Show Summary:

Conversation about the Residents of Ridgecrest's housing struggle from WPFW and Empower DC’s Taking Action on Tuesday, September 26th, 2023 at 1:30pm.

Follow along with Grassroots DC’s reporting to see what happens next with the resident’s of Ridgecrest Community Campagin.

Join us on the lawn at 4000 E St. SE Washington, DC 20019 on Saturday September 30th at 11am for the launch of the Ridgecrest Community Campagin to take back control of the condominiums!

Event Info | follow Grassroots DC online!

Transcript:

Daniel (Host) (00:00):

Housing condos if the board ain't working right. There are some issues, but unfortunately you all are also experiencing some very real conditions issues. If you would just walk us through what's happening.

Liane (00:14):

Well, right now, let me start at the beginning. Like you said, we had issues with the board and we had issues with the board. The board basically got taken over by the board president. We don't really have a board. We have a board president. He's acting alone. He has control over the bank account. He refuses to step down and really, I think it's somebody who swooped in. We had before he became president and well, really while he was president, we had issues with people having fallen on hard times and they weren't paying their condo fees. And so then conditions kind of deteriorated at the place. And I believe he came in with the plan and he sold us this plan of we would foreclose on people who weren't paying their condo fees and the association would get the property back and then sell it so that we could use the money to fix up the property. That's what he sold us on. But what actually happened was that he would foreclose on people, take their property to auction and buy the property himself personally. And so in doing that, he acquired a lot of units in this place and has used the fact that he has more units than anyone to say that he has all of the votes in the association, but we have no proof that he's actually paying his condo fees. So

Josh (02:18):

Yeah, he has control over the finances and therefore holds the information that we would need to be able to prove him wrong in these things and gain control over the association and the finances again, to be able to use that money that has been the condo fees, whatever is there to just start some of these repairs. There's issues with mold, there's issues with the electrical panel, which is the most pressing thing. And we really do just need that.

Liane (02:58):

We need that,

Josh (02:59):

The control over it so that we can make those repairs.

Liane (03:03):

And he hasn't been making repairs for a long time. And we had a lot of code violations and it got so bad that last February the city put an order to vacate on three of the buildings. There are eight altogether. There are 83 units altogether, but there are three buildings in this one block that have the worst conditions. And the boiler had not been cleaned in so many years that it was literally at risk of blowing up.

(03:47):

It was literally at risk of blowing up. And it was right. The boiler was located right below an apartment that had a family in it that with children, single mom who was there on a voucher. And even with the order to vacate on us, a so association president, so-called association president would not make the repairs on the boiler because clearly what he wants to do is to force everyone out of the building so that he can out of all of the buildings, so that he can buy all of these properties up for cheap and then sell them on to a developer who would turn them into luxury condos,

Josh (04:42):

Which is just not what we need anywhere, not what the city needs, not what the residents need. And when that boiler was at risk, they got together and raised the money to be able to fix it so that they could save off that order to vacate. But we still have so many repairs,

Liane (05:04):

So many things that need to be done. And right now we're at, oh, so back in February, 2022, we had the issue with the boiler, but we also had a serious issue with the electrical panel that services these three buildings. And we had two seniors who had no electricity. So in addition to getting the money together to fix the boiler and get that back up to code, we also needed to get the electricity turned back on for these two seniors. And we managed to do that. But it was just a temporary fix because what really needs to happen is that the entire electrical panel needs to be replaced and that's going to cost us $40,000.

Daniel (Host) (06:01):

Jesus.

Liane (06:02):

Yes. $40,000. And it was only temporary. So that was back in February. And in the last few months, those two seniors have lost their electricity again. And there's a third senior whose electricity is, he's not getting enough power into his unit. He has to use a cook stove because there's not enough power to his oven to work. It's crazy. And all three of those buildings are at risk of losing their electricity when the electrical panel finally just fails.

