Landlord's Plans Could Oust 211 Needy Families

The owners of a low-income housing complex 10 blocks north of the U.S. Capitol plan to terminate the federal contract that pays the rent for 211 poor families, tear down the structures and redevelop the increasingly valuable property, an executive said yesterday.

"The bottom line is we're tired of bleeding. We have to stop the bleeding. We're not in this just to pour money down the drain," said Andrew A. Viola, vice president of the Virginia-based Bush Construction Corp.

The move was announced Monday in a letter to residents of the Temple Courts housing complex at K and North Capitol streets NW in which Bush Construction declared that it intends to let the rent contract lapse after April 30, 2007, giving tenants a one-year notice of their possible eviction, as required by federal law.

In addition to ousting people from their homes, terminating the rent contract at Temple Courts -- one of the largest federally subsidized properties in the District -- would complicate an ambitious plan to preserve affordable housing in one of the city's fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams's administration is trying to persuade Bush Construction to cooperate with that plan and has asked the D.C. Council for authority to claim the property through eminent domain if those negotiations fail. A bill is pending before the council.

But the letter marks the second time in a week that Bush Construction has pronounced the rent subsidies at Temple Court in jeopardy. On April 26, Viola announced at a town hall meeting that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was threatening to terminate the rent contract because the property had repeatedly failed health and safety inspections.

On Monday, HUD officials, including Hank Williams, deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing, held a news conference at Temple Courts and pledged to maintain the rent contract if the city would pay to remedy the safety violations. Deputy Mayor Stanley Jackson, who was also on hand, promised to do so.

Both HUD's Williams and Temple Courts residents blamed the owner for failing to maintain the property.

Within hours, Bush Construction delivered the letter, raising the stakes once again.

"This points out who really wants people out of this building," said community activist Mark Andersen, "and that's Bush Construction."