Opening Statement of Councilmember David Grosso

Joint Performance Oversight Hearing

Committee on Human Services &
Committee on Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization
January 29, 2020

Thank you, Chairpersons Nadeau and Bonds, for convening this performance oversight
hearing and thank you to all the public witnesses who are here to testify.

Five years ago, the Interagency Council on Homelessness established a strategic plan with
the overall goal that by 2020, homelessness in D.C. would be a rare, brief, and non-
recurring experience.

Unfortunately, we missed the goal of ending chronic homelessness among individuals in

2017.

And despite impressive progress, I know that we are not on track to ensuring that
individuals and families will be rehoused within an average of 60 days or less this year.

I am disappointed that we have not had more progress, even as I recognize and appreciate
the successes achieved by the ICH, the Department of Human Services, and other partners.

I wonder what comes next. Will we develop new strategic plans? What lessons have we
learned over the past five years that we can incorporate into our approach?

Aside from those goals, I feel frustrated by two trends that I see when it comes to
homelessness.

First, although we are housing more and more of our neighbors who are the most
vulnerable via permanent supportive housing and other resources, the apparent increase in
individuals living on the street, particularly in encampments, concerns me, because I am
worried about the health and safety of those living on the street.

Yet our response to this does not seem to be evolving. The situation on K Street Northeast
is an example.

We know that staying on the street is not good for people, but for these neighbors it was
the best of limited options.

Resolving the conflict that arose on K Street due to legitimate safety concerns for
pedestrians passing by involved potentially decreasing the safety of those who had been
staying there.

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This seems like using same old approaches of clearing people out and simply displacing the
issue, rather than really getting to the roots of the issues.

For years I have been asking about what we are doing to improve conditions in shelters for
individuals. If that has to take time, what are we doing meanwhile to ensure we are
properly caring for the most marginalized in our communities?

Second, we hear that the numbers of homeless families are decreasing each year, yet the
number of homeless students tracked by schools continues to rise.

Of course, the definition for homelessness is broader for education purposes than for
housing purposes, but we still need to account for this discrepancy in the data.

Along with that, we need to decide what we need to change about our approach, so that
the number homeless students in our schools is also decreasing.

As Chairperson of the Committee on Education, I know too well how housing instability
affects our students’ ability to learn and thrive. So, what are we doing to turn that trend
around?

Unfortunately, I cannot stay here with you because I have a hearing of my own to chair, but
I hope that the Committees will dig into these questions during conversations with public
and government witnesses.

Thank you all once again and I look forward to the discussion.

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