This story was updated at 10:40 a.m. June 6. 

A new halfway house for men returning to D.C. from federal prison will be allowed to open in Ward 7 this fall, following an extended contract dispute that left the future of reentry services in the District in limbo for more than a year.

The halfway house, run by CORE DC, will be located at 3701 Benning Road Northeast. It will have a maximum of 300 beds for men finishing federal prison sentences, according to a press release from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. CORE DC will additionally be in charge of 150 home confinement placements. The group has already been supervising D.C. residents on home confinement since earlier in the spring, after longtime D.C. halfway house provider Hope Village decided to close its doors and the coronavirus pandemic accelerated calls to move men in the halfway house out of a congregate setting where they would be more likely to get sick.

Securing a location had been a struggle for CORE DC since 2018, when it was awarded a contract from the BOP for a new D.C. halfway house that was initially set to open in March of 2019. Its plans were thwarted after Douglas Development, which owned the building in Ward 5 where CORE DC wanted to locate its halfway house, decided not to move forward with a lease. (Around the same time, a group of neighbors sued the zoning commission, opposing the location of the halfway house in their Ward.)

For the Reentry Action Network (RAN), a coalition of nonprofits that has advocated for a new halfway house in the District, the official news of the CORE DC contract and its secured Ward 7 location brought relief that men returning from federal prison would have a halfway house within city limits. This outcome was not guaranteed, according to RAN co-chair Chiquisha Robinson.

“For us, that was the fear that we had for so long — that there would not be a halfway house in the District,” said Robinson.

RAN co-chair Paula Thompson, who leads the nonprofit Voices for a Second Chance, says she is hopeful that CORE DC will collaborate with service providers. They have communicated regularly with CORE DC leadership as it sought the halfway house contract, and have another meeting scheduled to discuss plans for the new facility.

“We are hopeful and we are encouraged that we actually feel like we have a partner in reentry that’s responsible for community corrections for our residents,” said Thompson.

Thompson and Robinson also added that they will be working to hold the provider accountable for delivering quality reentry services.

“It’s so easy to cast things negatively, especially after all the trauma of the past halfway house,” said Robinson. “But this is an opportunity to look toward the future with hope and start with that welcoming energy and hope that we meet the ideals.”

Hope Village, which for decades ran a men’s halfway house in D.C. until it closed earlier this spring, was repeatedly criticized by advocates and formerly incarcerated people in D.C. for inadequate job training, unfair disciplinary policies, and unwillingness to collaborate with service providers. It was known in some parts of the community as “Hopeless Village” or “No-Hope Village.”

Robinson said it was important to note that the new halfway house provider, CORE DC, was coming into the District in a context completely changed by the killing of George Floyd and national uprisings over police violence towards black people and anti-black racism.

“The story has changed with the death of George Floyd,” Robinson said. “In one week, the nation’s approach and relationship with race, black men specifically, and the criminal justice system has been turned on its head. That is a fact. So CORE DC and this new halfway house is coming into a new environment where dignity must be upheld, humanity must be acknowledged, respect must be demanded. It’s a new environment. It’s not going to be business as usual.”

In an emailed statement to WAMU/DCist, CORE CEO Jack Brown wrote that CORE DC was committed to offering a “fresh start” for D.C.’s reentry services. Brown’s nonprofit, CORE, also runs a halfway house in Brooklyn.

“We take very seriously the responsibility of providing returning citizens the critical support they need to successfully transition back home with dignity,” Brown said. “We look forward to working in close partnership with local officials as well as the local community as we get up and running.”

Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray wrote in January that he was “unalterably opposed” to CORE DC’s proposed location at 3701 Benning Road because it was in an area of the ward that had been identified as an “Opportunity Zone,” a neighborhood where the federal government would invest in redevelopment efforts.

In an email to WAMU/DCist on Saturday, Gray said he still disagrees with the choice of location.

“The Federal government is again imposing its will on the District of Columbia,” wrote Gray. “While we need to welcome returning citizens back home, it is in no one’s interest to have a large halfway house facility in the midst of a commercial corridor that needs economic development. This Federal government, led by Donald Trump, has no interest in the well-being of the District or Ward 7 residents.”

The halfway house is federally contracted because D.C. does not have a prison system of its own; Residents serving longer sentences are sent to federal prisons across the country and remain in federal custody as they finish their time in halfway houses. The former D.C. facility Hope Village, whose contract was also for 300 beds, was the largest federal halfway house in the country. 

“Our returning citizens should return to a place with a more humane, family like setting to help make their transition as successful as possible. It is the model that I question, not the welcoming back of our formerly incarcerated citizens,” wrote Gray.

Demetric Martin, who spent time at Hope Village in 2018, hopes the new halfway house can be a turning point. He remembers meeting men at Hope Village who had spent 25 or 30 years in federal prison, and who had no family or resources to turn to when they got back to the city.

“A halfway house should be … a place where returning citizens are being welcomed back into society to better themselves,” Martin said. “Be more active with us. Help us to be put in a position to better ourselves.”

This story was updated with additional comments from Councilmember Vincent Gray.