If you are one of the people who live close to public housing or shelter, please, please PLEASE remember that when you advocate for good, safe, clean living conditions, you need to advocate for THOSE PEOPLE IN THOSE HOMES TOO.

If a housing project or shelter is not run well, speak up for yourself, but also for the people who live there who deserve so much better. The management cannot be let off the hook. The police cannot be let off the hook. Social services cannot be let off the hook.

If all you advocate for is that the site be put somewhere else, that is NOT ADVOCAY. That is irresponsible at best, and definitely cowardly and downright inhumane.

I'll tell you, it is harder to get assholes to do the right thing that to get them to move. But it is the RIGHT THING TO DO.

I've live in neighborhoods like this. I can promise you, it was neighbors fighting to get the apartments cleaned up, well run, supervised, and responsive not just to the residents (often disenfranchised an without clout) but to the people around them WHO CARED ABOUT THE RESIDENTS that made the biggest difference.

Love,
Daughter of mum who benefitted so much from a beautiful, safe public housing project--though not in this country. (Mum eventually became a doctor in DC... maybe she treated you? )

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:This seems like a great plan and I commend the Bowser administration for it.

Clearly, you don't live near one of these sites.

No, though I think my neighborhood would be a great location for such a shelter and I would welcome it (can't speak for my neighbors though). We do have other group homes for various disadvantaged groups.

jsteele wrote:This seems like a great plan and I commend the Bowser administration for it.

Clearly, you don't live near one of these sites.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the status quo acceptable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-hidden-world-desperation-and-cramped-living-for-homeless-families-in-dc-motels/2016/01/28/279adfda-b4d8-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

Exactly. How is the status quo acceptable?

"The last six months have been filled with trying to understand exactly what has plagued this department for decades and to better comprehend why people die needlessly in the District of Columbia...

First, the culture of the DC Fire and EMS Department is highly toxic to the delivery of any semblance of quality pre-hospital patient care. EMS reform, even attempts to make basic changes, are met with resistance from the top down...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/local/dc-ems-resignation-letter/1955/?tid=a_inl

The most shocking part was when she was stymied in her plan to evaluate the skills and performance EMS personnel, and fire dept management caved to the union and blocked it. Worth remembering when you realize that a DC ambulance may be called upon to transport the president in an emergency -- or your child!

Anonymous wrote:While the plan is firm to house the homeless in each ward, the final locations are not set. In Ward 3 Tenelytown is still under active consideration, particularly because of good transportation access and the fact that many homeless in the Ward seem to be concentrated there already. DC owns the Tenley library site of course, which was built with reinforced supports to accommodate several additional floors for housing. The old St Ann's school is another possible locatition. Given that the intention is to house homeless families, locations adjacent to Janney make the most sense.

This may be a more cost-effective alternative to Glover Pk and the Tenley location makes more sense for people who depend on public transportation.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before we open more shelter doors I hope they first look at whether those to whom we open doors are even from DC in the first place.

I'm fine with taking care of DC's existing homeless, but do we need to take care of the homeless for the entire eastern seaboard?

It's enough of an issue that we have well meaning but underfunded organizations that want to bring people here in order to take care of them.

It's enough of an issue that we fall victim to some other communities that bus their homeless here (and yes, it's common practice for police to round up homeless and put them on a bus with a one way ticket to the next biggest city).

Existing DC homeless families should have first crack.

I also think that the city needs to work on finding more ways to get people self sufficient and functional.

Yes, because we have a preponderance of people cashing in their frequent flyer miles to come to DC and spend the night in a homeless shelter....

LOL. Maybe the Wisconsin Ave. shelter will be listed in Airbnb?

There are actually a couple of Airbnb party rental houses in that block, and the neighbors have complained directly to Bowser and Cheh to shut them down. They are likely to be no less vocal about the shelter proposal. For those in DC at the time, a former mayor (Pratt Kelly) tried to put a homeless shelter into the same area and ran into a buzz saw.

Anonymous wrote:What I have learned from this thread is that there is no way I would ever move to upper NW and that I hope that I do not actually know any of you people in real life. This has been one of the more depressing threads in recent memory.

Mayor of city with chronic family homelessness proposes closing the no-longer-fit-to-be-a-hospital shelter and proposes 8 new shelters, spread out over 1 city. Conversation on DCUM devolves into whether or not people deserve help if they are poor and have multiple children.

+1.

Every now and then, a thread pops up that really gives me a dim view of people in DC. Last year, it was thread where essentially people were saying that certain Wards "deserve" more city services than other Wards and that if you were not rich enough to live in these one of the certain wards, too bad for you. This thread echoes that mindset. People seem to forget that some of you or even people you know are one more recession away from being in a similar boat.

