"At first, David Watts says, he was told he needed to provide proof that he and his family had nowhere else to go. That task was near impossible for a family that’s spent months sleeping in parks, Metro stations, and, when they can pull together enough money, hotels. Watts, his partner Heather Beall, and their almost 1-year-old son have been seeking emergency shelter in D.C. for more than a year. Most recently, they say they were turned away on July 15, in the middle of a record-setting heat wave.  “She told me it wasn’t nothing they could do for me,” Watts says of his conversation with the intake worker at the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, where families apply for emergency shelter. “So I told her to have her supervisor call me, and she kept trying to say, ‘Well, it’s nothing we can do for you.'”

He never received a call back. So that night, Watts and Beall slipped through the backyard fence of a property in Southeast and spent the night in a shed. Their son stayed with a family member. The next day, July 16, Watts called the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless looking for help. Staff attorney Amber Harding inquired with the Department of Human Services, which provided an explanation that conflicts with Watts’ version of the circumstances and that she says runs afoul of the law.    DHS responded to Harding via email that the agency never denied Watts and Beall shelter. “The family abruptly ended the call,” a DHS representative writes in one email. “Due to this, there was no eligibility determination.” In another email, an agency representative writes that Watts and Beall refused to provide information verifying that they are D.C. residents, a requirement for emergency shelter in the District, and would not provide photo ID. The email says they became “irate” and ended the call before the intake worker could finish the eligibility process.  Watts disputes that he ended the call, and says the intake worker hung up the phone after promising to refer him to a supervisor. Harding notes that DHS used similar terms to describe Shadon Freeman, a pregnant mother City Paper spoke with last year, who was also initially turned away from Virginia Williams.  David Watts and Heather Beall was placed in temporary shelter by Virginia Williams after Washington Legal Clinic got involved. 

Save Us Now Inc. contacted them shortly after they were placed in short-term housing at The Sterling, 1700 Rhode Island Ave NE, where we gifted them a $500 gift-card to buy personal essentials to help them. Since that time David  and Heather have moved into permanent housing and Save Us Now Inc. has been able to donate items to them through our "Comforts of Home Free Market Program", where its sole purpose is to provide basic household items and furniture to families and individuals determined to rebuild their lives in a new permanent home of their own. We are so happy for David and Heather. If you would like to continue to help this family you can donate to them through Save Us Now Inc.