D.C. COUNCIL WEIGHS CHANGE IN SHELTER LAW

PROPOSALS WOULD REDUCE OBLIGATION TO HOMELESS

With encouragement from Mayor Marion Barry, the D.C. Council is considering steps to sharply reduce the city's open-ended promise of shelter for the homeless by altering a five-year-old law considered one of the most far-reaching in the nation.

In the wake of a massive march for the homeless in Washington over the weekend, council members Nadine P. Winter (D-Ward 6) and H.R. Crawford (D-Ward 7) are drafting proposals to reduce the city's obligation to the homeless embodied in the so-called Initiative 17, which states that anyone seeking emergency shelter has a right to receive it.

"We've got to set some standards and some regulations to get better control of this," said council member John Ray (D-At Large), a mayoral candidate and a member of the council's Human Services Committee.

"There has developed in the city a view that people from all over the country are coming to Washington, D.C., because of this initiative," Ray added. "There is strong sentiment in the community that this should not be an open-ended measure and because it is open-ended, it's costing the city a lot of money."

The cost of implementing the law, approved in a 1984 initiative, has nearly tripled, from $10 million in fiscal 1985 to $27 million in fiscal 1988. City officials project that the District's fiscal 1989 appropriation for the homeless will reach $32 million.

There has been a corresponding increase in the number of homeless people seeking emergency shelter as well, fueling speculation by some that itinerants are coming to the District to take advantage of Initiative 17.

The number of homeless people served by city-funded shelters has increased steadily, from 4,750 in fiscal 1985 to 26,000 in 1988, according to city reports.

While most council members and some other D.C. officials agree that revision of the law is imperative, some council members, including Crawford and Winter, hold varying views on how it should be altered.

Crawford wants to modify the law's language to state the District's shelter policy in terms of goals rather than requirements, according to council staff members involved in the discussions. Crawford plans to circulate his proposal this week among members of the Human Services Committee, which he heads. The proposal is slated to be sent to the committee for markup Oct. 19.

Winter is backing a tougher measure aimed at discouraging transients from moving to the District. Under her plan, an adult would be entitled to no more than 10 consecutive days of emergency shelter in any six-month period.

The measure also would require those seeking homeless benefits to first undergo an elaborate registration process, requiring them to show proof that they have lived in the District for at least six months before applying for assistance.

Under Winter's plan, applicants who are deemed transients would be "compelled and assisted to return to their home jurisdictions . . . for the protection of their health and well-being."

"I think we need to send a message that this is not a bottomless pit in Washington," Winter said. "Bringing marches to the District is excellent because this is the seat of government, but the local government has to pick up the tab because a lot of them may stay."

Winter, who once operated a homeless shelter, said the intent of her plan is to create accountability, which she said is lacking.

She said many of those in shelters have jobs and other sources of income and should be required to reimburse the District for services.

The money, she said, could be used to help fund transitional programs that help the homeless become self-sufficient.

Barry has indicated support for the council moves. In an Aug. 30 letter to Winter, the mayor called for "considering. . . options" for dealing with the issue, and added, "The Executive stands prepared to favorably consider and support legislation pending in the Council, which proposes constructive modifications in the current laws regulating services for the homeless."

Winter's plan, which has languished in Crawford's committee since February, is expected to draw opposition from advocates for the homeless, who contend that the rising costs of providing shelter stem more from mismanagement and waste than from growth of the homeless population.

"I know what the council members are driving at, but I'm not sure they are aware of the depth of the problem and the way in which the mayor is really wasting money," said Lynn Cunningham, a lawyer with Neighborhood Legal Services, a housing advocacy group. "I think if we were getting good shelters for our money, I'm not sure the taxpayers would be so upset."

Anthony Russo, executive director of ConServ, a private group that helps families in homeless shelters find apartments, said he would like to see city funding maintained at current levels.

The Barry administration recently announced plans to eliminate funding for ConServ, which uses a $300,000 grant from the city to provide rent subsidies to the poor.

A $300,000 grant to New Endeavors for Women, which provides meals, beds and support in a city-owned building, also will be eliminated.

"I think at the very least, if the council is trying to water down specific pieces of Initiative 17, one of the areas that advocates will not stand for is reduction in current levels of funding," Russo said.

Council members, buoyed by pledges of support from influential neighborhood organizations, seem less daunted by the prospect of such threats. The D.C. Federation of Civic Associations, made up of 55 local community organizations, has endorsed the council's push for an amendment to Initiative 17.

Such broad public support seemed unlikely in 1984, when 72 percent of those who voted supported enactment of the emergency shelter law. But officials contend that voters who supported the measure didn't know what they were getting into.

Now, council members say, public opinion is changing, largely because of the rising burden to D.C. taxpayers of providing unlimited emergency shelter and the increased visibility of a homeless population estimated at 20,000.

"They see that {Initiative 17} wasn't exactly what they thought it would be," said one official, who asked not to be named.

Mary Ellen Hombs, one of the original sponsors of Initiative 17, said the movement to modify the law stems from misleading assumptions about the homeless, particularly the belief that they travel from afar to take advantage of the District law.

" {Homeless} people don't want to go across town in this city," said Hombs, acting director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "You get some homeless person up in far Northwest and say, 'Do you want to go to Southwest and sleep in a school?' It's not too likely that they would go. But if there was a shelter in the Northwest, they would probably go to it."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.