At a packed tenant town hall at People’s Congregational Church in Northwest on Wednesday, Ward 4 Councilmember and presumptive next mayor Janeese Lewis George vowed to listen to the needs of tenants throughout the city. For the next three hours, she made good on that promise, listening to residents from every ward share their struggles with the District’s housing.
Standing before a crowd of hundreds, Lewis George explained why she organized the event.
“This is what’s on the line—people’s livelihood, people’s dignity, and the respect they deserve,” she said. “Housing is a human right and should be a fundamental principle of any democracy.”
Highlighting the need for accountability, Lewis George referenced the endless stories of mold, broken elevators, leaky ceilings, and residents left without heat in the middle of winter that she’s heard during the course of her campaign. “We know we can’t allow negligent landlords to continue to operate in D.C.,” she said.
“It is clear there is a great injustice in our city,” Lewis George added. “Tonight, I want you to tell me what is frustrating you. I want you to tell me what is broken. I want you to be honest.”
And tenants obliged.
At the Gale Eckington apartments in Northeast, a low-income tenant described being overwhelmed by $300 monthly water bills; a tenant from Dorchester House in Northwest—where a resident’s arm was severed by an elevator door in September 2025—said elevator safety had long been ignored; and tenants from Congress Park apartments in Southeast recounted persistent housing code violations, including mold, lack of security, and raccoon infestations.
Fresh off a wave of public attention, tenants living in developer Buwa Binitie’s neglected affordable housing portfolio took the microphone first.
The tenants, some of whom were seniors, detailed bedbugs, dangerous elevators, and a revolving cast of property managers—all of which was met with little accountability.
William Bates, tenant association president of the Fortitude at Delta Towers, Binitie’s Northeast senior “luxury affordable housing” property, pointed out that landlords can continue to reap public funds even while racking up housing code violations.
“One of the things we want this new administration to realize is that [Binitie’s company] Faria Management has been cited for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Bates said. “What we want is for him not to be able to get more properties.”
Landlords have also paired property neglect with aggressive management tactics to push out long-term tenants, according to speakers who said they lived in rent-controlled buildings.
“Our building has gone through a rent strike,” Connor, a tenant at Tivoli Gardens in Northwest, said in a breakout session that brought together tenants from Wards 1 and 8.
His building was managed by Kettler Management, Connor said. “They are rich enough to own two data centers across the country, but won’t spend that money on a new pest control company. Our building is plagued constantly by roaches. In the morning, when I go to pour out a cup of coffee, two dead roaches float to the top.”
The neglect is part of a pattern to displace long-term residents in order to charge higher rents, Connor added: “Management has a history of targeting long-term tenants who’ve been in this rent-controlled building … They’ve been forcing them out.”
For some long-term tenants, the fight for accountability has lasted decades. A 41- year resident at Congress Park apartments described a community suffering from PTSD from the long-term deplorable conditions at the property.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tomora Redman, a 30-year resident of Marbury Plaza in Southeast, now renamed Langston Views, where the D.C. Office of the Attorney General secured $41 million due to the building’s horrific conditions last November, asked, “Why am I still living in squalor?”
Lewis George did not respond to City Paper’s request for comment by time of publication.
With Tuesday’s election looming, Wednesday’s forum made it clear that D.C. tenants aren’t waiting on policy papers to demand accountability. Before stepping away from the mic, resident and organizer with Empower DC Nathan Hunter–El warned: “We are going after all slumlords. If you are in the District of Columbia and don’t know how to treat our seniors right, as well as families with small children, we’re coming after you.”
