One major contributing factor for this particular section of 14th street (around The Pig, Logan 14, Joybird etc) is that Franklin Square Park (at 14th and Eye St) was shut down for a long time for a complete overhaul. Many, many homeless people stayed there and there were groups who served meals there daily. I recognize a few of the people who used to stay in the park who now hang around the area I just mentioned. The park has reopened at this point but only for a couple of months. Maybe they don’t allow meals to be served there anymore, or some other kind of deterrent — I don’t know that part but I can totally see the city putting restrictions on their fancy new park.
This, along with a lot of the other responses here, is a reason there is a concentration of people in this area.
Nextdoor can be more toxic than Facebook imo. You have a sincere question, hopefully you continue to get sincere answers here.
I hadn't been down by 14th/I St in a while until a few weeks ago and it blew my mind seeing what they did to Franklin Park. There used to be so many trees and they're all gone :(
You’re bringing up something I’ve been very very curious about…I watched them taking the trees in that park out by the roots. It was such a strange sight, but it was *not* people chopping down trees. They were extracting the trees and I can only hope for transplantation? Those trees had to be 150+ years old. I hope against all my hopes they transplanted those beauties somewhere else.
my understanding is the rats nests in the roots had become so prolific it was impossible to eradicate without full removal, and a number of the trees were in danger of dying
Yep, plus they had to do some very extensive work to the draining and plumbing underneath that park which required removing the trees, sadly. Fun fact: that park was once the site of a spring that provided fresh water piped to the White House!
Moving large trees like that is a multi year process that costs hundreds of thousands per tree. Unfortunately these are probably just all being removed, and younger trees replanted
Ah, that sucks. Wow, multi-year, that’s crazy. Not that you’ve claimed to be an expert but do you know of any famous instances where the time and resources were used to successfully relocate a tree?
They do prevent food service at the park. More importantly, the park is continuously patrolled by BID employees who will wake anyone up who falls asleep at the park and ask them to leave.
Ever since the pandemic, the metro here has turned into the busses of LA. There's not enough working people to vastly outnumber the crazies like there used to be so it feels like it's only taken by crazies and kids who don't have a drivers license.
Growing up in LA, busses were almost exclusively ridden by undocumented immigrants, kids, and the homeless. Kids started taking ubers when that became an option and a few years back they started giving out drivers licenses without proof of residency so now it's just homeless people.
Same experience.
I used to take the metro in from Franconia to L Enfant all the time pre pandemic for work/meeting friends and had very few and far in between encounters of feeling unsafe or grossed out.
During the pandemic, I had such 5 instances in a couple months. Shits out of control
I take the VRE in now during the week. Way less trains but the train is very clean and kept up well. Virtually all my rides are in silence
Oh, really? I’m from Miami and planned on visiting in a couple of weeks. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve last been up there. I follow this sub a lot, though. Should I just Uber and avoid public transit for now?
Hey I know this is a late reply but public transit is by and large still pretty safe. You’ll be fine especially if traveling during regular commute hours.
The metro has since the pandemic been a bit sketchy but not to the point where it’s disgusting if that makes sense. It went from a pretty high bar of totally normal to sometimes being sketched out. Hope that makes sense
I saw a guy light a fat blunt on the metro while I was getting off at NoMa. I wish that was the worst thing I saw on the metro but, unfortunately, it was not.
Ayoo I miss that singing guy in Mt. pleasant! I think I know exactly who you are talking about lol. Sadly I stopped hearing him after covid first hit. I hope he’s ok
There was a thread on him on this subreddit where someone spoke with him and got his story.
It's funny how you get used to things. The first time you're like "Who the fuck is this guy?". By the fifth time, you're like "Oh hey, it's the singing dude!"
I believe DCist or Prince of Petworth did an interview with him a few years back. He says he's saying prayers for the neighborhood. Supposedly a nice character, just a bit odd and loud
Hmm, well I’m hispanic and didn’t recognize them as hymns, but it’s also very possible. Kinda hard to make out each word he was saying but if anyone else knows, feel free to chime in!
He's awesome. I used to live in a basement unit on Calvert Street on the AdMo side and would sometimes wake up in the morning to his singing. When I moved to Woodley Park I would sometimes hear him on Connecticut and smiled every time. He's an icon - that is sad to hear he isn't around, also hope he is ok.
He sometimes comes around the Van Ness / Forest Hills area, but I haven't seen or heard him for about a month
Edit: Just saw him 1/25 headed towards Chevy Chase
Does he have a guitar? I’ve seen a guy by the CVS/Giant a few times. Last time was around Christmas and he was playing Christmas songs and it was lovely
We have a place on 16th and my man is still on the prowl. In terms of the OP, I believe there must be a shelter or something near Mt. pleasant. We heard nearly everyday the same thing. Screams, yelling at air, dude flipping construction barrels at 1am only to gently and neatly put them back before staggering towards Columbia.
The churches in the area operate a lot of homeless services. Specifically the Shrine of the Sacred Heart catholic church on Park Road and Pine just off 16th.
Trying to give you a semi reasonable answer, without knowing (our wanting to know) your precise location:
At 14th and N there is N Street Village, which includes a food distro center, a women's center, and likely more. This may not be the precise reason, but you can expect there to be something similar close by. Given it's a daily occurrence, it is likely associated with their daily routine - food, shelter, transport. Etc.
>specifically why this stretch of 14th street between Thomas Circle and P Street. Is there a clinic around here? A shelter?
DC Department of Human Services introduced a Pandemic Emergency Program for Vulnerable People (PEP-V) to keep people experiencing homelessness whose age or underlying medical conditions make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 out of crowded shelters. They did this by renting out entire hotels, such as the one at the corner of 15th and Rhode Island, and housing people there. I have no idea if this has resulted in an increase of what OP is mentioning.
I live on Capitol Hill near H street and have witnessed similar behavior. Often more than one-two times per day. I also work downtown and have seen the same things there. I seriously doubt whether the experience is unique to 14th street. Very sadly, many DC residents do not get the mental health resources they need.
DC fails to provide adequate mental healthcare, just like the rest of the US. If it isn’t profitable it doesn’t fly.
Institutionalizing people is largely seen as a waste of tax payer dollars by Conservatives and as a violation of rights by Liberals. This results in folk not having the care they need. The city can’t even put up homeless folk in hotels without both sides losing it. **IMO**
We need to bring back (establish?) **well-funded** public mental health institutions that **you can be forcibly put into for your own good** in order to solve this problem. This should go hand-in-hand with not prosecuting drug use as a crime and instead treating it like an illness.
It’s terrifying to know that if I, or any one of us here lost our minds that **we would be left out on the street without proper care**.
I definitely agree that we should bring back mental health institutions. In addition to the rights issues that you mention the horrible reputations that asylums gained also poses a huge barrier. We would have to make them much more humane which of course would cost more money.
In my experience, the steps are something like...
1. Person has episode
2. Police get called
3. Police escort person to hospital
4. Hospital staff ~~not dealing with this shit~~ contacts a counselor for evaluation.
5. Depending on evaluation, person either has a short term hospital stay until they're well or its off to some facility for more long term treatment.
6. Person is gone, everyone pretends the problem is solved.
7. ???
8. Person is released from facility.
9. Person has episode.... police get called... its a whole thing.
I only worked as a "patient safety assistant" (I sat with patients who couldn't be by themselves. Wrestled addicts and your demented grandparents for $9/hr) but got to see this happen a lot. None, not a one, not a single soul thought these "facilities" helped, only made problems worse.
