D.C. MOVES TOWARD TIGHTENING REQUIREMENTS FOR HOMELESS AID

District officials, faced with rapidly growing costs of caring for the homeless, are moving to tighten eligibility requirements and enforce a provision of city law barring help for anyone who comes to the District solely to receive aid.

The proposed rules, under review by city government lawyers, for the first time would establish regulations governing Initiative 17, a 1984 ballot measure passed by the voters requiring the District to provide "adequate overnight shelter" for homeless people who seek it.

Under the proposed rules, which already are drawing criticism from advocates for the homeless, the District would be allowed to ask extensive questions of those seeking shelter and possibly turn them away if officials establish that other family, private or government help is readily available.

Acting Social Services Commissioner Vernon Hawkins said yesterday that the proposed rules were needed because the District "has gone far beyond what the law says" in providing help and that strained financial resources are needed to provide quality care for families and children.

Under the language of Initiative 17, the city can deny shelter to anyone from outside the District who comes to the city only to seek shelter. Since enactment of the law, the District generally has not enforced that provision.

Advocates for the homeless warned yesterday that the city is spending too much time trying to single out the relative few who may not be eligible rather than focusing on thousands of others who need help.

"I wish they would not waste their time on the number not eligible. The vast majority are getting nothing or living . . . one step away from under a covered bridge," said Mitch Snyder, spokesman for the Community for Creative Non-Violence, which runs the city's largest shelter. "We have no intention of allowing the city to play paper games. You ask enough questions {of people seeking help} and jack people up against the wall hard enough and you drive people away. We will stop that."

Snyder, a leader in the campaign for Initiative 17, said he had not seen the latest version of the proposed rules, which city officials declined to release yesterday. Hawkins said the rules would be available for public review this fall.

The move by city officials to establish rules for a law that has been on the books for more than three years comes as the city is struggling to shift funds to shelter and feed about 4,000 individuals and family members. The budget for shelters for the homeless is scheduled to rise about 40 percent to $21 million in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, with much of the increase coming from funds diverted from other city spending.

Hawkins and other officials said courts have ruled that jurisdictions cannot impose residency or other burdensome requirements on eligiblity for public assistance, but he said the city was searching for a reasonable interpretation of the homeless initiative.

The initiative was approved by 72 percent of the voters over strenuous opposition from Mayor Marion Barry and his administration. The city also lost a court effort to invalidate the law.

The initiative requires the District to provide shelter that is "accessible, safe and sanitary and has an atmosphere of reasonable dignity."

City officials and some advocates for the homeless warned at the time that the expansive law would make the District an East Coast mecca for the homeless, but the increase in homeless cases largely has been attributed to needs of city residents, Hawkins said yesterday.

Hawkins estimated that fewer than 10 percent of the people seeking emergency shelter come from outside the District. Snyder and CCNV member Carol Fennelly said they believe the figure is lower.

Although suburban jurisdictions are doing more to aid the homeless, the District government still carries much of the area's burden and costs, city officials said.

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