A private homeless shelter’s plans to relocate to the long-neglected but burgeoning area along Georgia Avenue between Columbia Heights and Petworth neighborhoods already faced strong opposition by neighborhood and key city leaders.

Now opponents of the proposed 70,000-square-foot, 250-bed Central Union Mission men’s shelter have another weapon — a 650-student charter school moving literally right next door to the proposed shelter.

Euphemia L. Haynes Public Charter School, a 198-student elementary school currently located at 14th and Irving streets Northwest, announced Friday it was approved for a loan to purchase property at 3600 Georgia Ave., where it plans to build a new building to serve as many as 650 students.

“The school is literally a stone’s throw from the proposed shelter site,” said D.C. Council member Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, a long-time homeless activist.

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“I’m not against relocating the shelter. I am even advocating moving the shelter to several other sites in my ward. This is just not the right place.”

One reason Graham and a growing group of neighborhood leaders want to stop the planned shelter is that the area, long filled with fast-food haunts, liquor stores, a strip club and other less-than-desirable businesses, is rapidly showing signs of a major renaissance.

A series of new businesses have discovered the strip with high-end loft-style condominiums, a new bustling trendy bar, a senior wellness center and a yoga studio. Another developer is ready to begin construction on another 250 condominiums and more than 20,000-sqaure-feet of retail space.

“The school creates yet another strong argument against the homeless center,” Graham said.

Central Union Mission sold its highly-sought after current building at 14th and R streets NW to a developer in for $7 million earlier this year contingent on the buyer finding and purchasing a new site for the shelter.

The developer, Jeffery Schonberger of Alturas, told Central Union Mission officials he would have a deal on the Georgia Avenue property completed by Thursday,

just a day before the school announced its plans. Schonberger has asked for a 90-day extension on completing the deal, according to sources closed to the negotiations.

Neither Schonberger or officials at Central Union Mission returned calls from The Examiner seeking comment.

mrupert@dcexaminer.com