Latest on Central Union Mission

At last night’s ANC1A meeting David Treadwell spoke to the group to let them know what the latest was on the future of the Central Union Mission.

The planned land swap with the Georgia Avenue and Gales School properties no longer seems to be on the table, as the ACLU is suing. It is their contention that such a deal can not be made because a religious organization and a municipal entity are not compatible.

This does not mean the downtown site has fallen through and it’s back to the original plan. Rather, the Mission still hopes to work with the District to reach a deal on the Gales School to place its homeless shelter there. Right now they are working through the legal issues.

Treadwell focused most of his time on the Georgia Avenue property. Since the Mission cannot allow the property to remain vacant with no plan of development whatsoever, they are proposing a mixed use building. Treadwell stated that the location would be a good site for the Mission’s administrative offices and counselling services. The other parts of the building would be for mixed income housing and commercial. If things go the way they are currently planned, the Mission would retain ownership only of the sections of the building they end up using, with other tenants owning their footprints much like a condo is organized.

Perhaps most encouraging is that Treadwell indicated that the City has been working with the Mission toward the same goal and is assisting as much as possible to sort this out.

(My thanks to M.V. Jantzen for the use of the Mission image)