Updated: Aug. 19, 2024, at 6:44 p.m.
District officials last week said an unhoused shelter near campus will begin admitting residents by early October, wrapping up nine months of delays opening the facility.
The Aston, a former GW residence hall on New Hampshire Avenue, will open its doors to unhoused residents between mid-September and early October, and start accepting program referrals from service providers on Sept. 9, D.C. Department of Human Services Deputy Administrator Anthony Newman announced at a Community Advisory Team meeting on Aug. 12. The announcement comes after Newman predicted in July that the shelter would open by late August, and marks the fourth time officials have moved the opening date since slating its opening for November 2023.
Newman said DHS officials have attended two meetings hosted by the Interagency Council on Homelessness to inform service providers on when and how to refer their clients to the shelter program. He said DHS will meet on Aug. 21 with members of the Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement team — which arranges referrals to transitional and permanent housing programs — to outline criteria for entry into the program.
The Aston is a specialty shelter as opposed to a low-barrier facility, meaning people may have to submit certain documents like sobriety tests or background checks to gain entry. The Aston will provide beds to medically vulnerable unhoused people.
Newman said DHS is aiming to move five to 10 people into The Aston each day until the shelter reaches capacity. The Aston is projected to house 30 women and up to 100 men, though the space will initially offer just 50 beds for men, according to a timeline DHS shared at an ICH meeting in May.
Roughly 70 percent of unhoused people in the United States identify as men and 29 percent identify as women, the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported in a 2018 point-in-time count.
“When you move folks in, you have to hotbox your materials, you have to explain program rules to people, you have to get them acclimated, so it won’t be 50 on the first day,” Newman said.
Department of General Services Associate Director of External Affairs John Stokes said The Aston received a plumbing permit, which allowed DGS to begin work to replace sewer drain lines for the sinks, dishwashers and bathtubs. He said officials expect to complete the work before residents move in.
In April 2022, GW students who lived in The Aston before officials sold the building to D.C. in July 2023 reported flooding, frequent water outages and leaks.
Stokes said DGS will also fully replace The Aston’s roof, adding that officials are in the process of hiring a contractor which they expect to solidify by the end of the year. The announcement comes after the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission passed a resolution in May and two resolutions in April urging the D.C. Council to provide funding for a new roof in Fiscal Year 2025.
In July 2023, DGS conducted an asset condition assessment of The Aston and determined the roof needed “immediate replacement.”
2A03 ANC Chair Trupti Patel said people raised concerns about The Aston’s HVAC system, which she brought to At-Large D.C. Councilmember Robert White, who chairs the council’s Committee on Housing. She asked if DGS needs additional funding for other building repairs like a new HVAC system, and Stokes said he wasn’t aware of any current issues with the system.
Courtney Cooperman, a Community Advisory Team member and housing advocacy adviser for the National Low Income Housing Coalition, asked if there would be an “open house” for The Aston before it begins accepting residents. Newman said after DGS finishes the plumbing work and Friendship Place, The Aston’s provider, begins managing the shelter in September, officials plan to schedule an open house.
“It’s a little early to pick a date, but that is absolutely something we’ll want to do,” Newman said.
Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto thanked Community Advisory Team members, community partners and Friendship Place for their work developing a Good Neighbor Agreement for The Aston, which outlines shared responsibilities of tenants and neighbors. She said The Aston’s opening will mark the first time D.C. has implemented “bridge housing” — a short-term shelter program — and can serve as a model for the city going forward.
Community Advisory Team Co-Chair Jim Malec said he and Interim Co-Chair Sakinah Thompson accepted 1,300 revisions from members to the original Good Neighbor Agreement draft.
Newman said he and Linn Groft, Pinto’s legislative director, developed a list of data points they think could help the Community Advisory Team and community members track The Aston’s success in the neighborhood, including any 911 calls for “unusual incidents,” noise and DGS facility issues. He said officials will also provide updates to the community on how residents are settling into The Aston after the first eight weeks of operations.
Maria Valleca, a Community Advisory Team member, suggested officials create a dashboard to track updates on The Aston’s residents, open houses, volunteer opportunities and facility concerns. She said people in the neighborhood are interested in the success of the shelter, but some are also concerned about a “degraded” quality of life following the shelter’s opening.
“When people start worrying, it’s when there’s not transparency,” Valleca said.
Malec asked Newman to outline in the document what information on The Aston community members can expect to have access to.
“We should understand what this looks like, what kind of data points we are talking about,” Malec said. “We’ve talked about that in these meetings, but it hasn’t made it into the text yet.”
Malec said he would like to schedule a meeting for the community to ask Community Advisory Team members about the Good Neighbor Agreement, and members agreed to try and schedule something for the week after Labor Day at the West End Neighborhood Library.
The Community Advisory Team unanimously consented to add an additional meeting to the calendar on Sept. 23 for members to vote on the Good Neighbor Agreement.
This post has been updated to correct the following:
The Hatchet incorrectly identified Maria Valleca as a guest at the meeting. Valleca is a Community Advisory Team member. We regret this error.
