Hallways full of excrement, vermin and prostitutes were just some of the grievances voiced by D.C. tenants against recalcitrant landlords at a town hall meeting Saturday afternoon.
Over 100 people attended the meeting, some sharing personal horror stories of living in rodent and cockroach infested buildings, without heat or hot water, and under ceilings crumbling from disrepair during a meeting organized by the Tenant Advisory Council. D.C. city council members also spoke and fielded questions from the livid residents at the gathering in Saint Aloysius Church in northwest D.C.
The main goal of the meeting was “for tenants to tell their stories and link them with policy changes,” said Farah Fosse, Director of Affordable Housing Preservation, a program within the Latino Economic Development Corporation. She emphasized the session was not meant to be just an outlet for complaining, but an opportunity for tenants to propose feasible solutions to their grievances.
The Tenant Advisory Council, which organized the meeting, presented a list of demands to D.C. Council members and agencies including the Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs. Among the items on the list was the establishment of mandatory annual inspections to force landlords to comply with housing codes and a strengthening of tenants’ ability to hold landlords accountable for code violations. The group also asked the Council to aggressively monitor all future building inspection, enforcement and repair proceedings.
Nora Salas of 2359 Ontario Road gave some of the most graphic testimony, complaining through an interpreter of “excrement and urine in our hallways, prostitution in our building — and there are children who live in this building.”
There is no lock on the back door of the building, added Salas, noting one tenant had been robbed in the building in the middle of the afternoon.
Several city council members, including Ward 1 councilman Jim Graham and Ward 4 councilwoman Muriel Bowser, were on hand to speak to tenants at the meeting.
“We are in a struggle,” said councilman Graham. “It’s a war to provide adequate housing for people in the District of Columbia. I know we have a long way to go.”
The Tenant Advisory Council will hold a meeting in October to provide an update on the proposed changes.
