A June 21 article and photo caption incorrectly referred to the D.C. housing development of Wheeler Creek as being in Anacostia. The development is east of the Anacostia River but is not in the Anacostia neighborhood. The story also referred to a shooting as drug-related. The victim of the shooting says she does not know the nature of the dispute.
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Door May Close on Housing Program
Wheeler Creek looms above Mississippi Avenue SE. The formerly blighted area was once considered a symbol of public housing failure.
(Photos By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
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Once potential home buyers qualified, Wheeler Creek and the housing authority set the terms for entry. Some have been offered a lease-to-purchase program, where ownership comes gradually. Most are given what Kelly calls a "soft second" mortgage. Buyers would take out a commercial mortgage of about $45,000 on a home worth $115,000, with the housing authority paying the difference. That second mortgage will be completely forgiven if buyers stay put for 20 years. Selling earlier would leave them responsible for some or all of the "soft second," depending on how quickly they sell.
To discourage refinancing, especially cash-out refinancings that would only increase homeowner debt loads, any refinancing means assuming the whole cost of the home. And Wheeler Creek caseworkers stay vigilant long after a home purchase.
"With homeownership, people can transform their community if they have the support they need," Swann said. "It will just be another failure without it."
Not all homeownership projects have taken the cradle-to-grave approach. The immaculate-but-nondescript brick townhouses of Frontiers Condominiums at 14th and S streets NW were built in 1974 as public housing destined for homeownership. But because of mismanagement, indecision, and some even say theft, it took a quarter of a century for the D.C. Housing Authority to make good on that promise.
Still, without anything like the infrastructure of Wheeler Creek, Frontiers has managed to sell each of its 53 units, the last one this year. Housing authority officials made home visits to check on housekeeping abilities, credit histories and income streams. A nonprofit organization, Manna Inc., was brought on to teach homeownership skills such as maintaining credit as well as gutters. But the cost has been minimal.
What Frontiers had that Wheeler Creek didn't was the neighborhood -- rapidly gentrifying 14th Street. Drug dealers once conducted hostile takeovers off Frontiers' front stoops, and prostitutes turned tricks in the courtyard, recalled John Olden Sr., 77, one of the complex's original residents.
"Now, its gotten so much better," said Elgin Speight, 70, another original resident. "Everybody wants to live on this side of town, everybody."
Frontiers' residents who once watched out for stray bullets now look out on the upscale Garden District greenhouse, Sparky's Espresso Cafe, and Dogs by Day, a pet day-care center. Because decades of rent checks sent to the city that were supposed to go toward a down payment simply disappeared, Olden was awarded his home in 1999 for $500, plus condo fees, free and clear. He recently had his house appraised for a half-million dollars.
"We knew people were watching us, saying, 'Oh, Lord, that eyesore's going to be with us forever," said Delores Rogers, a Frontiers resident and president of its condo association. "That just made us want to prove them wrong."
Wheeler Creek's problems are just the opposite, staving off criminal elements on its borders.
"If the city doesn't do anything to improve the surrounding environment, some of the undesirable things will creep back in," said Jones, the defense contractor consultant, who delivered a strong warning: "Now you've plopped this jewel into an economically depressed area, what is your next move? You can't hope that everything good in Wheeler Creek is just going to span out into the area. It just won't happen."
That fear does not seem to dampen the pride of ownership at Wheeler Creek or Frontiers. Olden recounted a recent encounter he had with a neighbor, strolling down his block of Riggs Street with his young son. The man had been bragging about the lovely rowhouses on one end when he came to the more utilitarian townhouses of Frontiers. These, he told his son, were owned by the D.C. government and rented out to poor people with something called Section 8 vouchers.
"I heard that and I said, 'Excuse my French, but that's a damned lie,' " Olden harrumphed, still indignant. "These houses are all owned, and owned by us. Don't put us down like we're nothing up here. We're not nothing. This is ours."
