On July 10, 2010 ONE DC and Take Back The Land set up a tent city at 7th and R Streets NW to protest the unfulfilled promises made by Mayor Fenty regarding the public property there, otherwise known as Parcel 42. The tent city got a fair amount of media attention at the start, but interest waned as the protest failed to move the Fenty Administration to action, beyond posting the sign in the picture of course. The sign, which reads, “Another Project from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development,” sounds like Mayor Fenty is taking credit for the tent city. In a way, that’s accurate. If Fenty had followed through on the Memorandum of Understanding that he signed in 2007, then a tent city on that lot wouldn’t have been necessary.
The Grassroots Media Project’s radio production class gathered audio at tent city near the end of July. Interviews were conducted by Candace Wolfe, Navid Nasr, Crystal Elekwachi and Riley Abbott. The final piece was edited together by Riley Abbot.
Additionally, Eric Sheptock’s blog posts on the subject give you the perspective of a tent city resident. It’s also interesting to compare coverage by the City Paper, which focuses on whether or not the activists would achieve their goals, with coverage in the Afro American, which is more concerned with how affordable housing is defined by the city and why their definition is problematic.
We all know that the supply of quality affordable housing in the District of Columbia is dwindling and has been for decades. This is not a problem unique to the District of Columbia, nor is it only a problem during bad economic times. Finding affordable housing during the relatively lucrative 90s, for instance, was not much easier than it is now.
Fortunately, there are federal programs that subsidize the cost of housing that local governments can use to help low- and moderate-income residents. The amount of affordable housing available dependents in part on regulations that determine things like how many units of an apartment building must be designated affordable and how low the rent must be before it fits into that category.
Landlords are often able to purchase buildings for relatively little money if they make a contract with a city or other jurisdiction to provide affordable housing. These property owners are aware of the regulations they must follow to remain in compliance with the subsidy program, but the tenants who make their homes in their buildings are often left in the dark.
The National Alliance of Hud Tenants is working to change that fact. Empower DC intern Chantal Taylor caught them in action as they took their case to the National Leased Housing Association on K Street.
For the homeowner who’s been beholden to the bank for 30 years, finally paying off that mortgage is definitely a good thing. But when a landlord who has a contract with HUD to provide affordable apartments, pays off his or her debt to the bank, not everybody wins.
Everybody knows that DC has an affordable housing crisis. One source of housing for moderate and low-income residents of Washington, DC has been apartments regulated by the department of Housing and Urban Development. DC residents whose income is less than the median of $57,936 have turned to HUD for rent subsidized apartments. Property owners, looking for a good deal on a multifamily unit have bought these buildings at reduced rates. In exchange, they made the apartments available to residents receiving rental assistance. That arrangement stands for as long as the mortgage on the property is still in service, but once the building belongs to the landlord outright, he or she can do whatever they want with it. So, where does that leave the residents who live in the property?
Empower DC’s Linda Leaks is educating tenants who live in HUD properties whose mortgages are on the verge of expiration about their rights, and lobbying Congress to implement legislation that would safeguard low- and moderate-income tenants. WPFW reporter Peter Tucker interviewed her on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. It’s another story that you won’t hear on the nightly news or even read about in the Washington Post, but we have it here. A Massive Maturing of Mortgages
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Linda-Leaks-6-13-101.mp3]
