All I urge everyone interested in the dog park issue to try to attend this meeting. It’s important to have a presence there.
Begin forwarded message:
—–Original Message—–
From: Yuckenberg, Jason (OPM) <jason.yuckenberg@dc.gov>
To: Yuckenberg, Jason (OPM) <jason.yuckenberg@dc.gov>
Sent: Thu, Jul 2, 2009 3:09 pm
Subject: Bundy School Community Presentation Thursday, July 9 at 7pmDear Friends and Neighbors:
The D.C. Office of Property Management invites interested residents to attend a presentation next Thursday, July 9 at 7 pm to discuss the renovation and future use of the Bundy School, located at 429 O Street, NW.
Please join us in the auditorium of the Scott Montgomery Elementary School, located at 421 P Street, N.W. for a progress report and short presentation by the Office of Property Management.
Please contact Jason Yuckenberg (OPM), at 202-727-5321 with any questions.
What: Bundy School Community Presentation
When: 7pm, Thursday, July 9
Where: Scott Montgomery Elementary School, 421 P Street, N.W.Jason Yuckenberg | Office of Property Management
2000 14th St, NW, 8th floor, Washington, DC 20009
desk 202 727 5321 | fax 202 727 9877
http://www.opm.dc.gov | jason.yuckenberg@dc.gov
Bates Area Civic Association 
On an unrelated topic … See this article from the Friday, July 3, 2009, Washington Post about the soon-to-open Open Arms Housing on the unit block of O Street NW.
What is the community’s reaction to Open Arms Housing?
Apartment Building for Women Set to Open
By Yamiche Alcindor
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 3, 2009
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203560.html]
A newly renovated apartment building will soon open its doors to 16 of the District’s most vulnerable single homeless women.
The Dunbar, developed by Open Arms Housing, is designed for women who have been homeless for more than a year or who have been homeless at least four times in the past year. Women make up about 25 percent of the estimated 4,000 single homeless people in the District.
Unlike residents of emergency shelters, Dunbar residents can stay as long as they want.
“It’s about trying to find solutions that make sense,” said Marilyn Kresky-Wolff, executive director of Open Arms. “It’s about trying to keep people from falling back into homelessness.”
The three-story building, in the unit block of O Street NW, has 19 apartments. Rent will vary depending on a tenant’s income. Each tenant will be expected to pay one-third of her income as rent, and the D.C. Housing Authority will provide $1.7 million over 15 years in rental subsidies to cover the rest.
Kresky-Wolff said the housing should help women who are often overlooked — those with behavioral, mental and substance abuse issues that make living in large group settings difficult.
It took Open Arms 15 years to raise $2.7 million to renovate the building with funds mostly from the city and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but also from private donors and lenders.
With residents expected to move in within weeks, the smell of fresh paint permeates the building. Individual apartments, each 250 to 300 square feet, have a bedroom, a small living room and a kitchen.
Each floor also has a common room for meetings of support groups and activities dedicated to helping the tenants deal with some of the issues surrounding their homelessness, Kresky-Wolff said.
Although some housing programs require residents to enroll in counseling and treatment programs, Open Arms will just encourage them to seek help. The approach is part of its “housing first” philosophy that people should be housed before being required to get more help.
“The idea is to treat them like tenants,” she said. “This is low-demand, low-barrier housing.”
Residents will be encouraged to attend weekly meetings with the Open Arms staff and other residents, Kresky-Wolff said.
Officials are now interviewing applicants. Priority will be given to women on the “vulnerability list” of women in most need, put together by the departments of human services and mental health.
One of the building’s apartments will be set aside for a resident manager, and two apartments will be reserved for volunteers interested in working with the residents.
‘We believe the Dunbar will have an enduring positive impact on both the residents who will find supportive homes here and the community that will have one less vacant property,” said Leila Finucane Edmonds, director of the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Open Arms will have to continue applying for funds from various resources to keep the building open.
This year, the number of homeless single people in the District dropped by 6.5 percent in part because of places like the Dunbar, according to the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness. The city has 53 permanent housing facilities for the formerly homeless. Seven of them serve women, and 41 house men and women.
I think Eckington community members has been opposing this, if its the one I’ve seen discussion about on their listserv.
Here is another news article — this one from yesterday’s Washington Business Journal:
Note that LAYC is on the list of applicants for affordable housing funding for 30 P Street NW.
And note that So Others Might Eat (S.O.M.E.) is interested in funding for its affordable housing projects elsewhere in the District.
I have to admit that I haven’t been paying close attention to the LAYC plans for 30 P St NW. I didn’t realize that housing was part of the project.
Thursday, July 2, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
Developers want part of $33.7M for affordable housing
Washington Business Journal – by Jonathan O’Connell Staff Reporter
[http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/06/29/daily75.html]
Developers of 22 affordable housing projects in D.C. are seeking a slice of $33.7 million the city will receive in federal stimulus money from the Treasury Department.
