Will Merrifield, most recently an attorney with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, is running in the at-large race to fill incumbent David Grosso’s soon-to-be vacant seat.

Merrifield’s bid makes him the 12th independent to declare in the race. Grosso announced last year that he wouldn’t seek reelection, opening up the most competitive contest in the 2020 local election cycle this November. Meanwhile, the Democratic at-large incumbent, Robert White, currently faces two opponents in the June primary but is widely expected to win reelection.

Forty-one-year-old Merrifield, who moved to D.C. to work at the Legal Clinic, has spent the past eight years representing tenant associations, including in Congress Heights and Brentwood. He says working with tenants in neighborhoods facing potential gentrification showed him what it will take to fight the displacement of longtime residents.

“I saw very clearly that in this process of displacement in D.C., there’s only so much you can do from the legal side of things,” says Merrifield. “These were inherently political decisions and they were being made by politicians to do the bidding of landlords.”

Washington City Paper first reported his entrance in the race.

In his campaign, Merrifield says he will argue for investing in residents and building the economy from the bottom up. He cites instability for working-class residents as the city’s biggest issue and his top priority. “If people in office were making decisions on behalf of the the communities instead of on the behalf of these developers, then I think that we could do really good things in the city,” he says. “The city would be more healthy and people would not have anxiety of being displaced.”

A 2019 study found that D.C. was the most intensely gentrified city in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013, with roughly 20,000 black residents pushed out from the District during that period. Forty-one percent of D.C. neighborhoods were considered gentrified by 2013, having seen significant investment, higher home values, and more-affluent newcomers. Once known as “Chocolate City” for its majority black population, D.C. by 2015 was no longer majority-black.

To tackle these challenges, Merrifield says, if elected, he would focus on instituting “social housing” policy. Unlike other affordable housing that requires a certain income to qualify for placement, a social housing model offers government housing to any resident—regardless of income. The goal is to meet people’s housing needs.

Merrifield adds that the District’s lack of affordable housing underlies all the big issues facing D.C. residents.

“We have one of the highest black unemployment rates in the country, we have one of the worst public school systems in the country, despite having this immense local budget,” he says. “The lack of affordable housing just exacerbates all of these things, because people working in working-class jobs, they’re just constantly scrambling to keep a roof over their head.”

The other 11 other independent candidates in the race include real estate developer Marcus Goodwin, former Grosso staffer Christina Henderson, and State Board of Education Vice President Markus Batchelor. In such a crowded field, Merrifield says his bold approach to political change sets him apart from other candidates.

“We’re going to talk about the issues in ways that other candidates won’t,” Merrifield says. “The things we are proposing actually get to the root of the issues. I don’t think anyone else is going to talk about the structural change we’re going to talk about.”

D.C.’s primary elections are scheduled for June 2, and the general election is set for November 3. In addition to the at-large race, there are council elections happening in Wards 2, 4, 7, and 8.