Winter is Coming: Homeless Advocates Prep for Cold Weather Services. Can You Help?
Sam Halpert, PSJD Fellow 2014 – 2015
As I write, my co-workers are festooning my desk with plastic ghosts and rubber spiders. It’s fall. But while DC’s nights may only be beginning to bite, for homeless advocacy organizations it’s already time to start preparing for winter, when shelter can be a matter of life or death for individuals experiencing homelessness here and in cities around the country. In one way or another, volunteers are often crucial to helping their neighbors make it through the winter. If you want to be involved, the time to begin is now:
For example, in the District of Columbia formal responsibility for ensuring homeless individuals survive the winter lies with the city. DC’s Homeless Services Reform Act of 2005 provides that the District “shall” provide space indoors for homeless people when the temperature falls below freezing [§7(c)]. It’s one of the few cities in the United States that does so. But as DC’s homeless population has grown to include more families (who have an additional, more expensive right to separate facilities [§7(d)]), these families have become increasingly less welcome in District shelters. In recent years, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless has found DC officials shutting the door on homeless families through “unlawful procedures that have created almost insurmountable obstacles.” According to the Legal Clinic’s 2013 report, DC officials have failed to call hypothermia conditions in a timely fashion after freezing forecasts, denied pregnant women and single fathers shelter placement, and threatened to expel families for unauthorized reasons. This is where you come in.
The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless has responded by creating the Homeless Family Outreach Project. The project depends on law students and community members willing to serve as volunteers. These volunteers stand in front of the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, DC’s central intake center for families seeking shelter (920 Rhode Island Avenue NE). They pass out flyers and speak one-on-one with families about the family right to shelter under DC law and other rights crucial to survival under severe weather conditions. They provide families with contact information for local officials so homeless families can speak to decision-makers about their needs. Finally, volunteers connect families who believe they have been unlawfully denied shelter or who have suffered from other legal violations to legal counsel at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless so that an attorney can try to assist them.
The project itself won’t begin until next month: volunteer outreach runs Monday – Thursday from November 1st to March 31st in two shifts (8:00 – 9:30am and 3:00 – 4:30pm). But volunteers must attend a training before doing outreach. (For more information or to RSVP for a training, contact the Legal Clinic’s volunteer coordinator at Kaitlyn.uhl@legalclinic.org or call 202-328-1263.)
Homeless advocacy groups in other cities may not have as strong a legal hook to hang their winter efforts on, but there are groups across the country doing what they can within their own communities to help folks see another Spring. If you’re curious about what work is happening in your own area, you might try looking up the respondent organizations to the National Coalition for the Homeless’ 2010 Report on Winter Homeless Services. If you know what work is happening in your own area and you’d like to receive the same attention from PSJD as the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, write to me at psjd@nalp.org and I’ll post your volunteer information as an update to this article.