After years of anticipation, the Aston, an innovative bridge housing facility in the West End neighborhood of Washington, DC, opened its doors to residents during the week of November 11, 2024. The Aston is DC’s first housing option for adults experiencing homelessness where families with adult children and mixed-gender couples can stay with one another. Unlike traditional congregate shelters, where larger amounts of people sleep in a communal space together, the Aston is a non-congregate bridge housing facility, meaning residents stay in private or semi-private living spaces. The privacy of non-congregate settings translates to comfort and dignity for residents. Non-congregate settings are well-equipped to meet the needs of unsheltered individuals who cannot stay in congregate shelters for health or safety reasons, or because these settings would force them to separate from loved ones.
“We’re thrilled that the Aston has opened and we are encouraged by this non-congregate bridge housing program, which is the first of its kind to serve adults in the District,” said Lara Pukatch, chief advocacy officer of Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit that works to end homelessness in DC and provides services near the Aston. “There are currently 1,000 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in DC, most of whom are sleeping outside. The Aston allows members of this population not only to live indoors, but also to access a safe, dignified, and service-rich environment that facilitates their housing journey.”
George Washington University (GWU) sold the 67,000 square-foot Aston building, formerly a graduate residence hall, to the government of the District of Columbia in May 2023 for $27.5 million. Because the Aston previously operated as a graduate dormitory, a function similar to that of the new bridge housing facility, there was minimal need for retrofitting and renovation, although DC’s Department of General Services did make important repairs and upgrades to the building. An initial group of 50 people will be housed in the Aston, with the intention to increase to 100 residents after two months of successful operations. It is estimated that residents will live there for an average of three months. Friendship Place, the service provider contracted by the DC Department of Human Services to operate the Aston, reports that a potential resident’s qualification to live at the Aston is determined by a Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement system. During their time at the Aston, residents will receive case management support to assist in their search and placement in permanent housing. Some residents will already be matched to a permanent supportive housing (PSH) voucher and will have an additional case manager through the PSH program.
The opening of the Aston is a hard-won victory for DC housing and homelessness advocates. The establishment of a Community Advisory Team, a coordinating body for neighbors, service providers, DC agencies, and people with lived experience of homelessness, ensured community input and assuaged some West End residents’ initial skepticism about the new bridge housing facility in a neighborhood known for its luxury hotels and upscale restaurants. Elected officials, DC government staff, West End neighbors, and advocates celebrated the opening of the Aston at a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, November 25. While the Aston has gained support in the neighborhood, some homeowners and businesses have opposed the Aston and sought to block its opening. An anonymous group of people who claim to live in the area or own businesses close to the Aston, known as the West End DC Community Association, filed multiple lawsuits claiming that the Aston violates the neighborhood’s designation under DC zoning ordinances. In response to news of the initial lawsuit in August 2023, more than 150 people rallied in support of the Aston. The lawsuits echo racist and classist arguments that rely on unproven assumptions about low-income housing, citing negative environmental impact due to more traffic, higher crime, and a need for more security in the neighborhood. An attorney involved in the case, Scott Morrison, expressed that people are concerned about the economic impacts of the Aston in this neighborhood: “What [we] never understood is: Why this location?”
The Aston’s location in Ward 2, among the most affluent of DC’s eight wards, fills an important gap in DC’s continuum of housing options for people experiencing homelessness. Following the closure of DC General, a large congregate shelter for homeless families criticized for its inhumane conditions, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration committed to create smaller, dignified family homeless shelters in every ward except Ward 2, where a women’s shelter was being developed at the time. The opening of the Aston marks a much-needed increase in housing options for Ward 2’s unhoused residents. Ward 2 has the highest concentration of unsheltered homelessness in DC, many of whom have been displaced as a result of multiple encampment evictions in recent years. The Aston’s location in a central business district is also an advantage, as residents will be able to access downtown amenities and services from local organizations like Miriam’s Kitchen.
The Aston’s non-congregate model evolved from DC’s Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable Individuals (PEP-V) program. Through PEP-V, unsheltered medically vulnerable and elderly people in DC were placed in hotels to safeguard against COVID-19. The PEP-V program phased out in 2023 as federal funding dried up. The Aston can provide a housing option for many members of the population previously served by PEP-V.
The opening of the Aston comes at a time when DC urgently needs more housing options for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. According to the annual Point in Time count, there were 5,600 people experiencing homelessness in DC this year. Overall, homelessness in the DC region increased by 14% between 2023 and 2024. (The Point in Time count is considered an undercount of the total population experiencing homelessness.) NLIHC reports that 26% of renter households in DC are extremely low-income (income equal to or less than 30% of the Area Median Income) and that 75% of these extremely low-income households are severely cost burdened (spending more than 50% of their income on rent and utilities). DC has a shortage of 33,374 affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters.
The Aston opened during hypothermia season (November 1 to March 31), which kills an estimated 700 to 1,500 people nationwide annually and took the lives of seven unhoused DC residents between 2020-2021. Unhoused people who are exposed to outside temperatures are most vulnerable to hypothermia, which occurs when the body reaches temperatures below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. By keeping housing-insecure people safe and sheltered, the Aston will save lives. This bridge housing facility offers a powerful model for other communities seeking humane and dignified solutions to unsheltered homelessness.