Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Extreme cold this week poses dangerous conditions for those living on the street.
When Bethesda Cares closed for the evening Tuesday, executive director Sue Kirk said some of the group's clients were headed out to spend the night on the street despite frigid temperatures. The group provides services for the area's homeless, some of whom have lived on the street for years. During the day, the group is providing hot lunches, coffee and hot water to their clients as the Washington region experiences extreme cold this week. Though shelter beds were available in Montgomery County, Kirk said many Bethesda Cares clients didn't plan on using them Tuesday night. With overnight temperatures expected to drop 10 to 15 degrees with wind chills of -5 to 5 degrees, Kirk expressed concern for those who would brave the elements. "It’s …
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Bethesda Row's Ten Thousand Villages will donate 15 percent of purchases made from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday to the outreach group.
This holiday season, many of us are thinking about ways to help out the community's needy and ways to give back to friends and family with the perfect gift. Thursday, you can do both at the same time by shopping at Bethesda Row's Ten Thousand Villages. The shop will donate 15 percent of all purchases made from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 6 to Bethesda Cares, a local advocacy group that works to help and house the community's homeless. The group offers services to those living on the street in Montgomery County and Washington, DC. It also helps needy residents with eviction prevention and works towards permanent housing for the homeless, many of which have been living on Bethesda's streets for years. The group recently helped house a 72-year-old …
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
New data shows medically vulnerable homeless people spend an average of 7.47 years on the street.
Medically vulnerable homeless residents in the Bethesda area have been living on the street for an average of 7.47 years—nearly two years longer than the national average, according to new data released by homeless advocacy group Bethesda Cares. The data was collected through outreach assessments led by the group as a part of the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a nationwide effort aimed to house 100,000 of the most vulnerable homeless individuals by July of 2013. The campaign asks communities to canvas homeless individuals to determine who are most at risk of dying on the street, and prioritizing housing for those people. “These are not shelter beds—these are permanent apartments where you can lock the door,” Jake Maguire, a spokesman for the …
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Volunteers needed as Montgomery County and City of Gaithersburg co-host the 2nd Annual Homeless Resource Day on Nov. 15.
For the second year, hundreds of homeless people will be able to tap into Montgomery County’s gamut of health, housing and financial services all in one day and one place. Montgomery County and the City of Gaithersburg will co-host a “Homeless Resource Day” on Nov. 15 at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg. More than 30 organizations will be on-hand from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to offer information and free resources for homeless individuals and families, including: Montgomery County does not have data on the number of homeless people living in Montgomery County, said Mary Anderson, a county spokeswoman. The only available metric is the annual “point in time” survey by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, in which …
Monday, October 1, 2012
Survey effort, a part of the 100,000 Homes Campaign, geared to house the most vulnerable homeless.
Volunteers will once again take to the streets of Bethesda this week to survey the community’s homeless, part of a continuing effort to house the most vulnerable. Advocacy group Bethesda Cares is heading up an initiative to place homeless men and women into permanent housing as a part of the 100,000 Homes Campaign, a nationwide effort aimed to house 100,000 of the most vulnerable homeless individuals by July of 2013. The campaign tasks communities with creating a by-name registry of homeless individuals in order to help service providers match them with resources and assist them into permanent housing. The initiative focuses on placing the most vulnerable “chronically homeless”—those most at risk of dying on the street—into permanent …
Monday, June 25, 2012
Bethesda Cares received boxes filled with personal items for clients.
Homeless outreach group Bethesda Cares was one of three Montgomery County nonprofits to receive 280 boxes of supplies on Thursday to distribute to clients. The boxes were among more than 2,000 filled with personal and emergency preparedness items as part of the United Way of the National Capital Area’s inaugural Shoebox Project. “The Shoebox Project offers Bethesda Cares an opportunity to partner with United Way to get supplies to folks who are medically vulnerable and homeless. Many of the people living on the street are long-term mentally ill and/or have substance abuse issues and lack any social support," said John Mendez, Bethesda Cares outreach specialist, in a statement. "They are living in parking garages and sleeping at metro …
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Bethesda Cares client Christopher Page was found dead on the streets of Bethesda May 27.
A 33-year-old homeless man was found dead on the streets of Bethesda days before he was set to move into permanent housing, according to advocacy group Bethesda Cares. Christopher Page, a Bethesda Cares client, was found dead May 27. He died of ethanol and methadone intoxication, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. Page was set to sign off on the paperwork for his new apartment in Wheaton June 4. An Army veteran, Page suffered from mental health and substance abuse issues, and had been living on the streets for about seven years, according to Bethesda Cares outreach specialist John Mendez. In Bethesda, Page usually slept near Cordell Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue. Recently, however, Page had received a housing…
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
John Mendez is a homeless-outreach specialist at Bethesda Cares.
John Mendez's military service sent him as far away as Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Now, his service to the homeless here in Montgomery County will put him before President Barack Obama to hear the State of the Union Address. Rep. Chris Van Hollen has invited the North Bethesda resident to accompany him to tonight's address, and Mendez said the opportunity is a great honor. "It's kind of a lifelong dream to be able to attend the State of the Union," he said. "When I got the invitation, I thought about the places I've been, the theaters of operation I've served in, and it hits home to be in this situation where you can be a part of a significant part of our democracy." Mendez, who was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1995, …
Friday, December 16, 2011
"People think, 'Oh, you're homeless, so you're crazy, you're a drunk, you're a drug addict,' and that necessarily isn't the case."
Two paths climb into the woods up a small hill overlooking the intersection of Randolph Road and Parklawn Drive in Rockville, wedged between a U-Haul storage facility and hundreds of housing units in the Bethesda Park Apartments. A small radio blares as two of the residents pack as much as they can after county officials arrived Thursday morning to condemn the encampment. One is a former paralegal evicted last year from her $2,000-a-month apartment in the Kentlands after she was laid off in 2009 as her law firm coped with the economic downturn. The other, a chef of 15 years at an upscale Spanish restaurant in Rockville, who suddenly found himself unemployed last year when the restaurant tanked under new ownership. "We have everything you …
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Randolph Rd & Parklawn Dr, Rockville, MD
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Some state legislators are looking to crack down on panhandling.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
By Brandon Cooper, Capital News Service Vanita Smith sat in the grassy median of New Hampshire Avenue, her body balled-up underneath her blue poncho to keep warm. When the traffic light at Lockwood Drive turned red, she uncoiled herself and showed drivers her sign—"Homeless. Hungry."—and walked past their cars. Over four hours, she said, she usually makes between $20 and $25. But there's a cost, too. "You lose your self-esteem out here," she said on Monday. If three state legislators get their way, it will be harder for homeless people like Smith, 40, to earn money panhandling in Montgomery County. Following the failure of a move to restrict the practice in the state legislature earlier this year, Delegate Anne Kaiser, D-Montgomery, …
Paisley Mint
6:01 pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012
Thank you for your continuing coverage of this issue. If you live and work downtown, you know that the chronically homeless are as much part of life here as the restaurants and rich people. Props to Bethesda Cares and Montgomery County for taking a seemingly more proactive stance, i.e., their canvassing and housing first approach. But let's see if numbers of homeless actually go down as a result. more ›