Opening of new non-congregate shelter expands options for homeless residents as advocates push for more beds at Aston
MOLLY ST. CLAIR Editorial Intern
ollowing a year of delays, D.C.’s E Street shelter opened its doors to residents Sept. 22, according to the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS). The new, dorm-style shelter expands on the District’s goal to offer non-congregate shelter options for people experiencing homelessness, encouraging more people to move into shelter and acting as a stepping stone toward permanent housing.
FThe opening of the E Street shelter comes as local government officials and community advocates discuss whether the city is underutilizing the District’s only other non-congregate shelter option, the Aston. As heightened federal oversight in D.C. leads to encampment clearings and Congress threatens escalated enforcement against visible homelessness, advocates worry the city isn’t adequately addressing the growing demand for high-quality shelters.
Non-congregate shelters, also known as bridge housing in D.C., are a high-barrier shelter option that offers residents semiprivate rooms and personalized case management throughout their stay. Residents have to be referred to the shelter and meet some qualifications, often proving they’d struggle in communal shelters. This differs from low-barrier shelters, where people can walk in the same day, but do not have a designated space and sleep in rooms with many other residents. After pandemicera non-congregate shelters closed in 2023, advocates began pushing for the city to replace them with permanent options.
The newest shelter, located at 25 E St., currently has 14 residents and will work toward a full capacity of 190 on a “rolling basis,” according to DHS.
DHS delayed the opening of the E Street shelter twice from the initially proposed date of November 2024, which officials published in July 2023. Most recently, in March, officials at an Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting said the opening was delayed until summer 2025, citing failed building inspections and ongoing renovations. After fears of another round of setbacks, DHS officials announced the shelter opened in mid-September at a 6E Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) meeting held Sept. 25.
The opening of the city’s first non-congregate shelter, the Aston, was also plagued with delays, partially because of pushback from local community members. The Aston, located in D.C.’s West End neighborhood, opened its doors to residents in November of 2024. District officials planned for the shelter to house 190 people, but DHS lowered the number to 100 by the time it admitted the first 50 residents.
The 100-resident capacity is included in the Aston’s Good Neighbor Protocol, an agreement made between DHS, shelter organizers, and local community members. The protocol, created in October 2024 by the Aston Community Advisory Team (CAT), set guidelines about maintenance, security, and resident conduct.
Now, nearly a year after the shelter started welcoming residents, community advocates like local ANC representatives and members from The Way Home campaign, a coalition of organizations aiming to end homelessness, have spoken out to urge District officials to raise the capacity of the Aston back up to 190, following reports of the facility nearing its current cap.
In June, the 2A ANC, which oversees the neighborhood where the Aston is located, approved a resolution proposed by
Commissioner Sean Youngstone urging Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto to “communicate her support” to expand the capacity of the shelter. The resolution also calls for the D.C. Council to allocate additional funds beyond the facility’s current budget to increase resources and employees at the Aston to accommodate the additional residents. ANC 2C passed a similar resolution in solidarity with 2A over the summer, advocating for “full use” of the Aston facility to serve residents.
In an email to Street Sense, DHS said it was “aware” of the resolutions, adding that a capacity increase would require approval from Pinto and the mayor’s office.
Youngstone said expanding the capacity of the Aston to 190 would not mean the shelter would be full at all times; rather, it would allow for the potential of expansion when beds are in high demand. He said it is “deeply unfortunate” that one of the city’s most “high-quality” shelters is not housing residents to its full spatial ability.
“I think that’s a little ridiculous,” Youngstone told Street Sense. “I think it’s a waste of city resources, and I think, especially given the budget climate we’re in right now, for the city to have that real estate and not to be using it just feels so unfortunate.”
Officials at the Aston say ongoing construction in many of the facility’s residential rooms, insufficient dining room space, and a lack of staff would make it difficult for the shelter to accommodate an increase in resident capacity without more resources, according to recent reporting from The GW Hatchet.
Jim Malec, another ANC commissioner representing 2A, said he voted “no” on the resolution because he felt like raising
the number to 190 would break promises the ANC made to their constituents ahead of the shelter’s opening, when officials said they would not increase the capacity past 100.
According to Malec, Pinto has not indicated “any interest” in revisiting the Aston’s Good Neighbor Protocol. Malec added that ANC resolutions do not carry any “great weight” in influencing action from the council or the mayor’s office.
“If [Pinto] feels the circumstances have changed and that we should move from what was initially promised to a higher number, then that responsibility is on her to come back to the community and say, ‘I know I told you it was going to be 100, but here’s why I think we should revisit that decision,’” Malec said.
In an email to Street Sense, Pinto wrote she is “pleased” to see success at the Aston as residents transition from the shelter to permanent housing. Pinto’s office did not immediately return a follow-up about whether the councilmember supported expanding the facility capacity.
“Helping move neighbors into stable indoor housing has always been a priority for me,” Pinto wrote in the email.
Advocates from The Way Home campaign also issued a statement in September urging Pinto to support expanding the capacity of the Aston. The campaign organizers cite the recent surge in federal police and military presence throughout the city as a reason to “urgently maximize” the shelter space made available to unhoused residents in the District.
“With over 700 people living outside in dire need of dignified shelter, it’s imperative that both bridge housing sites reach capacity as soon as possible,” the letter reads.
The Aston, the city’s first noncongregate shelter, opened in 2024. Photo by Molly St. Clair
National Alliance to End Homelessness sues HUD for grant restrictions; federal housing funds at risk
RANEE BRADY Editorial Intern
he National Alliance to End Homelessness filed a lawsuit on Sept. 11 against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over what it claims are unlawful and politically-motivated restrictions on federal housing grants for people experiencing homelessness. A federal judge has since issued a temporary restraining order, blocking HUD from enforcing the new criteria while the case is decided.
TThe new rules, which HUD released on Sept. 5, applied to $75 million in Continuum of Care Builds grants, which are meant to fund permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. The rules would require applicants to be in jurisdictions that align with the policies and executive orders of the Trump administration, such as cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), restricting urban camping, and signing covenants that deny transgender-inclusive housing. If implemented, these criteria could effectively block several leftleaning jurisdictions from receiving federal housing support.
This reworking of Continuum of Care grants is part of the Trump administration’s larger campaign against homelessness services. The government has cut HUD’s staff by at least 30% and has introduced proposals to slash rental assistance by 40%. And with HUD already operating with fewer staff, the government shutdown on Oct. 1 poses an even greater risk to core housing programs and vulnerable populations the agency serves.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island against HUD Secretary Scott Turner. It accuses HUD of violating federal law, including the Fair Housing Act and HUD’s own Equal Access Rule. The plaintiffs, led by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), say the administration is weaponizing federal dollars to penalize cities with policies it opposes, such as immigration protections and transgender-inclusive housing.
“Under the new funding application rules, service providers and communities are blocked from applying for federal housing funds… if they operate in jurisdictions with policies the TrumpVance administration disfavors,” the National Alliance to End Homelessness wrote in a press release.
