A woman who was nine-months pregnant says a DC shelter denied her and her one-year-old daughter a place to get out of the cold last week.
After being escorted out of the building, Shadon Freeman says she and her one-year-old stayed on a sidewalk until a passerby saw her and gave her cab fare to Howard University Hospital where she spent the night in the waiting room to stay out of the cold.
Freeman says she gave birth to her second daughter five days later.
Freeman says she went to the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center seeking shelter Wednesday of last week. She said they denied her shelter, claiming she was a Maryland resident.
“I showed them my birth certificate, my social, my Medicaid card, my ID and everything is in DC, and they still denied me and my daughter shelter. “
She said they required a list of all the places she’d lived and, for a time years ago, she’d lived in Maryland.
“I stood up and started to cry because I was frustrated because I didn’t have anywhere to go with my daughter.”
Attorney Amber Harding with Washington Lawyers for the Homeless got Freeman’s case and successfully fought to get her a hotel room, in the homeless program.
“A city like ours is making families go through this, when they’re at they’re most vulnerable and need help,” Harding says.
wjla.com
