Over My Dead Buyout: Affordable Housing and the Price of Change in Ward 4

Today’s blog is the second in a series of stories previewing this Saturday’s 5th Annual Citywide Tenant Town Hall. The town hall will be held from 1-4 pm at the National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW.

DC resident Sharon Lewis can see the writing on her apartment walls, and she doesn’t like it one bit.

One year ago, she and her neighbors received letters stating that their building – less than one block away from the Georgia/Petworth metro station in Ward 4 – had been put up for sale. Sharon, who retired from her job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2009, has called the building home for 35 years.

Although she admits the building could use some improvements – new windows, better security, and more appliances – the building’s location and reasonable rents are two reasons why she has enjoyed living in Petworth.

“We were all in a panic,” she recalls. “We had no info – we had no idea what to do.”

 

Tenant Advocates Host “Before and After Tour” of Affordable Housing Struggles in NW DC Neighborhoods

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2011

Contact: Lead Tenant Organizer Anna Duncan (for Columbia Heights)
Director of Affordable Housing Preservation Farah Fosse (for Petworth)
(202) 590-4320, (202) 590-4369
aduncan@ledcmetro.org; fosse@ledcmetro.org

Reality Tour to Show Results of Gentrification and Community Organizing in Columbia Heights and Petworth

WASHINGTON – On Monday, July 11th, residents of Columbia Heights and Petworth will open their homes to share stories of their struggles to preserve affordable housing in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Washington, D.C. is the only city in the country with a unique law (the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, or TOPA) that gives tenants the right to determine what happens to their apartment building when it is for sale. The Before and After Neighborhood Tour will visit four multi-family buildings (two where residents utilized TOPA to buy their buildings and convert them into affordable cooperatives, and two apartment buildings where tenants are trying to purchase) to meet with residents and hear their unique stories. DC’s tenant purchase program is one of the major focuses of this year’s Fourth Annual Citywide Tenant Town Hall, on Saturday, July 16th at 2:30 pm at First Trinity Lutheran Church (309 E St NW, near Judiciary Square).

WHAT: Before and After Neighborhood Tour of Columbia Heights and Petworth

BEFORE: Hear from tenants who live in run-down apartment buildings that are for sale and who are organizing to prevent their displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods.

AFTER: See newly renovated, affordable housing co-ops where long-term neighborhood residents are now owners!

WHERE: 1st stop: 710 Jefferson St NW
2nd stop: Brightwood Gardens Cooperative – 941 Longfellow St NW
3rd stop: 1333 Euclid St NW
4th stop: Quest Cooperative – 1428 Euclid St NW

WHEN: Monday, July 11th, 5 to 7 PM
Meet at 710 Jefferson St NW at 5 pm; we’ll walk to 941 Longfellow St NW (2 blocks),
then drive to 1333 Euclid St NW (or meet there at 6 PM), then walk to 1428 Euclid St NW (1 block).

WHO: Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), Save Our Safety Net, 710 Jefferson St NW Tenants’ Association, Brightwood Gardens Cooperative Association, 1333 Euclid St NW Tenants’ Association, Quest Cooperative Association

 

Washington City Paper – Will Tenant Purchases Continue?

It’s that time of year again: When various interest groups cycle through the Wilson Building to justify their spending priorities, especially if they’re being cut in this year’s budget. Most of them actually got off okay, given that Mayor Vince Gray decided to raise some taxes (or “revenue enhancements”) rather than taking the entire $322 million shortfall out of programs and services; the budget overall grew by 1.7 percent.

One of the bigger exceptions, however, is housing and homelessness programs. For the last couple of years, the Housing Production Trust Fund–which is used for loans to help tenants purchase and renovate their buildings when they come up for sale–sank to almost nothing after the tanked real estate market cut off the deed transfer taxes that supply the Fund. Since sales are on the rise again, advocates hoped that the fund might be substantially restored. Again, they’ve been disappointed, and voiced their dissatisfaction to Councilmember Michael Brown at a roundtable on tenant purchases yesterday.

Here are the numbers: On the budget, it looks like the Fund has $65 million in it, which isn’t too shabby. But according to the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, $29 million of that is a fund balance left from 2011 that will be used to cover projects that have already been approved, another $4 million is loan repayments and interest for 2012, and $5.4 million is for the Department of Housing and Community Development’s administration of the fund.

To read the full article, click here.