Two young children currently staying at the District's largest shelter for homeless families have tested positive for elevated levels of lead, News4 has learned.
The director of D.C.'s Department of Human Services cautions that officials don't know that the D.C. General shelter was the source of the contamination. However, some chipping paint in the cafeteria tested positive for lead, causing health officials to cordon off the room, Zeilinger said Tuesday.
This is not the first problem to plague D.C. General in recent years, including the shocking, high-profile disappearance of an 8-year-old girl who had lived at the homeless shelter with her mother and brothers.
Relisha Rudd
Relisha Rudd's ninth birthday came and went last fall with no sign of the little girl. She was last seen March 1, 2014 on surveillance video from a New York Avenue NE motel. The video shows her in the company of Kahlil Tatum, a janitor at the shelter.
After news broke that Relisha was missing, the body of Tatum's wife was found in a motel, and Tatum was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a park in Northeast D.C.
The little girl appeared to have been missing for weeks before officials realized she was gone. Relisha hadn't been seen at school since the month before her disappearance.
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During a contentious hearing six months later, D.C. officials reviewed how they handled her disappearance. A report found the District couldn't have prevented her disappearance, citing, in part, misleading information provided by the little girl's family.
However, the report did suggest more than two dozen policy changes on matters such as how schools deal with unexcused absences, background checks for homeless shelter employees, and fraternization between families and shelter staff.
'This Doesn't Work'
In the wake of Relisha's disappearance, many families demanded changes to conditions at the shelter.
"A lot of families who live in this shelter tell me that they're seeing rodents, mildew, mold and the food they receive isn't cooked properly," Jim Graham, then a D.C. councilmember, said at the time. "This doesn't work. This place just doesn't work."
The D.C. Department of Human Services said the shelter is treated for rodents and insects twice a week, but homeless advocates and residents said it's not enough.
"There's [mice] in there ... and roaches," D.C. General resident Bryna Garris said last year. "I don't think it's best for [my kids] to be there."
Sex Offender Living in Shelter
News4 also learned in late December that a registered sex offender had lived at the shelter among hundreds of young children. The city was relying on sex offenders to self-report their status, and Eulis Knox did not do so.
Nine years earlier, Knox had been charged in Maryland with multiple sex offenses and assaults. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Knox, his girlfriend and her daughter lived in a fourth-floor unit at D.C. General for an undetermined amount of time. A source with knowledge of the situation, but not authorized to talk publicly, said Knox and his family were removed from D.C. General and placed in another shelter where Knox would not have as much contact with children.
D.C. Councilmember Yvette Alexander said at the time that the city should never deny shelter to someone, but should consider separating families when one member is a convicted sex offender.
"There needs to be mandatory reporting and checks ... we can't risk putting a registered sex offender with children," Alexander said.
D.C. officials estimate it costs about $50,000 annually to house a family at D.C. General.
