Security staff employed at 801 East Men’s Shelter voted to unionize in an election held on Sept. 9. Officers, including full-time and regular part-time security officers and special police officers, cited being underpaid and undertrained, as well as not receiving benefits or the necessary safety equipment for their roles, as major reasons for unionizing.
801 East Men’s Shelter in Ward 8 is one of the city’s largest low-barrier shelters for men experiencing homelessness, with 396 beds and a daytime service center. It’s located on St. Elizabeth’s East Campus, owned by the District, and managed by D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS), which contracts out to various service providers.
The security staff at the shelter are not directly employed by DHS, but by a third-party company known for parking management, USP Holdings. USP also contracts with both the D.C. Housing Authority and the D.C. Department of General Services to provide parking attendant services and security staff, according to their website.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) website, officers generally voted in favor of unionization, with 39 of the 60 staff who voted supporting the effort. However, the NLRB has not yet certified the outcome of the election. USP has also filed an objection to the union vote, the grounds for the objection aren’t publicly available.
Ikeuri Onunaku, who works as a security officer at the shelter, said it was known amongst officers USP was trying to “fight the union” even though “everything went fair” on the day of the election because, in his words, 801 East is a “cash cow” for the company.
Onunaku told Street Sense USP Holdings actively discouraged officers from unionizing, handing out flyers that told officers to vote against the union. It can be legal for employers to distribute flyers that provide information about unionization, but it is considered an unfair labor practice for employers “to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees” attempting to exercise their rights to organize, according to NLRB. Street Sense was not able to review the flyers USP distributed.
Street Sense reached USP by phone but was told that they “had no comment” on unionization efforts or allegations of a lack of staff training or safety equipment at the shelter.
One of Onunaku’s biggest concerns is the lack of safety equipment and staff training. He noted that at a site like 801 East, security officers are working with residents who may have significant needs, as well as risk factors like drug use and mental illness. He told Street Sense USP does not give officers safety vests, which police and security officers commonly wear to protect their torso and vital organs in emergency situations. Nor do they provide officers with pepper spray, something Onunaku sees as necessary for self-defense, given officers don’t carry any other weapons.
Onunaku and Danielle Campbell, another officer at the shelter, also told Street Sense they were frustrated by the lack of training they received for the role — since working at a shelter is different from being a security officer at a federal office building, for example.
“We bring people back to life,” Onunaku said, referring to the many times he has had to use Narcan (a drug that is administered to reverse opioid overdoses) on residents. But Onunaku hasn’t always known how to administer Narcan — it’s something he learned on the job from other officers.
According to a PowerPoint presented at a Sept. 19 Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting, security officers at shelters are supposed to receive training on hypothermia and medical hypothermia, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Language Line Act, customer service, administering Narcan, working with LGBTQ+ people and youth, being trauma-informed, crisis and non-crisis intervention, conflict management, cultural competency, being a mandated reporter, emergency preparedness, boundaries and confidentiality, and fire safety.
Street Sense had Onunaku, who has been working at 801 East for over six months, review the list of trainings, and he said he has not received a single one.
When asked about the lack of training, a spokesperson for DHS told Street Sense they provide security services at the shelter through the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, which “requires its security subcontractors to conduct mandatory training for all security guards. Administering Narcan is part of the required training.”
The spokesperson also wrote: “DHS will continue to work closely with its providers to ensure staff across our entire shelter network are trained to provide the highest level of service and support to clients.”
Onunaku told Street Sense officers at the shelter watch out for each other and residents. They usually try and “tag” new officers with a veteran to give them an opportunity to learn, but he wishes USP would provide more specific training for the kind of specialized work they do.
Campbell echoed Onunaku’s desire for more training. She told Street Sense the Special Police Officer license she has doesn’t fully prepare officers for the kind of situations they encounter at 801 East.
She and Onunaku also noted that the low pay they receive was part of the decision to unionize. In their eyes, the pay they receive is not comparable to how much officers are paid at other sites throughout the city.
Onunaku and Campbell both told Street Sense they care about the residents and each other — it’s why they’re unionizing.
“I’m from the community, I know some of these guys, it’s convenience,” Campbell said in describing her choice to work at 801 East. When it comes to unionizing, she said: “it was better for the team.”
This article is part of our 2024 contribution to the D.C. Homeless Crisis Reporting Project in collaboration with other local newsrooms. The collective works will be published throughout the week at bit.ly/DCHCRP.
