Sacred Places
Baldwin House
Ten organizers, permanently housed, next to Black Broadway.
WHERE
Washington, DC
SETTING
Neighborhood
PARTNER INSTITUTION
Baldwin House Cooperative Association
Visit
Where it is
2572 Sherman Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001
What happens here
The site has already hosted neighbourhood parties rallying support for the project, free stores, organizing meetings of the Ward 1 Mutual Aid Network, and some small-scale gardening.
HOW IT CAME TO BE
The tenants call themselves stewards.
01
The Need
Baldwin House is a limited-equity housing cooperative and community gathering space in Ward 1, next to Howard University and DC's historic Black Broadway and U Street corridor. The building will provide permanently affordable housing to ten of the community's most active organizers, all with lived experience navigating and resisting oppression, disinvestment, and neglect, including surviving homelessness and incarceration, giving them financial stability as they do the hard work of systemic change.
02
The Vision
Current and incoming tenants share ownership of the property and consider themselves stewards on behalf of their larger community of Black and brown, poor and working class, housing-insecure and unsheltered, queer and trans neighbours. One floor of the building and its 6,000 square feet of outdoor space will serve as a hub for that community to organize and show up for one another through mutual aid. The Sacred Place would sit on the north side with street and sidewalk frontage to the east, open to residents and community members alike.
03
The Transformation
Come back soon. [Placeholder per 19 Aug call.]
WHO TENDS IT
Natacia Knapper
Firesoul, Baldwin House
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Jen Jenkins
Firesoul, Baldwin House
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