Intern Housing Advice: $500 a month will not get you an apartment in Penn Quarter
Followup from
Intern Housing Advice: Scope your location. This is my advice to young ones who are coming here from where ever for an internship, fellowship or whatever to avoid the scams that haunt the housing boards on Craigslist.
Pretty much almost all the listings on Craigslist for DC apartments under $600, if they actually are in DC not College Park or Crystal City, smell fishy or are mislisted.
This is obviously a scam, using someone elses pictures. Well obvious to someone familiar with the city.
So let me quickly go over the scam. Say you are an intern looking for housing and you see this great ad for an apartment in DC for $450. You email the contact in the ad and they are willing to rent it to you sight unseen. You then send/wire/Paypal the deposit+ 1st month's rent or the application fee to this person you don't know from Adam, for a place you've never set foot in, and your money is gone.
Cheap rent is to be had in group houses and rooms for rent. Typically an honest ad will give an intersection the place is near and mention the neighborhood it's in. Group houses may also be funished, or at least have furnishings left over from the last roommate.
Labels: housing
Average Janitor Cannot Afford To Buy Average House in Bethesda
$10 gets you nowhere at Saks 5th Avenue.
The Metrobus operator will not drop me off in front of my house.
Handsome underwear models do not flirt with me.
There is no justice.
Someone over at the
National Housing Conference alerted me to their new study on home ownership and affordability called "
Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America." According to their study Bethesda, MD is the 15th most expensive place to purchase a home, Washington, DC as a whole (I gather they factored in Georgetown and Barry Farm) ranks at number 24. Baltimore was at 34. For rentals DC and Bethesda tied at number 19.
The Area Median Income (AMI) around here for 2009 is
$64,000 (PDF) and the biggest job title is
office drone and executive assistant to the assistant peon (occ. code 43). There aren't a whole lot janitors making up a percentage of the official job pool.
The NHC study also looks at the affordability of the average home for first responders and school teachers. According to
their chart, school teachers and police officers can afford the fair market rent of the average two bedroom. Which is good to know when the odd developer comes shuffling through trying to push workforce housing for school teachers and police.
Labels: housing
Intern Housing Advice: Scope your location
In a few weeks we'll be getting some shiny new interns, or fellows. Apparently at some places you can't call interns, interns, something about a seedy connotation. At my place we got some gal last year who came to the area, rented waaaaaay out in Fairfax, with no car, and paying what I thought was too much for the location. So I'm putting out this public announcement in memory of her.
Physically check out apts, group homes, rooms, don't just rely on the internet.
Seriously.
"Walking distance" and "close to" are subjective. So are at times location names. Where I am has been described as Dupont East, LeDriot, Logan East, Eckington, Bloomingdale, Shaw, Truxton, and NW. Only three of those are correct.
"Near metro" can mean the metro station is just across the street or the area is served by a metro bus a mile away that only runs every other hour and never on weekends. If you have to depend on the bus and the place is in PG County, avoid at all costs. Metro bus service there is crap.
When I advertise my extra bedroom I tend to demand that perspective roommates visit the house. Besides being a way to separate the serious house searchers from the flakes and Nigerian scam artists, it lets me gauge a person's comfort with the neighborhood. The TC ain't right for everybody. The bars on the windows of about 80% of the houses on my block bother some people. The demographics on the street may be unsettling or the houses seem too small and cramped. Things you can't tell or judge by simply looking at a few pictures on-line.
'But', you say I live all the way out in BFE, USA and I'm in school, I can't take off time to look at places.' When I was a grad student at UMASS-Amherst I took the 3 hour bus ride to Boston to look for housing before my internship started. When I went to London for work, I stayed in youth hostels and cheap tourist hotels before I landed in a group house in Earls Court. So I'm really not feeling that excuse.
Next time: Intern Housing Advice: $500 a month will not get you an apartment in Penn Quarter.
Labels: housing
Leaving the keys & walking away
Please don't do that. I've only heard two people actually say that out loud about their houses. Neither one of them live in the DC metro area. One was my mom, and this is a periodic threat, so I don't take it that seriously. The other was some guy from the mid-west visiting, who got a little over his head.
When I was passing out fliers yesterday, I came across this scene of keys on the fence and thought of that phrase of leaving the keys and walking away. As far as I know these are some lost keys in front of a house that doesn't look occupied.
From what little I know, walking away does not help, unless the house is actually worth more than what's owed, because at some point the bank will come after you for the difference.
Labels: housing
Affordable Housing in DC online
I have finally done my taxes and as I wandered over the the DC.Gov website to fill in the blank to do my DC income tax on line I noticed something on the front page about searching affordable housing on-line. Going back to search for the announcement, I can't seem to find it but the link is on the Department of Housing and Community Development's page.It appears that the DC Dept of Housing and Community Development has partnered/contracted (I can't tell) with
Social Serve.Com in listing affordable housing in DC that is either for sale or for rent with the site
DC Housing Search.Org. For fun I played around with it looking for 'affordable' housing for sale then plugging in some numbers for rent. I also searched to see what's affordable in the 20001 zip code. The results were a bit wrong, bringing up some NE (20001 is Old City NW) addresses. Among the misses were some hits like a couple of 2 bedrooms on the 200 blk of Florida Avenue for $1,500, an apartment at 413 P St., Golden Rule Plaza, and the studios in the Phyllis Weatley YWCA on Rhode Island Avenue. I also fooled around with the 20009 and 20011 zip codes and found properties there too, but the search feature has more so one could search by distance to public transit, handicap accessibility, pets, security deposit needed, criminal check and you can exclude the properties on the waiting list. There is also a
neat little chart to decide how much rent you should pay based on your hourly wage.
Labels: housing
The Going Rate
Between visiting friends and hosting relatives who really should use the opportunity of staying at my place to hunt for a job (hint*hint*), my 2nd bedroom has been fairly occupied. However, I do plan to rent it out again for summer and the 2009-2010 academic year. The big renovation of 2007 wiped out my emergency fund. It wiped out all my funds. Near the end of 2008, I finally finished paying off the air conditioning. Next year I want to take care of the cellar and finish putting a shower in the 1/2 bath. I can't do another loan. And so begins the slow build up of the house/emergency fund, which requires money, hence the renting out of the 2nd bedroom.
Figuring out how much to rent it out for requires a bit of research. If I was just renting my place, logically I'd go halvies with whomever I was renting with. But I'm a homeowner and my mortgages alone are a tiny bit more than the average rental price for a 2 bedroom in the far eastern corners of Shaw. Also there are other costs such as repairs, maintenance, etc., that I haven't figured out monthly. I check what people are asking for as far as roommates go, because that's the market I'm in. The general price in a roommate situation varies between $600 and $1100 a month. The fun part is trying to figure out what justifies the higher price. Some places include utilities. Some don't. Some places have Internet and cable, some don't. Then there is maid service, private bath, proximity to the metro, size, number of roommates, pets in the house, and other factors.
Back when I only had 1 mortgage, I could charge something cheap, $575 including utilities. The second mortgage made me jack it up, but I don't think I found the right price since. I had one roommate negotiate the price down, because I was so far (7-10 mins walking is far) from the metro. So once again I'll make up a number, run it up the flag pole and see who salutes. And seeing how many bites I get (not counting the Nigerian scam artists), I'll know what the going rate is.
Labels: housing
More than just transportation
Yesterday I got an email about something I heard about on the radio this morning. The
Terwilliger Cost Calculator is part of the Urban Land Institute's Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing with the Center for Housing Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology report "
Beltway Burden: The Combined Cost of Housing and Transportation in the Greater Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area."(PDF)
I played with the calculator. I had to use the Internet Explorer version despite being in Firefox. I plugged in different areas, Shaw, Riverdale, Arlington, and the far reaches of Alexandria. Except for Arlington where the income was higher, most other places had the transportation/housing costs to income around 50% or higher.
Yet in past conservations with co-workers, though housing costs are cited as one reason for moving far out, there are other factors at play.
These factors include spouses/partners who don't work in the metro center, but out in far reaches of Fairfax, Bowie, and Baltimore. They include large dogs, whom the owners believe need a large yard. A desire for a school system you don't have to think about. And a desire to live in a setting like the one they left back home. Problem is with this area, the house with lot that is average in St. Pete, FL is expensive in Rockville. The other problem is a lot of us aren't from here and trying to re-create the familiar here is pricey.
Labels: housing, transportation
Crowding- and good intentions gone lost
I forget which census year it was but one year there were 11 people living in the house I currently occupy. As far as I know, the house has always been a two bedroom and I believe the cellar is a late 20th century addition. My house is about 1,000 sq ft.
I have read that overcrowding could be blamed on segregation. Segregation was probably one of several causes, if there are so many structures in the city and many of those structures are off limits due to covenants and other restrictions, then that limits housing choices. I get a sense that economics had something to do with it as well, but that is just a guess.
Anywho, a turn of the century description of crowded rental housing comes from a report from Clare de Graffenried:
I have no doubt that lodgers are harbored in these alleys whose presence, for many reasons not creditable to the occupants, is always concealed. The confessed facts are startling enough. We have here accounts of 7 persons living in two rooms-- the mother and her sons, 21, 17 and 7 years of age, occupying one bedchamber. Again, 9 individuals live in two romse[sic]; 11 people in four rooms. Five, almost all adults, sleep in one room-- the mother 43, a son 21, and daughters 19, 17, and 14; and 4 persons use another room-- a mother 45, and aunt 70, and a son 22, and a baby 9 months old.
--Page 18 of Kober, George "The History and Development of the Housing Movement in the City of Washington, DC" Washington, DC 1907.
Doing a Google search for Miss de Graffenried, brought up
Between Justice and Beauty by Howard Gillette, Jr., which on page 113 where he notes that she goes for the dramatic story over statistics. Later Gillette writes on page regarding the predecessor of the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company, which built the houses on Bates Street:
By 1904 the company housed 140 families, 30 of whom were black. Since the overwhelming majority of alley dwellers were black, the company clearly did not direct its attention to those in greatest need.-- page 115
In Kober in 1909 writes about their housing efforts:
It should be stated, that while the original intention was to provide homes for alley residents and thereby remove the slums, it was considered best to begin this movement by providing improved dwellings for the better class of wage earners, in the belief that houses vacated by them would be rented by the next grade, and so on until the bottom of the ladder was reached. --page 31
Labels: history, housing
More from The History and Development of the Housing Movement
Here's something else from George Kober's
The History of Development of the Housing Movement in the City of Washington, D.C. regarding slum housing:
But even in modern cities unhealthful habitations abound and have been permitted to be erected without interference.
We have them in Washington and Georgetown in considerable number, which greatly increased during the War, when the slave deserted the plantation to find refuge and liberty in the District of Columbia, the only spot at that time in the United States that offered such a boon.
