“I am absolutely elated. I’m just beyond words!” That’s how Jesse Smith celebrated the latest news in one long-running dispute over emergency shelter in the District – and the political coming-of-age for a group of homeless men who have been trying to save the downtown shelter where they live.

Smith was reacting to word that the District will not be closing the Franklin School Shelter at 13th and K streets, Northwest. A homeless resident of Franklin, Smith is president of the Committee to Save Franklin Shelter (CSFS). The committee has worked for months to tell people that Franklin should remain open and be improved from its current overcrowded, run-down condition, and that the city should provide enough emergency shelter in downtown Washington. Now, increasing support for those ideas has slowed the steamroller of downtown redevelopment that threatened the shelter.

The Williams administration previously had said Franklin should close next March, at the end of the winter hypothermia season, and that the handsome 1869 building would be leased out to become a boutique “hip” hotel. But questions have been raise about the lease as well as the decision to close Franklin, and it became clear the city could not find alternative space.

And the Oct. 10 meeting of the city’s new Interagency Council on Homelessness, Deputy Mayor Brenda Donald Walker announced that Franklin would remain in use as a shelter. She later told Street Sense that the city will keep the shelter open, make improvements to the building and add comprehensive support services for its residents.

This commitment came after years of rumors, false alarms and growing concern about the future of the shelter – much of it reported in Street Sense. This concern from shelter residents, advocates and citizens, Walker said, is part of why she moved to announce the new plans for Franklin’s future.

“I know there’s been a lot of angst about Franklin Shelter, a lot of rumors, and it was time for people to know that we heard you, and we are responding,” Walker said.

That will take a lot of work. According to the CSFS, the needed changes include both physical renovations and the presence of services in the shelter. The building needs significant electrical work, and the toilets and bathrooms are in desperate need of repair. As for services, the CSFS would like to see job counseling, medical support, particularly for mental health issues, affordable housing placement, and legal representation for those who need it.

“The main thing I would like to see at Franklin are services – real services – that would help people in fulfilling their lives going forward,” Smith said.

Effective help for homeless people, located where they need it most, has been the overall prize envisioned by the CSFS. The committee was formed during resident meetings held last summer at Franklin, called in response to news of the shelter’s planned closing. Smith and founding member Rommel McBride saw that small start grow quickly to a wide effort on many fronts.

The committee’s first big appearance was at a rally before a City Council hearing in June, followed by visits to every member of the City Council and to City Administrator Robert Bobb. CSFS members, including David Pirtle and Eric Sheptock, went on to attend fundraisers and other events for D.C. candidates. Ward 3 Council member Kathy Patterson, then a candidate for Council chair, even met with the committee at Franklin Shelter, and, as reported in this newspaper, received the committee’s endorsement along with several other candidates who pledged support for the CSFS’ goals. The CSFS followed up its voting guide by leafleting for their chosen candidates at the polls on primary day.

A listserv and a Web site (www.savefranklinshelter.com), the work of committee member Michael McFadden, also have helped the CSFS spread their message. And Mary Ann Luby from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless helped the committee learn to navigate among the City Council, the Williams administration and the complexities of homeless policy.

This has added up, Smith said. “We have been garnering support and speaking at any venue that would allow us to speak, and trying to connect with organizations that are sympathetic to our issues,” he said. “And the reception has been very positive.”

That doesn’t surprise observers of the city’s shelter sagas, because it isn’t only the CSFS that has been calling for shelter downtown. The business community, represented by the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, has supported having adequate shelter in the area, and that played a role in the city’s decision.

“We need this shelter in the location where it is, and we need it renovated. A shelter downtown is key to getting people to where they need to go to re-establish their livelihood,” Smith said.

Even though Franklin’s planned closing has been replaced by plans to change it for the better, the CSFS still will be active, petitioning to see that those changes are put in place, Smith said.

“We will plan for these changes with the residents in a respectful and inclusive way,” Walker said.

For the CSFS, that’s only the beginning. One of their goals is to reach out to shelters all over the city to help spark similar efforts, and they also are developing a policy shop – committee members have been assigned to research the best practices at shelters in other cities, with a view to setting a high standard for D.C. facilities.

And there’s more to this story than decisions about the shelter. “Everyone figures people in the shelter are a bunch of derelicts, and crazy. And what we have done shows that ‘it ain’t about the stereotypes’ – even though we are homeless, we can get things done,” Smith said.

Laura Thompson Osuri contributed to this story.