D.C. AGREES TO PROVIDE 129 MORE SHELTER BEDS

COURT PACT REITERATES PLEDGES TO HOMELESS

District officials staved off a temporary restraining order and a request by advocates for the homeless for legal sanctions of $25,000 a day by signing an agreement yesterday to provide 129 new temporary shelter beds.

The agreement followed a familiar pattern of negotiation under pressure of court-imposed deadlines. It was the latest in a series of maneuvers -- in and out of court -- that began with a judge's declaration nearly a year ago that the District's efforts to shelter the homeless were "so inadequate and so inept" that the courts would have to step in.

That ruling, in a preliminary injunction signed by D.C. Superior Court Judge Harriett R. Taylor, led to a consent decree in April between D.C. officials and the Community for Creative Non-Violence. Within months of the consent decree, however, attorneys for the homeless were back before Taylor, seeking to hold the city in contempt of court.

Yesterday's agreement -- in effect, a reiteration of unfulfilled commitments in the consent decree -- leaves three contempt motions pending. Advocates for the homeless have alleged that the city failed to live up to promises to publicize its shelters, open new shelters when existing space is full, and reach modest standards of hygiene in city facilities.

"It's frustrating," said CCNV leader Mitch Snyder. "You get your contempt citations and nothing happens."

John W. Nields Jr., Lois G. Williams and Stephen J. Easley, the principal attorneys for the homeless, are seeking $10,000 a day in fines for each violation of the consent decree.

They also have noted in court pleadings that Taylor has the power to jail D.C. officials, including Mayor Marion Barry, human services Director Peter G. Parham and social services Commissioner Barbara Burke-Tatum, if they do not comply with the court-sanctioned consent decree.

"The other creative sanction is that the named defendants should have to spend a night in a city shelter," Williams said yesterday. "We haven't asked for that yet, but it's in our bag of tricks."

Sue Marshall, the mayor's coordinator for homeless services, said in an interview that the city will comply with all the provisions of yesterday's agreement: 25 new beds at the Wheatley Center by last night, 50 new beds at the Emory School Shelter by tonight, and a total of 54 new beds in trailers at the Crummel School and at Mount Vernon Place by Dec. 18.

"We have the cots on hand, and it's just a matter of logistics setting them up," Marshall said.

"It's not like we've been waiting for this to begin gearing up," she said. "We do have effort underway . . . . There's been no single holdup. It's neighborhood opposition, trying to find sites, and trying to find money for the trailers."

As it did last year, the legal battle for the homeless has taken greater urgency with winter's arrival.

Susanne Sinclair-Smith, who has monitored the use of city shelters as director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said the agreement was "important because I've seen people sleeping on the street. And it's a very debilitating experience. They rapidly need other services once they're out there.

"We knew people were being turned away from shelters," she said. "And we knew people were choosing to stay out on the street because of the conditions at the shelters. There was a real need for beds and the city wasn't making enough available."

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