Committee on Housing & Community Development Agency Performance Oversight Hearing

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Councilmembers:

My name is Eugene Puryear and I am testifying on behalf of the organization Justice First that, among other things, is working in conjunction with the Alabama Ave./13th St. Tenants Coalition in their effort to prevent their displacement as a result of a planned development at the Congress Heights Metro Station. I open by highlighting this case because it is highly indicative of the problems surrounding the entirely inadequate creation of housing that is affordable to District residents regardless of income.

Some of these issues are “macro” and extend far beyond this hearing.

The tide of gentrification across the District now means that the median rent is more than $1,400. A family needs to earn $27 per hour to afford a two-bedroom market-rate apartment. The current minimum wage ($8.25) is only 30 percent of the needed wage, and even the minimum wage increase coming in 2016 ($11.50) is only 42 percent of the housing wage. Currently, rent control is limited to buildings built before 1976 – a rapidly shrinking set of units. This lack of real rent control has had serious consequences. Between 2000 and 2010, median rents increased by 50 percent. In the same period, half of all low-cost rental units were lost, while the number of high-cost units tripled. To put this even further in context, the lowest-income 40 percent of D.C. households have seen essentially no change in income. Specifically for renters, the average income has also remained virtually unchanged.

The true meaning of “affordable” housing is very muddled. Affordable housing is determined via relationship to area median income (AMI), which measures not just the District, but many of the wealthy surrounding counties, distorting measures of affordability. The current AMI in the District is $107,500. Practically, this means even a lot of “affordable” units remain out of reach for those with the greatest need and the most significant burden in housing costs.

In short, we have too few well-paying jobs combined with a market that creates primarily only units aimed towards high-income earners and ultimately the long-terms needs of their capital investors, which needless to say are based on their own rate of return and not the housing needs of District residents.

Further, the funds provided for affordable housing are abysmally low. The District has a Housing Production Trust Fund, which has received roughly $100 million per year (the baseline for appropriate funding according to many housing activists) over the last three years. But historically, this Trust has produced fewer than 1,000 units for families earning under $32,250 per year, meeting less than 2 percent of the need. That’s fewer than 1,000 units for 60,000 families!

There are currently 71,000 people on the public housing waiting list. To house them would cost an estimated $2.3 billion. $1.3 billion of that would upgrade our existing public housing stock and ensure our residents in public housing have safe, livable and comfortable accommodations. Currently, however, no substantial sum is being appropriated to upgrade or build public housing units. Instead, the District is continuing efforts to reduce the number of public housing units, and in fact allows hundreds to sit vacant.

With challenges like these DHCD has to husband its money somewhat carefully to get maximum impact. This is why I highlighted the Congress Heights tenants because the situation there absolutely deserves answers from DHCD as to their behavior.

The project includes one building currently not owned by those proposing the current development. Currently, this building has a 40-year covenant requiring all units to be affordable for extremely low-income tenants. And while the current owner of that building received almost $1 million in a loan from the District government, the building still remains vacant. No money has been repaid on that loan, nor has the owner paid any taxes. Despite the dire need for affordable housing, and the outstanding loan, it is our understanding that the District is preparing to sell the building very cheaply and wave the affordability covenant – essentially allowing anything to be built in its stead, namely the smaller, market-rate units that Sanford Capital is proposing. These units would be unaffordable to the vast majority of Congress Heights residents.

Not only are these facts alone quite distressing, but the parties involved have long-checkered histories with the District and its agencies. One partner in this deal is Sanford Capital. Sanford is known very well to DHCD. In another Southeast apartment complex, Terrace Manor, Sanford signed an agreement with a tenants association in exchange for the association’s right to purchase the building, then promptly reneged. It has not implemented any of the repairs or improvements promised, has maintained poor conditions, and has evicted half of the building’s residents. Sanford has failed to repay a District loan, pleading poverty, while simultaneously trying to sell the building. Sanford has a reputation for this – buying low-income buildings under false pretenses, refusing to maintain them in livable condition, and then trying to sell in order to dodge their obligations and line their pockets. This is classic slumlord behavior. DHCD is trying to force Sanford to sell because of its actions.

So one must ask why on earth would DHCD would even consider facilitating a deal with Sanford Capital, whose recent track record shows their willingness to game District agencies and low-income residents for their own profits? Further, CityPartners, headed by Geoffrey Griffis, is also a party to this deal. Mr. Griffis has his own history of corruption while he was a member of the Board of Zoning Adjustment, enough of a history that this body, the D.C. Council, rejected him when he was proposed as a member of the Zoning Commission. Further, as is outlined in the WAMU series “deals for developers,” Mr. Griffis was a part of a very unsavory deal that transferred millions of dollars’ worth of District-owned land for $1 dollar.

