Kids can be mean. Few know this better than 36-year-old DC native and Potomac Gardens resident Michael Ballard. Michael Ballard was heavy all of his life. The kids called him Fat Mike. His mother suffered from weight problems also so she understood what it was like to be teased and humiliated at school. It was only natural that they would become extremely close.
Michael continued to put on weight throughout school. By the time he graduated high school he weighed 300 pounds. Many people assume that anyone that weighs that much can’t do anything. Michael proved them wrong by going to work right out of high school. From 2000 to 2005 he worked for Goodwill Industries in housekeeping, a job he enjoyed. In 2005 Goodwill lost their contract with the Armed Forces Retirement Home and Michael went to work for Melwood, a nonprofit that creates jobs and opportunities for people with disabilities, in their housekeeping department.
At Melwood, Michael faced discrimination. His co-workers claimed that he had body odor; that he took up too much space; that he moved too slowly and was unable to complete his tasks because he couldn’t fit into the bathroom. It was high school all over again. Within just a few months Michael had left Melwood and returned to Goodwill Industries. But the stress at Melwood had caused Michael to put on more weight. He now weighed ?? pounds. He had a different project manager at Goodwill, one who didn’t know him well and he faced discrimination at Goodwill as well.
He was accused of sitting on and breaking Goodwill’s second-hand chairs. To address the problem, the Government Service Administration brought a bench to his job site exclusively for Michael to use. Unfortunately, his project manager, unwilling to find ways to accommodate an employee of Michael’s size, threw the bench into the trash.
Besides the stress of the hostile work environment, Michael developed an upper respiratory infection from working in Goodwill’s Garage. Despite all this, Michael continued to work at Goodwill from 2006 until 2013, when he was let go.
After losing his job, Michael’s health deteriorated. Due to his extreme weight, Michael had for years suffered from lymphedma— a condition that causes swelling in the arms or legs as a result of a blockage in the lymphatic system that prevents lymph fluid from draining well—on the bottom of both his legs. Michael also developed cellulites—a noncontagious bacterial skin infection—which spread from the bottom of both of his legs to his pelvis. This condition landed him in Washington Hospital for a ten-day stretch in March of 2013. From there he was transferred to Saint Thomas Moore Rehabilitation Center where he was bed bound for two months.
Two months of having to eat in the bed, having the bed made while lying in it, having his body turned and cleaned in the bed was more humiliating than years of being teased. Michael’s weight had made him a target for mockery but now it was risking his life. Michael knew that the only way to escape the derision and to save his life was to control his weight.
In May 2013, he went from being bed bound to being wheel chair ridden. Once in the chair, he was able to begin participating in physical therapy. Soon he was able to move around with a rollator. In December of 2013, Michael was well enough to move back home to Potomac Gardens but not without the use of two portable oxygen tanks.
By this time, his mother was in trouble. Being overweight herself, she had a hernia that had grown to the size of a soccer ball. In 2014, Michael’s mother had surgery at Georgetown Hospital. Terrified that he might lose his best friend, Michael’s stress levels soared along with his eating. While his mother was recovering, Michael’s weight ballooned. At 700 pounds, hospitalization was inevitable.
This time, Michael was offered the option of a sleeve gastrectomy, a procedure that removes all but twenty-five percent of the stomach and greatly limits the patient’s food intake. The operation was performed by Dr. Paul Lin at George Washington University Hospital in March of 2015. Seven months later, Michael had lost 301 pounds.
How did he do it? In addition to the gastrectomy, Michael started exercising with regularity and intensity. For three hours, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he does water aerobics. His real passion is line dancing, which he does from 6:00 – 8:30 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Turkey Thicket Recreation Center. In fact, Michael has been line dancing for five years, but this December 1st will be his one-year anniversary line dancing at Turkey Thicket with a group that calls themselves The Line Dance Addicts. Michael no longer needs to use the portable oxygen to get around, although he still uses it at home. He is well on his way to full recovery from a lifetime of weight-related issues.
He is grateful for his second chance and is working to spread what he’s learned to the community around him. He has begun teaching line dancing to Potomac Gardens’ and Hopkins Apartments’ residents. Classes cost only $2 and it’s already proven popular with those of all ages and all sizes. Line Dancing with Big Mike teaches you more than the Nae Nae and the electric slide; line dancing with Big Mike teaches you that overcoming even extremely large obstacles is possible and easier when your community has your back.
The community that has Michael’s back as he continues to lose weight includes but is not limited to: Cheryl Thompson Walker, Kembal Bonds, Russell, Jordan, Miss Rita and Rita from Turkey Thicket, as well as Miss Paula Allen, Miss Reshida Young and the entire Line Dance Addicts family; Dee, Reggie, Adrienne Jenkins and Dr. Cristina Schreiber from George Washington University Hospital; Sisters With A Purpose and the entire Master’s Child Church Family under the leadership of Bishop Melvin Robinson junior and his wife and church co-founder Erma Robinson-Fitzgerald; and last but not least the Lord, his mom and grandparents.
