Three Times Pushed Around by HOPE VI

Resident voices:

"Three Times Pushed Around by HOPE VI"
- by a resident of Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg

In 1989 I was renting from a friend, but the friend got married and gave me three weeks notice to leave. I didn't want to go back to my parent's home so I stayed at a shelter. My husband was working for an armored car company and I was on compensation from a work injury. We stayed at the shelter from September to November. They moved me to another place. I stayed there until December 1990, but then they closed down that place. That's when they decided for HOPE VI to renovate it. I didn't know what HOPE VI was, they just told everybody to move out. I was one of the last to leave because I was in the building with the crack house. I kept asking them to move me but in order to get a place, they said me and my daughter could live together but they said I had to "get rid of my husband." He was the one with the income.

I called a lot and once reached someone in the handicap division of housing incidentally, he told me to mention him when I talked to the housing people. I think I got the house because they thought I was the friend of the man. They told me the place was all full and stuff until I got the name of this man. It was so frustrating. I moved to still another place and by this time my disabilities payment stopped. My husband was still working though. In 1993 we separated and I applied for public assistance. It took about two months to get my heart up just to apply. I tried to keep the rental office informed but the resident manager said if I had no income I didn't have to pay rent. This went on for seven or eight months before I got a notice saying I owed them $7000.

We went to court. By this time I was on public assistance and had some money saved up. Housing [DC Housing Authority] said that I could just give them all of the money I had, but the judge said that they had to decide on my rent. The judge finally ruled that I had to pay my rent in September of 1994. I started paying regular rent, which was $ 54 a month (not including utility). When I moved over to Arthur Capper the Housing Authority was still saying I owed them $ 250. I paid them $ 25 a month extra.

I've been here ever since and now they're starting with this relocation stuff. I'm tired of moving. When they moved us from that other new place, my utilities were on and off because people were stealing the pipes in the abandoned units around me. The house above me leaked so much that I would come home and my carpet would be floating. They tried to force me into even another place, but I refused because those places were in bad shape. Since I refused, they would cut my heat and water off. People would have to heat their houses with their ovens. We didn't want a palace, just a decent place to live. I want to move up in the world; I don't want to be moved down.

I was helping a bunch of neighbors so they had to find a place where we could all live. They eventually moved us to get us away. It's not a new thing for me to look out for other people. After I moved to Arthur Capper I got a letter about the HOPE VI renovations at another housing development.

I went to the meetings faithfully, until I made the mistake of voicing about how I could use the trainings they offered. After that I never heard from the other place again. I didn't hear anything about that place, I wasn't included. The next time I heard about it was when there was a story on the news about people moving back into it. I asked why I hadn't been told about this and they said that they couldn't find me, even though they moved me here.

My son was locked up in the past. I was told that I had to take him off of my paperwork so I did. Then when he was released I couldn't put him back on my lease. I think the criminal background checks HOPE VI requires to re-enter is like double jeopardy – if I served my time I should be okay. And about the credit checks, everyone somewhere down the line has some old phone bill or an unpaid ticket. Now I can't get a place because I'm a lousy driver. I'm not going to drive in the house! As long as I keep my record straight with housing I should be cool. My husband and I paid off our phone bills in 1982. Then 16 years later we get a call about not paying that bill, and I don't keep checks from that long ago. This will be my third time being pushed around because of HOPE VI. My greatest dream is to get the heck out of public housing. I've yet to see the greener side of these renovations. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I have to leave; I'm waiting to see what they offer me. I refuse to go down on the ladder.

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