Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and others reiterated that commitment while breaking ground on the redevelopment, conceptualized by the D.C. Housing Authority more than a decade ago as officials sought to break up concentrated poverty in areas with distressed public housing. In a nod to Matthews and others who had fought to protect the community, Ward 8 D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D) opened his remarks on Monday by stating: “It’s been a long time coming.”
Twelve years ago, “there were a lot of residents who were feeling afraid, insecure about what would happen and would they be able to come back,” White said. “Today, we are making a promise that you will be able to come back.”
The Barry Farm redevelopment begins in earnest this month with the construction of the Asberry — a mixed-use building set to be completed in early 2024 with 108 affordable housing units for people 55 and older and 5,000 square feet of commercial space — along Sumner Road SE. The city has thus far allocated $43 million for the entire Barry Farm redevelopment, which is slated for completion in 2030.
Barry Farm emerged as a settlement community for formerly-enslaved Black people after the Civil War. Facing a dearth of affordable housing for residents in the 1940s, the National Capital Housing Authority used eminent domain to develop part of the community into some 444 units of public housing. The community blossomed even more, and residents at the time played active roles in the Civil Rights movement and desegregating schools; it was there in the 1980s that the D.C. go-go group called the Junkyard Band formed — further solidifying the neighborhood’s rich history.
The conditions of those public housing units faced increased scrutiny into the 2000s and the District developed a plan to transform the site into a mix of townhouses, market-rate apartments and replacement public housing units for low-income tenants through the New Communities Initiative.
But the demolition and proposed construction have been the source of intense battles over historic preservation and displacement in the rapidly-gentrifying District.
In 2018, the D.C. Court of Appeals sided with residents who said the zoning commission’s previous approval of the project did not sufficiently address concerns about displacement. And in 2020, one year after hundreds of families had moved out of the Barry Farm dwellings ahead of its demolition, the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board agreed to preserve five buildings from the original complex, though residents originally sought for the designation to cover 32 buildings.
“The Barry Farm community is a significant part of D.C. history, so we must continue to tell the story and preserve the history and take care of our longtime residents,” Bowser said Monday. “Over the years and throughout this development, that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Matthews has been among the most vocal advocates for the community as the redevelopment project took shape. Even before she moved to Northwest D.C. three years ago, she and her neighbors also did not feel confident about the city’s assurances that they could return.
“Around 2014, 2015 when they started talking about redevelopment, we were going to a lot of meetings and what they said didn’t always make sense,”…
