Why Is Families Forward Still Running D.C. General?
The entity that manages the shelter at D.C. General is called Families Forward, Inc. The organization, based at 1012 14th St. NW Suite 105, boasts that it operates a full-service facility manned round-the-clock by staff. In other words, it runs the Mandarin Oriental of homeless shelters:
"Families receive 24-hour services, which include shelter, meals, case management, outplacement services and aftercare services....The Family Development Advocate tracks program graduates for a period of 90 days up to one year. Contact is made with graduates, employers and outplacement service providers no less than once each month to identify issues that might otherwise cause loss of employment or the reoccurrence of displacement. The program complements this one on one support with regular workshops, which graduates attend to attain added preparation and support."
Shelter residents have a different take.
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The Blotter: Yes! We’re Robbing You
Bias Attack: Wielding a pipe, a man allegedly went after two transgender individuals on March 13. Via MPD listserv, Sergeant Carlos Mejia says the two victims were in the area of 14th and Shepherd Streets NW when a suspect decided to club them with metal. He says cops discovered the suspect attacked the victims because of their gender identity. One of the victims sustained injuries from the attack and received medical treatment, he says. The suspect was arrested on the scene.
Though a Fourth District arrest report confirms that a suspect, referred to as D. Melgar, was arrested at the time and place Mejia indicates in his post, the report doesn't say Melgar was slapped with an assault charge. Instead, it reads that Melgar is being charged with "THREATS (FELONY)." MPD has not yet responded to multiple requests to clarify what charges the alleged assaulter will face. Read More "The Blotter: Yes! We’re Robbing You" »
D.C. General: Weed, Stench, And Staff Come-Ons
Pamela Hawk, a resident of the shelter at D.C. General, had raised enough complaints and gotten nowhere. So yesterday morning she decided to e-mail Mayor Adrian Fenty about the living conditions there. The letter spanned six long, single-spaced paragraphs. She spared no detail.
"I wanted my voice to be heard," Hawk tells City Desk. "I could not wait to get up, get to the library at 9:30 a.m. to press that send button. It felt like a relief. ... I was sitting outside the library before it opened."
Hawk, 26, wrote that she and her three daughters moved into D.C. General on Jan. 27. They were placed in a cafeteria with 17 other families where they slept on air mattresses that wouldn't properly inflate. "At night my daughters and I had to sleep very close to each other to stay warm, because the room was so frigid," Hawk wrote.
Hawk says the cafeteria would get so cold at night, she'd sometimes go outside and warm her family in their car. They'd bundle up, crank the heat for an hour or two, then go back to their wilting air mattresses. In the car, there was a sense of peace. Not so, the cafeteria.
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Is Don Peebles Ready to Run?
Scuttlebutt this week has centered around D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray possibly announcing a mayoral run this week. But developer R. Donahue Peebles remains very much in the mix.
A hint that the wheels are in motion: Asher Corson, an ambitious young Foggy Bottom activist and staffer for Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, resigned from his council job last Wednesday.
Corson has developed close ties to Peebles, dating back to the megadeveloper's pursuit of the Stevens School redevelopment project. Peebles ended up losing the bid, but not before getting the endorsement of the Foggy Bottom Association, of which Corson is president.
Marion Barry Now Driving a Corolla, Owes $465 in Tickets
LL, preeminent chronicler of Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's transportation as he is, has a wheels-related update.
Barry, it seems, has returned the 1997 Mercedes E320 he'd been driving to its owner, the Rev. Anthony Motley. In its place, he has opted for more a spartan whip: He arrived at the John A. Wilson Building this morning is an early-'90s vintage Toyota Corolla.
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The Running Man: Loose Lips Daily
As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---'Ted Loza Speaks: ‘This Is Bulls--t’'; 'Harry Thomas Gets Booted, Blames Fenty'; 'Bowser Moves to Reform D.C. Open Meetings Law'; ''; 'How Did D.C. General Get So Crowded? One Family Tells All'; 'Newborn Dies at the D.C. General Shelter'; and tweets galore!