In her order, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy said the government exceeded its authority when it suddenly imposed new rules on who could apply for the grants.
Despite the temporary restraining order, HUD is not accepting new applications, as the online application closed after the Sept. 12 deadline passed. There has been no word about awardees or grant amounts from the September opportunity, leaving organizations that depend on federal support in limbo.
The lawsuit points out that this is the third time HUD has reissued the same grant competition, despite having already reviewed applications, made selections, and even notified Congress of awardees.
“With each re-issuance, HUD has needlessly disrupted the lifesaving work of Continuums of Care with onerous and unnecessary administrative changes, while introducing extreme political criteria to the application,” the plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.
HUD did not respond to questions about the lawsuit or application process. In response to a request for comment, Street Sense received an automated email that the agency’s press office was at a limited capacity since “The Radical Left has shut down the government.”
What’s at stake?
The Continuum of Care (CoC) program is the federal government’s largest homelessness assistance initiative. The program requires local and regional planning bodies, called CoCs, to coordinate housing services for that state or city’s homeless population. These entities manage funding for a range of services, including permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, and data systems. As of 2021, there are over 400 registered CoCs across the United States.
Organizations in D.C. received a total of $33,659,924 in CoC grants in fiscal year 2024—highlighting a major source of federal homeless assistance that has yet to be disbursed this year, since fiscal year 2025 awards have not been made.
The specific type of grants at issue in the lawsuit —“CoC Build” — represents just one branch of the larger Continuum of Care program. The CoC Build grants are specifically aimed at building or acquiring physical housing units. Advocates say the grants are critical because permanent supportive housing is one of the only proven solutions for chronic homelessness. Local or state-based CoCs apply for the grants and manage the funds, and may then subcontract with local providers.
The new restrictions on funding are not the only changes to the CoC Build program. In 2024, HUD’s CoC Build grants had an estimated total funding of $175 million with a maximum of $10 million per awarded grant. This year, the grants have an estimated total funding of $75 million—a $100 million decrease—and a maximum of $14 million per awarded grant, suggesting that HUD intends to give significantly fewer awards.
And, last year’s application opened on July 19, 2024, and closed on Oct. 23, 2024, giving candidates more than three months to prepare applications. This year, the new grant opportunity was issued on Sept. 5 and stopped accepting applications on Sept. 12, giving applicants only one week to prepare.
“It is nearly impossible for applicants to prepare application materials on that short timeframe,” NAEH said in the lawsuit. “That change would require applicants to make dramatic shifts in their previously prepared project proposals.”
In D.C., the potential freeze on CoC Builds funds and general delay in CoC funding have raised alarms for providers like Christ House, which received another CoC grant last year, not CoC Builds for its Kairos House Program. The program, launched in 1992, offers permanent housing for 41 formerly homeless men with chronic health conditions, according to Dr. Lisa Purdy, CEO of Christ House.
CoC grants, Purdy said, have been critical in sustaining and scaling these services as the residents age and their needs intensify.
“HUD CoC grants have primarily helped us to maintain and expand services to our Kairos Members. When we first opened the program, the Kairos Members were younger, and their medical conditions were not as complex,” Purdy wrote to Street Sense. “Now, the average age is 65, and they are typically managing three or more medical conditions.”
Without continued federal funding, she warned, the program’s ability to help residents age in place with dignity and avoid costly institutional care could be at risk.
HUD’s new rules
In the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the CoC Build grant issued Sept. 5, HUD rewrote its usual eligibility standards. While the changes currently just apply to the Build
grant, NAEH has warned they expect similar restrictions to be placed on more CoC grants in the coming months.
One provision in the grant, requiring applicants to ban urban camping, reflects a national trend toward criminalizing outdoor encampments—a debate that has also been held in D.C. Congress is considering a bill that would impose fines and jail time for camping in D.C., drawing criticism from advocates who say such measures punish poverty rather than address its causes. HUD’s new grant criteria, which favor jurisdictions that ban urban camping, further underscores this federal shift.
“The proposed project must be located in a jurisdiction (state, county, city) that enforces laws and/or ordinances prohibiting urban camping or loitering, prohibiting open illicit drug use, and prohibiting urban squatting,” the terms of the funding opportunity read. HUD also stated that applicants will be evaluated on their gender ideology and position towards transgender people by responding to the following statement, as part of the application’s “Affirming Fairness and Reality” clause: “The applicant does not and will not deny the sex binary in humans or promote the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic.”
The NOFO also includes criteria that require the proposed projects to be located in a place that cooperates with ICE’s detainment and deportation operations, meaning that many cities with sanctuary protections are ineligible.
While what it means to be a “sanctuary city” can look very different depending on the municipality, for D.C., this largely means being a jurisdiction that protects undocumented people and allows immigrants to feel safe when interacting with law enforcement as witnesses or victims. In 2019, the D.C. Council unanimously passed the Sanctuary Values Amendment Act, which restricts local police from asking about an individual’s immigration status and prohibits police from helping ICE unless a warrant or judicial order is provided.
But since Trump’s return to office and subsequent immigration crackdown, the District has scaled back its services for migrants, and Mayor Muriel Bowser attempted to repeal the city’s sanctuary status in a failed budget provision. Since the federal takeover ended, local police have continued to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Ann Oliva, said the new restrictions— against encampments, gender-inclusive housing, and sanctuary protections—would cause real harm if implemented.
“The work to end homelessness is not partisan, and it never should be,” she said in a press release. “Withholding it from communities for political reasons is unconscionable, unconstitutional, and unaligned with the goal of serving vulnerable Americans.”
Purdy from Christ House said she has never seen such language used in a Continuum of Care grant opportunity before. It’s not yet clear if HUD intends to add the same rules to its other grant programs.
“We’ve not previously seen criteria framed in exactly this way. Our understanding is that HUD periodically revises its scoring priorities to reflect federal policy,” Purdy wrote. “At this time, we are still reviewing the potential implications for our eligibility and the services we offer.”
In her order, McElroy temporarily barred the government from applying the new restrictions and stopped the $75 million from expiring at the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. The case will now proceed to a full hearing on whether the government can permanently enforce its new conditions.
Two months after the federal takeover began, these homeless D.C. residents are still in hiding
FRANZISKA WILD AND MADI KOESLER
Freelance Volunteer Reporters
Meghann Abraham was on the phone with her father when the police arrived. He called Abraham after reading in the national news that FBI agents had visited his daughter’s tent as part of President Donald Trump’s D.C. law enforcement surge. He wanted to make sure she was okay.
As Abraham reassured him, an officer from the D.C. police beckoned her over. Abraham told her father she had to hang up.
“We’re clearing all this up today,” she remembers the officer said. The next hour was overwhelming and anger-inducing.
