news

Longtime Ivy City residents saw the entrepreneurs trickle in, turning old houses into snazzy new homes, betting on the future of the District's housing boom. Then came the developers, turning buildings into condominiums.

What would be next, many people figured, was getting pushed out of their Northeast neighborhood.

Spurred by their fears, residents got together yesterday to begin shaping their future.

About 30 people -- many of them considered low-income -- gathered at Trinity Baptist Church on Central Place NE to hear three developers deliver pitches on why they should be allowed to rehabilitate 16 to 37 city-owned properties into single-family houses, condominiums or cooperatives. The meeting was held by Home Again, a city program that gives residents a say in deciding how to turn vacant city property into affordable housing.

"Let's be real. The District of Columbia is trying to get anything that's not on a yuppie scale . . . out of the District," said Chris Baker, 42, a homemaker who has lived in the neighborhood for 36 years. "The buzz started going around about the city looking at the lots. We started questioning what was going on. We spoke out. Really spoke out."

The turnaround in Ivy City -- a gritty yet tightknit neighborhood tucked behind a popular nightclub and industrial buildings on New York Avenue NE -- is already underway.

Home Again, which started four years ago, has carved affordable housing out of vacant buildings and lots the city owns.

After 150 people showed up for a meeting last summer, the city established the Ivy City Home Again Task Force. It has the most public participation in the program, said Geraldine Gardner, a project manager for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.

"We came up with what we wanted, not what they [the city or developers] wanted for us," said Audrey Ray, a member of the task force.

Developers hoping to get a crack at the available properties must meet stringent requirements designed to ensure that new housing is not just for the affluent. They were required to present plans that set aside at least one in five of the housing units for people who receive less than 30 percent of the city's annual median income. In Ivy City, that means a family of four that receives up to $26,790 would qualify.

At least 30 percent of the homes would go to residents who receive 31 to 60 percent of the median income in one option that developers were given. The city also offered to give developers $3 million to assist with the project if 40 percent of housing is set aside for residents whose income is less than 30 percent of the median and another 40 percent goes to those who receive up to half the median.AdvantEdge Development, in partnership with D.C. Habitat for Humanity, proposed building 68 units, with 36 designated affordable housing.

Three developers came up with plans that met the qualifications, but they differed greatly:

• AdvantEdge Development, in partnership with D.C. Habitat for Humanity, proposed building 68 units, with 36 designated affordable housing.

• MissionFirst Development, which also came up with a proposal with Habitat for Humanity, would build 25 units. Only five would be sold at the market price.

• Mi Casa Inc. and Manna Inc. want to build a development with 33 units, and all but three would be considered affordable. Fourteen of the units would go to residents who receive less than 30 percent of the median income.

After listening to the presentations for 90 minutes, the residents turned in surveys listing what they liked and disliked about each of the plans. Erik Johnson, director of Home Again, said the agency will read the surveys and within two weeks recommend to the mayor's office a developer to rehabilitate the properties.

Several residents said they hope to live in one of the new units.

Kevin Cunningham, 44, has lived in the neighborhood all his life. He said he would like to buy a new house if the income guidelines hold fast.

"Me and my wife, we have four kids, and we make $60,000," said Cunningham, a dispatcher for a courier service. "We're doing better than others."

Mildred Jacobs, 67, has lived in the neighborhood for three years. Her landlord sold her previous home in Northwest Washington, and she moved to Ivy City seeking more affordable housing.

"You should see it now," she said of her old house. "It's gorgeous. It looks like a fairy tale. . . . You'd never know I had lived there."

The retired custodial worker doesn't want to be forced to move again.

"There are some who have lived here 60 years," she said. "I love it here."