District officials last week fielded questions from local leaders about the city’s decision to move some E Street encampment residents into The Aston unhoused shelter days after they cleared the area.
Community Advisory Team co-chair Sakina Thompson said at an Community Advisory Team meeting last week that federal funding for The Aston, a short-term shelter on New Hampshire Ave., is contingent on officials offering some of the shelter’s spots to people living in encampments that the District clears. Following a “full clean up” of an encampment near the E Street Expressway on March 7, CAT members asked officials about how individuals relocating from encampments to The Aston are integrated into the program’s structure.
“It’s not a new priority, but The Aston is and was intended to come online to be one of the resources that would be available when encampments close,” Thompson said.
Last month, President Donald Trump called for increased federal oversight over the District to combat crime and decrease the presence of unhoused encampments, which District advocates said would not mitigate crime or the number of people experiencing homelessness.
On March 5, Trump publicly called on D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to close all of the District’s encampments.
“She must clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City, specifically the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House. If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her!” his March 5 Truth Social post states.
D.C. Department of Human Services Deputy Administrator Anthony Newman confirmed at the meeting that residents of the encampment on E Street were offered spaces at The Aston.
Thompson said “humanely” clearing homeless encampments has always been one of Bowser’s priorities, and The Aston adds another resource when they are cleared out.
“The mayor believes very strongly, and always has, that it is not healthy, it is not safe, it is not humane for people to live unsheltered or in encampments,” Thompson said.
At previous meetings, District officials underscored The Aston’s ability to support populations that D.C.’s housing resources don’t serve — like mixed gender couples, families with adult children and those who are medically vulnerable — because of the shelter’s non-communal style.
Officials select Aston tenants through D.C.’s Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement process, and residents must agree to work with case managers who will help them transfer into more affordable permanent housing through friends or family, rapid rehousing, federal or veteran resources or Project Reconnect, according to a DHS handout distributed at a September CAT meeting.
Newman said if people impacted by encampment closures accept a spot at The Aston, they still meet with a case manager while they stay at The Aston. Newman said The Aston’s onboarding and selection process happens at an “accelerated rate” in such instances.
“One hundred percent no matter how you come in, everyone still has to participate in case management, and everyone has to have an exit plan as soon as they come in,” Newman said.
Thompson said The Aston doesn’t require tenants to be matched to a permanent housing resource, but they must participate in the case management program and have an exit plan — a distinction from other bridge shelter resources in the District.
“Previously, we have only offered bridge housing to persons who are already in line for a permanent housing resource,” Thompson said
She said when tenants move into The Aston, even without a permanent housing resource lined up, they are more connected to the housing system, which can help them access additional resources.
“The more you’re connected into our continuum of care, the more likely you are to find a way to connect to the housing resources,” Thompson said.
District officials at the meeting also addressed questions about the two-day power outage that left hundreds of West End residents, including The Aston, without heat and power. After a fire broke out in a manhole at New Hampshire Avenue and M Street, the Potomac Electric Power Company restored power to residents about two days later, the electric company said.
In an email to members of the Community Advisory Team, Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto asked The Aston’s Assistant Director Natasha Charles and the Department of Human Services to ensure Aston residents had access to “the resources they need.”
Newman said DHS transported all of The Aston’s tenants to nearby hotels with their medication, clothing and necessarily items.
“We were able to successfully move people out of the building in an expeditious way, and we turned them back on Sunday,” Newman said. “No one was required to be in the building without heat.”
Rene Biel, the Foggy Bottom Association designee to the CAT, asked if the District will consider installing a generator at The Aston as a preventative measure for future power outages.
Newman said The Aston does have a generator, but it only has the capacity to provide emergency power for life-saving electrical measures. He said the power outage in West End was “unprecedented,” and the District does not have plans to install a different generator.
The shelter has also operated since November with a temporary Certificate of Occupancy, which the city initially didn’t grant due to a failed building inspection and issues receiving the certificate, which caused the fifth delay of more than a year of delays to the shelter’s opening.
John Stokes, the associate director of external affairs at the Department of General Services, said the District is on track to receive the Certificate of Occupancy in April.
Newman said as of last Monday, The Aston housed 56 tenants. He said officials are working to up the shelter’s capacity to 100 tenants, as decided by the CAT’s vote at the February meeting. Newman said tenants will be admitted to The Aston on a rolling basis, and the facility aims to reach capacity in the next two weeks.
Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff David Ross at DHS Tyler Edge also presented a draft of The Aston’s website to the local body. The non legally-binding Good Neighbor Agreement states that DHS planned to create a website with information on the shelter ahead of its opening.
Edge helped craft The Aston’s website, and the preliminary draft presented at the CAT includes a concern form, archives of all recordings of CAT meetings and a breakdown of The Aston’s services. Members of the CAT offered suggestions to the website like including the next meeting date on the home page and centering information about The Aston’s services, rather than the CAT itself.
Thompson said the website is not publicly available yet, and officials don’t currently have a firm launch date.
