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FRANKLIN HAD BEEN SERVING DC RESIDENTS FOR MORE THAN A TWO-TERM PRESIDENCY...

Franklin Shelter's capacity to serve DC residents was dismantled in the early morning hours of September 26. All beds were broken down and shipped elsewhere along with all Franklin Shelter residents.

  • The Fenty administration moved rapidly to close Franklin Shelter ahead of schedule, ignoring the requirements of the City Council's emergency legislation passed on September 16th, and leaving many former residents with nowhere to go.

  • A crowd of former Franklin residents and their supporters had Mayor Fenty on the run that fateful at the end of fall 2008. During an afternoon rally, as he hid inside the Wilson building to avoid being held accountable for the destruction caused by his actions, Wilson Building security forces were told not to let any homeless advocates into the Mayor's office.

  • That night, former residents were among those who camped out in Franklin Park, across from the shuttered shelter during a heinous storm -- lighting and buckets of rain to the measure of 3+ inches reflected the mood of the entire experience.

See photos here.

  • Leading up to the immediate closure and for a little while since, about sixty randomly chosen homeless men were moved into an assortment of taxpayer subsidized apartments around the City under a program called Housing First.

  • The homeless residents not placed in this new Housing First program -- the reasons of which are unknown and ambiguous -- were squeezed into other overcrowded shelters away from downtown DC. Many Franklin residents, simply in shock by the Mayor's actions, are on the nearby streets and park benches of Franklin Park.
     

The City Administrator, Dan Tangerlini, has testified under oath, that there are no immediate plans for the Franklin School building ~ which has left many to wonder why the rush to push out the homeless just in time for this hellish winter.

  • An impending harsh winter had been oozing ever closer even as Councilmembers stayed warm during a sometimes heated debate. Take for example the strange moment when Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans curses out Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry.

  • On September 16, 2008, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation requiring the Mayor to certify to the Council that no fewer than 300 men have been placed into housing before the closure of Franklin Shelter could take place, and that Franklin continue its operations as a 300 person shelter in the meantime.

  • The legislation also required to provide the Council "with a report on any proposed closing of the Franklin Shelter that includes a description of the current capacity, current availability, and location of replacement shelter space, and the ability to seasonally increase capacity to reduce incidences of hypothermia among the homeless population prior to closing the Franklin Shelter."

  • Additionally, The DC Council unanimously agreed that adequate shelter capacity is a priority for D.C. and expressed a growing mistrust of the Administration's lack of transparency in implementing its Housing First program and closing the last low-barrier downtown shelter.