Finding Few Out in the Cold

During Count of Homeless, Volunteers Don't Come Across Many in Need

The man was lying on his right side, his back turned to the street, using his arm as a pillow. The streetlights shone bright, illuminating his sleeping spot in the doorway of a neighborhood cafe near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE. He wore a black leather jacket, black Redskins knit cap, bluejeans and winter boots. He had turned in for the night, without a blanket, as Hilary Espinosa approached.

"It's really cold outside," she said, clutching a dark gray blanket. "Do you need anything?"

Blankets? Gloves? Shelter advice?

"I don't want nothing from anybody. I'm okay," said the man, who identified himself only as Black. He stood up and, at well over 6 feet, towered over Espinosa and another young lady who accompanied her. "I've got kids as big as you two."

It was 11 p.m., and the streets of historic Anacostia were empty on a cold, clear night as ice glistened from Wednesday afternoon's storm. Espinosa was among 100 volunteers from the District who bundled up and spread out across the city in small groups to take part in the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's annual count of homeless people. Espinosa was sent east of the Anacostia River to find those without shelter and provide them blankets, gloves and, if possible, encourage them to go a shelter.

"The people you're looking for have found a place where they feel safe sleeping on the street," Stacey Matthews, a coordinator at the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, told volunteers before they left. "They aren't expecting to be approached by you."

The homeless count takes place every year in Northern Virginia counties and cities, the District, and Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the city of Bowie. Numbers are collected in shelters and transitional housing, and hundreds of volunteers and paid staff are sent out to find the small number of people who shun official shelters.

In Woodbridge, for instance, several people have set up a campground where they cook, eat, sleep and have communal places to entertain. In the District, homeless people tend to congregate near the center of the city, in parks to get fed in the afternoons and at shelters in the early evening, or close to places with free public bathrooms.

From 2005 to 2008, homelessness grew 2.9 percent in the region. Alexandria had a 19 percent decline over that period, but other areas remained steady or experienced increases. Numbers from this week's count are not available.

For three years, Espinosa, 25, has worked at D.C. Central Kitchen, which turns more than a ton of surplus food into 4,500 meals every day. The basic goal is that no resources -- food or people -- should be wasted.

Espinosa brought that same sensibility to the task of counting homeless people. Ten minutes into Wednesday night's count, she came across Black. Volunteers had been given a list of questions regarding identification and HIV status. But Espinosa took a more personal approach. His hands were bare. She offered Black a blanket, and he refused. Black said he was 47 and recently released from prison. He didn't say what for.

"I'm not a bad person," he said.