Reply to Van Ness Public Housing

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Van Ness Public Housing"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm late to this thread, but just wanted to chime in and say that I'm among the people who have fled Van Ness due to voucher tenants. Specifically, I lived in one of the large rent-controlled apartment buildings on upper Connecticut. I moved to DC to attend grad school, and I was attracted to the area because it seemed pleasant enough, had good Metro access, and was relatively affordable for someone on a lower income, like me. What ensued was the most stressful living experience of my life. People smoking weed in the hallways. Constant police activity. The guy down the hall from me had a lengthy criminal record (including carjackings and robberies). The guy above me would smoke weed and blare rap with his window open in the middle of the night. (I'm sure he was gainfully employed, with a sleep schedule like that.) Trashy parents screaming at their 6 kids with their windows open. Stabbings and assaults inside the building. Trash/litter everywhere. Roaches coming from nearby filthy units. Ugh, it was awful.

Another commenter pointed out that your experience in these buildings can vary depending on your proximity to voucher tenants. I found that to be true. My hallway was actually mostly fine--the neighbors were a mix of elderly people, students, and other hard-working lower/middle-income folks (the people hit hardest by idiotic DC housing policies). It was the wider environment of the building that was hell. I never knew what kind of bullshit I'd encounter in the lobby or outside of the building. The constant scent of weed coming from neighboring units, as well as occasional auditory pollution (screaming, rap music, etc) were the biggest problems I dealt with in my own unit.

It was also sad to see voucher tenants terrorize the Giant and the CVS by the Metro stop.

When I realized that it would be hard to escape voucher tenants without significantly increasing my rent, I just left DC. I now live in NoVa, where I am happy to say I live the quiet, peaceful, crime-free life that I'd imagine Van Ness used to offer.

It's sad, because I actually really like Van Ness as a neighborhood. I liked the community of businesses in the area (Bread Furst, Sfoglina, Politics & Prose, etc) and found the environment to be charming. I wish I could have experienced it 10-15 years ago. [/quote]

Nothing has really changed, except now there is a “legal” marijuana dispensary on site to service this growing client base.  Honestly most of us have given up on Matt Frumin who seems most interested in renaming parks and bridges.  Sadly, our last hope is Eagle Ed and Trump to somehow help us.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics