DC Displacement of the Poor: They Do What They Can Get Away With

By Grassroots DC, on October 23rd, 2014

Cross-Posted from Sociology in My Neighborhood: DC Ward Six Written by Johanna Bockman

As many of you know, there is much discussion about the future of the DC General homeless shelter. This morning, the Post’s Petula Dvorak stated, “Developers are salivating over D.C. General. It’s a huge property with plenty of potential. So there’s no question that it will be shut down and sold. That part of the plan no one is worried about.” Mayor Gray is rightly calling to rehouse those at the DC General shelter before closing it, but his plan is based on an unfounded belief that private apartment owners will now come forward and house the hundreds of families at DC General at rents far below market rates. Thus, in the interests of “salivating” developers, hundreds of homeless people are going to be displaced again? DC General is District property and could be renovated, maybe even employing homeless or near-homeless workers, if the District wanted to do so. However, developers and homeowners in the area are working hard for the “revitalization” of the DC General area, which they see as requiring the removal of their homeless neighbors. The deterioration of DC General is required as proof of the need for “revitalization.”

Photo by Empower DC

A few weeks ago, I went to a great panel discussion, “Racism in the New DC,” organized by Empower DC, which spoke to these issues from a very refreshing perspective. The speakers were three public housing residents working to maintain public housing and public schools in DC (Marlece Turner, D. Bell, and Shannon Smith), as well as Dr. Sabiyha Prince (the author of African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, DC), Ron Hampton (a former police officer and activist against police abuse), and Post columnist Courtland Milloy.

The main takeaway from the panel discussion was that institutional racism (not individual racist people but a racist system) works based on the idea that brown and black people do not deserve as good things as white people do. Improvements in the city are made for white people both because they often have more money and also because they are seen as deserving better things, like better schools and better services.

I asked the panel about a recent Post article that had said that, “Almost 10 years after the District vowed to assure low-income residents in four areas that they wouldn’t be displaced if their neighborhoods were revitalized,” the District decided that this was “overly optimistic.” The District was considering a policy change to “no longer guarantee that residents have a right to stay in their neighborhoods, and the promise that existing public housing won’t be demolished until a new building is constructed to replace it would be abandoned.” Empower DC and others have been warning people about these false promises for some time.

So, I asked the panel, is this a new policy? or is this a statement of what the District was already doing? Courtland Milloy immediately said, “They do what they can get away with.” He explained that, when District officials made these promises, they had to to make their redevelopment plans and the destruction of public housing palatable. Earlier, Milloy had stated that we need to acknowledge institutional racism and that these “revitalization” policies are in the interest of property owners and not in the interests of the homeless and other poor DC residents.

How can we change the situation in which “They do what they can get away with”? As a start, we might recognize that the journalist’s statement “So there’s no question that it [DC General] will be shut down and sold. That part of the plan no one is worried about” is not a statement of fact but rather a statement supported by those who are interested in this outcome and “can get away with” it. It is a political statement in the battle over space in the District. The next step would be to support a range of policies, including permanent public housing and permanent affordable housing in the District.

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For Ivy City, The Plan Isn’t Paranoia

By Guest Contributor, on December 12th, 2012

Cross-Posted from the Washington Post By Courtland Milloy, Published: December 11

Busses Parked Across the Street from Crummell School.

Back in the 1970s, many low-income black D.C. residents began expressing fears that a nefarious scheme was afoot to push them out of the city. They called it “The Plan.” And they were all but laughed out of the city for sounding so paranoid. But, as the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

Take the case of Ivy City residents, whose legal battles with the D.C. government offer evidence that The Plan is not some figment of poor folks’ imagination. And, in many ways, it’s even more dastardly than they thought.

In temporarily halting a District plan to put a bus depot in Ivy City, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith N. Macaluso ruled Monday that Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration had “deliberately disregarded” laws requiring that residents be informed about how they would be affected by the move. Even worse, the judge found that developers had “evaded environmental screening by mischaracterizing the project” on city documents.

The only difference between this plan and The Plan as low-income people envisioned it is that instead of being pushed out by whites returning to take over the city, they were being pushed out by black elected officials operating as if in the employ of developers.

Union Station developers wanted a depot to keep buses that bring tourists to and from the station so merchants could sell fast food and souvenirs. Investors wanted to make a profit, city officials more tax dollars — for more bike lanes and dog parks, no doubt.

And if a bunch of low-income residents would have to breathe air filled with carcinogenic diesel exhaust to make it happen, so be it. Kill two birds with one stone.

You want to get rid of poor people? Raise their hopes by promising to renovate a historic African American landmark in their community, as Gray did to the people of Ivy City — but then turn around and break their hearts by trying to turn the site into a bus depot.

Tell Ivy City residents that the former Alexander Crummell School, named for an abolitionist who devoted his life to the uplift of black people, will be turned into a community center worthy of its namesake.

Then let them find out that instead of bringing new life to the neighborhood, you’ll be hastening the death of its residents — some of whom are children and elderly who suffer from asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

According to the city’s own comprehensive “master plan,” Ivy City will be made “green” and have lots of amenities in the near future. The question has always been who will be there to enjoy it? If gentrification in other parts of the city is any guide, the answer will more likely be newcomers with money rather than the poor folks who live there now.

Except that Ivy City, along New York Avenue about a dozen blocks east of North Capitol Street, is not like most other low-income neighborhoods. With their health and safety, actually their very lives, being threatened by the proposed bus depot, the residents fought back. They organized with help from a grass-roots group called Empower DC, held protest rallies and confronted city officials at public events.

The fight was led by Andria Swanson, president of the Ivy City Neighborhood Association, along with Ivy City residents Sheba Alexander, Jeanette Carter and Vaughn Bennett, and Empower DC co-founder Parisa Norouzi, among others. D.C. lawyer Johnny Barnes represented them in court.

After Macaluso’s ruling, Ivy City residents gathered for a celebration at the community’s Bethesda Baptist Church, where strategy meetings were often held.

Among the happiest residents were the youngsters who live in Ivy City, still clinging to hope that the Crummell School grounds will one day have a recreation center and other community programs.

“We like football, but there is no place to play except in the streets,” said De’Mar Williams, 15.

Demarco Jones, 12, said: “Most of the money is being spent on bike lanes when we could use it over here for job training.”

The ruling by Macaluso had been a significant win for Ivy City, but it was also confirmation of just how low the powers-that-be would go to keep them down. And out.

“The public interest lies in compliance with the District’s environmental laws and regulations so that District residents are protected from avoidable . . . → Read More: For Ivy City, The Plan Isn’t Paranoia

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