A vacant two-story building in Northwest Washington partially collapsed early Sunday morning, leaving neighbors saying “I told you so” to D.C. regulatory officials who had cited the property for trash problems but never for structural deficiencies, according to the owner.
No one was hurt during the collapse, but people who lived near 1468 Belmont St. said injuries could have been possible because the abandoned building was often inhabited by homeless people.
“This building has been almost like a halfway house where many homeless people come and go,” neighbor Wayne Shields, who lives two doors down from the property, told The Examiner. “It’s sort of infamous in our neighborhood. We unfortunately predicted and expected this to happen, and we’ve been concerned about it because of what could happen to the people who stay there.”
Council Member Jim Graham said area residents had contacted him about numerous problems with the property, and he had pressed city housing officials to investigate the building.
“We have a property that has been a serious nuisance for several years, and we’ve been hammering away at [the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs] to deal with it, but they only find issues with trash, rodent problems or — most recently — nothing at all,” Graham told The Examiner.
“We’re grateful nobody was hurt, but this is something that should never have happened in the first place. This is not a success story for DCRA.”
