'Atrocious' NW Conditions Lead to Criminal Complaint

D.C. officials filed a criminal complaint yesterday alleging 2,861 housing code violations against a landlord whose dilapidated Columbia Heights building has rotted floors, caved-in ceilings, broken windows, rat carcasses and even a tenant living in an apartment with no bathroom.

D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer described conditions in the three-floor, 22-unit building at 3228 Hiatt Pl. NW as "atrocious" and "unsafe in every way."

"This case makes clear that we can and will hold landlords accountable for the properties they own and fail to maintain," said Singer, whose office, along with the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, brought the case in D.C. Superior Court against landlord David R. Cormier.

"We hope landlords who act like this will understand there are consequences," she said.

The building, in which only a few units are occupied, had been cited by the DCRA for dozens of housing violations in recent years after it came to the attention of the agency and D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). During the spring, the mayor's Ward 1 Community Outreach Office, along with Singer's office and the DCRA, found that repeated efforts to get Cormier to fix housing code violations went unheeded.

Attempts to reach Cormier at his office and home were unsuccessful yesterday. The attorney general's office said that Cormier owns seven apartment buildings in the District, five of them in Ward 1.

Among the housing code violations cited in the criminal complaint were rotted roof eaves, broken window sashes, broken and missing windows and doors, peeling lead paint, caved-in ceilings and rotted floorboards. DCRA inspectors found that one apartment bathroom had been gutted by the landlord and never repaired. Tenants of that apartment reported that the landlord told them to use the bathroom of a vacant apartment down the hall.

Singer said police in the past have arrested drug dealers and users inside vacant apartments in the building, which was not secure.

Although some repairs were made between mid-April and late August, Singer said the fixes were superficial. "We don't bring a 2,800-count housing complaint against a landlord who's making a good-faith effort to fix a property," Singer said.

The criminal case was filed because of Cormier's failure to abate the latest housing code violations, said DCRA Acting Director Linda K. Argo.

The tenants in the building are mostly Latino, city officials said.

"Safe housing is critical to the lives of District residents," Argo said. "DCRA will continue our efforts to ensure landlords are held responsible for substandard housing conditions."

Graham said, "Nobody should have to live in these type of conditions."