A tiny pig is helping crack open conversations on the streets of Washington, DC.
The H3 Project, a grassroots nonprofit founded by Ami M. Angell in 2020, does outreach across the city aimed at ending homelessness and human trafficking. The group works from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, including holidays, and is especially present at Union Station and major downtown hubs.
Washington, DC’s annual Point-In-Time count, released in May 2026, found the city’s homeless population had increased about 4.4 percent since last year, with 5,363 people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness.
According to its website, H3 helped provide nearly 2,000 essential items in 2025, administered 217 doses of Narcan, helped 234 people apply for SNAP or Medicaid benefits, and managed 93 housing matches.
Now the group has a new outreach partner, a 5-pound pig named Synergy. She belongs to Angell and was adopted in March.
“We have to think outside the box, because every individual is unique,” Angell told The Washington Post. “What works for one individual may not work for another person. It’s figuring out the way in, and if you can get that door open a little, then you can get it open a lot larger.”
Angell used to carry cigarettes, despite not smoking, as a way to start conversations with people in need or help de-escalate a crisis. She later heard about Juliana pigs, which the source text describes as a hypoallergenic breed that is friendly and eager to please.
“A lot of the folks that we work with, they’ve never seen a pig, let alone touched one,” Angell told The Washington Post. “With pigs, it doesn’t matter your age, your race, your gender; they love you equally.”
Synergy now goes to work with Angell every day, either training in her pen at the organization’s headquarters in Union Station or heading out on outreach duty on a harness and leash.
“When she comes around, [it] seems like she’s a magnet,” H3 client Randall Baldree said in a video for The Washington Post. “Everybody wants to be around her. It helps with the emotional support.”
Synergy can spin in a circle, leap over hurdles and play a toy piano. Angell said those interactions help lower barriers.
One example stands out for her. Angell said a woman in her late 60s, whom she has known for seven years, had been very resistant to case management until she met Synergy.
“Now she wants to work with me,” Angell said. “As long as the pig is right there, she will answer my questions, she will do the work with me. She’s moving forward because of Synergy.”
Angell said the pig’s name reflects her role.
“There is a synergy to it all,” Angell explained. “I just wanted her to ground folks and remind them that there’s always more to life and more to be than what is right now. For my homeless [clients], they aren’t defined by who they are now. This is just one piece of their life. They deserve to be somewhere better.”
The source text says Angell and other experts who work with homeless populations view pets as a “lifeline” for unhoused people, providing stability and support. It also says a California pilot project that made homeless shelters pet-friendly allowed more than 4,000 people to keep their pets while getting support and encouraged 886 people to move into permanent housing with their pets.
“She’s working to make the world a better place,” Angell said of the pig, “in her own way.”
Read more from GoodGoodGood.