The rapid influx of a negro population, estimated to have been between 30,000 and 40,000, imperatively demanded immediate accommodation. In consequence of this necessity, hovels of every description arose as if by magic. The result of this abnormal growth of a class of people destitute of means and education, ignorant of physical laws, at a time of war and confusion has been the erection of cheap dwellings, as much of the material having been obtained from army camps and hospitals.
--Pages 4-5
That could explain the shanty nature of some of the 'houses' pictured in the book and in other places I've seen regarding bad DC housing. The weirdest thing is people paid rent to live in these poorly constructed shacks. In 1874 the amount ranged from $2.50-$10.00. In an 1896 survey unfit housing rents were about $8-10.50. What's that in 2009 dollars? No clue the BLS inflation calculator only goes back to 1913. But $10 1913 dollars equals $214.57 in today's dollars. Roughly.
Later I will cover overcrowding.
Labels: history, housing
1909 book on alleys and crappy DC housing
Weller, Charles Frederick. Neglected neighbors :stories of life in the alleys, tenements and shanties of the national capital. Philadelphia : J.C. Winston, 1909. Is available online at
http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/3370011. It does the whole city. However the author appears to be concerned solely with white occupants of slum housing.
Labels: history, housing
Inauguration Housing Fantasies
I haven't put my house on Craigslist or anything to try to cash in on the whole inauguration rental thing. Yet, but it is very tempting.
There are several reasons of why I haven't. For one, I don't know if I will have a roommate scheduled to be in my guest room at that time. I like to have short term roommates, so I don't want to screw up that. Secondly, there is family. My mother's people are country and homey and I'm wondering at what point someone will bug my mother, or father (less country, more moochie), to bug me to put them up for the inauguration. However, I'm sure several family members have written my place off because I live in a tiny house in a "bad" neighborhood. It's not "bad" it just lacks a driveway and loads of parking, which would make Auntie's 3 bedroom house in Riverdale, the Other Aunt's 3 bedroom in northern PG Co., and the Cousin's 3 bedroom in NoVa, all with generous amounts of pull in parking, way more attractive than my place.
But if I were to rent out my place, the money would be more to ease my mind, than for the space. Everytime I get a new roommate, my anxiety level rises because of how they treat the space. So what amount would soothe my nerves? Oh maybe, $1,000-$2,000 a day, my mental health is very valuable to me. If the people were relatives? Free, nerves would still be frayed, but frayed nerves and relatives go hand in hand. Besides if I charged relatives a few bucks I'd never hear the end of it..... even if all the money went into somebodies college fund. Friends? Possibly free, depends. I might demand a few cases of wine, the good stuff. Nothing soothes the nerves like a few cases of wine. Complete strangers? I'm quite sure they'd be happy to add to the nieces' college fund, and in that area my mind would be eased.
But seriously, I'm waiting to see what the relatives want.
Labels: housing
General Real Estate post
Hey I remember that doey eyed look. That's the look of a young first time homebuyer. I used to have that look.
Meltdown, schmeltdown people are still buying in the hood if today's encounter with a young woman and her Realtor was anything to gauge anything by. The pair were walking up and down the block pointing at houses, I assume, after they looked at the one house on my side of the street that is still on the market. I was outside puttering in the yard, and we chatted for a bit. Normally I'd talk up the neighborhood a bit more, but the house they were looking at has a family renting, with one really good kid in it. If Ms. Doe Eye or anyone else were to buy it, I'm sure the family could find equal and suitable housing, but moving is such a pain.
I believe the market is slow but not dead, as the house with the loud and out there residents disappeared from the real estate listings, I gather it is under contract. We'll see in a month or so. I suspect another house on the block being fixed up will hit the market in a month or two, and maybe it might sell in the next 9 or 10 months. Maybe. Though it maybe wrong to judge a place that's on 2/3rds done, I don't think it would be a quick sell manly due to proportions and the aesthetic. IT and I took a quick peak at the place while workmen were still working. I think it reveals too much of a suburban Maryland aesthetic trying to shoehorn itself into a small DC rowhouse. The house was around 1,000 sf with 2.5 bathrooms. If you have a 1,000 sf house I think you may understand the problem of a 2.5 bathroom house. I have a 1,000 sf house and just 1.5 (would be 1.75 or 2 if I had $5,000 fall into my lap). One of the bedroom bathrooms was tiny and hard for IT to turn around in. IT is a thin man. The bedroom for this tiny bath was also quite small and maybe, just maybe could have a double bed and nothing else. More than likely it could have a twin and a dresser/ desk, or just be an office. Anyway it's still not finished, and it will be interesting to see if the builder will do anything to make it easy to imagine the space as something besides cramped.
Labels: housing, real estate
July 28, 1933: Low Cost Housing & Slum Clearance
I really have little to add to what Shaw & Bloomingdale bloggers have to say about the various things going on, so I'm going to go to history and type up more of City Planner John Nolen's report "Low Cost Housing and Slum Clearance Opportunities in Washington Under the Public Works Administration". I previously typed up the section "Washington's Problem". The following is "Objectives of a Housing Program":Many reports on this subject by Mr. [John] Ihlder and others to this Commission have indicated that the following program should be followed.
1. Concentrate on the elimination of the alley slums.
2. Provide suitable housing for the alley population either by repair or reconstruction of existing vacant street dwellings, or by the building of entirely new housing. New housing might well be for not only the alley population but similar economic and social elements of a population not now adequately housed.
3.Through the rehabilitation of blighted areas, pressure would be relieved on better neighborhoods inducting the natural flow of capital by private initiative for other modern reconstruction as the inevitable result of the rehabilitation of the areas originally causing the shift in population.
It may be that the present situation and opportunities will make advisable some change in the order of this program; for example,- the population in the alleys has been increased by the depression whereas the street vacancies in the same neighborhoods have increased. This situation will make more difficult the acquisition of alley property at fair prices, as well as work a hardship on the unfortunate elements of the alley population. At the same time the widespread increase in street vacancies may mean a willingness on the part of owners to sell their property at reasonable prices. A housing development only incidentally involving inhabited alleys as the first step to be taken may thus well take advantage of natural economic conditions.
-From part of a Report by John Nolen to the National Capital Planning Commission, July 28, 1933. Found in the appendix to the July 1933 minutes. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 328, A1-15.
Labels: history, housing
Do it for the old people
I swear there are certain promises and proposals that get hoisted up the flagpole that supposedly wave you through, "affordable housing", "senior housing", youth something or other. I gather you propose these things and certain rules no longer apply to you and thus you get away with all sorts of foolishness. Yesterday I wandered by a site that, according to the historic papers I had been going through (1985-1999), should have had housing and job training. That site has none of those things in 2008. I'll have to look to find out what the heck happened or why things didn't happen.
According to our friends in Mt. Vernon Square, someone is suggesting a boatload of foolishness under the flag of elderly housing. There are requests for zoning variances for 1238 and 1242 New Jersey Avenue. According to Si's letter (seen
here) the owner is suggesting that he going to building housing for the elderly, despite making the previous elderly tenant run for her life when 1242's structure
failed and collapsed. Take a read of Si's letter, she's a bit more clearer about this than I.
Addition: If you are here from the DC Blogs link a list of candidates is found in my comment
here.
Labels: development, elderly, housing
How's it looking on your block?
Housing that is? I can read the Post about regional and national trends but what's happening on your block? Mine? A few houses up for sale, a few more houses getting rehabbed and there is the confusing tale of one foreclosure that I can't tell who all the players are without a detailed playbill. One of the houses getting rehabbed was a foreclosure, but that was a case of an investor who spent too much on the property. And now that one of our more louder drama prone neighbors has relocated, a loudmouth lawyer with a cell phone is the only thing that stands between me and peace and quiet.
Also on the housing front, down in the Hanover region of the TC there is to be a permament housing shelter for 17 homeless women on
57 O St. NW. According to the mayor's
press office:"..the Dunbar Apartments, the first permanent supportive housing project for women funded by the Fenty Administration. The project will not only provide apartments for chronically homeless residents, but comprehensive support services as well."
Labels: housing
Renting out rooms
DCRA has their website,
ThisShouldBeIllegal.Com mainly aimed at college kids to get them to rat out their landlords. Well it has proven helpful to me, answering something I wondered about. I've always had roommate, ranging from my sister in my parents home, to dormmates in college, group housemates in grad school, to regular run of the mill roommates. So when I bought the house I didn't figure on changing my lifestyle. I kept having roommates. Anyway, I worried that I was on the wrong side of the law as I wasn't licensed or whatever the hell DCRA wanted. But according to the
comments on one of DCRA's posts "If you are living in the house, you can have up to 3 unrelated people living with you without being flagged for a business license. If you did not reside there, you would have to get a license."
So I guess I'm fine, as I only have one non-related person in the house. Two would drive me nuts. Also I left behind the 'joys' of group house living and would be happy never to experience that again.
Labels: housing
Neighborhood Character in Post
There is some disagreement between me and my source, but I think I know of the "Derrick" in the article appearing in Sunday's Post article "
After A Few Months in DC, It's Not Just The Rental Options That Stink." The author moves in a group house on 1st St NW, and though he says it's near U Street, the "Derrick" he meets sounds too much like a Truxton Circle "Derrick" who haunts 1st St. This Derrick hits the author up for a beer so he could celebrate his anniversary with his wife. This was the give away, as there is a TC Derrick who is known for hitting people up for beer and acting like a self appointed street mayor. Yet my source thought 1st Street could possibly have several Derricks, besides the TC Derrick, who is actually named Derrick and may ask for a beer.
So Bloomingdale, y'all got any storytelling beer-mooching Derricks up there?
Anyway, one of the things that made my source doubt that the Post's Derrick and the TC Derrick were one in the same was the rest of the author's story. Apparently, the author moved in without signing a lease. The guy who was on the lease collected the housemates money but never paid the landlord and they all got evicted. Which sounds like the same thing that happened to Nora Bombay's brother in Florida, where the housemate collecting the rent ran off with the money and everyone got kicked out. But then again, that was a case of don't have crackheads for roommates, and especially don't give them the rent money.
I really don't understand. Almost all the places I rented, despite having roommates, I paid the landlord or manager directly. The only sort of exception was when I was renting in DC and had occasional roommates who were staying for a few months, where I was collecting the rent.
A word of advice kids, get on the lease and/or at least have management aware that you have the right to stay there. You never know when you'll get locked out of the apartment/condo and need to convince the doordude that you belong there and he needs to let you in.
Labels: housing, neighbors
History lesson, and no this won't be on the test
I have something. It is long and if you have time I'd like you to read it and give your thoughts. I'm leaving off the date and the source so I can ask you the following questions:
When do you think this was written? What year, what decade? Language will give a clue.
After reading the following passage, how do you see DC's housing problem?