As the officers trashed the tents and belongings of her neighbors, Abraham hurriedly sifted through the contents of her life. Between her clothes, mattress, dresser, table, and camping chairs, she debated what she should take. Her boyfriend was at work at the time, so she’d have to carry it by herself — where to, she didn’t know.
Until Aug. 15, Abraham had been living with her boyfriend in a tent along Washington Circle in downtown D.C. It was close to many of the social programs she visited daily, and she liked the community nearby. It felt like the kind of place where if she didn’t return to her tent for a couple of days, her neighbors would go looking for her.
Now, a month and a half later, after police cleared Abraham’s encampment, the couple is living deep in the woods in a remote corner of the District. Abraham is a two-hour bus ride from the programs she frequents, and even further from the neighbors she’d grown to rely on.
“It’s not [just] the social services, it’s not the charitable organization, it’s us together,” Abraham said. “Now we’re in four different quadrants. When we used to be neighbors.”
“And a lot of this is not solving anything,” she added. For a week in August, people without housing in Washington, D.C. were at the center of Trump’s efforts to consolidate power. Donald Trump labeled them a scourge and used their existence as justification for militarizing the capital and taking control of local law enforcement. At the time, much of the national debate revolved around our democracy and its decay, a debate that has since refocused on troop deployments in Chicago and Portland. But the people targeted were never just political pawns — they were always humans living in the most fragile of circumstances. And, long after the national debate has moved on, they remain haunted by the capital’s new posture toward homelessness.
Street Sense has closely followed six people who were displaced during the takeover. Two of them have chosen to flee D.C. entirely
for green space in Virginia. Four have stayed in D.C., including Abraham and her boyfriend. From stairwells to metro stations to the grounds of the Pentagon, they’re all still sleeping outside. All six have lost belongings and suffered exhaustion and physical ailments since their abrupt clearings. None of them are closer to housing.
On Aug. 11, Trump federalized D.C.’s police and deployed the National Guard as well as hundreds of federal agents to the District with the primary goal of reducing crime. During the press conference announcing what the president called a public safety emergency, Trump framed homelessness as a contributor to the city’s crime problem and directed law enforcement to
remove tents and, potentially, arrest people for sleeping outside.
Two days after Trump’s announcement, on Aug. 13, D.C. officials began preemptively clearing encampments. The next day, federal law enforcement officers visited Abraham’s encampment at Washington Circle, but did not clear the tents there. Then, four days after the takeover began, the D.C. police, which were under federal control, cleared five separate sites throughout the city. More federally mandated encampment clearings followed in the coming weeks, even as the city ramped up its own schedule of standard encampment clearings. In total, at least 35 encampments have been cleared since then.
In a remote part of the D.C. woods, Meghann Abraham sits in a camping chair beside her tent. Photos by Madi Koesler
Three weeks into the federal takeover, D.C. conducted a census of people sleeping outside, similar to the city’s annual Point-in-Time Count, where teams survey the entire District on foot for people experiencing homelessness. The city found relatively the same number of people — over 750 — sleeping outside as in January. Now, nearly a month later, tents are scarce, but people remain outside.
This August wasn’t the first time Jesse Wall had experienced an encampment clearing — he’d been cleared four times in the last six months. But this was the first time he was forced to move after the president of the United States took a photo of his green and gray tent and posted it to social media, declaring: “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
Sitting at a park picnic table in Crystal City, Virginia, the morning light casting shadows over his face, Wall fiddled with the strap on his backpack. He’d risen before 6 a.m. to make the nearly two-hour round-trip journey for breakfast at a familiar meal program in D.C. and now was waiting for the local public library to open.
The city cleared Wall’s encampment on Aug. 14, just days after Trump posted photos of it on Truth Social. The day of the closure, Wall packed up his stuff as news crews descended onto the highway median where he’d been living for the past couple of months. He spent the next few days in a hotel paid for by a local mutual aid group, but he couldn’t even rest or enjoy sleeping indoors for a change.
“I had to sit there and be thinking and planning about the next mode for survival, the next place to where I could go. It wasn’t offering any sort of peace or serenity,” he recounted. “It was feeling pushed, feeling forced, feeling like I didn’t count as a person in D.C.”
Wall significantly consolidated his things so he’d be more mobile in case he had to move again. Among the stuff he misses most are his pillows — it’s hard to get a good night’s sleep without them. After leaving the hotel, he spent a couple of days sleeping on the grounds of the Pentagon, before being told by
a local police officer he couldn’t stay there. Now, Wall’s tent is set up in a grassy patch nearby, and he spends most days commuting into D.C. to access meal programs and a queer
affirming day center. Hauling his laundry across state lines to the day center is particularly frustrating, he told Street Sense.
Across the river in D.C., David Beatty, a former neighbor of Wall’s, recounted similar feelings. Beatty is a devout Catholic who attends mass multiple times a week. He’s not only critical of Trump’s approach to homelessness but also thinks his position on immigration isn’t Christian. He’s even devised his own parable to demonstrate that earth, like heaven, should have no quotas on entrants.
“His lack of mercy is not going to — it’s not going to get him to have God show mercy to him,” he told Stree Sense. Since the clearing, Beatty has been sleeping outside without shelter. He discarded his tent during the closure and isn’t sure when he’ll put one back up again. For now, he’s content to spend his days sweeping and gardening outside of St. Stephen’s and his nights tucked under an overhang at a nearby metro station.
“It looked like it looked like anywhere you set a tent up around here, they were just coming in, taking it away,” he said. “If you left it, you’d come back in it, it’d be gone.”
Jesse Wall laughs outside of the Church of Epiphany while in D.C. for his daily errands.
Jeff Padgett poses outside Grace Episcopal Church, above Georgetown Ministries.
David Beatty near the gardens of St Stephen-Martyr Church, which he regularly tends to.
That’s exactly what happened to Jeff Padgett.
Earlier this summer, Padgett returned to D.C. after living with his brother in Baltimore and then spending a month in San Diego. Remembering the stress of encampment clearings he’d experienced at Whitehurst Hill last fall, he was wary of sleeping outside in the District again, especially as outreach workers warned there could be stricter enforcement against camping with Trump in office. Instead, Padgett and his two dogs, Puppet and Luna, set up camp across the Key Bridge in a wooded part of Virginia. Padgett would walk the couple of miles into D.C. to stay connected with his caseworker and social services.
“I think it’s messed up,” he said. “They asked me to leave the District, right? … I pay my taxes. I have a right to be wherever and not be harassed.”
When the federal takeover started, Padgett felt called to step up and speak to the press – feeling safer while sleeping in Virginia. Days after his interview with CNN went live, he came home to nothing.
About five tents remained untouched nearby, but all that was left of Padgett’s belongings was the dust beneath his tent. Trinkets from his Boy Scout days, winter sweaters for the dogs, and $60 worth of food were among his missing belongings. It’s unclear if Park Police took the tent, since Padgett was on federal land, or if it was stolen.
