Last week, the DC Council voted 9-4 against requiring that the new DC General replacement shelters have private bathrooms. Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced an amendment requiring private bathrooms for every unit, and Councilmembers McDuffie, Silverman, and Orange supported it. Councilmembers Mendelson, Grosso, Bonds, Nadeau, Evans, Todd, Allen, Alexander and May voted against Cheh’s amendment. Instead, they voted for Chairman Mendelson’s “compromise”— an amendment that mandates that just 10% of the new units have private bathrooms and that there be one family bathroom for every five units. The issue was not, as some characterized it, about whether or not to close DC General. The Mayor and Council had previously committed to closing DC General, and this bill does not speak to nor require its closure. The debate was about what the minimal legal standards should be for the six new shelters that will replace DC General. Right before the vote on Councilmember Cheh’s amendment, she grew exasperated and said “Spend a little more money for dignity and safety! What’s wrong with us?” We need to stop and think about this question before we can move forward.
We do believe that there’s something wrong with the Council’s failure to require that each shelter room have its own bathroom. Our position, that private bathrooms are necessary to protect the health, safety, and dignity of homeless families, remains unchanged. We got our marching orders from our years of working with families sheltered in communal settings, and from a recent survey we did with 53 homeless families. We heard our clients and affected community members loud and clear when they said private bathrooms are critical in shelter to protect their own and their children’s physical and emotional health and safety. The “compromise” could require 90% of families to share residential bathrooms with strangers, shifting the balance almost entirely away from the expressed needs of the affected community.
We do believe there’s something wrong with the Council’s vote last Tuesday, not only because the legislation as passed could have serious, negative repercussions for homeless families for decades to come, but because it signifies that 9 out of 13 DC Councilmembers abdicated two essential responsibilities of the legislative branch of government when they failed to listen to the needs of the affected community and failed to exercise independent decision-making to enact sound public policy.
The entire process leading up to the Council’s vote was structured in a way that excluded the voices of the affected community, from scheduling a hearing at 2PM on a weekday when parents had to pick up children from school, to refusing to allow families to testify earlier to accommodate their schedules, to an Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) process that didn’t include even one homeless family. When we attempted to remedy these omissions, by conveying survey results, the family input was derided as not “relevant” and we were asked if we had any “studies” or “experts” to back up what the families were saying. Our view is that the real experts on the harmful effects of shared bathrooms are the families who are living right now in shelters with shared bathrooms.
While there was broad agreement from affected community members, most advocates, and many members of the public that private bathrooms are critical in the new shelters, the Administration claimed an ever-shifting series of terrible consequences if the law required private bathrooms. And yet, in spite of repeated requests from the Council, the Administration never provided any demonstrable evidence of these consequences. Nevertheless, 9 out of 13 Council members simply took the Mayor’s word for it, at considerable expense to the health and safety of the District residents they were elected to serve. We believe there’s something wrong with that.
Our criticism is not just about bathrooms, not just about families, and not just about homelessness. It’s also about the judgments that are made and the “-isms” that bleed into conversations and decisions about policies affecting people experiencing poverty in DC. It’s about the way the Administration claimed that private bathrooms would make homeless families too “comfortable” even when their data supported the opposite conclusion. And the ease with which decision-makers put up barriers to democratic participation by homeless families. And the ease with which these families are blamed for their homelessness when institutional racism and the resulting disinvestment in poor black communities are far more powerful forces in creating homelessness in DC than any one individual’s decision-making. We believe there’s something wrong with that…and with us as a community that lets this happen.
We can do better. All of us. While the standard in the law for family shelters has been lowered, that doesn’t mean that Mayor Bowser cannot far exceed this floor—and she has promised to try to do so. As the process unfolds – as a design committee is convened, as buildings and sites are secured, as plans are drawn and construction begins – there are opportunities to do right by homeless families. We urge the Administration to find a meaningful way to engage families, seeking their input and not simply their feedback, at every step along the way. It’s up to us now—including the DC Council—to hold the Mayor to her promise to exceed the new lower standard in the law, and to root her decisions about shelter design in the input and stories of the people who will one day have to live in those shelters.
As many of you know, there is much discussion about the future of the DC General homeless shelter. This morning, the Post’s Petula Dvorakstated, “Developers are salivating over D.C. General. It’s a huge property with plenty of potential. So there’s no question that it will be shut down and sold. That part of the plan no one is worried about.” Mayor Gray is rightly calling to rehouse those at the DC General shelter before closing it, but his plan is based on an unfounded belief that private apartment owners will now come forward and house the hundreds of families at DC General at rents far below market rates. Thus, in the interests of “salivating” developers, hundreds of homeless people are going to be displaced again? DC General is District property and could be renovated, maybe even employing homeless or near-homeless workers, if the District wanted to do so. However, developers and homeowners in the area are working hard for the “revitalization” of the DC General area, which they see as requiring the removal of their homeless neighbors. The deterioration of DC General is required as proof of the need for “revitalization.”