Washington's Problem (select part of report sumbitted to govt body) by John Nolen (govt employee):
__________’s long study of the housing problem in Washington has revealed without question that the inhabited alleys are not only the most serious part of the situation but are, to a great extent, the cause of a general housing problem in the sections of the city in which they are most predominant. Moreover, relative to other cities in the United States, the inhabited alleys of Washington are as serious from a social, health and public welfare point of view as are some of the slums in the industrial centers.
The general importance of the inhabited alley situation to the city as a whole lies in the social and economic blight that envelops many alley dwelling area. These areas have so depreciated that both white and colored population area moving away to the better neighborhoods. Although in the old city of Washington all but one section declined in total population during the last decade, and all sections declined in white population an average of 20%, in more than half of the old city the colored population increased, so that many section heretofore predominantly white have changed in the short period of ten years to predominately colored. This encroachment, especially in the northwest direction in areas that have always been white, has resulted in part from the depreciation of the neighborhoods normally occupied by colored residents of the better economic class. This shift in population over such a short period of time seriously affects property values and the use of existing school facilities, and raises many other municipal problems. The increase in vacancies in the blighted areas has brought pressure for changing the zoning of residential area to commercial in sections of the city where there is already an ample supply of commercial area. Moreover, a normal proportionate share of improvements to private property during the last eight or ten years has failed to go into the reconstruction of the deteriorated residential portions of the old city. There has been a relatively insignificant increase in assessed values affecting the tax income of the municipality from these areas. All of these forces, operating apparently to an increasing degree, have left areas of stagnation and blight, many of which are favorably situated for housing the lowest income groups in a manner conducive to the public welfare and an adequate return on private capital. Such enterprises, aside from their local benefit, should have a city-wide effect in stabilizing the character and value of neighborhoods.
Labels: history, housing
Fun with Redfin: Houses Under $200K
Seven years ago, when I started looking for a place to buy, the RE market was starting its roller coaster ride up to crazy. In the "better" neighborhoods houses didn't stay on the market very long and there were bidding wars. I was looking for fee-simple places under $125K, which was hard but not impossible. The third house I looked at, was way less than $125K and on a street I liked, so I bought it.
Fast forward, the roller coaster has gone up, and now it is heading down. Playing around with
Redfin I decided to see what was out there and lo and behold prices that start with a '1' are back. Just not a lot of them.
There are a bunch of under $175K condos over in the Petworth and Fort Totten area, if we want to limit this to NW DC. Bump the search up to $200K and a house will appear in Columbia Heights.
Expand the under $175K search to NE DC and more houses do appear in Frozen Tropics' Trinidad.
The point is that the affordable house I believe is coming back. Right now it's a handyman special or a about to be foreclosed condo. It's not luxury for cheap but something to start with.
Labels: housing, real estate
A plan for Bates Street
I have the 1968-1974 (the dates I'm unsure of) brochure of "A Plan for Bates Street" in PDF form. It's a big file and because it is so large, I'm not posting here. However, I will mail it to folks who ask (offer expires in 30 days). Basically, like the title says, it was the government's plan for the two blocks of Bates, to improve the housing.
Houses on Bates Street (well the houses on Bates I've been in) are deep and some of them are divided into two units. It seems that when they were initially built by Washington Sanitary Housing (or Washington Sanitary Improvement, I'm still working on the facts of this), they may have all been two unit structures. You can see it in the placement of windows and doors.
The wonderful fellows at
Truxton Circle have a few pictures from the brochure. This
first one shows the street plan for squares 552 & 615. It appears there was the intention to remove some structures for the creation of small parks, a tot lot, a teen lot and parking. Spaces for adults apparently were to be carved out of existing space. The
second picture, shows a typical Bates Street house prior to any renovation. The first and second floor are two separate units with their own living rooms and kitchens. The plan was to combine the two to make one unit, replace 2nd unit doors with windows, move the kitchen to the 1st floor center, and create more bedrooms, going from 1 to 3 or 4, as
seen here.
Looking around Bates Street now, there seem to be fewer 2 unit houses than 1 units.
Labels: housing
Thursday-Friday Grab Bag
Warning for some of you car owners, traffic enforncement is now in tow. I've been seeing cars get moved by the city on a regular basis. Today I saw a truck taking away a car on New Jersey Avenue. The day before it was moving a car on R St. You've asked for city services, and well you got one.
With the housing problem we are surprised why? Remember oh, back to
2004,
2005, and
2006 when I said real estate agents were on crack and the houses were overpriced? So, what happened? We discovered the houses were overpriced. The bubble deflated. I can't say
burst because it's not like the houses are worthless, just worth less. We knew people were taking out loans too large for them to handle. We knew this day would come. We knew a few years back that there would be a lot of foreclosures, and guess what? 2008, there are a lot of foreclosures. Who knew? Yes, there are people who are losing their homes, but where I am, so are a lot of developers and flippers and speculators who came into Shaw, looking for a quick buck. Some of them got out in time. A good number didn't and so we are stuck, until the next housing uptick, with vacant, 1/2 done, or crapily done houses, and cut-up townhomes created into funny looking condos.
Central Union Mission is going downtown. And there was great rejoicing in Pentworth and some other NW neighborhoods. For lo, they moveth the men's shelter to 65 Mass Ave NW, where they are not far from other homeless services. And someone remind me, wasn't the Gales School (65 Mass Ave) used as a shelter before?
I'd support more harpsichord players. Because they are artists, performing artists. And tearooms? Since I don't drink coffee, I'm stuck with loving Teaism, so if the landed gentry come in and put in tearooms, I'm all for it. Besides I spent most of my undergrad years
studying the rise and fall of the British aristocracy, I'd be pleased to observe them up close.
Labels: city services, gentrification, housing
DC is 1st time homebuyer friendly
Well, not in terms of prices, but programs. So in order to do something useful with my
$50 Manolo housing rant, let me tell you of why I know DC is a great place to be a first time homeowner.
$
5000 Tax Credit (
pdf form)
OK, five grand is just a drop in the bucket, but I found the refund I got back for the two years after I bought my home (I didn't pay enough in taxes to collect it in one lump sum), helpful. Besides every penny counts.
Below Market Rate Loans From The
Housing Finance AgencyI was working with a councillor from the now defunct non-profit who steered me over to the DC Housing Finance office over on Florida Avenue. At the time they were offering 30 year mortgages at a rate so low, it was almost like an interest free loan. They were offering
something lately but the 5.6% rate with 2 points was only good till Dec 15, 2007. The process was not without its headaches. I thought the woman administering my paperwork was slow and a bit mean. But in the end I got the loan, which will be forever called the 1st mortgage that will not be touched.
Tax AbatementMy housing councilor and my Realtor pushed the tax abatement, which in those early years made my house payment affordable. If you're low-moderate income, you'd probably qualify. I was making what I'll call a starter salary in my profession, so I wasn't poor, but I wasn't completely economically stable either, and the year before I made half of squat. So I qualified, with about $10K between me and the cutoff.
The abatement is a five year period of not paying real estate taxes. The money I saved, allowed for an emergency fix-crap fund. It seems that I could have extended the abatement if I hadn't made $400 over the cutoff amount. So in year 6 I got hit with the full assessed amount, which was a lot, as the assessed value was 4x as much as it was when I bought it. I just got my tax bill and I praised G-d. My taxes have readjusted so it reflects what I would have been paying had I not taken the abatement. So I wasn't punished for taking that deal. I can't find an earlier post I made about how the RE tax system rewards long-term homeonwers who stay put AND take the Homestead Exemption. Long and short of it is, people who have owned their homes for a number of years (basically prior to the Real Estate boom) tend to pay less taxes than their neighbors who bought recently IF (big if) they have the Homestead Exemption.
There are other programs for 1st time homebuyer available to DC residents like the HPAP, but I didn't use those, so I cannot testify to their goodness or badness. Also I think there were some real estate transaction costs that were dismissed because of my status, but I'm fuzzy on that. And there is a caveat to the loan (and/or maybe another program), in that if I sold my house within 10 years of purchase I'd have to pay the city back some of the benefits.
DC looked like a better deal when I was first looking because it has various programs like I mentioned above, that I could not find for Maryland or Virginia.
Labels: housing, real estate, taxes
Like going to Neiman Marcus to buy $50 Manolos
...not going to happen. Well, maybe, on-sale, size 10, scuffed and in some hideous style.
Warning this is a rant, and despite the beginning, not about shoes.
Yes, there should be affordable housing, and young people starting out should be able to buy into the American Dream. However, the vibe I'm picking up from a few segments of the population is that at least 900+ sq ft of move in condition fee simple/condo housing in approved hoods (read nothing but NW) should be in the price range of a
GS-5 step 1, which would be in the $70K-$100K range. The likelihood of finding such, is pretty much the same as finding those $50 genuine Manolos.
A now defunct non-profit once offered wonderful first-time home buyer classes that helped me become a homeowner. One of the lessons I learned from the class was that getting the house is the easy part, keeping it is hard. Some of y'all are too caught up on the gettin', thinking all will be right. Furnaces die, roofs leak, drains clog, and when you are a homeowner, there is always something. And something starts at $500 and goes up from there. If the stress is stretching the financials to get a house, then when 'something' happens and messes up another 'something' (overflowing toilet destroys carpeting in adjoining room), where is the money going to come from? Particularly with somethings that require you fix it that day or that week? So you skip that month's mortgage payment to fix the something, and you get behind, and something else happens and you get further behind, and then you're in danger of having your house foreclosed. Then there is plain old maintenance, which is on going, and while not expensive, could be annoyingly time consuming.
Even if a non-profit or exceedingly generous person were to provide a house/condo to a family at a low price there are other problems. Taxes. There are several generous programs to abate and reduce taxes for seniors, and low income persons. However, if you do not qualify for these programs and you live in an area where the properties are assessed in the $300K and up range, you're screwed. Taxes could run you $200 a month. If you pay your taxes late, there are high interest charges. If you don't pay your taxes at all the tax lien will be sold at auction and the buyer of the lien could foreclose on you. If you're in a condo, then there are the blessed condo fees. These can range from less than $100 a month to about $1000 a month, on top of your mortgage. If you don't pay it, well, it really depends on the condo board. Some will sit and stew and deny you services. Others will attempt to take your condo away.
So back to my poor GS-5 step 1 in need of affordable housing. My advice is to become a GS-9. Short of or in addition to that, first clean up her credit and reduce her debit so she can get a better mortgage. Second, save up for the down payment and closing costs. Get a second job (preferably at a place where you won't blow the paycheck on the merch with your employee discount -- a mistake I made) to help with that short term goal. Third, shop the neighborhoods you can afford. There is a lot in NE and SE DC for under $250K. I'm partial to NE, because there are a lot of hidden gems near the MD border, cute little bungalows and rowhouses needing some love and attention. Third, shop around for a good mortgage and first-time homebuyer programs. Lastly, the house you do buy is not necessarily the one you will live in forever. You may trade up in the future. You may move. You don't know what life will throw at you (divorce, kids, new job relocation, etc) so keep that in mind.
