Though the RFP submitted by Mt. Lebanon, Urban Developers should be a public record available through the D.C. Website, the document is not available. I have made a request from the Deputy Mayor’s Office to receive a copy of this record under the Freedom of Information Act as well as from Urban Developers.
I was able to obtain from another source the Term Sheet for the development. As you may see, if this Term Sheet is correct, the city is practically giving the building away for free. For this incredible deal, the developer agrees to make 80% of all apartments as affordable housing (80% of Annual Medium Income or below). The budget will require Council Approval.
Geovani Bonilla
Bates Area Civic Association 
Thanks for digging this up!
WOW! With the budget shortfalls in this city. I hope they dont just give this property away.
Thanks for sharing this info.
What did the community learn from the JF Cook School project? With that proposal, the 20 affordable units translated into 20 Section 8 housing units.
Does the affordable housing with this M M Washington project translate into Section 8 housing? Will residents who want to live in the M M Washington affordable housing units be required to present Section 8 vouchers to live there?
I do not disparage Section 8 housing or Section 8 participants. There is a huge backlog of Section 8 housing in the District of Columbia. So please do not take my comments to indicate that I wish to chase off Section 8 housing projects in our community. Section 8 residents are welcome in the neighborhood.
I just want the development team to be honest about what the real deal is with the project.
We learned from the JF Cook School project that the 20 units of affordable housing proposed for the upper floors of the school building would indeed all Section 8. The community did not learn that the housing component of the project was Section 8 until / the / hearing!
So if the affordable housing with this project is indeed Section 8 housing, I hope that the development team is honest about it up front and says so.
I have been in contact with developers over some questions I had. Below is what i was able to find out about age restrictions and Section 8. My concern is that you only need one occupant that is 55 or older. There is no restrictions on the age of other occupants. In essence you could have a building that is half grandparents and half grandchildren. I realize that is a stretch, but not exactly an elderly community.
From: A. D. Min [mailto:admin@urbanmatters.us.com]
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 10:20 PM
Our category of age-restricted housing requires, by Federal regulation, that at least 80 percent of the occupied units must be occupied by at least
one person 55 years of age or older per unit. Our plan, however, is to apply the standard to all the units. Federal regulations require rigorous documentation and record-keeping of residents’ ages in order to maintain 55+ status. Also, there is staff on site every day and since the project will have less than 100 units, staff quickly will get to know people who have a legal right to live in the building, and they will recognize people who are in the building too regularly to be visiting.
In regard to Section 8 vouchers, we do not plan to apply for project-based vouchers. However, by District law we cannot discriminate against a person who has a personal Section 8 voucher or other form of assistance. If they otherwise qualify, we would rent them a unit.