The Final Days At Barry Farm Public Housing

The Final Days At Barry Farm Public Housing Project
By
Joseph Young

January 18, 2019
Relocation Day for Detrice Belt

The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) is going forward with its plans to demolish and eventually redevelop the Barry Farm Dwellings, despite opposition from the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association (BFTAA). Tenants, of the large, 444-unit public housing project, are being relocated throughout the city or sometimes across city limits. They had expected to live on site during the redevelopment, fearing they’ll never be able to return. Skepticism is warranted. DCHA has a track record of not keeping its promises.
Barry Farm was first redeveloped in the 1940s. It was a post Civil War community settled by former slaves in 1867. It had formerly been a tobacco plantation.
General Oliver Howard, Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, used federal funds to buy the 375-acre James Barry farm. The Freeedmen's Bureau sold lots for $215 – $300 per acre to freed slaves, creating the first African American homeownership community in Washington, D.C. But over the years, various development projects have eaten away at Barry Farm. It's down to the last bite.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Detrice Belt, president of the BFTAA, lived at Barry Farm for the past twenty years. Belt, 33, paid rent calculated at 30 percent of her income. She lived in a two bedroom townhome with her 10-year-old daughter and two pit bulls.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Fix It Now!
Enough Neglect!
#OccupyBarryFarm

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Detrice Belt's Nick Nacks on Refrigerator Door

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Detrice Belt's Nick Nacks on Refrigerator

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Detrice Belt's pit bulls are not allowed at the new apartment. Her daughter's tearful eyes were sadness to see the dogs go.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

"We're Not Leaving" sign and Christmas ornaments in the window of Detrice Belt's Barry Farm townhome.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Tenants, of the large, 444-unit Barry Farm Dwellings, which has offered public housings to low-income families for nearly eight decades, are being scattered across the Washington, DC area. Or sometimes even out of the city because this public property has been handed over to private, market-rate developers. The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have put this historic, Black community on the auction block for the "preservation of affordable housing." But Barry Farm residents know that only the affluent will be able to afford the rent at the redevelopment.
There were about 600 families living there — including 554 adults, 427 children and 135 teens,145 disabled residents, 31 seniors and six veterans, according to the DCHA. The average annual income was $14,000. This is based on Washington Post reporting.
The forced relocation has taken an emotional toll on residents, especially the elder, like 64-year-old Betty Green, who fears displacement.
"People say, 'I'm not safe.' I'd rather be here than the places that they have offered me," said Green, who gets around on a cane. "The crime rate is high there."
In 1998, HUD ranked the DCHA the worst in the country, saying it was mismanaged, poorly maintained and crime ridden.
Gentrification displacement is nothing new for the city's Black population. But this go around it's Black government officials who are behind the displacement.
Barry Farm was a post Civil War community settled by former slaves in 1867. It had formerly been a tobacco plantation. The son of abolitionist Frederick Douglass lived on Nichols Avenue, renamed for Martin Luther King Jr. It was redeveloped in the 1943 for African Americans who supported the efforts of the Second World War. It later became public housing.
Comprehensive public housing reform is needed with a focus on the working poor and not developer profit.
This photography essay captures the final days at the Barry Farm public housing project.

Detail of a 1887 map of D.C. Courtesy of the D.C. Public Library, Special Collections, Washingtoniana Map Collection.

The original Barry Farm extended from the Anacostia River to what is now known as Garfield Heights. It was about ten times the size of the present day Barry Farm Dwellings.

"Housing is a Natural Right not a Privilege," the sign says. Photograph by Beverly Price.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

The Christmas stocking was placed on the fence at Barry Farm where 444 public housing units are being razed as we enter the holiday season. The approximately 23 units that are still occupied by families have been issue evictions, with notice to quit by December 21, 2018.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

"Razing Barry Farm has been a priority of the past four administrations from Williams to Bowser. What won’t be a priority: making sure those who are displaced find suitable, sustainable affordable housing."

Jason Cherkis, Facebook

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

A recently uncovered 20-year-old report found high levels of lead at Barry Farm public housing project.The 1998 lead study was buried by DC Housing Authority officials and sat on a shelf for two decades. Connor consulting and technology services, who conducted the study, found that Barry Farm tested positive for "lead-based paint hazards" -- including "dust-lead hazards." It's an odorless and tasteless poison that can cause death.

