DC apartment building owners that neglected maintenance, endangered tenants must pay $1.65 million to tenants

WASHINGTON — Owners of a D.C. apartment building must pay their tenants and the District at least $1.65 million and sell the building to a buyer that will maintain affordable housing in all 76 units, Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced Wednesday.

Tenants of apartment building Foster House in Shaw were forced to leave their homes because of unsafe and unlawful conditions, according to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). The owners, New Bethel Baptist Church Housing Corporation, Inc. (New Bethel) and Evergreen 801 RI Apartments LLC (Evergreen), have reached a settlement with the OAG, which sued the two companies for neglecting repairs and maintenance and endangering tenants. Many of the tenants were low-income older adults who had lived in the building for decades, according to a press release.

Now, New Bethel and Evergreen will also pay $650,000 in restitution to the tenants who have been affected and $1 million in civil penalties to D.C.

And the two companies must sell the property to a buyer that will agree to develop at least 76 affordable apartments and agree to keep those apartments affordable for 30 years. If New Bethel and Evergreen fail to find a buyer within a year, they will have to pay more than $6 million in restitution and penalties, additional to the $1.65 million they currently must pay.

Joy Perry, a former tenant, said management refused to make repairs, leaving her family living in terrible conditions.

“The mold in our apartment left my young nephew struggling to breathe, and my mom’s health declined rapidly because of the conditions we were living under. She passed away in June, and I believe she might still be with us if we had been living somewhere else,” Perry said in an OAG press release.

The $650,000 will be paid to 53 tenants that were harmed by the building’s conditions and the failure to repair them. The companies will also forgive all back rent that tenants owe.

The OAG also used $700,000 from the Tenant Receivership Abatement Fund to pay for emergency repairs to the building. The settlement requires that New Bethel and Evergreen reimburse the fund, with interest, within two years.

Perry and Ericka Malloy, another tenant and president of the Foster House Tenants’ Association, say they are grateful to the OAG for fighting for their rights.

“No one should have to live with rats coming into their home through holes in the walls and cabinets, infestations of huge flying bugs, or water coming through the roof, floors and ceilings — but that’s exactly what my neighbors and I were dealing with,” Malloy said in an OAG press release.