A civic association in West End filed a lawsuit against the D.C. government and Mayor Muriel Bowser to prevent the city from acquiring the Aston, a vacant graduate dorm owned by George Washington University that officials hope to turn into a shelter for medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness. 

The plaintiff, West End Community Association, alleges that D.C. “violated legal requirements intended to protect the public” in its handling of the purchase, claiming that it skirted regulations around community engagement and reporting requirements for sole-source purchases, among other complaints. 

The group, which describes itself in the suit as an unincorporated civic association with unnamed members who all have property interests in the area, is asking a judge to permanently prevent D.C. from taking title to the building – or at the very least, delay its purchase until the District “has satisfied all of its statutory obligations to the West End community.”

Other complaints made in the suit echo some criticisms of the plan lobbed by residents during a series of community meetings earlier this summer, as well as those posed by other community groups that have sued to prevent the construction of homeless shelters across the city: the plaintiff argues that the shelter will lead to an uptick in crime and security issues, as well as throttling traffic and crowding a nearby bike lane.  

“The development and use of the Aston to provide services and shelter for homeless individuals, including those who have serious and chronic physical and mental medical conditions requiring in-depth medical services and monitoring, will impact the Plaintiff through increased security and crime concerns, traffic congestion, and decreases in property values,” the lawsuit says.

George Washington University has since filed a motion to intervene, asking the court to be named a defendant in the case. It argued that the case’s potential intervention in the Aston’s sale could “impair GW’s ability to protect its interest in [the building].” The attorney representing GW also noted in the motion that the plaintiff’s counsel did not consent to naming GW in the suit.

Lawyers representing the plaintiff did not respond to DCist/WAMU’s request for comment. A spokesperson for Bowser did not respond by press time. 

Bowser notified the D.C. Council in May of the city’s intent to purchase the Aston, a facility at 1129 New Hampshire Ave. NW with the capacity to house 190 people. Health and human services officials told the public at a June hearing that it would be the first shelter in the city to house mixed-gender families without kids, and would prioritize residents with chronic medical conditions requiring regular treatment – filling a glaring gap in the city’s current array of services for unhoused people. 

But some residents soon complained that the city rushed the sale, and argued that the D.C. Council did not have sufficient time to review the Bowser administration’s proposal and metabolize concerns from residents. Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto then introduced a disapproval resolution for the project that automatically extended the Council’s review period, consequently delaying the building’s sale from its initial closing date in late June. (“These are acquisitions of opportunity. Nobody’s going to wait for the district to put on a bid if they have others who are interested in it,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage said at the time. “They’re not going to tolerate us saying, Well, can you give us a couple of months while we work this through a process?”)

Simultaneously, real estate groups like Post Brothers Apartments, which has rapidly expanded its presence in downtown D.C., lobbied lawmakers against the acquisition, arguing that its use “does not fit into the immediate area in the West End.”

The West End Community Association alleges in its lawsuit that, during its public engagement period, government officials declined to answer questions about the shelter posed by the neighborhood’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission and others in the community, including specifics about crime and facility staffing. 

But ANC 2A chairman Jim Malec chafes at the lawsuit’s suggestion that the ANC wasn’t properly informed or involved during the public comment period, and says that officials did in fact respond to a laundry list of questions posed by the ANC, shortly after it passed a resolution in support of the project. 

“I strongly reject the lawsuit’s allegation that ANC 2A was given insufficient time to consider the Aston Hall proposal,” Malec wrote DCist/WAMU in an email. “The commission operated in accordance with the timeline set forth by the law and met nearly every request for public engagement that we received, including 10 hours of special meetings. Our process for consultation and deliberation on this matter was not only sufficient, it was also fair, transparent and lengthy, and it is wrong for the lawsuit to suggest otherwise.”

Closing of the sale was initially intended to begin July 28, with human services officials aiming for the shelter to open in October or November. It is unclear how or whether the suit will affect that timeline; an initial hearing is scheduled for November 17. 

Courtney Cooperman, a West End resident who has advocated in support of the shelter, says she hopes to learn more about the residents behind the lawsuit. “If [people] know the owner of a business is taking time to prevent the shelter from being established, people deserve that information when they’re deciding where to spend their money,” she says.

“Homelessness in D.C. is a consequence of an unaffordable and unequal housing market. And it comes from people making the same arguments against building affordable housing as they are against this shelter,” she says, like concerns over procedure. “This is a downstream consequence [of that]. And we have to consider there is a social obligation to address this problem at every level.”

This story has been updated to include information about a new filing in the case.