The money, divvied to D.C. and the states by formula, will allow the city to provide grants aimed at jump starting or completing construction or rehabilitation of below market rate housing units that have stalled in the recession.
The developers applying for funds are working on projects all across the city, in neighborhoods including Anacostia, Brightwood, Mount Pleasant, Petworth and Trinidad. The city’s own sources of affordable housing subsidies have been deeply hampered by the slow real estate market.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said in a June 23 statement that the money “will have an immediate and critical impact on the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing” and would bring jobs for D.C. residents.
The city’s Department of Housing and Community Development began seeking developers in April, two months after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Projects must be eligible for federal low-income tax housing tax credits, government-issued tax breaks that developers can use to attract private financing. The value of the tax credits has fallen dramatically in the recession, leaving many projects with shortfalls.
DHCD is hoping to maximize funding for projects that will provide units for elderly, special needs or chronically homeless individuals and families in need of supportive services. Spokeswoman Angelita Colon-Francia said she was not sure when the agency will make funding decisions.
In addition to the $33.7 million in Treasury funds, the federal government has committed another $94.58 million to D.C. in stimulus money for housing programs, according to the Web site Recovery.gov. Of that, another $11.6 million will also be dedicated to projects eligible for low-income housing credits.
The applicants:
Developer / Project / Address / Applying for
Jubilee Housing Inc. / 2448 18th St. NW / 2448 18th St. NW / $235,000
North Capitol Collaborative Inc. / 4924 Nash St. NE / 4924 Nash St. NE / ?
Vesta Corp. / Avalon Apartments / 814-820 Southern Ave. SE /20?
Artspace Projects Inc. / Brookland Artspace Lofts / 3305-3313 8th St. NE / $8.4 million
William C. Smith & Co. / Canal Place Residential / 825 Second St. SE / $3 million
Daffodil House Inc. / Daffodil House / 3237 Hiatt Place NW / $450,000
Delta Housing Corp. / Delta Towers Senior Community / H Street and Florida Avenue NE / NE $4.3 million
E&G Property Services Inc. / Five properties in NW, NE and SE / $7.5 million
Neighborhood Development Co. / The Heights on Georgia Ave. / 3232 Georgia Ave NW / $1.3 million
Israel Manor Inc/Israel Baptist Church / Israel Manor Senior Housing / 10th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE / $730,000
Banneker Ventures LLC and Bank of America CDC / The Jazz @ Florida Ave. / 700 and 800 blocks of Florida Avenue NW / ?
Latin America Youth Center / John F. Cook School / 30 P St. NW / $1.74 million
The Community Builders Inc. / Matthews Memorial Terrace / 2636-2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE / $2.5 million
William C. Smith & Co. / Park Vista Apartments / 3400-3520 13th St. SE / $1.6 million
NHT/Enterprise Preservation Corp St. Dennis Apartments / 1636 Kenyon St. NW / $3.5 million
So Others Might Eat Inc. / Mellon Street / 523-525 Mellon St. SE / $2.7 million
So Others Might Eat Inc. / Naylor Road / 2765 Naylor Road, SE / $2.4 million
Mission First Development/Henson Development Co. / The SeVerna / 1015 1st St NW / $995,000
VIDA Senior Centers/Dante Partners LLC / The VIDA Senior Residences at Brightwood / 1330 Missouri Ave. NW / $796,000
AF Development LLC / Vision of Anacostia Living Apartments / 1406 22nd St. SE / $550,000
Somerset Development Co./THC Affordable Housing Inc. / Webster Gardens / 124, 126, 128, 130 Webster St NW / $625,000
Thanks Scott, very useful info. Yes, the neighborhood is not happy with the LAYC plans, more than anything because it was not consulted. You can read more about that in other postings on this blog.
Since we are on a roll … the Thursday, July 2, 2009, Washington Post District Extra listed the DC Council agenda.
There is an item of potential interest on the agenda to Bates area residents, which I have copied in below.
This joint public roundtable agenda from yesterday included a resolution regarding the disposition of New Communities Northwest One site #2 (not sure what constitutes site #2).
So the New Communities Initiative south of the Bates area – and the new Northwest One community project –- are moving along.
D.C. Council Agenda
Thursday, July 2, 2009
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070101407.html}
This is the meeting schedule for the D.C. Council and its committees for the coming week. All meetings are in the Council Chamber of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, unless otherwise noted.
Today, 7/2/2009
Economic Development and Government Operations and the Environment joint public roundtable, 10 a.m. Agenda:
— New Communities Northwest One, Site 2 Disposition Approval Resolution of 2009, PR 18-0323. The resolution would approve the disposition by the mayor of District-owned property as part of the Northwest One New Communities Initiative.