An organization that seeks to foster economic growth in Ward 8 recently published a report outlining the ward’s opportunities for development and its vision for the future.
The Ward 8 Economic Community Development (W8ECD), facilitated by former advisory neighborhood commissioner Mustafa Abdul-Salaam, wants to revitalize the ward’s neighborhoods, develop and rehabilitate affordable housing, and create sustained commercial enhancement by creating opportunities for generational wealth, encouraging entrepreneurship and create employment for residents. The report, “A Dream Deserved: Realizing Our Collective Emergence,” comes as Ward 8 embraces economic development projects in Historic Anacostia, Congress Heights and the Bellevue neighborhood while feeding off of the well-off, newer Navy Yard area on the west side of the Anacostia River.
Salaam, 70, said Ward 8 has a lot of underutilized and unrecognized economic potential.
“The report shows that Ward 8 has a lot of poverty,” he said. “However, it is much more vibrant than most people know. The ward has a strong middle class and an upper class, some people with substantial incomes. You have people earning a lot of money, but they are overshadowed by the immense poverty here.”
The Report
The 69-page report addresses the ward’s history, talks about the organization’s planning process, reveals demographic statistics, gathers input from residents based on surveys and interviews and discusses how Ward 8 can progress through a new digital collective. Six areas that surveyed residents listed as priorities were economic justice; education, workforce development and employment; environmental justice; family support; health, wellness, and safety; and housing justice. However, the report doesn’t reflect the addition of the western neighborhood, Navy Yard, in its content.
The report, which Salaam says largely mirrors census data on the ward, relayed that Ward 8 is 92.4% Black; 59.6% of residents earn less than $20,000 a year; 49.3% have a high school diploma as their highest level of education attainment; and 34.8% were unemployed. The need for food emerged as tops, according to the report. However, the availability and affordability of housing surfaced as the greatest concern with 62%, according to residents surveyed. Public safety/violence came a close second with 60.5%.
More Business Activity is Key
Salaam said that many of the ills that plague residents could be lessened, if not eliminated, if more businesses could set up in Ward 8.
“Many of the businesses in Ward 8 are under-capitalized,” he said. “Ward 8 has the lowest percentage of capital in the city. We have not had capital for the last 50 years.”
Salaam said having more capital in the ward “will bring more people.”
“Businesses will thrive,” he said. “We want the whole ward to thrive.”
Salaam said the goal of the report and his organization is not to have Ward 8 mirror other wards or parts of the District. He said the ward wants a “child-centered, family-focused and community-based” focus that measures success based on the health and well-being of all its residents, particularly young people.
The digital collective will store comprehensive data on Ward 8 residents, businesses, nonprofits, and other operations.
“We are going to put the ward’s information on a digital platform,” Salaam said. “It will add another dimension to the ward and people will have to come to us for information. It will change the dynamics of the community. Indeed, this may be the first time a Black community has been digitized.”
Salaam said the report will be sent to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and her administration to be used as a reference when contemplating economic policies and programs. D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) welcomes the report.
“I have been engaged in and supportive of the W8CED since its earliest development over 10 years ago, before I became the councilman of Ward 8,” White said. “I am proud of what the residents have achieved in creating this unique bottom-up process that has produced this significant report. This community is excited about the opportunity to develop a data-driven plan that the Digital Collective will implement.”
Follow James Wright on Twitter: @JamesWrightJr10.