On top of all of this, in documents procured through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, one DHCD employee stated to another: “I looked through the coupon book and now I see what this deal is all about.” The implication there is clear: that cases like these with sweetheart deals for slumlords may not be that rare.

We need serious answers on these questions:

1. Does DHCD consider past history of ethical and legal malfeasance in considering who they work with? If not, why would they knowingly facilitate developments that could harm current and future tenants?
2. What is the current status of 3200 13th St. SE (the building at issue)? Do they plan to waive the previous affordability covenant? Do they plan to forgive all or part of the outstanding loan? What steps are being taken to recoup the District’s investment and sanction the current owner for wasting taxpayer money?
3. What is the “coupon book”?
4. Given the facts regarding the history of the proposed developers and their current abysmal treatment of current tenants, will they reconsider any involvement with the current Planned Unit Development?

I want to end by restating the point made at the beginning of this testimony: There is not even close to enough money appropriated to house all those who need housing. In Justice First, we believe housing is a human right, not a privilege. This committee needs to use its oversight powers to suss out the key obstacles to an aggressive plan — in the billions of dollars — to put a roof over everyone’s head. Literally billions are given out each year in tax breaks as advocacy group ONE DC points out; however, in the past 10 years, the District gave $1.7 billion to developers, and this amount could have housed every family making less than $32,250 (30 percent of area median income) — 60,000 families — for more than two years. This quite frankly is just the tip of the iceberg for misused public funds, like $100 million for a soccer stadium.

While developers get free money from the District, tenants — like those at Congress Heights — get abused, neglected and displaced. This is a sign that the entire system we have created to allegedly provide affordable housing is entirely broken.

Thank you,

Eugene Puryear

Michelle Mitchell
Robert Green
Lonise Meachum
Clarence Taylor

Michelle Mitchell

January 22, 2015 

District of Columbia Zoning Commission
Case ZC 13-08
Testimony by Michelle Mitchell
Alabama Ave/13th Street Tenants Coalition

Honorable Members of the Zoning Commission,

My name is Michelle Mitchel. I live at 3210 13th Street Apt #8 and have lived there for 15 years. I am testifying in opposition to the proposed PUD that seeks to tear down my building due to Sanford Capital’s continued lack of consideration for the buildings they own and tenants as a property owner and landlord. Sanford Capital maintains their properties in bad condition, does not respond quickly or often at all to maintenance requests, and does not provide security for the tenants living in their buildings. For these reasons I do not believe that they are a trustworthy company and should not be granted permission to construct a Planned Unit Development where our homes currently stand.

My neighbors and I have had many problems with the condition of the buildings and the apartments where we live, and have made Sanford Capital aware of these many times since they have owned the buildings. Some of these include the following: the doors to my closet and bedroom are broken, my carpet is old and in bad condition and they have refused to replace it, there is water damage throughout my apartment causing chipping paint and my kitchen sink to sink into the floor, the refrigerator Sanford provided for me leaks and is constantly filled with water, and there is regularly trash built up outside the dumpster. I’ve asked them repeatedly to address these issues and they have not.

Sometimes they will look at the problem, say they will come back to fix it but never do. Certain problems that cost them money (such as water leaks since they pay the water bills) they are quick to fix, but not most things we need. A few of us tenants in here never had a heating system. Personally I’ve never used my heating system. I’ve told them that it’s broken and they don’t want to pay to fix it. My neighbor uses his oven.

To get repairs, Sanford has a system where you call a number and then you wait on maintenance to get back with you. I try to be understanding when they a long time, but most of the time they never address my problems. I do not feel that they care about their tenants. They have a slumlord attitude: we ask them over and over again to do certain things in the building or in our apartments and they either get to it on their own time, or they don’t at all. I used to call them a lot, and when I would call they wouldn’t do anything for me, so it doesn’t seem worth it to call any more.

To resolve some of the problems in our living situation me and my neighbors have had to come together and come up with other solutions such as meeting with the police and housing conditions court. We still have problems with security though- the police haven’t helped much at all because they say they can’t do anything without the owner’s permission. Sanford capital doesn’t care who comes in and out of the building, and the front door hasn’t been secured since Sanford has owned the building. Truthfully I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been complaining to them about the security problems in my building for three years. Sanford Capital will not come and listen to our security concerns: they told me that they had the police on it, but in reality since Sanford has owned the building there has never been enough security. I believe this is mostly due to Sandford’s negligence, as well as them aggressively getting people out of the building. There are more vacant units than there were before, which makes the security problem in the building much worse. We never had problems with security under previous ownership. The last owners were very fast to fix anything we called about.