The wet, cold nights triggered Puppet to have three seizures. To take care of his girls, Padgett skipped meals and went days sleeping in the rain with just a sleeping bag to keep them warm and full. Padgett prays daily to help him manage the pain of his third bout of cancer and multiple herniated disks that sleeping on the ground aggravates.
He’s spent two-thirds of his monthly Social Security check to replace what was lost and is worried about how they will last the rest of the month.
Everyone we spoke to recounted losing or giving up important belongings due to the encampment closures. Beatty abandoned his tent and is now sleeping outside, like Padgett.
Abraham was able to move a lot of her belongings from Washington Circle with the help of local outreach workers. But then, she lost most of them in another clearing about a week after D.C. police first showed up at her tent — also federally mandated. Abraham didn’t know that at the time. She had just come back to her spot after meeting her boyfriend for a few minutes, and all her belongings were gone.
“I was so incensed, so mad, I yelled to the world and walked away. All I was told is that it was thrown out,” Abraham said. Among the things she misses most are her clothes, including a green and white dress with a swirl pattern and a blue and white striped skirt. Now, the clothes she’s left with make her feel like she’s not herself.
“I’m walking around looking like a bum because I’m wearing bum clothes,” Abraham told us. “I used to look like a woman.”
Jeff Padgett pets his dog Luna while sitting in the courtyard of Grace Episcopal Church, above Georgetown Ministries.
Puppet and Luna in their wagon Jeff Padgett carried around with their essentials and an extra tent since all their things were stolen in September.
These aren’t the only new challenges Abraham has faced since the clearings; she’s acquired a mysterious, slow-to-heal wound on her foot, and somewhere in the process of scouting a new spot and hauling her stuff across the city, she lost her phone.
While Abraham turned to the woods to stay under cover, in the alleys of Georgetown, G and his friend K found shelter from the rain and clearings in a narrow alcove behind a stairwell on private property. G lost his tent and a stash of his belongings during the federally mandated Aug. 15 clearings carried out by local D.C. police, but he was able to save one of his bikes. Over the past year, G’s been no stranger to encampment clearings. He’s lost tools, scooters, and generators during at least eight city encampment clearings. But G continues to wait it out for his housing voucher and keeps “goin’ with the punches.”
While he was offered shelter at a new non-congregate shelter, G turned the spot down because they would only allow him to bring two bags, and he felt he didn’t have time to pack and consolidate. He said he’s been on the housing voucher list for 68 weeks now and just wants to be housed. But delays continue. His most recent apartment inspection failed because the light bulb in the fridge was out.
Wall is also close to moving into housing, after years of waiting, but the recent closures haven’t made the process any easier. Since his voucher was issued in the spring, Wall’s toured over 20 different apartments. Some haven’t met his criteria, others have refused to rent to him, and still others have failed the city’s inspection. He’s also missed a number of apartment tours because of encampment clearings, including on Aug. 14, when instead of visiting a promising apartment, he spent the day packing and hauling his belongings. Despite the missed opportunity, Wall is lucky — he’s received an extension on his voucher until November.
“I felt, really, kind of almost hopeless,” Wall said, reflecting on the day of the clearing. “I don’t know how to explain the feeling — that was really, like: Why? Why are they doing this? What are you accomplishing by pushing people away that need the services that are [in D.C.], and keeping them from those services and forcing them into situations that may not be safe for them?”
The federal takeover of MPD ended on Sept. 10, but the city continues to schedule and conduct encampment clearings.
Two days after the end of the takeover, Daniel Kingery and the self-constructed structure he lives in — the humanpowered vehicle outside the McPherson Square metro stop — received a notice his encampment would be cleared Oct. 2. The notice came shortly after a woman, who was displaced by the federally mandated Aug. 15 clearing, like G and Abraham, moved her green tent beside Kingery’s vehicle.
When the day of the clearing came, with the exception of a cluster of National Guard officers spectating from the metro entrance, it was a return to D.C.’s typical protocol.
But Kingery refused to move, telling the surrounding city officials and police officers to “cite where in the constitution” they had the power to make him move.
Roughly an hour and a half after the 10 a.m. start time, Kingery was still sitting in the structure when D.C. police received the green light from the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health to remove him on the grounds of bringing him to a hospital for an involuntary psychiatric hold. Five officers surrounded Kingery, grabbed him by his arms and legs, and began pulling him off of the structure. As Kingery fought back, he landed on the sidewalk on his back. The five officers proceeded to pin him, turn him onto his stomach, and cuff his hands behind his back.
Over the next several minutes, Kingery refused to stand up. Officers dragged him at first to a police car and then, after failing to fit him in the backseat, lifted him onto a stretcher.
The city’s team then finished their standard encampment protocol by dismantling the human-powered vehicle, piece by piece. Save for the wagon full of bits and tools the National Alliance to End Homelessness and outreach workers were able to save from the dump truck, everything was thrown away. Hours later – just as the sun had begun to set, Kingery stepped out of a taxi at the McPherson Square metro stop, paid for by the hospital after staff had deemed him fit to be released. Thankful he’d worn two layers of clothes, Kingery looked at his now-empty street corner with nothing but the bruises on his back.
This article is a joint production of Slate and Street Sense Media.
Daniel Kingery sits in the human-powered vehicle while listening to passerbys before the scheduled encampment clearing on Oct. 2 by the D.C. encampments team.
Outside Georgetown Ministry Center surrounded by tools, wires, and parts, G chats with a friend while fixing up an electric scooter
D.C. police officers forcibly removed Daniel Kingery from his structure, pinned him to the sidewalk then handcuffed him after he refused to leave during the McPherson Square metro scheduled encampment clearing by the city.
Encampment updates: D.C. clears small encampments in the aftermath of the federal takeover
SHANI LASKIN AND MOLLY ST. CLAIR Editorial Interns
“Today’s D-Day, isn’t it?” a man said, as he stopped to catch up with a homeless man whose encampment the city was clearing.
The encampment resident had been living beside a local church in Navy Yard for nearly three months, after experiencing several encampment closures this year. Before staff from D.C.’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) arrived for the closure on Sept. 30, he packed his belongings into a shopping cart and moved them across the street, leaving behind a mountain of broken-down cardboard boxes covered in his writing.
During President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, combined local and federal efforts closed 24 encampments. Since the end of the monthlong crackdown on visible homelessness, D.C. has continued to conduct standard scheduled clearings. In September, DMHHS scheduled at least three encampment clearings per week, although several were cancelled or moved to early October. The week of Sept. 29, DMHHS closed five encampments, many of which had just one or two residents.
During a clearing near the McPherson Square metro station on Oct. 2, city officials detained the resident, Daniel Kingery, after he refused to move. Officers pulled Kingery off his structure to the ground, pinned and handcuffed him, and took him to a hospital under an FD-12, a measure to involuntarily hospitalize someone due to mental health concerns. More information on Kingery’s encampment closure can be found on page 8.
