Planting fresh produce in D.C.’s ‘food deserts’, By Tim Carman, June 19, 2012, Washington Post: “To reach Jimmy Singleton’s “corner store” at the Marbury Plaza Apartments in Ward 7, residents must take the elevator down to the basement and navigate a series of barren, unmarked hallways until they find a nondescript doorway that leads to Marbury Market. For the hundreds of residents here, this is their nearest grocery store. The co-owner learned the dangers of trying to survive on the market’s junk food-heavy stock — chips, sodas, candy bars, sticky buns and the like. Not long after he bought the store in 2005, Singleton turned it into his primary feeding trough. “In a year’s time, I had gained about 75 pounds,” he says. “I got so big, customers started talking about me.” He decided he needed to silence them; he made a New Year’s resolution to lose the pounds — by not eating at his market. . .”
Tag: Washington DC
Family Homelessness – Washington DC
Homelessness on the rise in D.C., Loudoun County, but steady in region, study shows, By Annie Gowen, May 9, 2012, Washington Post: “Although the overall number of homeless in the region remained virtually unchanged from last year, the number of families without homes rose for the third straight year and places such as the District and Loudoun County had significant overall increases, a yearly survey showed. The number of homeless people in the region dipped slightly – by 0.4 percent – to 11,830 this year, according to the annual ‘point-in-time’ homeless survey released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. In the District, the number of homeless families soared 18 percent and homelessness increased 6 percent overall, the report said. The District is struggling with a $7 million shortfall in services for the homeless after a loss of federal funding. The city’s family shelter is filled to capacity, and more than 100 families are living in motels along New York Avenue NE at an average cost of $100 a night…”
Child Welfare and Foster Care – Oregon, Washington DC
- New child welfare audit says Oregon can do more to reunite parents and kids in foster care, By Michelle Cole, April 24, 2012, The Oregonian: “While Oregon child welfare caseworkers do better than the national average in seeing that children taken into state foster care are returned to their parents, a new audit also finds caseworkers often do not include parents in critical discussions concerning their families and have little time to ensure meaningful visits between parents and kids. Overall, the 28-page report portrays a system under stress. Overworked child welfare staff do not get much help from the central office in prioritizing their work. Parents were unable to get addiction treatment, mental health care or other services they needed before they could bring their kids back home…”
- If fewer kids are in D.C. foster care, why isn’t agency’s budget decreasing?, By Justin Moyer, April 24, 2012, Washington Post: “The number of children in the District’s child welfare system is continuing to drop, prompting officials to take a fresh look at how the city spends its $265 million child welfare budget. Across the region and across the country, social service agencies are seeing such declines, though the implications are especially significant for the District, which has a long history of child welfare crises. No single factor explains the drop in the District, but experts believe that the city’s changing demographics and renewed emphasis on keeping troubled families together are driving the trend. According to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), the number of children it supervises has fallen to 3,400 from 4,654 in early 2009, a change of almost 30 percent…”