Bowser Spreads the Wealth opens homeless shelters in each DC ward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could draw a roughly 1 mile radius around the Verizon Center and 4 of them would fall inside of the circle. They aren't exactly spread around. Not to mention that it doesn't take into account that several wards already have a lot more shelters and homeless people than others. It's not by any stretch an equal apportionment. Whoever says otherwise is trying to pull some kind of fake "feel good" thing.

Those of us living mid-city noticed that.

We also noticed that she continues not to support our schools or plow our streets.

We also notice that she does not attend any events in our neighborhood.

And we vote.

It's more understandable why she would give the middle finger to Ward 3. She lost overwhelmingly there to David Catania in the last election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposed shelter locations -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/homeless-shelters-to-be-spread-across-capital-under-plan-by-mayor-bowser/2016/02/09/318bc360-cf31-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

Closest one to Bowser's new home in Colonial Village appears to be the one at 5505 5th St NW, it's 3 miles away from her.

For me the closest one is 3 blocks away. How about the people who live 3 miles away stop telling me about how it won't affect me?

How about the people with hardly any FARMS and no homeless students, whose only disruption in their schools comes from rich kids (the person posting above) stop presuming to try and lecture me about how they know so much more than I do about impacts on my own neighborhood schools that are already 99% FARMS and over 10% homeless, and stop lecturing me about how anti-poor or selfish or whatever I supposedly am when they obviously have accommodated far fewer poor folks in their own neighborhoods?

Fascinating.

Pure luck, or some insider trading?

I also noticed that west of the park, the situation is the same as for Bowser - the nearest shelter is 2+ miles from Deal and most of the JKLMMs... Amaaaaaazing coincidence!

Ward 1/2/3 shelters are all jammed as far southwest as possible.

The Tenley area near Wilson HS is often near mayhem when school lets out. While it may make more sense logically to put a homeless shelter there, which is close to a Metro stop, it may be too much piling on of social issues for one area to absorb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposed shelter locations -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/homeless-shelters-to-be-spread-across-capital-under-plan-by-mayor-bowser/2016/02/09/318bc360-cf31-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

Closest one to Bowser's new home in Colonial Village appears to be the one at 5505 5th St NW, it's 3 miles away from her.

For me the closest one is 3 blocks away. How about the people who live 3 miles away stop telling me about how it won't affect me?

How about the people with hardly any FARMS and no homeless students, whose only disruption in their schools comes from rich kids (the person posting above) stop presuming to try and lecture me about how they know so much more than I do about impacts on my own neighborhood schools that are already 99% FARMS and over 10% homeless, and stop lecturing me about how anti-poor or selfish or whatever I supposedly am when they obviously have accommodated far fewer poor folks in their own neighborhoods?

Okay. Tell us how you think it will affect you? What are you afraid of specifically?

Look, we're not going to go down your red herring route of "toddlers committing murders" again. You've already said you don't even have any FARMS kids at your kid's school, and your biggest fear in life is spoiled rich brats - it's pretty clear you have no idea what you're talking about, where it comes to the kinds of deep psychological trauma, dysfunction, and lack of even the most basic life and coping skills that a lot of homeless and low income families and kids deal with. I can tell you from experience that these kids and families need a lot of very intensive help, interventions, counseling and other services which I think were clearly lacking at DC General, which existing school and neighborhood and community resources cannot provide, which teachers and student peers cannot provide, and which frankly I think the city is not even remotely addressing with this plan. And I say this because we already have a lot of homeless families in shelters in our ward whose needs are already underserved in those areas.

[Anonymous]

So much hatred for the holmeless for such a "so called" liberal city.

You guys are full of shit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposed shelter locations -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/homeless-shelters-to-be-spread-across-capital-under-plan-by-mayor-bowser/2016/02/09/318bc360-cf31-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

Closest one to Bowser's new home in Colonial Village appears to be the one at 5505 5th St NW, it's 3 miles away from her.

For me the closest one is 3 blocks away. How about the people who live 3 miles away stop telling me about how it won't affect me?

