OLIVE BRANCH COMMUNITY home
The Mayor has presided over a CITY IN CRISIS for housing and shelter for its poorest residents. We need to ask him some HARD questions for a change!
Ø We are in an accelerated crisis regarding affordable housing in Ward One, given that a majority of the 5,200 families being displaced from their housing at the end of the year reside here. What are You going to do to help those families?
Ø Many people facing the current housing crisis will be forced onto the street and many of them are part of the Ward One Latino population, so why are you closing Ward One’s La Casa Shelter, the only bilingual city-run shelter for men?
Ø Much of the affordable housing in Ward One is dilapidated. Currently delinquent landlords allow their properties to deteriorate then use the city’s citations to kick out paying low income renters to make large scale repairs, thus letting them raise the rent far above the ability of low income renters to pay by avoiding current rent control regulations. What will you do to put an end to this practice?
Ø The current dilapidated state of affordable rental units in ward one demands repair of those buildings while preserving the affordable nature of that housing. Why can’t you spend some of the 22,000,000 in the affordable housing trust fund to make those repairs.
Ø Since many of the subsidized housing units in Ward One are Latino occupied, and often as many as 7 Latino families may share a single small apartment, the number of Latino families on the streets and in need of shelter and transitional housing is rapidly rising. Why doesn’t the city have a Latino family shelter? And shouldn’t it be in Ward One, given that most existing assistance for Latino’s are based in Ward One?
Ø Given the special vulnerabilities of
homeless women, especially those who do not speak English, why is the no
shelter for Latino women in the city? And due to bilingual service
availability, shouldn’t it be in Ward One?
Some city and Ward One
housing facts under Mayor Williams Administration:
·
From
1991- 1997, the number of affordable rental units decreased by 37,000 in the
Washington, DC metropolitan area.
·
Between
1994 and 1999, the rental unit vacancy rate fell from over 10% to LESS then 1%.
·
The
most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods are ALL located in Ward One.
·
10,00
federally subsidized low-income apartments in the Columbia Heights neighborhood
are set to expire by 2005 under the current Section 8 contracts with little to
no provisions made for where these low income families will go. Many will
expire this year.
·
Average
prices for single- family homes in the Mt- pleasant neighborhood have
skyrocketed to an average of $360,000 for the smallest homes and $560,000 for
the larger homes.
·
In
2000, over 12,000 complaints of substandard housing to the DCRA went
uninvestigated.
·
In
the District, families may wait up to 5 years for public housing and up to 8
years for Section 8 subsidies. Section 8 Vouchers do NOT guarantee section
eight housing –just the possibility of housing IF there is low –income section
eight apartments existent AND available.
·
Between
1998 and 1999, the District had nearly 20,000 families on the waiting list for
Section 8 assistance, a 29% increase over the prior year.
·
Blacks
and Latino’s face discrimination more then 42% of the time when they attempt to
rent apartments in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
·
Of
all Latinos living in the District, almost one-half (46.3%) of the Latino
population is in Ward One.
·
In
Ward One, Latino’s held 17% of the Section 8 vouchers allotted in this area of
the city.
·
Crowding
for low-income Latino families is so bad that up to 7 Latino families may share
a housing unit.
Brought to you by the Olive Branch Community- For more info: www.olivebranchcommunity.org or call 202-682-9056.