On the 22nd of September, the 100 women 100 miles pilgrimage to the Pope for Immigrant Rights arrived at McPherson Square. One hundred women had marched all the way from an ICE detention center in Pennsylvania and were joined by many more supporters on the last leg of the march inside DC. The march ended at McPherson Square, where the Catholic hunger fasters for climate action already have tents set up. The evening program featured an appearance by Sweet Honey in the Rock after the speakers finished.
One of the lead banners quoted Pope Francis’s statement that “Pope Francis has said that the globalization of migration requires a globalization of charity and cooperation.”
Stirring video of the end of the march, followed by clip from Sweet Honey in the Rock’s performance
Family and Friends of Incarcerated People Present
The 10th Annual Public Safety Community Event
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Noon – 7:00 PM Anacostia Park, 1900 Anacostia Drive, SE East of the Sousa (Pennsylvania Ave) Bridge, near the roller skating rink
This will be a fun-filled day for the children of those incarcerated and those that may be at risk.
Event activities are designed to:
• Create harmony among our children
o Rebuild our communities
• Pass on valuable information
o Express ideas on how to help at-risk-youth
• Share a wonderful unselfish act of love
o For the safety of our community
Meet Charles Wright. He’s a tenant at 1229 G Street SE, which is home to about 140 seniors and persons with disabilities inside the Potomac Gardens Public Housing Complex. Charles is a senior with a seizure disorder. He also has HIV. He was diagnosed in 1999 or somewhere there abouts. A number of people living at 1229 G Street SE are HIV positive or living with AIDS, but not many are willing to talk about it. As a volunteer at Whitman Walker Charles is not shy about the disease, his condition or how he got there.
Charles Wright was born and raised in the District of Columbia. He and his family lived on Euclid Street Northwest in Petworth, which even then was a relatively fashionable. He fully admits that he was very spoiled. He bought his clothes at Woodies and Landburgh’s. His father bought him a Triumph Spitfire. Plenty of girls were interested in Charles but there was only one girl for him. Yes indeed, Charles Wright was a big man at Roosevelt Senior High School. Like the other popular boys, he played basketball in a park on Hamilton Street and smoked reefer with his best friend Ronald and the other guys playing pick up ball on the court. Eventually, the reefer led to harder drugs, heroine, cocaine and eventually crack.
It’s hard to say when Charles contracted HIV. Despite his drug use, he functioned reasonably well. After high school, he went to Maryland Eastern Shore for accounting, but he left after two years. It was enough to land him a job at the United Planning Organization and later a better job as a tax accountant at the Department of Finance and Revenue. But the money he was making, didn’t allow him to live the spoiled life to which he had become accustomed. He needed money, not just for the drugs but to dress well and look good when he went to the clubs. So Charles started forging checks and credit cards.
His drug use lost him his high school sweet heart, but looking good at the clubs got him a new girl. “We met at Tiffany’s,” Charles remembers fondly. “She had pretty feet. In fact, that was my pick up line, ‘you have cute toes.'” They danced the Hustle and because it was pay day, Charles bought everyone at the table a drink. The rest is history. They fell in love, moved into an apartment together in Northeast DC and had a son.
All was going smoothly until he got caught for his forgery and found out that he was positive for HIV. Fortunately, he hadn’t infected his partner and so his son was spared as well. He spent eight years in a low-security prison. When he got out, he was still using drugs but this time without the steady accounting job or the illegal income. Charles and his son’s mother continued to get along well, but he didn’t move back in with her. She didn’t ask for child support and encouraged him to be a part of their son’s life. He admits that he might have been more present for his son, if he hadn’t been chasing the drugs. Somewhere during this time, Charles’ high school friend Ronald died of an overdose.
Fortunately, for Charles he found Whitman Walker and his life began to turn around. Having finally decided to quit using drugs, he started going to their Narcotic Anonymous meetings. Eventually, he was allowed in their drug rehabilitation program, which unlike the vast majority of in-patient treatment programs, was entirely free. That was three years ago. Charles stayed off drugs for two of those years but eventually, overcome by loneliness, he started using again. “I was frustrated and mad,” he says, “so I started using weed and crack again. The loneliness is the hardest part about drug use. You get in your apartment and you just get lonely. And then you go and do what happens.”
Charles still struggles to keep from using but he is trying to quit again. He has a new girl friend. She does not like his drug use and Charles wants her to be proud of him. So, he’s started going to the Narcotics Anonymous meetings at Whitman Walker again. “In the beginning, they know you won’t be clean,” he says, “but by taking the meetings, they expect you to get strong enough to get clean.” Charles hopes to go through Whitman Walker’s drug treatment program again when they agree he’s ready. In the meantime, Charles volunteers on the Whitman Walker outreach truck, passing out condoms and teaching the public how to avoid infection. He advises Lifestyle condoms over Trojans and for heterosexuals, female condoms over male condoms.
