“standing her ground this morning to keep developers from encroaching on to her property.”

Photo of Tonya Butler-Truesdale by Rose Marie Berger

“Dear PoPville,

Tonya Butler-Truesdale, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, is standing her ground this morning to keep developers from encroaching on to her property.

Butler-Truesdale bought her home at 1240 Fairmont Street NW in 1997 and she knows from experience the kind of troubles that arise when higher-income homeowners come into a neighborhood and start to bother the lower-income ones. She’s an attorney and the housing provider ombusdsman for DHCD Department of Housing and Community Development.

Now she’s fighting the development of the property adjacent to her own home that has encroached on the “airspace” above and disrupted the foundation below.

Right now she’s taking days off work to protect her property line and make sure the construction workers don’t use her property to advance the work she’s trying to stop.”