Honestly, you have to be a stone cold fool to believe that the majority of residents want to raise their children in a homeless shelter or transitional housing. Such that they would have more children just to stay there? Come the fvck on! Frankly, some of you need to get out and actually meet some working poor people who are trying to make things work. Thing is many of you are around them everyday - at Giant, on the bus or train, etc. But God forbid that they house these people in your neighborhood in a major city.

Poor people who work or are striving to work get the biggest shaft in this country.

A Ward 1 resident - by choice - who has met some nice and interesting people living in the shelters and who realizes that they want the same thing for their kids that I want for mine.

Anonymous wrote:How is the status quo acceptable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-hidden-world-desperation-and-cramped-living-for-homeless-families-in-dc-motels/2016/01/28/279adfda-b4d8-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

Exactly. How is the status quo acceptable?

"The last six months have been filled with trying to understand exactly what has plagued this department for decades and to better comprehend why people die needlessly in the District of Columbia...

First, the culture of the DC Fire and EMS Department is highly toxic to the delivery of any semblance of quality pre-hospital patient care. EMS reform, even attempts to make basic changes, are met with resistance from the top down...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/local/dc-ems-resignation-letter/1955/?tid=a_inl

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the status quo acceptable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-hidden-world-desperation-and-cramped-living-for-homeless-families-in-dc-motels/2016/01/28/279adfda-b4d8-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

How is it not? For a woman who put zero thought into family planning it's a pretty good outcome. They get free room and free food.

I hope you're trolling. But you find this situation okay for the children, particularly an infant? How do propose that we break the cycle of poverty and unwed teenage mothers for the next generation? Do you donate to Planned Parenthood to help make free contraceptives available for family planning? IIRC something like 60 percent of pregnancies in DC are unintended.

Anonymous wrote:What I have learned from this thread is that there is no way I would ever move to upper NW and that I hope that I do not actually know any of you people in real life. This has been one of the more depressing threads in recent memory.

Mayor of city with chronic family homelessness proposes closing the no-longer-fit-to-be-a-hospital shelter and proposes 8 new shelters, spread out over 1 city. Conversation on DCUM devolves into whether or not people deserve help if they are poor and have multiple children.

I agree. I'm drawing some comfort from the fact that there seems to be several posters who think like you.

What I have learned from this thread is that there is no way I would ever move to upper NW and that I hope that I do not actually know any of you people in real life. This has been one of the more depressing threads in recent memory.

Mayor of city with chronic family homelessness proposes closing the no-longer-fit-to-be-a-hospital shelter and proposes 8 new shelters, spread out over 1 city. Conversation on DCUM devolves into whether or not people deserve help if they are poor and have multiple children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the status quo acceptable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-hidden-world-desperation-and-cramped-living-for-homeless-families-in-dc-motels/2016/01/28/279adfda-b4d8-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

How is it not? For a woman who put zero thought into family planning it's a pretty good outcome. They get free room and free food.

Jamming five people into a hotel room? Commuting 4 hours a day on the bus so that her daughter can get to kindergarten?

Anonymous wrote:How is the status quo acceptable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-hidden-world-desperation-and-cramped-living-for-homeless-families-in-dc-motels/2016/01/28/279adfda-b4d8-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

How is it not? For a woman who put zero thought into family planning it's a pretty good outcome. They get free room and free food.

How is the status quo acceptable?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-hidden-world-desperation-and-cramped-living-for-homeless-families-in-dc-motels/2016/01/28/279adfda-b4d8-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before we open more shelter doors I hope they first look at whether those to whom we open doors are even from DC in the first place.

I'm fine with taking care of DC's existing homeless, but do we need to take care of the homeless for the entire eastern seaboard?

It's enough of an issue that we have well meaning but underfunded organizations that want to bring people here in order to take care of them.

It's enough of an issue that we fall victim to some other communities that bus their homeless here (and yes, it's common practice for police to round up homeless and put them on a bus with a one way ticket to the next biggest city).

Existing DC homeless families should have first crack.

I also think that the city needs to work on finding more ways to get people self sufficient and functional.

Yes, because we have a preponderance of people cashing in their frequent flyer miles to come to DC and spend the night in a homeless shelter....

LOL. Maybe the Wisconsin Ave. shelter will be listed in Airbnb?

I think what the PP was saying is that there is plenty of poverty in DC and those people should be taken care of first. And I do think folk come from other areas. I also remember the walking of the prostitutes over the 14th Street Bridge, mainly because it was a photographer friend of mine that helped break that story.

I am not sure why a publicity stunt that occurred a single time several years ago is evidence of anything, but it has been posted over and over again that the homeless programs are aimed at the impoverished that are right here in DC. But, let's be frank. The suggestion that people from outside DC would inhabit these shelters is simply a diversionary tactic being employed by those opposed to the shelters. In the same breath, it is argued that these folks have stronger ties to other neighborhoods and should be housed there instead.