While Kingery’s combative closure drew a crowd of nearly 60 onlookers, other closures throughout the month marked a return to normal protocol after the chaos of the federal takeover. According to a statement from DMHHS, the clearings were conducted to address concerns, including “the presence of biohazards, mass hoarding, increased rodent activity, sidewalk blockage, and intrusion to the intended use of the public spaces.”
On Sept. 30, as the resident in Navy Yard packed, multiple people walking into the nearby church stopped to say hello. More neighbors paused to see how he was doing later, while city officials threw away his cardboard pages. A woman in a motorized wheelchair cried as she asked where he was going.
Outreach workers at the closure said the resident has been asking for a train ticket to another city, but didn’t have friends or family there, making him ineligible for support like Project Reconnect. Project Reconnect is a D.C. Department of Human Services program that works to lessen the need for emergency shelters and can fund a one-way transportation ticket for people trying to leave D.C. Instead of leaving the city that day, the resident moved his belongings across the street.
The next day, Oct. 1, the city closed two encampments in Anacostia, displacing two residents experiencing homelessness.
When city officials began to arrive at the abandoned Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal an hour before the clearing, the only resident was already packing her things. About 10 city employees and outreach workers from DMHHS, the Department of Behavioral Health, and Community Connections gathered at the scene.
The resident, who declined to speak with Street Sense, collected her things into two grocery carts and moved them across the street. She stepped away from the encampment to speak briefly with a Community Connections outreach member, and later left the site entirely on her own. The resident cleared a majority of her belongings, leaving only a few small items
like a book and jewelry on the ground around the side of the church where her encampment was located.
After the first clearing, officials moved to a second location at a small park at 1500 Marion Barry Ave., located a block away from the first site. Officials conducted the second clearing under the guidance of an immediate disposition, a notice from the city that alerts residents at an encampment that the site will be cleared with only a few days’ notice due to safety concerns. For most closures, DMHHS is required to give at least a week’s notice. In this case, residents were told the day before, according to a DMHHS spokesperson.
The resident at the park had moved their belongings before the clearing. Officials cleaned the site before hanging an orange “Immediate Disposition” sign on a lamp-post that notified community members the clearing had taken place.
Kingery’s encampment was removed the next day, Oct. 2. On Oct. 3, two residents of a Georgetown encampment packed their belongings into two shopping carts and left the area 45 minutes before the clearing was slated to occur. They left
behind a couch and other miscellaneous objects in an organized pile where they had been living.
Throughout September, the city cancelled or rescheduled nine closures, largely because of weather or because residents moved ahead of the closure.
On the morning of Sept. 23, city officials arrived at Garfield Park to clear a site that was abandoned. The clearing had been initially slated for Sept. 10, but was delayed because of the weather conditions. Nestled next to a tennis court, the resident had left behind a tent, a mattress, and a shopping cart full of belongings.
A tennis instructor who frequented the courts and outreach workers said the resident had not been at the encampment in weeks. City officials threw away all the items left behind. Upcoming encampment closures: Oct. 9 at 1515 M St. SE, Oct. 14 at 1401 15th St. NW, Oct. 15 at 4510 Arkansas Ave. NW, and Oct. 16 at 5460 Western Ave. NW.
Madi Koesler contributed reporting.
The immediate disposition sign posted at the park on Oct. 1. Photo by Shani Laskin
Suicides, mass murders, and the department of human rights, part three
SHUHRATJON AHMADJONOV
Dear President Donald Trump! Dear governors! Dear U.S. Senators and Congress Representatives!
In Issue 14 of Street Sense, we examined the creation of a database of FBI agent and police officer activity data, and in Issue 19, we discussed the need for the database to be under the control of the U.S. National Guard. Let’s continue.
As a reminder, in the United States, Congress defined mass murders as the killing of three or more persons during an event with no “cooling-off period” between the homicides.
First, I will give sad statistics on suicides in the USA. Over 49,000 people died by suicide in 2023. That year, 12.8 million people seriously thought about suicide, 3.7 million made a plan for suicide, and 1.5 million attempted suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2022, there were nearly two times as many suicides (49,476) in the United States as there were homicides (24,849), according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In 2022, the suicide rate among males was four times higher (22.9 per 100,000) than among females (5.9 per 100,000) according to NIMH. Mass shootings in the United States continue: from Jan. 1 to August 31, 2025, 300 people were killed and 1,353 were injured in 308 shootings.
There’s a significant connection between suicide and mass murder. Some citizens consider suicide insufficient and reject the simple idea of suicide. From this thought, they move on to the idea of mass murder and begin planning. Having more or less prepared, they carry out their crime. The scale of each mass murder, that is, the number of dead and wounded, varies depending on the experience, knowledge, and age of the perpetrator.
So, the problem of mass murder is an extension of the problem of suicide. If we want to reduce the number of mass murders, we must reduce the number of suicides in the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the leading American counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization. The FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes. One of the main duties of FBI leaders and agents is to determine the criminal intent and plans of criminals, to be ahead of the curve in preventing terrorist attacks, suicides, and mass murders.
In all countries, the head of state is the main human rights defender; in each state, the governor. U.S. President Donald Trump is the main human rights defender in the U.S. at the moment. Unfortunately, the human rights functions of the U.S. president and state governors are poorly performed. I have filed four written complaints with U.S. presidents in 2012, 2015, 2020, and 2025. I have not received a written response to these complaints. I believe my complaints were forwarded to those I complained about.
The main reason for this situation is the lack of a human rights department under the president and the governors.
I propose to create a special department of the U.S. National Guard, the Human Rights Department, under the president and the governors. Then all complaints sent to the president and the governor of the state will be transferred to this human rights department. A “helpline” will be created as part of a special unit in the relevant human rights department. As a result, each complaint will be studied, appropriate human rights measures will be taken if necessary, and written responses will be given to U.S. citizens and residents who sent complaints. If unknown people organize persecution in various ways against a U.S. resident, then he (she) will have the opportunity to call the “helpline.” There, highly qualified specialists will invite them for a personal conversation.
The interviewer should be someone with real-life experience. They should be able to have a heart-to-heart talk with the person seeking assistance from this agency. After the interview, a written statement will be accepted, and an investigation will be initiated.
Just do not seat a psychiatrist in this important place.
A psychiatrist will look for mental illness in each complainant.
If a person finds themselves in dire straits for whatever reason, words alone will not dissuade them from committing suicide or mass murder. Financial assistance is essential. To this end, a government-funded assistance fund should be established. A human rights officer who speaks with the person needing assistance should be authorized to provide a certain, one-time, minimum amount of assistance. If more substantial assistance is required, documents are prepared and the commission reviews and makes an appropriate decision.
