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Potomac Gardens’ Graduates 2013

By Liane Scott, on December 3rd, 2013

Every year, the Potomac Gardens Resident Council, under the leadership of Council President Aquarius Vann-Ghasri, recognizes students from the public housing complex who graduate from school. The Resident Council doesn’t discriminate; Students graduating from elementary, middle, high school and college are given an award. This year the celebration took place on July 19 and was videotaped by 3 talented and ambitious young Potomac Gardens’ residents–Larry Jackson, Alexander Ross and Lenwood Ward. Other obligations kept me from editing this footage until now, but you can expect to see more from the young people of Potomac Gardens in 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jozBwk4ni8w

One comment - (Comments are closed)   Communities, Potomac Gardens, Public Housing   , , ,  

Author’s Night at Potomac Gardens Featuring Nissa Harper

By Liane Scott, on November 18th, 2013

On October 23, 2013, the Potomac Gardens Resident Council (under the leadership of Council president Aquarius Vann Ghasri) hosted author Nissa Harper for a discussion of her first book “Confessions of a Crazy Baby Mama,” which she admits is a title designed to catch a reader’s attention. Ms. Harper is not only a published author, she is also a public housing resident and advocate who works to keep public housing safe and affordable. She never misses the opportunity to remind her audiences that public housing residents are working people who want nothing more than to raise their children in a safe environment.

At the Potomac Gardens Author’s Night, a number of residents spoke about their own efforts to maintain and care for the Potomac Gardens community. The video was shot and edited by filmmaker and Grassroots DC contributor Brenda Hayes. Portions of the video may be included in the future documentary “Potomac Gardens: Inside and Out.” Stay tuned to this channel for more information on that project.

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SAVING PUBLIC HOUSING. The Truth about “New Communities” & “Choice”

By Grassroots DC, on October 17th, 2013

 

Posted on Behalf of Empower DC

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My Experience at the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force Public Forum

By Schyla Pondexter-Moore, on December 5th, 2012

Empower DC Affordable Housing Organizer Schyla Pondexter-Moore testifying at Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force Public Hearing.

In February of this year, Mayor Vincent Gray signed a Mayor’s Order appointing 36 members to the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force 2012. Task Force 2012 will build upon the work of the previous Task Force (2003 – 2006). Gray appointed 36 members to the new task force including Harry D. Sewell and Deborah Ratner Salzberg who will serve as co-chairs.

According to Gray, “the goal of the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force is to help city leaders ensure the creation of more affordable housing for residents of the District of Columbia.” To that end, the Gray Administration held two public forums in October and November to get public feedback on how the city should be working to ensure the creation of more affordable housing in DC. One forum was held in NW DC and the other in Ward 8. Event organizers asked specifically to get input from DC residents on what the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Plan should look like.

I signed up to testify at both of the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force Public Forums. There were several testimonies about what programs worked for people, what programs didn’t’ work, the need for affordable housing, the steady influx of gentrifiers into the district, and the districts failure to provide adequate affordable housing. No one but me spoke about the decrease in public housing and the threat to public housing. No one else in the room seemed to recognize how importance public housing is to maintaining affordable housing or that it should be an integral part of the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force.

Representatives from MANNA Inc testify at the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Public Forum. Image re-posted from HousingForAllBlog.org

This attitude was reflected in a video shown by the Task Force at the beginning of both forums called “Miracle at East Lake,” which was about a 600+ unit public housing property in Atlanta, Georgia called Eastlake Gardens. The residents were forced out, the units demolished, and it was redeveloped with less than 200 public housing units replaced. There are now about 525 units in East Lake, the majority of which are for market-rate renters and homeowners. The “Miracle at East Lake,” perfectly exemplified what has been part of the District Government’s plan for affordable housing.

The video was such propaganda it made me sick to my stomach. It first showed footage of how crime-ridden East Lake was back in the 90’s. It showed black people being arrested, being carted into ambulances, having their homes raided by police, and lying in the streets bleeding and dying. There were comments from people calling East Lake the worst place on earth to live, a hell hole, and images of the units having broken windows and being in slum conditions. Then they showed how “out of nowhere, a savior came.” Who was this so-called savior? None other than Tom Cousins, a white businessman and owner of a golf course next door to the property, who invested his money into the redevelopment of East Lake.

After much praise of this rich businessman with a” kind heart”, the video went on to show how East Lake was transformed into a mixed-income area where everyone’s happy, crime is non-existent, there’s a magnificent Charter School, and only 5% of the residents are on welfare. As I fumed in my seat, I looked around and saw people in the audience nodding and smiling. I looked at the stage and saw Harry Sewell smiling approvingly while looking back and forth between the audience and the film. What hope is there for public housing in the District if this is the attitude of the Task Force co-chair?

