As US living costs soar, DC homelessness doubles national average

Washington

JUST across the snaking Anacostia River from the trendy Washington Navy Yard neighbourhood, are the Valley Place Family Apartments, a transitional housing complex for some of the most vulnerable residents of the nation's capital.

This is where two mothers, Anita White and Jasmine Kelly, wake up at dawn each day to make a life for their families. Ms White, 27, and Ms Kelly, 25, live in what amounts to a parallel universe in south-east Washington, as the city and its suburbs accumulate staggering wealth while its poorest residents grow poorer. In December, a devastating survey of 32 big cities prepared by the US Conference of Mayors showed Washington with the highest rate of homelessness. There are 124 homeless people for every 10,000 residents here, more than twice the national average. Nationally, homelessness has shrunk 12.9 per cent over the past seven years.