Yesterday, Amber Harding of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless (WLCH) offered testimony at the Committee on Human Services’ roundtable on DC’s “Winter Plan” for protecting the lives of homeless residents this upcoming winter.
Amber was kind enough to share her testimony with the District Dime. Her testimony highlights how the District’s Winter Plan places far more barriers to homeless families seeking shelter than on homeless individuals. You can find the full text of Amber’s testimony on WLCH’s blog. The remainder of this blog post is excerpted from Amber’s testimony.
For individuals, the Winter Plan presumes that there will be nights that all beds will be filled and that overflow single adult shelters will be on standby. There is no overflow commitment in the Plan for families, despite the fact that DC General fills up every year. While DHS has verbally committed to place families in hotels or motels if DC General fills up, it has not communicated any details to the community regarding how quickly the hotels will be brought online or how food, case management and transportation will be provided to these families.
For singles, the intake process for severe weather shelter is simple, operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and presumes eligibility. The person states that he is homeless and needs shelter. No verification or documentation is required. For families, the intake process is onerous, operates 6-7 hours a day 5 days a week, and presumes ineligibility. Families”¦are often told there is no space in shelter and to try back another day’despite their desperation and despite their legal right to shelter that night.
Severe weather shelters for individuals are low barrier and easy to access for a very good reason’as a community we have decided that we should not erect bureaucratic barriers to shelter when the risks of even discouraging shelter are so significant. Our community would not possibly support taking that risk when small children are in danger of freezing’yet that is how our system runs and how it has run for years.
The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless believes that DC is running a shelter program that is outside of the law. In order to come into compliance with the law and reduce the risks to the lives of DC families, DHS must do the following:
- Be ready to implement a back-up plan for families the moment DC General fills up.
- Beginning today, reach out to all families experiencing housing crises to make sure they are encouraged to enter shelter this winter if they have no safe place to go.
- Prepare written directives to hotline workers and DC General staff instructing them to facilitate transportation and entry to DC General or hotels/motels immediately if a family applies for shelter after FRC is closed. Families should be placed into shelter immediately and then referred to receive a full assessment, including eligibility, on the next business day.
- Prepare written protocol/script for intake specialists at the Family Resource Center to reduce the number of unlawful denials of shelter to families and to clarify that families should be placed even if they do not present with documents to verify eligibility factors.
- Provide written notice of eligibility to all families. The Homeless Services Reform Act and its regulations require that written notice of eligibility or placement denials are provided to every applicant. DHS has agreed to do this, but families are not receiving such notice.
- Exempt families from the residency requirements of the Homeless Services Reform Act during Hypothermia Season.
- Use Office of Shelter Monitoring to test the compliance of the Family Resource Center and the hotline throughout the season. DHS should regularly test compliance and enforce its directives and the law through additional focused training, personnel disciplinary recommendations and contract penalties or termination, if necessary.
