Reply to Bowser Spreads the Wealth opens homeless shelters in each DC ward

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Who are the council members immediately affected?  Mary Cheh and?[/quote]

Charles Allen?  Ward 6 already has gotten a disproportionate share of homeless shelters and low income housing as compared to the other wards - and now this on top of it.[/quote]

Take a breath.  The goal is to move 1,000 men, women and children out of DC General.  While it is fair to ask whether the planned location of the new award 6 family shelter is the most appropriate and demand assurances from the Mayor, it's clearly a net positive for the Ward.  The issue of affordable housing isn't going away and we need to have adult conversations about the most appropriate and effective way to prevent homelessness.  [/quote]

Nobody disagrees with the need to shut down DC General.  And I don't think many disagree with the notion of trying to break up geographically concentrated poverty.  And nobody disagrees with the notion of trying to locate the poor in areas where there is access to jobs, grocery stores, transportation, and affordable housing.

But from there on out, like it or not, we do still need to have adult conversations about locations and process.  For one, why the focus primarily on privately held properties as opposed to city owned properties?  Why an apparent lack of attention to access to transportation as has been shown in several wards?  Why an apparent lack of attention to whether there may already be concentrated poverty in proximity to some of the proposed locations as has also been shown in several wards?  It seems their selection criteria left a lot of key considerations out.  Why 15 and 30 year leases?  Why agree to rental rates that in some cases are $1000-$1500 more a month than comparable nearby advertised apartment rental rates?  And shouldn't the city be able to negotiate a discount beyond what the average renter on the market would pay?  Those are very legitimate questions that deserve answers.

Telling people "calm down, the grownups are making decisions here" is not "having an adult conversation."[/quote]

Exactly. "Take a breath" person sounds like a genuine asshole. [/quote]

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