With the campaign, Shenkelberg said he hopes to raise the profile of an issue that often lands low on the city's list of priorities.The group's advocacy team had its first major breakthrough last spring, when the D.C. Council voted to put $2.2 million into permanent housing programs and social services for about 100 homeless people. About 3,960 D.C. residents live in this type of housing program already, according to the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness."How could you not be better once you're housed?" Shenkelberg said. "They may be in that housing program for the rest of their lives, but are they sick, out on the streets, more vulnerable and therefore more likely to die on the streets? No, absolutely not."
If the city can find homes for its chronically homeless population, it could save as much as $24,000 a year per person, Schenkelberg said. D.C. now pays about $50,000 a year for shelters, emergency medical care, psychiatric care and sometimes incarceration.Shenkelberg said his organization is also applying to be a social services provider in future public housing projects.With an 11-year waiting list for affordable housing in the District, Trimble said, the men and women who wind up on the streets can quickly fall into a vicious cycle of long-term homelessness.She said she is relieved to see Miriam's Kitchen, located at 2401 Virginia Ave., taking on the larger challenges of homelessness, and explained that the most difficult part of her job is watching people work "really, really hard and they see such little results."
"It's really hard to see that every day and it's really hard to continue to instill hope," she said.Craig Lynch, 34, who became homeless in June after he lost his job and was evicted, has come to Miriam's Kitchen every day for the past four months. With help from the organization's case managers, Lynch created a resume and has been on the hunt for a job."I'd like to be out of here by March," he said. "A lot of the guys that I've come across have been in the situation for five, six, seven or 10 years and I take it as they feel like they're comfortable with it. I'm not comfortable with it."