Daniel (Host) (06:44):

And I was remiss, I should have asked right at the very beginning, where is the building the property located rather? Because you speak of

Josh (06:52):

Yeah, it's in the four DuPont neighborhood in southeast dc. Ward seven. Ward seven, yeah, we're, and 4,000 E Street Southeast is the 4,000 block is one collection of buildings. And then there's

Liane (07:09):

Another collection right up the street and then another collection down the street. There's 2 4 28 and four 30 ridge and then 5 10, 5 12 and five 14 Ridge Road. Yeah. Right.

Daniel (Host) (07:24):

No, thank you for that. I think it just make sure that folks know this could be happening in your very backyard. And as I listened to you, you talk and you talk about how this so-called president is trying to amass as many units as he can. It is so reminiscent. The recipe is so similar with the big companies, the big developers, the big banks, individuals who most likely greed or some other motive, pushing them to put the potential money that they can make ahead of the wellbeing of people who currently reside there. People who condo, it was an investment. It's what you're supposed to do in this country. Exactly. Your house, you're supposed to invest, you can rent it out. People buy condos and rent them out. That's another way of making money from your purchase property. But we're seeing is this insatiable greed that I sometimes allude to where people just can't get enough. The money you can make off it, you're going to try to maximize that as much as possible. So that's scary to know that not only these big conglomerates, these big moneymaking machines are doing it, individuals are trying their hand at how they can flip real estate to make money off at the cost, literal cost of communities. Because at first when I was hearing about this, I was like, it's a building. Not that makes it any less worse, but it's a huge property. Yes,

Liane (09:25):

Yes. It is a huge property.

Josh (09:27):

There's 83 units. Yes. And they're not just that one bedroom. Some of them have multiple bedrooms and then that's like families,

Liane (09:42):

It's so difficult to find. Most of them are two bedroom, most of them are two bedroom and there are a few three bedroom. I don't think there are even any one bedrooms. It is an old property. It was built in the sixties, but it was built in the sixties for families. It was for families. And it is one of the few places where you can get a two bedroom, put your family in it and be able to afford it. So that's a thing. And none of these people here, no one is wealthy. Even the folks who, even the folks who aren't living there, who have bought the property, bought a unit and are renting it out, they're also really harmed by this as well, because with so many code violations and whatnot, they aren't able to rent out their property. So they maybe paying a mortgage, may be paying their condo fees and getting no return on it. So it's very bad,

Daniel (Host) (11:02):

As you all have our are experiencing this, you're not just kind of documenting it for documenting sake. You guys are beginning to mount a fight back as it were. And looking at alternatives to the current kind of condo scenario you all have there, talk to us a little bit about what is the vision or what could be a vision for the future for the property and for the people that live there?

Liane (11:32):

Well, the first thing that we need to do is we've had to sue the so-called board president and the association, the reason why we have this group, the independent owners and residents of Ridgecrest, was because we ended up having to form a group separate from the association itself in order to sue and have this man removed and get the retake control of the condo association. So that's the first thing that we need to have completed. And we've actually been, we have a case against him that is two years old and it's two years old. And part of the problem was the pandemic.

Josh (12:30):

The pandemic slowed it up. All of the courts were going virtual and there were things that were just getting left to the wayside. So it got pushed back.

Liane (12:43):

It got pushed back. But also the other thing that I really think also kind of slowed us up is we were working with Ari Theresa, our initial lawyer on this and weren't getting kind of no, making no progress with the judge in our case. And he believes that there are a lot of these kinds of cases that are coming up into the courts and that you can have judges who are essentially board that. What happens is that a condo will end up in court and the board will say that the problem is that we have a bunch of owners who aren't paying their condo fees, and we are here doing the best that we can. And so if you have a judge, and our judge happened to be appointed by Trump as it turned out, so you have, this didn't help anything. I think that that did not help. So yeah, so she was denying all of our motions left and all of this stuff couldn't get discovery out of the people and letting that pass and all kinds of things. Finally got to the point where we did get an evidentiary hearing, and then when we went into court with our evidence, then the judge was like, oh, hold the phone. This is bad.

