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D.C. May Cut Ties With 2 Nonprofits Over Troubled SE Housing Projects
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Linda Jackson, East of the River's executive director, said that Fairlawn Estates' future remains uncertain because her organization has run out of funds for the $8.9 million project. "We are working with our private lenders, and we do expect to resume construction and complete the project," she said.
"I don't think East of the River should be judged on this one project," she said. "This is not the norm for East of the River. We have been very successful in our other endeavors."
But Fairlawn's delays have exhausted prospective buyers' patience. A group of 10 has hired a lawyer, Ken Loewinger, who said he is preparing to sue East of the River for breach of contract. Two of the 21 homes have been sold, and one is occupied.
Melvin Hines, 36, said he paid $7,500 in deposits for a three-bedroom house at Fairlawn and rented out his home in Columbia Heights because he expected to move. "It's extremely frustrating," he said.
Another buyer, Sharon Justice, a Navy civilian employee now in the Persian Gulf, lived in her $342,000 house for nine months before moving because "they were boarding up all the other houses," Loewinger said. "She didn't feel safe."
The District's Department of Housing and Community Development oversees the development groups and conducts annual reviews of the agency's grants.
In an interview, Albert said that community development organizations "in many cases" had done "great work" in communities where the private sector had demonstrated little interest.
"But today, the market dynamics are totally different than they were 10, 20 years ago, and the private sector has shown a willingness to go to work in virtually every neighborhood in the city," he said.
In January, the Fenty administration withdrew AEDC's right to develop a property at 1900 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE. The District had given AEDC the rights a decade ago, and officials grew frustrated that the land was undeveloped during the real estate boom.
The Fenty administration also was unhappy that AEDC hadn't found a private tenant for Anacostia Gateway, an office building in which the organization and the District are partners. The NAACP was to lease space but then pulled out. The District is moving its housing agency to the building.
AEDC was unable to lease the space, Hopkins said, because corporations are reluctant to move to a neighborhood with minimal retail offerings and sit-down restaurants.
"It doesn't happen overnight," he said. "There may have been a real estate boom in downtown D.C., but you have to show how there has been one in Anacostia."