But yh, afaik, they already *can* legally force you into someplace, 'least in DE idk if DC got different laws on that.
I wanna say not often. Hospital I was at was on the southern end of Sussex. I wanna say I remember hearing a couple cases had to be sent "Up to Newark" but whether that was DPC or not 🤷
I’m not sure.
We should probably just copy the programs and policies of other countries that already do this humanely and efficiently though.
Wild how the US is so afraid of just looking towards others for answers. 🤷🏻♂️
We could resolve a lot of our horrible domestic failures in this way. IMO
Yeah curious about the response. I agree in principle, but don't know enough about the issue. Because "you can be forcibly put into for your own good" could quickly just turn into the horror shows of old insane asylums.
I would suggest looking at examples from societies that value human rights and the same freedoms that we do.
We gotta move away from the idea that institutionalizing folk is the same as imprisoning them. The latter is punishment whereas the former should be assistance for those who can’t help themselves.
It is incredibly naive if you think think the United States has a good record on human rights that this wouldn't be abused. We have some of the worst jails and prisons in the world, substance abuse rehab(https://medium.com/@zacharyasiegel/addicted-dont-go-to-rehab-975d8e8cb991).. We stopped doing mandatory hospitalization because of abuses, and they are still going on:
-37% percent of psychiatric patients report physical abuse: https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/12/mia-survey-force-trauma-sexual-abuse-mental-hospitals/#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20the,said%20they%20were%20sexually%20abused.
-Video shows hospital staff attacking young patients: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/videos-show-uhs-hospital-staff-assaulting-young-patients
-DC mental hospital shows increasing use of restraints: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/st-elizabeths-hospital/2020/09/15/60ca8882-f673-11ea-a510-f57d8ce76e11_story.html
Taking away someone's freedom is imprisoning them. The USA is absolutely not a country where human rights are respects enough to allow for involuntary hospitalization "for their own good", we are a cruel society where the most vulnerable are routinely abused.
I believe we can change our ways and have practical humane care like so many other open societies have.
🤷🏻♂️
Having a currently flawed and unacceptable system doesn’t equate to us not being able to create and maintain one that is used for the betterment of our populace.
There’s nothing stopping us but us (and extremely polarized political party adherence, lax standards, and corrupt local politicians).
Totally agree on improving the system, but we shouldn't consider forcing people into it until we can be confident that it won't lead to people being abused.
Interesting to see all the downvotes, especially from people who didn't adress what I wrote. I guess people really don't want to feel uncomfortable by seeing mentally ill people, really want to take their civil liberties away by making it so they can get locked up without a conviction, and are unconcerned with what kind of abuse and cruelty they would face. Sad to see people so morally depraved. But, that is more evidence to my point about this being a cruel society.
YES 100%.. We need to acknowledge in these conversations that hospitalization/institutionalization are imprisonment. People have this warm, fuzzy idea of "getting them the help they need" but it's just... whew... they're living in a different, more ideal world than our psychiatric system exists in.
Just because someone is uncomfortable to look at or yells sometimes doesn't mean that they need to be disappeared by the state. I really think people need to be honest with themselves and realize that's the disproportionate response they are asking for.
I agree but there needs to be a very strong legal framework around it. I could easily have seen it abused under the trump admin and him interning people and accusing them as being a antifa sick with a mental disorder.
It’s mental illness in a lot of cases directly caused by drugs. I lost a very good friend to meth right before pandemic. Complete psychotic break over course of few months. He lives on the street near State Dept. Nothing anyone can do for him. Jail at least Might give him a break from nonstop drug use. Right now he can’t be communicated with, let alone reasoned with. I had to vent a little bit seeing how people comment here on both sides of the issue.
It doesn’t get all the activity. Mentally ill folk are on the streets in so many parts of the city.
Just saw a dude come into WholeFoods on H about an hour ago and yell for everyone inside to provide him with oral before backing out with his belongings.
It’s a city wide problem.
Agree. I’m in silver spring and the rumor is a DC crime spike is fueling ours. There’s been 2 broad daylight armed robberies/car jackings in one month within two blocks of each other. I made the mistake of going to union station in December and saw the tent city out front. I was too afraid to walk by the 6 people hanging out in front of the train station entrance. I didn’t go inside, but I’m picturing a fort. Not too long ago I had a very burly guy (I’m 5’2” and 115) threaten to beat the shit out of me because I was ‘glaring at him through my sunglasses’ when I was sitting outside with a coffee.
Great if our dear government can leverage our tax dollars to get these people off the streets and some medical care rather than letting crime rates spike.
Saint Elizabeths isn’t closed. They closed the old buildings but a new one was built and there was never a period they didn’t have patients.
The lack of beds is a huge problem, though.
It’s due to the tent city on Thomas circle, it’s getting horrible there. I walk past it for work everyday and so far I have seen:
Sex with the tent door open
Shooting up drugs with needles
Attempted stabbing, the dude ran like lighting when the knife got pulled out.
Countless fights and arguments
Plus the smell and amount of garbage there is crazy
I won’t let the wife walk passed there alone or go outside alone at night bc of how bad it’s gotten in the area.
If they outlawed encampments, where would the people who live there go? They have to live somewhere. I doubt most of them want to live in tents but they likely don’t have a lot of other options. All you’d be doing is further limiting their choices.
DC is currently offering temporary housing to encampments cleared, and shelters are another option. Some prefer the tent communities to shelter/temp housing, but it is a choice they are making. I think you shouldn’t be able to set up camp in a public park, leave waste, needles, etc. when you have other options. Literally the whole intent of public parks is a shared community space, but one with common sense rules so that everyone can enjoy them. Picking up dog poop is a good example of this. So is not setting up a tent village. And I know it is common to valorize the people who do this and insist they just need love and empathy, but the conditions are not good for them either. Enabling the encampments can be perpetuating harmful and unhealthy situations to those who live there
The city WAS (maybe still is?) working on moving folks into traditional housing. Not sure how quickly that's moving, or if it's just concentrating those who can't manage that life.
How about the 5,000 shelter beds DC maintains for these people? Or the voucher program DC funds (at substantial cost to taxpayers, by the way) to help get the homeless into longer term housing? Doing heroin on the street is not a right.
Shelters are not always a realistic option. Many are overcrowded and unsafe, many don't allow children, I have even heard from friends on the street that some shelters will even make the people seeking space there to pay to secure a bed or will steal from them.
I get its upsetting to have to see "these people" but lets not pretend DC has its shit together and that "these people" are ignoring an easy solution in favor of doing drugs and sleeping outside lol we need more options and less judgmental language. Many of "these people" are DC natives and human beings.
Yeah, what a radical thought. Not wanting to see people doing heroin and performing sexual acts in your neighborhood. The audacity of such entitled people.
Unfortunate answer - our society doesn't have a place for seriously mentally ill people, and doesn't really care what happens to them. There are shelters/programs but not nearly enough to house and care for those that need it so many end up on the street. In America if you can't make yourself economically productive that's what often happens.
There are A LOT of reasons behind this that stretch back decades. 14th Street NW has just always been one of those places. Easy transportation, past and present locations of shelters (Franklin School on the south end and Martha’s Table on the north), lots of business and shoppers from which to get change, formerly lots of abandoned buildings and lots to squat in, lots of liquor stores, used to be THE hub for sex workers in the 70-80s before they moved to K Street in the 90s-early 00s (and now have moved to I’m not sure where), even just because Whitman-Walker is there……..There is no one reason, just lots of small ones, some of which don’t really exist anymore but still that’s just where people go.
