Battles over development are nothing new in the District, but few of them come as loaded with pitfalls and moral ambiguity as the one growing over plans to move the Central Union Mission from its current 14th Street location to Georgia Avenue.

Back in April, it was announced that the Mission had secured a deal to sell its facility at 14th and R to a developer and had purchased a site on Georgia Avenue near Howard University for a “state-of-the-art” homeless facility, which would reduce the crowding the mission currently experiences. Almost immediately, however, protests began to surface from residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the new location. In the Post’s April 20th story on the move, the paper quotes a neighborhood activist as saying, “We just got a new restaurant and a yoga studio. This would be a major setback.” Of course, 14th Street is undergoing some developmental changes of its own, but counter protests have not managed to duplicate the involvement or intensity of those against the move.