jonetta rose barras: Does DC really care about Black homeowners?
A partial answer to that question may come as soon as next week when Mayor Muriel Bowser and her team, including DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Deputy Director Drew Hubbard, present a rescue plan to Black low- and moderate-income homeowners of the River East at Grandview Estates II located at 1262 Talbert St. SE. The long-awaited proposal could involve the District assuming the mortgage liability for all 46 condominiums at the dangerous and fast-deteriorating complex while also forgiving all city-provided loans.
“We have been in contact with the condo association, including recently where we’ve updated the leadership of the association that we’ve recently cleared a hurdle to identify all of the necessary financial resources to move forward with a relief package, that newly includes [first mortgage] forgiveness,” Hubbard told me in an email sent earlier this week. He included a timeline developed in accordance with the government’s perspective.
“We have a tentative meeting date in a few weeks set to discuss this package in detail with all of the owners, including the extent of the relief package, that is intended to relieve the homeowners of their financial liabilities with the property,” he added.
Hubbard leads the Talbert Street Task Force that the mayor established in 2021 with the goal of resolving the problems at the site — where engineers with The Falcon Group reported, among other issues, shifting foundational soil resulting in interior problems like cracks in concrete floors, doors that could not close, windows that were breaking away from walls, and a severed main sewer line that caused sewage to back up into bathtubs and kitchen sinks.
Falcon Group engineers, hired by the condo association, recommended an evacuation of all units. The District provided homeowners certificates that helped them secure rental units; utility costs were also included, according to Hubbard.
However, the Talbert Street residents have been in limbo for nearly two years, each carrying a dual burden as homeowner and renter.
Recently, Silman — the company hired by the District government to conduct a structural engineering peer review of previous reports — concluded among other things that “It is likely that a repair scheme, even partial, will be more costly than a complete demolition and reconstruction.”
“To know this horrific situation that I have been in for the last seven years may be coming to an end is certainly good news,” said Tyon Jones, a member of the River East condo association and a former advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 8. “It’s a dream come true.”
The reports from Silman and The Falcon Group are irrefutable evidence of the negligence of the DC government, developers and subcontractors. The city probably has no other alternative than to buy out the residents or risk a result like that seen in 2021 at the Surfside apartments in Miami.
Sources told me it could cost the District as much as $10 million to purchase the mortgages for the 46 units. Add that amount to the nearly $9 million the city originally provided the developer for this project, and in the end taxpayers will have paid at minimum nearly $20 million for so-called affordable homes but have nothing to show for that investment.
Talbert Street homeowners spent tens of thousands of dollars from their own bank accounts trying to make their places livable — remediating mold, hiring plumbers to determine the cause of sewage flooding their kitchen sinks, plastering and replastering walls. Hearing their stories in 2021 broke my heart. The way they were treated throughout their ordeal borders on criminal. I consistently argued that the city should at least make them whole, paying off their mortgages.
I am happy to see the District accept some financial responsibility for the troubles experienced by the people at 1262 Talbert St. SE. But is paying off the mortgages enough?
Should the city also reimburse them for any debt they incurred trying to fix the mess the District and its developers created — problems anyone with even minimal experience should have seen when inspecting the property and, thus, should have caused a halt in the sale of the townhomes? And what about the developers or the subcontractors associated with the project? What penalties should they incur?
Hubbard said the plan being proposed to Talbert Street homeowners would be introduced as emergency legislation in the DC Council and could be acted on “soon,” certainly before the summer. That is, if the association supports it.
This entire mess doesn’t bode well for an administration that over the past year has set a goal of adding “20,000 Black homeowners by 2030.” In the District only 34% of Black residents own homes compared with 49% of whites.
“When disparities are created through intentional action and discrimination, we must be just as intentional about reversing those disparities. And that is what we are doing with homeownership in DC,” Bowser said during an announcement earlier this year.
“Homeownership is a path to generational wealth, it is stability, and it allows you to bet on yourself, your family and your future,” she added.
Sounds good, right?
Don’t expect the residents of 1262 Talbert St. to vouch for the District. They began their fight in 2017 — nearly four years before the task force was created — when the first condo was sold at the site. Stanton View Development LLC and River East at Anacostia LLC built the project, financed, in part, with that nearly $9 million from the District government through the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund.
