A fenced in area where children at D.C. General can play until a playground is completed.

The city will spend approximately $450,000 to construct a playground on the grounds of the D.C. General homeless shelter.

At a D.C. Council committee hearing today, June Locker from the Department of General Services said construction will begin in approximately one month and is scheduled to be completed at the end of September this year. While the city will absorb the cost of construction, private donors organized by the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project will help fund the operations of the playground. DGS is working with the Playtime Project to create an operations program, Locker, DGS’s deputy director, said.

The hearing was held, in part, to discuss a bill that would mandate the playground’s construction. When Councilmember Jim Graham asked if the bill is necessary, Locker said she was not aware of the legislation. “We’ve addressed it by providing a playground at D.C. General,” Locker said.

The future of D.C. General — an aging hospital complex used to house hundreds of homeless families — seemed to be one of the biggest roadblocks in getting the playground built. Locker said it’s hoped the playground will stay through future development. When pressed by Councilmember Tommy Wells about who was preventing construction of the playground, Locker said the city has been working for several months to identify a proper location.

“Everyone will own the decision to build it,” Wells said. “But I’ve seen no one owning the decision not to build it.”

The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, which runs groups for children and teens at shelters around the city, led the effort to have the playground built. “If you go to D.C. General, you’ll always notice children just hanging out outside the door of the shelter,” executive director Jamila Larson told DCist several months ago. “A lot of our volunteers see them kicking bottles, trying to create their own play, playing in cardboard boxes. And that’s fine if your play is supplemented by other activities. But if you never have the opportunity to climb on playground structures and play in a safe, contained environment, that’s a real tragedy.”

In an email, Larson said her group is “grateful to the D.C. Council, the Department of General Services and the Mayor’s office for finding a way to build a playground at D.C. General.”

“With the support of Pepco, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Hogan Lovells, the ANC and other community partners, the children at D.C. General will soon have a safe, outdoor place to play right where they live,” she wrote. “This is really a win for the more than 500 children and their families who call D.C. General home. The children will be so excited to run outside their door and play like my son gets to do every day.”

In the meantime, the city has fenced in an area of grass in front of shelter for play.

“I’m glad that you’re doing this,” Graham told Locker. “It’s better than not doing it.”