Charles is open about his status because he wants to make a difference. Whitman Walker is known for working with Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender individuals, but they welcomed Charles who fits into none of those categories. Potomac Gardens is proud to count Charles Wright as a member of the community. We are also grateful to Whitman Walker for opening its doors to the public housing community, whose members are too often stigmatized and rarely given the second and sometimes third chance that everyone deserves.
Charles was interviewed for the Whitman Walker promotional video above. In it, he is given the last line. You’ll have to watch it all the way to the end to find out what that line is.
Museum Square is a Section 8 apartment complex in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Section 8 or Housing Choice Voucher Program is a federal program that assists very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled who cannot afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and are not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects. Sounds great, doesn’t it? The problem is that the vast majority of housing in the District doesn’t meet the requirement simply because landlords refuse to accept Housing Choice vouchers.
Housing Choice vouchers are traditionally accepted in low-income communities. The District’s neighborhoods are gentrifying so quickly that there are very few low-income communities left. When an otherwise low-income or working class community like Chinatown is “developed,” landlords who have contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to accept Housing Choice or Section 8 vouchers often decide not to renew their contract. Once the contract runs out, they can sell the property to a developer who will kick out all of the voucher holders and move in tenants who can afford whatever rent they want to charge without government assistance. We call this displacement. But it doesn’t have to happen.
We, the people of DC, can take a stand for development without displacement, and help tenants stay in their homes!
Jews United for Justice, Andy Shallal, and Think Local First DC are throwing a party for neighbors and local businesses to celebrate and support the tenants of Museum Square in their struggle.
Celebrating the Museum Square Community Monday July 20, 2015 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Busboys and Poets (5th and K location) 1025 5th Street NW
When the Williamsburg, Va-based Bush Companies (also known as the W.H.H. Trice & Company, but neither has any meaningful online presence) decided they didn’t want to renew their Section 8 contract for the Museum Square Apartment complex, they informed the tenants. Because 70% of the tenants in the 312-unit complex are Chinese immigrants many of whom have limited English, they relied on the remaining 30%, most of whom are African-American to explain the meaning of the eviction letter that the Bush Companies had placed under their doors.
The tenants had two distinct choices, they could take their Housing Choice vouchers to another landlord or they could try and take advantage of the city’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act or TOPA. According to this legislation, Museum Square residents would be able to stay in their homes if they or a nonprofit developer willing to work with them, could come up with the $250 million dollars that the Bush Companies were asking for the property. Of course, if each household had $800,000 to pay for their apartments, they could bypass the nonprofit developer all together.
Turns out none of them wanted to leave their homes, but the $250 million dollars that the Bush Companies was asking for was more than any reasonable non-profit developer would try and raise. So the tenants went with a third option. They sued the Bush Companies for violating TOPA. Their case was based on the assumption that the price for the building was set astronomically high so that the tenants couldn’t possibly raise the money. Last year the property was valued at $36 million. So, it’s also unlikely that a for profit developer would make an offer of anything close to $250 million for the building. Not selling the building would allow the Bush Company to evict the low-rent tenants, tear the building down, build high-priced luxury condos and make a ridiculous profit in the process.
D.C.’s city council was also alarmed by the $250 million price tag. Was this loophole in TOPA the beginning of a new trend that would allow landlords a way out of their Section 8 contracts without the constraints of TOPA? In response, the city passed emergency legislation they hoped would stop the Bush Companies from selling or tearing down the property. The Bush Company in turn sued the city, claiming that the law singled them out. It didn’t work. In April of this year, a judge rejected the $250 million price tag, ruling that it was not a “bonafide offer of sale.” But the fight is not over. Despite claiming that they no longer want out of their Section 8 contract, the Bush Companies has applied for a permit to raze Museum Square. If the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs approves their application the residents of Museum Square could still lose their homes.
What’s most remarkable about this story is the cooperation between the African-American and Chinese residents of Museum Square. The District of Columbia remains one of the most diverse city’s in the nation. It is also just about the most segregated. If the Chinese-American and African-American residents of Museum Square are forced to disperse—most likely to the suburbs—the city will become just that much more segregated. We’ll also lose another 312 affordable apartments. All of this thanks to the greed of a multi-million dollar corporation based in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Join Jews United for Justice, Andy Shallal and Think Local First DC Monday night to make sure #MuseumSquareStays. Hear from tenants and neighborhood leaders on how to support our neighbors as developers like the owner of the building – Bush Companies, which has a long, bad track record for affordability in DC – threaten to push them out.
Being at this party is your vote for a diverse city – and makes a huge difference to struggling tenants who want to know you’re behind them.
At Melwood, Michael faced discrimination. His co-workers claimed that he had body odor; that he took up too much space; that he moved too slowly and was unable to complete his tasks because he couldn’t fit into the bathroom. It was high school all over again. Within just a few months Michael had left Melwood and returned to Goodwill Industries. But the stress at Melwood had caused Michael to put on more weight. He now weighed ?? pounds. He had a different project manager at Goodwill, one who didn’t know him well and he faced discrimination at Goodwill as well.
