District officials said on Monday they have not yet solidified a new opening date for The Aston unhoused shelter, which they most recently set for Oct. 1 but delayed for the fifth time after the building failed an inspection.
Sakina Thompson, the interim co-chair to the Community Advisory Team, said she could not share a projected date for the unhoused shelter’s opening because officials have not determined how long it will take to fix building code violations, which will require them to upgrade the fire alarm system and exit doors in the stairwells. After more than 10 months of delays, officials most recently projected the shelter’s opening for Oct. 1, and members of the CAT said they worry the shelter won’t open by the start of hypothermia season on November 1.
“We are not recommending that we give a specific timeline tonight, because it doesn’t serve us to put out a date when we don’t have the certainty,” Thompson said.
Courtney Cooperman, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission appointee to the CAT, asked if officials expect to open The Aston by hypothermia season, even if they are unable to provide an exact date.
Two people experiencing homelessness died from hypothermia or cold exposure in the District last year, per the fiscal year 2025 winter plan by the D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Thompson said officials are “hopeful” that they will be able to open the unhoused shelter before the start of hypothermia season, but will need to complete all upgrades first. She said upgrading the fire alarms will also require officials to purchase additional parts to adjust the elevators, which have not arrived.
Thompson said officials “received and installed” sufficient door closers, and while officials received the closers “faster” than expected, the parts were only “one of the significant items” officials are waiting to arrive.
“We are early in the process of a list of things that came up during the inspection,” Thompson said.
Thompson said at a September CAT meeting that in order for tenants to move into the building, D.C. Department of General Services must address all code violations and the building inspectors must then return to reinspect and approve the changes. She said the D.C. Department of Human Services must then apply for a Certificate of Occupancy, which allows tenants to legally move in, transfer the certificate to the District and allow Friendship Place, The Aston’s provider, to move in.
Thompson said on Monday that she didn’t think the CAT meeting was an appropriate forum for officials to detail the “laundry list” of items DGS is working through to ensure The Aston can open, but she said would share a full list via email with members of the CAT.
“We realize at this point, we want to get it right,” said John Stokes, the associate director of external affairs at DGS. “We want to follow the law, and we’ll have to wait for those parts to come in again. These were unforeseen things that came up, but we are moving expeditiously and safely.”
ANC Chair and 2A03 Commissioner Trupti Patel said given the shelter’s ongoing delays, the 50 person move-in system — where after 50 residents have moved into The Aston, officials will evaluate how residents are adjusting to the space and potentially raise the capacity to 100 people — should be “renegotiated.”
“We’ve gone on over a year delaying on this project. And I’m not going to lie to you, I’m pretty frustrated, because the longer this gets delayed, the longer people have to stay unhoused, weathering these housing conditions.”
Patel said she’d like officials to raise the starting occupancy number to 100 given ongoing delays. She said if the shelter has the capacity to house 100 people, District officials should expedite the process to allow more people to move in quickly.
“I don’t think that there’s any humanity in any of us if we sit here and we deliberately allow people to remain unhoused when we have a building that is going online and can go to capacity,” she said.
Patel said while she understands officials negotiated starting occupancy numbers outside of the CAT and included stakeholder voices like community members, but she believes it is not fair to keep unhoused people outside when the shelter could reach a higher capacity if the terms were renegotiated.
“I would like to see some of our stakeholders have a backbone, because this is the most vulnerable citizens on our street,” Patel said. “And for people to say on this call, ‘Well, this is something that’s been negotiated with other stakeholders.’ I think we can renegotiate.”
Co-chair to the CAT Jim Malec said he thinks it is too late and beyond the scope of the CAT to renegotiate the initial number of people slated to move into The Aston.
“In my mind, it would be difficult at this stage of the game to go back and renegotiate that, because we’ve set community expectations for what this ramp up is going to look like,” Malec said.
West End Citizen Association Designee Sheila Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Miriam’s Kitchen Scott Schenkelberg and Linn Groft, a legislative director for D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto, said they echoed Malec’s concerns about the scope of the CAT and the timeline of the negotiations, but agreed with Patel’s desire to prioritize ensuring unhoused people can seek shelter during cold months.
Jean-Michel Giraud — the president and CEO of Friendship Place — said he would like the CAT and other stakeholders to continue considering the effects The Aston’s delay and limited initial capacity will have on unhoused people.
“The cold is coming, and there are people who, because of this decision and the delay, will be on the street longer in winter,” Giraud said. “So I would encourage everybody to be flexible and to get people in as quickly as we can.”
DHS Deputy Administrator Anthony Newman said officials finished the program rules for The Aston, which he thinks are in “good shape.”
Newman said one rule is that residents are not permitted to bring drugs or alcohol into the building to ensure everyone living in The Aston is protected, including those who may be maintaining sobriety.
“We do not allow drugs and alcohol in any of the DHS managed and run facilities as a matter of practice,” Newman said.
Co-chairs Thompson and Malec also brought the latest version of the Good Neighbor Agreement — a document that outlines the shared goals and responsibility of residents living in The Aston unhoused shelter and the building’s neighbors — to a vote. The CAT officially approved the agreement, with all of the 13 CAT members in attendance voting in favor of the final version. Two members did not attend the meeting.
“I’m really proud of this,” Malec said. “I think it balances a lot of different perspectives. I think it takes many different silos of feedback into consideration. I think it covers a lot of ground.”
