D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The administration of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has enacted emergency regulations that would stop a planned federal shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Northwest Washington.
The emergency rules prohibit the city’s child welfare agency from licensing facilities housing more than 15 residents.
That would block a 200-bed shelter that a federal contractor is trying to open in the Takoma neighborhood, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to address a surge of minors apprehended at the southern border without a parent.
Immigration advocates and several local elected officials are opposed to the D.C. shelter, saying children should not be warehoused. The mayor said last week she would not accept such facilities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defended the treatment of children in its care and said they have their own beds and access to meals, legal services, recreation and classes.
“We treat the children in our care with dignity and respect, and deliver services to them in a compassionate and organized manner while we work expeditiously to unify each one with a suitable sponsor,” the press office at the agency’s Administration for Children and Families said in a statement last week.
[Top officials push back against plans for immigrant shelter in Virginia]
The agency awarded a $20.5 million contract in August to Maryland-based Dynamic Service Solutions to operate the D.C. shelter for children ages 12 to 17. Federal officials said the final capacity would depend on the city’s licensing requirements.
The D.C. Child and Family Services Agency found the contractor’s application for the facility “inadequate” but did not reject it outright, according to a D.C. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing matter.
The emergency regulations, which were adopted Friday, do not name the project specifically but would not allow for facilities with more than 15 children and would require the agency’s director to sign off on any facility housing between eight and 15 children.
The rules expire in mid-December. A permanent version must go through a public comment period before taking effect.
The landlord of the proposed shelter site, Douglas Development, also has been facing pressure to back out of the deal.
D.C. Council member Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4), whose district includes Takoma, wrote a letter to the developer asking officials to “terminate any action” at the property. Local activists also are planning a protest in front of the building next week.
Several elected officials said they did not want to be complicit in the Trump administration’s policies of separating immigrant children from their parents. But the shelter in Takoma is meant to house unaccompanied minors who arrived at the border without a parent or guardian until they can be placed with a relative or sponsor in the United States.
Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1) has said she would introduce emergency legislation to prohibit large-scale facilities for children if necessary.
District officials recently closed a megashelter for homeless families at the former D.C. General hospital site and are building a network of smaller facilities spread out across the city.
The disappearance of 8-year-old Relisha Rudd from D.C. General in 2014 highlighted poor conditions at the megashelter.
“We know when facilities are too big to support children, okay?” Bowser said at a news conference this week. “And I don’t need to remind anyone we don’t know where Relisha Rudd is, and her parent was with her.”
Read more:
Jack Evans slapped with $20,000 fine for ethics violations
D.C. may be without a halfway house for adult men
Local newsletters: Local headlines (8 a.m.) | Afternoon Buzz (4 p.m.)
Like PostLocal on Facebook | Follow @postlocal on Twitter | Latest local news
