Statement by PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) candidate Crystal Kim. Kim is running for an at-large seat in the Council of the District of Columbia.
There is an affordable housing crisis in the District of Colombia. But neither the government nor greedy landlords are doing anything about it.
Statement from DC Council candidate |
Shortly before midnight on March 12, 2008, a five-alarm fire ripped through a four-story apartment building in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Mount Pleasant in Washington, D.C. The fire blazed on for hours before firefighters were able to put it out. It has left nearly 200 people homeless.
The destroyed Deauville building contained 85 apartment units, as well as the Ethiopian Community Service Center, which provides computer and language classes, counseling and youth programs. The Meridian Hill Baptist Church next door also was damaged severely. The church provided hypothermia shelter to about 26 homeless women.
The devastating blaze comes after years of complaints from tenants about deplorable living conditions in the apartment building. Since Jan. 1, 2004, inspectors have logged more than 7,100 housing code violations, including 52 leaking pipes, 64 fire safety violations including defective smoke alarms and fire extinguishers, 91 broken refrigerators, 154 cases if broken heating, 316 holes in walls and ceilings and nearly 500 broken electrical outlets. The tenants also had complained about rat and bug infestations, mold, water damage, plumbing failures, unstable cabinets and flooring and security. (Washington Post, March 14, 2008)
Despite the wretched conditions, working-class tenants have endured numerous rent increases. The tenants had filed lawsuits against the owners of the building, Deauville Partners, and a settlement with promises of repairs and rent stabilization was about to be signed just days before the fire erupted.
Neglect of housing properties is typical in working-class neighborhoods in the District of Columbia, as well as cities across the country. It is a method used by capitalists to usher in gentrification—a primarily urban and undeniably racist phenomenon in which residents are displaced through rent increases and uninhabitable living conditions with the goal of bringing in a more affluent and profitable community under the banner of “urban renewal.”
Gentrification is a form of eviction. It is a process that has been unfolding in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood for several years. Residents are facing rent increases as great as 300 percent while buildings are left to deteriorate, thereby forcing residents to vacate. These are tactics that have been utilized by parasitic landlords and developers throughout the District of Columbia in the past decade.
Due to intentional landlord neglect, the Deauville building’s residents are now homeless; their belongings have been destroyed. Edilma Alvarez was nine months pregnant when the fire broke out. Everything she purchased for her new baby was lost in the fire. Maria Irma Villatoro was only able to grab her green card and a few other important documents. “All I have is what I’m wearing. I don’t even have a dollar,” Villatoro told the Washington Post.
People over profits
Mayor Adrian Fenty promised the displaced residents that his administration would work with the building’s owners to ensure that the property is rehabilitated and residents are allowed to live there again.
But the Fenty administration has demonstrated time and time again that it does not care about the welfare of Washington, D.C.’s working-class and poor. This was made blatantly clear after the murder of 14-year-old DeOnté Rawlings, who was killed by an off-duty D.C. cop. Fenty made sure that the killer cop’s only “punishment” was going on paid vacation.
Mayor Fenty’s disregard for working-class people is also illustrated by the firing of nearly 100 D.C. school system workers and the ongoing attempt to close 21 public schools. His administration is greasing the wheels for wealthy developers to gentrify working-class neighborhoods all over the District of Columbia.
The working and poor people of the city rightly have little confidence that the Fenty administration will follow through on its promise to the displaced residents of Mount Pleasant. After all, under capitalism—a system that puts profits over people—the government exists to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of the rest of society.
Capitalism is the reason why real estate owners and developers have the right to keep thousands of housing units vacant while over 10,000 people in D.C. are homeless. It is the reason why two million people in the United States are facing foreclosure and eviction while predatory subprime mortgage companies face no consequences.
Even though the capitalist politicians with their multi-trillion dollar budget could stop the foreclosures and ensure housing for everyone, they refuse to do so. The government bails out banks and corporations instead, while cops evict people from their homes. The capitalist system protects private property over even the most basic human needs.
The Crystal Kim PSL campaign for the Council of the District of Colombia believes that affordable, quality housing is a basic right. Housing can and should be provided to everyone. It is criminal that a tiny group of capitalists profit on substandard, unaffordable housing while the rest of us suffer.
Kim demands that the owners of the Deauville building and all landlords who cause tenants to endure dangerous and inhumane living conditions be jailed for their criminal negligence and exploitative tactics. The Deauville building and all other buildings damaged by the fire should be rehabilitated without delay. All displaced resident should be guaranteed the right to return to their homes and compensated for their destroyed personal property. And racist gentrification campaigns must stop.
Economic and social rights that truly speak to the needs of workers and poor people are what is needed for working-class people in the District of Colombia and all over the United States.
