Learn About Our Guests

There are more than 6,000 homeless men, women and children in Washington, DC on any given night. Of those, nearly 1,200 are chronically homeless--meaning they have been homeless for a year or more, or four or more times in the past three years.

On any given day at Miriam's Kitchen, 82 percent of our guests are chronically homeless.  In fact, the average length of homelessness of our guests is 5.5 years. 

Nearly 80 percent of our guests live on the streets of DC, in parks around the city, under the bridges along the Potomac River, and in emergency shelters.  Only 7 percent of our guests are in permanent housing. 

Approximately 95 percent of our guests are male, 60 percent are African American and the median age of our guests is 50.

Many of our guests suffer from severe mental illnesses and addictions, making them the most fragile and hardest to connect with social services.

Learn more about our guests here.