Contacts:
Neil Seldman, 202-898-1610,
Jim Kane, 703-769-5542

DREAM HOUSE, DREAM TEAM MARK PROGRESS
IN NORTHEAST COMMUNITIES

In Northeast Washington, dreams are coming true.

An innovative program, launched in 1998 by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and its working partners, the Carver Terrace Community Development Corporation (CTCDC) and Sustainable Community Initiatives (SCI), is creating jobs, businesses, and home ownership opportunities for low-income residents of D.C.’s Ward 5.

"Two years ago, we all were just trying to keep these neighborhoods from being overrun by trash," says Neil Seldman, ILSR President. "Today, there are new jobs, new businesses, renovated homes. The momentum and energy in [Carver Terrace, Ivy City, Langston, Trinidad] are palpable. And it’s paying off."\

In 1998, Ward 5, which includes the National Arboretum and the historic Langston Golf Course, was embroiled in a battle to clean up or close down trash transfer stations located just yards from homes and businesses. "It wasn’t just the smell," said one resident. "It was the drainage leaking into the streets, the rodents, the trucks rolling in and out of the station at 4:00 a.m. These roads weren’t built to accommodate that kind of traffic. It was literally cracking the foundations of the houses." Residents say that what once was a middle-class neighborhood quickly went downhill. Businesses fled, and many residents followed, leaving abandoned houses to be overtaken by drug dealers and gangs. After almost twelve months of meetings and hearings, private waste haulers were forced to clean up the existing transfer station, and the City Council passed stricter regulations governing the siting and operation of all private waste facilities in the District.

Community residents then asked ILSR to help them address other issues in the Ward ? high eviction and low home ownership rates, a lack of training and employment opportunities, the need for new businesses. ILSR, the Carver Terrace CDC, and the D.C. Sustainable Community Initiatives created a program to help residents reclaim their neighborhood. Today, the results are changing the climate in Ward 5.

SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
The Ivy City-Trinidad Dream Team Deconstruction Cooperative is one of the Ward’s newest businesses. This deconstruction enterprise systematically disassembles residential and commercial buildings targeted for demolition, recovering valuable building materials for reuse and resale. The Team’s six men and two women got hands-on deconstruction training through a project funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Our goal was to train local residents so that some of them might take a stab at running a business that will be in increasing demand in the next few years, as basic natural resources such as wood, metal, and the energy to bake masonry become more precious.

Since, in some respects, deconstruction is ‘reverse construction,’ the training they received also helped prepare them for high-wage jobs in the construction industry," says Jim Schulman, Executive Director of SCI. Between November and January, the worker-trainees deconstructed three abandoned public housing units donated to the project by the D.C. Housing Authority, and six private homes in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

"We got about $1,000 for the recovered materials just from the public housing alone," says Dream Team President Thomas Wicks. "We could have split the money and moved on, but we wanted something longterm. We were - we are - willing to work hard. This is like investing in ourselves, investing in our neighborhood. We’re making our own chances."

The Dream Team recently entered into an agreement to assist local developer Charles E. Smith Residential Realty in deconstructing one of its apartment developments in northwest D.C. The Team is responsible for deconstructing an existing building on the site. Jim Kane, Project Manager for Smith, says that the company is extremely pleased to be a part of the project. "Working together reduces the environmental impact of the project [by recycling waste], and gives Smith a chance to help this new company establish itself in D.C."

HOME OWNERSHIP
Denise Alston, a working mother of two, is realizing another dream. On May 12, Denise became the owner of a newly renovated home in Ward 5. Under an ILSR program, the National Association of Concerned Veterans trained five area residents in housing rehabilitation while renovating the property to Alston’s specifications. "The difference is amazing," says Alston, a longtime resident of Carver Terrace. "It’s a whole new house."

"We added new rooms, more facilities, central air, appliances," says Seldman. "There are so many abandoned homes in these neighborhoods - many of them are city-owned. They just need modifications, renovations to accommodate families."

The housing renovation was the first product of what ILSR hopes will be a series of local housing renovation projects. "We were fortunate that some foundations and private lenders really understood this project, saw the potential of the neighborhood and the citizens," said Seldman.

"It’s one thing to renovate a building, even a block. But this project is creating jobs - good, permanent, high-wage jobs. It’s giving Ward 5 residents a chance to become business owners, homeowners. It’s changing lives."

Mark Patrick Phillips, Executive Director of the Carver Terrace CDC, says they hope to replicate the project in Ivy City, Langston, and Trinidad. "Twenty-five families have approached us, asking if we can renovate homes for them. There’s no lack of interest, no lack of need."

ILSR and the CDC have purchased some properties through the City’s tax lien auction, and are hoping that the City will donate some abandoned properties that have gone into receivership. "If we have the buildings," says Phillips, "we could renovate three houses a month. That’s a lot of homes, a lot of jobs."