Housing Improvements at Woodside Gardens

Between 2019 and 2021, ACT supported residents of Woodside Gardens, a publicly subsidized housing complex in Annapolis, to organize and seek accountability from their landlords for unhealthy and unsafe living conditions. As a result, the owners committed $1M for renovations and repairs.

Read more about ACT’s action for Woodside Gardens in June 2019 here.

Dominique Scurry, Woodside Gardens resident and ACT leader, shared her story: 

“I am a leader in my community of Woodside Gardens because of ACT. At Woodside Gardens, the management was ignoring our concerns. We were living with mold so bad you could smell it above the incense. Kids didn’t have a play area and the basketball court was locked up. 

At first I felt powerless. But ACT taught me how to bring together other residents and build power in our community. When we invited elected officials from the City of Annapolis and the County to tour our homes, the management company Fairstead started taking us more seriously. Then, we invited Fairstead representatives to an action with hundreds of people at Asbury United Methodist Church. We told our stories and we got our voices heard. 

Because we stood up and used our power for good, Fairstead changed. They stopped threatening the residents and they started meeting with us quarterly. They finally renovated all the units. I did the ribbon cutting at our new community center. At that moment I really felt like we made it.”

Read more in this Capital Gazette article: In packed meeting, residents demand dignity, violence prevention from elected officials, Woodside Gardens