How about the people with hardly any FARMS and no homeless students, whose only disruption in their schools comes from rich kids (the person posting above) stop presuming to try and lecture me about how they know so much more than I do about impacts on my own neighborhood schools that are already 99% FARMS and over 10% homeless, and stop lecturing me about how anti-poor or selfish or whatever I supposedly am when they obviously have accommodated far fewer poor folks in their own neighborhoods?

Fascinating.

Pure luck, or some insider trading?

I also noticed that west of the park, the situation is the same as for Bowser - the nearest shelter is 2+ miles from Deal and most of the JKLMMs... Amaaaaaazing coincidence!

Ward 1/2/3 shelters are all jammed as far southwest as possible.

The Tenley area near Wilson HS is often near mayhem when school lets out. While it may make more sense logically to put a homeless shelter there, which is close to a Metro stop, it may be too much piling on of social issues for one area to absorb.

"Piling of social issues" didn't stop them from siting shelters in several other parts of the city that already have a lot of issues...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much hatred for the holmeless for such a "so called" liberal city.

You guys are full of shit.

Lemme guess - you're one of the people who won't have a shelter within miles of your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposed shelter locations -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/homeless-shelters-to-be-spread-across-capital-under-plan-by-mayor-bowser/2016/02/09/318bc360-cf31-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

Closest one to Bowser's new home in Colonial Village appears to be the one at 5505 5th St NW, it's 3 miles away from her.

For me the closest one is 3 blocks away. How about the people who live 3 miles away stop telling me about how it won't affect me?

How about the people with hardly any FARMS and no homeless students, whose only disruption in their schools comes from rich kids (the person posting above) stop presuming to try and lecture me about how they know so much more than I do about impacts on my own neighborhood schools that are already 99% FARMS and over 10% homeless, and stop lecturing me about how anti-poor or selfish or whatever I supposedly am when they obviously have accommodated far fewer poor folks in their own neighborhoods?

Okay. Tell us how you think it will affect you? What are you afraid of specifically?

Look, we're not going to go down your red herring route of "toddlers committing murders" again. You've already said you don't even have any FARMS kids at your kid's school, and your biggest fear in life is spoiled rich brats - it's pretty clear you have no idea what you're talking about, where it comes to the kinds of deep psychological trauma, dysfunction, and lack of even the most basic life and coping skills that a lot of homeless and low income families and kids deal with. I can tell you from experience that these kids and families need a lot of very intensive help, interventions, counseling and other services which I think were clearly lacking at DC General, which existing school and neighborhood and community resources cannot provide, which teachers and student peers cannot provide, and which frankly I think the city is not even remotely addressing with this plan. And I say this because we already have a lot of homeless families in shelters in our ward whose needs are already underserved in those areas.

I have a housing project a half-mile from my home in the burbs. My kids ride the bus with those kids and they attend the same school. The housing program has way more than 40 families, and it's permanent housing. This doesn't impact my home value or my kids' education at all.

Bottom line: these families must be sheltered somewhere...and it seems like you have the typical nimby attitude. I do not. I don't just talk the talk of equality and compassion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposed shelter locations -

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/homeless-shelters-to-be-spread-across-capital-under-plan-by-mayor-bowser/2016/02/09/318bc360-cf31-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

Closest one to Bowser's new home in Colonial Village appears to be the one at 5505 5th St NW, it's 3 miles away from her.

For me the closest one is 3 blocks away. How about the people who live 3 miles away stop telling me about how it won't affect me?

How about the people with hardly any FARMS and no homeless students, whose only disruption in their schools comes from rich kids (the person posting above) stop presuming to try and lecture me about how they know so much more than I do about impacts on my own neighborhood schools that are already 99% FARMS and over 10% homeless, and stop lecturing me about how anti-poor or selfish or whatever I supposedly am when they obviously have accommodated far fewer poor folks in their own neighborhoods?

Okay. Tell us how you think it will affect you? What are you afraid of specifically?

