Pop the Squatters
Residents of Swann Street NW have grown accustomed to peering into vacant houses only to find strange people peering back out at them—or, in one case, jumping out and mugging them. But the reign of “abandominiums” might be drawing to an end, if Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham’s “Nuisance Property Boardup” legislation rolls through the D.C. Council.
Introduced last week, the bill gives the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs the power to immediately seal up unsafe buildings, whereas before the process could take weeks. “[A nuisance property] is not only demoralizing, but it’s obviously an invitation to crime. And we’ve had very serious fires occur,” says Graham.
Neighbors of 1774 Willard St. NW are particularly happy about the fix. The vacant, three-story bricker has over the years hosted an illegal cable connection, an apparently drugged woman who liked to randomly scream at things, and frequent male visitations that some believed to be evidence of prostitution. One neighbor reports that he recently saw a man and a woman huddled in the dark under the house’s back porch, but a recent visit turned up only a broken back door, beer bottles, and a pile of human-looking feces.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:29 am
I live on Willard, closer to 17th st. The other side of the street that’s closer to 18th st. not only has the house discussed above, but another house across the street with a basement/exterior remodeling job that has been going on for almost 2 years and that’s a big mess. Weeds grow everywhere on that part of the sidewalk. Oh, and in July I had a gun put to my head coming home from Dupont right in front of 1774. Fucked up world we live in…
October 2nd, 2006 at 12:52 am
Since 2002 I’ve been testifying and writing about the need to have strong receivership statutes in DC, to be able to take over and “cure” habitual nuisances. Ohio has such a statute, which is used by the Cleveland Restoration Society, among others, to address these kinds of situations.
Of course, since the developer lobby is so strong, the likelihood of such legislation going forward is strong.
Alas, I communicated my writings to CM Graham…
See “Blaming the building in Baltimore — when your tool is a gun, you think only about shooting” which includes the bulk of the best version of this testimony.
Thank you for this piece. And once again, “abandominium”–great language.