Two Tenant Associations in Ward 4, One Shared Goal: Affordable Housing for All

Tenants at 5741 Colorado Avenue NW celebrate the purchase of their apartment building.

Today’s blog is the first in a series of stories previewing this Saturday’s 6th Annual Citywide Tenant Town Hall. The town hall will be held from 1-4 pm at the All Souls Unitarian Church. RSVP on our Facebook event page.

For Margarita Pineda, president of the 1445 Spring Rd NW Tenants Association, an electrical fire in her apartment building in 2008 drove her and her neighbors to get organized and fight for their quality of life.

After filing a successful lawsuit against their landlord over poor housing conditions with the help of the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), the tenants received a letter in December 2012 that their building was put up for sale.

“We now have the opportunity to buy our building through the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) law,” Margarita says. “This is a great blessing for us because finally we can decide the future of our housing as we will be the future property owners. However, none of this hard work will be worth anything if we cannot count on the support of our government.”

 

Univision – Obama Meets with Business Owners to Improve the Economy (Spanish)

Behind closed doors, President Barack Obama met with small business owners to pressure Congress to approve a new round of economic stimulus.

Obama proposes to spend an additional $25 billion for tax credits for companies who hire new staff or raise salaries.

“This is about giving small business owners an incentive so they can hire,” said economist Isaac Cohen. “Small business owners are the most significant employer in this country, not big companies.”

To watch the full video clip also featuring LEDC in Spanish, click here.

 

Wheaton Patch – Wheaton Small Business Survey Shows Parking Concerns

Below is news coverage from this morning related to the ongoing work of the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton, of which LEDC is a member.

A survey of small busineses in the Wheaton Urban District found that the top three “immediate business concerns” are parking, rent and safety.

The Wheaton Redevelopment Program, which is part of the county’s Department of General Services, conducted the survey in April and May. There was a 36 percent response rate; of the 298 surveys given to businesses, 108 were returned.

Peter McGinnity of the Wheaton Redevelopment Program said the survey will help to inform the county’s Department of Economic Development, as it tries to flesh out Bill 6-12. The bill, which was passed earlier this year by the county council, calls for assistance to small businesses negatively affected by county development projects.

To read the full article referencing the Coalition’s response to the survey results, click here.

To read a short writeup of the Coalition’s presentation on the survey results Tuesday before the Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee, click here.

 

NBCNews.com – New Steps Announced to Fix Costly Credit Errors

Tawanna Sellers is a food service employee at a Washington, DC high school. But she’d like to be out here, among the ranks of food truck owners.

The reason Tawanna isn’t is because she got a bad credit report and can’t get a loan for her business. “There was a lot of stuff on there – some of it didn’t belong to me,” Sellers said. “And some were a lot of mistakes.”

She’s not alone – a recent study found that 79 percent of all credit reports have some type of error.

To watch the full video highlighting LEDC and how consumers can now file complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if they are unable to resolve a credit dispute with a credit reporting agency, click here.

 

Washington Post – Maryland Festival Goers Introduced to Salvadoran Food, Culture

Ping Eng and her daughter Sarah walked slowly through the crowd, each holding a tiny plate with a corn tortilla filled with cheese, beans and pork.

“I am excited about this,” Eng said as she took a bite of a pupusa. She later wondered aloud how cooks were able to get the meat filling inside the pupusa. “It must be difficult to make.”

For Eng, a Gaithersburg resident who was born in China, Sunday’s annual World of Montgomery Festival in Wheaton was a chance to try the Salvadoran signature dish for the first time. Her daughter was especially curious about trying the food from the country of origin for many of her high school classmates.

To find out who won Sunday’s Pupusa Cookoff at the World of Montgomery Festival, click here to read the full article.

 

Washington Post Express – From Renters to Owners

Silvia Salazar didn’t expect tenant organizing to change her life. She just wanted to rid her decaying apartment complex of bedbugs, black mold and rats. The 36-year-old ended up empowering her neighbors to advocate for themselves and, ultimately, become proud owners of their own building.

For years, Salazar’s calls and letters to the management company of her 1930s-era Logan Circle building went unanswered. In October 2005, she decided to take action. She met with a handful of renters in the laundry room to discuss their home’s flaws. Over the next six years, the group formed a tenant association and waged a legal battle to purchase their seven-story, 84-unit building, now the Norwood Cooperative (1417 N St. NW).

