Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate
for the health and well-being of himself and his family including...housing.

-Article 25, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

It has been 61 years (1948) since the United States adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognizing housing as a human right. According to the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty, approximately half of all Americans strongly believe that adequate housing is a human right and two-thirds believe that government programs may need to be expanded to ensure this right.

Every year The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homeless does a one day, Point in Time survey.  These are the facts for our community:

• 12,000+ people are homeless in the greater DC metropolitan area
• 6,228 people are homeless in our nation’s capital
• 1,923 are chronically homeless, which means an unaccompanied adult with a disabling condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years
• 30% are employed
• 26% struggle with substance abuse
• 17% have a mental illness
• 15% are dually diagnosed with both mental illness and alcohol or drug addiction

People coming into Friendship Place face greater challenges than the average homeless person:

• 70% have a mental illness
• 30-35% struggle with substance abuse

What does that mean to us?

• Friendship Place is the sole provider of outreach services in Ward 3
• High Users of Services: 10% of the homeless (the chronically homeless) consume 50% of the resources.

The Friendship Place Outreach Area consists of:

• West of Rock Creek Park
• East of the Potomac
• North of W Street
• South of Western Avenue

View Friendship Place Outreach Area in a Google map.