WASHINGTON, D. C. – As part of an effort to use legal tools to address the District’s affordable housing crisis, Attorney General Karl A. Racine today announced the release of an online toolkit containing detailed information for tenants about their rights to safe and habitable housing and how to get help if those rights are violated. The materials include tenant resources, information about how to address nuisance properties, and information about how the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) can use its legal authority to take action against persistent housing code violators. They are available here in both English and Spanish.
“We created these new resources because we want to educate and empower tenants to take action if they are being forced to live in unsafe conditions—and we want them to know how the District government can help,” said Attorney General Racine. “Over the past year, my office has brought enforcement actions against some of the District’s most abusive landlords, and we want to make sure no one else is subjected to the truly dangerous and deplorable conditions we saw in those cases.”
The new online resources arm tenants with the information they need to ensure problems in their home and building get fixed, including how to document and report problems, and how to get help from District government agencies and local non-profit organizations. It also includes information about how to deal with different types of neighborhood nuisances, including criminal activity and blight.
Preserving Affordable Housing and Protecting Tenants
The Office of the Attorney General uses the law to preserve affordable housing, protect tenants, and hold abusive and neglectful landlords accountable. If a landlord violates the law and forces tenants or surrounding residents to live with dangerous or unsanitary conditions, OAG’s Public Advocacy Division, formed in 2017, can step in. This team has worked over the past year to bring enforcement actions to solve problems at properties where the public is endangered by persistent housing code violations or unchecked criminal activity. Under Attorney General Racine’s leadership, OAG’s Office of Consumer Protection has also begun using its authority to gain restitution for tenants who paid rent to neglectful landlords that failed to deliver safe and habitable living conditions.
Tenants with landlord-tenant concerns can contact the Office of the Tenant Advocate at (202) 719-6560; if you believe your issue may be building-wide, please ask them to share your information with the Office of the Attorney General.