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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PPs, let me ask you this. When Cathedral Commons came in, was there a community meeting to discuss that? What are your real concerns with creating a family shelter to provide [b]temporary housing[/b] to 40 families? Set aside your concerns about droves of adults loitering at all hours of the day and night, since that's not the population that is being discussed.

If your concern is "how will this affect our schools" then that is valid. If your concern is "how will the construction of this building affect the traffic?" then that is valid too. But your other concerns, so far, seem to be that people are coming in from other jurisdictions, that these shelters will be serving individual adults, that there is some kind of a safety issue, etc. I am just having trouble understanding what you're worried about.[/quote]

Is that so? Wasn't that the original premise for DC General too, before it became permanent housing and went from bad to worse till the current disaster?

Won't it be much more complex and costly to build and manage eight facilities than one?[/quote]

1) DC General is STILL supposed to be temporary housing. People do move out of it into transitional housing or permanent housing, but given the magnitude of the problem (I mentioned last night that it's a 40% increase in the last 6 years), the turnover is barely noticeable. My understanding of these shelters is that they are intended to be 60-90 shelter. One cannot make policy based on "it was supposed to happen at DC General too but it didn't." If you are suggesting that instead of creating 8 new shelters, Bowser should create and pay for permanent housing for everyone at DC General and in the NY Ave motels, I would support that but it would be expensive and would come at the expense of other things the city also needs, like school renovations and public safety improvements (things that are also part of the budget that these shelters are coming out of).

2) As regards administration, I actually don't think so. DC General is a huge beast. It's falling apart. The facilities issues alone are exhausting, not to mention staffing. Smaller buildings would be easier to manage, particularly since they will be new and will not involve the facilities problems that DC General faces. There are problems that go along with big anonymous buildings, like decreased accountability and a lack of community. Those things are much easier to foment in a smaller facility.[/quote]

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