Against the backdrop of mounting gentrification, increased poverty and a lack of affordable housing, the organization finds those affected a new place to call home.

The organization began as two entities back in 1974. The former volunteer-run and the Bread for the City coalition were founded by a group of downtown churches who were on a mission to feed and clothe the poor.

A volunteer coordinator from the organization, Jessica Yarger, said Bread for the City has several departments that help the community with a variety of issues.

鈥淏read for the City鈥檚 mission works to help low income people in the D.C. area in regard to our areas of service, food, clothing, medical, legal, social services and advocacy,鈥� Yarger said.

Bread for the City鈥檚 advocacy focuses on affordable housing and their social workers help many navigate the system, according to Larger. They try to keep people in their homes or help find them new places to live within their means of income.

The Shaw district is certainly no stranger to gentrification, an issue affecting several D.C. neighborhoods.

Sonia Springfield, communication and donations manager at Bread for the City, said the neighborhood has changed drastically just within the past two decades.

鈥淚f you go back 20 years these houses in this neighborhood would have been more like $150,000, now they are more like $681,000,鈥� Springfield said.

Springfield also credited rising property taxes as another reason people are priced out of the area. Property taxes just 15 years ago were around $500 and now they are around $5,000, according to Springfield.

These rising costs have systematically affected one major demographic of the community, Springfield said.

鈥淭he African-American population in this community used to be closer to 80 percent or 90 percent, now it鈥檚 at about 50 percent,鈥� Springfield said.

Rising gentrification and demands for affordable housing have raised a big question, Springfield said.

鈥淲hy do they always wait until the demographics of the city change, why don鈥檛 they ever try to improve the area and environment when there are still people there who are born and raised in the city and who are requesting improved access to resources,鈥� Springfield said. 鈥淏ut those changes don鈥檛 happen until there鈥檚 a change in what the people look like who live in a community.鈥�

Stacey Johnson, a social worker at Bread for the City, recollected how much the neighborhood has changed in the past 15 years she鈥檚 been working for the organization.

鈥淩ight next to Bread for the City was this high-end coffee shop that was previously a Laundromat. It was torn down 鈥� which means there were not enough people in the community that needed a Laundromat anymore,鈥� Johnson said.

Although Johnson acknowledges that community members, advocacy groups and the Mayor are talking about affordable housing and how everybody will soon be able to access it, 鈥渢he reality is, they can鈥檛,鈥� she said.

鈥淏ecause there鈥檚 a different definition of affordable and very much of the affordable housing that is coming in isn鈥檛 actually affordable to everybody. There’s still those really high minimum income requirements.鈥�

Johnson recalled a building across the street from Bread for the City that was torn down and replaced by luxury condos.

鈥淎ll the people who had been living there have been displaced,鈥� she said.

Before it was torn down, the building used to be subsidized housing. The government subsidized the rent and people would pay around 30 percent of their income for housing.

鈥淭hat was truly affordable housing,鈥� she said.

A major issue at hand is a majority of the people that are being forced out of their homes are people of color. There is a swatch of people of color being pushed out and white people are moving in, Johnson said.

鈥淭he human toll is incredible, instability with your housing or your living situation just leads to instability in pretty much every other area of your life,鈥� Johnson said.

Johnson saw the immediate effects. She saw people who came to the organization for the first time with a housing crisis and overtime visibly 鈥渄eteriorated.鈥�

鈥淥n the flip side, when I鈥檓 meeting with somebody who has been unstable or has not been stable for a while, and then they do get housing, the change there is almost immediate as well. They are able to sleep properly, eat properly 鈥� the difference is incredible,鈥� Johnson said.

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Amidst the arrival of another election day, new numbers find surging interest in this year鈥檚 midterm elections despite a substantial amount of Americans that choose not to vote for a variety of reasons.

Early voter turnout in 27 states has exceeded the 2014 midterm early vote count, according to University of Florida鈥檚 , an electoral project spearheaded by associate professor Michael McDonald. This year鈥檚 turnout is higher than normal, McDonald said.

However, 43 percent of the American electorate did not go to the polls in 2016, according to McDonald’s research. The data show that out of 232 million eligible voters, only 132 million voted, 60.5 million voted for Hillary Clinton and 60 million voted for Donald Trump. Roughly, 100 million eligible voters chose not to cast a ballot.

鈥淚 talked to people back home who didn鈥檛 vote because there鈥檚 sort of this sense of hopelessness around politics,鈥� George Washington University student Chase Kleber said.

