WINNER OF THREE SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS
Malaika Wins World Literacy Award Page 39 Vol. 56, No. 48 • September 9 - 15, 2021
Mendelson and Bowser Clash over STAY DC Program James Wright WI Staff Writer D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson recently voiced concern about STAY DC’s sluggish pace on distributing funds to needy tenants who face eviction but a key Bowser administration official says the program has worked well. “STAY DC needs to move more quickly,” Mendelson told the Informer on Sept. 10. “We have had a number of residents who are at risk of being evicted and writs to that effect have been issued. We need to get money immediately out of the door.” STAY DC serves as a financial assistance program for District renters and
housing providers who need help to cover housing and utility expenses and offset the loss of income due to the coronavirus pandemic. Federal funds largely fuel the $352 million program. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public health emergency in the District in March 2020 because of the coronavirus. The emergency made it illegal for tenants to be evicted because of non-payment of rent. The mayor lifted the emergency in July, thereby setting up a timetable for landlords to go to D.C. Superior Court to file eviction notices. The D.C. Council intervened in July, setting up a process for landlords to evict
EVICTIONS Page 38
Sixth-Grade Class Quarantines Lead Johnson Middle School Parents to Seek Help Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer Less than a month after students re- 5 Johnson Middle School in Southeast. turned to the classroom, D.C. Public (WI File Photo/Ja’Mon Jackson) School [DCPS]’s COVID-19 preparagrade -- nearly 130 students and teachers -- is tion and protocols are being tested. With more than 100 cases reported under quarantine, parents continue to raise systemwide, and nearly 850 DCPS stu- concerns about incomplete learning spaces dents in quarantine, attention has piv- and the difficulties that teachers face in adhering to social distancing guidelines. oted to on-the-ground conditions. While the Panther Guardians Parent At John Hayden Johnson Middle School, where 80 percent of the sixth COVID EXPLOSION Page 44
5 The District of Columbia is expected to resume evictions this week and has made a push to help residents in need with the STAY DC program. (DR Barnes/The Washington Informer)
Longtime Black Homeowners Feel Pressured to Sell Houses Kimberly Cataudella Special to the Washington Informer Lovell Walls is a third-generation Washingtonian. His maternal grandparents, Ada and John Wesley Bailey, bought an 18-year-old house on what is now Grant Street NE in 1939. They bought four plots of land at $10 each, public records show, and probably spent a few thousand dollars on the house, Walls said. Today, Walls calls this house in Ward 7 his home. Its value is assessed by the District at more than $430,000. Real estate site RedFin estimates its worth at close to $500,000. The District is experiencing the hottest housing market in
OUR HOUSE Page 37
5 Lovell Walls, a Ward 7 resident has been bombarded with requests to purchase his house. (Shevry Lassiter/The Washington Informer)
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