Case for Support
Partnering with women to create new futures for themselves and their families.
Since 1988 NEW has transformed lives, working to end the cycle of homelessness by providing housing, fostering the development of life skills, and promoting education and employment, creating a path to self-sufficiency and growth.
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The Need
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As NEW has served women in the District experiencing homelessness over the past 37 years, the factors which compound to create such a crisis for our clients have shifted and evolved. It used to be that homelessness was seen as a symptom of just one core challenge—job loss, substance abuse—but as time has passed, our understanding of the compounding factors driving homelessness has deepened and become more nuanced.
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Today we know that homelessness is very often the result of systemic inequities and the traumas that multiply under such circumstances. Underlying these are factors that can be more individually addressed: education, housing, health care, job preparedness, employment.
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Other factors make housing stability in the District of Columbia specifically challenging: Rent in DC is the third most expensive in the country, and renting a studio apartment here could easily cost someone making the median DC salary about 40% of a person’s income. Most residents in the District are one expensive emergency away from losing their homes.
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According to the 2023 Point-in-Time Count, women experiencing homelessness in DC account for 61% of the total homeless population in the city, and the vast majority of adults in families experiencing homelessness – nearly 80% – are women.
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Over 37 years of serving women in the District, NEW has evolved and adapted to the shifting, compounding causes of homelessness to provide evidence-based, trauma-informed, individualized care and support to meet each client’s unique needs and goals.
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Our programming has expanded and shifted, accounting for the intergenerational trauma at play for our clients, serving women in multiple generations: we serve women-headed families with school-aged children and also offer permanent housing with nursing care and community for elderly women experiencing chronic illnesses.
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The majority of NEW's clients are chronically homeless women and children who have lacked stable housing for years, and who have suffered the dehumanizing and isolating experiences that come with being unhoused. These experiences take a massive toll on self-confidence and the ability to envision a better future for oneself, and so NEW has prioritized providing mental health and recovery services, as well as skills-based workshops and experiences designed to cultivate self-care, connection, and hope. Even after our clients have moved to stable housing, secured jobs, or been reunited with family members, we strive to stay in touch so that every woman and child who enters our facility knows they will always have a place to turn.​
NEW operates six transitional and permanent supportive housing programs for women in the District, including:
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New Transitions offers up to two years of group housing and intensive supportive services to 30 homeless women who are overcoming challenges such as addiction and mental illness;
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Shelter Plus Care provides private apartments and highly individualized supportive services for an open-ended amount of time to 8 women and families who have a critical need for ongoing intensive case management and support for chronic needs;
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New Horizons provides private apartments and family-centered intensive services for an open-ended amount of time to 17 families, many of whom are recovering from domestic abuse;
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New Journeys offers structure and support in a dorm-style setting for six women aged 55 and older, most of whom have chronic illness and have been without stable housing for many years;
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New Journeys II provides private apartments for 15 women aged 55 and older, most of whom suffer chronic illness and have been without stable housing for many years; and
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Kathy’s House serves 17 women in apartments and a shared home setting, supporting residents to reach employment and self-sufficiency goals.
We also provide college preparatory services – including support with applications, scholarships, and campus tours – and two high school seniors have graduated from the program and gone on to attend four-year institutions. This year, we are supporting one of our seniors in applying to Ivy League universities. We are currently serving 16 children in YEP!, and nearly all of them are performing at grade level or above in reading and math.[EE1]