The Whitelaw Hotel Apartments located on the corner of 13th and T streets in Northwest Washington DC, opened its doors in November 24, 1919 as a luxury hotel and apartment building for African American guests - one of the first of its kind in the United States. The celebration of any notable event in the African-American local community was surely held in the Whitelaw’s ballroom, and numerous black celebrities, including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Joe Louis, and Thurgood Marshall, stayed at the hotel.

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, riots ensured and the neighborhood and surrounding area began to change significantly between the 1970s and 1980s that left the Whitelaw in disrepair. Several for-profit organizations tried to develop it into market-rate housing. However, in the late 1990s, MANNA succeeded in pulling together an innovative financing package in the form of public-private partnership, with the goal of creating affordable rental housing in the gutted remains of the Whitelaw.

The Whitelaw was one of the first projects that combined Low-Income Tax Credit (LIHTC) and historic tax credit in DC, and is Manna’s first affordable rental housing community. Renovation costs for the Whitelaw Hotel Apartments were $4.3 million covering 23,860 square feet to create  35 affordable units targeted to households earning less than 60% of the MFI.  This historic landmark includes 5 one-bedroom units, 20 two-bedroom units, and 10 three-bedroom units with on-site maintenance and management teams, on-site laundry facilities, a building elevator, community room, ample access to neighboring amenities and historical charm.