Complex is Searched for Unauthorized Tenants

Morton Park resident Elicia T. Foster-El said her husband was evicted because his name wasn't on the lease. (By Dayna Smith -- The Washington Post)

The D.C. Housing Authority began a crackdown yesterday to rid one of its most crime-ridden sites of unauthorized residents by changing the locks on dozens of apartments and requiring every resident over age 10 to get an identification card to carry at all times.

Housing officials in red T-shirts, accompanied by police, knocked on the doors of all 174 apartments at the Park Morton complex in Parkview, asking each person to produce identification. Those who could not, or who were not listed on the lease, were asked to leave.

Authorities changed 42 locks, found at least four "loiterers" and made one arrest.

One woman said her husband, whose name had not been added to her lease, was wearing only underwear when he was instructed to dress quickly and leave. Boyfriends, adult children and some toddlers also had to go -- at least until tenants straightened things out with the resident manager.

The goal, officials said, is to get a clear picture of the people living in its buildings and to evict occupants who should not be there. Many unauthorized persons, they said, loiter, deal drugs and gamble with impunity.

It was the most systematic effort the agency had undertaken to get leaseholders to honor the provisions of their leases, which bar boarders.

A steady stream of angry residents, some surprised to find themselves unable to enter their apartments, filed into the rental office to lodge complaints and get new keys.

Karen M. Moone, a housing authority deputy executive director, handled the complaints and said the harshest feedback came from "people who don't live here."

"Residents have been complaining about illegal activity and not feeling safe," Moone said. "The law-abiding residents feel threatened often by people who are not supposed to be here."

Park Morton, off Georgia Avenue north of Howard University, is in one of the city's crime hot spots. Although violent crime is down in the neighborhood, D.C. police Cmdr. Larry McCoy said drug sales and property crime persist within the complex.

Park Morton's courtyards are teeming with illegal activity daily, said Nathan E. Bouvelle, the director of housing management. Yesterday's sweep, Operation Reclaim Park Morton, sprang from a request for change by longtime tenants. D.C. and housing authority police plan to ask residents regularly to produce their identification cards and to shoo away nonresidents.

"This is what we wanted," said Marie Whitfield, president of the Park Morton Resident Council, who has lived in the complex for 30 years. "The majority of the residents decided that we wanted improvement -- a clean, safe, decent place to live."