FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jenny Tang (Tenant Leader, Museum Square): (202) 271-2939
Julie Becker (Lawyer, Legal Aid): (202) 661-5946
Sam Jewler (Community Organizer): (202) 210-9362
Michael Kane (Exec. Director, Nat’l Alliance of HUD Tenants): (617) 233-1885
Norman Fong (Exec. Director, SF Chinatown Community Development Center & National CAPACD): (415) 867-4297
On Eve of Displacement Threat, Museum Square Tenants Rally and March to Declare Their Right to Stay
Hundreds turn out to support longtime African-American & Chinese immigrant residents,
Push Bush Companies, DC government & HUD to act to save 302 homes
On September 30, the evening before their site-based Section 8 contract was set to expire, hundreds of Museum Square tenants and supporters from around the country rallied to declare that the longtime Chinatown residents will not be displaced from their homes.
Approximately half of Chinatown’s remaining Chinese immigrant population lives in the 302-unit Museum Square building. The Chinese immigrant and African-American residents have been working together across language and cultural barries to save their homes.
“The most important reason I want to stay here is the community,” said Tenant Association President Vera Watson, who has lived in the building for 34 years, raising her children and grandchildren there. “The doctors, the restaurants, the stores, the churches – it’s convenient. And I have lots of memories here. I’ve seen it at its worst and I’ve seen it at its best.”
The building’s site-based Section 8 contract was set to expire on Thursday, October 1, but the tenants are receiving individual Enhanced Housing Choice Vouchers. Under HUD rules, tenants who want to use the vouchers to stay in Museum Square can do so, paying the same rent as before unless their incomes change, and the owner of the building is legally required to accept them. However, Bush Companies was refusing to accept vouchers up until September 30, causing panic throughout the building, and staff were telling families to move somewhere else.
“Just because the owner says ‘you have to move’ does not mean you have to move. Right now in my heart it means ‘work as a team and fight,’” said Jasmine Tang, a 10 year old who lives in Museum Square. “The owner does not know how many people and children he can hurt by just demolishing the building.”
“As the city experiences unprecedented economic growth, we must not turn a blind eye to those who have lived here when things were not as good,” said Andy Shallal, owner of Busboys & Poets, which hosted a rally with the Museum Square tenants at its 5th and K St NW location this summer. “This is the moment that we will be judged by. This is the moment where a community can rise to its highest ideal and pledge that displacement is not an option and look for solutions that are not only cost effective but human effective.”
“Museum Square is an important part of a great neighborhood that is only getting better, and that’s exactly why we have to keep fighting to preserve this affordable housing,” said Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, whose jurisdiction includes Museum Square, in a statement released this week. “Let’s keep working together to find ways to preserve crucial affordable housing like Museum Square so residents can continue to call this great neighborhood home.”
“The struggle of Museum Square tenants has been key for raising the issues faced by Section 8 tenants around the District. Justice First is committed to fighting for their rights, as part of a broader struggle to make sure everyone who needs housing has housing,” said Eugene Puryear, of Justice First, who helped lead a march through the neighborhood after the rally.
Despite their legal right to remain in their homes, misdirection has plagued the tenants, many of whom do not speak English. Bush Companies sent the tenants a letter in June, misleadingly stating that starting October 1, “You will be required to bear the entire cost of monthly rent.” The letter severely understated the fact that tenants are due vouchers and the vouchers can be used to stay at Museum Square at affordable rents.
Some tenants also reported hearing from DC Housing Authority (DCHA) officials that they should take their vouchers and move elsewhere, which forced DCHA staff to later come to the building to explain the tenants’ rights in full at a tenant meeting. Additionally, volunteer canvassers attempting to distribute tenants’ rights information in the building on September 19 were prevented from entering, in violation of HUD protections for tenant organizing.
The tenants’ march stopped at the old site of Temple Courts, formerly owned by Bush, which is now a parking lot, after Bush decided to opt out of Section 8 and the city government bungled its redevelopment. Many African-American families were displaced with the promise of new housing that was never rebuilt. The march also stopped at Wah Luck House, the only other affordable housing building in Chinatown, which has a Section 8 contract expiring November 30, 2015 and is also under threat of displacement..
“As a child in San Francisco’s Chinatown, my family and I were almost made homeless by an eviction,” said Rev. Norman Fong, executive director of Chinatown Community Development Center, in San Francisco, and Board Member of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, who participated in the action in solidarity with the tenants. “Chinatowns from coast to coast are under attack, and it’s vital that cities protect their vulnerable communities, like the people of DC are doing tonight.” Members of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants from all across the country from Chicago, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts also flew into DC for the rally, because of this case’s national implications.
“There are seniors that have lived here for many years, and they love their homes. If you make their home not affordable where are they going to live?” said Jessica Lin, an 11-year-old resident of Museum Square. “Also, if you were one of those people, how would you feel?”
At the rally, Legislative Director for At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds (Chair of the Housing & Community Development Committee) Barry Weise announced that their office will be introducing permanent legislation for an amendment to DC’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act to define a bona fide offer by current rather than projected value, which was one of the demands of the rally. The emergency legislation that Bonds passed in June expired in August. It was also reported at the rally that HUD is now having discussions with the City, DCHA, and the Bush Companies to come to a resolution on the matter, after the weeks of advocacy leading up to the rally.
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