DC’s supply of affordable rental housing is dwindling, and as a community we can’t let more be neglected or wiped away. We are the tenants that live at 2724 11th Street NW. We are low-income tenants; elderly and disabled; children that currently attend Tubman Elementary and area high schools; college students; single mothers; nannies; construction workers; carpenters; painters; cooks; clerks; security guards; and retired people.
We live, and have been living, in horrible conditions for a number of years. If you live near-by, you know it and we live with it daily. For the past year and a half, we have been fighting to keep our affordable housing and defend our home – some of us have lived here for forty years! Affordable housing in our area has been quickly declining in the last year just like it has all over DC. The city has done little to alleviate this housing crisis. The odds are against us. But, we are working through all the political routes to defend our homes. We are pressuring the owner JEFFERSON 11TH STREET L.L.C., run by absentee landlord Ellis J. Parker III and directed by his daughter-in-law Jennifer Parker.
The Parkers have a long history of displacing tenants and mismanaging properties, as even Jeniffer Parker admits. Their strategy has been to flip buildings into condominiums in order to get out from DC’s rent-control laws and therefore destroy affordable housing in our city. They do this by letting the building decay so that we are forced out. We and our children live with mice, rats, roaches, bedbugs, lead paint, mold, possible asbestos, rat holes in the walls and floors, damaged roof, and other very bad conditions. We constantly report these issues but rarely is anything fixed. DCRA, the Fire Marshal, and the Department of Health have been to the property several times, but they have not been able to force the owners to bring the building up to code and decent living conditions.
Now, our homes are being threatened by a 31.5% rent increase. The absentee landlord-owner has asked for a Hardship Petition because he says he’s not making enough money to fix up the building and make it livable. When we fought him the first time, we were able to win only because of a technicality. We are afraid that this time the District will let the petition stand. If it’s approved, then the landlord will increase the our rents by $250-300 per unit. An amount unimaginable to most of us.We want to live in better conditions. We want the absentee landlord-owner to sell the building to a responsible landlord. The current owner is not acting responsibly. He should no longer own property in DC. He is not a good neighbor – but we are! Will you help to preserve affordable housing in Columbia Heights?
Save 2724 11th Street! 