D.C. Village Finally Closes

The Washington Post reported today on Mayor Fenty’s press conference heralding the removal of families from the decrepit shelter and their placement into transitional housing.

That’s good news. But city officials should have closed D.C. Village as homeless shelter years ago. Councilmember Marion Barry, who attended the press conference, should be ashamed of himself. D.C. Village, located in the far southwest corner of Ward 8, was part of his domain. He has presided over that shithole, and should have done more and worked harder to shutter that facility.

D.C. Village has been the city’s traditional dumping ground for decades. You wanna know some of the backstory on that place, go here and here and here.

So before officials start patting themselves on the back, they should remember that they let its most vulnerable citizens live in a roach-infested, fire trap located in the middle of nowhere for years.

And in the not too distant future, they will do it again.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Adrian Fenty, Homelessness, Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.