District officials on Monday forecasted an unhoused shelter near campus to open next month despite recent rumblings from the shelter’s provider of further delays.
D.C. Department of Human Services Deputy Administrator Anthony Newman said officials are “still moving forward” with plans to open The Aston — a former GW residence hall on New Hampshire Avenue — in late August, but said outstanding projects like replacing pipes and remodeling community rooms prevent officials from confirming an opening date. The president of Friendship Place, the District-based housing provider for unhoused people that is supervising The Aston, unofficially pushed back the estimated completion date from August to October last month.
District officials originally slated The Aston’s opening for November 2023 but later moved the projected opening date to this summer due to extensive construction projects and difficulties determining a provider.
Newman said on Monday that The Aston’s opening in August is “definitely a possibility” but he anticipates the shelter will not be ready until closer to the end of the month.
“There are a lot of variables in giving hard dates, which is why we tend to talk in terms of ‘late summer,’ ‘early spring,’ ‘sometime this fall,’ as opposed to saying something like ‘September 1st,'” Newman said.
Devante White, a representative from the D.C. Department of General Services, said department officials started overseeing plumbing replacements at The Aston after they selected Capital Construction to complete the work in May. He said the process for completion — which involves soliciting someone to complete the work, adjusting completion based on feedback from workers bidding for the job, walkthroughs and a selection process and contract — took longer than expected but is now underway.
“We’re still within the window of when we want to get it done,” White said. “Yes, we had different dates in the past, but that was the reason.”
White said DGS is also checking that all fire extinguishers, fire controls, fire suppression systems and elevators are installed and compliant with D.C. housing regulations.
“It will take some time, but we plan on, again, having it by late summer,” White said.
