Early Thursday morning there was a huge fire in Mt. Pleasant, a neighborhood in NW DC. The neighborhood is predominantly Latino, although quickly gentrifying as well. An entire apartment buidling was destroyed in this fire, which displaced around 200 people, mostly low-income Latino immigrant residents.
It's a complicated story, unsurprisingly for those who are familiar with struggles around gentrification and housing. The building was one that had been neglected for a long time, in what some would say was an attempt by the owners of the building to force out their low-income residents. Well now nature has done it instead, although the source of the fire is as of yet unclear (I smell a rat). Luckily no one was hurt.
So now we've got a crisis in Mt.Pleasant, with a ton of displaced people who have lost everything. If you happen to be in DC, there are some donation options: you can donate supplies (like clothing, Bottled Water, Blankets, Trash Bags, School Supplies, Gift Cards, Baby Formula) or money to some local orgs and businesses that are serving as facilitators for this process. Also a friend of Jen's is organizing a happy hour tonight to raise money for the displaced people.
These sites provide the best information on how to help: Hear Mt. Pleasant, Neighbor's Consejo, then info about the fundraiser tonight.
Why do things like this always affect the most vulnerable populations? Not only are these people out of a home, but their building will probably be turned into luxury condos they can't afford anymore. It's just so frustrating.
Pictures of the fire here.
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I live about two blocks from where the fire happened. It's a joy to see a multi million dollar Target condo complex right next to a string of neglected low income housing. A real joy.
I live a couple blocks away. It's really tragic. They are filled up with CLOTHING donations but there are still many other things, particularly items such as sanitary pads, tampons, diapers, for their large female population. The area that got burned down included a women's shelter.
Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the Feministing community, Miriam. As a resident of Shaw (the next neighborhood over from Columbia Heights/Mt. Pleasant), I was really devestated to hear about the fire.
Here at Prince of Petworth's blog there is info on other ways to contribute, including sending monetary donations to the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative.
Thanks Miriam for bringing this to everyone's attention. Alex and I are going to go over there after work and donate some of our stuff.
Thanks for posting this. I live in the neighborhood too (half-block away) and it's scary. There are so many slumlord-owned, substandard residential buildings in DC. The really sad thing is that the residents had been fighting for years to get the landlord to improve the building, and were a week away from signing an agreement.
The really creepy thing is that there's a sign out front advertising renovations to come. Ugh.
Mt Pleasant has always been a really diverse community and I hope there's a way for it to stay that way.
Why do things like this always affect the most vulnerable populations?
i don't know, i wish i knew.
a similar thing happened in my community, only it wasn't a fire that drove people out, it was city hall.
"Why do things like this always affect the most vulnerable populations?"
Sadly, I bet that if you're less vulnerable you have more of a chance to live somewhere not run by someone trying to kick you out and neglecting and/or damaging it to the point at which you could be killed. >:(
Miriam, thanks so much for bringing attention to this.
I am (or was - my side of the building is totally gone) a resident of 3145 Mt Pleasant St.
In addition to donations, I would also like to suggest that any Feministing readers who are DC residents take some time today to write Mayor Fenty and urge him to keep this building as low-income housing. He is the one with ultimate power/ability to ensure that this will happen. He has promised publicly several times in the wake of this tragedy that the building will be low-income, but now we all (residents, neighbors, members of the larger DC community), need to hold him to this.
The owner is not commited to low-income housing (and has been trying to evict the low-income residents for years) and it will take continued political pressure over the long term (2-3 years) when this story is no longer in the news, to ensure that this happens.
Thanks so much to everyone for their support.