Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone looked at the current distribution of homeless shelters, homeless families and schools with homeless kids? Charles Allen said Ward 6 already has more homeless shelters than the other Wards. http://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Homeless-Shelters-to-Open-in-Each-Ward-of-DC-353215441.html

And, they already have several new housing projects in planning and already under construction which will have significant accomodations for low income. There's far more of that kind of housing coming online in Ward 6 than anywhere else in the city.

It sounds like the proposal just figures on distributing DC General's homeless more or less evenly across all Wards without consideration of what's already going on in many Wards.

It seems to me that the other Wards should be stepping up to the plate. Ward 6 has already absorbed a huge brunt where it comes to accommodating the homeless and low income.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

The crickets chirping here despite having posters who claim to be in the know on issues affecting the homeless in DC tells me that no, there isn't a more robust, equitable or well thought out plan. Sigh. Not surprised.

I'll bite. I live in Ward 6 and I seriously doubt we have more concentrated public housing and shelters than Ward 7 or Ward 8, or even Ward 1.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

Why would they sleep on the playground when they have an apartment?

They won't have an apartment but a bed. The shelters make people leave during the day. They go to public places such as parks, libraries or post offices to wait for the shelters to open. It is a common problem

These are not day shelters. Those exist too, but that is not what is planned here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

So you are saying that homeless shelters should not be spread throughout the city and should be concentrated in less affluent neighborhoods? Well, the people in Ward 5 and Ward 6, who have shouldered the majority of the burden thus far, want to know what makes your ward so special? This is everyone's burden to bear. Sorry.

What I have not seen in this whole discussion is where those folks are coming from. From outside DC? Mostly from DC itself? If so, from which Ward? Sorry, but if (imagine) all homeless people were raised in Ward 5, and that's what they know best, it makes no particular sense to spread them across all Wards. If they all come from (say) Virginia, why should DC wear the burden?

If Bowser trying to help existing homeless people or to disrupt a number of neighborhoods and potentially bring even more homeless into the city? Those are different objectives

Bowser is trying to close DC General, the existing family shelter that houses ~230 families. These new shelters are for families who are living there, or in the NY Ave motels. I understand that there is the perception that homeless people are flocking to DC for our amazing homeless services, and while there is some truth to that, these families are overwhelmingly DC residents. I met with a man yesterday who is homeless and mentally ill from Ward 3 (born, raised, lived there when he had an address). He's not the target population of these shelters because he is a single adult male, but he is not a poor black man from Ward 8. Many of these young women are from SE, from Brookland, from Trinidad. There is an argument that if you house people in a community with better examples - working people, good schools, easily accessible grocery stores (vs. high unemployment, failing schools, and an overabundance of stripmall 7-Elevens) - they will be better situated to get out of poverty.

These are not shelters to "bring more homeless into the city." They are shelters to rehouse the people living in the toxic human rights violation that is DC General into humane living conditions and help them break the cycle of homelessness.

I wish I wrote for the Washington Post so that I could write that into the first line of every single story, since so many of you seem to think that these are shelters for individual adults from other jurisdictions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

So you are saying that homeless shelters should not be spread throughout the city and should be concentrated in less affluent neighborhoods? Well, the people in Ward 5 and Ward 6, who have shouldered the majority of the burden thus far, want to know what makes your ward so special? This is everyone's burden to bear. Sorry.

What I have not seen in this whole discussion is where those folks are coming from. From outside DC? Mostly from DC itself? If so, from which Ward? Sorry, but if (imagine) all homeless people were raised in Ward 5, and that's what they know best, it makes no particular sense to spread them across all Wards. If they all come from (say) Virginia, why should DC wear the burden?

If Bowser trying to help existing homeless people or to disrupt a number of neighborhoods and potentially bring even more homeless into the city? Those are different objectives

It is interesting that when Arlington opened a new homeless shelter, everyone claimed DC would send their homeless to Arlington. In reality, the homeless had been living in Arlington but it was difficult to determine how they originally came to Arlington

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

Why would they sleep on the playground when they have an apartment?