"Lead is a highly toxic metal that may cause a range of health problems, especially in young children. When lead is absorbed into the body, it can cause damage to the brain and other vital organs, like the kidneys, nerves and blood," according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

April 15, 2019
Asbestos removal from the Barry Farm relocation office and other housing units

Residents may have been exposed to asbestos at the Barry Farm public housing project where all but three housing units remain occupied.
When asbestos is breathed in over a long period of time, it can lead to serious health problems, including lung disease and mesothelioma.

It is more likely than not that this property contains asbestos flooring, ceiling materials, insulation and plumbing materials.

The risk is that asbestos materials may be exposed to wear and tear, allowing dangerous asbestos fibers to become airborne and inhaled by residents.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019 © Joseph Young

Seventy-four-year-old Mary L. Davis, who moved to Barry Farm nearly five decades ago, said it was plagued with plumbing hazards and substandard maintenance.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

In the 1980s, the exposed brick wall was covered with stucco, and the porches were removed, according to the Historic Preservation Office.
Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Locked and boarded up units have become breeding grounds for rodents and bed bugs, said residents. The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) has stopped performing routine maintenance and upkeep.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southwest Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

Antonio Dean, 24, got into an argument during the dice game and was shot to death on August 15, 2015.

Violence is an inevitable, though self-destructive, reactionary response to systemic white supremacy.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Vigil For Antonio Dean

The blood of my slave forebears has soaked the soil at Barry Farm, notwithstanding the sweat and tears. It's legacy is still felt today. What more evidence is there needed to prove without a doubt that this land is our land. We have a right to Barry Farm.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Police patrol during a sporting event at Barry Farm.
The effects of racial inequality is still felt today in the form of lethal police brutality.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC © Joseph Young

Now that Barry Farm is run-down and dilapidated, due to decades of neglect, involving absolutely no one or anything but the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), they are leveling their own corruption. They don't like what they see.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Betty Green enters the rear of her Barry Farm home on Summer Road, where she has lived for the past 17 years.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

"Someone once said, 'Before you know it the bulldozers will be knocking at the door.' Well, they're knocking. They're here," said Green. "But I'm still here. The only one here on Sumner Road, and it's hell."

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

"It's such a shame how the elder are displaced with no/extremely limited viable (affordable) housing options available. I'm a Realtor® with elder/disabled clients - trying to find a place for him is arduous, with waitlist spanning 3, 5 and sometimes 10 years! This is unreal."

Denise Mounie Greene, Facebook

The side of Green's home.

"They took our porches," said Davis. "That was a while ago."

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Davis, who has lived at Barry Farm since 1971, fondly remembers when "Barry Farm was nice back then," she said. "Everyone could leave their doors unlocked."

In an odd twist, President Nixon launched his tough-on-crime initiatives, with a focus on drugs, which disproportionately targeted African Americans. The Reagan White House revved up the program and allocated funds for new prisons. Democrats did not want to be accused of being soft on crime, so President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Senator Joseph Biden wrote much of the legislation. Mass incarceration followed, as well as, the rise of for-profit prisons. The U.S. has the largest percentage of its population incarcerated than any other country in the world, with a 1,489,363 prison population at the end of 2017.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Davis's Home Sweet Home plaque lay in her front yard.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Davis's Bloody Jesus Plants in her front yard.

Pic taken at Barry Farms in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Home of 59-year-old activist Paulette Matthews, who lived at Barry Farm for more than two decade with her son. Matthews was on the waiting list to get a townhome in Barry Farm for 21 years. She is also vice president of the Barry Farm Tenant and Allies Association. The group is determined to fight gentrification displacement to the bittersweet end.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

The front yard of Detrice Belt's mother, a women of three generation in the Barry Farm community.

DC Housing Authority promised Barry Farm residents that they will be able to return to the site when the redevelopment is completed. But the Housing Authority has a poor track record of not keeping promises. Detrice Belt, president of the Barry Farm Tenant and Allies Association (BFTAA), wants to stay put during the redevelopment. She said the Housing Authority isn't taking into account the impact displacement will have on Barry Farm residents. Displacement is unacceptable, she said. "We are going to fight until the end."

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Food Desert = Poor Health = Profit for Big Phrama

Charlie's Corner store is the only amenity in the Barry Farm public housing project. In the background is the Excel Academy Public School for Girls, formerly Birney Elementary School.

"I despise this place! My school is across the street, and they don’t have anything nutritious in there."

