WASHINGTON — Friday marked three weeks since residents of 1433 Columbia Road NW, were forced out of their homes.
On Sept. 20, there was an explosion that caused major damage. One woman was seriously injured and remains in the hospital.
Since then, tenants have been living in local hotels, but the temporary housing that's been provided by the city will end on October 17.
During a call with the media on Oct. 2, a representative from the Office of Tenant Advocate said that temporary housing would end on Oct. 11. However, WUSA9 has since learned that their temporary stay will end on Oct. 17.
"It makes me feel really disappointed," said Carlo Perri, the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for the part of Columbia Heights where the explosion happened.
He told WUSA9 he's been working with some of the tenants and several city agencies have as well, to make sure the residents are connected with the right resources.
"It's abhorrent to see people in Washington D.C., Columbia Heights, the United States of America who get kicked out on the street with little to no safety net just because of a matter of circumstance," said Perri.
During a phone call with members of the media on Oct. 2, several city agency leaders shared an update on how they're helping the tenants.
"The District is providing five buckets of support to our residents," said Clint Osborn, the Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
- Temporary housing
- Relocation assistance
- Housing navigation and counseling
- School supplies and transportation
- Case Management
They told WUSA9 that this was a gas explosion and that they found several leaks through the building.
They then shared that the inspection history shows there aren't a lot of complaints.
"There haven't been a lot of complaints generated out of this building for three years," said Director of the District of Columbia Department of Buildings Brian Hanlon.
He explained that they did a proactive inspection in 2018, but that recently they'd had very few complaints.
"I want to stress that it is the owner, the landlord's responsibility to maintain the building in proper working order," said Hanlon.
"It's indicative of failure. The Department of Buildings says it's incumbent on building owners to have their properties inspected and to follow regulations. But what we're seeing is there was no accountability for those who didn't. I think that's a failure of the system," said Perri.
He told WUSA9 that the DOB shouldn't be relying completely on tenants to file complaints. He said while the owners should absolutely be held responsible, the city should have been more proactive.
"As much as we can talk about this property not providing the living conditions suitable for people there's also the issue of maybe the city not ensuring that is the case," said Perri.
As for the number of complaints, or lack thereof, he said that shows there's an issue as well.
"It might be a sampling bias. It might be that these people did have complaints and they didn't either have the means or access to launch them. Especially if we're talking about people who are non-native English speakers or maybe recent residents or undereducated about the resources available to them and again, I think that's a failure and we need to do better," said Perri.
During Wednesday night's ANC meeting, he presented a resolution, calling on the D.C. Attorney General "to investigate and prosecute any negligent wrongdoing and enjoin the lawful property owner(s) and their agents to remediate the physical disrepair of the property expediently and provide any gap assistance required to the displace residents".
"I'm hopeful that will bring fruitful labor and possibly some reparations for those who lost a lot of their goods in this explosion. I'm also hopeful it will prevent properties like this from becoming slums in the future," said Perri.
As for the building's owners. The Department of Building issued the owners a notice of infraction and told them to submit a plan for how they'll make the necessary repairs within 60 days, by Oct. 9.
As of Oct. 11, no plan had been officially submitted. The owners have apparently, told the DOB a plan is coming.
According to the Department of Buildings Public Dashboard, the owners have been issued 41 violations this year.
At this point, the investigation is ongoing.
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