Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: 22 Months and Counting= Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 09:22:42 EST Message-ID: <43.1992Nov8.092243@AmeriCast.com> 22 Months and Counting= SOME 22 months ago, the city administration pledged to open an overnight shelter in Ward 3 for the homeless who live in that part of town. It has not delivered. An announcement made on Mon- day by the director of the city's Department of Human Services did nothing to change that fact. City officials said an "emer- gency hypothermia center," a glorified term that could refer to almost any indoor space, would open at the Guy Mason Recreation Center in Ward 3 on Dec. 1. That means it would only be used on those nights when the temperature dipped to 32 degrees or below, which falls far short of the seven-nights-a-week, regardless-of- the-weather shelter the city promised nearly two years ago. Moreover, it is by no means clear that the city will even be al- lowed to do what it now claims it will do by Dec. 1. About $122,000 in federal monies was received by the D.C. government through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund for use at the disputed Guy Mason site, according to officials of the Na- tional Park Service. Some very clearly worded language in the manual for such grants says the city can convert Guy Mason to something other than a purely public recreational use only after receiving permission from the National Park Service. More than such permission is required. The city must also "pro- vide land of equal or greater fair market value and equivalent recreational usefulness" to house the recreational programs that now use Guy Mason. Last week, a spokesman for the National Park Service said that his agency had not received any formal request or proposal for an alternate use of Guy Mason, either as a shelter or "hypothermia center." Lawyers for the city say that federal approval is not required here. We wonder if these are the same lawyers who said that rezoning was not necessary for a Ward 3 shelter site proposed earlier (it was necessary, and the plan was later abandoned because of it), and that the city did not have to have the approval of the Board of Zoning Appeals for the Guy Mason site (it did). What's more likely is that the D.C. government has again failed to do its homework and is stepping into another swamp of predictable legal delays from neighborhood opponents. 02:43 11-08C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)