Razberri Berst, Facebook

March 1, 2019
Pakistani philosopher and scholar Javed Bhutto, 64, was shot dead Friday morning outside Charlie's Corner store, based on Washington Post reporting.

Pic taken at Barry Farm is Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Beer and tobacco marketing is highest in African American and minority communities, as compared to white communities.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

"OG, you alright," said the 20 something drug dealer as I walked past the crew of about six who were all dressed in black. I'm good, I said. Seconds before the encounter, when I spotted them, I slide my point and shoot camera into my front, right pocket, to avoid trouble.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

While the Cosby Show and Michael Jordan's theatrics on the basketball court lured us to sleep, Black troops were deployed to combat Terror overseas; at home, Blacks were being jailed under the guise of the "War on Drugs." It devastated the Black family.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Barry Farm residents have been relocated throughout the city and sometimes to the surrounding suburbs.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

Cats at Green's Back Door.

Stray cats roam the grounds of Barry Farm. Many of the public housing projects that Barry Farm's residents have been relocated to don't accept pets.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

During the demolition, dust is traveling through the landscape and air. Few dust control measures are being used on site to protect the remaining tenants at Barry Farm. Paulette Matthews, vice president of the Barry Farm Tenant and Allies Association, complains about the airborne dust pollution.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Two Major Highways Severed The Neighborhood

Behind the pile of rubble is interstate 295 which opened in the 1960s. Its construction cut off Barry Farm's residents from easy access to the Anacostia river.

"Back then, it seemed huge. Since it was still basically new, there were few mature trees. You could see right to the river and beyond, with breathtaking panoramic views of downtown. This was before Bolling Air Force Base was expanded or the construction of the 295 interstate. On the Fourth of July, the hundreds of families just stood in the middle of the streets to take in the fireworks. The effect was unbelievable." -- Wendell William, former Barry Farm resident. An excerpt from Street Sense.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

The construction of the Suitland Parkway in the 1940s cut the Barry Farm community in half and isolated it from the rest of the area, according to Alcione Amos, curator, Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum. Six hundred Barry Farm residents were also displaced with the building of the parkway. Their land was taken through eminent domain.

Barry Farm is caught in the cross-hair of two highways, Suitland Parkway and Interstate 295. Vehicle emissions can cause an early death.

Pic taken from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast Washington, DC 2018. © Joseph Young

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

He returned to his childhood home for one last look before it is demolished. He grew up on Sumner Road at the Barry Farm public housing project. His family moved there in the 1940s. To memorialize the experience, he brought along a photographer.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

Seventy-year-old Rev. Barbara Boston, who is on the ministerial staff at the historic Campbell AME Church in Southeast Washington DC, grew up at Barry Farm during the 60s and 70s. She lived at 1103 Sumner Road in the one bedroom townhome pictured here with her parents, sister and four brothers. She started fourth grade at Birney Elementary School.
She stopped her SUV in the middle of Firth Sterling Avenue where she was taking pictures with her cellphone of the row of townhomes. This is where she played and grew strong under the old tree.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

February 7, 2019
He was 4-years-old in 1970 when his family moved to the Barry Farm public housing project in Southeast Washington, DC. On Wednesday he stopped by Sumner Road where he'd grown up. He bore witness to the erasure of the row of townhomes, including 1133, 1135, and 1137. He took photographs as keepsakes with his cellphone and reminisced about Barry Farm. For all the bad times, he said, there were also an equal amount of good times.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, D.C. 2018 © Joseph Young

Since 2003, when former DC mayor Anthony A. Williams announced his intentions to spur population growth, more than 135,000 gentrifiers have migrated to DC; as a consequence, rising property values have forced Black families out of the District. This, coupled with the District government's policy of razing public housing, is leaving Black families without sustainable, affordable housing. Then there is the lack of gainful employment, quality healthcare, public safety, education opportunities and healthy food choice. Long time Black residents are being starved to death. Gentrification displacement is nothing new, but this go around it's Black elected officials who are behind the displacement. It is not so much about Black elected officials as it is the mentality of those who would displace the District's poorest. The wealth gap in this country is ripping it apart.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

The community benefits agreement (CBA) calls for job opportunities for Barry Farm and area residents, but few African Americans are employed neither on the redevelopment sites nor the offices of developers.

D.C.’s First Source hiring law requires beneficiaries of large, publicly subsidized projects to hire District residents for newly created positions.

