11/30/2016

11/30/2016

Taking Shelter:
One Man’s Fight Reflects the Plight of Many

[WINNER SPJ D.C. BEST NON-BREAKING NEWS 2016] James Jones is a fighter: sixty-six years old, legally blind and confined to a wheelchair. The first week of October, he found himself on the street with a single pair of clothes and the few possessions he could fit on his lap.

For the first time in a long time, Jones had no bed to return to that night. His last 15 years without permanent housing had been spent within the gray-and-blue checkered walls of Washington D.C.’s Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV), the largest homeless shelter in the D.C. area…MORE


Hidden Homeless Encampment Discovered and Disbanded

{WINNER BEST SERIES SPJ D.C. 2016]

A Foggy Bottom tent community — referred to by advocates as a “secret” encampment, due to how long it had gone unnoticed — was evicted by the District on Oct.18. Such “sweeps” are organized and overseen by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) as a continuation of procedural clean up efforts that began receiving increased attention from the Bowser Administration in November 2015. The encampment was both out of sight and less than safe — nestled on a grassy island between expressway off-ramps and city streets. Both entangled in groves of trees and bushes and only viewable by motorists zipping by at full speed off of the traffic circle, the encampment was only discovered when the City received a complaint from the public, reported DMHHS representative Ben Link…MORE

10/23/2916

10/23/2916