The city abruptly halted its plan to move 19 homeless families from a downtown shelter into communal apartments in Southeast by Monday after shelter residents angrily denounced the plan yesterday.
In a packed third-floor lounge at the Community for Creative Non-Violence's shelter in Northwest, more than 100 homeless adults and families chastised city social services officials for planning the move without input from residents and for giving the families 72 hours' notice. Parents said at the meeting that the location of the new facility, a private apartment building in the 3000 block of 30th Street SE, was a known drug area that was unsafe for children.
"These kids need stability, and you're taking it away to suit yourselves," said Wanda Ferguson, who stays at the shelter with her teenage daughter and manages the women's floor.
The angry feedback, which caught city officials by surprise, began when more than 20 shelter residents interrupted Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) as he appeared at the Gales School, a former shelter near Union Station, to announce that the city would reopen the building as a homeless assistance center for men, as part of the city's 10-year plan to end homelessness.
Trisha Wilson, 41, who stays at CCNV, said residents delivered a petition with nearly 800 names to the mayor and peppered officials with questions.
Yvonne D. Gilchrist, Human Services director, told families in a Jan. 26 letter that they had to leave the shelter but did not include information on where they would be going. She said the actions of the shelter residents were her first indication that they were displeased.
Gilchrist, Deputy Mayor Neil O. Albert and social services officials were scheduled to discuss the move with individual families later in the day. But when they arrived, CCNV's residents turned the individual meetings into a shelter-wide forum at which the families were outnumbered by other residents. Albert frequently was interrupted and struggled to be heard.
"They are homeless, but they are mothers," said CCNV case manager Pamela Bowie. "They should have say-so as to how their children go and where they go and when they go."
Ferguson said her daughter cried all night at the prospect of having to leave Bell Multicultural High School to go to a new school in Southeast. "What am I going to tell her, that Neil Albert has her back?" Ferguson said.
Terrance James, 46, expressed the concern of some fathers in the group who feared that their families would be split up if they were not allowed to move with their wives or girlfriends. The apartment building in Southeast, which the city is leasing from a private owner, was slated to accommodate 15 women and children, with three families living in each three-bedroom unit that has a shared bathroom. A sixth unit in the building would be a communal kitchen and dining area.
Albert pledged that no family would be forced to move Monday and that no family would be split up. He also promised to return to the shelter every two weeks to meet with families until the issue is resolved.
Afterward, Jameka Dupont, 11, who just started writing for the school newspaper at Walker Jones Elementary, stood with her mother. Sonya Dupont, 29, said she would hate to have to suddenly pull her daughter out of the school. Jameka made a face at the suggestion.
"I'd be really mad," Jameka said.
"We write stories and take pictures," she said, smiling.