When I bought my house I was making about $35,000 (I'm guessing it would be above $40K in todays dollars). It appeared in ok condition (learned later that wasn't the case) in a sorta not so great neighborhood. With the help of a loan from the DC Housing Finance Agency, low interest rates, excellent credit, a re-finagled student load payment, a tax abatement, and $10K saved up this single black woman was able to buy her skinny little plot of the American Dream. Seven years later I live in a much better neighborhood and a much better house and my address never changed.
So it irritates me when people say that it is impossible to buy a home. Hard yes, difficult maybe, but not impossible. The market has come a bit more to its senses and you have a better chance of finding that affordable house. So kids, save your pennies, clean up your credit, and do your homework.
Labels: housing
Foreclosure, probably not that great of a deal
I live next door to a foreclosed house.
The story, from what I can piece together is that long time ago, say 15-20 years ago, some Ethiopian guy bought the house as an investment property. According to a neighbor on the block, he did rent it out but left it vacant for about 7 years. Then for about a year or two he rented to some Ethiopian sisters, one of whom got married and they all moved away. Then the Ethiopian owner sold it to another Ethiopian for way too much at the top of the market. This new Ethiopian owner rented to an Ethiopian family who stayed for a few months, and then the house sat empty. And then it went into foreclosure and the bank owns it. The bank tried to sell it for close to what the guy paid for it, and it sat. Then about every 1.5 months they would decrease the price. It remains unsold.
A friendly Vietnamese couple looked at the house and were very interested. So much so that one day they brought an inspector with them. I'd like the house to sell, but I also want any future owners to be aware that there are some busted pipes in the house, as the pipes failed last winter sending water into my basement. So the couple took in that information and went around with the inspector. They spent an awful lot of time looking at the rear kitchen portion of the house, which if anything like mine, is structurally crappy. The stucco is cracked and red brick dust seeps through. The layout of the 2nd floor is, challenging. Anyway, they didn't buy it. I'm sure the numbers just didn't work out. The amount the house was selling for, plus the amount to fix the busted piping (which would mean taking up portions of the floor and possibly finding mold) just to make it suitable for human habitation, was more than likely far above it's market value. That's not even addressing the structural and mechanical issues, nor is the price of making it 'nice' as opposed to 'not condemned'.
Let me throw in some numbers. The house at the time the couple looked at it was $310,000. This is for a townhouse of about 1,000-1,200 sf. nothing fancy, aged AC unit, blown in heat, busted pipes, electrical systems a big unknown, weedy front and back yards, and appliances over 10 years old. Plumbers cost money. So say there isn't any mold under the house and you just need to fix/ replace the pipes, and it can be done from a crawlspace hatch, so there is no replacing the floor? Well that's over $3K, based on how much I've paid to have a 'simple' plumbing job done in an easy to access area. But there could be mold, and the floor might need to be taken up. And while you're doing that you might as well gut the whole thing. When I asked how much someone, doing it all themselves spent to gut and fix their own house, which is similar in size to mine, the amount was about $60K. I paid well over that, let's just say my contract had a $80K limit, we hit the limit and there was still stuff (like installing heat and AC) that needed to be done when I ran out of money. That amount doesn't include the paint, the tub, and other materials I bought myself.
The houses on the block, sans basements, are assessed for around $350K. I'm somewhat doubting that whoever buys the house is willing to put into it more than its market worth. The bank may have to knock the price down to the high to mid $200K range before anyone bites.
Labels: houses, housing, renovation
Stuff at the DC Archives
Okay there is a lot of history stuff from this weekend with the Washington Historical Conference and an email that went out regarding historic preservation that raised one of my eyebrows.I was happy to stumble upon the DC Archives desk because the web presence of this part of the DC government is like nil. I had a researcher friend complain that he couldn't find any information about hours, or contact info to save his life. It's there, just not terribly easy to find like the Washingtonia collection or the Historical Society's archive.
The DC Archives is at 1300 Naylor Court, NW (office 202 671 1105, fax 202 727 6076) and off the top of my head they have regular office hours. So they are right in Shaw, not too far from the Convention Center.
At the desk I got a list of the different series the archives has and here are a few highlights:
Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs:
Building/Construction/ Alternation Permits & Plans (1949-1995)
Department of Public Works:
Plans of Demolished Buildings (1900-1979)
Department of Housing and Community Development
Redevelopment Land Agency Records (1965-1976)
Shaw & H Street Building Survey Forms (1968-1972)
14th Street & Downtown Survey Forms (1968-1974)
Organizational Records, includes annual reports, history, etc (1934-1987)
Not on the list but I think it was confirmed that the records for a department that condemned buildings may be at the archives as well. I'm very interested in those.
Labels: history, housing
Condo conversion suit
Read the following:
DCRA Announces Guilty Plea in Condominium Warranty Case
From DCRAs Communications Team
GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Announces Guilty Plea in Condominium Warranty Case
(Washington, DC) Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Director Linda K. Argo announced that on Oct. 5, Mudasir Khan plead guilty to one count of False Statements in a Condominium Registration Application and one count of Failure to Post a Bond or Letter of Credit for 45 R Street NW.
Under District law, condominium developers or building owners are required to warrant (or guarantee) their construction work with the Condominium and Cooperative Conversion and Sales Branch. They secure this obligation by posting warranty security. Several forms of security may be posted under the statute, including a letter of credit, bond or another form approved by the Condominium Branch.
[SNIP info on warranties]
Under the plea agreement, Khan must:
Pay a criminal fine of $15,000 on both counts - totaling $30,000.
Post a warranty security for $5,000 for 45 R Street NW.
Pay a $250.00 Victims Compensation Fund fine on each count - totaling $500.
Khan was sentenced to 30 days in jail on each count, to be served consecutively. The sentence was suspended and Khan was placed on one year of supervised probation for each count to run concurrently. Khan must report to his probation officer on October 23.
[more SNIPing]
"DHCD understands the critical mission served by the Rental Conversion and Sale Division," said DHCD Director Leila Finucane Edmonds. "We will also hold developers responsible for complying with District law and take strong and decisive action against those who do not."
Not having spent too much time paying attention to the structures on "historic" R St (they had banners saying so), I'm guessing this was a townhouse conversion. Correct me if I'm wrong. Townhouses converted into condos have always been a big question mark for me. But then again, I didn't want to be bothered with condos in any shape or form so I never paid that much attention. There are many town homes around Bloomingdale and Shaw, large town homes, converted into 2 or three condos. Is that a good thing? I don't know.
Labels: Bloomingdale/Eckington, condos, housing
If you're a GS-5 step 1, you're poor
Argue with me if you want but a MA in History is one of the most useless graduate degrees out there because my first job out of grad school was a GS-5 step 1 Museum Technician job (bathrooms, down the stairs and to the left). Looking at the
AMI link from a posting on the ANC2C02 blog
clarifying affordable housing and the
locality pay schedule for the DC metro region from the largest employer, GS-5/1 are a tad below 50% of the AMI (Area Median Income) for single households. You hit 50% at step 4. I'm not criticizing Uncle Sam's wages. No, my then $19K (1995-96) salary and living in a shared apartment barely being able to pay back my student loans for 2 years inspired me to go back to grad school and get a practical degree.
Now I know non-profit people, just starting out, with their bright new shiny BAs and BSs or whathave you, get paid jack because just working for the cause is payment enough. Besides, more where they came from when one set gets jaded. Anyway, when I did once non-scientifically compare salaries with newbie non-profit people, they were also below or around 50% of the AMI. In time this changes. You get experience, pick up some valuable skills, get older, get/apply for something else in the org or at another nonprofit or association, go back to school, something, and you start moving into the 60%-80%-100% range. Or you move back to Wisconsin or Minnesota, one of those things.
Labels: government, housing
Well, that went well
Well today after getting my hair done, I went to the Shiloh Baptist Church Family Life Center's Forum on Gentrification. It was a good step on the part of the Family Life Center to have something of a dialog, which despite nearly falling into chaos*, where different opinions voiced themselves. Hopefully, some Shiloh groups and community members can come together again to improve communication, find out what we can agree on, and work together on that.
I really did not take any decent notes. Except a notation about something Alex Padro, one of the panel members said about who gentrification really hurt were the people in boarding houses and people in single family townhomes. Shaw has the highest concentration of subsidized housing in Ward 2, with Lincoln Westmoreland, Foster House, Asbury Dwellings and some other places. And, if I remember right, the tenant groups have long covenants that keep the housing affordable to them. So whatever happens in the real estate market, their fine. However, found out that the United House of Prayer, which had/has a fair amount of affordable housing is going market/ luxury rate.
Also it was good to meet/see people I mainly know from the online experience, Ray and the man behind OnSeventh. The great thing about neighborhood blogging is at some point you are going to run into people off-line. Oh, and I stand behind what I said about libel. If there is anything that I have typed that is untrue (outside of an opinion) bring it to my attention, and if it is false, I will retract it or adjust it, basically try to make it right. I am not hiding behind a blog, believe me, you can find me if you put some effort in it, like emailing me, or wandering over to a BACA meeting. At some community gatherings, some people (Scott Roberts) are more than happy to point me out.
After the forum I did talk to some folks who were members and volunteers for Shiloh. There are a few ideas that I hope some who can act on these ideas can work with. One is getting new Baptists in the area to join. Second is doing a better job of advertising different missions that can help people in need in the immediate area take care of immediate needs, like a food pantry and a benevolence fund, and if a person needs to tap into it right this minute, how they would get connected. Third, have a church presence on one of the civic association committees, like Ebeneezer Baptist is with BACA.
*****
I've been typing this up between dinner and had a nice long conversation with a fellow with a Shiloh justice ministry spin-off, the Urban Housing Alliance, who was at the forum. Long and short of it, because I really want to get back to dinner, what's going on with Shiloh and the properties and the official justice ministry to address issues is complicated. This is the part where I don't want to be bothered with the infighting because I have to side with my family members who are Shiloh members and supportive of current leadership. But the fellow made a good point of some failings with current leadership and some of the problems we are seeing.
Anyway, due to issues related to the infighting & parking, the Urban Housing Alliance will be meeting at a friendly location for them, 4311 R St, Capitol Heights, MD October 20th from 10:30AM to noon. 'Cause I asked, why out in Maryland? It seems they also meet in DC as well and their goal is to provide services, free of charge, to DC citizens (I gather from the discussion) to cut property taxes, lower rents, and hold on to homes.
Okay, din-din.
***************
UPDATE: Off Seventh has more
here and
here.
*I say the same thing about my church's screamy baby service with kids squirming and not providing the expected answers when the priest does the kiddie focused sermon.
