“Dear PoPville,
There’s no nice way to say this, but there’s a slumlord on my block. They own an apartment building that is abandoned and have spent about a year doing illegal construction without permits but never really getting anything done. It doesn’t matter how many times DCRA issues a stop work orders or how many thousands of dollars fines they rack up, because nothing ever changes.
The owners clearly don’t care. The building has been taken over by squatters and drug dealers, there’s garbage and burnt out cars everywhere. DCRA says they can’t do anything else. Our councilmember is basically MIA on the issue. The whole situation is super unsafe for everyone on our street. So, what is a resident supposed to do? How do we get the right people to care?”