On April 15, Rachelle Ellison called the D.C. shelter hotline, hoping to find a bed for someone experiencing homelessness. When she reached an operator, she learned there were no more beds available in city-run shelters that night. So Ellison tried to take her client to the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV), the city’s largest shelter, but learned that too was full. In the end, the person Ellison was seeking shelter for had to spend the night at the George Washington University Hospital.
As hypothermia season ends and seasonal shelters close, year-round homeless shelters in D.C have begun facing capacity problems. Every year, the District opens beds over the winter and then closes them when temperatures begin to warm again. This winter, the city opened over 700 beds, according to past reporting by Street Sense, and closed them by April 15. That night, low-barrier shelters for men were full.
On April 15, the city also closed Eve’s Place, a seasonal women’s shelter some thought would stay open year-round, removing 40 beds of shelter capacity.
Last year, Eve’s Place was closed after the end of hypothermia season, as it usually is, but then reopened when the city closed several large encampments in Foggy Bottom, according to Anthony Newman, a deputy administrator at D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS). Since the shelter had been open in the summer of 2024, some outreach workers and people experiencing homelessness thought it would stay open through the summer of 2025 as well.
But this year, DHS closed the shelter when hypothermia season ended on April 15. This was part of a “routine pattern” at the end of hypothermia season, when DHS brings on several hundred beds in November for the winter and then closes them in the spring, Newman said. According to a DHS spokesperson, “Eve’s Place is traditionally used to provide excess capacity when possible — not as a permanent shelter,” and is not funded to operate year-round.
Without the seasonal beds, demand for shelter beds has already exceeded the city’s supply this year. Since the city closed the last of its overflow beds and hypothermia shelters on April 15, there have been no beds or only one bed available for men each night. For women, there is slightly more availability, but there have been a few nights where the number of beds available has dropped into the single digits. Since April 15, there has not been a single night where there were available beds dedicated for queer individuals.
This is not the first time the closure of seasonal shelters has strained the system — in both 2023 and 2024, shelters were full or nearly full after hypothermia shelters closed in April.
Ellison is hoping DHS acts swiftly to bring more shelter beds online, especially as city officials have increased the pace of encampment closures while maintaining that residents can access shelter if necessary. Encampment residents were previously offered shelter at the Aston, but the shelter is nearly full, according to the GW Hatchet.
“It’s so sad,” Ellison said. “Because the mayor came on the television and said we absolutely have enough shelter beds for people who want to come in, but we don’t.”
