Last month, as part of the Homeward DC plan to end homelessness, Mayor Muriel Bowser released a plan to close the homeless shelter at DC General and open smaller short-term housing facilities in each ward. The mayor stated she wants the council to approve the package in its entirety. Almost immediately after the plan’s release, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie and the Langdon Park and Woodridge communities objected to the proposed location for the Ward 5 facility at 2266 25th Place NE, stating the location is in an industrial area close to nightclubs, a strip club, and bus depot, and far from public transit and basic amenities like a grocery store. Langdon Park residents also appear to object on the basis that their neighborhood (and nearby neighborhoods) already house a number of homeless shelters and supportive services. (There have also been objections to the cost of the plan, lack of transparency, and reports that some of the mayor’s major donors would benefit immensely from this plan). After much pushback, Mayor Bowser released a list of all of the sites that her administration considered and rejected.

What does all of this have to do with this neighborhood? The Woodridge South and Landgon Park Civic Associations hosted an emergency Ward 5 meeting on February 22, 2016, to discuss the plan. (I did not attend the meeting). There, residents tossed around various alternative locations, including locations in Riggs Park, according to this letter the Langdon Park Civic Association sent to the mayor. See Ward5_Letter_Mayor_Bowser (pdf); Ward 5_MeetingNotes_Feb252016_HomewardDCpdf. I heard about the meeting and as noted in this ANC 5A February 24th meeting recap, I asked Councilmember McDuffie’s Chief of Staff Ronan Gulstone about Councilmember McDuffie’s plan for finding an alternative Ward 5 location given the very vocal opposition from Langdon Park residents, opposition which the councilmember appears to support. At that time, Mr. Gulstone hedged a bit stating that the councilmember wants more transparency for selecting an alternative location. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Sandi Washington (5A07), who attended the emergency meeting, stated Councilmember McDuffie said at the emergency meeting that he would follow the direction of the community.

The council held a preliminary hearing on the plan on March 17, 2016. According to reports, City Administrator Rashad Young did not appear to be persuaded about breaking up the package to find a different Ward 5 location, but Mr. Young did send a letter to the Langdon Park Civic Association appearing to suggest that if a consensus alternative Ward 5 location emerged, then it would be considered. See Langdon-Park-Response-Letter_3.17.2016 (pdf). The letter also notes that the administration spoke with Councilmember McDuffie in 2015 about planning to close DC General and asked him to come up with specific sites).)

After the council hearing, I sent an email to Mr. Gulstone again asking about Councilmember McDuffie’s plan for proceeding, especially considering construction is supposed to start in February 2017, if the council approves the plan. I have not received a response yet, but will update this post if I get one. I ask this question because it is clear from the list of alternative locations generated at the emergency meeting that residents are not best positioned to come up with alternative locations. A resident or residents suggested “a site incorporated into developments going up by Fort Totten,” according to the letter from Langdon Park. I am not sure what this means, as there are a couple of developments in progress in the neighborhood. Art Place at Fort Totten is in Ward 5; Fort Totten Square is in Ward 4. Both are being developed by private developers on privately owned land. There is District-owned land in Ward 4 over which District officials have been negotiating purchase by developers for the second phase of Fort Totten Square. There is also District-owned land next to Food & Friends that is not part of any current planned development.

On a personal note, I would not mind having a short-term housing facility for families in the neighborhood. I think apartment-style family housing would be better than dormitory-style. We already have a fair amount of income-restricted housing in the neighborhood. Aventine Fort Totten houses a number of residents who are receiving supportive services. And we have our share of group homes. So it is not as if this neighborhood is a stranger to supportive facilities. But we have a stable neighborhood. We have beautiful parks, relatively low crime, a grocery store (or two depending on how one counts), and discount retail with the Walmart. We have the Backus campus of UDC-CC (the community college), which offers lots of workforce programs, a neighborhood library, and the Backus location of the Department of Employment Services (DOES) in the neighborhood. And of course we are served by terrific public transit. Those services would likely be useful to those in need of emergency housing. Sure, there are lots of amenities we still want and need in the neighborhood, but I do not think having a small homeless shelter would be a detriment to getting those things. I have seen homeless shelters in other cities; they can be attractive facilities. That said, this entire process displays an astounding lack of leadership and thoughtfulness from those who are being paid to be smart, thoughtful leaders. It pits residents and neighborhoods against one another. It reminds me of the city’s failure to implement a plan for housing municipal functions, for which we are quickly running out of space. There, we have seen in the past and will be seeing again in the future, the result of the city officials’ failure to undertake thoughtful decision-making. All of us as residents deserve better.