How The DC Winter Plan For Families Really Evolved

After I posted my account of how the District’s winter plan for homeless families evolved, I got an e-mail from Chapman Todd, who chairs the Operations & Logistics Committee. Chapman is a consultant on housing development and one of the advocate members of the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Chapman informed me that I had misunderstood both the role of the Committee in the now-superseded proposal to add overflow spaces at DC General and what the Committee told the Department of Human Services about estimated need.

So to set the record straight …

#1. DHS did add the 100 overflow units at DC General in response to Committee concerns about potentially inadequate capacity for families. But it did so without consulting the Committee. Committee members in fact had previously recommended against any further expansion at DC General.

At an early point, DHS indicated that it had identified a smaller building elsewhere in the city that could be used to temporarily house families if DC General had no available units. This alternative subsequently dropped out of the evolving plan. Another member of the Committee has reported rumors that it fell victim to political pressures — a Councilmember representing her ”not in my backyard” constituents.

#2. The Committee estimated only additional spaces needed. It did not assume that DHS would be able to move 100 families out of DC General by November 1. Nor did it assume this would mean that 100 units would be available then. So the accurate estimate is 215 units, plus however many are occupied when the hypothermia season begins.

This clearly is an unknown. Hence concerns — mine among them — about whether DHS will in fact be able to accommodate all homeless families by adding to its stock of subsidized housing, while retaining only existing emergency shelter space.

I should add that my concerns are greater now because I’ve learned that DHS has distributed all the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing funds it received under the economic recovery act.

Some providers that received the funds have not yet exhausted their allocations. But the remaining funds will probably be needed to provide further assistance to families who are already depending on HPRRP for housing.

Funds could be totally exhausted before the end of the winter season. Which, of course, would mean more families in need of emergency shelter or other subsidized housing.

The DC Council Committee on Human Services held a hearing on the winter plan on Wednesday. Several witnesses, including members of the Interagency Council, said that DHS needed a back-up plan. Councilmember Tommy Wells, who chairs the committee, seemed to think so as well.

All that DHS Director Clarence Carter could say was that his agency would continue monitoring needs and “sound the alarm” if additional resources are needed.

Whether they’ll be forthcoming and, if so, how soon is an open question. But we’re likely to have the answer in the months ahead.

Next Round In the DC Homeless Services Crisis

This Wednesday at noon, the DC Council Committee on Human Services will hold a roundtable hearing on the District’s winter plan. Or at least that’s the formal topic for the hearing. The dialogue will undoubtedly be broader because, at this point, what’s at stake is the longer-term future of homeless services in D.C.

Since the hearing was scheduled:

• Homeless service providers have been told that their contracts will be reduced by an average of 30%. Five shelter providers have warned that their clients are at immediate risk. One has said her organization will have to close a housing program for families.
• Interested parties have locked horns on the size of the homeless services budget cut. We’ve now learned that it’s apparently somewhat over $12 million. Most of this cut represents funds in the federal block grant for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. These were formerly used to supplement the local homeless services appropriation but have been diverted to other programs.
• Clarence Carter, head of the DC Human Services Department, has issued a statement committing only to funding for the shelter capacity and other services identified in the winter plan, capped at the Fiscal Year 2009 level. No assurance that any funds will be available for the rest of the year.
• Some Councilmembers, including Tommy Wells, Chairman of the Human Services Committee, have expressed dismay at this turn of events.

So the hearing promises to be lively and potentially consequential.

A coalition of homeless service providers, advocates and homeless people has scheduled a press conference on the steps of the John A. Wilson building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, at 11:00 a.m. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about what’s happening and likely to happen if the Council or administration higher-ups don’t step in to restore the homeless services budget.

You can influence the outcome of this crisis by calling or e-mailing Mayor Fenty, the City Administrator and members of the Human Services Committee. Contact information for committee members is in the Council directory.

Also attend the press conference and/or hearing if you can. A big turnout will show Councilmembers that their constituents care about the safety and well-being of their homeless neighbors.

Revised Winter Shelter Plan Still Iffy For Homeless DC Families

The Interagency Council on Homelessness met last month to consider the District’s plan for sheltering homeless individuals and families during the winter months ahead. The plan before the Council indicated considerably more shelter capacity for families than the draft I wrote about awhile ago.

What we see now proposes a total of 228 family shelter units, plus 73 new units of permanent supportive housing. Of the shelter units, 128 are open year round. (These weren’t reflected in the prior draft.) An additional 75 units are designated as winter-only, and up to 25 more would open if these were full.

Last year, the plan says, a total of 210 family units were available during the hypothermia season. The District’s 2009 homeless count report says there were 237 units. So capacity for the upcoming season would be increased by either 30% or 21%. That’s a lot, by either measure. Is it enough? Who knows?

What we do know is that:

• As many as 37 of the family units the plan designates as winter-only have been used this summer because all the year-round units have been full. So they’re not all really additional seasonal capacity, as the winter plan says.
• All family units currently available have been full virtually every night since at least the beginning of September.
• As of the latest published report, there were 382 families on the shelter waiting list–81 more than the total number of shelter units, plus PSH units in the winter plan.
• Only 16 more PSH units are scheduled to open before November. The remainder included in the winter plan are already occupied and thus not additional space.
• The Fenty administration has just cut the homeless services budget by $20 million. Advocates say that families now in emergency shelter units included in the winter plan are at immediate risk of eviction.

The committee charged with developing the winter plan faces a difficult challenge. One truly can’t know how many homeless people will need shelter on any given night. But for individual men and women, the committee projected need as 110% of the maximum number of beds used last winter.

I’ve been told the same can’t be done for families. I’ve tried hard to find out why. One reason, it seems, is that the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, which handles intake and placement for all homeless D.C. families, sends some to accommodations that aren’t part of the daily reports used for the winter plan. I gather they’re not in these reports because the providers serve only certain types of homeless families, e.g., victims of domestic violence. Why figures from the FRC records couldn’t be used to project need is an open question.

A further stumbling block for the winter plan is the District’s intent to make better use of transitional housing. But there’s no plan that indicates how many families could be diverted from the shelter system, in part because transitional housing providers have various eligibility requirements. And the new homeless services budget cut may impact them too.

The District also expects to ramp up its services to prevent homelessness, thanks to the $7.4 million for homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing that  it received under the federal economic recovery act. But here again, no numbers to indicate how this will affect needs for emergency shelter.

ICH didn’t adopt the proposed winter plan, as expected. A majority of advocates on the Council wouldn’t vote for it–for reasons having nothing to do with the family numbers. The City Administrator, Neal Albert, and Clarence Carter, head of the DC Human Services Department, were clearly frustrated.

Carter kept repeating that what really matters is the administration’s commitment to protect homeless people from cold weather. If there’s not enough capacity, he said, “we’ll bring more on.” Let’s assume that’s true, notwithstanding the huge budget cut.

We’re still left with a serious issue about the projections that will be used for the winter plan. After all, the District won’t be able to contract for more family shelter space overnight.

And if a mere assurance that the administration will fulfill its legal obligations is good enough, then what do we need a winter plan–or a multi-stakeholder Council–for anyway?