Sat.
Sun.
Change my location 
Article History This is the latest version.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Mayor Adrian Fenty announced Wednesday the administration’s strategy for decreasing chronic homelessness and creating permanent housing with support services such as counseling and employment assistance.
The new plan, created in conjunction with the D.C. Department of Human Services, includes an initiative to provide homes for more than 400 homeless people within six months and to revamp existing shelters to provide better services.
Fenty described his $19.2 million plan as the “Housing First Fund,” meaning homeless individuals will be moved into housing and once there, they will get help with counseling, health care and employment needs.
Under the initiative, 2,500 units of permanent supportive housing will be provided for chronically homeless residents by 2014, with priority given to the most vulnerable and those in the system the longest.
The planned projects include the closing of the decrepit downtown Franklin School shelter by Oct. 1, which Fenty called an “exciting day [that] looms upon us.” The Gales School Shelter near Union Station will be transferred to a private operator. And the Harriet Tubman Shelter will be moved to Building 9 on the campus of the former D.C. General Hospital.
The Central Union Mission, a shelter and ministry organization for homeless men, will assume control over the Gales School Shelter, Fenty said. In exchange, the mission will give the District its property on the 3500 block of Georgia Avenue, which will become a mixed-income apartment complex.
The deal brings an end to the mission’s controversial plan to move to Georgia Avenue, which was vehemently opposed by neighbors.
The apartment complex will feature between 100 and 125 units, with 50 units dedicated to permanent supportive housing, according to Clarence H. Carter, director of the Department of Human Services.
“You don’t just group any social condition all together,” Carter said. “You try and spread it through the community so they can assimilate.”
Fenty thanked community groups, the Central Union Mission and District officials for cooperating on the plan of action.
“I think everyone can say there’s a lot of hard work left to be done ... but we’ve got a great team, and they’re up for it,” he said.
 Not ranked |
 EMAIL ME THIS STORY |
ARTICLE HISTORY 
Comments from Examiner Readers
10:14 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Fenty announces a new plan for housing the homeless in D.C."
Report as inappropriate
5:47 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008
re: "Fenty announces a new plan for housing the homeless in D.C."
Report as inappropriate
Examiner Reader said:
Or, here's a thought. How about stop making the homeless a trendy political cause and instead refocus limited resources on actually helping them? There is NO reason to demand that homeless shelters be built on the most expensive real estate in town. It'd be a FAR better use of our limited resources to develop these downtown sights to their highest use (probably very expensive office space), and use the never-ending revenue stream from that to fund truly comprehensive shelters and facilities on less expensive real estate. While we are at it, we need to start demanding that the burbs take their share of the burden. So take your pick. You can have homeless shelters on the most expensive real estate in town, primarily to keep them visible for political reasons (and apparently to give them stunning city views), or you can use those resources wisely to actually help the homeless. You can't do both.
2 agree | 2 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
How about Fenty's promise that Franklin Shelter would be kept open unless an alternative site was located, in the downtown area, with a 1 for 1 bed replacement? I'm all for supportive housing, but unfortunately, the number of units of supportive housing being established pales in comparison to the number of homeless folks in the District. Therefore, emergency shelters are still necessary. Instead of having a new shelter on Georgia Avenue, a reopened Gales School Shelter (as was promised when it was closed), and the Franklin Shelter, we instead now will have, if Fenty has his way, a reopened Gales School, and 50 units of permanent supportive housing. Does this really sound like a plan to end homelessness via supportive housing, or a plan to end homelessness by giving the poor in DC no place to go?
2 agree | 1 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree