D.C., Baltimore lend helping hand to homeless

It’s a list no city wants to make. “Meanest Cities” in the nation.

The qualifications are simple: Treat the homeless badly, and you get on the list.

Los Angeles earned the top spot on the list this year for its crackdown on the city’s legendary Skid Row — a “victory” Washington and Baltimore will gladly concede and one they worked hard to avoid.

Homeless advocacy groups rate cities on various factors, particularly how the homeless are treated by law enforcement and whether “selective enforcement” is used on common crimes such as loitering.

Washington and Baltimore have been taking measures to improve the way they deal with the homeless. The result: another year in which they managed to stay off the list.

Butch, a 56-year-old homeless man, thinks he knows one reason for Washington’s success.

“Most officers don’t really want to bother us,” said Butch, who puffs on the first of many Black and Mild cigars for the day. “People who have problems with officers usually bring it on themselves. Police tell you to pour out a beer, pour out the beer. … Police are just doing their jobs.”

Three years ago, Butch landed on the streets, sleeping on park benches in Dupont Circle and hustling chess games for cash to survive.

Wracked with guilt after his mother’s death from kidney failure, Butch said the loss was unbearable. He said he could no longer keep up his job teaching chess to inner-city students.

“All the stuff I did bugged her heart,” said Butch, as he dry shaved the week’s stubble off his chin while holding a broken hand-held mirror — all of his belongings stuffed underneath his “bed” in a clear plastic trash bag.

So he fled to the park, the only place he knew he could focus entirely on chess — the only creative release that would make him happy, he said. His run-ins with police have been few, but friendly.

“It’s where I want to be,” Butch said. “When I get tired, I’ll get off the street.”

Washington and Baltimore have never made the Top 10 list of Meanest Cities, though Washington appeared on an extended list in 2006 and Baltimore made the extended list this year.

But the homeless agencies also consider the positive steps cities take to improve situations for the homeless, and D.C. and Baltimore each have scored points.

In May, the state of Maryland helped out Baltimore by becoming the first state to add homeless people as a protected class to its hate crimes law after several people were severely beaten and killed. There were 774 violent attacks on homeless people between 1999 and 2007 resulting in 217 deaths, according to the coalition.

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