News Facts
• Homelessness in Washington, DC, the Nation's Capitol: there are more than 6,500 homeless men, women and children in Washington, DC on any given night. Of those, nearly 2,000 are chronically homeless--meaning they have been homeless for a year or more, or four or more times in the past three years.
• Miriam's Kitchen provides free, homemade meals and high-quality support services to more than 4,000 homeless men and women each year in the Nation's Capitol, Washington, DC. Their core programs are meals, case management, Miriam's Studio, and Miriam's Cafe.
• Homelessness at Miriam's Kitchen: on any given day at Miriam's Kitchen, 82 percent of their guests are chronically homeless. In fact, the average length of homelessness of the guests is 5.5 years
• Nearly 80 percent of Miriam's Kitchen's guests live on the streets of DC, in parks around the city, under the bridges along the Potomac River, and in emergency shelters.
• Miriam's Kitchen's guest demographics: 95 percent of Miriam's Kitchen's guests are male, 60 percent are African American and the median age of our guests is 50.
• Mental illness and addiction at Miriam's Kitchen: Many of Miriam's Kitchen's guests suffer from severe mental illnesses and addictions, making them the most fragile and hardest to connect with social services.
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There are more than 6,500 homeless individuals living on the streets of Washington, DC on any given night. Of those, more than 2,000 are considered chronically homeless--meaning they are living with a physical or mental disability and have been homeless for at least one year, or multiple times over the past few years. These individuals often live with severe mental illness, chronic substance abuse and/or severe health problems. Their quality of life is diminished and their life expectancy is cut short. They are struggling to survive.
These are the men and women Miriam's Kitchen serves.
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Homelessness in America
• There are 671,859 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States - roughly 22 of every 10,000 people are homeless
• 18 percent (124,000) experience chronic homelessness in the United States:Chronic homelessness is often the public face of homelessness, involving either long-term and/or repeated bouts of homelessness coupled with some sort of disability (physical or mental). People experiencing chronic homelessness often end up living in shelters and consume a plurality of the homeless assistance system’s resources
• 37 percent of the homeless population are people in families: Families become homeless as a result of some unforeseen financial crisis - a medical emergency, a car accident, a death in the family - that prevents them from being able to hold on to housing. An estimated 85,000 families experience homelessness each night.
• 50,000 young people are homeless long-term: Young people often become homeless due to some familial disruption, including divorce, neglect, or abuse. An estimated 50,000 youth experience long-term homelessness.
• 20 percent of the homeless population is made up of veterans: There are approximately 131,000 homeless veterans, accounting for 20 percent of the entire homeless population. Veterans often become homeless due to war-related disability. For a variety of reasons – physical disability, mental anguish, post-traumatic stress, etc. – many veterans find difficulty readjusting to civilian life.
• Non-chronic single adults: Survivors of domestic violence and former prisoners re-entering society are among the other groups of people that often experience homelessness
• Lack of affordable housing leads to homelessness: Homelessness occurs when people or households are unable to acquire and/or maintain housing they can afford. The main reason behind this inability to acquire/maintain housing is the scarcity of affordable housing in the United States – particularly in more urban areas where homelessness is more prevalent
Miriam's Kitchen
Miriam's Kitchen was founded in 1983 by a collaboration of The George Washington University Hillel Student Association, Western Presbyterian Church and United Church in response to an urgent need for services for the homeless in Washington, DC.
Miriam's Kitchen's mission is to provide individualized services that address the causes and consequences of homelessness in an atmosphere of dignity and respect, both directly and through facilitating connections in Washington, DC.
Miriam's Kitchen provides free, homemade meals and high-quality support services to more than 4,000 homeless men and women each year through our core programs: Meals, Case Management, Miriam's Studio, and Miriam's Cafe.
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