New Ward 3 Homeless Families Shelter Site

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

The reality will be that, just like at DC General, shelter residents will end up staying at the end of 120 days. DC is unlikely to put them out on the corner to live in front of the Giant Giant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

They couldn't get DC General right so their answer is that they are creating 8 mini DC Generals while not at all addressing the underlying issues of why they couldn't get DC General right in the first place. Brilliant.

If DC couldn't deliver quality services efficiently at one central location with the scale of DC General, how can we believe that they will do a better job replicating and duplicating such services at seven or eight new sites throughout the city?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

They couldn't get DC General right so their answer is that they are creating 8 mini DC Generals while not at all addressing the underlying issues of why they couldn't get DC General right in the first place. Brilliant.

The other fact is that the Ward 3 shelter won't be 1/8 the size of DC general. The planned size keeps increasing. By the time it is built, the Homeless Shelter at Cathedral Commons will be more like 35% the size of DC General, which will mean a pretty substantial facility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually need to ask--is there any way to stop this harebrained scheme at this point? If so, how? If not, I will save my breath on arguing its obvious demerits.

Zoning, they need a special exception even in R-5 to put the shelter there.

There is going to be a battle royal at the zoning commission or the BZA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

They couldn't get DC General right so their answer is that they are creating 8 mini DC Generals while not at all addressing the underlying issues of why they couldn't get DC General right in the first place. Brilliant.

The other fact is that the Ward 3 shelter won't be 1/8 the size of DC general. The planned size keeps increasing. By the time it is built, the Homeless Shelter at Cathedral Commons will be more like 35% the size of DC General, which will mean a pretty substantial facility.

No way.

[Anonymous]

Jesus. How do you fight this? I missed one meeting. I saw a flyer same day as I had already made plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

They couldn't get DC General right so their answer is that they are creating 8 mini DC Generals while not at all addressing the underlying issues of why they couldn't get DC General right in the first place. Brilliant.

The other fact is that the Ward 3 shelter won't be 1/8 the size of DC general. The planned size keeps increasing. By the time it is built, the Homeless Shelter at Cathedral Commons will be more like 35% the size of DC General, which will mean a pretty substantial facility.

No way.

What the hell is going on here? If each Ward is supposed to "have skin in the game" that was supposed to mean 250 families being distributed to 8 wards, which means around 30 homeless families per ward. If what you are saying about Ward 3 is true and given I also just found out that the Ward 6 will be getting 50 families instead of 30 that would mean Wards 3 and 6 are getting 55% of the 250 families, way more than our fair share (not to mention Ward 6 already has homeless shelters so we already have more than our fair share). How many are the other Wards getting? Or did they lie to us and every Ward is getting more than 30, and it's a lot more than 250 families that we are talking about?

[Anonymous]

They lied.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jesus. How do you fight this? I missed one meeting. I saw a flyer same day as I had already made plans.

You don't. Our local Politburo, er the DC Council, already decided with only the barest fig leaf of "public" input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

They couldn't get DC General right so their answer is that they are creating 8 mini DC Generals while not at all addressing the underlying issues of why they couldn't get DC General right in the first place. Brilliant.

The other fact is that the Ward 3 shelter won't be 1/8 the size of DC general. The planned size keeps increasing. By the time it is built, the Homeless Shelter at Cathedral Commons will be more like 35% the size of DC General, which will mean a pretty substantial facility.

No way.

The size already increased from 30 to 50 units in just one week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus. How do you fight this? I missed one meeting. I saw a flyer same day as I had already made plans.

You don't. Our local Politburo, er the DC Council, already decided with only the barest fig leaf of "public" input.

Email your council person, and copy the at large council people and the mayor, to complain. This plan is a long term one and it can get improved. Never too late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

They couldn't get DC General right so their answer is that they are creating 8 mini DC Generals while not at all addressing the underlying issues of why they couldn't get DC General right in the first place. Brilliant.

The other fact is that the Ward 3 shelter won't be 1/8 the size of DC general. The planned size keeps increasing. By the time it is built, the Homeless Shelter at Cathedral Commons will be more like 35% the size of DC General, which will mean a pretty substantial facility.

No way.

The size already increased from 30 to 50 units in just one week.

Fact is that distributing shelters across DC is based more on legislative strategy than anything else. It's just more difficult to argue with the perception of equality, especially when Ward 3 is flush with liberal guilt and NIMBY-phobia. Nobody was willing to stand up and say this is a dumb idea when it was proposed in concept. By the time it became a reality it was too late. Fact of the matter is that replacing DC General only accounts for 25% of the homeless, another 75% are in hotels. This problem isn't going away with the right to shelter law, especially when it has been voluntarily expanded to provide year round shelter. This entire escapade was motivated by Bowser's political publicity stunt to gut Reservation 13 for her developer donors under the guise of helping the homeless. She has been assisted by council members bought by Fresh PAC in all of her pay to play schemes, homeless shelters being the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to right the ship, start with voting against or funding the opponent of Brandon Todd, LaRuby May, Yvette Alexander and Vincent Orange. Getting rid of them will significantly change the balance of power on DC council (4 automatic yes votes gone). Nadeau also needs to go, but she isn't up. Most importantly, come 2018 do everything you can to put Bowser out on her ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole plan is bizarre:

For 120 days --

Put children in a school in a neighborhood where their parents are unlikely to afford the rents when they gain independence. What happens to the kids?

For 120 days--

Encourage people to work in the local fast food in said neighborhood. How do the parents keep the job once they move?

For 120 days--

Emphasize closeness to metro which is an expensive way for homeless/near homeless to travel.

Why not put the money towards low income housing/mixed development that offers a more permanent lifetime to these families AFTER homelessness? Why not have everyone consolidated for the 120 days in an efficient facility with buses to schools, jobs and training programs? Why use primo real estate when there is so much more value in not blowing the money on rent/mortgage? We are not talking about your/their dreamhouse. We are talking about a three month stay for families to get stabilized. Put it out on that road by the arboretum. It's on a major causeway, and buses/shuttles could run. Many services could be provided on site.

People are currently in hotels in MD. I would call homeless hotels small, intimate 'satellite locations'. How's that working out for those families? They all moving to independence? There's your case study on how random, scattered 'intimate' locations 'improve' matters.

They couldn't get DC General right, they couldn't get hotels right, but somehow blowing a ton of money on the housing itself with IMPROVE the services provided?

Does the District own property adjacent to "that road" out by the Arboretum -- that is, NY Avenue? Or is it too valuable and must be sold do that the proceeds could be used to house families in cargo shipping containers at Blue Plains? It's convenient to the impound lot and close to jobs at the casino at National Harbor! Out of sight and out of mind. Win-win. I mean we can't exactly expect these families to shop for organic kale, quinoa and kombucha the MOM in Ivy City now can we?

[Anonymous]

If no one wants it in their neighborhood then yes, why not put it in a place that is not a neighborhood? Again, 120 days with effective service delivery to get people up and out. Shuttles (as are already provided by Medicaid in DC for doctors appts.) to needed services, a school bus for school drop off and pickup.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that the real reason why the mayor is so hot in meeting her deadline for closing DC General is that she wants to sell the site to a favored developer. Her original shelter program was about enriching crony developers on the procurement side, but DC General is the big prize. A big real estate score is the tail wagging this large, ugly dog.