The National Guard reports only to the president and the governor. Therefore, “helpline” specialists will be given the right to familiarize themselves with the activities of both FBI agents and police officers and other government agencies regarding the citizen’s complaint. A specialist from the National Guard can go to court if necessary and receive permission to investigate this case (complaint). He (she), if necessary, can write to the governor or the president that a high-ranking official has violated the laws of the United States and remove them from office. These important investigations will also be entered into the FBI Agent and Police Officer Activity Data Bank, which is to be managed by the U.S. National Guard Department in each state and at the federal level.
Thanks to the activities of the human rights division and the “helpline,” the rights of the citizen will be protected in accordance with the laws of the United States, the necessary assistance will be provided. And the citizen will not think about suicide, much less about the mass murder of fellow citizens.
Shuhratjon Ahmadjonov is an artist/vendor with Street Sense Media.
No health care cuts
ANGIE WHITEHURST
Iam a senior who is aging in place in the District of Columbia, the capital of the United States of America. I’m a retired, still-working Black woman on a limited income, with a little extra from Social Security. I am housing insecure.
I have Medicare and was on D.C.’s until paperwork, stress, and obstacles helped me decide to forgo the red tape and opt for copays for treatment, medication, and the constant juggle to decide who gets paid first — the utilities: gas, water, and electrics. If you were me, you would have to decide among food, light, heat, air conditioning, and medical costs, including transportation.
Add the latest cuts to those critical choices. Waiting for a primary care appointment, and $30 to $50 fees to see a specialist. For me, post-stroke with allergies, asthma, and fibromyalgia with complications… it is a matter of going with the system and waiting, and waiting — not healing, not getting better, but worsening to a point of no return called end of life. There are over 250,000 people on Medicaid/Medicare in D.C., just like me: it’s a human genocide dictated by government budget and authorized by artificially human-programmed intelligence. The right to live in my country is a human right.
I cannot stand silent for myself and the millions of families in my country suffering without a valid reason to sacrifice their welfare and lives through genocide. I will not stand by and let home rule in D.C. be snatched and returned to the plantation rule of unelected appointees.
I will speak out, and I ask every individual to stand with me — not just for me — but together as one, for all of us. Stand for the life, health, and wellbeing of every human being. Keeping health care, Medicaid, is our right. I will end my story with a thread derived from physical slavery starting in 1619… that is true… and I know what Church of the Epiphany Reverend Glena said is even more true: enslaved, yes, but not a slave. My mind is free, and so is yours. Together, we will stand to keep Americans alive and healthy. Not one step back.
Sidewalk
STEVE MILLER
Artist/Vendor
Outside left-hand turn sign walk, oh!
Outside burn
Beware, dog, window hog
Roll a long way
Curtains song
Once, twice, bacon seen mice
Egg, juice, coffee
Oatmeal spring
Long lots gasping obscene
Bed PDX rose
Curb slide by diving woes
Board diced first
Gutter rich cut off tossed bone
So dry, not known
Flower stem suck water tone
Taking in by teeth
Now I am home
Angie Whitehurst is an artist/vendor with Street Sense Media.
Fantasia on Disco Duck
FREDERIC JOHN Artist/Vendor
1976, new kid in town, reveling in bicentennial bushwah. A tiny peephole, corner apartment; third-floor view looking south. All the way to the haze-wreathed twin plinths of the magical World Trade campus. My crackly, solid-state plug-in “raydio” is constantly sputtering out the soundtrack of my fresh New York life. As in, “someone knocking at the door, open up, and let ‘em in,” (Paul McCartney) “When your body’s had enough of me and I’m laying flat out on the floor,” (Dr Hook & the Medicine Show) “There’s a warm wind blowin the stars around, and I’d really love to see you tonight,” (England Dan and John Ford Coley) “Sing a song, sing a song. If you sing a song today, you will make a better way, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah” (Earth, Wind, and Fire, Phillip Bailey).
And then there was Disco Duck. Created and sung by Rick Dees, a deejay whose ear was anything but tin, “Disco Duck” led me bounding down Second Avenue with a candy-striped colored goofy beat and an inspirational groove. Anybody, even a nerdy duck, could do the “doo-swish, doo-swish, wackawacka-woo,” throbbing tempo of the splashy new dance craze. Of course, I slipped into my platform shoes with ease. And why not? The Vietnam conflict was so cheerless here in our collective brainpan — let’s celebrate the relatively cheap cost of living for a starry-eyed, skinny, and bushy-haired, 23-year-old with a brand new AFTRA union card, and who just recovered from a deadly house fire back in Maryland, with much family trauma and grief. Saturday Night Fever was still a year in the future.
Back home
JEANETTE
Hi, are you here? I sit all alone, trying to figure out how to get back home on my mother’s queen’s throne!
I left when I was young. Now it’s not fun, living all alone away from the holy throne. That taught us so much about surviving, grooming, and cleaning our home, where we live and study all kinds of things to carry us through different situations in life.
We all live in the USofA
CRAIG THOMPSON Artist/Vendor
Is it still the good USA
As we live it every day?
From the depth of the river to the highest tree
Sea to beautiful shining sea
Georgy Porgy Pudding Pie
Kiss the English or make them die
Ben Franklin, John Hancock
Can you help me, Mr. Spock?
From Mars to beloved Mother Earth
Do rights and freedoms need rebirth?
The bold, the brave, the true of heart
Please, people, where do we start?
As we kill our ecosphere
And everything that we hold dear
Eternal love, never fear
Life and freedoms disappear
Patriots, please lend an ear
Eternal now is all we’ve got
As we play our movie plot
Yes, we love the Melting Pot
Everyone just wants a lot
Stand for what we know is true
Please adore red, white, and blue
Says the one artist, Kung Fu
Let us do WHAT WE CAN DO
For Mother Earth, Land of the free
God’s way, God’s way successfully
We can not do this alone
Love yourself, pick up the phone
Illustration by Frederic John
ERAP dilemma
JENNIFER MCLAUGHLIN
Artist/Vendor
The Emergency Rental Assistance program (ERAP) will change in fiscal year 2026. Some people will not qualify for ERAP assistance. The new funding will begin on Oct. 1, 2025. People who already applied last year will get the assistance; people who do not qualify may be put out on the streets.
Missing you
TASHA SAVOY Artist/Vendor
Have you ever had your heart ripped from your chest? Have you been around someone who you just know will be with you forever, and never thought a day would come without their smiles, their laughter, their tears? Never thought that one day it wouldn’t be the same? That one day, all would be silent in your heart, nothing but cold winter nights and cold summer days. There are only 24 hours in a day, but I miss you 27 hours a day. Three more hours of coldness and sadness. Missing you is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
My experience of 9/11
I worked as a security guard/concierge for Argenbright Security, and I contracted my services to the National Council for Higher Education, which is affiliated with the American Council on Education. During the morning, we security guards/concierges would sign visitors in through the computer and have the employees show their badges as they walked into the main lobby. If the employee didn’t have their badge, we would issue badges through the computer. We also patrolled the garages and around the building.
