Bowser Spreads the Wealth opens homeless shelters in each DC ward

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02/15/2016 22:06

Subject: Bowser Spreads the Wealth opens homeless shelters in each DC ward

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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.

What are you talking about? Of course Ketcham is in Anacostia. I cited Ketcham as an example of a school that has a lot of homeless kids already (they have one of the largest percentages of homeless students in the city), for the purpose of refuting the bizarre comment above, that somehow homeless families only have toddlers and that nobody will be affected by the shelters, that somehow no homeless kids will end up going into the schools. Did you think we were only talking about one school? I was talking about ALL schools and the assertion that there will be no school-aged homeless kids is absolutely ludicrous.

Let's look at some of the schools that will be getting kids from the new shelters: Amidon - already serves over 30 homeless kids, not to mention hundreds of low-income families in housing projects. And they will be getting more homeless piled on. Walker Jones already serves over 40 homeless kids, they are also getting piled on - whereas the precious JKLMMs will be completely spared. Several schools ALREADY bear a disproportionate brunt of homelessness - and and in spite of that will be getting even more homeless kids piled on them - whereas there are others, which barely have any homeless (or even that many FARMS for that matter) - and which will indeed not be affected. You certainly don't speak for me or my schools. You're the one who seems to have a troubling unfamiliarity with what's going on.

My point is that without a doubt Bowser is disproportionately pushing a lot more concentrated poverty into some areas of the city (which already have more than enough) while sparing others.