JUDGE CLEARS WAY FOR D.C. TO CLOSE HOMELESS SHELTERS

The District can begin dismantling its network of emergency shelters this weekend as planned, a federal judge said yesterday as he rejected last-minute appeals from homeless activists seeking to stop the closing of two shelters.

Lawyers representing four homeless men and the Community for Creative Non-Violence argued that the closings would cause "irreparable harm" to the homeless and would violate the Fair Housing Act.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson refused the request for a temporary restraining order, saying advocates for the homeless had failed to show that serious harm would result from this weekend's closings. But he agreed to hear further arguments on the fair housing issue later this month.

Trust Clinic at 14th and Q streets NW and Pierce shelter at 13th and G streets NE, both for single men, will be the first city-run shelters to be closed since District residents voted last fall to rescind a law guaranteeing shelter to anyone who needed it.

When the doors of the two shelters are shut at 7 a.m. tomorrow, 290 of the 1,770 beds for single adults will be lost.

Other reductions will follow rapidly.

The city intends to eliminate 800 beds by Sept. 30 and broadly restrict how long people can stay in shelters.

The steps are part of an effort to save money as the city cuts its emergency shelter budget from $29 million in 1990 to $12 million by this fiscal year.

CCNV claimed yesterday that the District government had "capitulated" to neighbors biased against shelter residents who suffer from problems such as mental illness and substance abuse.

Such discrimination against the disabled, the complaint said, is illegal under the Fair Housing Act.

City officials rejected that theory in affidavits and in arguments before Jackson. George Valentine, assistant corporation counsel for the District, said CCNV's argument was based on a mistaken interpretation of the Fair Housing Act and a misrepresentation of community politics.

"I believe the members of the public have a First Amendment right to say whatever they want to council members.

"What the {housing act} says is that the council cannot act in a discriminatory manner based on those comments," Valentine said.

After the hearing, several residents who live near the shelters said they were relieved that the closings would occur on schedule. But they said they were concerned about rumors that CCNV plans to seize the shelters.

They said city officials assured them that extra police officers would be available to expedite the closings.

CCNV members declined to comment on the possibility of takeovers. The private advocacy group, once headed by Mitch Snyder, has announced that it plans a rush-hour protest Monday in front of the District Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

"We've been in court so many times and lost so many times, I'm surprised by this first win," said Jim Lawlor, a neighborhood organizer who lives down the street from Trust Clinic.

CCNV leader Carol Fennelly expressed disappointment in the judge's decision and said the city, and specifically Human Services Director Vincent C. Gray, lied to the judge in affidavits about the reasons behind the closings.

In his affidavit, Gray cited financial considerations as the reason for the closings.

Fennelly said in her affidavit that Gray had told her he was closing Pierce shelter specifically because of community opposition.

"This is not about money. This is about community opposition," she said yesterday.

Gray released a statement after the hearing to dismiss Fennelly's accusation, saying that he "had not wavered" in his explanation for the closings.

"The court has recognized the city's efforts to provide services within its means," the statement said, "and in concert with the expressed wishes of the community."

Gray said the goal "is to solicit greater assistance from the private sector and citizens to continue to meet the needs of homeless citizens."

The city will provide bus transportion from the old shelters to other existing shelters for at least the first night of the shutdown, city officials said.

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