Look, we're not going to go down your red herring route of "toddlers committing murders" again. You've already said you don't even have any FARMS kids at your kid's school, and your biggest fear in life is spoiled rich brats - it's pretty clear you have no idea what you're talking about, where it comes to the kinds of deep psychological trauma, dysfunction, and lack of even the most basic life and coping skills that a lot of homeless and low income families and kids deal with. I can tell you from experience that these kids and families need a lot of very intensive help, interventions, counseling and other services which I think were clearly lacking at DC General, which existing school and neighborhood and community resources cannot provide, which teachers and student peers cannot provide, and which frankly I think the city is not even remotely addressing with this plan. And I say this because we already have a lot of homeless families in shelters in our ward whose needs are already underserved in those areas.

I have a housing project a half-mile from my home in the burbs. My kids ride the bus with those kids and they attend the same school. The housing program has way more than 40 families, and it's permanent housing. This doesn't impact my home value or my kids' education at all.

Bottom line: these families must be sheltered somewhere...and it seems like you have the typical nimby attitude. I do not. I don't just talk the talk of equality and compassion.

Half mile? NIMBY? Sorry, you couldn't be any more off base. We already have plenty here, both shelters and housing projects. Far too late for "NIMBY" and unlike those EOTP and other neighborhoods in DC (or your own half-mile-away neighborhood), we've never even had any such luxury to raise NIMBY complaints. As it happens, where I'm at in Ward 6, I have at least 4 different DCHA housing projects with around 800 low income families between them within a couple of blocks of my house. Plus now we are getting one of the shelters two and a half blocks away, plus a lot of new poverty level permanent housing that was already planned for construction and opening in the next 2-3 years. And yet the mayor apparently thinks it's fine to concentrate even more poverty in this same neighborhood. Maybe for her it's spreading poverty around - but when you already are in a neighborhood with a lot of pre-existing poverty it's concentrating poverty. We were already being disproportionately "piled on" even before this proposal came out - and my neighborhood's "piling of social issues" is likely quite a bit greater than yours and as such I don't think you are in any position to criticize me without appearing out of line and out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much hatred for the holmeless for such a "so called" liberal city.

You guys are full of shit.

If you are talking to the Mayor, you should know it's a She.

Oh, and her NEW house is apparently 3 miles from the closest new shelter.

Shocking, I know.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The faux concern on this thread is nauseating.

A lot of very legitimate questions have been raised in this thread with few answers in response other than the standard "you're a NIMBY and you don't care about the poors."

Maybe some don't, maybe some do but that still doesn't specifically address the concerns being raised. Some have pointed out that this could be as bad or worse of a debacle than DC General already is, some have pointed out that Bowser's concern may be faux and in fact more about developer cronies...

Don't be too sure about what is or isn't faux.

Can you read?!?!

Most of the faux concern/non-issues have been addressed.

You shouldn't be so rude. There at several players relying to you and not just one person as you may think. If someone feels their security is at rush, that their property value will decrease, and that their school performance will diminish, that is their opinion and are valid concerns. Stop being so judgmental!!

Typos. "Several posters" and "security is at risk"

But your home values will be fine, schools will be fine, security will be fine.

You are panicking for no good reason other than fear of the unknown.

We have homeless shelters and housing programs throughout MoCo...including (gasp) Bethesda!

Do you think home values and test scores have gone down? No.

Quick question for the critics: who are you supporting in the election? Must be a republican, otherwise you are a hypocrite.

Please provide data for your adamant statementsbb

I thought I did when I stated that we have homeless shelters and housing programs in BETHESDA...ever heard of it? It's much nicer than the area we're discussing on Wisconsin, with high end housing, top notch schools, etc.

Much nicer? Check your price per square foot comps. A half-mile is much much different than one to four or five doors down. There is a reason this lot is not zoned for this type of building. There was no bidding process on this project. The purchaser of the lot wanted to build a big development, but couldn't due to zoning. Now he can. When the city stops leasing the property from him, he will convert it to apartments and will have successfully skirted the zoning laws. For those of you who say you live in the neighborhood, if you live in Glover Park, you do not. Yes, there will be support for a family shelter from the neighborhood, but only for one that zoning allows.

