Please support Ward 7’s Ridgecrest Community as they fight for 83 units of affordable housing, and against displacement and slum conditions. After two years of fighting, the Ridgecrest Community is finally making it to court. We need you there!
Ridgecrest is a condominium but it’s not a luxury condominium. The Ridgecrest community is made up of seniors on fixed incomes, low- to moderate-income families and Section-8 voucher holders.
It sounds ridiculous but we’ve been fighting for almost three years for the right to use the money we pay in condominium fees to make repairs to our buildings which are clearly needed.
The city has cited Ridgecrest for code violations dating back to 2017 but the Ridgecrest Condominium Association (under the direction of board president Marcus Little) refuses to make repairs. Conditions had gotten so bad that we were placed under an Order to Vacate by DCRA in February of 2022. Two seniors were living without electricity and three of the eight buildings were without heat because the boiler hadn’t been cleaned for years and was in danger of literally blowing up.
We had to form a separate organization, the Independent Owners and Residents of Ridgecrest (IORR), to raise the funds needed to repair the boiler and restore electricity to residents living without it. The IORR was already in the process of suing our own Condominium Association to address the code violations, to remediate the mold, to keep the property clean and even to pay the property’s utility bills. As I write this, at least one third of Ridgecrest owners have had liens placed on their apartments because the Association hasn’t paid the Water and Gas bill.
How have things been allowed to get so bad? Since becoming president in 2016, Marcus Little has manipulated the Ridgecrest Condominium Association By-Laws and taken full control of the Association bank account. By foreclosing on owners who get behind on their condo fees and buying their units at auction, he has acquired 22 of the association’s 83 units.
Some of our community members have already been forced out. Even though the apartment had been in her family for three generations, Ebonei Gladden ultimately had to sell because no matter how many times she repaired the drywall the mold just kept coming back.
Many of us believe Ridgecrest Association Board President Marcus Little wants the buildings to be condemned which would force everyone to be evicted, putting him (and any financial backers he may have) in a better position to take over the entire property and sell it to the highest bidder and convert it to luxury condos.
But you can help us to stop him and keep many native and long-term DC residents from being displaced.
Join us for the Evidentiary Hearing August 23rd.
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The ultimate fate of Ridgecrest Community may very well be decided on August 23, 2023. Let’s make sure they get the justice they deserve.