A Failure in Enforcement

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A Crumbling Home

At a troubled Southeast apartment complex, tenants have reported no heat or gas, a falling ceiling, cracked walls, mice and a defective water heater in recent years. The owner says he's made repairs in recent months, but wants tenants to leave so that he can sell the building.

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One of the most striking imbalances plays out in the enforcement of the city's housing codes.

A Post analysis of data from the agency's tracking system found that just half of the 2,100 urgent complaints from 2007 were handled within 48 hours, DCRA's standard. Using different data, the agency put the figure at 76 percent in reports to the mayor.

At 804 Taylor St. NW, tenants have called DCRA complaining of no heat or water, cracked walls and a rat infestation, records show. The building is owned by Warren Williams Jr., a real estate developer.

In 2006, Williams started pressing tenants to leave the building, offering $3,000 and help finding a new apartment. He noted that if the building converted to condominiums, tenants would have the right to purchase a unit before any other buyers.

Tenants say the building fell into disrepair. On an afternoon last fall, rotting trash was piled in heaps in the back yard, and inside, a ceiling had collapsed and chunks of the walls had fallen into the stairwells.

"No cleaning, sweeping, security, repairs to lighting," said tenant John Parks, 44. Parks, a graduate student, doesn't want to give up his apartment because he can walk to Howard University, his rent is $425 a month and he can take his 3-year-old son to a nearby playground.

In February 2007, DCRA found more than 25 violations, but it dropped the case in April, saying the inspector couldn't get inside the building to reinspect. The agency went back in October for a buildingwide inspection and found more than 30 violations. The case was closed in January, with DCRA saying violations had been fixed.

Tenants say that some repairs were made but that the fixes were often cosmetic. The roof is still leaking, the walls are peeling and lights are not working, they say.

"DCRA has been very lax," said tenant James Posey, a city employee who has lived in the building for seven years. "I've been trying to get this stuff resolved since July of last year, but there's no sense of urgency on DCRA's part. Absolutely none."

A DCRA official said the agency has often had trouble getting into the building for inspections.

Williams said that his property manager had been absent from the building for personal reasons but that repairs have been made. He denied that he had tried to force tenants out by refusing to maintain the building.

"That's never been any intention of mine," Williams said. "Never, never."