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Cover Story The Report’s Findings
Shelter in Shambles District facility for homeless families is beset by decay and dysfunction The D.C. General emergency shelter is supposed to be a cleaner place to stay than an alley, but records show that a young girl woke up with so many insect bites that she had to be taken to the hospital. It is supposed to be safer than a crime-ridden street corner, but a log shows that two teens pinned a 9-year-old to the floor of a bathroom and one urinated in the boy’s mouth. It is supposed to be better than life on the streets, but one resident filed a complaint saying a shelter worker lured her to his apartment with an offer of $20, began unfastening his pants and asked: “What are you going to do for the money?” The city’s largest shelter for families has been in the spotlight since March, when a janitor there took 8-year-old resident Relisha Rudd off shelter grounds. The girl remains missing and is presumed dead. Mayor Vincent Gray has said he has seen no evidence that the city failed in that case, but a Washington Post investigation of the facility in Southeast that is home to nearly 800 residents has found that Rudd’s case was part of a pattern of problems. Housed in a former hospital near the Stadium-Armory Metro station, D.C. General shares a litter-strewn piece of land with a clinic for meth rehabilitation and sexually transmitted diseases, a working jail and the former city morgue. Despite its intended purpose as a sanctuary, the shelter is too often beset by dysfunction, decay and disease. “I’m thankful that I have a roof over my head and my kids get meals every day,” said Nordicka Burton, who moved to the shelter in Octo-
BONNIE JO MOUNT (THE WASHINGTON POST)
Washington
Children in the D.C. General Emergency Shelter on the First of Each Month The number of children staying at the shelter has ticked up over the years. Currently, there Children in the D.C. General emergency are moreon than children there. shelter the460 first of eachliving month
July 1, 462
500 400 300 200 100 2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST, THE EMERGENCY SHELTER NIGHTLY CENSUS FROM THE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP FOR THE PREVENTION OF HOMELESSNESS
ber with her sons. “But after that, life is really a struggle. There are fights all the time, people are outside doing dope and my boys are scared.” City officials spoke generally about the shelter’s conditions, but they did not respond to four written requests about the specific findings of The Post’s investigation. In the earlier interview, city officials defended the management of the shelter. “Within the confines of
an inadequate building structure, I think our contractor is doing a good job,” said former Department of Human Services director David
Berns, who took the helm in 2011 and retired in June. “Is it perfect? No.” City officials and homeless advocates say D.C. General has never been properly maintained because most saw it as a Band-Aid for the city’s homelessness problem. The city began using the facility as a temporary shelter on cold nights in 2001, when the family shelter, D.C. Village, was overcrowded. Former Mayor Adrian Fenty closed D.C. Village in 2007 amid complaints it was infested with vermin. His administration shifted families to D.C. General until a replacement could be
For Nordicka Burton, a single mom who works as a home health aide, life at the shelter has been a daily test of endurance for her and her two boys, Chris, 13, and Gavin, 6. When she arrived, staff members gave her a space heater because there was no heat in her room. Residents throw trash and dirty diapers from upstairs windows. “You opened your windows, and everything smelled like feces,” Burton said. Rashes formed on Chris’ legs. He was diagnosed with dermatitis, possibly aggravated by contact with fungus or exposure to dust mites, the doctor told her.
found. But the city never found one. The facility is so decrepit that the D.C. Department of Human Services and the contractor running D.C. General concede it cannot be fixed. Yet families continue to be sent to D.C. General as the city has struggled with an unprecedented spike in homelessness caused in large part by a lack of affordable housing. Gray’s plan to find housing for 500 homeless families in 100 days met with limited success. On day 99, the city had placed 198 of them. JUSTIN JOUVENAL, ROBERT SAMUELS AND DENEEN L. BROWN (THE WASHINGTON POST)
To produce the report, The Washington Post interviewed dozens of residents, advocates for the homeless and officials. It gathered hundreds of pages of internal shelter documents through Freedom of Information Act requests and visited D.C. General numerous times. Reporting on the shelter is constrained because access is tightly controlled. Among the investigation’s findings: Staff members charged with caring for and protecting families often preyed upon them. Among 14 complaints of staff misconduct since 2012, residents allege that shelter employees have sexually assaulted them, taken photos of them while they showered, offered them money for sex, involved them in illegal tax scams and even fathered a child with one of them. The incidents echo a 2010 scandal in which female residents alleged that shelter guards had had sex with them or solicited them. The reports prompted then-Mayor Adrian Fenty to fire the contractor running the shelter, Families Forward. Living conditions are often so poor at the 90-year-old facility that residents suffer, are sickened or are put at risk. Nearly 30 people were taken to the hospital or got treatment for bites caused by spiders and other pests; for parasites; for rashes because of dirty showers; or for other problems over the past two years. Residents have gone days, and sometimes weeks, without heat or hot water. The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless produced a report in 2013 that cited frequent heat outages. In one instance, the group said, a mother with an infant waited three weeks in the dead of winter in a room without heat before the clinic intervened on her behalf. The threat of violence, lax safety precautions and a lack of services have created an environment of fear and isolation. Police are called to the shelter frequently on reports of violence, curfew is regularly flouted, and residents say security cameras are broken. The contractor failed to perform reference checks on some employees. Records show police and security have responded to 51 reports of threats and assaults at D.C. General, and 70 cases of abuse, neglect and domestic violence since 2012 — or nearly one incident for every two families. (T WP)