THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3
The first rule of
Flower Power
Hour is there are
no rules. Be as
creative as you
can be, go where
your spirit leads,
create a flower
arrangement that
speaks to you.
The second rule
of Flower Power Hour is to cut
the stems at an angle before
putting them in the vase. The
third rule is to trim away any
leaves that would be below the
water.
But it’s the first rule — lose
yourself in the beauty of the
blooms — that is most important
to the ladies who come to Flower
Power Hour, a monthly class at
N Street Village, a charity near
Logan Circle that helps women
experiencing homelessness.
It’s a Monday afternoon, and
16 women are seated at work
tables in an open room on the
second floor of N Street Village.
A blue-handled pair of shears is
at each space. The air is thick
with the scent from hundreds of
blooms.
“This is how I love this room
to be, filled to capacity,” says
Kaifa Anderson-Hall, who leads
the class.
Sixty-two bundles of flowers —
lilies, roses, tulips, dahlia,
marigolds, alstroemeria,
ranunculus — have been donated
by Urban Stems, a florist just up
the street.
Anderson-Hall puts the song
“Something Inside So Strong” on
her iPhone, then says: “Come up,
get your flowers. Take the
opportunity to be as present as
possible.”
The women move around the
table, selecting blossoms.
Someone asks how many flowers
they should use.“It’s up to you,” Anderson-Hall
says.
Anderson-Hall is the founder
of Plants and Blooms
ReImagined, a nonprofit that
provides horticultural therapy
using repurposed arrangements
left over after events such as
wedding and luncheons. She
started volunteering at N Street
Village in April.
It can seem like an indulgence
— homeless women arranging
flowers? — but it’s in keeping
with one of N Street Village’s core
principles: Just because a person
is at a low point in her life, it
doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be
treated with dignity and respect.
“Wherever we are, there needs
to be beauty,” Anderson-Hall
says.
Hotels and restaurants have
fresh flowers. Why shouldn’t you
see fresh flowers in the place
where women can come for a
free meal, a shower, a washing
machine?
“You’re going to be surprised
where you started and where you
end up,” Anderson-Hall says.
She’s talking about the
cumulative process of creating a
flower arrangement: adding
flower after flower until
something tells you you’re done.
But it seems like a metaphor for
N Street Village, how it lets
women move at their own pace
until, hopefully, they have left the
streets behind.
The class is just one of many
offered at the charity, a list that
includes sewing, yoga, arts and
crafts. Clients carry with them a
sheet of paper that’s signed each
time they complete an activity.
By doing five activities and a
chore each week, they are
allowed to use Bethany Women’s
Day Center on the weekend.
It’s a gentle way of
encouraging buy-in fromthe ladies.
A woman pulls a yellow dahlia
from a bucket. It immediately
starts shedding petals.
Anderson-Hall shows her a trick.
She gently plucks the outer
pedals from the stem — pluck,
pluck, pluck — until she reaches
the inner petals. These are stillfirmly attached.
She’s exposed the pale green
star-shaped structure that holds
the petals in place. It’s pleasing
in its own way.
Even here, Anderson-Hall
finds a metaphor.
“We see our outer, but we don’t
see our inner, unfortunately,” shesays. “What we typically don’t see
is beautiful.”
After an hour, 16 once-empty
vases now explode with
blossoms. I’m amazed at how
many stems the women have
been able to fit into each
container. The results remind me
of the Dutch Master still-lifes
known as pronkstilleven.
“All the flowers work to
support each other,” says
Anderson-Hall.
At a table in the back, a
woman in a red knit cap has
made an arrangement that, to
me, resembles her. The display is
squat and compact. So is she. She
has a red knit cap atop her head.
The arrangement has a spray of
red hypericum berries. There are
the pompoms of “green trick”
dianthus and the tight petals of
crimson ranunculus. Above the
main grouping are stems of silver
dollar eucalyptus, the pale flat
leaves resembling treads on a
cantilevered stairway.
It’s an arrangement that
wouldn’t look out of place at a
high-end florist.
“I would put them in my
home,” the woman says,
admiring her creation. “But I
don’t have a home.”You can help
N Street Village is a partner in
The Washington Post Helping
Hand. If you’d like to support the
work it does, visit
posthelpinghand.com and click
“Donate.” To donate by mail,
make a check payable to
“N Street Village” and send it to
N Street Village, Attn: Helping
Hand, 1333 N St. NW,
Washington, D.C. 20005.
[email protected]
Twitter: @johnkelly For previous columns, visit
washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.Homeless women create floral art and more at N Street Village
John
Kelly's
Washington
JOHN KELLY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Kaifa Anderson-Hall, who leads a flower arranging class at
N Street Village, a charity near Logan Circle that helps women
experiencing homelessness, holds a bouquet made by clients.
“Wherever we are, there needs to be beauty,” Anderson-Hall says.THE DISTRICT
Md. man fatally shot in
Southeast Washington
A man was fatally shot
Tuesday in Southeast
Washington, police said.
Majhe Powers, 21, of Oxon
Hill, Md., was found with
gunshot wounds about 2:10 p.m.
in the hallway of a house in the
4300 block of Wheeler Road,
police said. He was taken to a
hospital, where he died, police
said.
— Martin Weil
MARYLAND
Hogan taps Democrat
for top lobbyist role
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan
(R) named a prominent
Democrat as his top lobbyist in
Annapolis on Wednesday,
elevating Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. as
his chief negotiator with the
Democratic-majority Maryland
General Assembly.