Morning all. WUSA-TV's Bruce Johnson reported yesterday, citing city hall sources, that D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray will be joining the mayoral race in the coming days. On camera, and in a statement, Gray brushed off the report. But inside the council chambers yesterday for a DCPS oversight hearing, Gray certainly sounded like a man with his mind on higher office. He repeatedly deployed the 'One City' trope that won him the chairmanship, and he found a willing audience in RIF'd teachers (some bearing 'I Am Not a Child Molester' T-shirts) and Hardy Middle School parents and students---who marched on Freedom Plaza, decrying the ouster of beloved principal Patrick Pope and comparing Chancellor Michelle Rhee to Harry Potter villain Delores Umbridge. Usually a stickler for decorum, Gray minded not at all yesterday when hearing attendees applauded as witnesses took shot after shot at Rhee---she'll be testifying next week, in a separate hearing.
AFTER THE JUMP---City parking-ticket revenues are lagging; attention DCPS teachers: it may soon be a firing offense to have sex with your students; more cash needed for Capital Gains; Lieberman could force Senate voucher vote
Our Morning Roundup: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Finally, Mayor Adrian Fenty is talking about jobs. I'm sure LL will have much more on this. But I wanted to get the discussion started. Last night, Fenty announced a joint effort with the Washington Interfaith Network to train the unemployed in home weatherizing and then put them to work on area homes. Doesn't this just seem a little small? WaPo writes:
"In a city where the unemployment rate recently reached 12 percent, the announcement at Covenant Baptist Church east of the Anacostia River is a big deal, organizers said. The network, known as WIN, and the mayor will pledge to weatherize for free between 2,000 and 4,000 homes of low income residents to cut their energy bills, and it will train and hire up to 700 unemployed residents to do the work."
In translation: the mayor and WIN will hire about 700 workers for seasonal, non-union, temp jobs. But the pay is good, as WaPo reports: "Rev. Lionel Edmonds, pastor of Mount Lebanon Baptist Church and a co-founder of WIN, said the jobs will pay $13.25 to $25 per hour, depending on the task." And Edmonds is a long-time do-gooder who isn't afraid to speak out against government mismanagement and lead a fight against a troubled D.C. Police Chief. I just wish their efforts to lower the unemployment rate were bolder.
Ted Loza Speaks: ‘This Is Bullshit’
LL cycled down through the drizzle to the District's federal courthouse this morning to catch a hearing in the Ted Loza bribery case.
Things have been rather quiet in the prosecution of Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's former chief of staff, and LL was hoping prosecutors might be filing the new charges they've indicated that might be on the way. Alas, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb told LL no such charges would be forthcoming today.
So LL turned around and left, exiting through the courthouse annex. A few steps up 3rd Street NW, lo and behold, was Loza, running late for his 10:15 hearing. It was the first time LL had encountered him since his arrest.
A Newborn Died at the D.C. General Shelter in February
A newborn was found unconscious at the D.C. General family shelter on the morning of Feb. 9. The baby girl was rushed to Children's Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Beverly Fields, the spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, tells City Desk that the cause and manner of the child's death are still pending.
D.C. Police Assistant Chief Peter Newsham says the baby had no signs of infection and that the autopsy had showed no signs of trauma. "The baby was alone in a bassinet," he says.
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Virginia AG Provides Legal Advice To Birther Freaks
Another reason to hate VA. The state has awesome libraries and awesome parks. Even Richmond is kinda cool. But the state also has one lousy Attorney General. In what appears to be a recent interview, the newly elected AG Ken Cuccinelli tried to align himself with the birthers. HuffPo has the interview in which Cuccinelli is asked about Obama's birth certificate, etc:
"Q: How can we get proof?
Cuccinelli: Well... that's a good question. Not one I've thought a lot about because it hasn't been part of my campaign. I mean, someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is. You know, the speculation is Kenya. And that doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility."
Whatever happened to a state AG just being tough on crime and not worrying about a president's birth certificate or having to cater to the right wing fringe?
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