We can end homelessness in the DC area by allowing mentally ill community members, who are willing to work towards their housing; clean and develop the abandoned buildings in the DC area. Homelessness has become a serious problem and many homeless individuals feel they are being forced into homelessness due to the long waiting lists and abundant paperwork they must go through to gain housing. For some it takes over 10 or more years.
In the meantime, there is an abundance of abandoned buildings that are just sitting empty or overrun by squatters and drug dealers! Make these buildings available for contractors to hire the homeless men and women for free and supply them with the resources necessary to make a building a home for those who work on building it up.