I have never seen any landlord as inconsiderate as Sanford Capital. They have so many properties already that they just don’t want to invest in, and I don’t think that they deserve to tear these building down and build something new because of their poor treatment of their tenants. I really don’t think they deserve to have this property, and I don’t think other tenants do either.

Thank you,

Michelle Mitchell

Tenant of 3210 13th Street SE

Robert Green

January 22, 2015

District of Columbia Zoning Commission
Case ZC 13-08
Testimony by Robert Green
Alabama Ave/13th Street Tenants Coalition

Honorable Members of the Zoning Commission,

My name is Robert Green. I reside at 1331 Alabama Ave SE apartment 304, Washington DC 20032 and have lived there for two years. I would like to testify in opposition to the PUD today for two main reasons.

The first reason that I oppose the PUD is because of the hardship that being displaced from my home would cause me personally. I would like to remain in my apartment because of the closeness of public transportation- the metrobus and subway which are next door to my apartment. The accessibility of the bus and subway helps me by getting me to my medical appointments and physical therapy sessions. There are grocery stores, a library, food establishments close by when I’m too sick to cook, my pharmacy, and a laundrymat are also near by. Because of the number of churches in this area I can attend religious and civic meetings.I have neighbors that check on me because my various medical problems, which I’ll not have in another neighborhood. Also Malcolm X school is right next door to my apartment building, where I go to use their field for my physical therapy exercises for the rehabilitation of my left knee. I have had to be rushed to United Medical Center on numerous occasions because of my heart conditions, diabetes, asthma, A-fib, and bleeding problems. I believe I and other tenants in my buildings should have the right to enjoy these benefits.

The second reason I oppose the PUD is that I do not believe that Sanford Capital is worthy of having this project approved based on their deplorable track record with the properties they already own. I do not trust Sanford Capital, do not appreciate their treatment of tenants and property, and do not want to give up my TOPA rights.

Since I’ve lived on the property, I have experienced housing condition problems such as cracks in the walls, problems with hot water, with heat and air conditioning, issues with rodent infestations, and many other issues. When the cracks in my walls are fixed they reappear soon after, and the hallways and common areas are not cleaned enough and are left filthy. The laundry facilities in my building are a mess, there are leaking pipes in the basement, and the basement floods every time it rains. The smell is terrible, and there have been fly infestations because of the standing water. There is raw sewage often times in the basement when it floods. Lastly, the glass to the front door is constantly broken and not repaired. I had to fix the cracks myself so that they are no longer a problem, and bought curtains to insulate the windows. Roaches came up from the apartment below me, and when I called Sanford about it they told me that they were sending someone out but no one ever came. Finally I sprayed it myself with RAID. The worst thing about the conditions is the mice that were everywhere. I was throwing away food like mad; bread, cereal, and as a matter of fact I had to throw away a mattress. I jumped in bed once without turning on the lights and didn’t realize I was in bed with about ten baby mice. I had to kill them and throw away the mattress and box springs since they were such a mess.

To get a repair done, you are supposed to call the maintenance number. When you do that they give you a confirmation number and then turn it over to site maintenance. They come knock on your door and asks what the problem. It takes months to get repairs completed. The maintenance people might come and start the work, but they always say they have to get parts and never come back to finish the job.

Just to try and get them to do the basic repairs that they are supposed to, I’ve had to do a lot of things. I’ve written to the deputy mayor of public safety, I have called all the district agencies, called my ANCs, I’ve called Todd Fulmer, Dominic, Pat Strauss, from Sanford. Me and my neighbors had to take them to Housing Conditions Court just to get these basic things taken care of in our building.

I don’t think Sanford is a responsible property owner, and they don’t keep up their buildings or take care of their tenants. If they treat me this way and other tenants, it’s not fair for them to get a new building and treat the new tenants with respect and consideration, and take care of their needs after they treated me so poorly. It shows that they are treating me as a non-person. And that shows that they do not care about black people. We have been trying to negotiate with them, but we do not trust their word on anything, and we should not have to give up our legal TOPA rights as a requirement to come to an agreement with them.

In conclusion, Sanford Capital doesn’t care about their tenants or meaningful affordable housing. If you the members of this commission have done a check on Sanford’s tenants’ living conditions and the way they treat people and the conditions of their buildings you would see that they are the largest slumlords in their city and surely don’t deserve to build this project. Several of Sanford’s people have advised and pressured me and my neighbors to move, and have told me that this project has already been approved from the beginning. I certainly hope this is not the case.

