Mary Cheh's new suggested locations for the homeless shelter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two new articles today in WaPo's Metro section.

Links? Having difficultly finding them.

My mistake! I still read the print version and must have read Saturday's saved version this morning. Her is the story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/real-estate-decisions-imperil-dc-mayors-ambitious-plan-for-homeless-families/2016/04/17/6bb6291c-00c4-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html?tid=hybrid_content_1_na

There also was a piece on the adverse health implications--primarily asthma--of the proposed Ward 5 location.

[Anonymous]

Article in the DC City Paper today discusses how homeless advocacy groups are now criticizing Bowser's proposal too. Among their complaint, they say Bowser and her team should focus on sites already owned by DC Government, as opposed to those ridiculously overpriced lease deals.

Bowser's team has claimed in the past that there aren't any suitable city-owned sites. That's just BS. Here is a map. http://geospatial.dcgis.dc.gov/DCProperty/maplocatesearch.aspx

If you click on the "i" button for information, and zoom in to any part of the city and box in a handful of dots, you can easily get a listing with info on a variety of buildings. Lots of them are DC city parks or traffic circles, but I know some of the ones in areas I frequent are buildings sitting vacant, or are used only infrequently when the city rents them out for private functions, so they should be available for renovation into residential sites for the homeless.

Why is Bowser leasing more property when DC already has dozens - maybe even hundreds - of empty buildings it owns?

[Anonymous]

Another option: DC can use some of the vacant or blighted property around town. http://newcolumbiaheights.blogspot.com/2013/05/heres-interactive-map-of-all-vacant-and.html

Another option: DC can take action to seize some property with long-delinquent property taxes outstanding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two new articles today in WaPo's Metro section.

Links? Having difficultly finding them.

My mistake! I still read the print version and must have read Saturday's saved version this morning. Her is the story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/real-estate-decisions-imperil-dc-mayors-ambitious-plan-for-homeless-families/2016/04/17/6bb6291c-00c4-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html?tid=hybrid_content_1_na

There also was a piece on the adverse health implications--primarily asthma--of the proposed Ward 5 location.

Ugh. Getting worse by the day. Will Bowser finish her first mandate?

[Anonymous]

Another option: Work with the federal government to use some of the unused federal government buildings sitting around DC. http://www.npr.org/2014/03/12/287349831/governments-empty-buildings-are-costing-taxpayers-billions

There's even legal precedent for this option!:

"But Carper says that even when an agency knows it has a building it would like to sell, bureaucratic hurdles limit what it can do. ... and finally, a 25-year-old law requires the government to see whether it could be used as a homeless shelter."

C'mon Mayor Bowser! You can do better for us!

[Anonymous]

Another option: Renovate some of DC's vacant school buildings to use them as shelters. If they're school buildings, they're already in residential neighborhoods. If they're vacant, they're better used as shelters than left empty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/vacant-dc-school-buildings-could-house-public-charters/2012/04/03/gIQAt1KBuS_story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Article in the DC City Paper today discusses how homeless advocacy groups are now criticizing Bowser's proposal too. Among their complaint, they say Bowser and her team should focus on sites already owned by DC Government, as opposed to those ridiculously overpriced lease deals.

Bowser's team has claimed in the past that there aren't any suitable city-owned sites. That's just BS. Here is a map. http://geospatial.dcgis.dc.gov/DCProperty/maplocatesearch.aspx

If you click on the "i" button for information, and zoom in to any part of the city and box in a handful of dots, you can easily get a listing with info on a variety of buildings. Lots of them are DC city parks or traffic circles, but I know some of the ones in areas I frequent are buildings sitting vacant, or are used only infrequently when the city rents them out for private functions, so they should be available for renovation into residential sites for the homeless.

Why is Bowser leasing more property when DC already has dozens - maybe even hundreds - of empty buildings it owns?

I understand Street Sense, the paper put out by the homeless in DC, had a critical article or opinion piece some weeks ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, we live near one of the new proposed cites. Hooray for my property values and my kids' safety going down the drain.

