The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV), the District’s largest emergency homeless shelter since 1984, plans to build a new co-ed facility on its site that would combine short-term shelter capacity and apartment-style affordable housing units. In addition to funding from the city, CCNV is looking for public and private funds to support construction and operations.
Rico Harris, the shelter’s director since 2008, said CCNV is exploring options to construct a multi-use, ten-story homeless services complex on its 2nd and D Street SW property. The historic project would help transform the District’s existing homeless services infrastructure, Harris said, which many say has fallen short in terms of capacity and humane care.
CCNV hopes to join the Aston and other in-construction, non-congregate shelters in reshaping the image of D.C.’s shelter system by developing private emergency shelter units alongside temporary and permanent affordable housing units. Currently, CCNV operates as a congregate shelter, meaning that beds are laid out in a large space that maximizes capacity but affords little privacy for residents. CCNV hopes its proposed non-congregate design, where each shelter resident would have a separate room or space, will encourage more people to enter shelters that have previously been hesitant to take the step…