Shannon Steene says that a ritual with keys is his favorite part of the job as executive director of Carpenter’s Shelter.
On the days when clients at the homeless shelter move out to transition into newfound housing, staff and other residents will say goodbye to them by jingling their keys. Now after 11 years leading the nonprofit, Steene said he’s looking forward to his own departure ceremony of sorts, as he’s stepping down later this month to lead Reston-based nonprofit Cornerstones.
In Steene’s office, and on most of the walls of the nonprofit’s Hoffman Center (930 N. Henry Street) in Old Town, are art pieces from Home Is Where the Art Is, a program that gives art to families transitioning to new housing. When a resident at Carpenter’s Shelter finds new housing, they can choose any single painting or drawing to adorn their new home.
“I love the symbolism of [how] that piece of art literally helps bridge from the chapter in their life when everything had crumbled and they needed to come to the shelter, up until they are now in permanent housing,” Steene told ALXnow. “They’re in an apartment of their own, and this piece had been right there with them in the shelter, and it’s still with them in their home. I love it.”
During his tenure, Steene, who lives in D.C., led Carpenter’s Shelter through the pandemic, during which he oversaw an $8 million redevelopment. The work temporarily moved shelter operations to the former Macy’s department store at Landmark Mall from 2018 to 2020, when they moved back into the newly built Hoffman Center.
The new facility has an emergency shelter for families, a day shelter, administrative offices, 10 permanent housing units, and 87 affordable housing units owned and managed by Housing Alexandria.
“We’re super grateful for this building,” Steene said. “It feels like an expression of this community’s generosity. Not every shelter looks like this, and I think it just shows how wonderful it is we’re going to have down this way.”
In 2023, the nonprofit also deepened its collaboration with the city by assuming operation of the 64-bed Alexandria Community Shelter at 2355-B Mill Road.
In Steene’s absence, Carpenter’s Shelter will be led by an as-yet unnamed interim executive director while its board of directors conducts a national search for a permanent replacement.
ALXnow: Why are you leaving?
Steene: Change is natural. Change is healthy. I have colleagues that have left positions at what feels like a valley, and they want to step from valley to mountaintop. I have always much more subscribed to when people step from mountaintop to mountaintop, it’s probably a more effective change. There is so much going right here at Carpenter’s Shelter. It feels like the perfect time, in some sense, to hand off to someone a healthy, vibrant organization. They need a new leader.
ALXnow: What’s the process for the board to replace you?
Steene: They are working that plan. They do have great skills on the board right now and great passion. They are some of the biggest champions for the work and mission of Carpenter’s.
ALXnow: What’s the story with the keys ceremony?
Steene: As soon as someone is getting ready to move out, we announce over the intercom and encourage any staff that are here to gather in the vestibule. The caseworker will usually give a little bit of an intro, and we’ll ask if the resident has anything that they want to say, and then everybody grabs whatever keys they’ve got, and you shake those keys, and listen to the jingle and the cheers as a way to mark this new chapter.
This can be remarkably sobering work. Look, there’s nothing worse than the look in the eyes of someone when they walk through the front door for their first day here at the shelter, because shelters don’t have the best reputation. People have a conceived notion of what a shelter is like.
ALXnow: How many staff do you manage?
Steene: In total right now, we’ve got about 65 staff. We’ve got this shelter that we’re operating and we also operate Alexandria Community Shelter, which is in the Carlyle neighborhood. That includes a winter shelter to make sure no one freezes to death. That means around-the-clock operations happening here at 930 North Henry, [and] around-the-clock operations happening over at 2355 Mill Road.
ALXnow: Do you allow staff to telework?
Steene: Most of them have the ability that they can telework one day a week. That’s a holdover from the pandemic, and it was something that the staff said was a priority for them. It does allow them to have time when there isn’t always client contact immediately before them.
ALXnow: What did the board ask you to do with the organization when you were first hired?
Steene: I started here at Carpenter’s in May of 2015, and at the time, the board’s selection committee and I had a lot of conversation around, in addition to business as usual, which was running the shelters that we were already running, they said, “We just need you to do two things — raise a pile of money and redevelop the building.”
When I look from 2015 until today, our budget is basically three times the size that it was when I started. And these are all good things, except the fact that we need three times more budget in order to continue helping people. But we are helping more people.
ALXnow: What does capacity look like? Are you packed?
Steene: So tonight, there will be 178 beds of shelter available in this community, 64 that are here at 930 North Henry Street at The Hoffman Center. At the Alexandria Community Shelter, there are 64 year-round beds, and then, because it’s between November and mid-April, there’s an additional 50 hypothermia beds in our winter shelter. There is a waiting list for the year-round shelter, and we have been higher usage than previous years in the winter shelter this season.
ALXnow: How long do families stay in the shelter?
Steene: For families, it’s about four months before we can get them rehoused. That’s the average. Some come in and they can move out more quickly. Others, it takes more time, but on average, it’s about four months. It’s a little over three months for singles, who are able to be rehoused more quickly because they can rent a room in someone’s house. More space costs more money, though, and it’s more complex to rehouse that family.
There is not a hard time clock ticking for families. As long as people are working with us and applying good effort in order to move toward being permanently housed, we are right there alongside them, cheering them on, cajoling and supporting them.
ALXnow: What’s the main challenge with the new position that you’re taking on?
Steene: There are many similarities, in some ways, between Carpenter’s Shelter and Cornerstones. Herndon, Reston, eastern Loudoun County is sort of the general footprint that they have for things. Cornerstones is about three times the budgetary size of Carpenter’s, with a wider array of services. I am not currently well-versed in running child care centers, having a good size affordable housing portfolio, an emergency food hub, a variety of other services, and so I think in many ways, it’s just going to be a great challenge. But, it’s a trusted organization with a robust donor and volunteer base, and I’m ready for it.
What we’re seeing right now is that governmental policies and programs are quickly being reimagined, sometimes reconfigured — and so to not see necessarily the government as a backstop in that same way, I’m very interested for what that will mean for communities.
ALXnow: Does that mean you’re going to have to find alternative funding sources?
Steene: They do have a robust strategic plan, but there is no doubt that there will be fundraising and development as a large portion of what I will need to do at Cornerstones.
ALXnow: Do you ever see any former Carpenter’s Shelter residents in public? Do they recognize you?
Steene: Absolutely. There are so many moments that are amazingly charming. There’s a grocery store about five blocks from here that has a hot food bar that I go to … I’m there one day, and I’ve got my little takeout container, and all of a sudden I hear, “Shannon! Shannon!” I stop, trying to figure out what is going on in the middle of a grocery store. All of a sudden, I see a man in a lobster costume with the claws and everything, running across the store, flailing his claws, so excited. And he says to me, “I just want you to know I’ve still got my apartment, and I’m still working.”
ALXnow: What qualities does it take to successfully run this organization?
Steene: I think I’ve been a calm collaborator. People want to belong and be part of a solution. We’re a phenomenal vehicle to help people be part of a solution, feel affiliated with something good happening in our community. Carpenter’s Shelter is bigger than any one person. Carpenter’s Shelter was here, effective and strong, long before Shannon Steene, and will be here long after. I take pride in being part of the story, but I am not the story.
