On May 9th, Connecticut Avenue tenant leaders wrote to Mayor Muriel Bowser to request a meeting on DC housing policies and the effects on living conditions in their apartment buildings. On June 8th, they got their wish. During their meeting with the mayor, representatives from buildings including 3003 Van Ness, the Avalon, Connecticut House, Brandywine […]
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3003 Van Ness landlord Equity Residential ordered to pay $2 million for “rent hike scam”
Van Ness landlord Equity Residential has been ordered to pay $2 million to the District and to residents of 3003 Van Ness for what Attorney General Karl Racine calls a “rent hike scam.” “[A]t every step in the rental process, from online advertisements to apartment searches, tours, and applications, Equity misled prospective tenants, ultimately placing […]
At Feb. 1 virtual meeting, MPD 2D commander and DC behavioral health agency officials to speak on “uptick of complaints” in apartment buildings
Officers from Metropolitan Police Department’s Second District and representatives of DC’s behavioral health agency will appear on a virtual panel this Tuesday. 2D CAC Chair Sarah Bever wrote in the meeting announcement (below): During the last few years 2D has experienced an uptick of complaints about behavioral health issues in public spaces and apartment buildings…. […]
Upcoming events: Housing history in Cleveland Park, future development in Chevy Chase, and adding housing to your own property
Thursday, January 20th at 7:30 p.m.: The first in a series of virtual conversations hosted by Cleveland Park Smart Growth on the neighborhood’s housing affordability challenges and potential solutions. It focuses on Cleveland Park’s history of exclusion and how current civic engagement practices can perpetuate exclusion in high-income neighborhoods. See the schedule for the other […]
Take a walk with DC planners on Dec. 8 or 11 to provide feedback on the Chevy Chase “small area plan”
by Marlene Berlin The commercial area of Chevy Chase, DC was built for convenient shopping a short walk away from the neighborhood’s many single family homes, and the multi-family buildings down Connecticut Avenue. And this worked for many decades. Demographic and retail changes over the decades have chipped away at that customer base – and […]
Chevy Chase DC shaping its future with Small Area Plan; Watch webinars on Ward 3 affordable housing tools and history of city planning
by Marlene Berlin From 2014 to 2016, the DC Office of Planning worked with residents, UDC, and community and business leaders in Van Ness to come up with a framework for development, commerce and sustainability. Chevy Chase is going through a similar process now. Community members are being asked to engage in shaping priorities for […]
Help us count the backyard and basement apartments in Ward 3
To spare you the long introduction: We are doing a survey! Do you have an ADU? In the process of adding one? We’re trying to get a count of how many ADUs exist or will soon in Ward 3. You’ll find the survey here and below. Accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, seem to be having […]
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Affordable housing in Ward 3: How do we get there from here? Our q&a with ANC 3F commissioner David Cristeal
Get ready to hear more about housing affordability in Ward 3 in the coming years. That’s in part because of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s 2019 Housing Initiative, which set a goal of building 12,000 units of affordable housing in the District by 2025, and nearly 2,000 of them in the “Rock Creek West” planning area, which […]
Upcoming panels: Housing homeless families and the “invisible walls” around Ward 3
We want to bring your attention to a couple of upcoming panels on housing availability and affordability. At noon on Thursday, October 8th, Friendship Place is partnering with NYU to present a virtual panel on housing solutions for families facing with homelessness. With public radio host Ray Suarez moderating: Panelists will discuss the journey a […]
Wanted: A housing policy that centers racial equity (Opinion)
by Kesh Ladduwahetty Ward 3 has come under particular scrutiny recently for its egregious lack of affordable housing, as well it should. But the Mayor’s proposal to address the issue, which the DC Council has very slightly modified, has carefully avoided the 800-pound gorilla: racism. In failing to define the actual problem, they have failed […]