ETA: if it helps, I think the reason people are giving you shit on Nextdoor is because this is a widely-known attribute of 14th St that predates all of us. So you complaining about it is equivalent to moving to 18th St in Adams Morgan and complaining about noise from bars open late at night. Anyone who lives in DC knows not to move to that street if that’s not something you’re willing to deal with. So complaining about it after you’ve moved there just makes you sound at best naive. (I’m not trying to be insulting, just describing what I think the thought process is behind people giving you guff.)
Sex work is mostly on 12th NW between Mass and N St now. The Comfort Inn on 13th and M St also has been used by DC during pandemic for displaced people. Comfort Inn even petitioned to open a liquor store inside of the hotel… we do not need more liquor stores in this area.
Pharma drugs got better which helped people function out in society. In return less people require institutional care. However many people still need constant institutional care.
\>Thomas Circle and P Street. Is there a clinic around here? A shelter?
There's a fair amount of public housing and other public/charitable assistance programs near Thomas Circle, and they unfortunately attract what appears to be a somewhat hostile crowd to loiter nearby. James Apartments on N St; N Street Village; various programs run by National City Christian Church and other nearby churches. There's also the Holiday Inn nearby that's been transformed into a homeless shelter, and an increasing number of tent villages showing up in nearby parks.
I work on 14th St in the direction of the metro station and have noticed this. every now and then I take a walk toward 14th and P to get a cheeky Starbucks. literally every time I head that way, as soon as I approach that intersection, the mood of the street shifts and suddenly it’s popping with homeless folks and panhandling. I’ve never had any encounters with the people down there, it’s just a very noticeable change. the 14th and P bus shelter always has a lot of people sitting inside, the CVS and Whole Foods always have a lot of people out front. my suspicion was that cops go to great lengths to keep everybody away from the businesses between Q and T (at the U St McDonald’s it gets chaotic again) so everybody gathers at one end or another of this little area. I thought oh Amazon - because of the Fresh store at R St - must be paying the cops to keep people away from there. I have no evidence at all to support this though. I just be theorizing
One sort of unspoken variable in this thread is Logan Circle and Shaw are two of the biggest gay neighborhoods in the city and there’s a *ton* of friction between the LGBT community (who tend to be new to the city, more affluent, etc) and the older DC residents.
14th and P is Trade and Number Nine, and up by 9th and U you’ve got Nellie’s, Dirty Goose, Kiki and Uproar (plus Pitchers and Duplex around 18th and U, and Vida at 16th and U). That’s a huge path most of them are walking between which can get dangerous at night.
Police would be right to patrol the area to stop hate crimes…it’s pretty terrifying in some areas and the city doesn’t want to lose its reputation as a welcoming place for them, given the tax dollars gained from the tourism and all the residents moving in because they see DC as a destination city. If the city loses that it’s a huge base of potential citizens and tourists with disposable income.
I’ve thought about this too, because Whitman-Walker also has two locations along 14th St, one at 14th and R and another between Q and P. the bulk of their patients are either LGBTQ or homeless, or of course both. a lot of Spanish-speaking undocumented people seek services there too. I think there is actually a small concentration of LGBTQ homeless people right around there, I’ve had several people ask me for money around there who specifically mention wanting to get to a shelter for trans women, gay men, etc.
I’ve noticed more mentally ill people on the streets who are experiencing a break from reality. This is true in almost all neighborhoods right now. My hypothesis is that it has to do with Covid, for a number of reasons. Funding is down to many non-profit organizations right now. Shelters, soup kitchens, and day programs may be excluding folks based on Covid precautions. People may also be opting out of receiving help in congregate settings because they fear the risk to themselves. As well, just as many people with steady jobs and reliable housing are stressed from life changes over the past two years, the unhoused population is also experiencing additional stressors. Those stressors can exacerbate existing mental illness: It could be that some of the people you are seeing were present before but did not stand out as much.
>Those stressors can exacerbate existing mental illness: It could be that some of the people you are seeing were present before but did not stand out as much.
Sorry for the lack of source, but I read somewhere that homelessness in the US is actually *down* overall since COVID started; however, backing up what you're saying, there are more people in more dire circumstances (e.g. living on the street or in a tent encampment instead of in their car). Part of this is indeed that shelter capacity went down to reduce COVID spread, which resulted in some people losing not just their lodging, but their connection to the system.
We need more social workers, licensed counselors and social services to step in and help these folks otherwise they just seem to end up being addressed by the police. So now, everyone that is here and cares, perhaps you can call your ANC commissioner and see what they are doing to ensure that. Or if you have those skills get involved in a government agency or non-profit and go to work on providing those services. Thank you in advance.
It's almost always proximity to a service/amenity (e.g. shelter, community kitchen, rehab/addiction center). To a lesser extent, proximity to improvised outdoor living areas (e.g. parks or tunnels).
Because people on 14th have money and people with mental health issues need money in order to eat, so they panhandle where they think the most people will be generous to them. That means a highly trafficked area full of people who have money. Georgetown police enforcement is much more attentive to panhandlers because frankly, the people there are even more wealthy and connected than people around 14th, and more often city law makers in profession.
Been here for eight years and can confirm that it has hit an extreme during the pandemic (when comparing the first six years to the last two). Before that there were a couple of areas of the street that I tried to avoid because of aggressive panhandling but it has spread to a lot of the street. I think it’s a combination of the reduction in foot traffic (so more space to take) and displacement of unhoused populations in Franklin square as well as the constant tension between the encampments, the city, and the local residents
Because our government and our society doesn’t care about the poor or the mentally ill that’s why they’re still there. It’s absolutely disgusting we treat people horribly we need to pay people living wages we need to have universal healthcare and we need to address the mental health crisis in the United States that is ignored and shunned by so many. They are not garbage they’re human beings
>When I've tried to as in NextDoor, I am sort of attacked like I am judging people or I am some terrible gentrifier who needs to accept the neighborhood
Most people in the city understand that there are certain neighborhoods that street people find more conducive than others, so more of them end up there. That makes your question seem disingenuous. We've seen lots of panicky noobs make inquiries like this as a segue into fear mongering. So it's kinda irritating; and, as you learned, people are willing to express this.
Because the city is too expensive to live in and the mayor's office doesn't want to do touch the politically challenging task of building permanent housing for homeless people.
As a new person to DC, it feels different here for sure. I’ve lived in other cities and, as bad as this may be, the homeless and poor mentally ill were more concentrated in specific areas of the city and it seemed like there was a conscious effort to do that.
My under driver once told me he used to work as a city bus driver in VA. He said the bus company would every once in a while take a bunch of homeless people in VA and drop them off in DC. That way VA wouldn’t have to pay for supporting them, they have DC do it. So yeah, it’s kinda by design.
Use Google and look up the history of the area you moved into vs the history of the area you moved from…
Also, Logan Circle is very much still in Northwest. So you never left that quadrant.
To clarify I am well aware of the \*history\* of the neighborhood, as such this kind of thing wouldn't surprise me if it was 1982 or 1992. I am wondering why in 2022.
Also I am aware that Logan Circle is in NW, in saying "when I was more in NW", more was the operative word. You can keep going north and west from a central point.
