Today’s blog is the third and last in a series of stories previewing this Saturday’s 6th Annual Citywide Tenant Town Hall. The town hall will be held from 1-4 pm at the All Souls Unitarian Church. RSVP on our Facebook event page.

One of the big victories tenants have won at previous Tenant Town Halls is the right to sue their landlords in DC Superior Court over housing code violations. Before, only landlords could take tenants to court, but thanks to tenant organizing, DC renters now have a powerful tool to take action to improve conditions in their apartments.

But what if the problem in your apartment is mold?

If you have mold growing on the walls or ceiling or anyplace else in your apartment and you get a housing inspection from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the inspectors will tell you they can only cite the landlord for visible “dampness” or leaks in the walls or ceiling, but not for mold. So there is no mechanism for tenants to enforce their right to healthy housing that is free of mold.

One of the demands of this year’s Town Hall is for the DC Department of the Environment and DCRA housing inspectors to implement programs to inspect for mold (including testing for airborne mold spores), and hold landlords responsible for properly eliminating mold and its underlying sources.

Bruno Avila, president of the Tenant Association at 1111 Massachusetts Ave NW, will speak at the Tenant Town Hall about his building’s struggle with mold. Many of the 160 units at his building have mold, including a lot where families with children live.The tenant association has complained to the building owner and management about this problem since the property changed ownership a year and a half ago, but all they’ve done is just paint over the mold.

“We need to eliminate the problem, not just cover it up with makeup,” Bruno says. “They have to identify where the problem is coming from. We’re sick of them just doing band aid fixes, they need to get at the root of the problem.”

Often, when tenants complain to their landlord about mold, the landlord will paint over the mold without dealing with the underlying problem causing it. This means there may still be mold spores in the walls or ceiling and in the air, and the mold is likely to keep coming back.

Having mold in your apartment can be a serious health risk. Inhaling mold spores can lead to respiratory problems, allergic reactions, and asthma. According to the Children’s Health Fund, DC has the highest rate of asthma in the country, and mold is especially harmful to children with asthma.

At the Town Hall, Avila will introduce a new campaign that focuses on eliminating problems like mold, asbestos, and lead that are health and safety concerns for DC tenants.  Avila will also be calling on the DC Council to oversee these processes and work with tenants to ensure safe, healthy housing.

“It’s our responsibility to report the problem, but there needs to be a process for fixing it, and the government is responsible for making the laws to do this,” Bruno says.

If you want to get involved in the new Campaign for Safe, Healthy Housing, come to the Tenant Town Hall tomorrow , from 1 to 4 pm at All Souls Unitarian Church, 1500 Harvard St NW or contact LEDC at 202-696-4972.

Today’s blog, authored by Elizabeth Falcon at the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development’s Housing for All Campaign, is the second in a series of stories previewing this Saturday’s 6th Annual Citywide Tenant Town Hall. The town hall will be held from 1-4 pm at the All Souls Unitarian Church. RSVP on our Facebook event page.

At the annual Tenant Town Hall on Saturday, hundreds of DC renters will highlight issues that are important to them.

So how will the Council budget vote next Wednesday affect the fight for affordable housing? There are three key programs which can make housing affordable for District residents.

The Housing Production Trust Fund is a crucial program to build and preserve affordable housing. Dozens of tenant associations have used the Trust Fund to purchase their buildings or partner with a developer that will keep their homes affordable. Since 2000, more than 1500 units of affordable housing have been preserved using the Trust Fund.

Unfortunately, the Trust Fund has seen cuts over the last few years, and money has not been available to build new apartments or help tenants purchase. Now, the DC Council can follow Mayor Gray’s recommendation in his $100 million proposal for affordable housing and restore $20 million to the Trust Fund where it belongs.

“The tenants at the Concord Apartments, as is with other residents in the District, are in need and would appreciate Tax Credit Funding and potentially funds from the Housing Production Trust Fund to ensure our homes stay as affordable housing,” says Leon Wells, president of the Concord Apartments Tenant Association, which is interested in buying their building.

Another program that makes housing affordable for very low income people is the Local Rent Supplement Program. Currently, there are 70,000 households waiting for housing with the DC Housing Authority.  The Local Rent Supplement Program can provide rental vouchers that the DC Housing Authority gives to qualified families, making their rent affordable. The DC Council should invest at least $2 million to provide housing now for DC tenants who cannot afford the cost of rent.

“I had to sacrifice full-time employment to take care of my daughter with special needs, and would not be able to afford these market-rate rents of upwards of $1200 a month,” said DC resident Denise Speed. “There are so many women in my community who are in the same position I am—working, and contributing to society, but not making enough money to pay market rent.”

And finally, many District renters want to become homeowners one day. The Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP) is a great way to help tenants become homeowners. Organizations that work with the HPAP program support renters in learning how to prepare for homeownership, while the program offers a zero-interest loan to help with downpayment and closing costs. Through education and counseling, HPAP is helping clients and their families become smart, stable homeowners.The DC Council should maintain funding for the HPAP program.

“The stability that homeownership brings you is unparalleled. By being a homeowner you not only begin to invest in your own future, but you also have a larger incentive to be involved in the community and care even more about your neighborhood and the city you live in,” said Juliana Pena, a first-time homebuyer who used the HPAP program to buy her new home.

On Saturday, tenants have a chance to come together and say in a unified voice – we need funding for the programs that make rent affordable, that make tenant purchase a reality, and make homeownership possible!

Tenants at 5741 Colorado Avenue NW celebrate the purchase of their apartment building.

Today’s blog is the first in a series of stories previewing this Saturday’s 6th Annual Citywide Tenant Town Hall. The town hall will be held from 1-4 pm at the All Souls Unitarian Church. RSVP on our Facebook event page.

