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While the District ponders the future of the old convention center, some residents have found a use for the site. Around 9 on a weeknight, a man who goes by Slim lies under a pile of blankets by one of the entrances, protected by a large overhang. Slim says he’s been sleeping here nightly, except right after the hurricane. “The drainage is not so good when it rains hard,” he notes. After the building closed in late spring, panhandling dried up and the homeless mostly cleared out; in August, the Downtown Services Center counted only one person among 279 downtown homeless sleeping there. But now the quiet is drawing people back. As Slim talks, another man picks out a spot about 20 feet away. Slim says that as the night wears on, he gets more company: “People see me and say, ‘If they ain’t bother him, I guess I can stay there, too.’” Annys Shin