Welcome to the Recovery Part 2 – Washington D.C.’s Homeless Population Expected to Rise 16% in 2014

Earlier this week, I published a post titled: Welcome to the Recovery – U.S. Child Homelessness Hits Record as Poverty in Mass. is Highest Since 1960. That was actually the second in a recent series of pieces highlighting the real world impact of this so-called “economic recovery,” which is now supposedly in its fifth or sixth year, despite having provided little or no benefit to the average citizen. The first in the series was: Child Poverty Jumps by 2.6 Million in Developed World Since 2008, While Number of Global Billionaires Doubles.

Today, I highlight further evidence that what we are witnessing can be best characterized as a transition to serfdom, as opposed to a genuine economic recovery. The Washington Post reports the following:

“I don’t have nowhere to sleep, and it’s getting cold,” said the woman, 24, whose name is being withheld because she is a domestic-violence victim. “I need help.”

Browning is a development specialist at the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center. The center moved into a bigger space in Northeast Washington this fall to accommodate the city’s growing number of homeless families. The space gives case managers from different departments more room to collaborate to troubleshoot families’ problems.

As the temperatures plunged into the 20s on Tuesday and the city called its first cold emergency of the season, the noise at the center increased with the sounds of infants, crying as their young mothers searched for ways to keep warm.

The task will probably get harder. The city expects 16 percent more homeless families this year. Yet there are fewer spaces in its main shelter in the old D.C. General hospital, and the budget has allocated no money to place families in motels. Meanwhile, officials are searching the city for a location to create another family shelter to deal with the overflow.

The facts above take on added significance in light of the fact that: Washington D.C. is Now the Most Expensive Place to Live in the USA.

If outcomes such as these translate into statistics demonstrating economic growth, I think we need new statistics.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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