A few weeks ago, I went to a great panel discussion, “Racism in the New DC,” organized by Empower DC, which spoke to these issues from a very refreshing perspective. The speakers were three public housing residents working to maintain public housing and public schools in DC (Marlece Turner, D. Bell, and Shannon Smith), as well as Dr. Sabiyha Prince (the author of African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, DC), Ron Hampton (a former police officer and activist against police abuse), and Post columnist Courtland Milloy.
The main takeaway from the panel discussion was that institutional racism (not individual racist people but a racist system) works based on the idea that brown and black people do not deserve as good things as white people do. Improvements in the city are made for white people both because they often have more money and also because they are seen as deserving better things, like better schools and better services.
I asked the panel about a recent Post article that had said that, “Almost 10 years after the District vowed to assure low-income residents in four areas that they wouldn’t be displaced if their neighborhoods were revitalized,” the District decided that this was “overly optimistic.” The District was considering a policy change to “no longer guarantee that residents have a right to stay in their neighborhoods, and the promise that existing public housing won’t be demolished until a new building is constructed to replace it would be abandoned.” Empower DC and others have been warning people about these false promises for some time.
So, I asked the panel, is this a new policy? or is this a statement of what the District was already doing? Courtland Milloy immediately said, “They do what they can get away with.” He explained that, when District officials made these promises, they had to to make their redevelopment plans and the destruction of public housing palatable. Earlier, Milloy had stated that we need to acknowledge institutional racism and that these “revitalization” policies are in the interest of property owners and not in the interests of the homeless and other poor DC residents.
How can we change the situation in which “They do what they can get away with”? As a start, we might recognize that the journalist’s statement “So there’s no question that it [DC General] will be shut down and sold. That part of the plan no one is worried about” is not a statement of fact but rather a statement supported by those who are interested in this outcome and “can get away with” it. It is a political statement in the battle over space in the District. The next step would be to support a range of policies, including permanent public housing and permanent affordable housing in the District.
The exploding housing costs that have accompanied the influx of new residents into DC have brought mass displacement of life-long residents and a subsequent spike in family homelessness. Currently, in the District, a person making minimum wage must work approximately 132 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, or earn $27 an hour at 40 hours per week to afford a 2 bedroom apartment at “Fair Market Rent”.
The reality of this housing market is that if you are a senior citizen on a fixed income, a person with a disability, or a low to medium wage worker, odds are, you cannot live in DC without some sort of housing subsidy or other support. In other words, there needs to be a way to fill the gap for these individuals between what they can spend on housing and the current market rate.
The most effective way to fill this gap is funding public housing and rent subsidy programs in the long term. Unfortunately, the District’s subsidized housing waitlist is currently closed and numbers approximately 70,000 households. While the number of low cost rental units has dropped by 50% since 2000, the number of rental units in the city costing more than median rent has tripled. DC government claims these issues are due to a lack of resources and are largely out of their control.
However, while DC officials are telling the community that they do not have enough revenue to adequately invest in affordable housing, they are routinely sacrificing public resources in the interest of “smart growth.”
In the past year, plans to help DC’s soccer team, DC United, materialized. Mayor Gray proposed to trade away the Reeves Municipal Center, at 14th & U St. NW, in order to help the soccer team build a new stadium at Buzzard Point. In addition to the land swap, the city would put up about $150 million in tax incentives to acquire the property, trading the government building in a prime location and essentially absorbing the stadium’s financial risks through dubious tax deals.
The Reeves Center land swap that may occur in our city’s next mayoral term is just one example of the District’s subsidization of large-scale commercial developers to the tune of billions of dollars through real estate devaluations and public land giveaways.
Meanwhile, the city is taking in budget surpluses of over 100 million dollars each fiscal year. The city government is gambling our tax dollars in the interest of developers and building a city for people who do not yet live here, and likely will not stay.
The net result of these decisions can be seen on every street corner as market rate affordable units are being converted to luxury condos. These policies have led to the mass displacement and homelessness described above.
As of February 2014, there were 2,527 homeless children in DC Public Schools. That number excludes the countless families that are not technically homeless but instead rely on others to take them in night after night. Furthermore, these policies have the effect of dehumanizing and further marginalizing low to medium income residents of Washington, DC. This past winter, the city completely ran out of shelter space and was housing families in rec centers, which is usually reserved for natural disasters. Essentially, the District is telling these residents that they are not wanted and have nothing to offer the City.
We as a community must take a stand to end this cycle of displacement. DC is not a playground for “young professionals”. Economic development that prioritizes amenities for these individuals over affordable housing is both unsustainable and immoral.
Change will not come from the top down. Real change will have to be led from the bottom up and must prioritize the needs and realities of the most marginalized and disaffected residents of the city. This change must start in community meeting spaces where residents can talk to one another with the ultimate goal of creating their own vision of DC and how it should develop in the future. It’s critical that organized communities and activist groups work to share more resources to strengthen the impact of these efforts.
Through this process directly impacted communities can develop their own leaders, create meaningful political coalitions and generate the necessary political will to make their vision a reality. But that process must start now and must be urgent. As any minimum wage worker, disabled senior citizen, or recently homeless family can tell you- right now we are rapidly losing ground.
