D.C. does little when some in supportive housing behave dangerously

One man was caught on video starting a fire in his apartment building. Another punched an elderly woman in the face. Another was the target of a police raid, accused by officers of hosting a drug den.

Each has been the beneficiary of an apartment subsidized through D.C.’s permanent supportive housing program while their landlords spent months and months trying to evict them.

The trouble, from a small minority of participants, is straining the long-standing program key to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s pledge to end chronic homelessness in the nation’s capital. Designed to usher unhoused people into mixed-income living with intensive services for problems like mental illness and addiction, the initiative has struggled in recent years as the number of participants has doubled to more than 5,000, focusing public attention on the gap between the program’s ideals and what is happening on the ground.