Tent City DC at Parcel 42 (photo: Reed)
Have you heard of Tent City in DC? I hadn’t until a week ago Thursday when I went to an event for Bread for the City on 7th Street and then walked a few blocks with Karen, a YoG follower, to see what was going on there.
Tent City DC was founded on July 10th, 2010 when members from a variety of community groups including ONE DC came together to bring attention to the lack of affordable housing in the District. Long time residents are finding it nearly impossible to pay their rent much less achieve home ownership. Here is a news clip that aired on ABC Channel 7 on their first day.
Some of the community member's tents (photo: Reed)
Tent City DC is located at 7th and R Streets on a piece of land known as Parcel 42. You can find information about Parcel 42 here. The short story according to ONE DC’s website is that their organization had a meeting with then Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and reached an agreement that Parcel 42 would be developed into “very affordable housing.” This has not happened and in fact it is rumored that this land will now be one of the many land areas here that get turned into luxury housing. As a result of this, Tent City DC was established. An interesting side note is that I have been there several times now and see almost no involvement from ONE DC anymore. They apparently pulled most of their volunteers out of Parcel 42 after the fifth day, however, other community members have kept the protest going.
I went back to Tent City DC the next day to bring some food, water, and supplies to the residents. While I was there I met Ca’Vonn.
- Ca’Vonn said she had been there since the first day (photo: Reed)
She hopes to finish her studies at the University of the District of Columbia where she was studying journalism and music education. But all of these demands have put a tremendous amount of pressure on the 33-year-old single mom. And to make matters worse, she finds it increasingly difficult to find suitable housing for her and her kids. That is why she is voicing her opinion about the need for affordable housing in her community.
As we are talking, two teenagers enter into Tent City DC and start talking to some of the members of the tent community. All of a sudden, the one boy who was shirtless and had the number 500 tattooed across his stomach snatched a bicycle from a Tent City DC community member and rode off with it. Can you believe it?! Ca’Vonn got up and tried to calm the young lady down.
Ca'Vonn looks for some relief from the scorching sun (photo: Reed)
My time at Tent City DC is somewhat surreal. Although it’s just a small patch of land in the city, it represents so much more. Gentrification has become rampant in many parts of DC, the Shaw community included. This instance is a symbol of the systemic virus that is crippling our community. Families who have lived in this neighborhood for generations are facing the reality that they will have to abandon their grandparents’ homes and try to start over in a new place. If you want to help or learn what is going on at Tent City DC, you can check out their blog or check out the Lend a Hand page.
So what does a mother of six children do with $10 during one of the hottest summers we have had in a long time? She says she will treat her kids to an ice cream that evening!
Year of Giving 
Hi Reed,
As soon as I saw the tent pictures I was reminded about Dignity Village (http://www.dignityvillage.org/), a wonderful place here in Portland that consists of homeless people. I believe they started out with tents, but now it has become this amazing village of “mini-houses” that they built. It truly is an amazing place that I love to support with donations. Maybe the people in Tent City would be interested in finding out how Dignity Village runs; you never know…Tent City could end up being something similar! 🙂 Just a thought.
Still loving the posts!
Tiffany
We have seen tent cities in every state. Some communities arrest the homeless, although it is not illegal to be homeless.
What would happen if people shared space instead of trying to keep one house for a family? So many would lose benefits they need to survive that this probably could not work.
I’ve got mixed views on gentrification. On the one hand, it is a by-product of a capitalist society, which despite my mostly liberal leanings, I’m still quite a supporter of capitalism. Informal economic eviction definitely needs a solution, but I’m not sure that creating new low income housing on expensive land is the best solution (I stress that I am saying “I’m not sure”).
The economic eviction occurs for many reasons, but one primary reason is in localities where real estate taxes are structured to be a periodic tax based on the current net worth of the real estate. I am unaware of DC’s policies, but I’m a big fan of how Arlington county handles this problem. In Arlington, low income residents get tax relief from rising real estate values.
Another decent solution, is in countries such as Ireland, where you pay your real estate tax all at once when you purchase the house. A by-product of their laws, is you can’t redevelop the land without paying the real estate taxes again, so you cut down on the amount of wasteful destruction of perfectly livable homes.
Obviously real estate tax policy isn’t the only problem leading to economic eviction. As a neighborhood becomes gentrified, other costs rise for the residents, such as rents, food, clothing, and other household goods.
[…] I met Ca’Vonn, a struggling mother of six in DC’s Shaw neighborhood who is part of the Tent City DC community […]