New local LGBTQ support services group debuts
D.C. Safe Haven to provide ‘harm reduction’ programs discontinued by Casa Ruby By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com
More than two dozen people turned out July 28 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the official opening of D.C. Safe Haven, an LGBTQ community services organization, including a drop-in center, located at 331 H St., N.E. Transgender rights advocate Iya Dammons, the founder and executive director of Baltimore Safe Haven, has been working for the past year to lay the groundwork and set up the infrastructure for D.C. Safe Haven, she told the Washington Blade. Dammons said she would serve as interim executive director of the D.C. Safe Haven and continue as CEO of both the Baltimore and D.C. groups after a permanent executive director is named for the D.C. Safe Haven. Among other things, D.C. Safe Haven will provide many of the important services offered by the D.C. LGBTQ community services organization Casa Ruby, with a special outreach to the transgender community, before Casa Ruby shut down all of its operations last year. “We have a computer lab, there’s a case manager, there’s a peer educator, there’s a harm reduction set up,” Dammons said in describing the services that will be offered in its second-floor space at the H Street location. “We have supplies such as Narcan,” she said, referring to the nasal spray medication used to revive someone having an opioid drug overdose. “We have condoms, safer sex kits, and you can get meals here, hot showers, and you can do laundry,” she continued. “You can also get a change of clothing.” And in what Dammons called a particularly important development, the
IYA DAMMONS is founder and executive director of Baltimore Safe Haven. (Washington Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.)
University of Maryland will operate a once-a-week clinic on Tuesdays at the D.C. Safe Haven offices to do sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment services. Dammons said another important service D.C. Safe Have plans to offer soon at a separate location will be a low barrier shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth between the ages of 18 and 24. She also has pointed out that although she has operated the Baltimore Safe Haven since 2018, she is a native Washingtonian who was born and raised and went to school in D.C. “All of my family is here,” she told the Blade. “The thing
that makes it phenomenal for me – the assets I had here in Washington, D.C. made me the woman I am today,” she said. Among those attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony, held on the sidewalk outside the D.C. Safe Haven’s entrance door was longtime D.C. transgender rights advocate Earline Budd; Japer Bowles, director of the D.C. Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; Ryan Bos, executive director of the D.C. Capital Pride Alliance; and Dominique Morgan, Director of Funds for Trans Generations, a project of the national foundation Borealis Philanthropy. Morgan told the Blade her foundation would play a role in helping to support D.C. Safe Haven financially. Others attending were members of the D.C. Safe Haven staff and board of directors. Dammons introduced and invited them to join her, along with community supporters and LGBTQ people who already have begun to receive some of its services, in a group photo during and after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “To all of you, I love you and this is just a start,” Dammons told the gathering. “I want you all to understand that Black Trans Women Matters and that our representation matters,” she said. “So, with that being said, let’s open this place up,” Dammons said. “Our team, our sisters, and everyone, I want you all standing behind me because no one is greater than you all. And I’m doing this, but I can give the scissors to everybody here because I want you all to build this with me.”
Groundbreaking ceremony launches first D.C. LGBTQ seniors home Mary’s House for Older Adults to operate group house for 15 seniors By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
velopment consulting firm that has entered a partnership D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, three members of the D.C with Mary’s House for the new LGBTQ seniors home. Council, and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes NorThe statement says the upper two floors will include the ton joined about 200 others in a groundbreaking ceremony residential units as well as a game room, an arts and crafts on Wednesday to launch construction of the city’s first home room and common areas for for LGBTQ seniors. storage, seating, and a laundry The local organization Mary’s facility. House for Older Adults, which will “The mission of Mary’s House operate the home on property it is to develop housing and incluowns at 401 Anacostia Rd., S.E. in sive environments that comprethe city’s Fort Dupont neighborhensively address affordability hood, said it will include 15 sinand access and diminishes the gle-occupancy residential units and constant worry of discriminaover 5,000 square feet of commution or even violence based nal shared living space. upon the LGBTQ/SGL status of Among those hosting the event the individual,” the statement was the Mary’s House founder, Mary’s House for Older Adults will operate the says. president, and CEO Imani Woody, home on property it owns at 401 Anacostia Rd., “Mary’s House intends to who welcomed the city officials and S.E. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key) meet the emotional, recreationthanked them, including Mayor al, social and other similar needs of older adults through Bowser, for arranging for the city to provide financial support health and wellness programming, referral of community for the project. and social based services, and education and advocacy,” acWoody told the gathering that with the support of the cording to the statement. city and private sector backers Mary’s House was “creating “We’re thrilled that this is advancing,” Mayor Bowser told a brick-and-mortar residence for 15 people who identify as the Washington Blade after she, other city officials, and supLGBTQ/SGL [Same Gender Loving] without fear of reprisal porters used shovels to ceremoniously “break ground” in a or discrimination.” She added, “They can bring their whole school yard outside Kimball Elementary School, where the selves to 401 Anacostia Road, S.E.” ceremony was held. The three-story building will include on its ground floor Organizers said the Mary’s House property, located a short level “common spaces such as a reception area, great room, distance from the school, was not large enough to accommoporch, kitchen, dining, living room, and administrative officdate the number of people that attended the groundbreakes,” according to a joint statement released by Mary’s House ing ceremony. and Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures, a D.C.-based de1 0 • WA SHIN GTO N BLADE.COM • AUGUST 04, 2 0 2 3 • LO CA L NE WS
“You heard Dr. Woody say it’s been a project that’s 10 years in the making,” Bowser said. “The District is heavily involved in this very important affordable housing for the LGBTQ community,” she said. In addition to Bowser and Norton, D.C. Council members Robert White, Anita Bonds, and Vincent Gray, who represents Ward 7 where Mary’s House is located, participated in the ceremony. Gina Merritt, the principal and founder of Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures, identifies in the joint statement the D.C. government agencies and several other companies that have become involved in helping to finance the new Mary’s House residential facility. “We are excited to build D.C.’s first affordable, communal living space for older LGBTQ/SGL individuals,” she said in the statement. “This project would not be possible without the financial and advisory support of Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, the D.C. Housing Finance Agency, Wells Fargo and its Growing Diverse Housing Developers program, Capital Impact and its Equitable Development program, National Affordable Housing Trust and its black Developer Capital Initiative, and Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women program,” Merritt states. In response to a request from the Blade, Merritt said the total development cost for the new Mary’s House LGBTQ seniors residence is $11.6 million. Woody said the construction of the new building was expected to be completed by the end of 2024. She has said the property has been a part of her life. The current smaller house on the property was her childhood home. That house will be demolished to make way for the new, larger seniors home.