City repair fund provides scant relief to tenants

In a fourth installment of The Washington Post's Forced Out series, about abusive landlords who drive tenants from rent-controlled apartments, Debbie Cenziper and Sarah Cohen report that D.C. government has widely misused a multi-million dollar fund to repair buildings when landlords refuse to do the work. "In the past three years, the (city) spent $617,000 on repairs at neglected apartment buildings &#8212 just four percent of the $16.5 million in the fund &#8212 even while its inspectors chronicled rampant code violations at complexes across the city." The city spent three times more repairing privately owned, single-family houses, some valued at $500,000 or more, including one that received a new front porch, 25 windows, fresh paint, roof repairs and a new garage door.