Last summer, we reported on Wendell, a homeless man with severe mental illness and chronic health problems, who occupied a park bench in the 900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. We’re happy to report that he was placed in permanent, supportive housing this month in D.C. In fact, he became the 11th military veteran this fiscal year moved from Downtown streets into permanent, supportive housing by Pathways to Housing DC, which manages and staffs the DowntownDC BID’s Downtown Homeless Services Team.
In 2012, the nonprofit housing and services organization for chronically homeless adults received a Department of Veterans Affairs contract to assist 50 chronically homeless veterans in D.C. As part of an unprecedented national initiative to prevent and end homelessness for veterans by 2015, it uses U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers to address their homelessness.
The Downtown Homeless Services Team—a four-person, clinically-based outreach team—helped to identify and house Wendell and 10 other veterans who met the pilot project’s criteria for being chronically homeless and having a serious mental illness or medical challenge or both. Most of the participants served during the Vietnam War era, as Wendell did. But a few are older veterans who served post-WWII and pre-Korea.
All now live in apartments throughout the city, furnished with help from the BID. Other support, including for household items, has come from a network of nonprofit organizations—Miriam’s Kitchen, the DC Baptist Convention, Bethesda Cares/Bethesda United Methodist Church, Unity Church of Washington, as well as significant funding from other private donors and foundations.
Pathways provides the veterans with comprehensive support and treatment services in the areas of mental and physical health, substance abuse, education, employment, family reunification, and community integration so they can have the resources and means to remain in housing and be successful in their recoveries.
According to recent data from the 2013 HUD Point in Time Count released by the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, D.C. has 6,865 homeless individuals—512 currently live on the street and 15.3 percent are U.S. veterans, many with severe mental illness, chronic health problems or physical disability or all three.