DC's Compassion Stretches Only So Far

[Southpaw Bookworm]

After the nightmare in New Orleans, here's a local look at the desperately poor who live just a mile away from the most privileged people in the country (i.e., Congress).


The District's largest emergency shelter for homeless families is called D.C. Village. But don't let the quaint-sounding name fool you. The shelter sits next to a junkyard and close to a sewage treatment plant at the city's southwestern tip, long regarded as a dumping ground.

"When they stuck us out here, they knew exactly what they were doing," said Miss Avis, a name she used to protect the identity of her children. "All us black people, like, they put us somewhere we can be forgotten."

The shelter is home to about 68 families, including about 100 children. The air is rife with junkyard dust and stench from the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Facility. The ground is contaminated -- a "brownfield," as environmentalists call it -- toxic, but supposedly not serious enough to be considered a hazard. At least not as far as the health of these homeless families is concerned.

"This place is health epidemic central," said Miss Princess, mother of two. "You name it, we got it: pinworm, skin rash, headache, asthma, spider bites, bedbugs . . . "

"Don't forget the roaches," another resident chimed in.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/11/AR2005091101566.html