Washington Post alleges shady dealings behind the Peaceoholic's 1300 Congress St SE project

Go HERE to read the full Washington Post investigative story, D.C. housing deal shows much spent but less accomplished.  

It is too early to tell where this story is going to end up (and so far at least one DHCD employee has been terminated)  but I have to point out that in early 2010 concerned Congress Heights residents and community activists where the first to sound the alarm about the 1300 Congress Street SE project, a project that at the time was supported by Councilmember Barry. Posting a news clip from May 2010.

These types of revelations of shady dealings and self enrichment only confirm what is already suspected by many in Ward 8,  there is no business like the poverty pimping business, specifically the "transitional" housing business.

Excerpt:

In late 2008, records show, the District’s investment in the Peaceoholics project grew: Fenty urged the D.C. Council to support a $4.4 million loan so the nonprofit could buy and renovate four properties in Wards 5 and 6, which would produce a total of 35 units. Peaceoholics eventually used about $4 million of that money. 

The properties, however, were different from the ones on the original list. The new list included an apartment complex on Meigs Place NE that had been purchased by a company headed by developer David Tolson, a business partner of Fenty’s longtime campaign treasurer, Ben Soto. Soto said he is not involved the Peaceoholics deal. 

Tolson had his own connection to Hagler. In a 2007 transaction unrelated to the Peaceoholics project, Tolson’s company had lent Hagler $355,000 to finance a Southeast property. The seller was a company run by Edward Wilson, the Anne Arundel businessman, according to property records and interviews. 

In early 2009, Peaceoholics added another new property to the list, a vacant building on Congress Street SE. The property had been purchased months earlier by a limited-liability company. The owner: Wilson. 

In March 2009, the housing agency approved the purchase of the two properties, along with a third one owned by a D.C police officer. 

For Tolson’s property, Peaceoholics paid $2.35 million — more than quadruple what Tolson’s company had paid about a year earlier. 

For Wilson’s property, Peaceoholics paid $400,000 — four times what Wilson’s company had paid about seven months earlier at a tax sale.

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