The Manhattan Project
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Sculpture Garden Ice-Skating Rink Remains Closed
Good morning, D.C. There's no denying it's hot enough to cause real discomfort, but is it too hot to reasonably believe that two young girls willingly got inside the closed trunk of their father's car to play? That is one of the questions before a Massachusetts judge in the case of a D.C. man who pleaded not guilty yesterday to reckless endangerment and assault charges after police responded to a neighbor who spotted the two girls, 9 and 11, getting inside the trunk of his car in 90 degree heat. Both the father and children claim they got in the trunk because they enjoy playing with the glow-in-the-dark release latch inside. Even if that is the case, prosecutors will no doubt argue that Michael Fekete should have known better that to allow it, with the heat playing a big part in the potential danger.
Fenty Wants $117 Million for Affordable Housing: Mayor Fenty announced that he hopes to allocate $117 million every year in an effort to protect and create affordable housing in the District. The plan he presented at a Washington Interfaith Network event yesterday called for 30 percent of new housing units built on city-owned land to be set aside for low-income residents. Fenty also called for a partnership with the interfaith organization to build 5,000 affordable homes in transitional neighborhoods in D.C., such as Columbia Heights, Brightwood, Deanwood, and Bellevue.
MPD Will Soon Meet Additional 100 Hires Goal: Both Chief Cathy Lanier and D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson expressed confidence that the MPD will meet its goal of hiring 100 new officers this year, most likely by October, despite a serious attrition problem that usually leads to the loss of 20 officers per month. The D.C. Council included $7 million in the fiscal 2007 budget for 100 new officers.
Briefly Noted: Chairman of D.C. baseball PAC ordered to repay $70,000 he spent ... Increased ethanol usage could damage Chesapeake Bay ... Explosives linked to homemade fireworks seized after fire in Centreville ... Education office staff could quadruple.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we said goodbye to the old Wilson Bridge, and called Flananigans!!! on the Maryland transportation secretary.
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What that Examiner article doesn't mention is that that Massachusetts court is also charging the two girls with making an unlawful covenant with the Devil due to their sinful use of the nefariously glowing "latch release", which is likely powered by the blood of dead babies.
They do not tolerate any of that witchcraft shit up there.
That Interfaith Council is going to be the fiscal ruin of this city. Every election it parades candidates and garners ridiculous promises. $117 million a year??
Let's all hope Natwar Gandhi puts a stop to this foolishness.
Every few years, the mayor pitches another affordable housing initiative. They all pretty much look the same and every year the affordable housing stocks decreases.
That $110 mil would be better spent rehabbing the EXISTING abandoned housing stocks throughout the city and set them aside for low income families; most of the abandoned houses were either siezed by the city already or are being held by the churches. Bring on the eminent domain. Either that or use that money to help tenant associations that are trying to buy their own buildings downtown to set up co-ops to run themselves.
Makes a lot more sense than the perpetual 30 percent that developers negotiate down to 15 percent which, by groundbreaking time, gets cut to 5 percent so that they can "make the numbers work." Then the definition of "affordable housing" changes to include anyone making less than $80k a year. This is the same crap I've been hearing since 1975. Flush twice.
I'm curious as to who qualifies for "affordable housing." What's the income threshhold? As the Post's story reads, "30 percent of new housing units built on city-owned land must be affordable for low-income residents." That's great, but what about middle-income residents who aren't rich but make too much money to qualify as "low-income"? It seems as if the only people who can purchase housing in this city are the very rich and the very poor.
Either that or use that money to help tenant associations that are trying to buy their own buildings downtown to set up co-ops to run themselves.
As someone who's in the last stages of a tenant-sponsored condo conversion; let me tell you, help is desperately needed. I was lucky enough to hook up with a well-connected attorney early in the process, but not everyone who finds their building for sale has the time or resources that I had available to me.
I'm curious as to who qualifies for "affordable housing."
You would be surprised at who qualifies for housing assistance in the District. The last time I checked, I believe a single person could make as much $70K/year and still qualify for the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP).
The other variable is how much will the downtown condo market cool off? I know of at least two buildings where the owner tried for years to convert to condo and when they finally managed the conversion, nobody wanted the condos. Both had to go BACK to renting units. And there's at least one condo under construction near Chinatown where buyers forfeited their deposits rather than move in. And what's the mortgage default rate in DC anyway?
Problem is, if and when that excess condo capacity becomes available as rentals, they'll still be at inflated market rates. Is there anything the Council can do with that capacity? I don't mean revive rent control, but mandate some percentage of condos that have to go rental have to be set aside for low-mid income.
@ hillrat: This legislation is not about purchasing houses. This is about renting. HUD's guidelines are something like "equivalent to 50% of the Area Median Income" etc. etc. That is somewhere about $20K annual income for one person, $40K for a family of four.
It is a lot higher than $20K. 50% of AMI for a single person in DC is $33,000, for family of 3 it is $42,550 in 2007. Low income, which is base eligibility for a lot of programs, is defined as 80% of AMI and it is $42,000 for a single person and it is $54,000 for a family of 3 in 2007.
http://www.huduser.org/Datasets/IL/IL07/dc_fy2007.pdf
Mike - Understood. I should have been more clear that I was talking the various definitions of low or median income as they relate to different affordable housing initiatives.
Okay, so I'm not good with math, but if they're going to meet their goal of hiring 100 new officers but they're still LOSING 20 officers a month, haven't they STILL lost 140 officers to attrition by the end of the fiscal year? What's the point of hiring new officers if you can't retain the ones you have? Isn't that just more money you're spending to train new people?
Great, more religious organization-run low income housing. I'm sure they'll look to the example of Jubilee Housing which in the past has provided affordable housing, drug dens and stoops to hang out on all day in Adams Morgan. I'm happy to hear that the Mayor would like to replicate the success of The Mozart and The Ritz in the rest of Columbia Heights.
Nothing says neighborhood improvement like persistant, unameliorateable pockets of poverty and unaccountable tenants.
hillrat: Good tip on the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP), but for max assistance ($70,000 low-interest loan) a single person needs to make less than $41,300. After that its a sliding scale --- but once a single person is up to $58,800 the loan is down to $400. Info on the program can be found here: http://www.gwul.org/published/programs_and_divisions/hpap.html
The income guidelines are here:
http://www.gwul.org/published/programs_and_divisions/dat/income_guidelines_hpap.pdf
You would be surprised at who qualifies for housing assistance in the District. The last time I checked, I believe a single person could make as much $70K/year and still qualify for the
Can we work on getting the morning update up before most people have time to read all the papers?
Was a guy letting his daughters play with the release lever that bad? I mean, he was standing right there; if for some reason they couldn't get out, he'd be there to open the trunk. The car may not even have been that hot, since the story says they were pulled over a short while later, meaning the car was running or about to be run, meaning the A/C was probably keeping the trunk somewhat cooled.
The guy might deserve a "hey buddy, maybe you should be more careful with your kids" warning, but all this? Really?
HUD-set guest: Thanks for the updated figures. My understanding is that the rental assistance program uses the 50% figure, so $33,000 for singletons and $42,550 for a family of 3 would be the income ceilings. The Feds have come up with a term like "ultra-low income" or something for that income group.
The most abused word in the vocabulary of American English is "affordable.” Let's leave that tattered term to salesmen.
Affordable housing funds should be geared for the working poor, not as an incentive for yet another generation to have 3 kids by age 20 and ruin her life and her kids lives by miring themselves in decades of non-working poverty.