National Catholic Reporter, April 4th, 2019: Catholic agencies view Washington Archdiocese through people, not power
From homelessness to food insecurity to quality health care access, Catholic groups are addressing a number of pressing issues in a region that is becoming increasingly unaffordable for poorer residents.
The influx of new money and new, largely white, residents has caused some dramatic transformations in D.C. neighborhoods.
“Constant gentrification,” Bader told NCR, has made many of the newly developed areas — decked out with boutique shops, restaurants and apartment complexes — “untouchable for most people making less than $75,000 to $100,000.”
A recent study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that Washington, D.C., experienced the highest “intensity of gentrification” of any city in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013. According to the study, about 40 percent of the city’s lower-income neighborhoods experienced gentrification during that period, displacing thousands of residents with lower incomes, including 20,000 black residents.
“There is a great disparity between the haves and have-nots in this region,” said Bader. “People don’t realize the challenges of the working poor.”
The challenge of affording a stable life in the D.C. area is all the more difficult for single mothers.
“It’s very, very hard,” said Brittney Booze, a former resident of St. Ann’s and native to D.C. “I’ve experienced it; I am experiencing it, but the life skills I’ve been given through St. Ann’s definitely gives me an upper hand on controlling that situation and getting all the resources that I need.”
Booze found St. Ann’s via a Google search almost three years ago. Homeless, 23-years-old and pregnant, she knew she needed a transitional housing program to find stability for her new baby and was thankful to be accepted into St. Ann’s.
