The closings of the Gales School Shelter and the District’s “hypothermia” homeless facility are hitting women particularly hard, leaving more vulnerable women on the street, according to shelter operators and homeless advocates.
In recent weeks, “The staff has noticed more women coming in to the Center during the day,” said Dawn Swan, executive director of Rachel’s Women Center downtown, which closed for the season on March 31.
She added that the “closing of Gales, combined with the end of the hypothermia shelter season, means more women on the streets.”
Rachel’s, located at 1220 11th St., NW, provides daytime services to homeless and formerly homeless women during the winter season.
Staff members report the one-two punch of closings “really has impacted the female population” of homeless, Dawn said.
There has been a noticeable increase in the demand for women’s beds at the John Young shelter at Second and D NW since April 1, according Elaine Bennett, a shift supervisor, with cots added to boost capacity from 86 t0 110.
Ruth Walker, a program director for the city’s United Planning organization shelter Hotline, a number of the women referred to John Young didn’t want to go there because of the location.
At the House of Ruth, which runs an emergency shelter with 39 beds at 614 10th Street, NE, the executive director, Christel Nichols, reported: “We’ve seen a small increase, no more than five or six” with the closings.
Noting the shelter’s distance from downtown, Nichol’s said, “My sense is that a lot of the women might have gone to the street.”
The closing of the District’s 10 hypothermia shelter units has negatively affected both men and women. But T.J. Sutcliffe, director of advocacy for So Others Might Eat (SOME)like the other providers and advocates interviewed – said that there were few2er shelter alternatives for women in the city year0round, and the closings mean “women are not being accommodated, “particularly those who may be mentally ill.
According to a report on adult shelter in use in February that Sutcliffe compiled, nearly a third of the city’s shelter beds for women disappeared April 1. The three shelters still open to them offer a total of 243 beds – the House of Ruth, the John Young Center, and the Open Door on Second and D Streets. The two that closed had 100 beds: 25 hypothermia spaces and 75 regular beds.
Mentally ill women may be hit hard.
Mentally ill women are a particular concern. The Gales School Shelter “was very good at welcoming people used to being downtown and it appealed to people with chronic mental health problems,” Sutcliffe said. It was accessible, low-barrier, with not a lot of questions asked or intake forms and served some of the most vulnerable among the homeless population.”
Rachel’s Center director Swan agreed. Many of the women who go to her downtown drop-in center “are dually diagnosed with mental health problems and substance abuse, “she explained.
Nichols, of the House of Ruth, noted, “Gales was low barrier and we’re not.”
“If they’re not going into the shelters, are they in a dangerous situation? They are the most vulnerable, the ones targeted by predators,” she said.
Closings also affecting men
The closing have also created problems for homeless men, said Antoinette Bridges, executive director of the Community for Creative Non-violence (CCNV). CCNV kept its hypothermia unit open until April 3 “because it was raining and the weather was bad. We had agencies calling trying to place hen {here} because of the hypothermia and Gales closings. We took in as many as we could, which made us full.”
She added that the CCNV shelter was up to capacity now and “we’re doing the best we can to accommodate.”
In a typical winter month, February, said the SOME report, the District government ran “10 hypothermia shelters in addition to 8 overnight emergency shelters through contracts with nonprofit agencies, providing up to 1,773 beds for single men and women.
The law requires the city to open extra shelter spaces when the temperatures drop between November 1 and March 31. With the shelter closings about 737 people lost a place to stay.
Walker, with the UPO, which runs the hypothermia hotline, said that her staff calls “22 shelters every hour during the winter months’ and 11 shelters on non-hypothermia nights.” Overall, she said, the hotline has been able to accommodate people who have called since April 1. Bed space is available in the city somewhere.
“We’re not full,” overall, she said, although some individual shelters were filled to capacity or adding overflow beds.
On April 6, for example, Walker said the Randall, Emery and New York Avenue shelters were full, but Crummell, LaCasa and Franklin, were not. The John Young center had to put in extra beds.
The hotline, the end of the hypothermia season, also led to a loss of extra staff, Walker said.
On March 31 they downsized the hotline staff,” she said. “During the winter, extra people are brought on and we’re allowed to keep a few of them on after April 1 in case the temperature goes crazy again. We’re looking for money to keep the extra staff on, “she said.
“Anybody who calls here, we try to get them a bed space,” Walker added. If there is weather alert “we stay open all night. If not, we close about 2 a.m.” The hotline number is 1-800-535-7252.
But the challenges are clear. Asked SOME’s Sutcliff “Are we a community that lifts up people, or is there a city pattern of pushing people out?”