Thank you for your consideration of my testimony in opposition to the PUD.

Robert Green

Tenant of 1331 Alabama Ave. SE

Lonise Meachum

January 22, 2015

District of Columbia Zoning Commission
Case ZC 13-08
Testimony by Lonise Meachum
Alabama Ave/13th Street Tenants Coalition

Honorable Members of the Zoning Commission,

My name is Lonise Meachum and I live at 1331 Alabama Ave. SE Apt. 203, one of the many apartments that Sanford Capital is seeking to tear down through the approval of this PUD. I would like to testify today in opposition to the PUD: I have lived on the property for 10 years, and since Sanford Capital has taken over I have had many issues in my building and unit.

Some of the main problems are that the front door to the building is rarely secured and the building laundry room has and has a strong smell starting about a year ago. There are also not any security lights around the back of the building, which is part of a larger security problem we are having. Since Sanford constantly and aggressively trying to get people out, many units in the buildings are vacant which poses a huge security problems and allows for squatters and other people to use our building as they please, and this makes it a less safe place for us to live. Also there are large pot-holes in the driveway and parking lot, and the fence surrounding the building is broken and needs to be fixed. All of these have become problems for the property since Sanford Capital has taken ownership of the building a few years ago. The smell coming from the basement and laundry room is the worst ongoing problem in my building, and Sanford has continually refused to fix it. Since the basement floods when it rains and does not drain properly, there is standing water often for months that then becomes moldy and allows insects to breed, causing infestations at times in peoples’ apartments. Sanford has never truly remedied this problem. The conditions of our buildings have gone downhill since they took over.

To get repairs done we’re supposed to call the office for anything we need.  Some things are done within a week or two, but the smell and other issues have been going on for a long time. I called internally first to Sanford and tried to get them to come and look at the problems, but since they were unresponsive to my needs, I had to take other steps. I called an inspector at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and went to housing conditions court to try to get the basement repaired. Even with all of the conditions problems in the building, and with Sanford being as unresponsive to our needs as they are, they still charge us $100 late fees when we are just a few days late paying our rent. This has caused many of my neighbors to be continually and unfairly behind each month.

In addition, I oppose this PUD because I don’t believe that it is fair to long-term tenants of the building and the area like me. I have lived at 1331 Alabama for 10 years, and I’d like to stay in this area because its very convenient to me here to get around to the things that I do. When you’ve been in a place for 10 years, and then someone wants to come in and make it better for other people to reap the benefits that is unfair. Why can’t tenants like us be the ones to get the benefits? Why do we have to be relocated and possibly never get a chance to enjoy the benefits and enjoy that new environment? The relocation plan that Sanford proposes gives us NO guarantee that they will actually build the new development and bring us back in a timely manner with no questions ask like they say they will.

Also, all of the apartments where they have managed to get people out over the past couple years will never again be affordable to tenants like me. Sanford Capital actively and intentionally tried to push people out of the building so that there would be fewer residents left to oppose this development. As a result of their aggressive actions a lot of people in the buildings have moved out and will not get any benefit at all from this development. This is completely unfair and I believe they should have kept people in the building. Now the apartments where they got people out are are boarded up, and Sanford is not allowing anyone else to move in, so those units are lost.

Thank you for your consideration of my testimony.

Lonise Meachum

Tenant of 1331 Alabama Ave SE

Clarence Taylor

Testimony for Congress Heights Zoning hearing, Clarence Taylor

My name is Clarence Taylor and I have been a tenant at 1331 Alabama Ave SE for 8 years. I would like to testify in detail to the deplorable way that Sanford Capital manages the buildings that they are requesting be demolished, and state my opposition for the PUD that they are requesting before the Zoning Commission.

Throughout the time that I have lived on this property I have experienced many different housing problems. I have had continual problems with mice infestations and pests. Just recently I got my car repaired from a large pot hole in the parking lot that me and other tenants had continuously notified Sanford Capitol about. (The pot hole broke my axel, and I know Sanford won’t be willing to pay me for it.) I just recently got a refrigerator after years of needing one, and the stoves don’t work half of the time. Sanford still has not finished fixing my air and it has been years. They have also still not done anything about that basement. You have to fight bugs whenever you downstairs to the basement and sometimes just to get to your door. In the basement there is standing water, exposed electrical wires, leaky pipes, broken washers and dryers, and it is not secure. And now there is a bigger problem in the building. There are people sleeping in the halls; three or four of them every night. Every morning I open up my door and there’s always somebody laying in these halls. We really need them to do something about the security out here, because you never know who might be out there in the halls. And these are just some of the problems we tenants are experiencing in these buildings.