Kleber said many people he knows see continuous loss, after placing faith in a candidate because they promised change would happen. According to Kleber, when people feel that there is no progress being made, they simply lose hope.

鈥淭hat lack of change drives them to see no point in voting,鈥� Kleber said.

Natalie Dow, a fellow GW student, voted absentee in her home state of Colorado. She offers a different point of view.

鈥淭he future depends so much on what we want and what we say that we want the world to turn into, so if you鈥檙e not putting your word out there and voting for people who you think represent you, then how can you expect the future to be one that you want to be a part of,鈥� Dow said.

This issue is not as cut and dry as it seems. There are several barriers that can prevent people from voting, according to a

In 2016, 25 percent of respondents said they did not vote because of a strong distaste for the candidates and the issues being covered. The Pew Research data also found 15 percent did not vote because they felt their vote had no impact on the outcome of the election, 14 percent said they were too busy or had conflicting schedules, 12 percent claimed illness or disability, 11 percent said other, 8 percent said they were out of town or away, 4 percent said they had registration problems, 3 percent forgot to vote, another 3 percent had transportation issues, and 2 percent said the hours or polling locations where an inconvenience.

James Harnett, Foggy Bottom Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, is currently supporting the The bill lowers the legal voting age to 16 in the District of Columbia. There are a slew of difficulties that get in the way of people casting a ballot, Harnett said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 do enough to encourage voting, we don鈥檛 do enough to break down the barriers of voting,鈥� Harnett said.

The logistics of voting, buying stamps for absentee ballots and being aware of deadlines are some of the setbacks Harnett has come across in registering people to vote.

Harnett said a friend of his registered to vote in her home state of Tennessee and had to fly back home from D.C., because the state refused to mail her an absentee ballot.

According to Harnett, a lack of absentee ballots seems to be causing a lot of problems for college students who are away from home. He said around 150-200 George Washington University students on average have to re-register to vote in D.C because their home states would not send them absentee ballots.

Former president of the University of California, San Diego鈥檚 non-partisan , Liam Barrett, said a lack of education has a tremendous effect on people turning themselves away from the polls.

鈥淚 think a lot of people feel that they are not knowledgeable enough to cast a vote,鈥� Barrett said.

This same answer was given by Harnett and Dow as the most common response they received from non-voters in D.C.

Barrett said a complete breakdown in civics education in this country has failed many Americans trying to vote because many of them were never taught about it.

鈥淎 lot of people don鈥檛 know how to register to vote,鈥� Barrett said.

He said his experience as former president showed him most people don’t know they need to re-register to vote when they relocate to a new area.

鈥淩egistration is hard, it鈥檚 very difficult to get registered correctly,鈥� Barrett said.

Barrett, like Harnett, says the system is not an easy process to sign people up for, which also causes many to feel disenfranchised.

The majority of people who do not vote are not in the over-hyped, stereotypical crowd that believe their vote makes no difference. But Barrett offers up a simple counterpoint to those who feel their vote does not matter.

鈥淵ou might not think your vote matters, but a lot of these races are decided by 100 people that didn鈥檛 think their vote counted,鈥� Barrett said.

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Foggy Bottom, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., plans to add new bike lanes in an effort to make the roads safer for all commuters traveling along Dupont Circle and the National Mall.

The will identify a specific route to increase safety and mobility for north and south-running bicycle lanes that connect the Western side of downtown to the National Mall, according to the District Department of Transportation. Protected bike lanes help maintain safety, connect neighborhoods, accommodate growth in transportation systems, provide more transportation options and also help D.C. to become a more sustainable city, according to DDOT.

The project will include adding lanes to the north-south streets of 20th Street, 21st Street and 22nd Street NW between Florida Avenue NW and Constitution Avenue NW. The area includes George Washington University, where Advisory Neighborhood Commission council member James Harnett said the new lanes will help ease congestion and traffic.

鈥淪tudents, I know, don鈥檛 feel comfortable biking on campus,” Harnett said. “We have a lot of out-of-state drivers that disregard or act unsafely around bikers, pedestrians and students.鈥�

Josh Neirman, a former member of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said the new measure to add more bike lanes is a positive one.

鈥淚 think the biggest thing is if pedestrians and vehicles acknowledge that there鈥檚 a new bike lane that鈥檚 been created,鈥� Neirman said.

International student Omar Stinner said he regularly questions himself when using a scooter on the road and feels it’s often unsafe.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel like scooters or bicycles or cars should be in conjunction with each other,” Stinner said. “I feel they should be separate, there should be a bike lane everywhere, where the biker and the scooter can be alone.鈥�

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