(14:34):

We're kind of back in a holding pattern because the judge seems to think that we should be able to work out some kind of arrangement with the current

Josh (14:49):

So-called

Liane (14:50):

President. So-called president. And it'll be a matter of time before she realizes that that's not going to happen. And that really, he needs to be prosecuted for all of the, he, he's acquired 22 out of the 83 units, and he's paid as little as $10,000 for some of them. Wow. I know. It's absurd. So our first thing is getting rid of him and reacquiring these properties that he got through, ill-gotten gain. There's no way this guy even, he refuses to follow the bylaws. He refuses to follow the laws that are in place that

Josh (15:43):

The condominium association agreed to at one point. That's how these places are supposed to be run. You have a set of rules and regulations that you're supposed to follow and go through this basically due process of like, okay, if we're going to foreclose on something, then we're going to put out all kinds of advertising about an auction and then something as basic as that doesn't even happen. And so we get to the auction and the only one who shows up is our so-called president to buy it. And since there's no one else around, he's like, okay, well I'm going to lower it as much as I can. And so a unit that could be like a hundred thousand is now going for 10% of that at 10,000 even in the state that they're in. That's still not

Liane (16:30):

Healthy. It's absolutely absurd. It's absurd. So the thing is, we got to get through this court process and once we get through through the court process and we are able to retake control over the association, then we are planning to bring in a nonprofit developer to either convert this puppy into a cooperative or work out some kind of arrangement so that a nonprofit developer could go ahead and buy up all of the units that people no longer want, but they would have to ensure that they either rent them out at affordable and I mean truly affordable, not this kaka that you get from the city about what's affordable, but rent them out as truly affordable or sell them to low income folks so that they can get on that property ladder and get out of who can afford these rents in this city. I mean, this is part of the problem why this man is having a difficult time taking over all of these properties because people can't afford to leave. And especially at

Daniel (Host) (17:58):

The, I want to say there may be some interesting synergy there in the near future with social housing. It could Beal, so who knows? So let's make sure that we keep an eye on what's happening there. And unfortunately we are getting closer. Wrapping up, I know you all had an event last week just to build support and to build,

Liane (18:19):

Actually it didn't happen

Josh (18:20):

Actually. No, it got rained out. So it's in, yeah, it's coming up this week.

Daniel (Host) (18:26):

Be rescheduled

Josh (18:28):

For the 30th. You can come join us on the lawn of the 4,000 block of Ridgecrest condominiums starting at 11:00 AM We will have people, residents there to talk to people. There'll be some music and we'll have some raffles and with some prizes. And you can even take a tour and see the conditions for yourself.

Liane (18:53):

And I'm also trying to get some folks to, I'd like to have a little bit of a panel with a residents talking about what's going on, but also some folks from the activist community who understand stuff around this slum condo situation. I'm hoping to get somebody from the Douglas Community Land Trust to come out and talk about what our options might be for working with a nonprofit developer. So it is going to, hopefully it will be a little bit of a teach-in for folks who may also be going through this kind of thing. And anybody who wants to support the affordable housing, because we aren't going anywhere. A whole bunch of us cannot frigging afford to go anywhere. And so ultimately these units, 83 units will become affordable housing. So this is a thing to support, but we are at a critical time because if we lose the electricity in those three buildings, it's going to be real hard for all of us to be camping out there. There are families

Daniel (Host) (20:12):

Real brief. Is there an email, phone number, Twitter or

Josh (20:16):

Anything? Yeah, definitely. You can find out more information on our website grassrootsdc.org. You can follow us on Instagram, @grassroots_dc and if you want to find out more information directly, you can email us at info@grassrootsdc.org. Yeah, these are all there. Check us out. We are so happy to talk to anyone who will come out and support and we want to preserve this affordable housing.

Liane (20:52):

Exactly. Exactly. And that's this Saturday at September 30th at 11 o'clock, 4000 E Street Southeast.

Daniel (Host) (21:02):

Wonderful. Thank you both so much for the work that you're doing. Thank you. Much power, much love to all the folks here on the property, and we'll hope to have you back with some better news in the near future. Thank you. Thank

Liane (21:13):

You. Thank

Josh (21:13):

You so much.

Liane (21:14):

Thank you for having us.

Daniel (Host) (21:16):

No problem, folks. You have been listening to Taking Action here on WPFW