In 2018, the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) approved a 1.4-million-dollar First Right to Purchase loan to Mi Casa for the New Beginnings Tenant Association at 5400 5th Street to preserve their affordable apartments in Ward 4 (DHCD, 2018). For one resident in particular, this loan had been years of work in the making.
Miss Twanna Spurgeon has lived at the 5400 5th St building since 2009. In 2015, when the building was put up for sale, Twanna, a DC native, was determined to stay in her building to avoid being priced out of the DC housing market, as had happened to many others she knew. So she decided to get involved and become what she describes as “part of the solution.” She and her late husband, James, who served as the tenant association President, helped the tenants organize and exercise their Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) rights, which allowed them to assign the rights to purchase to Mi Casa. Twanna’s involvement was integral to the building’s transition from rental apartments to a tenant association that ultimately succeeded in renovating the entire building.
However, the process was not easy. It required years of cooperation and coordination between Mi Casa Inc., the city government, building developers, management companies, and private financers. When 5400 5th Street started this process, Twanna said another resident had initially reached out to the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) to better understand the residents’ options. Twanna and James started attending meetings with LEDC and becoming involved in the acquisition process. During this time, Twanna got to know her neighbors and learned about the different challenges each unit was facing. She describes her own unit as having water leaks and those of her neighbors having other issues, such as holes in the floors.
Maintenance issues such as these are common throughout older buildings in DC which in underserved, low-income neighborhoods are often neglected until they fall into disrepair. Usually, a developer will buy such buildings at low cost and build more expensive units that the previous residents cannot afford. This has contributed to DC experiencing one of the highest rates of gentrification in the nation. Without TOPA, renters like Twanna and her neighbors would have no control over who buys their building, and would ultimately be forced to move. So she and her husband, along with the other members of the New Beginnings TA, worked with Mi Casa to leverage TOPA, and assigned their rights to purchase to Mi Casa with an agreement to preserve affordable rents and renovate the building. After a career spent as a domestic violence advocate in the DC superior court and a senior weekend counselor, Twanna knew that the first step to change is understanding your rights. She says, “Knowledge is power, so if you have the knowledge, then you have the power.”
“Knowledge is power, so if you have the knowledge, then you have the power.”
But making people understand their power and why they should be involved was a big challenge for New Beginnings TA. Once they moved on to the process of renovation funding, Twanna said that oftentimes they would not have enough attendance at development meetings with Mi Casa to get an agreement on a vote, which is necessary when making certain decisions about the property and renovation. Many residents did not understand the process, which Twanna says made them less likely to vote. To others currently going through the same process, Twanna emphasizes the importance of participation. She says, “It’s your home, and if you want to stay there, if you want to be able to afford to live where you want to live, then you’ve got to get involved. Learn your rights and advocate for yourself, advocate for your community.”
Today, she has reaped the reward of her commitment and leadership. Twanna and James moved back into their fully renovated unit in January of 2022 after being relocated for renovation in December of 2019. Twanna says, “Everybody came back very happy with the units. I love my unit. If I showed you the pictures of what it looked like before, versus what it looks like now, you will understand the smile that I have.”
Not all residents returned to the building after renovation, however. Twanna said when she and James moved back in, they made an effort to start having meetings again to welcome the new neighbors and keep residents involved with what was going on in the building. It was still a challenge to engage people, but in October of 2022 when James passed, she said, “I got so much love from my neighbors and it just really made me feel so good inside that all the time I put in trying to get to know everyone paid off because they gave back to me what I was trying to give to them.”