“In a building that has had as many maintenance issues as us, where we speak many languages, the fact that we could organize and get around to doing it shows that it’s possible in any building in D.C,” Salazar said.

To read the full article, click here.

 

Wheaton Patch – Salvadoran Restaurants to Compete in Pupusa Cookoff

If you need another reason to come to the World of Montgomery Festival in Wheaton on Oct. 21, let it be for the pupusas, those fried corn-dough pockets of cheese, pork and beans.

Five Salvadoran restaurants in Montgomery County will be competing in a pupusa cookoff, with festival goers as the judges. Here’s how it works: buy a $5 ticket online or at the festival, sample pupusas from each restaurant, and vote for your favorite.

Tasting and voting will go on from 12-3 p.m. The winner will be announced at 3 p.m., but pupusas (and other Salvadoran food) will continue to be sold until the end of the festival.

To read the full article, click here.

 

Associated Press – Rent Hike Forces Some DC Residents Out (Video)

In the nation’s capital, new housing and bigger stores are going up — all meant to fight crime and boost the economy.

But some Washington residents say the redevelopments are making the city too expensive.

“It just makes me almost want to cry  — to think about what they’re trying to do to us, and do to me in particular, and throughout the city,” says DC resident Ruth Tyler.

To watch the entire video, click here.

 

National Journal – Housing Market Improvement Tied to Hispanic Surge

For the past two weeks, Nicaragua immigrant Melissa Vivas has arrived home to her newly purchased two-story Washington home feeling like she has achieved part of her American Dream. The $210,000 four-bedroom with a patio, hardwood floors, and beige walls is the type of home she dreamed of providing for her two young U.S.-born children.

“I feel like, wow, I did it,” said the 31-year-old administrative assistant at a local charter school.

And if she wants to paint the walls a brighter hue, she said, she can do it without needing someone’s approval first. Her kids also get their own room, something they didn’t have when she was living temporarily with her mother. “I wanted a place for them to grow up, to have their own space, and to run freely,” Vivas said.

To read the full article profiling the success story of LEDC Homeownership client Melissa Vivas and the importance of Latino homeownership, click here.

 

NCLR and LEDC Launch the “Effective Money Management” Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        
August 22, 2012  

Contact: Julian Teixeira, Ash Kosiewicz
(202) 776-1812, (202) 425-1303
jteixeira@nclr.org, akosiewicz@ledcmetro.org

Program to enhance access to financial knowledge and vital banking services for Latinos

Washington, D.C.—In order to manage their finances successfully, families need not only access to banking services but the information and education to understand them.  Latinos are one of the most un- and underbanked communities in the nation, often experiencing barriers to a range of financial services—from something as basic as opening a checking account to understanding how to apply for a home mortgage.  To help bridge this gap, NCLR (National Council of La Raza) and the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) are joining together to launch the Effective Money Management program to provide one-on-one financial coaching and information about banking products to qualified low- and moderate-income individuals in the Washington, D.C. area.

“Latino families have been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn, which has depleted their savings and knocked them out of the banking system,” said Lot Diaz, Vice President of Housing and Community Development at NCLR.  “One of the first steps toward recovery is to become financially stable by reducing debt levels and building a cash reserve.  However, many in our community can’t do this because it requires not only financial tools but education and guidance.  We created the Effective Money Management program to help Hispanic families access the proper tools to promote financial decisions that not only build wealth but improve their lives overall.”

Participants in the Effective Money Management program will enroll in a five-week course and meet one-on-one with financial coaches provided through LEDC.  The course and coaching will focus on increasing knowledge and developing skills in budgeting, banking services, establishing and maintaining credit, savings, insurance, and protecting one’s assets.  Counselors will work with participants to assess their current financial situations, help tailor a financial action plan to both short- and long-term financial goals, and track progress over a 12-month period.

“We are very excited to partner with NCLR on the Effective Money Management program,” said Manny Hidalgo, LEDC Executive Director.  “Participants in our programs will greatly benefit from this initiative given that many lack access to basic banking services and the knowledge of how to build emergency savings.  We believe that the program is an important step in helping Washington, D.C.–area Latino families better manage their money, a critical step on the road to achieving financial independence.”