THE NEIGHBORHOOD SHELTER

WHILE THE CITY doles out a quarter-million dollars to the owners of the Pitts Hotel to provide shelter for homeless families, there are those who complain of paying a different kind of price. They are the Belmont Street residents who object to this accommodation in their neighborhood. Members of the community association have expressed their displeasure with the "abominable conditions" of this hotel, as well as with the noise and trash generated by those in and out of the building. Januwa Nelson, who lives on Belmont Street, talks about the problem today in Close to Home.

Neighborhood opposition to shelters, whether for homeless families, the mentally ill, battered women or vagrant men, is nothing new, of course. Those who wish to preserve the residential character of their streets inevitably fear the worst, from increased crime to decreased property values. Many such fears are unfounded, as one Montgomery County resident testifies today, also in Close to Home. Nevertheless, residents often prevail, as they may in the case of the temporary schoolhouse shelter on Lincoln Road and S Street, where women have been housed while Mitch Snyder's Second and D Street facility undergoes renovation. That Northeast community wants the women out of the school by next month, just in time for winter.

This is not to suggest that a shelter in the neighborhood is an adornment. Often these establishments are less than savory places; the complaints -- from strewn trash to foul language -- are valid. But surely there are ways to rectify some of the more common problems -- for instance, by housing the homeless in small or moderately sized facilities, keeping a superintendent on hand to help control the litter and the noise and, most important, by informing the neighbors. In the case of both the Pitts Hotel and the Lincoln Road women's shelter, community groups say the large numbers of homeless arrived unannounced. The Office of Emergency Shelter and Support Services also recommends that neighbors take the time to go in a facility once it is established; meeting the residents and seeing the conditions firsthand changes some people's perspective.

It is interesting to recall that in 1984, D.C. voters approved a ballot initiative guaranteeing "adequate overnight shelter" for the homeless. It's a terrible law (we opposed it at the time and continue to) that attempts to address a terrible problem. The city now has a legal as well as a moral mandate to provide more shelters, not fewer. Community protest only makes the task that much harder.

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