That day, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, we didn’t know what was going on. One of the residents of one of the associations came down to the main lobby and said they had seen two airplanes crash into the twin towers in New York City, and another was about to hit the U.S. Capitol, but the crew and passengers overpowered the hijackers, and the plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. One of the airline planes crashed into the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C. This was a planned and coordinated suicide attack by terrorists.
During that time, many associations and workers from various organizations closed their doors for the day. We stayed until our shifts were over.
I had my phone, and I called my dad to let him know I was alright. When my shift was over, I took my Nissan Pathfinder, the 1997 model, from the garage out to P Street to Dupont Circle, around Massachusetts Avenue through Thomas Circle to New York Avenue to 395, going eastbound to the Phillip Sousa bridge. I didn’t see one vehicle on that freeway going east or west. Then I drove to District Heights, Maryland, and got home, where I watched everything on CNN.
Overcoming stress
WILLIAM SHUFORD
Artist/Vendor
I have a lot of stressful days trying to get a lot done on short notice. I still try to do too much, even though I know it makes it hard for me to focus. And when I’m asked to be in three places at the last minute, I’m too stressed to finish anything. But I stay strong and keep pushing even though it’s a never-ending task. However, that’s part of being an adult. I’ve learned you’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet, and at the end of the day, you must try hard not to give up.
Trump
QUEENIE FEATHERSTONE
Artist/Vendor
T — true at his job. Is he really? Not at all!
R — really working hard for these United States. NOT!!
U — uses many people. Can’t they see?
M — mean as hell. Can’t they tell?
P — phony. So phony as a piece of rotten baloney.
Illustration by Craig Thompson
RICHARDSON Artist/Vendor
JAMES LYLES III Artist/Vendor
September of rest
WARREN STEVENS
Artist/Vendor
Summer is coming to an end in September. We had a good time in the heat, drinking ice water and staying cool in the summer shade. I got to stay in the pool around the corner from where I live. The children enjoyed taking a trip to the beach and Ocean City, walking the boardwalk, and sightseeing, wearing their sunshades.
When it cooled, I drove uptown on 17th Street NW, where the Safeway and McDonald’s are located, and sold Street Sense papers to customers. The people use their app to buy the paper with my article in it. Some people offer to go to the Safeway to buy what I need and to buy lunch or dinner. They show love and kindness. They treat me as family, and with love. There were lots of bands and music down at the park where people shop and buy jewelry, hats, and food. I enjoyed that very much.
The children are going back to school. They will miss the good times until next summer. Kids have their school supplies ready for the fall season, and their parents shop for them. It will be voting time soon. We hope next year they vote more Democrats back in office to fight Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who are paid big time to cut social security, Medicare, food stamps, and Medicaid. The more jobs they cut, the more Americans suffer. We don’t need that mess. Trump is unfit to be president. We need a different president and vice president to take a stand and build this country so Americans can receive their Medicare and Social Security checks and food stamps, which most older Americans have earned and worked hard for. The prices at the food market are skyrocketing. The government needs to cut prices in half so people can shop and live within their means. And stay safe. Please stay safe in Maryland and Virginia, where you live. There has been a lot of carjacking, robbing banks, stealing in apartment homes, hotels, and carrying guns that police are searching for. Enjoy this beautiful weather! Next thing we will be getting cold weather for the holidays.
I quit cigarettes!!
LATICIA BROCK Artist/Vendor
In my wildest, wildest dreams, I never thought I would quit something I started at 13 I saved my life and saved my lungs It was killing me all the time, something I thought was fun You’re called many things, you have many names But it keeps your body tired, gasping for air, and drained Other names are jacks, lucys, or yancers, And in the long run, you can end up with cancer
Smoking leaves a strong scent, even through a breath mint So I quit cold turkey because smoking Cigarettes IS NOT WORTH IT!!
My remedy for toxicity
JAMES
DAVIS
Artist/Vendor
Let’s stay away from contentious people They cause problems: who are their equals?
They will pull you into their negative orbit
To throw your day off guard a little bit
You must void their negative with positive words And while we are bordering on the absurd
These people possess the unmitigated audacity
To steal your joy with their toxicity
So the next time you see one come your way
Be sure to cut them off with, “Have a great day!”
Remembering Mom
PATRICIA
Artist/Vendor
I am a vendor with Street Sense Media. I went to celebrate my birthday on August 20, 2025, but I missed my mom, who has a very special place in my heart. I miss my mom on holidays. If you’re missing a loved one during the holidays, know that you are not alone. There are ways to cope with the grief and memory of lost loved ones. It can be difficult when the people you love are grieving, but try to find new ways to remember the person you’re missing. It could bring people together as a family. For example, buying or making your own Christmas ornament or bauble to remember those who have died.
Street Sense evolves
Jayson
JACQUELINE GALE Artist/Vendor
My sleepless nights began when you went away… and you went away too soon. My baby boy Jayson is dead. All the things in my head are wondering why you are no longer here. The time we shared can never be compared to the joy you gave. Your children still miss you, but are coming to understand. They are doing well in school and making friends. We all just want to hold you again.
From the day you were born, my heart leapt with joy: I have me another baby boy. By the time you were 3, boy, you were jumping everywhere, on and off everything. I tried to tell you to stop, and you jumped right into my arms. I’m glad I had a good arm so that you were caught safely. The awards you won in school! I don’t care what anyone says, my son, you left too soon.
Love, Mom.
You are news! New to this America. Not only today, Always for me and you
Would you go overseas? I will resign from my TV talk, Come home without Street Sense. You know no time or glare; That’s why I read your news.
Street Sense for you, too, brother.
Friendship
MARC GRIER
Artist/Vendor
Touched by an angel
NITIN KHANNA Artist/Vendor
Every day, I see a past me The butterflies and bees Friends and enemies Angels swarm every moment But sometimes they forget And don’t see themselves But so do I
A friend sticks closer than a brother. A friend is a person who is always there when you need them. They even know when something is wrong with you. But most of all, we can go and travel together, eat together, and have a good time. And reminisce about things going on with us.
Trump: The U.S. Hitler
TREVOR FREEMAN
Artist/Vendor
Know this: Hitler and Trump have a lot in common in their past and present. Hitler threw the disabled and the homeless into concentration camps. Trump is putting people, some of whom are American citizens, in prison camps in El Salvador and Florida.
We are all in danger.
Some say 30 days. Some say four years. But remember: on Jan. 6 — only four and a half years ago — Trump refused to give up the power he had lost. This is only the beginning of — do I dare write it — a new civil war in America. And with the world pissed at the USA, it is all Trump’s doing. It is the beginning of the end for the USA.
JENKINS DALTON
Artist/Vendor
Police leading an encampment closure in August. Photo by Trevor Freeman
DONALDSON
Marc and his friend. Photo by Marc Grier
FUN & GAMES
Across
1. Windfall at the casino
4. Heart rate (abbr./initialism)
7. With “the,” Britain’s national flag
12. ___ gras (PETA concern)
13. Ltrs. identified with a Seattle-based outdoors outfitter
14. Land chronicled by C.S. Lewis
16. Head count attendance check (2 wds.) (4,4)
18. Units of light
19. Mil. training site for the brass (abbr./initialism)
20. Color shadings
21. “The ___ true for...”