Most owners were first-time homebuyers, with a sense they had achieved their life’s dream; some had fought their way out of homeless shelters into a place they could call their own. “I was joyous when it happened,” recalled Theresa Brooks, who was a single parent of one daughter when she purchased her home; she has since gotten married.
“Then it turned into a nightmare. I felt like I was in a bad, bad dark comedy,” she told me in a telephone interview during which I shared with her the central feature of Hubbard’s plan.
After things began to fall apart, literally, Brooks and others sought to hold the developers accountable. They presented DHCD, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) with documentation of dangerously shoddy construction work and sloppy, practically non-existent inspections performed by DC-contracted, third-party building inspectors. The residents filed consumer protection complaints with the OAG, which brought little to no relief. Litigation ensued.
This week when I asked OAG press secretary Gabriel Shoglow-Rubenstein about the status of those consumer complaints, he told me via email: “We’re going to decline to comment given that the case is still pending.”
So much for protecting low-income homeowners.
Is there any wonder why in 2021 a group of nine Black women — Brooks, Robin McKinney, LaDonna May, Ade Adenariwo, Britney Bennett, Devina Callahan, Denine Edmonds, Ciera Johnson and Jaztina Somerville — worked with attorney LaRuby May of the MayJung Law Firm to file a lawsuit against the city and developers Don Lee and Jerry Vines. Somerville, Bennett and Callahan subsequently dropped out after retaining different counsel.
Regrettably, a DC Superior Court judge dismissed the District from the case. The women filed an appeal in the DC Court of Appeals and are awaiting a decision in that matter.
The developers filed for bankruptcy, hoping to avoid any kind of financial reckoning. The women went after the subcontractors — Maddox Engineers and Surveyors Inc., SGA Companies Inc., Skarda and Associates Inc., Capitol Development Design Inc., FES Group LLC and M&F Concrete Inc.
Last month, DC Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams rejected the subcontractors’ requests to be dismissed from the case, according to court documents. She gave the women’s lawyer until April 7 to amend their complaint to detail howhttps://thedcline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Omnibus-Order-1-3.24.23-Sub-contractors-2.pdf these firms are guilty of negligence or breach of contract.
I am no lawyer, but it seems like that shouldn’t be too difficult.
When I spoke with May earlier this week, she had not heard the details of the package the city may propose to the condo association but seemed unimpressed by the general terms of the offer. She declined comment, choosing to wait until after the Appeals Court makes its ruling. “The District may be brought back into this case,” she said.
May did comment via email about the litigation brought on behalf of the homeowners. “Throughout this litigation we have worked hard to make sure that all parties liable for the harm our clients suffered and continue to suffer and live with are held responsible.
“The Order issued by Judge Williams is truly a victory for our clients in holding all responsible parties accountable. We are optimistic that the case pending before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to hold the District accountable will also result favorably for our clients,” continued May. “The women we represent do not deserve the treatment and disrespect they have received and until justice is served, we will not stop fighting on their behalf.”
That statement suggests Hubbard may have a hard time getting all the association members to accept the government’s proposal. There are obvious issues that don’t seem to have been considered by the District.
While paying off the existing mortgages is a good thing, buying a new home in this market may be next to impossible for low- and moderate-income residents, even with the city’s assistance. Interest rates have hit the roof, dramatically increasing the cost of housing. Jones’ home on Talbert Street is a 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom condo that came with free parking. “I’m not certain I’ll be able to find a deal like that again,” he added.
Brooks paid less than $200,000 for her home. “We should get some equity out of the property,” she told me, noting that she spent a great deal of money trying to make repairs to her unit. Little did she know the problems would only return, unresolvable because of their root cause.
There surely will be tons of questions about what will happen to the property after the homeowners leave. Undoubtedly, the District will try to recoup its losses — probably not dollar for dollar, of course. In fact, it may enter one of those infamous deals where public land is sold for $1.
DC officials will rationalize that the property has major problems and the city is lucky that someone wants to try to redevelop and create homeownership opportunities. Some young Black residents will come along, laying down their life savings in hopes of achieving the American dream.
Will they — like Jones, like Brooks, like the other 44 Talbert Street homeowners — become the latest victims of government neglect and developer greed?
Is that scenario possible? I wish it weren’t. But you, dear readers, and I have been around long enough to know better.
jonetta rose barras is an author and freelance journalist, covering national and local issues including politics, childhood trauma, public education, economic development and urban public policies. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.
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