from last month, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government noted an 18 percent increase throughout the region. African Americans, who are 25 percent of the region’s population, accounted for 71 percent of the homeless population. The stark racial disparity, the report says, “reflects a long history of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States” that continues to affect Black people to this day.
The town of Capitol Heights borders the District in Prince George’s County. This is one of the wealthiest predominantly-Black counties in the nation. Surely there are 100,000 residents for whom $20 is like 20 cents. “If getting our work done means begging, I will do it,” Martinez said. Torrence met Cummings at a cinder-block wall near a commercial strip along Central Avenue. That’s where homeless men congregated to pool their panhandling proceeds for food and drink.
A friend of Cummings’s had also signed up for the rehabilitative services. But he did not take the mission seriously. Not at first. But after he saw how Cummings had fared, the friend’s attitude changed.