Does the District of Columbia do enough to meet homeless people’s needs?
The District has made some progress in the last few years: The D.C. Council enacted the Homeless Services Reform Act of 2005 and has allocated $7.5 million for emergency rental assistance; the Fenty Administration has committed to build 6,000 units of affordable housing and recently named a Housing Coordinator to lead this process. However, mental health and substance abuse treatment is woefully inadequate. The city’s emergency shelter system has only 1,500 shelter beds available year-round for single adults in D.C. and 163 emergency shelter units for families.
