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A Fresh Start in Southeast D.C.

Charlene Haskins has witnessed many changes in her Southeast Washington neighborhood since July 1977, when she left her family's residence on 37th Place and moved to her first apartment as an young adult -- a one-bedroom unit at Greenway Apartments off Minnesota Avenue.

"Twenty years ago it was really nice here. Everyone was friendly and I knew everybody in my apartment building and in the building across from me," said Haskins, 40, who works for a nonprofit group in the District. "A lot of tenants moved out over the years, so I don't see as many tenants I know."

Still, Haskins is hopeful about the effect of recent changes at Greenway Apartments, which last week was renamed Meadow Green Courts by joint-venture partners conducting an $18.5 million redevelopment of the project. One of 240 tenants who moved as many as to five times to temporary units during the renovation, Haskins is excited about her move in October to a refurbished one-bedroom unit she will share with her 14-year-old daughter, Tiandra.

"I'm looking forward to moving to my own apartment," which she said will have new appliances and cabinets in a larger kitchen, wall-to-wall carpeting and window air conditioners. "I plan to get a new dinette set but I don't need [to buy] anything else."

Other tenants are as eager to move into the updated apartments as they are about not having to leave their neighborhood.

"The new apartments are very nice," said Wilma Swinson, 68, a retired beautician who has rented a one-bedroom unit at Greenway Apartments since the fall of 1972. Last week Swinson was thrilled to attend a ribbon-cutting attended by D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and tour the new units.

"They've worked wonders," she said. "I can't wait to move in."

Deborah Lane, 41, a hospital housekeeper, said she will move into a three-bedroom unit with her husband, Lawrence Lane, 42, a custodial service worker. "We go by the renovation site every day to see how far [work has progressed]," she said. "We're both excited.

"The property managers keep saying we'll move in two weeks, so we haven't unpacked everything," said Lane, who has lived in a temporary unit for four months. "I hope it will be soon because I'm ready."

James Moore, 61, a retired government worker who shares a two-bedroom unit with his brother, John Moore, 59, a parking garage attendant, said, "I love the location and I love this place. They've done what they said they would."

One of 85 rental properties built by Morris Cafritz from 1925 to 1941, Greenway Apartments originally comprised 72 three-story buildings on A and B streets between 34th Street and Anacostia Road. Built in 1940-41 to house some of Washington's wartime workers, it contained 870 apartments, 70 percent of which were one-bedroom units.

The Cafritz family maintained the property long after Morris Cafritz died in 1964 and even as the Southeast sector succumbed to the effects of drug traffic, crime and urban flight, tenants said. However, when Morris's widow, Gwendolyn Cafritz, died in 1988, the couple's heirs fell into prolonged litigation over the fate of the Greenway Apartments and other family assets. By 1990 the property began to suffer the scourge of spotty repairs, growing vacancies, empty buildings and diminishing value.

Finally, in April 1996, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation secured control of Greenway Apartments and persuaded Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, a nonprofit group, and Edmundson & Gallagher, a McLean apartment operator, to redevelop the site. By this time, the property was worth $3 million, a $5 million decline in eight years, said Washington attorney John Barron, general counsel for the foundation.

In the redevelopment, 17 buildings were demolished and numerous individual apartments enlarged, said Michael Crescenzo, vice president for housing at the Marshall Heights group. To do this work, the longtime Southeast group received substantial financial assistance from the Cafritz Foundation and sold $8.1 million worth of low-income rental housing tax credits. However, it did not require the use of direct federal or local rental subsidies to redevelop Greenway Apartments, he said.

The number of apartments in the community has been scaled back to 469, but 66 percent will be two-bedroom units to reflect current space needs of families, Crescenzo said. Likewise, rents, which declined sharply in Southeast Washington over the last five years, have been set at rates meant to attract residents from nearby properties, from $465 to $790 a month depending on the size of the unit.

"These are very affordable market-rate rents, which reflect a soft market in Ward 7," said Crescenzo, who expects 139 units in 16 buildings will be occupied by year-end.

"One of my worries is how much curb appeal the units have due to [our] limited rehab budget," he said. "However, when completed, this property will once again be the south anchor of the Minnesota Avenue commercial corridor."

To limit displacement, Greenway residents were given a one-time sum of $750 to remain at the property amid the renovation and relocated at developer expense. And to keep rents affordable for Meadow Green's first tenants, property managers will increase rents by just $20 a month in the first year of residency, $30 in the second year and $45 in the third year.

These rent caps apply even if a tenant moves to a larger unit. Thus, the Lanes, who will move from a one-bedroom apartment at Greenway to a renovated three-bedroom unit at Meadow Green, expect their $519 monthly rent will increase by only $20 a month in the first year of occupancy.

"It's a good deal," said Lawrence Lane, a tenant for seven years. "Besides, we need the extra room for visiting relatives."

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

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