Homeless D.C. teenagers visit White House

"It's so big. And important," one of the 15 teenagers said of the White House. (Petula Dvorak/the Washington Post)
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They are members of 192 homeless families living in shelters on D.C. General's campus, according to the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness. It is over capacity this winter, full beyond anything the city had planned for, and grew by 50 families in the past month alone. The Washington Legal Clinic said it is overwhelmed by complaints about shelter access and violations of city regulations.

The 300 or so kids there have little to do.

There is no longer a recreation room -- that was filled just last week with three more families. And the cafeteria looks like an evacuation center after a natural disaster, with rows of cots. Last week, some of the families began sleeping in the hallways.

These are mostly families that have lost jobs and homes in the past year. Most of them spent months moving from one relative's cramped house to another or staying in cheap hotels before they ended up here, in an abandoned hospital, a place that is a bandage but not a cure for their problems.

Jamila Larson, the social worker who runs the Homeless Children's Playtime Project, said she is haunted by the teens, who are far more aware of their plight than their younger siblings. Many of them wanted to tell me their stories, but not all of their friends at school know they are homeless, so few wanted their names in the paper.

The trip was organized and funded by the playtime project and its volunteers, who have Washington connections and generous friends. The kids had to write essays explaining how they are similar to three U.S. presidents to get on the tour. Most of the kids said they can relate to President Obama, but their observations were complex and moving.

One boy said it's not because of "my skin color or anything like that, but that we both strive to get what we need and not what we want."

Another teen said this about Obama's message of "change we can believe in": "I like change a lot, but sometimes it's hard to get used to all the time."

Kristina, who is waiting to hear whether she has been accepted to Harvard, dashed off her essay in about 10 minutes and included quotes from presidents Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson.

"Even though I live in a shelter and might not have the resources of other people," she wrote, "I am still determined to get into college so that I can become a doctor."

At lunch at the Occidental Grill, they took pictures of the cloakroom and the restrooms.

"I've never seen a bathroom like that -- could you believe that?" said Bianca Root, 18, who also decided that she could never work in the White House. "It's just too much. It's so big. And important. Just too much." She wants to be a nurse.

At the fancy restaurant, they unfolded napkins and held up their stemmed water glasses for a toast: "For stepping out of the shelter and into the White House!"

I just wish they didn't have to step back into the shelter.