Excerpt:
Posted by Dana Liebelson on Sep. 28, 2009, at 2:35 pm
The Issue: Is Ward 8 taking on more than its fair share of social housing? So Others Might Eat (SOME), a D.C. nonprofit group, bought a rundown residential property about a year ago on Mellon Street in southeast with the intention of turning the space into long-term housing for adults with special needs. The complex will offer on-site support for residents who have proven six-month recovery in issues ranging from substance abuse to credit problems. But the neighbors fear Ward 8 has become a nonprofit “dumping ground,” and think the new residents will contribute to the area’s problems. The twist is a 3.4 billion dollar Homeland Security Campus slated to open across the street in 2013. Could the property be put to better use?
Fire Sale: SOME says they have opened same-model housing in wards all over the city, including Logan Circle and Capitol Hill, and in the past the housing has raised property values. Richard Gerlach, Executive Director of SOME, told City Desk, “That property was on the market for a long, long time, so to say it’s a golden opportunity is just not true. The buildings we take over are a blight…we fix them up and they become a positive influence that promote growth.” He also stressed that the housing is independent and non-transitional.
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If you have disapprove of the plans for this property please contact SOME as well as ANC 8C Commissioners. Contact information is included below.
The Advoc8te just heard from an irate Congress Heights resident who just spoke to S.O.M.E. and S.O.M.E. is stating THAT THEY [some] SENT NOTIFICATION TO ANC 8C ABOUT THEIR PLANS AND REQUESTED A PUBLIC MEETING FOR THE COMMUNITY AND THEY RECIEVED NO RESPONSE FROM ANC 8C!!!!! I don't know for sure if this is the case but I believe it. ANC 8C is notorious for leaving us holding the bag by not informing the community of important issues like these. Either the leadership of ANC 8C is CURROPT OR INCOMPETENT (my vote is for both). I AM PRAYING AND PLEADING THAT WE CAN EFFECT SOME MAJOR CHANGE ON THIS COMMISSION IN THE NEXT ELECTION.
S.O.M.E.
Troy Swanda. He can be reached by telephone at (202) 797-8806 x1035 and via email at tswanda@some.org.
ANC 8C COMMISSIONERS FOR TERM 2009 - 2010
William Ellis/8C01
202.872.2644
8c01@anc.dc.gov
Dion Jordan/8C02
8c02@anc.dc.gov
Mary Cuthbert/8C03
202.246.9410
R. Calvin Lockridge/8C04
202.562.4974
Vacant/8C05
Vacant/8C06
Cardell Shelton/8C07
*No contact information posted on ANC 8C website
For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner
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8 Comments:
im all for helping people. When people say that stuff like this will "bring down the neighborhood" its like when white folk thought black would "bring down the neighborhood". People should be ashamed
I am not at all "ashamed". What is shameful about asking that the load is spread evenly about the District? What is shameful about working hard to ensure that my neighborhood stays a neighborhood? What is shameful about expecting my neighborhood to have all the benefits and opportunities of other neighborhoods in the District?
What is shameful is to be fearful of being involved in the success of your community because you are afraid someone is going to say you aren't being nice or playing the race card. BTW this is real life in 2009. This is not an opportunity to be afraid to deal in fact.
I ask again when did it become okay for poor disadvantaged people to be crammed in together? Our neighborhoods are in desperate need of economic development, services and options and that comes in the form of quallity housing and employment options (for allO) and it is not going to happen when all you have are group homes and liquor stores on every corner.
There is a solution and a compromise out there - we just need to find it and right now it is totally lopsided.
Asking for accoutability and information is not tantamont to turning your back on people. Quiet the opposite. Everyone deserves to prosper.
Until we demand more for ourselves we will always be given less.
Advoc8te, We are having the same problem in Historic Anacostia. SOME bought a property on Good Hope Rd and Fendell. They say it is senior housing...yeah right! We should put our heads together to see how we can fight this together.
I agree..Enough is enough. We have a MORE than a fair share of these types of facilities. I can't walk down alabama ave in peace b/c of the group homes and their tenants. We do not need ANYMORE transitional housing.
Residents must stand in the gap if the "official" channels are clogged. Contact Gerlach to demand a meeting and community benefits discussion. I think contacting the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CHNED), a trade association-like organization for groups like SOME, could prove beneficial too. This issue impacts Wards 7 and 8 and a coordinated effort would be welcomed.
Uust read about a similar situation and the community's response in NW.
Central Union Mission's Development Blues
The hotly contested Central Union Mission property on the corner of Georgia Avenue and Newton Street had its day at the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) last week. Original plans to move the Christian men's residential facility (read: homeless shelter) from its dated digs in Logan Circle to Georgia Avenue met significant community resistance, leaving the Mission to scrap the homeless shelter idea and design a new building with mixed-use residential and office space instead. The BZA ultimately approved the new plans for a mixed-use project, on the condition that the Mission not modify its approved use...Read Full Story, http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2009/09/central-union-missions-development.html
I live in NW near where the Central Union Mission was slated to be built. I also own property in Congress Heights. In NW we rallied against Central Union Mission. I don't see the same enthusiasm in Congress Heights against this development. Good luck in fighting a fight where many of the residents care so little.
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