LaRuby May ’06 has been in the news for her effort to protect the rights of tenants – including her sister – whose D.C.-backed affordable building has been deemed unsafe.
In The Washington Post, May said, “We have folk on the property who are not just first-time home buyers, they’re first-generation home buyers, and the rest of their family is looking at this like, ‘Girl, I’m going to keep renting,’ ” May said. “Problems like this hurt our Black community.”
Coy McKinney ’12 has been a public advocate for the SW DC Action organization in their effort to convince the District to donate surplus land to the community for affordable housing rather than selling it to developers.
McKinney told Washington City Paper, “‘We’re trying to get their [low-income SW residents] interest put front and center, because we’ve seen that that hasn’t happened in previous developments.'”
He added, “’We’ve seen the price of homes increase 55 percent. We’ve seen the Black population go down almost 40 percentage points. That to me is not exemplary of equity or inclusion—especially when we have an affordable housing crisis that has disproportionately affected Black people.’”