Community Updates
Between 8:20 and 10 this morning, a bulldozer tore down all the structures. A garbage truck carted everything marked as trash to the dump, while a separate truck carried off a whole lot of belongings deemed valuable to a storage site. New gates and locks were installed, and No Trespassing signs were hung on the fences.
A small contingent of coridal police officers, along with a genial "Chris" from the Mayor's Office, and two other unknown suits were present. However, none of the residents happened to be on site while all this was going on. I returned just when the trucks were about to take off, and in the nick of time, after being hoisted onto the truck, I retrieved intact a suitcase, tent, and knapsack that I had set aside.
Craig Keller, Team Leader of the Homeless Outreach Program at DC's Office of Homeless Services, [see contact info below] who had been to the site a couple of days ago and had cautioned Renee that the removal was imminent, supervised the separation of materials as valuable and trash. Some critically important personal belongings of mine got mistakenly sent to the dump, but Mr. Keller kindly drove me there. The garbage truck driver was alerted to await our arrival, and he tipped his load only after we reached, and I was happily able to locate what I was missing.
En route to the dump site, I left a wallet belonging to Stan with Jill, a Receptionist at Bread for the City, for her to hand over.
C'est la vie. All in a day's work. RIP, Tent City: The End of an Experiment in Outdoor Living.
By Avatar <ArunAguiar @ gmail dot com>
Please come to the next meeting to discuss plans for a tent city in Columbia Heights. The meeting will take place in a place near you!
A Zoning hearing will take place re: the property surrounding La Casa Shelter. The hearing will take place at 441 4th Street, NW (Adjacent to the south exit of Judiciary Sq. on the Red Line), Suite 220S, at 6:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010. Come and let your voice be heard about the need for shelter in DC to protect those most in need! We have requested an update as to that property, and the fate of La Casa Shelter,with Cmr. Jim Graham. We await his response and will post updated info as we receive it.
