The phrase “Taxation Without Representation” has always applied to Washington, D.C. residents paying local and federal taxes but not having voting representation in the halls of Congress. However, based on the conditions in which several displaced former homeowners find themselves, it equally applies to local government as well.
In 2021, the District deemed River East at Grandview Condominiums (also known as the Talbert Street condos) uninhabitable. It did so just four years after the red brick townhomes located in Southeast, D.C. were newly built from the ground up and purchased with government subsidies by a majority of lower-income earning residents excited to become first-time home owners.
Due to conditions of the newly constructed property, those glowingly proud, house-key carrying condo residents immediately became homeless. Some had no choice but to return to renting apartments or homes, while others opted to bunk with family and friends. All of them were left with questions on how the District government would compensate them for their declining investment.
I first became familiar with the challenges confronting new condominium owners at Talbert Street when I served as the editor of Our House D.C in August 2021. I reported quite often about the residents’ failed attempts to rally as a homeowner association, their trips to D.C. Council to offer testimony, and their surprise when learning the very government that backed the commercial construction and the personal home loans would not immediately reimburse or replace their home, and instead temporarily remedy the situation with rental vouchers.
Today, three and a half years later, my feelings about what happened here and the negative impact the District government’s negligence had on innocent homeowners remain the same: disappointment, shock, anger, and disbelief. Yes, while a journalist is supposed to cover a story without bias, it’s impossible to interview the Talbert Street homeowners who are now, in fact, homeless, and write about the injustice they have experienced over the last three years without it becoming personal.
Diving into the Stories of Displaced Residents
Over the last several years, I spoke to many of the residents–most of them Black women–got to know their children, and witnessed their tears, pain, and anger.
One of them is Brittany Bennett and her two sons. Eight years ago, they lived in a homeless shelter on New York Avenue. While she often dreamed of purchasing a home, Bennett also spent many sleepless nights wondering how she could make that dream a reality.
Her path to homeownership first took shape in 2017 when a loan officer told her about the Home Purchase Assistance Program, managed by the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The program provides interest-free loans and closing cost assistance to qualified applicants purchasing single-family homes, condominiums, or cooperative units in the District.
Within three months of moving into her condominium, her problems began, including noticeable cracks in the walls. Over the next two years, there were other structural problems, including water leakage in the bathrooms, bedrooms, and kitchen.
Homeowner Robin McKinney was homeless for five years before moving into her condominium in 2017.
“It was my dream to be a homeowner and to give my kids generational wealth,” said McKinney when interviewed by The Washington Informer in 2021.
Like Bennett, shortly after moving to Talbert Street, McKinney noticed “cracks in the walls, tiles on the floor buckling, and doors closing improperly.”
McKinney, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (8A06), and Bennett were told by condominium management: “You’re going to see cracks because the foundation is settling.”
“Many of us are D.C. government employees, professionals, and business owners who pay taxes into a program we thought we would benefit from as first-time homebuyers,” McKinney said. “However, one of the councilmembers said, ‘the city was not the one with the hammer and the nail.’”
McKinney couldn’t believe the comment.
“How insensitive, callous, and disrespectful to us as a community of predominantly Black women homeowners with families. All we wanted was a fair shot at homeownership, to leave our families with generational wealth and a clean deed. We need legislation in place that will prevent anything like this from happening to any other constituents,” she said. “If we want to be a state, we need to act like one.”
Karl Morrison, who moved into his condominium in 2017, said he got word of structural issues early on.
“When I did my housing inspection, they found that my master bedroom was leaking. Stanton Development had to come in and replace the drywall and fix the window,” he said.
But that wasn’t enough. Seven years later, Morrison said he walked away from his home and is done fighting for reimbursements, refunds and explanations.
“So many of my neighbors are keeping up the fight for justice,” he said. “I have decided to let it go. I am a 65-year-old veteran who feels that the D.C. government has let me down and taken advantage of the taxpaying citizens of the District. Good luck to my neighbors and friends. Keep the fight going.”
Working with Political Leaders, Legislative Responses
The fight continued late last month when the D.C. Council, on Nov. 26, approved emergency legislation introduced by Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) with the encouragement of Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) that dismissed the District government from being liable for the residents’ loss.
The Washington Informer’s Collins D.C. Council Report reported last month that the legislation responded to an appellate court ruling that “the District cannot escape liability sought by a group of displaced homeowners.”
The legislation passed 10-2. Expressing solidarity with the 46 Talbert Street homeowners, D.C. Council members Robert White (D-At Large) and Trayon White, Sr., (D-Ward 8), voted in opposition to the bill that would have held the city liable. The council, however, voted against At-Large Councilmember White’s amendment that proposing Talbert Street homeowners would be exempt from the legislation, holding the District liable for up to $400,000 in damages per owner. Only At-large and Ward 8 Councilmembers White and White voted in support of the amendment.
Mortgage relief has been provided to a majority of the 46 condominium owners via the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), while the District provided $6.4 million. The Informer also reported last month that the Council is considering a $30,000 buyout which may be increased by Mendelson to $50,000.
Jerusalem Belai is another displaced Talbert Street resident. Of all the former residents, I have maintained the most frequent contact with her. We met at a protest in front of the John Wilson Building City in the Spring of 2022.
Like the others, her story is a painful one of a young homebuyers’ life turned upside down by a neglectful local government in her pursuit of and successful effort at the American Dream—homeownership. The stress of fighting the District and being displaced led her to dropping out of law school at the University of District of Columbia, she said.
When talking to Belai, it is impossible not to relate to her internal distress during yet another holiday season of not having a permanent home.
“Here I am, a District resident, blatantly feeling like I don’t belong in any community and missing my old neighborhood,” she wrote in Our House D.C.
If the land is owned by DC why didn’t the owners sue the City and WAMAT due to environmental concerns and the impact of their dumping that dirt in the 70’s. The the land was faulty from the beginning.
This story is very sad, but also very familiar. I am a homeowner and have condo in DC and me and my family have been displaced since July 9, 2020. My condo is also uninhabitable due to structural and water damage and DC Government refuse to help me. Something needs to be done. I never thought being a first time homeowner would be such a nightmare. I need assistance.