In 2016, Mayor Bowser launched an eight-ward strategy to close DC General and, in its place, open smaller, service-enriched, community-based, Short-term Family Housing programs throughout the District. This strategy is a critical piece of Homeward DC, the District’s strategic plan to end homelessness. We are reforming the entire system of care for families by preventing homelessness more frequently, investing in the housing programs families need to exit shelter, and changing the way we deliver emergency shelter. Our efforts to make homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring in the District are further shared in DHS Director Laura Zeilinger’s blog post “Three Years of Progress in Reforming DC’s Family Homeless Services System.”
DHS is supporting families to exit DC General to permanent housing and close the shelter in October 2018. We are a few months away from closing DC General forever, and the progress made to safely close the old hospital as a family shelter is shared through the Closing DC General Family Shelter Storyboard. To ensure transparency of the DC General closure strategy, the Storyboard provides ongoing updates of the following:
- Trends in Family Homelessness and Efforts to Reduce Homelessness
in the District - DC Homeless Shelter Programs and Locations
- Family Housing Stabilization Planning and Progress
- DC General Family Shelter Exits and Permanent Housing Placements
- Forecast of DC General Family Shelter Entries and Exits
To view the Closing DC General Family Shelter Storyboard, please click here.