At Miriam’s Kitchen, our advocacy program plays a critical role in realizing our mission to end chronic homelessness in Washington, D.C. In collaboration with community leaders, coalitions, faith-based groups, government partners, and D.C. residents, the advocacy team works to:
- Elevate, amplify, and follow the leadership of people with lived experience of homelessness to drive change across the District
- Increase District funding for life-saving housing programs, such as Permanent Supportive Housing
- Identify and dismantle systemic barriers that cause and prolong homelessness.
TAKE ACTION — SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO THE MAYOR!
Mayor Bowser will release her budget next month, and we are asking our supporters to join Miriam’s Kitchen and The Way Home Campaign to send a message to the mayor. Click here to raise your voice for housing justice!
Miriam’s Kitchen advocates to end chronic homelessness in Washington, D.C.
Someone experiencing chronic homelessness has experienced homelessness repeatedly or for years and may be struggling with serious health conditions. For this population, housing is not only healthcare, it’s also life-saving.
Resources to end chronic homelessness
Through our leadership of The Way Home Campaign, Miriam’s Kitchen advocates for funding in DC’s budget to end homelessness through interventions such as Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). PSH is the single most effective solution for helping people experiencing chronic homelessness. It is a national best practice with a 92 percent success rate in Washington, D.C.
We also work to ensure DC’s budget includes resources for other types of housing, improved shelter, homeless street outreach, prevention programs, and more.
Over the past decade, our advocacy has leveraged more than $500 million in funding to improve the lives of our neighbors and move thousands of individuals into permanent housing.
To view our current recommendations for DC’s budget and to raise your voice, please visit The Way Home Campaign website.
Systems Change
In addition to fighting for resources to end homelessness in DC’s budget, we are constantly working to improve our homeless services system, fill gaps, and address the root causes of homelessness. This work happens in big and small ways – from working with DC’s Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify and address barriers to housing to leveraging Medicaid to pay for PSH to eliminating fees for birth certificates. This also involves work to present harmful approaches to tent encampments, to ensure housing programs align with trauma-informed best practices, and to ensure our systems evolve to address changes in access to housing and services over time.
Guest Leadership
At Miriam’s Kitchen, our guests are the center of everything we do. We have an approach and a series of initiatives that help ensure that our guests and other community members with lived experience of homelessness inform our work and have decision-making power over our advocacy and operations. The Advocacy Team is proud to lead our work in this area, including through the MK Speaker’s Bureau, Guest Advisory Board, and Advocacy Fellowship.
- Who are our partners? Building partnerships and community connections is at the heart of good advocacy. Miriam’s Kitchen is proud to be involved with several coalitions and to have many strong advocacy partners.
Miriam’s Kitchen is a leader of The Way Home, a campaign to end chronic homelessness in the District of Columbia. The campaign is supported by over 7,000 individuals and over 110 organizations who are critical to reaching this goal.
Miriam’s Kitchen is a part of these coalitions:
- DC Inter Agency Council on Homelessness
- Fair Budget Coalition
- Crisis Response Coalition
Miriam’s Kitchen is a leader of The Way Home, a campaign to end chronic homelessness in the District of Columbia by 2017. The campaign is supported by over 5,000 individuals and over 95 diverse organizations who are critical to reaching this goal.
Housing. Ends. Homelessness
The Way Home Campaign brings together 102 organizations and over 6,000 residents who know that DC can and must end long-term homelessness.
We believe that housing is a human right and that nobody should live or die without housing in our nation’s capital.
The solution to homelessness is simple: housing. Ending homelessness saves money, saves lives, and allows some of DC’s most marginalized residents to thrive.
We advocate to Mayor Bowser and the DC Council to ensure that ending long-term homelessness is a top priority for DC’s elected officials.
When we end homelessness, everybody wins.
Join our movement to end long-term homelessness in DC.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
As leaders of The Way Home Campaign, an advocacy movement to end chronic homelessness in DC, we convene, organize, and mobilize over 100 organizations and 6,000 people to demand sustainable and systemic change from District policy makers.
Will you join us?
Join The Way Home Campaign
