Addicted to the streets

Homelessness | With temperatures over 100 degrees here last week, many among the capital’s estimated 10,000 homeless individuals rode for hours on free, air-conditioned buses. But that was not the only evidence | Clint Rainey

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Stung by press accusations of "callousness" two decades ago, the Reagan administration turned over one gigantic federal building to a nonprofit in the 1980s—and inaugurated a domino effect of continually improving aid for Washington's homeless. Today one group alone, DC Central Kitchen, serves 4,000 meals a day. Another makes vegetarian lunches on Sunday afternoons. Clothes closets, health clinics, and attorneys ready to sue on homeless people's behalf are easy to find.

Do those efforts make homelessness less or more common? Here are some sights and sounds of a D.C. summer.

The good property goes fast on the main cobblestone promenade of Georgetown, where 19th-century brownstones now house Kate Spade, Barneys, and thousand-dollar day spas. Panhandling, like real estate, is all about location, and Georgetown is D.C.'s Bel Air.