Sigh.

Yes, pp. We all realize that you paid a ridiculous premium to live in that part of DC...but overpaying for a hood with so-so schools just to be in DC doesn't make the area better than Bethesda. In fact, lots of people flee the city for the better schools and more kid-friendly environs of the burbs.

But let's not get sidetracked.

The point is that MoCo has done a superior job of dispersing housing programs across the county as opposed to segregating homeless people in bad areas like DC has. But Bowser has perhaps some of the best homeless experts on her team, and they are implementing a promising plan based on best practices. If you could see beyond your initial fear of the unknown and read the data, you'd understand that this makes sense and it won't impact your life, home value, or test scores. Take a deep breath...it's going to be fine.

How about you sign a document for the folks impacted, saying you will take personal responsibility if anyone is personally harmed. You willing to go there?

What exactly are you afraid of?

This will be a FAMILY shelter. The families will consist of a single mother and anywhere from 1 to 3 young children. The average mom has a baby and young child.

Why are you afraid of these families? Do you think a young mom with a baby strapped to her will mug you? Or are you more afraid of her four year old?

You do realize these women can't have men over at the shelter, right?

So we are literally just talking about a young mom who will have her hands full caring for her young children while complying with the shelter rules and program (job search, training, etc.). They won't be hanging outside on the street (against the rules). They have strict curfews.

Seriously, pp: WTF are you afraid of? Exactly how do you envision being harmed?

Folks in Ward 5 and Ward 6 seem to be protesting already. What are they afraid of?

Apparently they are afraid of toddlers with brown skin...because that's the largest group who will be living in the family shelter...briefly.

Nice try but sorry, no. Wards 5/6 happen to be majority AA, they aren't 70%+ white like Wards 2/3.

Well, apparently Ward 5/6 AA residents can be as afraid as Ward 2/3 white ones. Apparently even more afraid, given that they are leading the protests:
http://dcist.com/2016/02/housing.php

Can they not see that this is a must for all wards, to break down infamous DC General? Can you not show a bit of compassion, especially when most of those families and kids are NOT white?

I support closing DC general and creating small shelters but why all over the city and so far away from where they currently are living and enrolled in school and working?

i would be more supportive of their stay was longer so they could actually integrate into the community rather just be there for a pit stop.

I agree, but HUD doesn't. They only want to fund permanent housing, not transitional housing. Emergency shelters must quickly get people housed--through rapid rehousing. Hopefully this shelter will try to stably house these families in that community.

You are missing an important point! They won't be able to afford that neighborhood which means they have to move again!

Reading Is Fundamental ;0)

They might get a generous rental subsidy to stay in that neighborhood...particularly if DC pilots a program and studies how these families do in a better hood (like the MoCo study).

They might engage local landlords and pilot a permanent housing rental subsidy.

They might develop transitional (unlikely) or permanent (more likely) housing in the area.

That sounds like income redistribution to me and not just helping the homeless find affordable nice homes. The DC govt may buy housing in expensive areas and subsidize it so people that normally could not afford to live in super extensive neighborhoods can now do so??? I support affordable housing but not income redistribution. There are plenty of more affordable neighborhoods that are nice and safe and more cost effective. I wonder if this will end up not being a shelter but be turned into to low income permanent housing and they are easing it into the neighborhood designed as a temporary shelter?

[Anonymous]

^ That doesn't do much for many of us who are priced out of many DC neighborhoods but who don't qualify for any subsidies. It drives a big gap, pushing DC to be a city that's only for the super rich and the super poor but nobody in between.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ That doesn't do much for many of us who are priced out of many DC neighborhoods but who don't qualify for any subsidies. It drives a big gap, pushing DC to be a city that's only for the super rich and the super poor but nobody in between.

You forgot the superconnected, who of course know how to get things intended for the superpoor

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:^ PP please stop being an ass. The only one talking about toddlers murdering anyone is you.

