Policy-failing: a repealed right to shelter

ABSTRACT

In 1984 voters in Washington, D.C.approved an initiative to guarantee overnight shelter. The city was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to legislate aright to shelter and, to this day, the only one to do so by popular initiative. But the law, which emerged during one of the city’s most politically progressive periods, was overturned by the local legislature, and a voter referendum failed to reinstate it. Based on archival research and 25 in-depth interviews, this paper examines how a homeless shelter policy was made to fail. This paper analyzes the work of activists, service providers, city officials, and legal actors who created, contested, and eventually repealed the law. This analysis contributes to understandings of urban governance with theoretical explorations of the notion of policy-failing and empirical attention to the institutional mechanisms, political ideologies, and regulatory practices through which policies can be un-made.

KEYWORDS:

• Homeless shelters
• policy mobilities
• urban governance
• social movements

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Cristinia Temenos, John Lauermann, Kate Coddington, Don Mitchell, Emily Billo, Kafui Attoh, and three anonymous reviewers for valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Interview of homeless activist “F” with author, Washington, D.C., 22 March 2011.

2. Interview of CCNV member “G” with author, Washington, D.C., 26 March 2011.

3. Meeting Minutes dated 19 September 1984 of the Coalition for the Homeless. Carol Fennelly Personal Papers, Box 28, Folder 13, Gelman Library Special Collections, George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (Hereafter Fennelly PP).

4. Interview of legal homeless expert “A” with author, Washington, D.C., 24 March 2011.

5. Personal letter dated 26 September 1984 (Fennelly PP, Box 28, Folder 11) .

6. Interview of activist “C” with author, Washington, D.C., 18 March 2011.

7. Interview of CCNV member “G” with author, Washington, D.C., 26 March 2011.

8. Interview of legal homeless expert “B” with author, Washington, D.C, 26 October 2011.

9. Interview of city official “E” with author, Washington, D.C., 20 October 2011.

10. CCNV Flyer (Fennelly PP, Box 28, Folder 16).

11. Between 1985 and 1987, one in four males between the ages of 18 and 29 in D.C. were arrested on drug-related charges (Asch & Musgrove, 2017).

12. Interview of city official “E” with author, Washington, D.C., 20 October 2011.

13. Interview of city official “F” with author, Washington, D.C., 21 November 2011.

14. By contrast, an opposition group raised just $2,000, mostly from the Washington, D.C. Association of Realtors.

15. “Helping Homeless People Through Difficult Times” two-page flyer from the Government of the District of Columbia from 1990, Jointly prepared by the City Administrator, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, the Departments of Human Services, Public Housing, Housing and Community Development, and the office of Communications (Fennelly PP, Box 28, Folder 13).

16. Interview of homeless activist “F” with author, Washington, D.C., 22 March 2011.

17. Interview of activist “D” with author, Washington, D.C., 7 April 2011.

18. Interview of business improvement district director with author, Washington, D.C., 26 October 2011.

19. Interview of legal homeless expert “A” with author, Washington, D.C., 24 March 2011.

20. Interview of city official “E” with author, Washington, D.C., 20 October 2011.