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Please join us for a joint MVSNA/DNA forum on homeless issues & housing plans, on our regular MVSNA meeting date, May 20th, 7pm, Mt Calvary Baptist Church - 755 8th St. NW
Dear Neighbor,
Special Neighborhood Meeting - May 20th (update)
Questions concerning homeless neighborhood residents are regularly asked at our monthly meetings. Over the years, the District has made commitments directed at this issue. More recently, Mayor Fenty has made his own commitments towards the District's affordable housing crisis and growing homeless population. Among them is the closure of Franklin School Shelter by October, providing 400 housing units for downtown homeless, the move of Central Mission to the Gales School on Mass Ave, and the development of land at 4th and L Streets NW for a Catholic Charities facility that will provide affordable housing, transitionary housing, and homeless services.
For some, these changes reflect long-term commitments. The Gale School was originally slated to become a homeless shelter in 2000 and Franklin School was to be a temporary shelter. Now, eight years later this may happen. The 400 units will be dispensed based on some kind of scoring model. What this model is, who it identifies, and where the housing units will be located is not known, though there are many rumors. This ambiguity creates its own set of possibilities that raises concern among many in terms of neighborhood impacts. In short, there is a lot we do not know. What we do know is that many residents do not feel that they are part of the dialogue behind the current plans - and what those plans actually are.
We hope to address this with a joint discussion session sponsored by DNA and the MVSNA on 7PM Tuesday, May 20th at Calvary Baptist Church. We have invited several professionals to lead our discussion. It is our hope that they can enlighten us on what the facts are and what the current plans actually are. We, as residents and neighborhood associations need to decide what our role is in dealing with the issues of affordable housing and the homeless.
Our discussion leaders include:
Chet Grey, Director of Housing Services with the Downtown BID
Chet has been responsible for the BID program since inception.
Chapman Todd, Division Director of Housing Programs at Catholic Charities
Chapman has been with Catholic Charities for over 15 years and oversees their many efforts in this area.
David Treadwell (invited), Executive Director at Central Union (http://missiondc.org/)
David is the CEO of Central Mission
Jose Sausa attending representing Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
Responsible for identifying homeless housing
Miles E. Groves
Downtown Neighborhood Associaiton
Comments
what has happened to The Gales School? somebody emailed last week and said there was a transfer of ownership from dc government to the Central Mission? plus, the gov't is paying 10,000,000.00? what does central mission have to do for this gift, just show up?
Posted By RICHARD / At 7/21/08 9:04 AM
Posted By RICHARD / At 7/21/08 9:04 AM