Wrong. I've asked someone to explain what they are afraid of, and the fears center on this:

1. Increased crime (including a linked article focuses on murder and rape, yet having no connection to homeless perps).

2. Theft (who will steal, and when? These moms will be busy, and there's a curfew. Most kids will be very young; toddlers don't steal.)

3. Crowded buses (whatever)

4. Schools...not sure exactly what...but schools (most families have babies and young kids who won't be in school; others will opt to keep their kids in their current school, so you won't see an influx of kids in your school. Some, yes; too many, not so much.)

5. Home values (tell me where you live, and I'll let you know if you need to worry)

You sound unhinged. No one mentioned toddlers harming anyone. You said families, which is comprised of adults, correct? Home values will go down. Btw I don't live in the neighborhood so I'm not worried about the school issue. However, I felt very badly for the parents at Stoddard that stood up and expressed concern about their school in their neighborhood and they seem like very kind caring people and they were not being judgmental at all. They seemed very concerned and that made me feel badly and listen to their concerns. Because the way you've handled the concerns as an advocate for homeless, I can see why there's been no progress thus far.

Tell me what the parents are concerned about?

There have been comments along the lines of "40 families with multiple kids entering and exiting the school every month will be disruptive."

Data shows that many of the families won't even have school aged kids.

Data also shows that many of the families will opt to keep their kids in their current school, not the new one.

So, you won't have tons of kids entering and exiting the school. You will have some. Some. But I realize we all have our tipping points, right? So I guess that's the issue?

Are you worried about disruptive behavior? That's a crapshoot. We had a severely disturbed kid in our elementary school with nearly zero farms...I'm talking violent. Throwing scissors. Breaking furniture. He was ultimately removed from the classroom in the spring. He was white and had wealthy parents. Despite the nearly daily outbursts, my kid still excelled. So what's the real fear?

Test scores impacting home values? The kids will need to actually be there long enough to be tested and have it count towards the calculations. We are talking about a very small number of kids whose scores will count.

So please tell me what the fears are in terms of impacting the school?

What "data" are you referring to that says there won't be any school aged kids, and that they are all toddlers? Are you not aware that for example at Ketcham, the elementary school nearest DC General has 30% of its students that are homeless? What, did you think families somehow magically stop being homeless once their kids become school age? Did you think those kids somehow vanish or that things magically change?

And given your own school is nearly zero FARMS you clearly have no clue whatsoever of what the rest of us are talking about.

Our local ES isn't that far behind Ketcham as it already has more than 40 homeless kids because we already have several of shelters in our ward. Meanwhile there are other DCPS schools that barely have any homeless kids at all. Yet we're the ones supposed to pretend we don't know what we're talking about, to sit down, shut up and listen to the folks who don't even have any poor or homeless kids in their own neighborhoods.

Again, if Bowser wants to "share the wealth" she's welcome to share it somewhere else, because we've already shouldered more than many other parts of the city. They should stop and take stock in that first before just slicing everything up equally.

You apparent unfamiliarity with DC is troubling. Are you not aware that Ketcham is on the other side of the Anacostia River? Ever heard of Payne ES? Seriously, even Brent is closer to DC General than Ketcham.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could draw a roughly 1 mile radius around the Verizon Center and 4 of them would fall inside of the circle. They aren't exactly spread around. Not to mention that it doesn't take into account that several wards already have a lot more shelters and homeless people than others. It's not by any stretch an equal apportionment. Whoever says otherwise is trying to pull some kind of fake "feel good" thing.

Those of us living mid-city noticed that.

We also noticed that she continues not to support our schools or plow our streets.

We also notice that she does not attend any events in our neighborhood.

And we vote.

It's more understandable why she would give the middle finger to Ward 3. She lost overwhelmingly there to David Catania in the last election.

What's Catania doing these days?

[Anonymous]

Community-integrated low income housing is good for everyone, if the whole community is invested in ensuring a clean safe, well managed environment. My experience in several cities, including DC, Ann Arbor, Toronto, Seattle, and Munich is that management is everything. Stand up *with* the families in the projects. Who knows, one of them might grow up to be your family doctor (as my mom, a public housing resident) did.