Will Merrifield works at the Washignton Legal Clinic for the Homeless as a staff attorney and serves on the Washington Peace Center’s Advisory Council
On June 3rd, at 6:30 pm, there will be a rally at the DC General Homeless Shelter, located at 1900 Massachusetts Ave. SE (at the end of the road), right next to the Stadium Armory Metro. This former hospital turned homeless shelter, methadone clinic, and jail currently houses hundreds of DC families. The situation in the shelter is deplorable. There are infestations of mold and rats. Available funds are not being used for repairs. The hundreds of children at DC General have no safe place to play. Relisha Rudd was abducted from the shelter earlier this year.
For more information about conditions in the shelter, watch the testimony of DC General resident Momauwi Woods at last year’s State of the District’s Poverty panel discussion in the video below.
When taking action and organizing for better living conditions, shelter residents have faced intimidation, including violations of their right to assemble. This is unacceptable.
Respect, and fair treatment is a human right, for all!
On June 3rd support shelter residents in their struggle for housing, security, first amendment rights, and humane living conditions at the
Rally for the Rights, Safety and Dignity of Homeless Families at DC General Tuesday June 3, 2017 @ 6:30 PM DC General Homeless Shelter 1900 Massachusetts Ave. SE
Stadium Armory Metro on the Orange and Blue Lines
The rally is organized by shelter residents and the Washington Interfaith Network. The Peace House supports this rally as a show of solidarity with the residents, and all the people who struggle for a fair and just world.
We invite you to stand with the homeless families, and demand better living conditions, respect and fair treatment. If you would like more information please email Andrew Batcher at abatcher.ni@gmail.com.
Here’s a video I did for the Fair Budget Coalition last year during their State of the District’s Poverty event. In 2013, the FBC–along with a whole host of other organizations and individuals–was trying to convince Mayor Gray and the DC City Council to do something about the lack of affordable housing and the abundance of homelessness within the District of Columbia. The Fair Budget Coalition presented a plan to our elected representatives in which an investment of $4.5 million dollars in DC’s shelter system would ensure sufficient housing for the 300 families in DC General and the families housed in motels during the winter. But is the shelter at DC General closed? No. Clearly, the council and the mayor didn’t listen to the plan. This despite a $417 million budget surplus.
There were however significant gains in DC’s budget last year. Funding increased for TANF and some of DC’s Affordable Housing programs. These wins would not have happened without significant effort from DC’s activist and progressive communities. And so it is again this year.
The DC Council is in its final stages of negotiating DC’s budget. There are some key programs that are being overlooked and need our immediate support to push Councilmembers to make them a priority. We are asking you to participate in two 1-click email actions to support these programs:
1) Take action to End Homelesseness for more than 800 families and individuals! Two of the most important affordable housing programs that end homelessness are Permanent Supportive Housing (for the chronically homeless) and the Local Rent Supplement Program Tenant Vouchers (for families). Tell the Council to prioritize ending homelessness with housing by taking action here: http://bit.ly/1ti308B
2) Take action for Adult Literacy!* Adult education programs have been underfunded for years, though adult ed has been linked to lower unemployment and poverty rates for adult learners and higher high school graduation rates for the kids of adult learners. We need the Council to fund adult education. Take action for adult literacy here: http://bit.ly/1oXTXHj
And finally, the Fair Budget Coalition will be hosting our culminating action of this budget season on Friday! Join us to stand up for safety net programs at:
Close the Divide!: A Public Forum on Reducing Inequality in the District of Columbia Friday, May 23rd, 10am-Noon At the Wilson Building: 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Rapidly growing inequality in DC is deepening the divides between the rich and poor. But the DC Council can close that divide by investing in anti-poverty programs and affordable housing that would make DC a city for everyone. Come hear stories from people whose lives have been changed by safety net programs & what Councilmembers are doing to support these programs in this year’s budget
There will also be the opportunity to learn how to do a Lobby Visit and then participate in one to a Councilmember’s office!
Last week, the DC Council voted 9-4 against requiring that the new DC General replacement shelters have private bathrooms. Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced an amendment requiring private bathrooms for every unit, and Councilmembers McDuffie, Silverman, and Orange supported it. Councilmembers Mendelson, Grosso, Bonds, Nadeau, Evans, Todd, Allen, Alexander and May voted against Cheh’s amendment. Instead, they voted for Chairman Mendelson’s “compromise”— an amendment that mandates that just 10% of the new units have private bathrooms and that there be one family bathroom for every five units. The issue was not, as some characterized it, about whether or not to close DC General. The Mayor and Council had previously committed to closing DC General, and this bill does not speak to nor require its closure. The debate was about what the minimal legal standards should be for the six new shelters that will replace DC General. Right before the vote on Councilmember Cheh’s amendment, she grew exasperated and said “Spend a little more money for dignity and safety! What’s wrong with us?” We need to stop and think about this question before we can move forward.
