Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced a plan to close the city’s aging family homeless shelters, and replace them with a mix of D.C.-owned and private properties.
The proposed shelters are in all eight wards in D.C., and the plan is to close the D.C. General family shelter by 2018.
Bowser’s plan was presented Tuesday morning at a breakfast to members of the D.C. Council, the first concrete step toward closing the former hospital that became an emergency shelter for homeless families in 2001.
D.C. General houses approximately 1,000 people a night, including about 400 children. Since 2010, the number of homeless families in D.C. has increased 40 percent.
The haggard shelter has been under constant scrutiny from lawmakers and the community, especially after the disappearance of 8-year-old Relisha Rudd, who lived at the shelter with her mother. Rudd, who was under the care of a male janitor working in the shelter, was last seen alive on March 1, 2014. The janitor later committed suicide and Rudd has never been found.
Under Bowser’s new plan, there will be seven neighborhood-based shelters dubbed “short-tern family housing facilities” ranging in size from 29 to 50 units. Roughly 272 new units of housing will now be available for homeless families across all shelter locations, roughly matching the number of people living at D.C. General.
Ward 2 won’t have a family shelter, but rather a 213-bed women’s shelter and a planned day center that Bowser is set to cut the ribbon at on Wednesday. The rebuilding replaces two old shelters at 2nd and D streets NW.
D.C. General costs $17 million annually to operate, while the cost to replace it will be $22 million. Nearly a year ago, the mayor and the city council agreed to spend $40 million to build its replacements.
“In a city as prosperous as ours, there is no reason we should keep families at D.C. General. The building is too big, too old and too far removed from the services that get families back on their feet,” said Bowser Tuesday. “These facilities will be modern, safe and dignified, and will bring us one big step closer to our goal of ending homelessness in the District of Columbia.”
D.C.’s Department of General services spent a month searching for the locations, especially making sure the are near bus or Metro lines. Simultaneous community meetings will be held to discuss each of the new shelter sites Thursday night around the city.
D.C. City Council members will also have to approve a number of bills on the shelters.
The new shelters will be open starting 2017. The locations are as follows:
The plan to close D.C. General does not include specifics for the hundreds of families housed in motels in D.C. and Maryland.