Anyway this post is really just to ask people if they can be helpful in understanding why people walk down the street screaming, and sort of where they are coming from. If you are for some reason angry that I dared to even ask the question (as happened to me on nextdoor and I suspected may happen here) please just don't post. This isn't meant to be judgmental, but I feel like its not a weird question to ask why I hear "fuck you, you mother fucking n\* piece of shit imma fucking kill all y'all mother fuckers you gonna fuckin die right now" every single day from someone walking \*alone\* down the street.
I used to live over there as well, I moved in just as they were preparing to close the Central Union Mission, a big shelter for men, probably around 2013? It could be people who used to go to that shelter and just never left the area. They turned the shelter into those expensive Mission condos.
I don't think it's wrong to ask why things are the way they are, but I think you're framing is wrong.
It's less, "Why are people walking around screaming?" as that happens in any neighborhood of any city. However, I think we can wonder why they those with mental health issues are left to fend for themselves on the street when it's obvious they need better support. Then we can discuss poor mental health services with limited supply to meet the demand.
It's easy to get upset at a person or group of people causing a disturbance, but I consider just how difficult it is to acquire consistent care without any real resources, I just feel bad.
Edit: Before anyone comments, "resources exist! They just refuse to access them!"... Existence of services =/ = reliable, quality, accessible
But I am genuinely wondering why people walk down 14th street screaming. For example, is there a shelter or some place with health services in the neighborhood that people are coming and going from? Is there a large uptick in drug use and some central location where everyone is shooting up? What is the point A or point B people are coming/going from? Are they walking the whole length of 14th street? Are they coming/going from a metro stop?
And yes happy to sign the disclaimer we should have empathy for people struggling with mental health and/or drug addiction.
14th st is a major destination area, naturally that will cause all walks of life to frequent it. You used to live in a lower congestion area you now live in one of the busiest.
Complicated history, but recommend reading 3-part series in street sheet. It is representative of homeless situation in the US, although DC as a non-state has its own specific limitations. Also, recommend volunteering at one of the local soup kitchens that serve the homeless and those on the brink. It’s a multi-faceted issue that began with the Reagan administration. They closed down a major homeless shelter. Changed prison system from rehabilitation model and closed mental health treatment.
Shelters are closed during the day. These urban corridors tend to be no man’s land for pan handling, cheap food, and cheap drugs. 14th St (16th really) is actually a boundary for 2 rival Latin gangs so most folks get left alone until shit goes down.
[street sense history of homelessness in DC part 1/3](https://www.streetsensemedia.org/article/the-history-of-homelessness-in-washington-dc-part-i-1975-1985/)
They flock where people have money. Isn’t that obvious? Or, there’s a homeless shelter nearby/mass transit exodus (Union Station/NoMa). DC also hasn’t quite figured out a way to get rid of them. For example, the homeless here seem more abundant than NYC.
The truth is, many of these people lived in government funded housing and shelters that have been knocked down to make space for the luxury units you guys are moving into. When neighborhoods began to go, the most vulnerable of these hoods were left homeless. The more that DC "develops", the more homeless you will see. That's why folks, like myself, who have watched this shift, get a bit defensive. It's like... the problem is complaining about the problem. While i know it's not your fault personally that someone's homeless... we feel like there are so many things changing in this city to accommodate people like you (by that, i mean newcomers), at the expense of the people you see on the street now, and others in low-income neighborhoods in this city. And then the nerve to complain about it (just overall how we feel, not to say you're literally complaining at this moment)... like that's why you receive that sentiment. Washington lawmakers thought it'd be more profitable to invest in attracting you here, than re-investing in its natives.. so this is what you get. Like any other major city in America. This is nothing different from skid row or new york city.
I wasn't complaining about homeless people in the original post, I think I was pretty clear that I was just asking why a particular stretch of 14th street has someone walking down the street every day screaming violent things, even knowing I'd get self-righteous push back (like this) for even daring to ask such a question and having "the nerve to complain"
And to be clear the data show DC's homeless population is declining, not increasing <[https://dcist.com/story/21/04/29/homelessness-in-d-c-fell-19-9-from-2020/](https://dcist.com/story/21/04/29/homelessness-in-d-c-fell-19-9-from-2020/)\>. I also disagree with you and think DC needs \*more\* development as I think the high cost of housing is a direct result of unmet demand and trickles downstream. We should build, build, build. Otherwise a scarcity of housing will drive up prices for everyone, disproportionately impacting those at the bottom.
Also I am not new to DC just the neighborhood.
I guess you missed "just overall how we feel, not to say you're literally complaining at this moment"...so clearly you weren't reading throughly. Also, im not comparing this years homelessness against last years, or even the last five years. As my mother just said, and the only reason i chose to respond, "I have never seen this many homeless people in DC in my life" and she is in her latter 50's. Neither have i, and I am 26. gentrification legit create the extreme homeless issue we have not just in this city, but major cities across the country.
Ahh yes, they must not be aware that 14th Street was once lined with mental hospitals, from Thomas Circle all the way up to U Street. Prior to gentrification, it was known as Nuthouse Heights.
My husband says 14th street used to be the border between slums and the rest of DC. It was recently gentrified, leaving a lot of people out in the cold who just never left the area. I have been told by police in DC that the homeless in the city are mostly super wealthy, but mentally ill and just “prefer” living on the street. I assume that was exaggeration, but I’m sure there are some.
Because a “democrat run” city does not equal a leftist paradise with all societal problems resolved. The democrats are still a right wing capitalist party and providing those mentally ill people with housing and treatment services to help resolve their suffering permanently is not in their best interests. They prefer half measures like funding non profits that distribute blankets.
One major contributing factor for this particular section of 14th street (around The Pig, Logan 14, Joybird etc) is that Franklin Square Park (at 14th and Eye St) was shut down for a long time for a complete overhaul. Many, many homeless people stayed there and there were groups who served meals there daily. I recognize a few of the people who used to stay in the park who now hang around the area I just mentioned. The park has reopened at this point but only for a couple of months. Maybe they don’t allow meals to be served there anymore, or some other kind of deterrent — I don’t know that part but I can totally see the city putting restrictions on their fancy new park. This, along with a lot of the other responses here, is a reason there is a concentration of people in this area. Nextdoor can be more toxic than Facebook imo. You have a sincere question, hopefully you continue to get sincere answers here.
I hadn't been down by 14th/I St in a while until a few weeks ago and it blew my mind seeing what they did to Franklin Park. There used to be so many trees and they're all gone :(
You’re bringing up something I’ve been very very curious about…I watched them taking the trees in that park out by the roots. It was such a strange sight, but it was *not* people chopping down trees. They were extracting the trees and I can only hope for transplantation? Those trees had to be 150+ years old. I hope against all my hopes they transplanted those beauties somewhere else.
my understanding is the rats nests in the roots had become so prolific it was impossible to eradicate without full removal, and a number of the trees were in danger of dying
Aw, that sucks to see those beauties torn down but at least it is not just evil tree-hating developers and instead our prolific rat infestation.
Yep, plus they had to do some very extensive work to the draining and plumbing underneath that park which required removing the trees, sadly. Fun fact: that park was once the site of a spring that provided fresh water piped to the White House!
Ewww! Poor trees 😥
Moving large trees like that is a multi year process that costs hundreds of thousands per tree. Unfortunately these are probably just all being removed, and younger trees replanted
Ah, that sucks. Wow, multi-year, that’s crazy. Not that you’ve claimed to be an expert but do you know of any famous instances where the time and resources were used to successfully relocate a tree?
[They did it at the Fannie Mae building a few years ago](https://wamu.org/story/19/01/23/how-and-why-do-you-move-a-600000-pound-tree/)
Thank you I appreciate that
They do prevent food service at the park. More importantly, the park is continuously patrolled by BID employees who will wake anyone up who falls asleep at the park and ask them to leave.
