The Profit in Decay

Gallery

Wrong Side of Renewal

In recent years, landlords in the District have emptied hundreds of apartment buildings and taken steps to convert them to condominiums. Tenants say they have been pushed out, sometimes by bad building conditions. Landlords say they have tenants offered move-out offers, and that tenants often report frivolous code violations for leverage in negotiations.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

More than half of the buildings that received exemptions had code violations recorded in city records, while most buildings in the city had none. City housing inspectors found more than 3,000 infractions in the three years before tenants moved out, including leaks, busted stoves and toilets, splintered floors, broken windows and cracked walls.

In nearly 40 cases, buildings were cited for problems with heat, electricity, hot water or air conditioning. Inspectors found more than 400 damaged ceilings and walls, 40 leaking pipes and 212 broken windows, according to city records. In three cases, tenants had no place to bathe.

At the same time, some landlords have delivered a flurry of eviction notices or claimed that the properties would be renovated or no longer used for housing -- then moved to convert to condominiums once tenants were gone.

Clashes between tenants and landlords continue to erupt, even as District leaders promise to crack down on property owners who allow their buildings to fall apart.

A property manager for a building on Longfellow Street NW wrote three times to tenants in 2005 urging them to move out. One letter said: "Next year, it will be a miracle if you all have heat and water."

On Vernon Street NW, families twice reported strangers banging on doors in 2006, in one case yelling: "You have to move out. You have 48 hours." Both buildings have since become vacant, and in one case the new owner has applied for an exemption.

Some of the owners have prominent ties in the region, but tenant advocates say identities are often difficult to determine because the buildings are owned by limited liability companies or the owners hire property managers to represent them. The owners include Ellis Parker, son-in-law of the co-founder of Chevy Chase Bank; Providence Hospital doctor Pamela Coleman; and developers Aubrey Carter Nowell and Patrick Strauss, who offered a redevelopment proposal to the city last year with an official from the Clinton administration.

Property owners say District law is skewed in favor of tenants and places unfair restrictions on private enterprise.

"I think tenants need to be protected, but the laws are much too tenant-oriented," said Arnold Litman, whose company owns Evans's building on Ninth Street SE.

Landlords say they negotiate move-out deals with tenants and offer them money to leave. But, they say, tenants often exploit the law by reporting frivolous housing code violations for leverage in the negotiations. Landlords also describe the dilemma of owning aging buildings -- how to make major repairs that would cost millions of dollars without drastically raising rents or converting to condominiums.

Landlords, Litman said, "don't make an investment without expecting a return."

Tenant lawyers and advocates say landlords can make a profit within the law, which was meant to preserve affordable rental housing in a city filled with government employees, young families and low-wage workers. They argue that the city should do more to prevent abuses of the exemption, though city officials say the law is vague and their authority limited. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) late last year took steps to tighten the law, submitting to the D.C. Council a proposal to keep landlords from converting buildings to condominiums if they have outstanding code violations.