Being Charitable

A brewing battle over a D.C. homeless shelter's future

IT IS DIFFICULT not to sympathize with the leaders of Central Union Mission, a District charity house near Logan Circle. Booted via eminent domain from their property near Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1980s, they have ministered to the city's homeless since from their property on 14th Street NW, which contains 82 beds for overnight guests. They complain that the building is too old and too cramped to accommodate their programs, and they are planning to move their shelter to the District's Petworth neighborhood. But it now looks as though a spate of not-in-my-back-yard outrage -- some of it reasonable, some not -- will delay the relocation.

David Treadwell, the charity's director, envisions a gleaming new building in the 3500 block of Georgia Avenue. He wants enlarged facilities that would stay open 24 hours a day, offering homeless men and women round-the-clock access to shelter and care -- an attractive alternative to vagrancy and crime. The money for the project would come from selling the charity's current property to a developer who would let the shelter continue operating while the new building is constructed.

But D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who represents the area around the mission's new site, thinks the shelter's relocation will derail the progress the community along Georgia Avenue is making. The last place you want to move a homeless shelter, Mr. Graham argues, is into a neighborhood that's still in transition, shaking off years as a venue for drug dealing and other social ills. Mr. Graham proposes that Central Union Mission renovate the property it already has near Logan Circle. Current zoning would permit the charity to add two stories to its building there, and the charity could sell two other parcels it owns to finance the remodeling.

If the charity moves forward despite the community's objections, Mr. Graham predicts a "battle royal." The Zoning Commission is apt to force Mr. Treadwell and his colleagues to endure months, if not years, of testimony and public hearings as they petition for permission to build.

Before that process begins, the charity's leaders need to ask themselves if relocating will really benefit the homeless they serve. There are positives to staying near Logan Circle -- it is close to downtown and in a relatively stable community, for example. Many of the homeless who use the shelter are unlikely to move with it, choosing life on the streets instead. Mr. Treadwell's vision for the mission's new facility is appealing, and the shelter would help homeless people in its new neighborhood. But it would not have significantly more bed space than the existing building, meaning some of its clients would lose accommodation even if they wanted to follow the shelter into its new neighborhood. Sadly, no solution will be perfect for the mission's well-meaning leaders and the homeless they help.