Washington, D.C.’s mayor announced Thursday a fresh round of community meetings to discuss her proposed $660 million homeless shelter plan. Residents are now pushing back against the meetings, criticizing the mayor for giving short notice and being disingenuous about her willingness to seek community input.
The Massachusetts Avenue Heights Citizens Association (MAHCA), a community group representing interests for the District’s Ward 3, called on Mayor Muriel Bowser to postpone Tuesday’s Ward 3 shelter “design” meeting so citizen input can be taken more seriously at a later date.
In a Monday letter to Bowser, MAHCA criticized the hastily-scheduled “design” meetings for each ward this week, calling them a “public relations ploy” to give the appearance the administration values community involvement. (RELATED: DC Residents Lambaste Mayor’s Homeless Shelter Plan, Prepare For Battle)
“MAHCA has been involved in efforts to provide integrated community facilities for the homeless at various locations in and around our neighborhood for over 25 years,” read the letter to the mayor. “MAHCA remains dismayed with your Shelter Plan because of the secret site selection process, outrageous cost, vague and unspecified programmatic planning, concentration of most of Ward 3’s shelter space into one small neighborhood, and the transgression of the City’s comprehensive zoning plan.”
The roughly 77,000-person community in Ward 3 received just a four-day notice for the Tuesday meeting, which in their view is a deliberate attempt to stifle any meaningful community engagement. The meeting is also scheduled in conflict with the Glover Park Citizens Association, another important community group.
The purpose of the mayor’s meetings is to discuss design elements of proposed shelter sites. Residents blasted this intent as a unilateral effort to impose the plan on communities without debate.
“From the very beginning, the Mayor has sought to create the facade of engagement, without permitting substantive community input,” Malia Brink, a member of MAHCA said in a press release. “This meeting presumes not only that the substance is set, but that it has been approved by the DC Council, which is not the case.”
Bowser’s plan to close down D.C. General and house the city’s homeless in new sites in each of the District’s eight wards is facing stiff community opposition. Many of the proposed sites violate zoning laws, while one site was placed near a waste treatment center and a strip club. Opponents of the plan also question how the shelter sites, which benefit Bowser donors, were chosen. (RELATED: DC Residents In Revolt Over Mayor’s Plan To Put Homeless In $100,000 Units Next Door)
The mayor is facing an increasingly skeptical Council, as concerns mount over the cost of the shelter sites. The mayor’s office initially said it would cost roughly $300 million over 30 years, but now that number is estimated at roughly $660 million. Costs have become of such concern the mayor requested a study, but Council President Phil Mendelson questions the effectiveness of the independent analysis, which the mayor is allegedly rushing, reports The Washington Post.
“The conversations I’ve had indicate that to do a good analysis will probably take four to six weeks,” Mendelson told The Washington Post. “What I’d like to see is a ‘reasonableness assessment’ of this plan, because I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who find the costs unreasonably high.”
The mayor hopes to push the package forward as emergency legislation, exempting it from regular oversight. Mendelson was expected to schedule a vote for April 19, but said Monday the date may be pushed back for further review. (RELATED: DC Mayor Blasts ‘Vicious’ Critics Of Homeless Shelter Plan)
The Ward 3 shelter meeting is currently scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“This ‘design’ meeting is not intended to permit serious input from residents,” read the letter from MAHCA. “We understand efforts will again be made on Tuesday to diffuse and quell any serious discussion.”
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