New to looking at Capitol Hill DCPS. Any majority high SES schools?

[Anonymous]

housing vouchers are one way to increase availablity of low income housing in an area without having to actually add new buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:here is the inside scoop for Brent.

the boundry actually includes a lot of low income housing, but the housing does not look like traditional "public housing." There is a soup kitchen just around the block from Brent and and two others within three blocks, that I know of. There is a homeless shelter and a home for battered women-- but again, they are not obvious from the outside. The neighborhood is generally appalled that it is becoming so difficult for working class people to afford to live in the neighborhood and is working very hard to ensure more low to moderate income housing stock is added to the area.

Off topic, but how do you propose adding more housing stock to the neighborhood? Are you advocating developing the Congressional parking lots?

Yeah, I was wondering this as well. How in the world is the "neighborhood" working to ensure that low income housing is added to the area? Where would this be, and how would one propose to do it? Because if the recent threads on MoTH were any indication, they would put a bulldozer to Potomac Gardens if they had their way. So I'm pretty much calling BS on this big neighborhood push to add more low income housing to the Hill.

Isn't a lot of new development like Capitol Quarter by law mixed income? There is a difference between high density low income housing like Potomac Gardens and mixed income housing that should allow for diversity without some of the pathology. So you can keep your BS.

I don't know if Capitol Quarter is mixed income or not, but when I went in the office and got a flyer it said the townhomes started in the $800Ks, so that doesn't seem to "mixed" to me. Regardless, low income housing that's there BY LAW is not exactly around because the neighborhood is so distraught about losing econonmic diversity, is it? So yeah, I'm calling BS that "the neighborhood is working hard to ensure more low to moderate income housing stock." Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Isn't a lot of new development like Capitol Quarter by law mixed income? There is a difference between high density low income housing like Potomac Gardens and mixed income housing that should allow for diversity without some of the pathology.

Not to split hairs, but south of the freeway is not "Capitol Hill," even if it has begun to offer amenities used by Hill residents. In any event, it appears EYA planned to build 120 market-rate townhomes, 91 workforce-rate townhomes, 23 Section 8 units, and 88 subsidized rental units. Setting aside the public policy debate about the Hope programs and the forced dislocation of residents, the viability of this area is kneecapped given the fact that until Van Ness is resuscitated, residents will have to accept enrolling their children to Amidon-Bowen or chance to OOB lottery for another Hill school.

[Anonymous]

Another way to look at this for the college-educated parent who's had a few courses in statistics and economic analysis: Housing prices are intimately and directly correlated with parental income. So if parental income, social/educational status is your key criteria for buying into a neighborhood, then all you need to do is look at the home prices. Taking school poverty rates as an indicator isn't getting you any closer. In fact it may just blur your analysis.

Now, all this said, I don't think your criteria is a good one given how much research shows children benefit from a culturally, racially, and also socioeconomically non-homogeneous context. If against all odds and despite of all the evidence you're looking for a socioeconomically homogeneous environment, then Capitol Hill may not be your prime location. But that digresses from your question.

[Anonymous]

What does "high SES" mean to you, OP? I know lots of folks at Brent that are college educated, but are also FARMs.

[Anonymous]

New development is mixed income "by law" only if federally funded under designated programs. That is why the Near SE towers are market rate condos and apartment, not mixed Even assuming that Congress was committed to these programs on a going forward basis, Potomac Gardens would be the only possible site for these type of low or medium income housing stock.

By the way, if someone does not like the lack of socioeconomic diversity in 20003, there are plenty of potential purchasers and renters who would gladly pay top dollar when you relocate to a more diverse neighborhood. You can probably get a pretty good deal in SW, which is ripe for gentrification with the redevelopment of the waterfront.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:housing vouchers are one way to increase availablity of low income housing in an area without having to actually add new buildings.

I doubt a Section 8 voucher goes too far on Capitol Hill. Hill East, Kingman Park or Trinadad maybe.

[Anonymous]

"I know lots of folks at Brent that are college educated, but are also FARMs"

Really? A college degree, family of 4, living on $45K?

A couple, possibly. "Lots," I really doubt it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does "high SES" mean to you, OP? I know lots of folks at Brent that are college educated, but are also FARMs.

Define "lots." Brent was 21 percent FARMS for 2011-12. So, that is about 70 students, some of whom may be siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:housing vouchers are one way to increase availablity of low income housing in an area without having to actually add new buildings.

I wouldn't hold my breath about people being able to use those in those parts of Capitol Hill that have thoroughly gentrified.

[Anonymous]

OP again, I will defiantly look at the Brent thread. Thank you for the link. People's replies have helped me to get a better sense of things. Do all public schools have a lottery? I am new to this and thought that magnet schools and charter schools had a lottery and drew from across the city but other schools did not. Concerning my comment about SWS, my thinking was that if you took a school that had tremendous neighborhood and community support sustaining it, and then opened it up to residents across the city, you would lose the strong buy-in and support from the local hill community since it would no longer be a local school. I gather from some replies, however, that it will still be a neighborhood school with boundaries to be determined. Per middle school options, I had not heard of Basis before and will look it up. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can probably get a pretty good deal in SW, which is ripe for gentrification with the redevelopment of the waterfront.

But then you wouldn't be on MoTH and then you would be angry and sad later.

[Anonymous]

As I understand it, Capitol Quarter was built using Hope VI funds which were designed to replace high density public housing (Carrollsburg and Arther Cappers) with mixed income housing, as a pp has described. This program was controversial nationwide because often the public housing residents did not get the opportunity to move back to the neighborhood they were forced to leave. However, one good thing that came out of this particular project is that the seniors who lived in Cappers were moved into a brand new building on the corner of Virginia Ave and 5th (I think it's 5th).

The successor to Hope VI is the Choice Neighborhoods Program which, I have been given to understand, is supposed to involve the public housing community more productively than did Hope VI. DC has one of nine neighborhoods that received this grant (Parkside-Kenilworth - near the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens). See links below for more info.

So yes, by law, Capitol Quarter has to have a certain amount of units available below the market rate. The likelihood of a similar project happening the Brent area is not great at the current time.

HUD info on Choice Neighborhoods Program
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/ph/cn

Announcement about Parkside-Kenilworth
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hud-awards-dc-housing-authority-a-300000-choice-neighborhoods-planning-grant-137124293.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can probably get a pretty good deal in SW, which is ripe for gentrification with the redevelopment of the waterfront.

But then you wouldn't be on MoTH and then you would be angry and sad later.

Ah, one of the many tradeoffs for the sake of diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The likelihood of a similar project happening the Brent area is not great at the current time.
/quote]

Quote of the year.