22. The whole ___ (100%)
24. Furrow maker
26. “___ Maria”
27. Connections (3-3)
28. Italian baked dish of very wide flat strips of pasts with sauce, cheese and meats or vegetables (Ital. pl. ending)
30. Border
31. Affliction in “Philadelphia” and “Dallas Buyers Club”
32. ___ Kosh B’Gosh (giant in overalls)
33. Casino game name that includes a color... or an apt way to describe each of the 4 corner squares of this puzzle (2 wds.) (5,4)
36. National dish of Vietnam
38. “Eins, zwei, ____” (Ger.)
39. Tennis’s Nadal, familiarly
42. Leas, essentially
44. Popular Mexican beer brand
46. Fashion line
47. The middle parts of Argentina and Kenya?
48. Very attractive or seductive woman, slangily (2 wds.) (3,4) (RAMPANT anagram)
49. Hunter in the night sky
51. Fill beyond full
52. Big auto racing sponsor (abbr./initialism)
53. Court doubles figure who is not the server (MET NAN anagram)
55. A covered cistern for sewage (COPS LOSE anagram)
57. Regard as the same
58. Flying start?
59. Invitation word
60. Nursery rhyme lover of lean cuisine
61. Wager
62. To commandeer a plane, often a commercial airliner, without authority
Down
1. Jutting out, familiarly (whether relating to a dog or not)
2. Castor bean, sesame or canola, e.g.
3. ____ Aviv
4. Some rechargeable electric shavers
5. Co-owner of the “Pequod” in Melville’s “Moby Dick”
6. Thousandths of an inch
7. Not in the phone book (abbr.)
8. Seasickness, or a celebrated Sartre novel
9. “Joy of Cooking” author Rombauer
10. “___ trash is another...” (from an old proverb about differing tastes, values) (2 wds.) (3,4) (AMEN, SON anagram)
11. Jonah’s Biblical destination
12. Winter coat specifically mentioned in a Nat King Cole classic
15. Male donkeys or stupid persons
17. No. 5 fragrance company
23. Rap artist who was one-half of the Southern hip hop duo “Outkast” (3,3)
24. Pilgrim to Mecca
25. Bones, anatomically, or a Greek peak
28. Positive Instagram responses
29. Small, lightweight racing vehicle (2-4)
31. What the forty in “the back forty” are
34. Score after deuce, in tennis (2 wds.) (2,2)
35. They’re not pretty, as old witches
36. Must-have experiences or credentials for certain jobs, college courses, etc., briefly
37. Over-emote, as an actor/actress (3 wds.) (3,2,2)
40. Deserted
41. Body-structure science that’s a Gray matter?
42. Analog socket or plug used to connect various communication devices
43. Legendary Italian opera soprano Scotto
44. Tend for a friend’s Tom or care for the neighbors’ Calico (3-3)
45. Brandy distilled from cider
48. Irish novelist ___ Binchy
50. Barbra’s “Funny Girl” co-star Sharif
51. One who crosses the line?
54. After-taxes and expenses amount
56. I.B.M.-compatibles (abbr./initialism)
CROSSWORD
Who’s That in the Corner?
Puzzle by Patrick “Mac” McIntyre
This crossword puzzle is the original work of Patrick “Mac”McIntyre. It is provided to us courtesy of Real Change News, a street paper based in Seattle, Washington. Learn more about Real Change News and the International Network of Street Papers at realchangenews.org and insp.ngo.
COMMUNITY SERVICES
Housing/Shelter Vivienda/alojamiento Case Management Coordinación de Servicios
Academy of Hope Public Charter School
202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Pl. NE
202-373-0246 // 421 Alabama Ave. SE aohdc.org
Bread for the City 1525 7th St., NW // 202-265-2400 1700 Marion Barry Ave., SE // 202-561-8587 breadforthecity.org
Calvary Women’s Services // 202-678-2341 1217 Marion Barry Ave., SE calvaryservices.org
Samaritan Ministry 202-722-2280 // 1516 Hamilton St., NW 202-889-7702 // 1345 U St., SE samaritanministry.org
Sasha Bruce Youthwork // 202-675-9340 741 8th St., SE sashabruce.org
So Others Might Eat (SOME) // 202-797-8806 71 O St., NW some.org
St. Luke’s Mission Center // 202-363-4900 3655 Calvert St., NW stlukesmissioncenter.org
Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW thrivedc.org
Unity Health Care unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699
1500 Galen Street SE, 1251-B Saratoga Ave NE, 1660 Columbia Road NW, 4414 Benning Road NE, 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 765 Kenilworth Terrace NE, 850 Delaware Ave., SW, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 1151 Bladensburg Rd., NE, 4515 Edson Pl., NE
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St., NW // 202-328-5500 legalclinic.org
The Welcome Table // 202-347-2635 1317 G St., NW. epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable
Whitman-Walker Health 1525 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 1201 Sycamore Dr., SE whitman-walker.org
Woodley House // 202-830-3508 2711 Connecticut Ave., NW
For further information and listings, visit our online service guide at StreetSenseMedia.org/service-guide
Facilities coordinator
Beacon Hill // Washington D.C.
Temporary to full-time
At this position the facilities coordinator would be responsible for handling tasks such as ordering catering, conference room set up and breakdown, and event schedules; developing invoices and handle scheduling communications; assisting with audio and visual technology set up and needs; liaising with staff, speakers, members, volunteers, and vendors to ensure positive experience; managing maintenance requests, handling invoices, and supporting other administrative needs.
Required: Must be able to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds and 1+ years of facilities experience.
Apply: tinyurl.com/FacilitiesBH
Retail sales associate
PetSmart // Washington D.C. Part-time/Full-time
PetSmart’s Pet Associate (Retail Sales Associate) is responsible for engaging with pet parents and their pets while providing positive experiences and upholding the company’s vision, mission, values, and strategy. This role shares responsibility for store cleanliness and maintenance, and pet safety standards as well as the direct care of pets within our store. Exposure to live animals and their handling is common.
Required: Able to stand and walk for long periods. Able to lift 50 pounds and team lift 100 pounds.
Apply: tinyurl.com/DistrictPetSmart
Sweetgreen team member
Sweetgreen // Washington D.C. Full-time/ Part-time
As a Sweetgreen Team Member, you will be an ambassador for our mission: building healthier communities by connecting people to real food. We love team players! Whether you’re passionate about providing exceptional customer experience in the front of the house, preparing healthy, crave-able foods in the kitchen, or keeping our stations clean and organized, you’ll have the support of your manager and team to create an experience our customers will love.
Required: 18 years or older and able to work a minimum 12 hours per week
