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Craig Heilman spent a December weekend delivering Christmas trees to struggling families during the holiday season. The Brent Elementary School holiday sale partnered with Everyone Home DC to raise money at their annual sale, where residents could purchase a tree for a family that does not have the means to obtain their own.

鈥淎 live Christmas tree can be a really nice thing to have in your home to make you feel good about the season,鈥� said Heilman, co-chair of the sale. 鈥淲e are helping people get to know each other and come together to celebrate the season.”聽

Everyone Home DC is a local non-profit that aims to support people facing housing insecurity and those experiencing homelessness. This program is part of the organization’s support for families during the holiday season.聽

Kate Akalonu, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Everyone Home DC, described the unique challenges the holidays pose to struggling families.聽

鈥淚t can be a really hard time for people for lots of reasons. If you are living in poverty or without access to resources that can help you celebrate the way that you feel like you should, it can compound a lot of stress,鈥� Akalonu said.

Everyone Home DC wants to expand its impact in the community next year with a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund. This will bolster their efforts to combat housing insecurity and support families experiencing homelessness. The grant comes at a critical time during the holiday season and will enable the organization to sustain its existing programs and create lasting change in the Capitol Hill community.

鈥淭he main criteria around the grant was that we would support more families. So that will be one thing that we’ll be building out, and then we’ll be using it to supplement our programs and find ways to be more transformative with the work that we do,鈥� Akalonu said.

The Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, launched in 2018 by Jeff Bezos, has issued over $639 million to organizations nationwide. The grant is awarded to organizations that help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing.

Everyone Home D.C.鈥檚 programs

Everyone Home D.C. has programs throughout the city that support unhoused residents and those facing housing insecurity. They offer a Family Homelessness Prevention program that provides financial assistance and connects people with supportive resources. Everyone Home DC offers short-term rentals for families experiencing homelessness through their Rapid Re-housing program. This provides access to employment preparation services, transportation assistance, mental health services and educational training.聽

In Capitol Hill, Everyone Home DC funds a street outreach program that supports individuals in the Eastern Market neighborhood. This program builds relationships with unhoused people and provides services that aim to supply stable housing. They fund Shirley鈥檚 Place Day Center, which provides people experiencing homelessness with a safe place to spend their day and gain access to showers, laundry, phones, computers, and food.聽

In 2022, Shirley鈥檚 Place provided 1751 individuals with 5,377 meals. Everyone Home DC provided housing stabilization to 411 families facing homelessness, including 735 children and 92 families secured their own apartments through programs. The Rapid Re-housing program supported 81 families transitioning out of homelessness.

鈥淚 think that as a society, we are collectively stronger if everybody’s taken care of and if we are all taking care of each other,鈥� Akalonu said.

D.C. Trends

According to a recent study by the , 12% of D.C. residents are experiencing housing insecurity. Children, Black and Hispanic residents, and households with children were more likely to be housing insecure compared to their representation in the D.C. population, according to the report.

One in four children ages 17 and younger face housing insecurity, with black residents in DC disproportionately affected, comprising 41% of the population, with over 60% facing housing insecurity, Akalonu said.

鈥淲e’re seeing that the numbers are trending up,鈥� Akalonu said. 鈥溡剐阒辈� lunches that we distribute from the day center have been increasing. So we’re definitely seeing a need there. Housing insecurity just remains a consistent concern for the city.鈥�

Community Partnerships

Everyone Home DC partners with the community to create a network of support for residents of Capitol Hill.

鈥淵ou know, Capitol Hill does have kind of a small-town feel to it. So we try to foster that small town feel where we know our neighbors, and we help our neighbors,鈥� Heilman said.聽

Everyone Home DC receives support from community members and organizations across the country. Their partners include DC鈥檚 Department of Human Services, DC Central Kitchen, The Morris & Gwondolyn Cafritz Foundation and Unity Healthcare.

鈥淲e can only really accomplish the work that we do every year through the support of people in our community and all the different partners that we have,鈥� Akalonu said.

Everyone Home DC also runs a holiday donation drive to support families during the holiday season. They accept gift cards that will be distributed to struggling families to create a meaningful holiday experience. In 2022, they distributed 500 cards to families to fund school supplies, Thanksgiving meal ingredients, and the gift-giving holiday season.

鈥淎s an organization, and with the support of our community, I think there’s just a lot of collective energy right now around the work that we’re doing,鈥� Akalonu said. 鈥淲e’re really looking forward to leaning into that and seeing what we can accomplish in the year ahead.鈥�

Everyone Home DC is looking forward to 2024 and is currently working on expanding programs through the Bezos grant.聽

鈥淲e are seeing a lot of growth, and we’re just really excited about what we’re going to be able to accomplish in 2024,鈥� Akalonu said.聽