On October 17, 2004, nearly 100 firefighters were called to the 3300 block of Prospect Street after an anonymous 911 call alerted authorities of a blaze burning through the townhouse at 3318 Prospect. The first responders arrived at 8:52 a.m. and the fire was completely extinguished by 9:20 a.m., but upon searching the house the crew discovered that not all of the residents had managed to make it out of the house. Daniel Rigby (MSB ‘05) was found lying on the floor of his room at the basement level, having already passed away due to smoke inhalation.
D.C. Fire Department spokesman Allan Etter claimed that the house violated several fire codes, from having metal bars blocking any possible exit through the basement windows to an air conditioning unit obstructing the back door. Once the fire had spread from an electrical meter up the walls and burned through the first floor, Rigby never had a chance to escape. Not only was this the second fire on the 3300 block that month, but after city officials performed inspections on other blocks, thirty-nine students were forced to vacate their rooms due to closures.
Even after this loss to the Georgetown community, many townhouses still go through extended periods of time without inspections and renovations, regardless of how decrepit they become. Students are constantly forced to deal with safety code violations and subpar living conditions because unhelpful, recalcitrant landlords are too focused on avoiding expensive building updates. Every Hoya has the right to clean, safe, and affordable housing, and as the co-directors of the Georgetown Student Tenant Association, we work to protect this right by helping students challenge abusive landlords.
The Georgetown Student Tenant Association is a non-profit student organization that provides confidential counsel to peers seeking off-campus housing and to those encountering the problems all too common for tenants. We strive to represent the voice of tenants and we act as a liaison between student tenants and D.C. agencies with the authority to take action.
It is highly apparent from our work that many Georgetown students experience problems with their landlords. Students commonly report that landlords withhold security deposits, charge illegal amounts for safety deposits, and refuse to make necessary repairs despite legal obligations. Many student tenants deal with rat infestations, mold, broken heating/air-conditioning, broken doors, and leaky roofs. These living conditions are a part of everyday life for too many Georgetown students.
It is concerning that so many properties in Georgetown do not have the proper licensing. When properties do not have Basic Business Licenses, they have not been inspected in several years. These houses may be unsafe for students. In order to rectify this issue, the GSTA alongside the Office of Neighborhood Life and D.C. governmental agencies, worked with the unlicensed properties to schedule inspections and fulfill compliance requirements. Still, many homes have not successfully completed these inspections. It is of the utmost importance that all student homes are inspected regularly to ensure that they are safe.
Students need help in taking a more active role in asserting their rights as tenants. Anyone who has tried to live off-campus knows that the hunt for off-campus housing is a competitive endeavor at Georgetown, and landlords take advantage of their leverage. Students that push back against unfair leases or ask questions may lose out in the market. They need to take the time to read their leases and ensure that they work with a reputable landlord. The competitive nature of the market results in leases that scam the tenants who do not know their rights or are panicking to resolve their housing hunt without reviewing the conditions of the lease.
The GSTA offers a lease review service and our advocates utilize knowledge of D.C. housing law to identify confusing clauses and even clauses that blatantly violate the law at the expense of the tenant. If tenants know their rights, and even their restrictions, the relationship between tenants and their landlords will hopefully become more functional and civil and less exploitative and belligerent. This is the motivation behind all our services, like one-on-one meetings with tenants already in poor living conditions, or the newly launched Roomr website that allows students to review their landlords to give future tenants more information before signing their leases.
Overall, the GSTA seeks to educate, advocate, and represent the interest of students living off-campus. We are students as well, encountering the same issues and battling the same abuses. It is imperative that students understand that they have a legal right to clean and safe housing. We cannot settle for unresponsive landlords and, through the Georgetown Student Tenant Association, we hope students can assert their rights as tenants. In the future, we hope to become a model for more than just Georgetown. We aim to export our project to schools throughout D.C., creating a D.C. Tenant Association Network that can tackle landlord-tenant issues on a larger scale through combined advocacy efforts.