They won't have an apartment but a bed. The shelters make people leave during the day. They go to public places such as parks, libraries or post offices to wait for the shelters to open. It is a common problem

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

So you are saying that homeless shelters should not be spread throughout the city and should be concentrated in less affluent neighborhoods? Well, the people in Ward 5 and Ward 6, who have shouldered the majority of the burden thus far, want to know what makes your ward so special? This is everyone's burden to bear. Sorry.

What I have not seen in this whole discussion is where those folks are coming from. From outside DC? Mostly from DC itself? If so, from which Ward? Sorry, but if (imagine) all homeless people were raised in Ward 5, and that's what they know best, it makes no particular sense to spread them across all Wards. If they all come from (say) Virginia, why should DC wear the burden?

If Bowser trying to help existing homeless people or to disrupt a number of neighborhoods and potentially bring even more homeless into the city? Those are different objectives

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

I live in Glover Park, very close to Guy Mason, and I suspect that you don't.

This is a shelter for homeless families. Providing temporary safe housing for 40 homeless families won't destroy our neighborhood, our schools, or our parks and playgrounds.

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

1) You are a person lacking in compassion. It is not an admirable quality.

2) These shelters are not general homeless shelters. They are FAMILY shelters. For people with children. They are being built to prevent people sleeping on the street - at 3pm or otherwise.

3) Given that, I think you can agree that the current location of the family shelter - DC General campus - is not a healthy or particularly safe environment. I work out there, next to the methadone clinic, down the alley from the STD clinic, across the parking lot from the jail. This is not a place where children should be living, period.

4) The schools will not go downhill fast. I am confident that your very strong upper NW school system can figure out how to accommodate the needs that these kids bring with them (which I know a ton about and I'm guessing you know nothing about). Research indicates that going to those schools will not change the baseline for those schools but will elevate the performance of the at risk kids themselves. I know this isn't what you want to hear because it does not comport with your worldview, but it is the reality.

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

So you are saying that homeless shelters should not be spread throughout the city and should be concentrated in less affluent neighborhoods? Well, the people in Ward 5 and Ward 6, who have shouldered the majority of the burden thus far, want to know what makes your ward so special? This is everyone's burden to bear. Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

Why would they sleep on the playground when they have an apartment?

Well, say good bye to that nice Guy Mason playground. It's going to be fun to see litter and people sleeping all over it at 3pm. I am a firm believer in NIMBY. What next, a methadone clinic?

Oh, and whatever schools these shelters will be inbounds for, prepare for those schools to go downhill fast.

I am in favor of helping struggling people out but by the same token there should be some gratitude given. I think there should be eligibility rules based on behavior - if some of the residents are trashing the units, being disruptive, harrassing their neighbors, breaking the law, et cetera they should be made to give up their opportunity for nicer accommodations and be bumped down in favor of the next family on the list. There need to be sticks and carrots to encourage people to work toward improving their situation rather than just perpetually reshuffling the deck, as the latter only just serves to continue multigenerational poverty. Those cycles need to be broken.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is DC planning to build the shelters? The Ward 3 location is an empty lot that seasonally has been leased to Christmas tree sellers. It stands next to a house that has been rumored to be occupied by FBI Counterintelligence (with shuttered windows and three opaque skylights facing the Russian embassy compound). The site lacks Metro access but at least the homeless will be well-watched.

Oh FFS, the 30s buses run down Wisconsin every 10 minutes to downtown and, guess what, poor people prefer to take the f'ing bus because it's cheaper. But nice of you to be soooooo concerned about how they'll get around.

The 30s buses are incredibly unreliable. I used to try to commute on them and gave up because they never kept to schedule and then 4 of them would come together in a bunched pack. Maybe the Wisconsin line buses are useful as rolling day shelters for vagrants, but not for people trying to get to work on time.

No she needs to do something about our public services; ambulances.

^ I'll bear that in mind as I'm forced to weave my way through the panhandlers with outstretched plastic cups rattling change. Heckuva job brownie. The jury's going to be out until I see change.