Labels: blog, churches, gentrification, housing
Gentrification and housing
Because of this blog, I get asked about gentrification. I'm not a public policy wonk, or a student of urban planning, or an activist, but I am a citizen with an opinion on the topic. One question is if affordable housing will disappear because of gentrification? Um, short of Mothra coming in a flattening 3/4ths of the hood, no.
The reason why is just off the top of my head there are a couple of public housing units (see
here), the co-ops and other apartment buildings that are not market rate on 7th, 6th, 5th, and 1st Streets, that have sizable footprints and surface parking lots (see the
DC Real Property Map). Some are owned by churches, which doesn't really mean anything, because a church owns (in full or part, not sure) Kelsey Gardens. But as long as the churches see it as part of their mission to provide affordable housing (with the help of being tax exempt) those housing units should be fine. So the cry that there is no affordable housing or that affordable or low income housing will disappear in Shaw, doesn't ring true in my ears.
I do acknowledge that among privately rented townhouses and small 4-6 unit apartment buildings there is a danger. However if a landlord decides to sell his townhouse to someone who will more than likely want to live in the unit and be a resident homeowner, I think the neighborhood is better off because it stabilizes the community.
Anyway I started writing this to point out a function going on this weekend. Shiloh Baptist Church this weekend is putting on a Gentrification meeting/ forum whathave you reported
here and
here, and probably a few other spots. It's this Saturday between 1-4pm at 1510 9th St. And to touch on OneDC's rally for their favorite bidder for Parcel 42, but I'll get to that later.
Labels: gentrification, housing
Housing around
Affordable housing, workforce housing, low-income housing, subsidized housing, senior housing, market rate housing and the various aspects of those need to be illustrated in an easy to understand booklet because some of the subtlies and differences are getting lost on me. As a voter in Shaw, the differences matter because it is the politicos that can approve or tweak the various developments going up or around. I have an interest in the type of big buildings that go up with people with various needs and wants, that impact the kind of public and commerical ventures that come to the hood.
My current question regarding the differences is how and from where do the people who fill the different rental housing options come from? I wonder this because I'm trying to figure out where do people, who may not be invovled with any social service agency that may act as a clearinghouse, find out about housing that isn't market rate.
I also think back to my first Shaw apartment. It was on the corner of 12th and Rhode Island NW, in the basement, no AC (w/ window bars that wouldn't make a window unit possible), window near the dumpster, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, $525 ($633 in 2007 dollars). I found it in the Washington Post. Because of the location I thought it was a typo, but checked it out anyway. Nasty carpet and dead roaches littering the kitchen, I applied quickly. I think I had to state my income as part of the credit check, but I had just gotten a 'real' job a few weeks before so all I could show was my meager GS-6($26K) salary from the job before. I don't know if that was a qualification, I don't remember anyone mentioning it. I may have been technically, low or low-moderate income at that point. Also I didn't know if the building or unit was rent controlled or what the deal was, I decided not to look cheap centrally located housing in the mouth.
So I wonder is, will, affordable housing be advertised widely and in various mediums to attract various renters?
Labels: housing
Y'all mean
Because my usual Wednesday activity has been discontinued and because I don't have a TV I wandered over to the ANC 2C Show. I don't think my skin is thick enough to deal with a full fledged meeting, 'cause y'all mean. Not to be too
Deanna Troi, but Captain, I sense hostility.
I say full fledged because Ms. Brooks appeared ill at the beginning of the meeting and the official meeting was adjourned sometime after the minutes (I believe, I can't hear that well) were approved. What occurred after she and Mr. Thorpe left was a community meeting facilitated by Misters Chapple and Padro.
I guess one good thing was the leader of the Organization for Training Others in Need, Carole A. Mumin, wife of Ibrahim Mumin, addressed her grievance with Mr. Chapple and his reporting of the DC Auditors report. She stated that she erred in giving the auditor the wrong receipts, which resulted in a damning report. There were apologies, speeches and testimonials about the program.
Moving on.
There was something about a building on New York Ave. MVSQ has concerns. I wonder how realistic is it to move a brick building that isn't stable. But I'm keeping my thoughts to myself.
Then lastly, there was Parcel 42 and the presentation was for a matter of right proposal. Matter of right, good, as for reasons I'm not entirely free to blog about, PUDs take for-ever. You can get married have kids and send those kids off to college before some PUDs get finished. Not so great, and I'm keeping my thoughts to myself, but the presenters were suggesting 100% affordable housing. Doesn't the Susan Reitig House of Prayer building that's up have affordable housing aspects? And then across 7th St there is a post-riot affordable housing building, which across 8th from that building another affordable housing structure, and across R Street from that a public housing. Then across R/Rhode Island from Parcel 42 is senior affordable housing. So short of the 7-11 that intersection would be a concentrated area of affordable housing if this plan was chosen. I'm no city planner, but isn't this almost like concentrating poverty? And despite being structured to have retail or some commercial space on the first level the building on 7th and R (Lincoln-Westmoreland? Name escapes me now), there is little for profit business that I see. So something is wrong if pre-existing space is underperforming.
I'll stick with the peace, love and happiness of 5C. I am gaining a greater appreciation for Jim Berry and his legacy of grace and being slow to anger.
Labels: ANC, development, housing, politics
Quick thought on housing and gentrification
There is someone moving into the neighborhood today, who in 5-10 years will complain that gentrification moved them out. This thought came to me after a quick conversation with an older woman (maybe not quite senior citizen) who was moving into a rental house. A house that has been 'affordable' since I've been in the neighborhood. And it has had a fair amount of turnover (but that's because the landlady is horrible) so it remains a housing option.
There is little purity in the gentrification that happens in this neighborhood.
All the poor people do not move out at the same time to be replaced by people with more money. Not
all the landowners sell when the market is hot, some keep holding on, maybe through greed or apathy, and then the market cools. There is loss, there are fewer housing options for lower income groups, however there isn't a 100% loss of affordable housing from the market.
I write this from what I've observed on my block. At least three houses (there might be more) in the six years I've been noticing appear to fall in the 'affordable' category and they though the crazy RE market and it's current cooling have had some turnover with tenants and yet have had the same kind of tenant.
Labels: gentrification, housing
Foreclosure
The house next door to mine is being sold by the bank. I suspect that the guy who bought it overpaid for the 2bd/1.5 bath no basement and probably overestimated how much he could rent it out for. Rents in the eastern Shaw area (based on a quick
Craigslist search) range from $1500- $1700 for similar units. Dude paid about $400K for the place. I've been in it, it isn't worth $400K. Heck, even my beautifully renovated 1/2 painted house isn't worth $400K.
Now it is on the market for something in the mid 300K range 'as-is'. Competing with it on the same block is a nicer end unit in the low $400K. I don't know how the two will play off each other, but have seen at least one set of buyers look at one and then the other.
I realize that this is not the only piece of real estate where some 'investor' paid too much and failed to notice that the mortgage, taxes and insurance were more than what the market would bear as a rental. But I'm not all that sympathetic to a group that jacked up the housing prices because they couldn't gage the market. Also I think this is the same group that 'renovated' houses for flipping without a decent eye for beauty only to have their properties sit because they u-g-l-y. But that's another post, for another day.
Labels: housing
Alternative Future
In the book "Washington DC Present and Future" published in 1950 by the National Capitol Park & Planning Commission (so its a govt doc, copy away) there is a proposed idea, that never came to be. The above picture (from Truxtoncircle.org) shows an area bound by 7th, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York Avenues NW. The left is a part of Shaw in the late 1940s, the right is the idea of what it would be, large apartment buildings, snaky townhouse rows, and lot of open space. Roads went missing in this alternative future, M & N Street are gone as well as small road like Warner and Franklin. Anyway, never happened, well not in this version. 1/2 of Franklin did disappear and there are a bunch of apartment buildings along 7th.
Labels: housing, neighborhood history
The road to Hell is paved with the very best of intentions
So, former Mayor-for-Life, current Ward 8 Councilman
has proposed some housing bills recently, some not bad, others.... I don't want to call them 'stupid' but I can't find another word. It seems his heart is in the right place.
Let's start off with the not-bad proposed legislation,
Housing Support for Teachers Act of 2007 B17-0095, sponsored by our own Harry Thomas Jr., Vincent Gray, Carol Schwartz, Kwame Brown, and Marion Barry. A quick look at it seems to offer funds of $5K for individual teachers with moving expenses, housing down payments, and housing stipend. Good stuff for teachers. No complaint here.
The next one I mentioned to someone and he proclaimed the "
Evictions with Dignity Amendment Act" as stupid. To me it is not so much stupid, but it looks like a huge liability for the city. Does the city have tons of storage space for people's stuff? And what happens when someone precious thingamabob heirloom dohicky gets damaged by a water leak while in the City's care? Anyway it is co-sponsored with Kwame Brown.
And the last of Barry proposed legislation that should be cause for concern for anyone who is/ will/ has rented out their basement, condo, house or part of their house, the Rent Control Expansion Amendment Act of 2007 (
PDF). Barry is the sole sponsor of this really bad idea, that would
seem to make every rental-able unit in the city subject to the Rent Control laws, which are now just limited to units of 4 or more. If I'm interpreting this thing right (and I hope I'm not) this would mess with owners of single units, and increase their risk. Also there are a lot of things that go into the expense for a single (or double if it is a house with a rentable basement) landlord that are beyond the control of that person that it seems rent control ignores, like condo fees and skyrocketing tax assessments. The proposed bill is very short and left me with two big questions. One was does it include single and half units (room in house)? And in Sec.3 'Fiscal impact statement' is the language saying there will be an study of some sort to see what economic impact such legislation would have or is it saying that this will be based on a fiscal impact statement that was done already? If there is a study to be done, I hope the city would take a look at incentives for people to decide to make their basements rental units, or to rent out their condos or houses (short-term/ indefinitely) over just selling their properties. People make choices about what to do with their homes and the city shouldn't put something out there that would give homeowners second thoughts about renting out their place as an extra source of income, and thus taking some units off the legal* market.
*Regarding basement units there are height and other requirements, but some folks rent out their basements regardless, and illegally.
Labels: housing, politics
Memorial Weekend Grab Bag
Lots of stuff all under one posting.
Shiloh- Well I spent some quality time picking up tile with my aunt, a long time member of Shiloh, and she briefly brought up the thing with the vacant properties. There was a meeting, at first she heard it was 3 houses, now it's 4, and May 30th isn't enough time. We'll see.
Speaking of vacant properties, Si K over in Mt. Vernon went all out and
surveyed the vacant properties in the MVSQ region and found 100 properties, and 61 of them are taxed at the wrong rate. Read the report, with pictures
here. This is the type of thing the city 'should' be doing.
