District Court Delays Decision to Reopen Homeless Shelter

Former residents of the Franklin Shelter in downtown D.C. have sued Mayor Adrien Fenty for closing the homeless shelter in September. Advocates for the homeless demanding that the city reopen the Franklin Shelter, the only downtown shelter available to D.C. residents, faced yet another setback Friday in D.C. Superior Court.

The shelter, located at 13th and K Streets, provided beds, job counseling, psychiatric and psychological referrals, addiction counseling and medical services for up to 300 men on any given night. It was closed on Sept. 26 2008 by Fenty as part of a plan to find permanent housing for the homeless.

“The days when it was good enough to put our homeless in shelters are no more. Franklin Shelter houses people in a congregate way, which is outdated: human beings living on top of each other,” said Fenty of closing the shelter, according to The Washington Post.

A group of former Franklin Shelter residents and legal advocates filed suit requesting that the court intervene and reopen the shelter. Though Superior Court Judge Brooke Hedge allowed the litigation to move forward after a hearing on Friday, she declined to issue an emergency injunction reversing the closure of the shelter and stressed that the plaintiffs were not likely to win the case after trial.

“I’m not a legislator. I have no authority to [reopen the shelter],” Hedge said in court. “I just don’t think you have a substantial chance of success.”

In the suit, plaintiffs argue that it was irresponsible to close the shelter during the winter and claim that the residents of the Franklin Shelter have been placed in inhumane environments. Plaintiffs cited complaints of roaches in many of the alternative housing options, issues of fecal matter in the restrooms at night and violence in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“Most of the placements of the supportive housing program are now in Wards 7, 8 and 5, which are the poorest and most violent areas of the city, with the least amount of services available,” said the plaintiffs in the suit.

When the closure was announced, almost 200 protesters gathered in front of the shelter, stopping traffic, and saying that Fenty had not provided enough alternative places for the residents to go.

According to The Washington Post, prior to the closing of the Franklin Shelter, 53 residents of the 300-bed shelter were moved into taxpayer-subsidized apartments, while the others were sent to other shelters around the city, including St. Elizabeth’s Recovery Residence in Southeast D.C. Many refused to go to, arguing that other D.C. shelters were too far away from their downtown jobs and the social services they use, such as soup kitchens and health clinics. Still others, said the plaintiffs, were turned away from shelters that were already full.

“There are former inhabitants of the Franklin Shelter that are now sleeping on the streets of downtown D.C., including some with mental or physical impairments, that are now in increased danger of hypothermia and in increased danger of being victims of violence as a result of Franklin Shelter’s untimely closing” said Eric Sheptock, a former resident of the shelter, at Friday’s hearing.

Fenty, a Democrat, has maintained as part of his Housing First initiative that finding stable living arrangements for the homeless is a top priority and states that closing the Franklin Shelter is an important part of this new focus.

“Rather than simply meeting the survival needs of individuals and families by providing blankets and shelter, we are engaging individuals in our system to address the root causes of homelessness,” Fenty said in a press release after the Franklin Shelter closed.

Jane Zara, a lawyer representing the former residents of the Franklin Shelter, challenged the justification for the mayor’s actions.

“Fenty has thus far failed to provide any rationale or economic analysis for closing Franklin Shelter so abruptly on the eve of hypothermia season,” said Zara.

In September, the D.C. Council blocked Fenty’s proposal to close Franklin shelter by Oct. 1 2008 and filed The Franklin Shelter Closing Emergency Act of 2008 on Sept. 16, requiring that the mayor issue a report describing where the former Franklin Shelter residents would be placed, before the council would allow him to close the shelter.

“The needs of the homeless in downtown D.C. are not being adequately met by the Permanent Supportive Housing Program,” Sheptock said. “The transportation to other shelters has been inadequate … not showing up reliably when scheduled, leaving former inhabitants of Franklin shelter in danger of losing employment opportunities.”

Zara said the mayor is skirting the council’s requirements. “The mayor is playing games — there were certain requirements set by the council that the mayor had to do before he closed the shelter, but we allege the mayor still has not satisfied the requirements and is continuing to break the law,” Zara said.

Zara says she hopes that recent developments will help the suit establish that Fenty’s actions had caused substantial harm to the former residents of the Franklin Shelter. Yoshio Nakada, who had lived at the shelter, was beaten to death as he slept in a sleeping bag near the Watergate complex on Christmas Eve. Another hearing will be held today, at which the plaintiffs said they plan to challenge some of the judge’s assertions and case law introduced earlier in the case. Still, Zara acknowledged that both the D.C. Council and the court seemed unlikely to intervene.

“We know it’s a David vs. Goliath battle,” said Zara. “We liken it to Goldberg v. Kelley,” she said, referring to the Supreme Court case that requires an evidentiary hearing before a recipient of government benefits loses those benefits.

Should her efforts fail, Zara stressed that there is still more that can be done for the homeless in D.C.

“If we don’t get Franklin Shelter reopened, we hope to get other services opened downtown for people in need,” she said.