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DC’s Mayoral Candidates Voice Views on Health Care for Low-Income Residents, page 6
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Where the Washington area's poor and homeless earn and give their two cents June15, 2006 -- July 14, 2006 • Volume 3, Issue 8
www.streetsense.org
Staff Editorial
A Global Movement
The End Game for Franklin Shelter By the Street Sense Staff
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The Downtown Services Center is in the church at 10th and G, but not for long.
Homeless Services Center Faces New Location, Manager
Street newspaper representatives from Namibia to Argentina to Sweden gathered in Montreal, Canada, recently to talk about poverty and how to combat it with editorial content and vendors programs offered by street papers. See story on page 9.
Inside This Issue EDITORIAL
Deputy Mayor’s Column Updates on shelters and policy, page 3
By Daniel Horner The Downtown Services Center, a Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District (BID) program that coordinates different types of assistance for homeless people in D.C.’s urban core, is facing two major changes: new management and a new home. In the next year the center will have to move, at least temporarily, from its current home in the First Congregational United Church of Christ (next to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on G Street NW ) because of redevelopment affecting the church and other buildings on its block. More immediate is the BID’s decision to subcontract operation of the center to D.C. Central Kitchen’s First Helping program. Services for homeless people
service provider executives worry about the lack of benefits offered, page 4
Shelter Shakeup Changes to mangagement proposed as renovations begin at the Federal City Shelter, page 5 REVIEWS
LOCAL
Acadiana
In the second in a three-part series,
Vendor Patty Smith visit this Cajun restaurant, page 12
Compensation Woes
account for about 6% of the BID’s budget, or roughly $600,000 a year. The BID, which covers 138 city blocks between 16th Street on the west and Union Station on the east, is the only business improvement district in the country that has a department of homeless services and a homeless services center. However, the BID is planning on taking a less active role in day-today operations of the latter. Chet Gray, BID’s director of homeless services, said that the BID is arranging for D.C. Central Kitchen, a nonprofit community kitchen that operates eight outreach initiatives in the District, to incorporate the work of the Downtown Services Center into the kitchen’s First Helping program. First Helping is a multi-partner collaboration
See
CENTER, page 7
FEATURES
Readers Survey Results Who are the readers of Street Sense? page 15
Norfolk Nightmare Vendor August Mallory witnesses brutality against the homeless during his trip to Norfolk, page 16
Service Provider Profile Charlie’s Place is more than breakfast, page 18
ears of uncertainty about the future of the Franklin School shelter at 13th and K streets, NW, may be approaching a resolution, with the Williams administration signaling that the shelter could be closed by the end of the 2006-2007 winter hypothermia season next spring. But with renovations and other issues at the few remaining downtown shelters, the fate of the 240-plus men who lay their heads at Franklin remains unknown, as does the ultimate arrangement for emergency shelter beds in the downtown D.C. area. Franklin opened as an emergency shelter four years ago, and rumors of its closing have been circulating almost since it opened. Now the rumors are becoming a reality, and how the city and its homeless people got to this point is a perfect example of how not to make decisions. For over a year, city officials have said they will only close shelters once alternative space is found. But when Randall closed in southwest, no alternative in the area was found. There are troubling signs that Franklin could end up the same way. The city says that every effort is being made to find alternative space for Franklin’s residents. It’s good to know they’re trying to head off a disaster, but it sounds like too little, too late, considering the difficulty of finding anywhere to put a shelter, even a temporary one, as city officials have often explained. Last spring we heard about plans to close Franklin and turn the building into a “hip hotel.” Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Stanley Jackson has moved ahead on this deal, while city officials responsible for helping homeless people have been playing
See
FRANKLIN, page 17