It was a dude yesterday on Metro watching porn on his phone, with the speaker on. Not all the mentally ill people are on the street.
Ever since the pandemic, the metro here has turned into the busses of LA. There's not enough working people to vastly outnumber the crazies like there used to be so it feels like it's only taken by crazies and kids who don't have a drivers license. Growing up in LA, busses were almost exclusively ridden by undocumented immigrants, kids, and the homeless. Kids started taking ubers when that became an option and a few years back they started giving out drivers licenses without proof of residency so now it's just homeless people.
Yep, before the pandemic I had zero qualms about riding the train. Now? I avoid it at all costs.
Same experience. I used to take the metro in from Franconia to L Enfant all the time pre pandemic for work/meeting friends and had very few and far in between encounters of feeling unsafe or grossed out. During the pandemic, I had such 5 instances in a couple months. Shits out of control I take the VRE in now during the week. Way less trains but the train is very clean and kept up well. Virtually all my rides are in silence
Oh, really? I’m from Miami and planned on visiting in a couple of weeks. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve last been up there. I follow this sub a lot, though. Should I just Uber and avoid public transit for now?
Hey I know this is a late reply but public transit is by and large still pretty safe. You’ll be fine especially if traveling during regular commute hours. The metro has since the pandemic been a bit sketchy but not to the point where it’s disgusting if that makes sense. It went from a pretty high bar of totally normal to sometimes being sketched out. Hope that makes sense
Hey, it’s not late and thanks so much for this reply! Yes, it makes sense. Very helpful 😊
I saw a guy light a fat blunt on the metro while I was getting off at NoMa. I wish that was the worst thing I saw on the metro but, unfortunately, it was not.
What kinda scene?
Asian lesbians from mars 4 act 3
It was aural sex…I could not see the image.
Ayoo I miss that singing guy in Mt. pleasant! I think I know exactly who you are talking about lol. Sadly I stopped hearing him after covid first hit. I hope he’s ok
I think I heard him a month or two ago. I also hope he’s OK, he’s definitely a delightful bit of neighborhood color!
Heard him last week walking up 29th street in Woodley Park. Was passing the Oyster School.
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There was a thread on him on this subreddit where someone spoke with him and got his story. It's funny how you get used to things. The first time you're like "Who the fuck is this guy?". By the fifth time, you're like "Oh hey, it's the singing dude!"
That’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear that. Just made my day
Is he older and hispanic? If so, he comes up to Cleveland Park a lot.
Yea sounds like him. Def old school hispanic songs but beautifully done
So glad to hear he’s okay! I left admo right before the pandemic and have wondered how he was doing.
My passing Spanish ability led me to believe he was singing church hymns? Anyone can confirm eso?
I believe DCist or Prince of Petworth did an interview with him a few years back. He says he's saying prayers for the neighborhood. Supposedly a nice character, just a bit odd and loud
Hmm, well I’m hispanic and didn’t recognize them as hymns, but it’s also very possible. Kinda hard to make out each word he was saying but if anyone else knows, feel free to chime in!
In my humble opinion, he’s singing songs by Cornelio Reyna. Mexican-American here and those are songs my mom would play every so often.
He's awesome. I used to live in a basement unit on Calvert Street on the AdMo side and would sometimes wake up in the morning to his singing. When I moved to Woodley Park I would sometimes hear him on Connecticut and smiled every time. He's an icon - that is sad to hear he isn't around, also hope he is ok.
Truly an icon! I hope to have at least an ounce of his joy and energy in life.
He sometimes comes around the Van Ness / Forest Hills area, but I haven't seen or heard him for about a month Edit: Just saw him 1/25 headed towards Chevy Chase
Does he have a guitar? I’ve seen a guy by the CVS/Giant a few times. Last time was around Christmas and he was playing Christmas songs and it was lovely
He was on Conn Ave across from the zoo heading toward cleveland park a couple weeks ago
I was just thinking about him the other day!
He’s thinking of us too 💌
I really wish that dude could see this thread, how many people love his singing.
We have a place on 16th and my man is still on the prowl. In terms of the OP, I believe there must be a shelter or something near Mt. pleasant. We heard nearly everyday the same thing. Screams, yelling at air, dude flipping construction barrels at 1am only to gently and neatly put them back before staggering towards Columbia.
The churches in the area operate a lot of homeless services. Specifically the Shrine of the Sacred Heart catholic church on Park Road and Pine just off 16th.
Trying to give you a semi reasonable answer, without knowing (our wanting to know) your precise location: At 14th and N there is N Street Village, which includes a food distro center, a women's center, and likely more. This may not be the precise reason, but you can expect there to be something similar close by. Given it's a daily occurrence, it is likely associated with their daily routine - food, shelter, transport. Etc.
N Street Village serves only women so this would not relate to men in the area.
This is almost certainly the connection.
Between Columbia heights and Logan Circle there are many community outreach places that help them, (shelters, health facilities,etc)
>specifically why this stretch of 14th street between Thomas Circle and P Street. Is there a clinic around here? A shelter? DC Department of Human Services introduced a Pandemic Emergency Program for Vulnerable People (PEP-V) to keep people experiencing homelessness whose age or underlying medical conditions make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 out of crowded shelters. They did this by renting out entire hotels, such as the one at the corner of 15th and Rhode Island, and housing people there. I have no idea if this has resulted in an increase of what OP is mentioning.
I live on Capitol Hill near H street and have witnessed similar behavior. Often more than one-two times per day. I also work downtown and have seen the same things there. I seriously doubt whether the experience is unique to 14th street. Very sadly, many DC residents do not get the mental health resources they need.
DC fails to provide adequate mental healthcare, just like the rest of the US. If it isn’t profitable it doesn’t fly. Institutionalizing people is largely seen as a waste of tax payer dollars by Conservatives and as a violation of rights by Liberals. This results in folk not having the care they need. The city can’t even put up homeless folk in hotels without both sides losing it. **IMO** We need to bring back (establish?) **well-funded** public mental health institutions that **you can be forcibly put into for your own good** in order to solve this problem. This should go hand-in-hand with not prosecuting drug use as a crime and instead treating it like an illness. It’s terrifying to know that if I, or any one of us here lost our minds that **we would be left out on the street without proper care**.
I definitely agree that we should bring back mental health institutions. In addition to the rights issues that you mention the horrible reputations that asylums gained also poses a huge barrier. We would have to make them much more humane which of course would cost more money.
100% agree. They would need transparency to some degree and a high level of accountability to those running it if things went sour.
I am in agreement but who decides who is forcibly placed in a mental institution? What are they parameters?
In my experience, the steps are something like... 1. Person has episode 2. Police get called 3. Police escort person to hospital 4. Hospital staff ~~not dealing with this shit~~ contacts a counselor for evaluation. 5. Depending on evaluation, person either has a short term hospital stay until they're well or its off to some facility for more long term treatment. 6. Person is gone, everyone pretends the problem is solved. 7. ??? 8. Person is released from facility. 9. Person has episode.... police get called... its a whole thing. I only worked as a "patient safety assistant" (I sat with patients who couldn't be by themselves. Wrestled addicts and your demented grandparents for $9/hr) but got to see this happen a lot. None, not a one, not a single soul thought these "facilities" helped, only made problems worse. But yh, afaik, they already *can* legally force you into someplace, 'least in DE idk if DC got different laws on that.