I had testimony prepared but that all went out the window. As I approached the mic, my emotions took over and it all came spilling out.

“That video is nothing but propaganda!! I am a resident of public housing and that scares me to death. You are telling me that at any given time, I can be forced out of my home, transferred to another housing property that is in no better condition, if not worse, than where I currently live, and I probably won’t return to the newly redeveloped “mixed-income” property? Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about where all of the families who were not allowed to return are? Did some become homeless? Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about how the neighborhood and . . . → Read More: My Experience at the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force Public Forum

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Gentrification Stops Here!

By Schyla Pondexter-Moore, on November 6th, 2012

Say Ward 8 public housing tenants after winning a victory over the DC Housing Authority.

Judge calls the Groundbreaking Tenants’ Right Case HIGHLAND TOGETHER WE STAND VS. DC HOUSING AUTHORITY “Unchartered Territory”

Schyla Pondexter-Moore with kids from the neighborhood as they celebrate her daughter’s birthday.

Schyla Pondexter-Moore, a Ward 8 public housing resident and mother of four, became fearful for her community when the DC Housing Authority informed tenants back in 2010 that Highland Dwellings would be undergoing “complete, substantial, modernization” and everyone on the property would have to move very quickly. After researching Hope VI and finding out about the scope of displacement under the program, and encouraged by her ANC Commissioner K. Armstead, Schyla took action and founded the organization Highland Together We Stand, filing suit against the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) and fighting for over a year to achieve the victory of October 9th 2012 when DCHA settled with Highland Tenants. Now working as an Affordable Housing Organizer for the community based organization Empower DC, Schyla is taking her message to other public housing communities throughout the District.

“You can fight back. You can save your housing. You have rights. Look at what we did at Highland. You can do that too, and Empower DC is here to help.”

The number of public housing units in Washington DC has been drastically cut over the years. Where there used to be at least

Schyla Pondexter-Moore’s family is forced to move from Highland Dwellings while renovations are underway. At the time, Schyla was not certain they’d be able to return.

20,000 units of public housing (before formal recognition of HOPE VI legislation in 1998) there are now only about 8,000. Public housing complexes have been demolished and redeveloped WITHOUT providing the often-promised one-for-one replacement of public housing units on the properties. Properties such as Valley Green, Arthur Cappers, Frederick Douglass, Stanton Dwellings, Parkside, Temple Courts, Sheridan Terrace, Ellen Wilson and more, most of which are located in Wards 7 & 8, have been demolished and redeveloped for private use..

Highland Together We Stand Meeting attended by ANC Representative K. Armstead.

But the residents of the 208-unit Highland Dwellings community in Ward 8 decided to organize and fight back rather than risk displacement. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, after a year and half of back and forth litigation, the DC Housing Authority agreed to a settlement which presiding Judge Zeldon called “unchartered territory,” and which secures two major victories in the fight to preserve public housing:

In accordance with settlement guidelines, Highland Dwelling “shall remain a public housing property for 40 years” even after extensive renovation and modernization of Highland Dwellings, which is being funded both publicly and privately, is complete. In addition, “All residents at Highland Dwellings shall be afforded the benefit of the terms and conditions applicable to all other public housing complexes in the District of Columbia as those terms and conditions are defined by federal and District of Columbia laws and regulation governing the public housing program.“

In other words, tenants will have the same rights as tenants in all other public housing complexes despite the involvement of private

developers. The 208 units at Highland Dwellings for all intents and purposes will remain for PUBLIC HOUSING after renovations for 40 years. There can be no new criteria set forth that is not applicable to public housing regulations–for example, tenants cannot be asked to pay utilities, pay more than 30% of their income, meet minimum income requirements, undergo credit checks, or other such provisions which have been common in other redevelopment projects and present clear barriers to public housing tenants returning after modernization.

Highland Together We Stand came up with a list of demands that became the basis of their lawsuit.

The settlement also states, “Current Residents and Former Residents shall have the right of first refusal to return to Highland Dwellings.” Residents sought and won this legally binding written agreement in order to ensure that all residents living on the property prior to the renovation will be able to return to the property after the renovation is complete.

“We fought a good fight. Housing knew what they did was unjust and a lot of wrong doing. Myself and other tenants in Highland Dwellings fought back and now I can say justice was served,” said Ms. Renee Patterson, another plaintiff in the case.

There have been at least . . . → Read More: Gentrification Stops Here!

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