Mitchell, a former politician
and part of a storied family of
Baltimore civil rights activists,
has worked as a Hogan aide
since the governor’s 2015
inauguration. He is also a former
history teacher at a Baltimore
private school. He takes over the
lobbyist job as the Democrats,
who have supermajorities in
both chambers of the legislature,
weigh a once-in-a-generation
overhaul of public schools.
Mitchell will replace former
Republican state senator Chris
Shank, who is leaving the post to
take a job in the private sector.
The appointment further
reinforces a regional power shift
that has boosted the influence of
Democrats from the Baltimore
area.
In his new role, Mitchell will
lobby the legislature to support
Hogan’s agenda and defend the
administration’s policies. He has
served on the Baltimore City
Council and as a delegate
representing the city.
— Erin Cox
Pedestrian struck by
vehicle dies of injuries
A 66-year-old man has died of
his injuries after being struck by
a vehicle along a road in
Suitland, officials said.
The incident happened about
11:20 p.m. Oct. 31 in the 4700
block of Silver Hill Road.
Prince George’s County police
said the victim, who was later
identified as Franklin Timmons,
of no fixed address, died Monday.
An initial investigation found
that Timmons was hit by a
vehicle as he tried to cross Silver
Hill Road. Police said he was not
in a crosswalk at the time.
Timmons was taken to a hospital
with critical injuries.
The driver stayed on the scene
and was not hurt, police said.
— Dana Hedgpeth
Police: Man slain in
Pr. George’s shooting
A man was fatally shot
Tuesday in the Beltsville area,
police said.
The man was found about
4:40 p.m. in a car in the 3500
block of Powder Mill Road,
according to Prince George’s
County police.
Police said they found 29-year-
old Samie Neil of Adelphi
suffering from gunshot wounds.
He died at the scene, police said.
— Martin Weil
and Justin Wm. Moyer
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washingtonpost.com/local/lotteryLOTTERIES
of that settlement with Racine’s
office, Sanford Capital and its
principal, Aubrey Carter Nowell,
were required to pay $325,000 in
restitution to tenants and stop
doing business in the District.
“We want to send a loud and
clear message by the series of
lawsuits and this settlement that
businesses that seek to make a
profit off of being slumlords risk
their ability of being able to con-
duct business in the District of
Columbia,” Racine said in an in-
terview. “Sanford is going to be
out of the District of Columbia.”
Nowell did not immediately
respond to an email seeking com-
ment.
Washington Legal Clinic for
the Homeless and the Legal Aid
Society of the District of Colum-
bia worked with Racine’s officecode enforcement, including how
the District continued to spend
millions to subsidize rents for
Sanford tenants while it simulta-
neously sued the company over
poor living conditions.
The District continued doing
business with Sanford despite re-
peated complaints about its con-
ditions, with city officials at the
time citing the dearth of land-
lords willing to rent to people
with housing vouchers — many of
whom were otherwise homeless.
In response to media reports,
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) or-
dered inspections in March 2017
of all Sanford buildings, a review
that uncovered more than 1,000
violations, and resulted in a
change to housing enforcement
policies.
[email protected]BY FENIT NIRAPPIL
One of the District’s most noto-
rious landlords must pay former
tenants $1.1 million in what city
officials described as the largest-
ever rent recovery for residents
“forced to live in squalor.”
D.C. Attorney General Karl A.
Racine (D) on Wednesday an-
nounced the settlement with San-
ford Capital LLC on behalf of 155
residents at three apartment
complexes in Northeast and
Southeast Washington.
Racine’s office sued the Bethes-
da-based company for violating
consumer protection laws by fail-
ing to provide adequate living
conditions for tenants, failing to
meet housing and fire codes, and
misrepresenting apartments as
safe and habitable.
Tenants lived for years in
apartments infested by mice and
other pests and plagued by mold
and raw sewage. Many renters
lacked heat in the winter, and
some did not have working toi-
lets, stoves or refrigerators, city
attorneys said.
At some buildings, Sanford re-
fused to fix broken locks, which
allowed drug and gun activity,
Racine’s office said. The landlord
also failed to maintain fire extin-
guishers, and smoke detectors
were often broken or missing, it
said.
The company agreed last year
to sell its remaining properties to
resolve litigation involving a
fourth property, the Terrace Man-
or complex in Ward 8. As a resulton the case.
The buildings involved are lo-
cated at 1309 Alabama Ave. NE,
315 and 325 Franklin St. NE, and
4951 G St. SE.
Since 2006, taxpayers have
funded Sanford’s operations
through housing vouchers and
affordable-housing tax credits as
it built a network of at least 20
complexes with more than 1,300
units. City officials say the com-
pany now owns just two D.C.
properties, both under court re-
ceivership.
Investigations by The Wash-
ington Post and Washington City
Paper in 2017 found Sanford ten-
ants living in conditions that vio-
lated multiple requirements un-
der the city’s building code.
The investigations also ex-
posed gaps in the city’s housingTHE DISTRICTLandlord to pay back rent in settlement with city
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ/THE WASHINGTON POSTABOVE: A memorial for a
homicide victim outside an
apartment building on G Street
SE in 2016, then owned by
Sanford Capital. RIGHT:
LaTanya Johnson walks
through a Sanford apartment
with no locks on the door.(703) 718-4088
(202) 919-9210
(301) 778-4220