Plans by officials in Washington, D.C., for new homeless shelters are drawing the ire of residents and local communities who feel they were cut out of a process that lacked transparency.
Mayor Muriel Bowser first discussed her plans to fight homelessness in the Fall, but released her detailed plan to the council Feb. 9. The mayor wants to close D.C. General Hospital, which has functioned as the de facto homeless shelter since the old one’s closing. It’s regularly under criticism for deplorable conditions.
Bowser instead wants to establish eight new homeless facilities with improved services in each of the District’s eight wards.
“What we have all agreed and has been well chronicled by all of you [press] the deficiencies at D.C. General a former hospital that was not meant to properly service families and get them on the pathway to permanent housing,” Bowser said at a press conference February 9. “We think that smaller dignified housing with the appropriate wrap-around services will launch people into sustainable housing.”
Communities across the city have responded with outrage and confusion, with the massive overhaul catching many residents off guard. Uncertainty and secrecy over details of the plan abound, leaving some residents feeling “betrayed,” afraid about what it will do to crime and property values in their neighborhood, reports The Washington Post.
“Bad things do happen around shelters – you can’t prevent it,” Jane Loeffler told The Washington Post. “It goes with the territory.”
Bowser’s proposal already outlines the exact sites and neighborhoods for the new shelters. It is unclear how the mayor’s office made its decision on locations, and neighborhoods are already objecting over proposed sites whose placement seems to make no sense to the community.
“This whole process is completely untransparent,” Rhys Gerholdt, a resident of Ward 5 told The Washington Post. “It’s just the worst place to put it.”
Bowser defends the proposed sites, despite being at odds with city law in some cases. She filed legislation Feb. 12 that would exempt leases for the shelters from certain laws. The mayor urged the council when introducing the bill to pass it as a package and force zoning and historic preservation boards to make exceptions for the shelters.
“Well the sites are going to go in somebody’s neighborhood right, so if you tell me this neighbor doesn’t want it, move it to the next neighborhood then the next neighbor would have the same complaint,” Bowser said at a press conference. “People talk to us about ending homelessness but don’t want anything to change in some cases, but most people do.”
District residents in large part favor closing D.C. General, but the lack of transparency and seemingly unilateral decision making process is making people question the mayor’s plan. Danielle Parsons, a co-founder of the Kennedy Street Development Association in Ward 4 told The Washington Times she does not necessarily oppose the plan but wants to know more for planning purposes and is frustrated at the lack of details forthcoming from the mayor’s office.
“We are sending a package to the Council and there will be approvals required,” Bowser said at the February press conference. “I wouldn’t put something in front of a neighborhood that wasn’t well thought out and balanced the needs for homeless neighbors and the community. I wouldn’t do that.”
When asked about the mayor’s timeline for the shelters and how realistic her overall plan is Bowser maintained that the best interests of all parties involved were being represented, and that big changes in policy require large efforts. Bowser also urged that the package must move forward as she specifically laid out.
“I think it’s realistic as this package moves together,” Bowser said. “This package doesn’t move together it puts all of our timelines at risk.”
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