For Margarita Pineda, president of the 1445 Spring Rd NW Tenants Association, an electrical fire in her apartment building in 2008 drove her and her neighbors to get organized and fight for their quality of life.

After filing a successful lawsuit against their landlord over poor housing conditions with the help of the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), the tenants received a letter in December 2012 that their building was put up for sale.

“We now have the opportunity to buy our building through the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA) law,” Margarita says. “This is a great blessing for us because finally we can decide the future of our housing as we will be the future property owners. However, none of this hard work will be worth anything if we cannot count on the support of our government.”

That support – a loan from the local Housing Production Trust Fund – has served as an indispensible tool for low-income tenants searching for financial support to to purchase their apartment buildings to keep their rental housing affordable. Just ask the tenants over at 5741 Colorado Avenue NW, a short two miles away from Margarita’s building.

In April, tenants celebrated the purchase of their building in Brightwood over pizza and drinks, officially becoming the 5741 Colorado Cooperative LCA – DC’s newest housing cooperative. Since their building was put up for sale in Fall 2010, LEDC organized residents, helped residents to improve poor housing conditions, hired development consultant Mi Casa to help tenants prepare to buy the building, and trained and supported the residents to advocate for local funding through the Trust Fund.

“Through our organizing over the past two years, the tenant association has shown that we are ready to take on ownership of the building,” said Ms. Collins, the tenant association president. “Thanks to the purchase, we’ll be able to keep 28 units of housing affordable in Ward 4 for the next 40 years.”

After years of depleted resources, the prospects for the Trust Fund brightened when DC Mayor Vincent Gray proposed a $100 million commitment to support affordable housing. Since then, the DC Council has approved $63 million for the Trust Fund, diverting $4 million on May 7th to support DC summer schools.

Margarita and tenant leaders from 1445 Spring Rd will speak at the Town Hall to share their dreams of purchasing their building and call upon the DC City Council to fulfill their commitments to fund key affordable housing programs like tenant purchase and the Housing Production Trust Fund.

Obama proposes to spend an additional $25 billion for tax credits for companies who hire new staff or raise salaries.

“This is about giving small business owners an incentive so they can hire,” said economist Isaac Cohen. “Small business owners are the most significant employer in this country, not big companies.”

To watch the full video clip also featuring LEDC in Spanish, click here.

Below is news coverage related to the ongoing work of the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton, of which LEDC is a member.

In its first appearance before the Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee, the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton asked the committee on Nov. 13 to help voice — and support — requests for the county’s commitment to help small businesses during the planned redevelopment project for Lot 13.

The coalition — composed of small business owners, residents and nonprofits — has been seeking since September 2011 a written pledge from the county to the businesses that will face “a difficult time” maintaining business in the next two to three years as a result of the project, said Ash Kosiewicz, the coalition’s lead organizer.

The coalition asked the advisory committee to send a letter to County Executive Isiah Leggett stating the coalition’s requests for that pledge and a “construction mitigation plan,” as well as showing the committee’s support.

To read the full article, click here.

Below is news coverage from this morning related to the ongoing work of the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton, of which LEDC is a member.

A survey of small busineses in the Wheaton Urban District found that the top three “immediate business concerns” are parking, rent and safety.

The Wheaton Redevelopment Program, which is part of the county’s Department of General Services, conducted the survey in April and May. There was a 36 percent response rate; of the 298 surveys given to businesses, 108 were returned.

Peter McGinnity of the Wheaton Redevelopment Program said the survey will help to inform the county’s Department of Economic Development, as it tries to flesh out Bill 6-12. The bill, which was passed earlier this year by the county council, calls for assistance to small businesses negatively affected by county development projects.

To read the full article referencing the Coalition’s response to the survey results, click here.

To read a short writeup of the Coalition’s presentation on the survey results Tuesday before the Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee, click here.

The reason Tawanna isn’t is because she got a bad credit report and can’t get a loan for her business. “There was a lot of stuff on there – some of it didn’t belong to me,” Sellers said. “And some were a lot of mistakes.”

She’s not alone – a recent study found that 79 percent of all credit reports have some type of error.

To watch the full video highlighting LEDC and how consumers can now file complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if they are unable to resolve a credit dispute with a credit reporting agency, click here.

“I am excited about this,” Eng said as she took a bite of a pupusa. She later wondered aloud how cooks were able to get the meat filling inside the pupusa. “It must be difficult to make.”

For Eng, a Gaithersburg resident who was born in China, Sunday’s annual World of Montgomery Festival in Wheaton was a chance to try the Salvadoran signature dish for the first time. Her daughter was especially curious about trying the food from the country of origin for many of her high school classmates.

To find out who won Sunday’s Pupusa Cookoff at the World of Montgomery Festival, click here to read the full article.

For years, Salazar’s calls and letters to the management company of her 1930s-era Logan Circle building went unanswered. In October 2005, she decided to take action. She met with a handful of renters in the laundry room to discuss their home’s flaws. Over the next six years, the group formed a tenant association and waged a legal battle to purchase their seven-story, 84-unit building, now the Norwood Cooperative (1417 N St. NW).

“In a building that has had as many maintenance issues as us, where we speak many languages, the fact that we could organize and get around to doing it shows that it’s possible in any building in D.C,” Salazar said.

To read the full article, click here.

LEDC Director of Affordable Housing Preservation Farah Fosse was one of three panelists in Part One of the community conversation exploring issues related to public space, diversity, and housing affordability in Columbia Heights.

“With more taxes, we should be able to address [housing, shelters and homeless services] better,” Fosse said. “As people are coming into DC, become a registered voter here, become a resident of DC, which not everyone does, and support progressive policies that support making sure that everyone has a home.”

To listen to the complete audio recording of the Kojo in Your Community edition for Columbia Heights, click here.