The Bruxton. Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes

“I’m honored to have all these important people as the first guests on my balcony.”

On a chilly fall day, Marilyn Phillips stood behind her new condo in Anacostia as Mayor Vince Gray, Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry and representatives from developer Manna looked on. She’s a future tenant of The Buxton, a $3.3 million, 24-unit affordable housing building renovated by Manna with money from the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development.

Before. Via Manna.

Much praising of the Lord was done, as Manna is led by the Christian reverend, Jim Dickerson. “Your land shall no longer be called desolate,” Dickerson said, quoting the Bible. “There’s a lot of rejoicing today.”

But Dickerson also thanked Gray for returning the blighted building to Manna’s control four years ago — “somehow it got taken away” — so they could complete the project. “I said, ‘Mayor, I’m getting in the car with you, and you’re gonna have to arrest me until you give this building back to us!'” Dickerson told the crowd gathered for the opening. Gray complied, no arrest necessary. “This man is responsible for this,” Dickerson said of Gray.

“Without the D.C. government, I probably could not have been able to purchase here,” Phillips said.

Here’s how that will work: The units are set aside for people making between 30 and 80 percent of the Area Median Income. A forgivable loan from DHCD with a promise to stay for at least 15 years knocks thousands off the price. Eighty percent of the units are already spoken for, according to Manna.

“We is a city that is now in big demand. And because we are in big demand, we have to work extra hard to make sure it continues to be a place where people can afford to live,” Gray said, highlighting the Anacostia Library and impending Skyland development. “This is becoming an increasingly desirable place.”

The city is undeniably under an affordable housing crunch, with D.C. on track to preserve or building 12,000 affordable units by 2020, according to Gray. But the placement of these units primarily east of the Anacostia River has been called into question.

Inside a Buxton unit. Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.