Speaking of reports, in NE at the Florida Avenue Market
Frozen Tropics has the
Florida Avenue Market Study (PDF) that was presented, at one of the several information meetings about its general development, not the New Towns fiasco. Check of FT and
Rebuilding Space's blog about
the Florida Avenue Market.
As a housekeeping measure, I'm disabling comments for 2003-2004 posts.
Speaking of house. Renovation is going along nicely. I need to put up some more
pictures at the Flickr site because the walls have been mudded and there is a ceiling. What I've been told, is that the trim and the stair railing will be next and that's going to take a while.
Hope you have a good weekend. I'm hanging out in the hood, while it seems everyone else left the city. If you are some of the few who haven't left the TC or MVSQ or central Shaw, drop me a line.
Labels: blog, housing, renovation
Celebrate new homeowners
I'm so happy I don't know where to start.
A little while after I moved, in a couple from Chicago moved in down the block. They were renting the house from a friend of theirs and immediately they integrated themselves into the community. The husband regularly (when he's not out of town for work or sick) cleans up the block with a little broom and a trash can. This supplements the work of alley cleaning man. In winter he'll sometimes borrow my snow shovel when there is snow and clear the sidewalk for 1/2 of our side of the street. He's also willing to talk with the "kids" that hang on the block when there is a point that they need talking to. The husband is also an artist of the woodblock variety and adds to the number a artist-type people in the area and when you have IT, that makes 2 artists on our side of the street.
Well the house they were renting got sold to another person and sometime after that the couple started to consider buying a house in the neighborhood. They really like the neighborhood and particularly our block. However the guy who bought the house, understandably, wanted to make a profit from his purchase and they were non-profit people (there are many non-profit org workers running around the hood), so they weren't exactly rolling in dough. But somehow, they closed this week. Maybe the fact that the house needs a boatload of costly repairs might have something to do with it.
Boat. Load. The house has serious, serious problems with water. Mainly the keeping water out kind. The current problem
de jour is a leak, or something, somewhere, has water going down the side of the interior wall when it rains. And I don't know if the problem with the sewer was fixed. And the husband mentioned something about the foundation.
It seems they got to work on the house minutes after closing. We engaged in the common bonding experience on our block, the watching construction work. One of the block's contractors was working on the outside of the house while 2 other construction employed residents, the new owner, and I stood around making commentary about the work. Including myself, there are at least 3 people on the block having work done on their house. And usually there is at least one person at any one time having something done in the 6 years I've been here. So there is usually a 'show' where you can stand around, and make commentary.
Labels: housing, neighbors
Fun with ProQuest: Black middle class tries to help
From
"D.C. Frontiers, Inner-City Renewal Project, Will Open Soon: Inner-City Renewal Housing Project to Open Soon" by John Saar, Washington Post, 8/13/1973 pC1 Quick abstract: Black businessmen and other AfAm professionals in the form of non-profit DC Frontiers Inc, build, at a financial loss several (and after sever set backs) townhomes at 14th & S, 11th & M, & 11th & N for low income families.
You can still walk by those townhouses today and after 30 some odd years you could say that the project was a success. In the article there was expressed concern that the surrounding decay would undermine the goals of the project. There was a problem with theft while the building was getting built, some snafus that added to construction expenses and there was this inflation thing going on in the 70s. Despite all that the buildings got built stable families got in them and they survived the Crack Barry years and the gentrification.
According to the article, DC Frontiers Inc was more successful than RLA (Redevelopment Land Agency). The difference between the two (besides one being smaller and non-govt) was DC Frontiers aimed for low density and homeownership whereas RLA was high density and rentals, which would be "recreating the old ghetto conditions." The Frontiers houses aimed for something the high rise apartments for poor families wouldn't have, a living room for the parents, play room for the children, a small yard, space for living.
The black middle class I write of were doctors, lawyers, Realtors and such who sponsored the construction costs of building the houses. They wanted to do something to help rebuild the area and they did by offering an alternative. As I mentioned RLA was aiming for high density high-rises, which solves the problem of putting roofs over peoples heads, but does little in stabilizing black families and helping them build wealth.
Frontiers sought to 'reseed' 14th St NW with families with low but steady incomes who paid their rent on time and turn those families into homeowners. Candidates were chosen by what sounded like the lottery method, and had three years after moving in to decide if they wanted to buy. There was a monetary deposit that in 2007 dollars is $1,604.16 and the option of taking a 25 year mortgage.
Another form of criticism in the article I see aimed at RLA that was a problem then is probably a cause of development problems now (or not, it's an opinion). RLA costs were 'unnecessarily' high because the project bought a lot of commercially zoned land for residential purposes. For you kids who don't know, commercial lot is way more expensive than residential lot. Both could be the same in every way, one is more expensive. Fast forward to 2007, hey guess what is sitting on the commercial strips of 7th?
Labels: housing, neighborhood history
Sick and moving
I think got whatever headachey, muscle ache, toss yer cookies virus that's floating around. It was bad last week, and then I thought I was well, but then I went out with some friends and quickly discovered, no, I wasn't well. This weekend, same thing, I thought I was over it, and was proven wrong.
Part of me wonders if I really am sick or just anxious about the whole renovation, move out the house project. I've been packing and the house looks naked. Wall hangings have been taken down, most furniture has been given away, promised away, stored away, thrown away, or set in the big honking "Goodwill" pile. Having to figure out which of my worldly possessions goes into which category, has been challenging. Half of what is in the Goodwill and give away categories, I'd keep if I wasn't desperate to cut down on the amount I need to put in storage.
Then there is the issue of where am I going to live. I do have options outside of the borders of Shaw and I am really thankful for those who have opened their homes to me. However, they are not "in Shaw", nor close to the TC, so to answer Dr. Soh N. So's question of am I going to blog while I'm gone, the answer is I don't know. Probably not as much, which means I'll be putting pressure on Truxtonian to blog. If a suitable short term rental pops up in my hood, then I'll look into it.
Labels: blog, housing, renovation
Well that's depressing
My choices of contractor are disorganized and expensive, or shall I say beyond my budget. Disorganized is within my budget, and has refs, and a very, very positive attitude, but the disorganized demeanor is maddeningly off putting. Beyond budget did my kitchen so there is already a relationship there. But the price quoted was above what I took out as a 2nd mortgage, and short of working a 2nd job I can't see where else I can come up with the extra cash. I'm beating myself up for not interviewing more, and I'm wondering if I should postpone the project so I can try to raise more money or interview more contractors.
Another issue is housing during construction. I want to do the project before the Summer intern invasion, so I'd have choices. Plan A is find a place via Craigslist or the City Paper and stay there for 3 months (or hop from one temp situation to another) while the house is under renovation. Plan B, stay with Aunt in Hyattsville (all other area relatives are so non-metro I won't even consider them) and commute back into the city via bus and train. I would prefer to stay in Shaw, or places that are Shaw-adjacent, or right on the Green line*, so I can closely monitor the work. I can't monitor jack in Hyattsville. So if you know anyone renting out a small cheap-cheap room, nothing fancy, 'cause really all I need is a bed, a shower, and a microwave, in Shaw or a Shaw adjacent place. If you know of such a place available in April shoot me an email mari @inshaw
*When I say right on the green line, I mean, 5-10 mins walking (not driving or biking) from the station entrance.
Labels: housing, renovation
A couple of thoughts
Yes, I did see the Post articles on the
Convention Center,
9th Street, the
Chinese New Year Celebration down in Gallery Place and the proposed merger of
Sirius and XM, which may impact Eckington.
I'd been thinking about Gallery Place/ Chinatown since I've been running a number of errands 'round there lately, and the article just more or less confirmed a bit of my thinking. It seems that a fair number of Asian American attendees at the street celebration were from the 'burbs. Face it, on any other regular day when running around Gallery Place many of the faces are Black, White and Latino. I thought of the Jewish quarter of Prague that the
city hawks as a tourist area, which though having a Jewish graveyard, and monuments, but few Jews*. The buildings and signs say something in Chinese, but the spirit of the street says "Gallery Place". When the MCI/Verizon Center was still off-gassing its new paint and floors there were a larger number of Chinese restaurants, that were later replaced by the Legal Seafoods and like chains. The impact wasn't sudden, and the Gallery Place area is still changing. A place opens, then it closes and is replaced (hopefully quickly) by some other operation. And maybe it is still a little too soon to expect great things of the Convention Center.
Or maybe not. We've got our own set of problems and conditions north of the Square. For one, MVQ and the 7th and 9th St corridors are and were far more residential than Gallery Place. Yes, you compare condo to condo but there are also a lot of fee simple, low density housing, garden apartments and lots of non-luxury units. I mentioned that I lost the faith in projects yet to come, those things are on 9th St. Some of them are in the process of 'becoming', some are waiting for their developer/owners to get their act together, and while they aren't yet what they are to be, you got ugly on the streets at present. Unlike Gallery Place we don't have that huge office drone population crowding up the counters at Shaw eateries. I guess we were supposed to get a huge convention going populace, who aren't staying in any Shaw hotels because, oh right. And last time I went to a convention I had lunch inside the building or ate at places I saw between the hotel and the center. Which would mean, if your hotel is at Gallery Place, you're probably eating in Gallery Place.
Don't even get me started on Shiloh. Senior housing. Not plain old affordable housing, because face it many of y'all moved to the burbs to get away from the affordable housing crowd.
*Yes, the population is growing but it is miniscule compared to its early 20th Century, pre-Holocaust numbers.
Labels: housing
Tax Assessments
I noticed something when I took a look at the
DC Real Estate Tax Assessment database. It is pretty much a given that the city will assess properties to be worth more than they were last year, so that, I expected. Yet when I took a look at the "Preliminary Assessment Roll" which breaks down the property values into land, improvements, and the total value I noticed a big change from the current value and the proposed value. DC has decided to pump up the land value.
Sample Assessment:
| What is assessed | Current Value | Proposed New Value (2007) |
| Land | $88,150 | $259,920 | |
| Improvements | $105,910 | $122,200 |
| Total Value | $194,060 | $382,120 |
| Taxable Assessment: |
$194,060 |
$382,120 |
The above table I swiped from the database to show how the land value was increased. So the 2007 assessment will make the fact that one house is a rehabbed jewel and the crack house next door irrelevant because the land (provided they are similar plots) is worth the same.
Discuss.
Labels: housing, taxes
This house is crap
I've been listening to something. Good Lord only knows what but I suspect mortar, falling from the top to the bottom in between my walls. I need to rehab this house, immediately before the damned thing falls on my head. Good bones my ass.
Maybe it is because of my job and what I do, but the ancestors, the people who came before were not mini-gods to be worshipped automatically for their works. People who lived 100 or more years ago were just as lazy, stupid, underhanded, dishonest, and on a good day, mediocre as the people who roam the earth today. Those same sort of people built this house, and maybe it was a good set of days when they built this row of affordable housing. But I'm seriously doubting that, as what sounds like a good sized chunk of WTF comes tumbling down between me and the house next door, this worker's housing unit was supposed to be standing 130 years later.