Ever since Sanford Capital took over ownership of the building where I live the housing conditions have gotten worse. When the last owners had the buildings the basement was in good condition, and we could use it to do laundry and for storage. This was the perfect place to live. Now it’s like hell. It’s like they don’t want us here or something. The maintenance man told me that Sanford doesn’t want to put a lot of money into these units. He told me that our housing problems can be fixed, but that Sanford doesn’t want to spend any money here because they want to tear these buildings down. 

When you call Sanford to request a repair, they say they’re going to take care of it but they never fully do. Often they start doing maintenance work but they never finish the job, and sometimes they don’t show up at all. When I call the office they tell me to call maintenance. Maintenance will usually tell me that they have received my work order number and request, but then they never show up. I have to call them 3 or 4 times to get anything fixed, and that’s if they ever come at all. I have a light socket now that they never even came out to look at, and I had been calling them consistently for three months. I got tired of calling and finally just ran an extension cord myself. We’ve also started using our own bulbs just to have light in the hallways. It’s not right in a building where there are elderly people for tenants to have to walk three or four days in the dark. If they do come to make a repair, it can take a few months. They’ve told us since our last meeting with them in May that we should call them directly at their office with requests, but they don’t even answer the phones up there. I’m not the only tenant that will tell you that. And everything goes to a recording when we call. When the hot water goes out it takes just about everyone in the building calling them to get them to come and fix it. We usually all sit outside and call together so we know for a fact that many of the tenants have called, and Sanford tells each tenant that calls that they are the first person to complain about the problem. They deny that the rest of us have called. We used to get confirmation numbers when we called, but now sometimes they tell us that we don’t need one. It’s as if they don’t want to talk to us. That’s the way it seems. I try not to give them a hard time, but it’s like they tell us to go to hell. We’re really not asking for a lot.

We have a lot of problems with the buildings where we live even now. We need security badly because the property isn’t safe. Who knows what kind of needle or glass we might step on outside our doors that someone could have left out. It would be good if a police officer could come and see what we’re living through to help make our building safer. Sanford said they would reach out to the local police when we met with them on May 7^th, but they haven’t done it. The basement under 1331 and 1333 Alabama is so bad that it’s getting so that tenants can smell it from their units. Sanford barely does anything for us. I’ve been waiting since they have owned the building on a new refrigerator and I just recently got it within the last couple months. I don’t even know how much food I had to throw away over the years that I was waiting for the new refrigerator, but it was a lot. And they always said “we’re going to bring you one” but they never did. There have been plenty of mornings I’ve woken up without any hot water (since it happens every time it rains because. the water heater floods.) My air conditioning can’t be turned off because it won’t come back on. The worst thing is the rats around the trash cans. People don’t even want to throw their trash away because of the rats. They’re a really bad problem around the dumpster, and Sanford needs to put something down to treat them, but maintenance doesn’t do anything to fix the problem.

These buildings used to be a nice, comfortable, safe place to live, but not anymore. Everything just went downhill since Sanford Capital has owned them. We don’t get any reaction from the property management. It feels like they just threw us to the wolves. I don’t feel safe, which is why I asked them for better security. I don’t feel comfortable here in this building. We’re all on our own, that’s the way I look at it. Even my neighbors are afraid to say anything. The tenants who are home in the daytime are being threatened by management, and many of my neighbors are scared of retaliation such as the hundred dollar late fees that they charge us. Many tenants don’t know any better. They think they don’t have any rights and Sanford takes advantage of that and keeps it so that they are scared to speak out.

Sanford Capital doesn’t take care of their tenants or their properties, and they don’t deserve this new building. They gave us their word that they would deal with the violations but they haven’t done anything. If it takes me as a tenant years to get problems addressed in my apartment, then something isn’t working right. They don’t deserve a new building. Maybe they’ll straighten up, but how long do you think they’re going to take care of it? Our buildings now are a little place. I don’t see any evidence to make me, the zoning commission, or anyone else think that they could run a big new complex. There aren’t many of us tenants here now, and they can’t even handle our problems like they should. How do you think that they’re going to be able to handle concerns of a whole new building? Just look what they’re doing now and you can tell that they aren’t doing right. Sanford Capital does not deserve to be approved for a new property for the sake of the tenants who will be displaced, the neighborhood as a whole, and future tenants, based on a long record of irresponsible property ownership and management. Thank you, and I hope you will consider my and other residents’ testimony and disapprove this PUD.