Flooding and other problems plague the crumbling Federal City Shelter. Amid discussions about the future of the property, leaders of two nonprofits based in the former college building say they hope for a new facility in the same area.
Michael F. Curtin Jr., chief executive officer of DC Central Kitchen, thinks that it is very clear that the District government needs to do something.
“This building was built as a temporary building, and it certainly wasn’t built to do what it’s doing now. DC Central Kitchen has long thought that this city needs to find another solution and to actually build something that fits the needs of the organization,” he said.
Attempts to shore up the aging facility seem futile, Curtin said.
“It’s really, really bad,” he said. “There’s constant repair work that needs to be done, whether that’s on pipes or electricity. The infrastructure can’t support what happens inside this building. The idea of spending more money just to put new drywall or paint over bad infrastructure just does not make sense. We think the city would make smart to invest in a new building, instead of just trying to make this building look better. It’s actually not becoming any better.
“We do believe that the district is looking hard to find a solution that will not displace the organizations here but will actually help them with a better space more suited to their needs, that will further empower the clients of the organizations of this building”, he added.
Anne C. Cardile, medical director of Unity Health Care CCNV, agrees that the building needs significant attention.
“We’re in the basement, so we see all the plumbing issues, frequent flooding and things. A new building may absolutely be the way to go, but there has to be space for all the new services that have grown up around here”.
She believes the task force assigned with the task of planning for the future has vital work to do. “It’s extremely important, because we have to be thinking of the 1200 people who live here. The input of the people involved is important.”
Back at DC Central Kitchen, Curtin has listened with interest to one possible plan for a new facility perhaps built on a parking lot adjacent to the existing building. As discussed the project would include both emergency beds and longer-term housing for the homeless.
“It sounds like it could work, but our concern is that it is enough space for all of the people.” Curtin says. He praises the idea of keeping the programs based at the current location, a few blocks from the nation’s Capitol.
“One of the reasons we love this location is its proximity to public transportation, which is very helpful for our students and for volunteers. We are one of the largest homeless shelters in the country, and that would help to keep our issues at the forefront of the political discussion, which is what we need.”
One of the things on the top of his to-do list is to open a street-front social enterprise café.
“The café would employ women and men who graduate from our job training programs, as well as offer other training opportunities for our students. That would certainly help to create greater community awareness, and to help generate revenue so we would be less dependent on philanthropy. If that opportunity to were to come, that café would be fronting center of whatever new development that would happen on this block. We certainly would welcome that,” Curtin says, He is also hoping for a smarter building- one that is more energy-efficient and better-designed.
“If the organizations have an opportunity to work on the design, then it’s going to be a much more effective, efficient and impactful,” he says. “We’re hoping to get a bigger kitchen, because now we have people at North East, and staff that are using donated office down at the high school down in the street, even though we have been able to a lot with this spaces, we could be a lot more impactful if everyone was back at one place.”
Cardile also wants to stay in the same area.
“We’re all here, this is why we exist. It makes sense to serve the people where they are.
I have preference to this block, because of the large population of the homeless around here. We have smaller shelters in North West, but certainly nothing to this capacity. A lot of residence has sought out this area; there is some sense of security here, because of the close location to Capitol Hill and Union Station.”
Federal City Shelter Building is one of 30 other Unity Health Care’s locations. Their locations consist of community centers and hybrid clinics. “This building is an example of a hybrid clinic, where homeless people come and get treatment. Unity Health Care has about 1000 patient visits per month.”
Cardile won’t decline a new building offer.
“We don’t deserve a new building, but the residents iin this building would benefit from a building that was cleaner and a more well kept space. We will certainly also take a cleaner and more well kept space if it comes to us too, we won’t turn our noses up for that,” she says, smiling.
