Engaging with Friendly Gardens

Please join a Zoom session at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, March 6, to learn how we can become more engaged with Friendly Gardens. Friends have the opportunity of a lifetime to obtain an enormously meaningful immediate and multi-decade (likely into the next century) impact on the housing crisis with a $100 million redevelopment (funded primarily by tax credit loans and government grants) that doubles (or more) the number of quality apartments for lower income families (predominantly minorities) at the Friendly Gardens apartment site (2423 Lyttonsville Rd, Silver Spring, MD 20910) with its multiple advantages of a choice location. For Friends to do this, Friends NonProfit Housing (FNPH), the owner of Friendly Gardens Apartments, needs local meeting Friends to join the FNPH board NOW. The FNPH board is in grave distress. It doesn't need a Lazarus miracle to return to full lift, just an infusion of local Friends. As a result of illnesses and moves, there is only one (maybe two) local Friends meeting member(s) on the shrunken board. Local Friends are vital for implementing Quaker values and decision-making at FNPH and for advocating in face to face interactions with county and state office holders and officials for the highly competitive funding, for planning board approval of any building, and for interactions with others, e.g., residents of the Lyttonsville community of which Friendly Gardens is a part, and of course low-income  (minority) residents, so we are sensitive to and hopefully address their concerns. The immediate need for more local Friends is clear and compelling. The only essential expertise needed is dedication to Quaker principles and decision-making processes plus seeking full understanding of the matters before the FNPH so that consensus approvals will be those of a solidly informed board. BFM members have had a long and major role on the Friendly Gardens Board, but our links to this amazing endeavor are much weaker than they have been.