Dealing with the same thing in FFX. You're people will have to fight it. Site 3 seems the best as its right on top of the Metro

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another option: Renovate some of DC's vacant school buildings to use them as shelters. If they're school buildings, they're already in residential neighborhoods. If they're vacant, they're better used as shelters than left empty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/vacant-dc-school-buildings-could-house-public-charters/2012/04/03/gIQAt1KBuS_story.html

Umm, charters are supposed to have first dibs on unused school buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another option: Renovate some of DC's vacant school buildings to use them as shelters. If they're school buildings, they're already in residential neighborhoods. If they're vacant, they're better used as shelters than left empty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/vacant-dc-school-buildings-could-house-public-charters/2012/04/03/gIQAt1KBuS_story.html

Umm, charters are supposed to have first dibs on unused school buildings.

Yes, but there are plenty more unused schools than there are charters. Nothing says the vacant school buildings need to be set aside to wait for charters to appear.

http://geospatial.dcgis.dc.gov/templates/dcfinder/s2.html?appid=6e14b30ea9bc46c495953ad996add708
http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/18096/when-dcps-closes-a-school-what-happens-to-the-building/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Article in the DC City Paper today discusses how homeless advocacy groups are now criticizing Bowser's proposal too. Among their complaint, they say Bowser and her team should focus on sites already owned by DC Government, as opposed to those ridiculously overpriced lease deals.

Bowser's team has claimed in the past that there aren't any suitable city-owned sites. That's just BS. Here is a map. http://geospatial.dcgis.dc.gov/DCProperty/maplocatesearch.aspx

If you click on the "i" button for information, and zoom in to any part of the city and box in a handful of dots, you can easily get a listing with info on a variety of buildings. Lots of them are DC city parks or traffic circles, but I know some of the ones in areas I frequent are buildings sitting vacant, or are used only infrequently when the city rents them out for private functions, so they should be available for renovation into residential sites for the homeless.

Why is Bowser leasing more property when DC already has dozens - maybe even hundreds - of empty buildings it owns?

Do you have a link for the article?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two new articles today in WaPo's Metro section.

Links? Having difficultly finding them.

My mistake! I still read the print version and must have read Saturday's saved version this morning. Her is the story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/real-estate-decisions-imperil-dc-mayors-ambitious-plan-for-homeless-families/2016/04/17/6bb6291c-00c4-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html?tid=hybrid_content_1_na

There also was a piece on the adverse health implications--primarily asthma--of the proposed Ward 5 location.

Ugh. Getting worse by the day. Will Bowser finish her first mandate?

Bowser is turning out to be Marion Crackhead in a skirt. But dumber.

[Anonymous]

The City Paper article is actually just a short blurb linking to an article from WAMU that begins:

A coalition of close to five-dozen social justice organizations is calling on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to make a number of significant changes to her plan to replace the troubled homeless shelter at D.C. General with seven smaller, neighborhood-based shelters — but Bowser says she's not budging.

In a letter directed to Bowser, the D.C. Fair Budget Coalition asks Bowser to find an alternate site for the proposed shelter in Ward 5, move more of the proposed shelters from land leased from private owners to land owned by the city, and ensure that all families have private bathrooms, instead of the shared bathrooms currently planned.

http://wamu.org/news/16/04/27/criticism_of_bowsers_plan_to_replace_dc_general_with_smaller_shelters_grows_louder

[Anonymous]

Here is the letter they sent Bowser
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JMYxzlnzlFAAIR901O_kJ8v016yafLTWLG-329sCJ5w/viewform

[Anonymous]

Looks like the council is going to overhaul Bowser's attempts to put shelters in completely inappropriate places: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-council-poised-to-overhaul-mayors-costly-homeless-shelter-plan/2016/05/16/119732b2-1b7e-11e6-9c81-4be1c14fb8c8_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_dc-homeless-430pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory