Tick Tock Sheptock

NOTE: Men are being put on the floor to sleep at the NY Ave. shelter, while the city is shutting down a much-needed shelter (Franklin Shelter). This makes absolutely no sense. Then again, what decisions of Mayor Fenty do?! I'm at no shortage of bad things to say about Mayor Fenty and his administration. However, I promise to try to keep this post short, as that won't be easy. I'll begin with Patricia "Pat" Handy. She is the least amiable, most obnoxious homeless outreach coordinator on the face of the Earth. She allowed her attitude to show through during our first encounter. She had come out to the hospital to assist a certain 88 year-old homeless woman in finding a nursing home temporarily and to begin casework around finding her a more permanent residence once healed completely. Pat handy exhibited very little tact in dealing with an elderly woman. She made no secret of her frustration, as this elderly woman had a hard time making up her mind, due to b...

On september 16th, the DC Council held its first legislative session in 2 months, having just returned from recess. I was quite pleased to see the interest that they have taken in the issue of homelessness. ((They postponed the beginning of their recess in July by 2 days in order to create emergency legislation around the transfer of the Gales School Bldg. to the Central Union Mission (C.U.M.).)) Then, as they returned, one of the items on their legslative agenda was the impending closure of the Franklin School Shelter. And so their recess began and ended with the creation of emergency legislation for 2 homeless shelters. The day began with a large rally that was orchestrated by Empower DC, a non-profit that does grassroots organizing around the issues that affect everyday people. It highlighted issues related to homelessness, affordable housing, using public land for community needs rather than giving it to private developers who can make a profit off of it and labor unions. Ther...

NOTE: I added more details and a couple of new items to this blog on 9/14, several days after posting it. If you think that you're seeing a new detail, you are and you're not crazy. Just thought you'd want to know. First of all, I apologize for not posting more often, as I realize that many people want to keep up with the Franklin School Shelter situation as it unfolds. However, things have been quite hectic lately. Those of us who are working to keep Franklin School open as a shelter are putting in long hours (pro bono, of course) and I've been short on time. While much has been going on since my last post, things have been especially hectic for the last couple of days. Check-in for the night usually goes from 4:30 to 5:30 PM. However, as I arrived at Franklin around 7 PM on September 10th, having gotten a bed reservation, I saw that people were still being checked-in. It would eventually go until 9:30 that night. The reason for the long check-in was that resident...

Read the following message from Mayor Fenty. Make what you will of it. I think that he is vague, uninformed and detached from the process. He thinks that "Mayor knows best". Nonetheless, he has stated some promises that we can hold him to..... --- On Thu, 9/11/08, Executive Office of the Mayor (imailagent) wrote: From: Executive Office of the Mayor (imailagent) Subject: Email from the EOM (Intranet Quorum IMA00569336) To: ericsheptock@yahoo.com Date: Thursday, September 11, 2008, 10:26 AM Thank you for your feedback regarding the closing of Franklin School Shelter. I understand your concern about the closure of the facility and its impact on clients as well as the surrounding community. The District Government is committed to reducing the need for large-scale emergency shelters, such as Franklin, by providing permanent housing with a continuum of care that includes outreach, social and mental health services. This approach is intended to address the root causes of homeless...

Mayor adrian Fenty avoided us like the plague for as long as he could. Those of us involved in the effort to save Franklin School Shelter thought we'd never get our chance to speak with the mayor about the issue. Then, about 2 dozen of us protested outside of his house on the evening of August 21st, 2008. He arrived a half hour or so after we did. He was visibly upset by our visit. However, he agreed to a meeting with a few of us. On Monday, August 25th, 4 homeless men met with the mayor and his director of the Dept. Human Services, Clarence Carter. They were myself, Skip Hawkins, Orlando Smith and D'juan Bean. The mayor had 2 others with him who were obviously not highly influential people. They both sat against the wall, while the 6 of us sat at the board room table. I had been informed prior to the meeting that the mayor might play with his cell phone or blackberry as a show of disinterest in the meeting. He actually didn't do that. We kept him engaged througho...

Councilwoman Carol Schwartz and Candidate Michael Brown spoke to a room of approximately 100 homeless men and 1 homeless woman this morning at the Father McKenna Center which feeds homeless men out of the basement of St. Aloysius church on North Capitol. This speaks volumes to the fact that DC homeless are being recognized and respected by their local government these days. After all, we work, pay taxes and vote too. Ms. Schwartz emphasized the fact that she wants to keep Franklin School open as a shelter, at least until better living arrangements are available to the residents. She also took some time to explain the complicated, if not crazy, way in which committees have been assigned to the various council members. For example, Carol Schwartz's Committee on Government Operations oversees the surplussing of public property. However, Councilman Kwame Brown's Committee on Economic Development oversees the disposition of public property. Therefore, you end up getting sent fr...

I was just about to post information about recent developments at Franklin School Shelter when I ran across the messages of a friend from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. These 2 messages explain that many of the men were told that they couldn’t return to the shelter tonight and that the decision was later reversed in the nick of time. WLCH took affidavits that were filled out by 2 dozen homeless men and filed them with the court. The court issued a temporary restraining order reversing the phasing-out process that would’ve left dozens (not all of them having filled out affidavits) with nowhere to go. This would've been grossly irresponsible and inhumane on the part of DC Government in general and DHS in particular. It would also be reason to alert the public via the mass media. It is a good thing that it was stopped. The men are safe until about the 1st of October. I have an idea. Let's involve the homeless themselves as we seek to end homelessness. Let's hav...