A Nov. 11 report in the Washington Post brought to light Mayor Anthony Williams’ failure to follow through on one of his major campaign promises: to crack down on negligent D.C. landlords. Providing safe, affordable housing has always been one of the major platforms of Williams’ plan to redevelop the District. It has also proven to be one of the most challenging.
Other goals for this city are more straightforward. Reducing crime can at least be partially accomplished by hiring more police officers. There is also a clear place to start building stronger relationships between the police and the community. While Police Chief Charles Ramsey may have failed to fire D.C.’s more abusive officers, the force has begun to repair its image by seeking to provide a friendlier presence. Neighborhoods which have only begun to slide towards decline at least have the potential to attract investors. For the District’s worst slums, however, there may to be no place to begin.
Williams has phrased the issue in terms of the landlords who own these run-down, inhabitable spaces. Thomas John, one of the landlords on the city’s list, has accomplsihed a remarkable feat?he has been charged with 64,642 violations of the housing code. Williams has made only nominal progress on the prosecution front?while a “hot property” list has been developed, the city has yet to bring John or any of the other offenders to trial. Trials have been scheduled for later this year for a handful of landlords.
But the issue is not as simple as prosecuting D.C.’s worst landlords. The often cut-rate rent available at such dilapidated buildings draws residents who wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford safer housing. The hazy nature of landlord-tenant relationships in District slums also appeals to residents without citizenship or green cards. These people need a place to live, and housing reform threatens them. While the city’s goal is to improve the quality of lower-income housing by putting pressure on landlords, doing so is more likely to result in a reduction in affordable housing as buildings are condemned.
The District is already experiencing a housing crunch, and this would only worsen the problem for the lower half of D.C.’s economic scale. Tenants in run-down buildings are quite aware of the difficulties they would face in finding new housing, and have often put up powerful opposition to housing reform.
Yet the mayor’s goal through all of this is still to provide Washington, D.C. with safe, affordable housing to make its declining neighborhoods vital once again. The redevelopment of any city’s worst neighborhoods is an incremental process, which often takes years. Flash-development projects sap a neighborhood of its spirit and are often immediately followed by waves of gentrification, driving out the same low-income residents that the development should have saved. Patience, then, is a necessary virtue.
The process begins with making neighborhoods safer, a step the District has already begun to take. From here, Williams has much to do before he can close down D.C. slums. In the interim, though, he needs to show those residents he is keeping them in mind. Poor housing could make anyone feel forgotten.
