Congress Heights on the Rise

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Suppport the Marbury Plaza Tenant Association! Make a donation!

This came into my mailbox yesterday and I would like to share it. The Advoc8te applauds the tenants taking proactive steps to improve their circumstances. Although Marbury Plaza is located in Ward 7 they are still part of River East and can use our help. The Advoc8te had a friend who used to live in MB and it was horrific the living conditions. Please support. The Advoc8te will be donating $5 today.

EMAIL:
The following link is to an article in the Washington Post about a 107 year old man who was not going to be able to continue to live in his senior citizens apartment because he had exhausted all of his money and benefits that enabled him to live there independently. After people read the post article they started sending in money. Many sent only small amounts like $2.00 - $5.00. As a result the 107 year old man ended up receiving about $50,000 which enabled him to stay in his apartment for several more years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070801239.html

What if we all pulled together and raised money like this? Recently you have been receiving emails about the Marbury Plaza Tenants Association’s legal battle to bring their building up to code so it will be decent affordable rental housing. The Tenant Petition was filed on August 19, 2008 by Marbury Plaza Concerned Tenants Association. Marbury Plaza, is one of the largest apartment complexes in the District of Columbia, with 672 units and about 1,500 residents.

Building-wide DCRA inspections on August 12, 2008 and January 14, 2009 resulted in citations for at least 635 housing code violations in approximately 120 units, carrying potential fines of at least $161,500 -- with individual fines ranging from $100 to $4,500 and hundreds of additional violations remain unabated.

The management company and corporate owner(s) have been non-responsive to myriad requests to effectively repair some of the worse housing code violations such as: · The ventilation system (including heating and air conditioning) has been and continues to be frequently non-functional.·

There is widespread mold infestation due to water leakage throughout the property (from which several residents are suffering from resultant medical problems)·

Since 2004, many tenants have lived in units plagued by leaks, floods, loss of air conditioning and heat, sporadic hot water, mold, rodents, and electrical problems·

There are serious and ongoing safety problems.·

On April 2, 2008, the Tenants’ Association conducted its own walk-through of the entire property and documented hundreds of potential housing code violations, with notes and more than 500 photographs. This was repeated in May of 2009 and uncovered more than 850 more violations, just in the common areas.

D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickels has publicly admonished the landlord for its conduct with regard to the alleged (and in many instances unabated and ongoing) housing code violations. If everyone who receives this email decides to make a small contribution to Marbury Plaza Tenants Association? I’m talking about a contribution of $2.00 - $5.00 (or more of course). If enough of us contribute that much it will add up and Marbury Plaza Tenants Association will have that much more cash (which at this point it desperately needs because at present their funds are totally exhausted).

To try this out please send small contributions to the Marbury Plaza Tenants Association. Look at it this way – You probably pay $2.00 - $5.00 for a muffin and a cup of coffee at your local coffee house. So if you can afford that then perhaps you can afford to donate $2.00 - $5.00 to help the tenant community. If 800 people each donated $5.00 then that’s $4,000.00 dollars folks.

I hope you will give this a try so we can see what happens.

Karen Williamson, DC Tenants’ Coalition

Donations can be sent to;
Marbury Tenants Association
2330 Good Hope Rd. SE #303
Washington, DC 20020

Checks and money orders should be made out to MPCTA. OR YOU CAN USE PAY PAL - SEE LINK BELOW PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=567541 The association can be reached by email at marburyta@hotmail.com and by phone at (202) 459-4660.

"Building Community Through Empowerment"
Marbury Plaza Concerned Tenants- Tenants' Association

2330 Good Hope Rd. SE #303 Washington, DC 20020
(202) 459-4660
http://marburyta.wordpress.com www.facebook.com/marburyta PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=567541

April R. Goggans, M.A., President
Vacant, Vice President
Tracey Charles, Secretary
Coryne Farmer, Treasurer

For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner



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