating officer of Pathways to Housing, an organization that provides homes for the chronically homeless. "Allowing people to be homeless is a choice that society makes. It costs $22,000 to $25,000 a year to provide housing and services for a homeless person. But the cost of emergency medical services, incarceration and maintaining temporary shelter during the winter can cost three to four times as much." That average is $60,000.

Kaufman also runs a dinner program for homeless women as part of the Downtown Services Center, a referral service for homeless people that operates in the basement of the First Congregational United Church of Christ at 645 G Streets NW. When I visited the church recently, more than 350 homeless people were packed inside, a veritable sea of faces with features muted in despair. They were hungry.

Jonathan Ward, director of the service center, and Horace Kirby, program coordinator, were making sure that all were fed and received at least some of the social services they needed. That was nice to see. Still, what the homeless need most is a home. And, from the looks of things, it'll either be a cold day in hell or -- one can hope -- a warm-hearted millennium in the United States before they get one.

"People look at the homeless and see 'eyesores,' " Kirby said. "Few care about their broken spirits. I sometimes wonder if America has gotten so big and rich that it lost its soul."

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, in a 2006 survey of 23 major cities released this month, has reported that hunger and homelessness have increased since last year. Requests for emergency shelters were up 9 percent, and requests for emergency food assistance were up 7 percent. Both were expected rise even more in 2007, the report said.

A recently released survey by the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness shows that homelessness also rose throughout the Washington area from 2004 through 2006. The report found that: The District has 6,157 homeless people compared with 5,828 in 2004; Montgomery County has 1,164 homeless people compared with 1,036 in 2004; and Prince George's has 1,291 compared with 1,111 two years ago. Arlington County's homeless population went from 408 to 477.

Alexandria had the biggest decline in homelessness -- 18 percent -- from 414 in 2004 to 336 this year. Loudoun County, the wealthiest county in the nation, had the biggest jump: from 92 homeless people in 2004 to 184 in 2006.

Perhaps you'll attend tomorrow's memorial for the 1,698 people known to have died homeless in cities throughout the country this year, including 20 in the nation's capital. The ceremony, which includes a reading of the names of the dead, will be held at 5 p.m. in McPherson Square, at 15th and K Streets NW, not far from the White House.

It won't do the dead any good, of course, but you might get to meet some of those who care for the neediest among us, to give thanks to advocates for the homeless and other unsung weavers of our frayed social fabric. Maybe something will rub off.

E-mail:milloyc@washpost.com.