[WardFive] Homeward DC Plan to Close DC General Update- WARD 5

SHARING!

 

February 9, 2016      Dear residents, Yesterday, Rashad Young, the City Administrator, briefed some Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and civic association leaders on the Mayor's plan to place an additional homeless shelter in Ward 5, specifically 2622 25th Place, NE, near the Langdon and Woodridge South neighborhoods.  The Council received a briefing on the plan this morning at our Mayor-Council breakfast. While I wholeheartedly support, the decision to close DC General, I am opposed to the proposed location of the Ward 5 shelter. Ward 5 currently has the men's shelter on New York Avenue, the Adams Place shelter (precariously close to the additional shelter's proposed location), a day services shelter on Adams Place, the Virginia Williams Center, the men's shelter on Lincoln Road, and So Others Might Eat on North Capitol Street.  Moreover, Ward 5 has hosted hundreds of homeless individuals and families in its several hotels along New York Avenue, essentially accommodating the city's entire overflow of emergency shelter placements.  The saturation of services in any one ward, let alone a few neighborhoods, is unfair to the communities that surround those facilities. Further years of city planning has taught us that concentrating shelters and associated services, or subsidized housing in one area leads to inequities in terms of delivery of government services for the surrounding communities and does little to help the individuals that those facilities, services, and homes were intended to serve. I believe, and have always said, that we need to help keep the poorest amongst us. However, for the effort to be at successful, all wards and all residents must participate equally in helping get the less fortunate back on their feet. No one ward or neighborhood should be forced to provide significantly more services or shelter space than another. Before a decision with far reaching consequences like this is made, meaningful community engagement should occur.  Residents should have an opportunity to provide comments and enlighten the proposers with the community's considerable experience and perspective.  Finally, and importantly, residents should receive, in a transparent manner, feedback on how their comments were considered and what conclusions were drawn from them.   I ask all of you to stand with your neighbors in Langdon and Woodridge South to voice your concerns about the proposed shelter location, and ask for meaningful engagement and equity in the placement of shelters and services throughout the District. The meeting to discuss the proposed Ward 5 shelter is on Thursday, February 11, at 6:30 p.m. located at New Canaan Baptist Church, 2826 Bladensburg RD, NE.                                            In Service   Kenyan                                    For more information, please visit www.kenyanmcduffie.com or contact our office at (202) 724-8028. Follow Councilmember McDuffie at www.twitter.com/CM_McDuffie and on www.facebook.com/KenyanRMcDuffie  Update your subscriptions, modify your e-mail address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your email address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact subscriberhelp.govdelivery.com. Council of the District of Columbia 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us