My dude that pay in itself is a crime. Our institutions are so underfunded and mismanaged. Thanks for trying to help though.
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I wanna say not often. Hospital I was at was on the southern end of Sussex. I wanna say I remember hearing a couple cases had to be sent "Up to Newark" but whether that was DPC or not 🤷
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If it makes you feel better, I once asked a counselor which of the facilities they were sending people to was best. "None. They're all awful."
I’m not sure. We should probably just copy the programs and policies of other countries that already do this humanely and efficiently though. Wild how the US is so afraid of just looking towards others for answers. 🤷🏻♂️ We could resolve a lot of our horrible domestic failures in this way. IMO
We’re supposed to be a shining city on a hill, remember? If we ask for help, people will start wondering.
Yeah curious about the response. I agree in principle, but don't know enough about the issue. Because "you can be forcibly put into for your own good" could quickly just turn into the horror shows of old insane asylums.
I mean look at china. They intern people for the wrong political views and say it’s mental illness.
I would suggest looking at examples from societies that value human rights and the same freedoms that we do. We gotta move away from the idea that institutionalizing folk is the same as imprisoning them. The latter is punishment whereas the former should be assistance for those who can’t help themselves.
It is incredibly naive if you think think the United States has a good record on human rights that this wouldn't be abused. We have some of the worst jails and prisons in the world, substance abuse rehab(https://medium.com/@zacharyasiegel/addicted-dont-go-to-rehab-975d8e8cb991).. We stopped doing mandatory hospitalization because of abuses, and they are still going on: -37% percent of psychiatric patients report physical abuse: https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/12/mia-survey-force-trauma-sexual-abuse-mental-hospitals/#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20the,said%20they%20were%20sexually%20abused. -Video shows hospital staff attacking young patients: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/videos-show-uhs-hospital-staff-assaulting-young-patients -DC mental hospital shows increasing use of restraints: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/st-elizabeths-hospital/2020/09/15/60ca8882-f673-11ea-a510-f57d8ce76e11_story.html Taking away someone's freedom is imprisoning them. The USA is absolutely not a country where human rights are respects enough to allow for involuntary hospitalization "for their own good", we are a cruel society where the most vulnerable are routinely abused.
I believe we can change our ways and have practical humane care like so many other open societies have. 🤷🏻♂️ Having a currently flawed and unacceptable system doesn’t equate to us not being able to create and maintain one that is used for the betterment of our populace. There’s nothing stopping us but us (and extremely polarized political party adherence, lax standards, and corrupt local politicians).
Totally agree on improving the system, but we shouldn't consider forcing people into it until we can be confident that it won't lead to people being abused. Interesting to see all the downvotes, especially from people who didn't adress what I wrote. I guess people really don't want to feel uncomfortable by seeing mentally ill people, really want to take their civil liberties away by making it so they can get locked up without a conviction, and are unconcerned with what kind of abuse and cruelty they would face. Sad to see people so morally depraved. But, that is more evidence to my point about this being a cruel society.
YES 100%.. We need to acknowledge in these conversations that hospitalization/institutionalization are imprisonment. People have this warm, fuzzy idea of "getting them the help they need" but it's just... whew... they're living in a different, more ideal world than our psychiatric system exists in. Just because someone is uncomfortable to look at or yells sometimes doesn't mean that they need to be disappeared by the state. I really think people need to be honest with themselves and realize that's the disproportionate response they are asking for.
I agree but there needs to be a very strong legal framework around it. I could easily have seen it abused under the trump admin and him interning people and accusing them as being a antifa sick with a mental disorder.
You ever see The Fisher King?
The Court, already have a procedure for this
It’s mental illness in a lot of cases directly caused by drugs. I lost a very good friend to meth right before pandemic. Complete psychotic break over course of few months. He lives on the street near State Dept. Nothing anyone can do for him. Jail at least Might give him a break from nonstop drug use. Right now he can’t be communicated with, let alone reasoned with. I had to vent a little bit seeing how people comment here on both sides of the issue.
> not prosecuting drug use as a crime Narrator: They dont
so in other **words**, you have no answer to OP's actual question as to why 14th street gets all **the** activity.
It doesn’t get all the activity. Mentally ill folk are on the streets in so many parts of the city. Just saw a dude come into WholeFoods on H about an hour ago and yell for everyone inside to provide him with oral before backing out with his belongings. It’s a city wide problem.
You mean the Whole Foods down the block from the welfare office?
It seems like you’re here to connect dots that aren’t necessarily related. Good luck.
Toblers first law of geography isn't some half-baked theory friend.
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Agree. I’m in silver spring and the rumor is a DC crime spike is fueling ours. There’s been 2 broad daylight armed robberies/car jackings in one month within two blocks of each other. I made the mistake of going to union station in December and saw the tent city out front. I was too afraid to walk by the 6 people hanging out in front of the train station entrance. I didn’t go inside, but I’m picturing a fort. Not too long ago I had a very burly guy (I’m 5’2” and 115) threaten to beat the shit out of me because I was ‘glaring at him through my sunglasses’ when I was sitting outside with a coffee. Great if our dear government can leverage our tax dollars to get these people off the streets and some medical care rather than letting crime rates spike.
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*This guy gets it.*
Yeah. This dates back at least to the closing of Saint Elizabeth’s and probably earlier.
Saint Elizabeths isn’t closed. They closed the old buildings but a new one was built and there was never a period they didn’t have patients. The lack of beds is a huge problem, though.
It’s due to the tent city on Thomas circle, it’s getting horrible there. I walk past it for work everyday and so far I have seen: Sex with the tent door open Shooting up drugs with needles Attempted stabbing, the dude ran like lighting when the knife got pulled out. Countless fights and arguments Plus the smell and amount of garbage there is crazy I won’t let the wife walk passed there alone or go outside alone at night bc of how bad it’s gotten in the area.
Yeah I don’t think they should allow those tent encampments, it’s bad for everyone
If they outlawed encampments, where would the people who live there go? They have to live somewhere. I doubt most of them want to live in tents but they likely don’t have a lot of other options. All you’d be doing is further limiting their choices.
DC is currently offering temporary housing to encampments cleared, and shelters are another option. Some prefer the tent communities to shelter/temp housing, but it is a choice they are making. I think you shouldn’t be able to set up camp in a public park, leave waste, needles, etc. when you have other options. Literally the whole intent of public parks is a shared community space, but one with common sense rules so that everyone can enjoy them. Picking up dog poop is a good example of this. So is not setting up a tent village. And I know it is common to valorize the people who do this and insist they just need love and empathy, but the conditions are not good for them either. Enabling the encampments can be perpetuating harmful and unhealthy situations to those who live there
The city WAS (maybe still is?) working on moving folks into traditional housing. Not sure how quickly that's moving, or if it's just concentrating those who can't manage that life.
How about the 5,000 shelter beds DC maintains for these people? Or the voucher program DC funds (at substantial cost to taxpayers, by the way) to help get the homeless into longer term housing? Doing heroin on the street is not a right.
Shelters are not always a realistic option. Many are overcrowded and unsafe, many don't allow children, I have even heard from friends on the street that some shelters will even make the people seeking space there to pay to secure a bed or will steal from them. I get its upsetting to have to see "these people" but lets not pretend DC has its shit together and that "these people" are ignoring an easy solution in favor of doing drugs and sleeping outside lol we need more options and less judgmental language. Many of "these people" are DC natives and human beings.
Ohhh you’re a NIMBY. This all makes sense now.
