Tensions Boil Over Affordable Housing

NE Neighbors Protest Plan to Turn Former Convent Into Large Apartment Building

St. Martin's Catholic Church is proud that for more than a century it has worked to save souls, battle crime and build up those who have the least.

So with rents and housing prices rising everywhere, church leaders thought it was only natural that they replace its aging convent, now populated by the formerly homeless, with something that many agree is a pressing need: affordable housing.

But their proposal to build a 184-unit apartment building has met stiff resistance. Neighbors closest to the project question its size, the income limits for families that would live there and whether such a project would be better someplace else.

As a result, neighborhoods including Bates, Bloomingdale and Eckington, where the new apartments are planned, are awash with charges of hypocrisy, classism and racism -- the result of a continuing rift over gentrification. It's playing out on neighborhood listservs, at civic meetings and at St. Martin's, where the pastor, the Rev. Michael Kelly, has an acerbic tongue and a chastening tone for some of his neighbors.

"The opposition is being led by new whites who think they can take control of the neighborhood," said Kelly, who is white. "It's about class and money and fear."

Opponents bristle at his characterizations. Some of those opponents are black. Some have lived in the community a few months or a few years, others for decades. All contend that no matter how long they've lived in the community, their views are relevant.

"Those who label us as anti-affordable housing are not listening to our concerns," said Joe Lilavois, a four-year District resident who lives next to the site and has organized several of his neighbors to get the plans changed. "We're anti-big, big development. This project is huge for this neighborhood."

St. Martin's, which touts its working-class roots, is near the intersection of North Capitol Street and Rhode Island Avenue, an area once filled with rooming houses that has undergone significant transformation in recent years. Housing prices have escalated, and homes in the $400,000 and $500,000 range are standard.

Some people who lived through the dark days when crack-related killings were the norm are glad to see old houses made new again and slight signs of rebirth in business corridors that had long been ceded to run-down liquor stores and carryouts.

But change has not come easily. Some such as Kelly, who has been at St. Martin's for 14 years, chafe at what they consider intolerance on the part of newer residents who complain about issues including church parking on Sundays, unsightly awnings on businesses and, most recently, "ghetto mesh" -- steel grating -- installed across a drycleaner's windows to prevent theft.

Then there's the issue of housing prices, which were viewed with glee when homes nearby were selling for higher and higher amounts and with nervousness in recent weeks and months as houses stayed on the market longer.

The developer who has partnered with St. Martin's, Neal Dobrenare, said that concern is at the root of the controversy.