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A Welcome Development
Henson Ridge, which has 600 housing units, is built where the Frederick Douglass and Stanton public housing complexes stood.
(Photos By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)
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Through the job training, Thomas obtained a private contracting permit and worked a few years for the D.C. Housing Authority providing work-site security at Henson Ridge. He will now work as the DC Housing Enterprise/Henson Ridge liaison to Peaceoholics, a youth-oriented anti-violence group.
Kelly described the funds that subsidize the price of the homes low-income residents buy in a Hope VI development as a "creative blend of local and federal resources." The development was created by private developers, District agencies and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Although some community activists have decried the demolition of public housing complexes and the subsequent displacement of residents, Kelly said uninhabitable units "really don't count" as housing. Of Frederick Douglass's and Stanton's 650 units, 364 were occupied in 1998, a year before they were razed. Helping former residents become homeowners in an expensive real estate market is a way of leveling the field, Kelly said.
Linda Thomas, 46, who grew up in Stanton Dwellings later moved across the street to Frederick Douglass, where she met her husband, Harold, says she opens the blinds on every window every morning to take in the broad view of pastel-colored homes and curving sidewalks. In the distance, she can see the National Christmas Tree, which lights up the horizon at night.
"I thank God every day for this, I really do," Linda Thomas said. "Sometimes I think I'm in a dream."
Her husband admits he was once a skeptic, one of the public housing residents who, despite the bad conditions in which they lived, were "not ready for the change."
"There was resentment among the old inhabitants," he said. "People with no or little vision of what to expect have a fear of transition. But with change came opportunity."
