Mayor Muriel Bowser counted closing the D.C. General shelter as a key achievement of her second term in office, arguing its overcrowded, squalid conditions were unacceptable for the unhoused families living there. But advocates fear she’s now pushing a policy change that could reverse the city’s progress since its closure in 2018.
Bowser’s 2026 budget proposal includes a provision allowing the District to temporarily house families in more communal, less private shelters, known as “congregate” facilities. This would partially roll back guarantees to unhoused families that have been enshrined in D.C. law for the last four decades. The city has long struggled to actually meet those commitments in providing privacy for unhoused families, however; It took closing D.C. General to make strides on that front.
Since then, most of the city’s shelter space for families are “non-congregate” settings, offering residents private rooms, after Bowser led a campaign to build such facilities across the city. She pushed to ensure these shelters would be spread across all eight wards, which prompted intense battles in some neighborhoods…