Keep our community whole.
A place for our children.
Brookland Manor is a generations-old historically Black community that has long been home to many families because of its affordable 3, 4, and 5-bedroom apartments, large green areas, and beautiful community spaces. Ms. Minnie Elliott and others started the Brookland Manor/Brentwood Village Residents Association more than 20 years ago and has been serving the community ever since.
Brookland Manor is the largest remaining affordable community in DC, with 535 affordable units across 22 acres. At a time when family-sized units across DC are being eliminated and not replaced, Brookland Manor's affordable four and five bedroom units are some of the last places in the District available for large families. (More than 40,000 families are on stuck on DC Housing Authority’s voucher waitlist, even though the list was closed in 2013, because there are not nearly enough homes for families in DC.) Now, these needed family units and the entire Brookland Manor community is under attack.
The owner/developer MidCity Financial have pushed a redevelopment plan through the Zoning Commission that will tear everything down and replace it with buildings 3x as large, tripling density on site from 535 units to 1,760. (This development cannot happen in DC without the approval of the Zoning Commission, whose responsibility it is to ensure that development is publicly beneficial). Even though the planned buildings have many more units, the redevelopment plan eliminates over 100 large bedroom units and reduces the number of overall affordable units significantly, creating enormous potential for displacement. We are not opposed to redevelopment so long as the existing 535 affordable units are brought back to keep the community intact. Ms. Minnie Elliott testified to the Zoning Commission that this could be a win-win.
Failed by our leaders.
Our community was excluded from the planning process entirely, and, despite hundreds of our residents’ testimony on many occasions, we were ignored by the Zoning Commission when we repeatedly raised concerns about displacement. The Zoning Commission approved MidCity’s displacement plan, finding that the new luxury units offset the displacement of hundreds of families. Then, the DC Council and the Mayor got involved. Instead of pressuring the developer to bring back the affordable units, every single council member voted unanimously to reward the developer with $47M in taxpayer money for the project, even though this project will result in a significant net loss of affordable housing. To be clear, the District is funding displacement. Despite persistent demands from residents across our community and by our attorney, Will Merrifield, for a public hearing on the funding, every council member agreed to place the issue on the “consent agenda” to avoid public discussion.
This is how displacement happens. Our community was silenced and ignored by the owner, developer, the Zoning Commission, and every single DC Council Member. In the years since the redevelopment planning started, we have been constantly harassed by private police employed by the developer and members of our community have been evicted over meaningless infractions. To date, our Ward 5 Council Member Kenyan McDuffie has stood on the side of the developer Mid-City, and throughout our campaign has refused to acknowledge or stand with the families of Brookland Manor that have been displaced and that are at risk of displacement by this plan that discriminates against families and working class people of color. Our people deserve better. We demand that the DC Council and the Mayor meet our demands below or clawback our tax dollars. Public dollars should not fund displacement.
Our Demands
The 535 units of affordable housing must be preserved at the current bedroom sizes and current subsidy levels.
Residents must be able to remain on the property during the process of redevelopment (redevelopment in phases to prevent displacement) i.e., 'Build First' development.
Residents must have the ability to access employment opportunities through the rebuilding of their own community, of which we have a fundamental right to be a part.
The DC Government must clawback the $47M public dollars that it gave to this project unless the above demands are met.
Meet BMBVRA
Since 1998, the Brookland Manor/Brentwood Village Residents Association has organized to protect our community. Throughout the years, we have continued to be active in the fight to protect, preserve, and expand affordable housing, including for families, in our community here in Northeast Washington, DC and across the District. Our President, Ms. Minnie Elliott, is a Civil Rights activist and great grandmother who is spending her retirement fighting so future generations can stay.
