The Purchase Of a Lifetime

But Rodriguez was attached to Capital Manor. When he was hired in 1996, he'd been given a mandate to clean up the complex, at that time barely two-thirds full. In his first few weeks on the job, Rodriguez said, he initiated more than 20 evictions, many for drug-related reasons.

By 2001, when the complex went on the market, the drug dealers had moved down the street and the vacant apartments had been filled with new families. A community was being built here on W Street, Rodriguez felt. He did not want the overheated real estate market to blast it apart.

In those early months, the tenant leaders invited a parade of speakers -- public interest advisers, city officials, developers -- to educate them about the tenant purchase process.

Marian Siegel, a housing counselor, was one of the first. She provided a crash course in collaborative entrepreneurship. In a pronounced Long Island accent, her face shiny with perspiration, she reeled off a long list of suggestions and cautions, pausing every few sentences so Rodriguez could translate.

Interview at least three lawyers and three developers before picking one of each to work with you, she advised. Charge monthly dues to members of the tenants association, even if it's only $5 or $10. Organize fundraisers.

"If you don't do something out of your own pockets, it lessens your commitment," Siegel said. "And if you can't put together a yard sale, how are you going to buy this building?"

She left them with a warning: "Be patient. Because this will take a long time."

"They're survivors. They were here when things were tough."

Jair K. Lynch, developer for Capital Manor

In fall 2001, while Washington was reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the tenants selected Georgetown's public-interest law clinic to represent them. The clinic assigned them O'Toole, a 29-year-old lawyer who spoke passable Spanish and had guided three smaller tenant-purchase efforts.

Next, the association interviewed developers. Most offered a package known as a low-income tax-credit deal, in which investors purchase and renovate a building in exchange for a federal tax break. After 15 years, the tenants can buy them out at a preset price.

But these tenants, who had been meeting for months, wanted to buy their buildings right away. Advocates including Siegel had told them that they could form a cooperative. That way the buildings could never be taken from them, and they, too, eventually could benefit from the soaring property values.