EaDo Shelter 419 Emancipation Opens Quietly, Accepting Drop-Offs From Law Enforcement Only

The city’s new homeless shelter, 419 Emancipation, has opened quietly, with one drop-off at a time. The 222-bed facility sits in the EaDo area, just across Shell Energy Stadium from where the FIFA Fan Festival begins Thursday. It opened softly with little fanfare, following a well-publicized dispute with nearby residents.

The shelter is a central part of Mayor John Whitmire’s homelessness plan, which aims to end street homelessness and provide a place where people can receive services and be connected with housing options. During the soft opening, the shelter accepted drop-offs only from law enforcement. On Wednesday morning, a constable’s officer and an outreach team worked together to help those who were ready to go.

Gabriel Flores had been torn when outreach workers first asked him, weeks earlier, whether he wanted to go to the shelter. On Wednesday, a worker with the nonprofit SEARCH Homeless Services presented the move as low-stakes, something he could try. Flores had read about 419 Emancipation in the newspaper, where it was described as rich with resources. He said he was ready to invest time in starting over and hoped the shelter could connect him with a program where he could learn a trade. He had also read about the pushback from neighbors, who raised concerns about safety and community input, but he thought the plan made sense because the building had already been used as housing. The 1957 complex has previously housed homeless women and their children, people displaced by Hurricane Harvey, and minors who had immigrated to the country without their parents.

Christopher Case was waiting for a soup kitchen in the neighborhood to open when he spoke with an outreach worker. He was interested in learning more and asked whether the shelter could help him find a job. The outreach worker had not been inside the shelter, but she recommended he contact Career and Recovery Resources on San Jacinto Street, which specializes in employment help.

The Harris Center, which will operate 419 Emancipation at a cost of $39 million through April 2029, said in an emailed one-pager that the shelter will provide on-site healthcare, mental health and employment resources. The Harris Center did not make a representative available for an interview. In an email, the Harris Center said walk-ins would be accepted in future phases, but that dates for those phases have not been set. Mike Nichols, the mayor’s director of housing and community development, who has led Whitmire’s homelessness strategy, did not respond to questions or a request for an interview.

On Wednesday morning, SEARCH outreach workers, the East End Management District public safety coordinator and an officer from the Harris County Constable Precinct 6 drove through the Second Ward. They passed streets blocked off for the World Cup, public parks that appeared emptier than usual, and giant, 18-foot-tall statues of presidents’ heads behind a fence with a “no trespassing” sign. Along the way, they met people who had already heard about the shelter, and those people varied widely in how ready they were to accept a ride there.

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