From Blighted Block to Housing 'Miracle'

"It's not a very easy thing to do," said Sarah Constant of MissionFirst, the affordable housing developer that worked on Hernandez's rowhouse.

But D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), who also attended the ribbon-cutting, said the program was better than the lottery system the District once used to dispose of forfeited properties. People would get the houses, Fenty said, "and they would just sit in our neighborhoods for years and years."

The rowhouses on Farragut Place were bought by the Metro system in 1994 and left empty, officials said, so that tunnels could be dug underneath to serve the planned Georgia Avenue/Petworth rail station.

Neighbors told construction crews that the house Hernandez is buying may have been used as a drug stash house. When work crews went into the house this spring, they found dog waste throughout the first floor.

"We took out 22 trash cans" of waste, said Jeffrey S. Dawson, project manager for Coakley Williams Construction. Floors had to be sanded, disinfected and sealed before carpet could be laid. "Between that and the rodents, it was horrible."

But the house smelled fresh and welcoming yesterday, as Hernandez gave the mayor and other onlookers a tour. It has three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and a half-bath on the first floor.

When the house was owned by Metro, it was not taxed by the city. Now, the six restored rowhouses -- one sold for $190,000, the rest for about $250,000 -- together contribute an estimated $9,000 in property taxes each year. Sale prices of other houses on the block have started to rise above $300,000, property tax records show.

"We're bringing stable home ownership into our neighborhoods," Williams said at the ribbon-cutting. "Six new homeowners now live where only a few years ago vacant homes languished beyond repair."