Eugene Puryear, the D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate for the At-large D.C. Council seat, believes that affordable housing is a right that should not be infringed upon by money-hungry real estate developers. Puryear is a D.C.-based activist, and graduate of Howard University.
Especially since the economic crisis, the lack of affordable housing and gentrification in Washington, D.C., has widened the chasm between the rich and the poor. This is a pivotal factor in the decline of the African American population in the District.
Washington, D.C. has some of the highest rents in the country, a state of affairs that is widening along with the income gap. Driving the high housing costs is a tiny segment of the population, many working in government or military services, who have seen their wealth soar. One in seven D.C. residents fall in the top 5 percent of the national income distribution, making more than $191,500 per year.
A construction boom catering to this layer has produced penthouses and luxury townhomes costing millions of dollars. Neighborhoods across the city have seen their cost of living skyrocket as a result.
In 1970, seven out of 10 Washingtonians were Black, according to the Washington Post. Today, the Black population accounts for less than half of all residents. Gentrification is the primary cause of the decline in the Black population as opportunities dwindle and the cost of living rises. In the past decade, the appeal by white and Black politicians for investment and business has in turn caused the city to become an unaffordable place to live for many in the Black community.
In November 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate in the District of Columbia was 8.6 per cent – well above the national average. The city’s homeless rate has grown considerably. From 2008 through 2012, the number of families living in the streets was up by 74 percent. In 2012, the number of homeless families rose by 18 percent. The District’s former General Hospital is currently a shelter for the homeless, which last year reported housing 372 adults and 600 children.
The housing crisis disproportionately affects African Americans, the working-class and poor residents of the District. Gentrification has led to a variety of injustices in the form of harassment by building owners wishing to sell or convert to condominiums, rent increases, the disappearance of rental properties, increases in home prices and tenant evictions. In Ward 6 especially, many poor and working residents have been economically displaced.
The Eugene Puryear campaign is committed to building the movement to confront this crisis. As At-large Council Member, Puryear will bring the voice of this struggle inside the halls of the city government and amplify the strength of the people’s fight-back.
The campaign stands for a freeze on rents and the construction of enough low and middle-income housing to guarantee that every resident has a decent place to live. Vote for Eugene Puryear to put the needs of the people first and the profits of landlords and real estate developers last.
