Tick Tock Sheptock

 I began blogging on June 21st, 2008 . Below is my 4th entry from July 11th of that year. It has to do with the then-disputed disposition of the historic Gales School by DC Government to a religious organization to be used as a homeless shelter and a July 10th, 2008 DC Council hearing to address the matter. To see video of the hearing (as I've become more tech savvy in the past 6 years) CLICK HERE and follow the instructions below: INSTRUCTIONS: 1 -- Scroll down to the last hearing for July 10th, 2008 and click "View meeting". 2 -- Go to 34 minutes and 40 seconds in the video. 3 -- Watch the next 3 testifiers: a snobbish, NIMBYistic ANC commissioner (my reason for resurrecting this post from 6 years ago) , myself and a local activist who supports the poor. HERE it is again. As it turns out, there is much tension between the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions , the business community and well-to-do people on the one hand and the poor and homeless on the...

I first posted this article on March 19th, 2009. New information came out in the headlines this morning stating that Catholic charities might stop doing business with the city of Washington, DC if the gay marriage bill is passed. This would lead to the loss of about 2,000 shelter beds in shelters that are run by Catholic Charities. The homeless have become pawns and bargaining chips in the game of local (and "loco") politics. As I type up my blog post pertaining to this latest development, you can read about why people thought that all DC homeless shelters were threatened in March. I believe that there may be a correlation between what happened in March and what is happening now. I'll explain in my next blog post later today. Read on..... Several homeless people have told me that they read a newspaper article which stated that DC Mayor Adrian Fenty (a man) plans to close ALL DC homeless shelters by 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't read that article myself and h...

Homeless people in Washington, DC and their advocates have been trying for quite some time to find out about the plans that the city and homeless service providers have for closing various shelters. It's been like pulling teeth. That's just DC politics for you. Nonetheless, people have a right to know about decisions that will directly affect them and to be involved in the decision making. After all, making the homeless feel like they matter and are part of society might help them to grow beyond homelessness. Furthermore, it makes no sense to close shelters or to decrease other human services in these tough economic times. The CCNV (Community for Creative Non-Violence) Shelter has been threatened with closure for years and those threats have yet to materialize. But we have reason to believe that DC Mayor Adrian Fenty might have a trick or 2 up his sleeve for closing CCNV. His predecessor couldn't close Franklin School Shelter either; but, Adrian Fenty pulled it off. The fut...

The DC Council was due to begin their 2-month recess on Tuesday, July 15th. However, the need arose for them to create some emergency legislation. One of the matters at hand was the fate of the Gales School at 65 Massachusetts Ave., NW. They ended up having a late-night session on the 15th. During that session, they decided to make the mayor remove all references to other shelters such as Franklin School and Harriet Tubman from the proposed legislation which, if passed, would allow him to dispose of the Gales School, which is slated to become a homeless shelter once again. Having so graciously postponed their recess by 2 days, the Council reconvened on July 17th to review the mayor’s re-written legislation and to vote on it. It only took an hour of deliberations for them to grant the mayor permission to dispose of the Gales School property in a land swap with Central Union Mission. While some people may feel that they have reason to rejoice, others will suffer ill-effects as a res...

Yesterday the council (which so graciously postponed its recess to deal with some emergency legislation)held a legislative meeting. At issue was the fate of Gales School. Due to computer malfunctions and other concerns, I've been short on blogging time for a couple of days. However, I decided to post my e-mail response to an on-line dispute between Councilmember Jim Graham and former mayoral candidate Chris Otten. (I will describe the meeting in greater detail in the near future.) I fed them the facts: Petworth properties are worth $4 million. Gales School is worth $9 million in current trashy state. City will give mission $7 million to renovate Gales. Terms include gales remaining a shelter for at least 40 years with at least 150 beds and going back to city if ever used for anything else. At Gales, mission will have a net gain of 22 beds or more. Council strongly signaled an unwillingness to allow Franklin to close. Gray asked wells to assess the number of emergency shelter be...

As you may know, Gales School is a historic building in DC which is slated to be turned into a homeless shelter. It served as a homeless shelter from 2000 to 2004 and then was closed so as to be renovated. Much controversy has arisen over the fate of this building. It is supposed to serve as a replacement for the Central Union Mission which is presently located at 14th and R streets, NW. However, the mission is due to leave their present location in October of 2009, while Gales School might not be ready for occupancy until some time in 2011. That leaves us with 2 years during which there would be no Central Union Mission. The Councilmembers Jim Graham and Carol Schwartz have mentioned the possibilities of expediting the renovation of Gales School and/or postponing their departure from their present location. Neither is as easy as I make it sound. I would like to mention the possibility of keeping Franklin School Shelter open (as it is due to be closed by October 1st, ' 08) and...

While debating with Clarence carter on STREATS TV, I addressed the imminent closure of Franklin School Shelter. While the mayor's housing plan is shaped to address homelessness across the city and not just at Franklin, the Franklin School Shelter can serve as a microcosm of the larger homeless situation in DC. The closure of Franklin is bound to set off a chain reaction of problems that the city is ill-prepared for. If the mayor's housing plan is called "Housing First", then maybe it should live up to that name. However, one of the larger shelters in the city is about to be closed without all of its residents being housed. The 400 units of permanent supportive housing that are coming on-line this year are not being allocated for the men at Franklin. I'm not saying that they should be. Instead, the city should keep the shelter open until the vast majority of its residents have been housed and there are too few people left to justify keeping the building open...