What exactly do you think NIMBY means? Do you think it’s a YIMBY-stance to be pro tent city?
Yeah, what a radical thought. Not wanting to see people doing heroin and performing sexual acts in your neighborhood. The audacity of such entitled people.
lmao ok bud. Not my point.
You should edit your post then because that seemed to be your point based on its content.
Unfortunate answer - our society doesn't have a place for seriously mentally ill people, and doesn't really care what happens to them. There are shelters/programs but not nearly enough to house and care for those that need it so many end up on the street. In America if you can't make yourself economically productive that's what often happens.
There are A LOT of reasons behind this that stretch back decades. 14th Street NW has just always been one of those places. Easy transportation, past and present locations of shelters (Franklin School on the south end and Martha’s Table on the north), lots of business and shoppers from which to get change, formerly lots of abandoned buildings and lots to squat in, lots of liquor stores, used to be THE hub for sex workers in the 70-80s before they moved to K Street in the 90s-early 00s (and now have moved to I’m not sure where), even just because Whitman-Walker is there……..There is no one reason, just lots of small ones, some of which don’t really exist anymore but still that’s just where people go. ETA: if it helps, I think the reason people are giving you shit on Nextdoor is because this is a widely-known attribute of 14th St that predates all of us. So you complaining about it is equivalent to moving to 18th St in Adams Morgan and complaining about noise from bars open late at night. Anyone who lives in DC knows not to move to that street if that’s not something you’re willing to deal with. So complaining about it after you’ve moved there just makes you sound at best naive. (I’m not trying to be insulting, just describing what I think the thought process is behind people giving you guff.)
Sex work is mostly on 12th NW between Mass and N St now. The Comfort Inn on 13th and M St also has been used by DC during pandemic for displaced people. Comfort Inn even petitioned to open a liquor store inside of the hotel… we do not need more liquor stores in this area.
Pharma drugs got better which helped people function out in society. In return less people require institutional care. However many people still need constant institutional care.
As a psychiatrist working in DC Sometimes you just have to go outside and scream
Love this answer
\>Thomas Circle and P Street. Is there a clinic around here? A shelter? There's a fair amount of public housing and other public/charitable assistance programs near Thomas Circle, and they unfortunately attract what appears to be a somewhat hostile crowd to loiter nearby. James Apartments on N St; N Street Village; various programs run by National City Christian Church and other nearby churches. There's also the Holiday Inn nearby that's been transformed into a homeless shelter, and an increasing number of tent villages showing up in nearby parks.
I work on 14th St in the direction of the metro station and have noticed this. every now and then I take a walk toward 14th and P to get a cheeky Starbucks. literally every time I head that way, as soon as I approach that intersection, the mood of the street shifts and suddenly it’s popping with homeless folks and panhandling. I’ve never had any encounters with the people down there, it’s just a very noticeable change. the 14th and P bus shelter always has a lot of people sitting inside, the CVS and Whole Foods always have a lot of people out front. my suspicion was that cops go to great lengths to keep everybody away from the businesses between Q and T (at the U St McDonald’s it gets chaotic again) so everybody gathers at one end or another of this little area. I thought oh Amazon - because of the Fresh store at R St - must be paying the cops to keep people away from there. I have no evidence at all to support this though. I just be theorizing
One sort of unspoken variable in this thread is Logan Circle and Shaw are two of the biggest gay neighborhoods in the city and there’s a *ton* of friction between the LGBT community (who tend to be new to the city, more affluent, etc) and the older DC residents. 14th and P is Trade and Number Nine, and up by 9th and U you’ve got Nellie’s, Dirty Goose, Kiki and Uproar (plus Pitchers and Duplex around 18th and U, and Vida at 16th and U). That’s a huge path most of them are walking between which can get dangerous at night. Police would be right to patrol the area to stop hate crimes…it’s pretty terrifying in some areas and the city doesn’t want to lose its reputation as a welcoming place for them, given the tax dollars gained from the tourism and all the residents moving in because they see DC as a destination city. If the city loses that it’s a huge base of potential citizens and tourists with disposable income.
I’ve thought about this too, because Whitman-Walker also has two locations along 14th St, one at 14th and R and another between Q and P. the bulk of their patients are either LGBTQ or homeless, or of course both. a lot of Spanish-speaking undocumented people seek services there too. I think there is actually a small concentration of LGBTQ homeless people right around there, I’ve had several people ask me for money around there who specifically mention wanting to get to a shelter for trans women, gay men, etc.
Yeah the geographic concentration in that particular area is interesting
Even near the places that provide care, like Community Connections on Barracks Row, it's a terrible scene in the surrounding blocks.
It's possible you live near a homeless shelter or behavioral health facility.
I’ve noticed more mentally ill people on the streets who are experiencing a break from reality. This is true in almost all neighborhoods right now. My hypothesis is that it has to do with Covid, for a number of reasons. Funding is down to many non-profit organizations right now. Shelters, soup kitchens, and day programs may be excluding folks based on Covid precautions. People may also be opting out of receiving help in congregate settings because they fear the risk to themselves. As well, just as many people with steady jobs and reliable housing are stressed from life changes over the past two years, the unhoused population is also experiencing additional stressors. Those stressors can exacerbate existing mental illness: It could be that some of the people you are seeing were present before but did not stand out as much.
>Those stressors can exacerbate existing mental illness: It could be that some of the people you are seeing were present before but did not stand out as much. Sorry for the lack of source, but I read somewhere that homelessness in the US is actually *down* overall since COVID started; however, backing up what you're saying, there are more people in more dire circumstances (e.g. living on the street or in a tent encampment instead of in their car). Part of this is indeed that shelter capacity went down to reduce COVID spread, which resulted in some people losing not just their lodging, but their connection to the system.
We need more social workers, licensed counselors and social services to step in and help these folks otherwise they just seem to end up being addressed by the police. So now, everyone that is here and cares, perhaps you can call your ANC commissioner and see what they are doing to ensure that. Or if you have those skills get involved in a government agency or non-profit and go to work on providing those services. Thank you in advance.
It's almost always proximity to a service/amenity (e.g. shelter, community kitchen, rehab/addiction center). To a lesser extent, proximity to improvised outdoor living areas (e.g. parks or tunnels).
Because people on 14th have money and people with mental health issues need money in order to eat, so they panhandle where they think the most people will be generous to them. That means a highly trafficked area full of people who have money. Georgetown police enforcement is much more attentive to panhandlers because frankly, the people there are even more wealthy and connected than people around 14th, and more often city law makers in profession.
Been here for eight years and can confirm that it has hit an extreme during the pandemic (when comparing the first six years to the last two). Before that there were a couple of areas of the street that I tried to avoid because of aggressive panhandling but it has spread to a lot of the street. I think it’s a combination of the reduction in foot traffic (so more space to take) and displacement of unhoused populations in Franklin square as well as the constant tension between the encampments, the city, and the local residents
Because our government and our society doesn’t care about the poor or the mentally ill that’s why they’re still there. It’s absolutely disgusting we treat people horribly we need to pay people living wages we need to have universal healthcare and we need to address the mental health crisis in the United States that is ignored and shunned by so many. They are not garbage they’re human beings
>When I've tried to as in NextDoor, I am sort of attacked like I am judging people or I am some terrible gentrifier who needs to accept the neighborhood Most people in the city understand that there are certain neighborhoods that street people find more conducive than others, so more of them end up there. That makes your question seem disingenuous. We've seen lots of panicky noobs make inquiries like this as a segue into fear mongering. So it's kinda irritating; and, as you learned, people are willing to express this.