I'm possibly in a bad mood because something died or enough mortar fell into the chimney cavity so I haven't been able to work my furnace for nearly a month. I'm keeping the house at 66F by running two little heater fans at full blast.
Okay, I'm going to bed and praying that the damned house can hold itself up for at least 3 more months, or that it doesn't get any colder before one of these heater fans decides to give up the ghost.
Labels: housing
Sameness, is that a selling point?
So we're driving to see the relatives in Laurel in some townhouse development. But before you can get to that townhouse development, you have to drive past a few other developments. I was struck with the sameness of it all. A good curve of large pointy roofed buildings close in the same repeating neutral colors, and there were so many of them. And I thought, even on college campuses, where you have to house a number of students (who have to take what you give anyway), there wasn't that level of sameness.
Labels: housing
How fair to make fair housing?
A few days ago Kris Hammond the ANC-elect wrote on the Eckington Listserv:
Of particular interest is that the Council voted to prohibit discrimination in employment and housing based upon a person's criminal record. It appears that, for example, an apartment complex could not refuse to rent to a convict, but there may be some limitations to that prohibition. Criminal background checks might also be illegal, unless the purpose is to determine whether the person is a sex offender (a class excluded from the law protections). The bill number is B16-909, but the text of the new law is not available right now.
Considering what was needed to deal with problem HUD subsidized houses and other rentals where there were problem residents tearing down the 'hood 5 years ago, this seems to take a tool away from residents. The criminal records, arrests made at a residence was what neighbors could try to use to deal with problem houses. Also this city has very renter friendly laws, this is worrisome if you are a landlord.
However I'd need to see the language of B16-909 because I do make a difference between recent criminal activity and past criminal activity. Recent seems to say someone may still be a part of the criminal scene and possibly could prey on their neighbors. Past, as in years past and nothing new since, seems to show that they have left that part of their life behind and are now productive positive citizens. I wonder if the law makes that difference?
Labels: housing
House of the week
I want to see it painted, paint it black
Black as night, black as coal
I want to see the sun blotted out from the sky
I want to see it painted, painted, painted, paint it black, yeah--Rolling Stones "Paint it Black"
Apparently Goths buy homes too. 514 R St. is the In Shaw house of the week (fortnight, whatever) because it's owner/occupant decided to paint it black. Seriously, the house is black. As the song says, black as coal, black as night, BLACK.
Nothing says I ain't selling the house like the color black. Daring I say. I take my hat, well head scarf for now, off to the people of 514 R St.
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goesLabels: housing
Maintenance
The bathtub needs another treatment of the drain declogger. I suspect that there is a piece of soap stuck in the pipes, so it might need part of a stick as well to dig around. Anywho, this morning's shower and clog got me thinking of maintenance and homeownership. Maintenance is drugery, and if we call a plumber, it's expensive too. Maintenance makes the act of just getting a house look like the easy part, particularly if you have an older 100+ year old townhome.
When driving through New York City, my friend Nora B. pointed out a depressing looking apartments above a bridge. She said it looked liked someone designed it, built it and then didn't keep it up. The once bright colorful paints were peeling, dingy and faded.
That could describe the history of many of the townhomes in my area. I'm still slowly, with fits and starts gathering census data for the area. I have recently stumbled onto 1880 households with white servants. The grand houses that held these important people and their live in staff, are a little less grand now. Big houses with ornate brickwork and large windows. Keeping up the brickwork, getting the birds' nests out, removing that mini-tree that established itself in a crevice, costs either time or money or both. The building of the grand house, done. Keeping it grand, annoying and expensive.
This was a topic hammered home in those first-time home buyer seminars, maintenance, keeping the place up. So many people put so much energy and money into getting a house, and in this market, that is a requirement. Unfortunately, their spirits and bank accounts are drained by the time the first crisis comes around. Darned it, those crisises come early. Mine was a hole in the wall. $400. Second was running toilet. $200, and that was WITH the home warranty. Then the flood. Insurance took care of that. I guess I spent a coupla hundred just to deal with minor things like insulation, leaky valves, etc. Then there was taking time off to wait for the guy between 11 and 3 for the quirky phone lines, or to look at the furnace. Will the person who borrowed, scrimped saved, took on an extra job have the ability to deal with the $300 problem that shows up, followed by a $90 problem and another one, and another one. With homeownership, there is always something.
Labels: house maintenance, housing
Tobacco Factory
Traveled along the
Urban Land Company's parade of
homes tour yesterday with the troop from the fortress of tea and dirty laundry. We saw about 4 places, walked in 3. We hit the tail end of the tour, so some were closing up when we arrived. Quite a few were not completed. Meaning, there where still holes in the walls and ceilings for the ducts and electrical outlets. We did see some cool funky stuff.
The house at 1911 6th Street, did something with the kitchen. They put a wall up, but it doesn't go all the way up. Oh and the kitchen is small. Very small. As it was unfinished, it was hard to imagine how the walk-in closets would be walk-in. We could walk in them, but there were no racks or shelves. The bottom unit was also odd. Both the bedrooms have doors that lead out to the patio.
The bottom unit of
444 S St was tiny. Teeny. It was like a studio apartment. I think it's a junior bedroom. You walk in and there is the kitchen, and then the bedroom. Good for people who don't want to buy a couch. Unless you want to cook on the couch.
Lastly we all wound up at the main attraction, the
Tobacco Factory, where there has never been a factory of any sort.
The reviews I have heard from others, including the fortress crew has been mixed. Of course one fortress member's reaction was *slobber*. The Factory is four levels divided into half. The top was available for viewing. Points should be given to the Urban Land Company staff just for presentation. The reviews I have heard were, all the others were less impressive, so by the time you get to the furnished and finished top level of the Factory condo, it is a great improvement.
The best home we saw yesterday was not on the Urban Land Company's tour. It was across the street. The
August In Shaw house of the week owners let the troop in for a tour after running into them at the Factory. Oh my G-d. They did a wonderful job. The house is still in various stages of repair, but the layout is truly amazing and actually understands the limits and needs of a small townhome. One party of the couple fixing the place up is a German designer and the house is a reflection of a European sensibility. The first floor is very open. The top floors are where it begins to look more European, reminding me of some flats I have seen in London. It continues to be open at the landing and doesn't have that cramped feeling that you can get in DC townhomes. It also brings in a fair amount of light.
Talking with the owner, a problem they encountered was trying to get people to understand the concept of say the box bathroom. This is a bathroom sits on the level like a big ole box, where the top does not go all the way to the high ceilings, so that light from the outside can go over the bathroom, into the bathroom, and into the adjoining room. The other problem were contractors who don't show up on time, on time meaning 1 hour from the time they said they'd show. All the time spent waiting they decided to do many things themselves.
I want their house. It is sooooooo cooool.
Labels: housing
On the bright side....
According to
Jimbo the bright side of having Marion Barry on the Council is maybe the prices of homes will go down and he could afford to buy.
Labels: housing, politics
Real Estate Agents on Crack again
There is a house at 1611 New Jersey Avenue for sale for, get this, $798,000. Crack, crack, PCP with an LSD chaser Crack is what the Realtors are smoking. And they must be giving it to their buyers. Yeah, it has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, and I'm quite sure they are big and everything, but $800K? I know this place has no parking. For $800 grand you should have parking and your own personal crack ho. For less you can get a 5 bedroom 4 bath at 34 Quincy for less than $500K, or at $500K 69 Florida Ave. With the extra $300K you could buy an extra condo or for a tad more 1647 New Jersey Ave (a 2 bedroom 1 bath) for $310K.
Please stop the maddness, just say no to the real estate crack.
11/29/052 anon comments are 2 too many
Labels: housing
Gentrification in Shaw- Manna Report
If you haven't read
Manna's 2003 report you should. It covers rising rents, displacement, the personal impact gentrification is having on long term residents, good stuff. The best part is the photo on the cover (this is a PDF file) of 7th Street right after the riots, with the burned out shells. Okay, not the best part, but the jewels of the report are the personal stories of residents who have experienced the rent increases and non-renewal of leases.
The stories do help illustrate the problem that gentrification has brought. Saying rents have increased, nothing. Saying that one day a renter receives a letter that their 2 bedroom apartment that had been $634 a month was soon going up to $954 in 5 months, says a lot.
Conversions are another thing Manna writes about, that I didn't think much about before. Not just apartments to condos conversions but from boarding house to single family residence. There are several townhomes that you can see along New Jersey Avenue that are divided into two residences next to homes with the same exterior that are just one residence. The report mentions large townhomes that were formerly boarding homes housing several people at low rents that are now for one family.
A good thing about the report is that is does get into the specifics, naming names and addresses. It mentions location, address of particular apartments and converted and rehabbed homes and also businesses that have felt the impact of gentrification hard.
Of course I disagree with Manna on some points, but that is just my opinion. I don't disagree that there is gentification going on in Shaw. Hence the title of the blog "In Shaw (now with more gentrification)" which acknowledges the gentrification. I don't disagree that people are being displaced and the sadness of that.
I have a problem with the concentration of bemoaning the areas west of 9th St. That area has been gentrified. Dead to any hope of making it affordable. Move on. Don't wring your hands about the unaffordable even to mid middle class folks, lofts and condos. Another problem I have is Manna not coping to it's role in the gentrification game. Yes, Manna sells homes and condos at rates affordable to the people it is trying to help. I gather to cover operating costs, it also has sold homes AT
market rate, reflecting the crazy prices in Shaw. Manna is a non-profit, so is it any better when Manna does it and worse when a for-profit does it too, doing what it was created to do.... profit? I remember when I was first looking to buy they and other non-profit developers had some pretty expensive homes. For the ones you could afford you'd have to get in line or belong to a certain group, or wait for .... whenever.
The solutions that Manna presents, would at best preserve small islands of affordable renting in a sea of gentrification. They desire to preserve Section 8 by helping tenant associations. Good if you are in large enough building where tenants can buy the building. Land development, well maybe public land but with quasi-public organizations like
Metro (WMATA), I don't think so. Maybe they hadn't heard but Metro doesn't have enough to pass up maximum money making opportunities. New jobs, well, that might help some. But the kinds of jobs needed to afford the market rate rents and houses around here are a bit unaffordable to folks with "good jobs". And as with my former neighbors, when the opportunity to pull up stakes so your kid can get a yard, with grass, and enough room to play and run around in, presents itself because you got a good job or can sell the house at $$$, there is nothing saying you'll stay in Shaw.
Labels: gentrification, housing
Gentrification DC
Yes, I must have a bug in my bonnet. That and work has slowed down here.
Last year, well October 2003 I attended the very crowded American Cities
discussion on gentrification at the City Museum. I have notes I don't remember if I entered them into this blog. If I didn't (too lazy to search) well here it is.
