Washington, D.C. officials and residents are gearing up for the next round of community meetings on the mayor’s controversial plan to house the city’s homeless in $100,000 per year units across all eight city wards.
“The streets will indeed not be safer, the developers will get richer while the taxpayers and government are saddled, and our transitioning and homeless risk another failed program,” Chris Sheppard, an Air Force veteran and Ward 3 resident told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The D.C. Council held a marathon 15-hour hearing in March when 90 people representing community interests spoke. The majority of testimonies slammed the mayor for lack of oversight, the secrecy involved in choosing the sites and the blunt rejection of community contributions to the proposal. (RELATED: DC Residents In Revolt Over Mayor’s Plan To Put Homeless In $100,000 Units Next Door)
“The lack of transparency from the Mayor’s office is perhaps our gravest concern,” said Sheppard, who testified at the hearing. “The development of this plan seems to be secretive, in favor of the developers, hasty and frankly not well conceived.”
Residents generally agree with government officials on closing or reforming the often criticized D.C. General Hospital, which currently serves as the government’s only homeless shelter. The mayor proposed closing the site and replacing it with new shelters in every ward of the city. Locations were chosen behind closed doors, and three of the five property owners who will make windfall profits through the lucrative government leases were top donors to Bowser’s mayoral campaign, reports The Washington Post.
Bowser blasted the “vicious” critics of her plan, saying residents and officials were acting from a place of fear. Similarly, her defense of not discussing alternate sites with residents is that no one will want a shelter in their neighborhood. (RELATED: DC Mayor Blasts ‘Vicious’ Critics Of Homeless Shelter Plan)
“I can’t speak for the collective whole, but that argument is categorically not accurate,” Sheppard told TheDCNF. “Most arguments to the mayor’s current plan are based on objective facts not subjective feelings or emotions. Our neighborhood – and all DC wards – desire to have a transparent, objective, solution-based discussion focused on solving our long-term collective desire to provide the best possible opportunities for our homeless and transitioning neighbors.”
Residents fear no real effect will be had on the condition of the city’s homeless, as the new shelters will be run by the same government officials who ran D.C. General into the ground.
“As DC General is bursting at the seams, the fear is that these troubles will simply metastasize now to all eight wards,” Sheppard said. “This mismanagement and subsequent consequences for the homeless residents is of grave concern to us all. It has raised serious doubt regarding the institutional competence of the very same oversight mechanisms to adequately manage and execute programs with our tax dollars.”
The mayor’s office will launch a new round of outreach next week, with community meetings scheduled for each ward to go over the site plans. The gatherings promise to ignite the same citizen outrage seen at the Council hearing and earlier ward meetings. Council President Phil Mendelson, who expressed skepticism over the cost of the proposal, is expected to hold a vote by mid-April, meaning residents are running out of time to have their voices heard, reports Washington City Paper.
“Last month, we hosted community meetings in all eight wards to discuss the short-term housing facilities in each ward and provided an update on the District’s plan to end homelessness in our city,” the mayor’s office said Thursday. “As committed, we are ready to share with residents concept designs for the Short-Term Family Housing sites and to solicit your feedback on the exterior of the building and other exterior options.”
District citizens are still fighting the site locations, which residents point out violates zoning laws in various wards.
“This zoning is essential and serves as a protection for all of our residents,” Sheppard said. “It maintains traffic and pedestrian safety, predictability to the homeowners, and is the legal baseline. The existing laws should apply and exclude this site’s feasibility for building this type of institution.”
A major concern among Council members and District taxpayers is the potentially enormous cost of the new shelter effort. Conservative estimates by the mayor’s office peg the price anywhere between $266 million and $300 million over three decades. This measurement does not include estimates for wraparound costs and additional services provided by the shelters.
In Ward 3, the D.C. Department of Human Services factored in wraparound services, and estimates costs will be $2.1 million for the first year, while the cost per unit, per year climbs to a staggering $110,000.
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