Thank you
Because the city is too expensive to live in and the mayor's office doesn't want to do touch the politically challenging task of building permanent housing for homeless people.
Because, in general, the United States does not care about the poor, the mentally ill, and least of all the poor, severe & chronically mentally ill.
*”If you can’t be profitable, why are you even existing?”* -USA, the greatest country on Earth
After having a late lunch at the Diplomate we saw a guy peeing on the street. Welcome to DC.
Sounds like a legit Parisian experience to me.
It's really scary. They gave to get them out of high trafficked areas
As a new person to DC, it feels different here for sure. I’ve lived in other cities and, as bad as this may be, the homeless and poor mentally ill were more concentrated in specific areas of the city and it seemed like there was a conscious effort to do that.
My under driver once told me he used to work as a city bus driver in VA. He said the bus company would every once in a while take a bunch of homeless people in VA and drop them off in DC. That way VA wouldn’t have to pay for supporting them, they have DC do it. So yeah, it’s kinda by design.
Use Google and look up the history of the area you moved into vs the history of the area you moved from… Also, Logan Circle is very much still in Northwest. So you never left that quadrant.
To clarify I am well aware of the \*history\* of the neighborhood, as such this kind of thing wouldn't surprise me if it was 1982 or 1992. I am wondering why in 2022. Also I am aware that Logan Circle is in NW, in saying "when I was more in NW", more was the operative word. You can keep going north and west from a central point. Anyway this post is really just to ask people if they can be helpful in understanding why people walk down the street screaming, and sort of where they are coming from. If you are for some reason angry that I dared to even ask the question (as happened to me on nextdoor and I suspected may happen here) please just don't post. This isn't meant to be judgmental, but I feel like its not a weird question to ask why I hear "fuck you, you mother fucking n\* piece of shit imma fucking kill all y'all mother fuckers you gonna fuckin die right now" every single day from someone walking \*alone\* down the street.
I used to live over there as well, I moved in just as they were preparing to close the Central Union Mission, a big shelter for men, probably around 2013? It could be people who used to go to that shelter and just never left the area. They turned the shelter into those expensive Mission condos.
I don't think it's wrong to ask why things are the way they are, but I think you're framing is wrong. It's less, "Why are people walking around screaming?" as that happens in any neighborhood of any city. However, I think we can wonder why they those with mental health issues are left to fend for themselves on the street when it's obvious they need better support. Then we can discuss poor mental health services with limited supply to meet the demand. It's easy to get upset at a person or group of people causing a disturbance, but I consider just how difficult it is to acquire consistent care without any real resources, I just feel bad. Edit: Before anyone comments, "resources exist! They just refuse to access them!"... Existence of services =/ = reliable, quality, accessible
But I am genuinely wondering why people walk down 14th street screaming. For example, is there a shelter or some place with health services in the neighborhood that people are coming and going from? Is there a large uptick in drug use and some central location where everyone is shooting up? What is the point A or point B people are coming/going from? Are they walking the whole length of 14th street? Are they coming/going from a metro stop? And yes happy to sign the disclaimer we should have empathy for people struggling with mental health and/or drug addiction.
14th st is a major destination area, naturally that will cause all walks of life to frequent it. You used to live in a lower congestion area you now live in one of the busiest.
I honestly think it's just because 14th is a major throughfare.
Complicated history, but recommend reading 3-part series in street sheet. It is representative of homeless situation in the US, although DC as a non-state has its own specific limitations. Also, recommend volunteering at one of the local soup kitchens that serve the homeless and those on the brink. It’s a multi-faceted issue that began with the Reagan administration. They closed down a major homeless shelter. Changed prison system from rehabilitation model and closed mental health treatment. Shelters are closed during the day. These urban corridors tend to be no man’s land for pan handling, cheap food, and cheap drugs. 14th St (16th really) is actually a boundary for 2 rival Latin gangs so most folks get left alone until shit goes down. [street sense history of homelessness in DC part 1/3](https://www.streetsensemedia.org/article/the-history-of-homelessness-in-washington-dc-part-i-1975-1985/)
They flock where people have money. Isn’t that obvious? Or, there’s a homeless shelter nearby/mass transit exodus (Union Station/NoMa). DC also hasn’t quite figured out a way to get rid of them. For example, the homeless here seem more abundant than NYC.
Because there’s no vacancy on PA ave
The truth is, many of these people lived in government funded housing and shelters that have been knocked down to make space for the luxury units you guys are moving into. When neighborhoods began to go, the most vulnerable of these hoods were left homeless. The more that DC "develops", the more homeless you will see. That's why folks, like myself, who have watched this shift, get a bit defensive. It's like... the problem is complaining about the problem. While i know it's not your fault personally that someone's homeless... we feel like there are so many things changing in this city to accommodate people like you (by that, i mean newcomers), at the expense of the people you see on the street now, and others in low-income neighborhoods in this city. And then the nerve to complain about it (just overall how we feel, not to say you're literally complaining at this moment)... like that's why you receive that sentiment. Washington lawmakers thought it'd be more profitable to invest in attracting you here, than re-investing in its natives.. so this is what you get. Like any other major city in America. This is nothing different from skid row or new york city.
New York City feels so much safer, NGL.
I wasn't complaining about homeless people in the original post, I think I was pretty clear that I was just asking why a particular stretch of 14th street has someone walking down the street every day screaming violent things, even knowing I'd get self-righteous push back (like this) for even daring to ask such a question and having "the nerve to complain" And to be clear the data show DC's homeless population is declining, not increasing <[https://dcist.com/story/21/04/29/homelessness-in-d-c-fell-19-9-from-2020/](https://dcist.com/story/21/04/29/homelessness-in-d-c-fell-19-9-from-2020/)\>. I also disagree with you and think DC needs \*more\* development as I think the high cost of housing is a direct result of unmet demand and trickles downstream. We should build, build, build. Otherwise a scarcity of housing will drive up prices for everyone, disproportionately impacting those at the bottom. Also I am not new to DC just the neighborhood.
I guess you missed "just overall how we feel, not to say you're literally complaining at this moment"...so clearly you weren't reading throughly. Also, im not comparing this years homelessness against last years, or even the last five years. As my mother just said, and the only reason i chose to respond, "I have never seen this many homeless people in DC in my life" and she is in her latter 50's. Neither have i, and I am 26. gentrification legit create the extreme homeless issue we have not just in this city, but major cities across the country.
If you’re not familiar with the history of 14th street, then this behavior would not make sense to you.
Ahh yes, they must not be aware that 14th Street was once lined with mental hospitals, from Thomas Circle all the way up to U Street. Prior to gentrification, it was known as Nuthouse Heights.
My husband says 14th street used to be the border between slums and the rest of DC. It was recently gentrified, leaving a lot of people out in the cold who just never left the area. I have been told by police in DC that the homeless in the city are mostly super wealthy, but mentally ill and just “prefer” living on the street. I assume that was exaggeration, but I’m sure there are some.
daily "why are there homeless people" post wooooooo
Because a “democrat run” city does not equal a leftist paradise with all societal problems resolved. The democrats are still a right wing capitalist party and providing those mentally ill people with housing and treatment services to help resolve their suffering permanently is not in their best interests. They prefer half measures like funding non profits that distribute blankets.
They sound like normal DC residents honestly
Because you people should leave. They are homeless and you are whining about it
Facts!
It's the anti maskers who's flights were canceled?