Jim Abdo, president of Abdo Development began with his side of the story. He talked about historical buildings and that he, unlike some of the other developers, only rehabbed abandoned buildings. No one got kicked out.
His take points out something that I haven't touch upon in my gentrification rants, historical or historically interesting buildings. The neighborhoods in question, Columbia Heights, Shaw, LeDroit Park and Capitol Hill have some pretty neat buildings. Sadly it is only the middle & upper classes that can keep the buildings with the historical details up. It is good if you score a house that still has the pocket doors, the original stained glass, the long windows, the original crown molding, the wood floors, the carved newel posts, the detailed iron fences and stair railings, oh I could go on. When the middle classes fled the city and these houses with so much detail were rented out or sold to those with less some of those details got lost to the practical. Long tall windows are expensive to replace so they got replaced by cheaper squat ones. Pocket doors removed or walled up. As the neighborhood got rougher it just probably didn't make sense to invest that much into the property. So gentrification is saving some housing provided the rehabbers have an appreciation for history.
Next on the panel was Maria Maldonado from CASA Maryland. She talked about what gentrification was, the replacement and displacement of one neighborhood with another. She talked about immigrant families that have been there for over 18 years and are being forced out due to market conditions. She also mentioned a horrible incident where 20 lawyers descended on one building scaring the tenants. The odd thing, she mentioned was that people come for the diversity but it is the economic power of the incoming group that forces out the diversity.
The last fellow I have notes for (I left before it all ended) was from Arlington and talking about affordable housing.
Labels: gentrification, housing
Trading UpI told my neighbor I wouldn't tell anyone how much she's selling her house for, so I won't. But it is a sh*tload of $$. She deserves every single cent of it. She lived in the house for a little under 9 years. She's going to trade in a townhouse with leaky basement and no parking for a house with a yard and a garage in BFE Maryland. All the cool stuff in the city that is attracting people means nothing to her. She has a car and kids. Metro and clubs don't mean squat. Good schools and no shooting and no (as my Daddy would put it) dumbas$ n*ggas hanging out, that is what she wants and needs.
At the price the house is going for apparently only whites can afford it, so the demographics of the block will head in a particular direction. Called ET and told her to score one point for her people. Last month a white couple moved in on one end of the block, changing the trend of houses on the north end changing demographically from black renters to white homeowners and renters, so now the Euro-Americans are coming from both ends.
I am so thankful she did not decide to rent the house out to get Section 8 money. I pray to G-d above that Mr. Mesfin will sell his house too. Last I spoke to him he STILL had not decided if he was going to rent or sell. I hope he sells because I can tell he's cheap and will be a slumlord.
Labels: housing, neighbors
Confessions of a gentrifierI don't fit the normal profile of a gentifier.....
First, I'm not rich. On a yearly basis, if not more often my profession's listserv goes on a tizzy about how
we're never paid much. according to some government tables I make about 1/2 of the region's adverage income.
Second, I'm black. Of course some may want to take away my black person card because of the crew I hang with and I know I'm never going to win a Blacker than Thou contest. It says black on the birth certificate, so that's what I'm sticking with.
Third, well there is no 3rd. But I like things to have a begining, a middle and an end.
I do fit some of the gentifying stereotypes in otherways:
I'm new, moving in in 2000
I have a graduate degree
I'm young (sort of)
I've improved my yard and house
I attend community meetings and support changes
I have no kids
I am a homeowner
I moved to Shaw because a) it is on the Green Line which will take me to Archives II, where I thought I would wind up working. b) not far from the Yellow line, which would take me to Braddock Road, where I did wind up working, c) near grocery store, laundry and everything else a car-less person needs, and lastly and most importantly d) I could afford it.
I'm a single woman, there is only so much house I can afford. I don't like huge condo buildings, actually I hate condo buildings. Also I needed to be near the metro, as mentioned previously, I don't have a car. Not a condo, near the metro, equals expensive. But my Realtor found something in my small measly price range.
All you new people just want to come in and change things!That's what I hear everyso often from several of the old timers. Old timers have been in the neighborhood since the Indians were fishing in the Potomac. They'll lash out against people who have lived in the neighborhood 15 years, which apparently makes you a newbie still. The old timers are typically old retired women, who insult you in that being nice but insulting way.
I didn't move in with a plan. I was aware of changes and potential and I am supportive of it. Change is going to happen. People who have been here 15 years and want change do see an opening and are acting on it using some of the engery (and naivite) of the new people. So yes, I guess in some ways I do want to change things.
**
Cut down on liquor stores Good Lord, how many of these stores do you need. Right where I am there are about 3 stores in a 2 block radius where I can grab a 40, or some Mad Dog 20/20. I'm not against beer and wine. I drink wine but you won't find me in the neighborhood liquor store, unless they start carrying a variety of foreign and domestic red wines, none of that Boones Farm crap but real wine.
**
Do something about abandoned buildings Do old timers like abandoned buildings? It brings joy to my heart so see a house that previously was boarded up getting fixed up to be sold. Now people with the money to fix up houses also are up on the current economic realities and know that they can make some money and they do. They'll fix up a house and sell it for an outragous price. Usually out of the price range of most lower and middle income folks. Heck even
Manna fixed then sold houses that were out of my price range. So fixing up the abandoned buildings come at a price.
**
Cut down on crime Can't we all agree on this? Apparently not. Some newbie neighbors attended a meeting where she was attacked for wanted greater police presence on her street. The attendees told her if she wanted police presence she should have moved to Georgetown!
**
Spend money in the community I would like to spend more of my hard earned dollars in the immediate area of where I live but I have 2 questions:
1. Are you selling what I want to be buying?
2. Will I be treated with respect?
One old timer chastised the group for not supporting Black businesses and the businesses that have been here since forever. Well I would support those businesses if they sold something I wanted to buy. See the comment about the liquor stores. They aren't selling what I want, and I am not going to buy what I don't want. I want fresh fruit. I want variety. Secondly, I don't want to be treated like a criminal before I even walk into the store. I know the neighborhood was not and in some spots is not safe enough to remove the plexiglass between the cashier and the customer. But I find the whole experience insulting in some ways, so given a choice, I choose not to but myself through that.
I choose to go to Giant on P Street. They have what I want, they don't insult me (the cashier may ingore me, but not insult me), and I get to spend my dollars in Shaw. I also support Chain Reaction. The service is good, the prices okay, and most importantly they're close. I don't eat at any of the take out joints, this goes back to the not selling what I want. I would like a nice sit down place, and I have yet to try the Italian restaurant on New York Ave, but that is still far. The best I can do is the Wendy's on Florida, which also is far, but they have the Wendy's Jr. Cheeseburger. If a store or restaurant that was nice and clean and respectful opened up I may visit it and maybe even patronize it.
They're are some things that I and my fellow newbies do that are threatening to the old timers and anti-gentrifiers, and I'll try owning up to them.
***
You're trying to move people out of their homes. Yes and no. Are these the loud drug dealers down the street? They why hell yes, I want them gone. The old timers may remember when Soinso was a cute little kid, but now he's 20 and is hanging with a dope selling crew. They may feel sorry for them. Newbies show up and they just see the dope selling crew, not the cute kids they were. Sadly, some of these dealers work out of their grandmothers/momma's/girlfriend's house and when a community of law abiding citizens set they're mind to it it becomes "get rid of them all and let G-d, sort them out."
Even in situations where it isn't drugs but quality of life issues like noise and trash people look at it as a problem to be fixed and the easiest solution is to get rid of the problem instead of changing the behavior. Section 8. That tends to be synomous with problem house. They're are some good Section 8 people, but if a house has 12 people running in and out of it at all hours; people putting all their business out there on the street; children running around like they don't have any home training; being loud; being bad; being ugly, people just call it a Section 8 house. So yes, those people are targeted.
However there are people who are pushed out because of higher taxes and rents. They are not targeted, they are just victims of the changing economic times. Of course, according to Lance Freeman,at Columbia University, and Frank Braconi, at the Citizens Housing and Planning Council people aren't pushed out (see New York Times 3/26/2002 The Big City; The Gentry, Misjudged As Neighbors by JOHN TIERNEY ). They were bound to leave anyway regardless of what was going on in that particular neighborhood.
Labels: gentrification, housing, quality of life
Jim Berry fighting against more Section 8 housingJim Berry fighting against more Section 8 housing
From: "JBerry"
To: "'Jeannette.Johnson
Subject: North Capitol Townhomes Limited Partnership Affordable Housing Pr oduction Project
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 20:12:31 -0400
Ms. Johnson,
Thank you for establishing contact with me concerning the above-referenced subject. There is a glitch in ANC 5C's telephone service with Verizon that we are in the process of correcting. That is, the telephone mail box for ANC 5C is shared between 12 commissioners and due to a progressive increase in the volume of calls that we have been receiving from members of the
general public over the last six months, we plan to significantly expand its capacity in the immediate future. Nevertheless, for your information and future reference, I can be reached daily, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at (202) *******and at (202) ******** during the evening hours.
As you may know, I volunteer my time and talents to my neighbors via my service to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C and, because we don't have an office manager at the time, there is a predictable delay in my receipt of calls transmitted to our office number.
I appreciate your advising me of Ms. Matthias' availability next week, but my written request of the DHCD was to meet with its Director, Mr. Stanley Jackson. Hence, I am at a loss to understand why a meeting with Ms. Matthias is being offered as a preliminary step towards the attainment of this goal.
It appears that the DHCD intends to move with dispatch to facilitate the release of Community Block Grant Funds in order that an out of town developer can implement the proposed North Capitol Townhomes Project and, frankly, I fear that it may succeed with this unfortunate and
unacceptable plan while I am engaged in and, possibly, being distracted by offers and arrangements to meet with surrogates of Mr. Jackson's.
As I have previously indicated, DHCD's existing plans to continue a subsidized housing program for the next 30 years in my neighborhood, that has not yielded a single homeowner as a result of its implementation over the past 21, strikes me as an abomination that I/we who are also
heavily invested in this community, must resist by all possible means. Indeed, I have shared this position with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's representative, with Ward Five Council Member Vincent B. Orange and other members of the D.C. City Council, and I plan to elaborate on this position in a meeting with officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development that I plan to have in the immediate future.
It is my hope that reason will ultimately prevail in this unfortunate situation and that the DHCD will abandon its current plan, in favor of one that promotes and facilitates homeownership (especially, for those participants in the Bates Street Limited Townhomes Project of
longstanding). Indeed, if the DHCD and the local government is serious about and
committed to the goal of helping those who live in subsidized housing to evolve
into homeowners, now is the ideal time to implement such a program which, I believe, would represent a "win-win" situation for all of the stakeholders involved.
Sincerely,
James D. Berry, Jr.
Chairperson, ANC 5C
Labels: housing, politics
