Walking up and down the metro escalators was the only way David Jackson could stay warm during the winter nights of 2021.
While Jackson knew he could call District officials to come pick him up in a van and drive him to a hypothermia shelter, he kept hearing negative experiences from others. According to the 2024 annual Point in Time study, which reports homelessness in the Washington metropolitan area, there are 3,960 people experiencing homelessness. However, findings show 1,778 beds available for homeless people looking for hypothermia shelters, which only offer overnight emergency housing without additional support.
“My motivation to keep warm was stronger than how tired I felt,” Jackson said.
Between Nov. 1 and March 31, or hypothermia season, the District opens 17 hypothermia shelters to the homeless. District officials open these shelters to the public during hypothermia alerts, when the temperature is lower than 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and cold weather emergencies, when the temperature is lower than 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
The District government did not respond to comments for this story.
District officials run this program to prevent homeless people from contracting hypothermia. Hypothermia is a condition in which the body’s core temperature decreases to below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Although it can occur year-round, it is most often contracted in the winter due to exposure to cold weather conditions.
While homeless, Jackson lived in a tent with his brother outside the CVS in Dupont Circle. One time in the summer, despite warm weather, Jackson said he contracted hypothermia. After a rainy night, he woke up two hours before sunrise, soaking wet and freezing, even though the outside temperature was 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
“My whole body was cramped,” Jackson said. “I could barely walk.”
Jackson made it to Miriam’s Kitchen to warm up, a food distribution center for the homeless in Foggy Bottom, about a 20-minute walk from his tent.
During another winter, Jackson’s hands turned white and then blue due to the cold. He was able to warm them up again under hot water.
Besides walking up and down escalators like Jackson, other people who are homeless turn to alcohol or drugs. Jackson said he never did drugs while homeless, but he did drink, which gave him the illusion of being warm.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an estimated 38 percent of people who are homeless abuse alcohol, with an additional 26 percent abusing drugs.
Even though Jackson did not seek hypothermia shelters, he got himself out of homelessness after his brother, who is permanently disabled, qualified for housing through disability benefits. Jackson moved into an apartment with his brother but now lives independently while working as an ironworker.
Kate Coventry is the Deputy Director of Legislative Strategy at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI), where homelessness is a policy focus. Coventry said the shelters the District provides during hypothermia season are “low barrier,” or shelters that minimize the requirements for entry, meaning homeless people.
“The people needing shelter just grows and grows and grows and you can’t keep up with it,” Coventry said, referencing low barrier shelters.
Coventry said low-barrier shelters in the District include those run by Catholic Charities and N Street Village. Catholic Charities and N Street Village did not respond to comment for this story.
But Coventry added that these low-barrier shelters are often not designed to be shelters; rather, they are large areas with beds. In low-barrier shelters, she said, people who are homeless come in with a variety of goals, from finding housing to securing their GED and everything else in between. Rather, she said these shelters should be designed with services, like access to case managers.
Coventry said there are shelters providing these services, but they tend to be “high barrier,” or to take advantage of the services, one needs to follow a set of rules. One of the organizations Coventry mentioned has a “high barrier”: The Father McKenna Center.
Although the Center has other programs, such as clothing distribution, a computer lab, and a food pantry, its main project is the hypothermia program headed by Executive Director Dennis Dee. The program serves as an alternative to those provided by the District government.
“While DC has a Hypothermia Hotline, many of our guests do not feel safe in emergency shelter environments, and there is no support for their transition through homelessness, only maintenance of their status quo,” the Center’s website states.
Dee has been the executive director of the Center since the beginning of 2024, but his history with the Center goes back to August 2017.
Due to his alcoholism, Dee lost his career as an investment banker, split with his wife, and lost contact with his friends and family. After using the resources provided by the Center from August to October 2017, Dee was invited at the beginning of the 2017-2018 hypothermia season to take part in the programming.
Dee only used the hypothermia program for six weeks because he found a sober home group.
For the past 20 years, Dee said the program has offered 10 men consistent overnight housing during the District’s hypothermia season from Nov. 1 to March 31. According to the Center’s website, they have this programming as an alternative to what the District government offers.
Compared to other hypothermia programs in the District, Dee said the “distinguishing characteristic” is that the Center offers 150 consistent nights compared to other programs, which are only open in the evenings and do not guarantee an individual a bed.
He also said the hypothermia shelters, which tend to be run by Catholic Charities, are run “very lean. " He estimates the District government only gives public hypothermia shelters two dollars to serve each homeless person per night. Dee said Catholic Charities does rely on funding from its donors for its hypothermia programs as well.
“The D.C. government grinds them down,” Dee said about Catholic Charities.
Dee said the Center provides more than government-funded hypothermia shelters. During the programming, besides being given nightly housing, participants are offered a nightly shower, storage for their personal belongings, and nightly meals by volunteers.
These volunteers cook a meal for the program participants and then eat with them. Dee said the program relies on volunteers for 150 nights straight to serve the participants.
“The differentiating factor here, more than anything, is the significant volunteer presence here,” Dee said.
According to the Center’s website, 75 percent of the participants in the program meet their goals, including sobriety, housing, employment, and family reunification, among others. Dee said that if a spot opens up because one of the men meets their goals, it is given to another participant.
“We have a graduation and maybe a celebratory meal,” Dee said if one of the men finds housing.
He also said some participants stop coming somewhere through the program, which is because these men most likely have a combination of addiction and mental health issues.
In total, Dee estimates there are over 1,000 unique volunteers every year since the Center has a close relationship with the students and families of Gonzaga and serves around 600 people. Between the “encouragement and support” the men are getting from these volunteers, Dee said he knows the hypothermia program at the Center is an exception to other hypothermia shelters in the District.
“I smile when I talk about it,” Dee said in reference to the Center’s hypothermia programming. “Because it’s definitely neat.”
Maggie Rhoads is a student journalist attending George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. At The Fulcrum, she covers how legislation and policy are impacting communities.
