On May 9th, Connecticut Avenue tenant leaders wrote to Mayor Muriel Bowser to request a meeting on DC housing policies and the effects on living conditions in their apartment buildings. On June 8th, they got their wish. During their meeting with the mayor, representatives from buildings including 3003 Van Ness, the Avalon, Connecticut House, Brandywine […]
High-Rise Life
3003 Van Ness landlord Equity Residential ordered to pay $2 million for “rent hike scam”
Van Ness landlord Equity Residential has been ordered to pay $2 million to the District and to residents of 3003 Van Ness for what Attorney General Karl Racine calls a “rent hike scam.” “[A]t every step in the rental process, from online advertisements to apartment searches, tours, and applications, Equity misled prospective tenants, ultimately placing […]
Opinion: The DC housing vouchers system is broken. It’s on the mayor to fix it.
by Marlene Berlin Tawana Holland of DC’s Department of Human Services told a December 16th meeting on the subject of increased emergency calls to Van Ness-area apartment buildings that many residents, upon receiving a rental subsidy, choose this neighborhood because “there have been other places in the city where they have been traumatized for many, […]
Apartment updates: New “nuisance” building at Van Ness; Tenant leaders request meeting with mayor
MPD has referred Connecticut House, an apartment building at 4500 Connecticut Avenue, to the Office of the Attorney General division that investigates “nuisance” properties. MPD Second District Lieutenant Stephen Amodeo confirmed in an email that “recent qualifying violations of the law” led the police to take this step, which can lead to prosecution of the […]
Current rental housing vouchers process “ain’t working,” says DC deputy mayor
by Marlene Berlin A Bowser administration official publicly acknowledged that there are problems with the District’s housing vouchers system, including agencies not following up or otherwise providing necessary services to apartment residents receiving housing assistance. Chris Geldart, the deputy mayor for public safety and justice, told ANC 3F’s April 19th meeting that the agencies that […]
Do you live in a DC apartment building? Take our survey and tell us about your “high-rise life”
The majority of DC residents rent their homes, and in 2019, when the D.C. Policy Center was collecting data for its 2020 report on rental housing in the District, 60 percent of rental units were in apartment buildings. That’s 124,641 apartment units, in 3,121 buildings. And we’d like to know more about what it’s like […]
Letters to the Editor: Fix DC housing policies to repair past harms; Landlords have a public safety responsibility, too
The two letters below were written after the February 1st virtual meeting of the MPD Second District Community Advisory Committee. The CAC gathered police and DC behavioral health officials to discuss “an uptick of complaints” from and about apartment buildings. (We reported on a portion of the conversation, which went over who to call in […]
Connecticut House residents form a tenants association
Residents of Connecticut House apartments have organized a tenants association in order to negotiate safety and security improvements with their landlord, DARO Management. Residents of 4500 Connecticut Avenue have flagged several issues in communications with DARO, Forest Hills Connection has learned. Residents were being threatened with physical harm by other residents or visitors. Packages were […]
Residents of a Van Ness “nuisance” building say management is ignoring structural as well as security problems
Residents of 3003 Van Ness including Harry Gural, the president of the apartment building’s tenants association, spoke of security and safety concerns during a December 16th meeting led by Council member Mary Cheh. MPD 2D Commander Duncan Bedlion said during the meeting that the building’s management company, Equity Residential, has been unresponsive to police recommendations […]
MPD referred three Van Ness apartment buildings to DC AG’s “nuisance” property office
The commander of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Second District has reported three Van Ness and Forest Hills apartment buildings to the division of the Office of the Attorney General that handles “nuisance” properties because they have not implemented recommendations that could curtail problems that lead to many police service calls. At a December 16th public […]