"I took my son months ago to the Southwest Family Enhancement Center and they had him fill out the paper with his contact and no one called."
Monica Miller, Facebook

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2018 © Joseph Young

"The DCHA website says the Barry Farm project was built in 1943; it's likely that most of the trees in the neighborhood were planted at that time. I would guess the ages of the oldest trees in the neighborhood would be 70 to 80 years old," said John O'Neill of the Urban Forester Administration. "There may have been a few that survived the development in the 1940s and of course there are other younger ones that have been planted since that time," John O'Neil, of the Urban Forestry Administration, sent this email to Joseph Young.

Under a 2016 D.C. law, trees of a certain size can’t be cut down, as long as they’re healthy. Any tree with a circumference of 100 inches or more is considered a heritage tree and must be dug up and removed from a demolition site and replanted somewhere else, under the Tree Canopy Protection Amendment Act of 2016.

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019. © Joseph Young

Roots
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots" -- Marcus Garvey

Pic taken at Barry Farm in Southeast Washington, DC 2019 © Joseph Young

"This is a thoughtful project with sufficient research and details to show a disparate reality at Barry Farm. ...How can this work be used to engage individuals as a community so that they employ their own agency to take part in shaping developments." -- Robert Stone, Behance

"Devastating and powerful photo essay tying together racism, inequity, urban policies, gentrification, and their destruction of a community in place since the abolition of slavery." -- Sarah Kennel, Curator of Photography at High Museum of Art

Joseph Young is a photographer living in Washington, DC. His photography has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, Washington Times, Washington Afro Newspaper and Washington Informer. He earned a bachelor degree in art from the University of the District of Columbia, with a focus on photography, as well as, a bachelor degree in English. He is also the grant recipient from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for his photography series about the homeless in the nation's capital. His photography has been included in a group show at the GalleryOonH in Washington, DC, Gallery 42 at the University of the District of Columbia and the Malsi Doyle and Michael Forman Theater at American University.

As for his influences, well, of course, Paul Strand, Lewis Hine, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Frank, Gordon Parks, Roy Decarava, Ernest Withers, Edward Hopper, Latoya Ruby Frazier, John Szarkowski, who said photography was born perfect and the Emmett Till open casket photo.

The found objects are a memorial to the 444 families that were displaced from the Barry Farm public housing project in Southeast Washington, D.C. The objects are also dedicate to the people around the world who are experiencing global displacement. The world is divided between the haves and have-nots. It is a slight chance that someone will not trip the dividing line and blow the whole world to pieces. There is a sense that it is more likely than not. Inhumanity is at an all time high boiling point, and danger is all around. The worst will happen if the disparity in wealth continues to grow. The world must change course now.

Note: Most of the items were found at Barry Farm.

Memorial for drowned African slaves during the Middle Passage.
Objects found at the Barry Farm public housing project where 444 low-income housing units are being razed, due, in part, to gentrification. 2019 © Joseph Young

Memorial for African slaves who were sold on the auction block in the Americas.
Objects found at the Barry Farm public housing project where 444 low-income housing units are being razed, due, in part, to gentrification. 2019 © Joseph Young

Memorial for the men, women and children who suffered the cruelty and barbarity of slavery in the Americas. Object found at the Barry Farm public housing project where 444 low-income housing units are being razed, due, in part, to gentrification.2019 © Joseph Young

Memorial for the men, women and children who suffered the beatings and lynchings by domestic terrorist after reconstruction. 2019 © Joseph Young

Memorial for African Americans who were lynched after the Civil War. These two young Negro men, Dooley Morton and Bert Moore, were murdered in a brutal double lynching at Columbus, Mississippi"--We Charge Genocide.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 4,084 African-Americans were lynched between 1877 and 1950 in the South.
Objects found at Barry Farm public housing project where 444 low-income housing units are being razed, due, in part, to gentrification. 2019 © Joseph Young

Memorial for African Americans who were murdered at Barry Farm public housing project where 444 low-income housing units are being razed, due, in part, to gentrification. Objects found at Barry Farm public housing project.
2019 © Joseph Young

Antonio Dean, 24, got into an argument during the dice game and was shot to death on August 15, 2015.

Memorial for African Americans who were murdered at Barry Farm public housing project where 444 low-income housing units are being razed, due, in part, to gentrification. Objects found at Barry Farm public housing project.2019
© Joseph Young