WAKE UP EVERYBODY! HELP MY WHOLE HOOD MAKE IT HOME. THE WORLD WON’T GET NO BETTER. THE HOOD WON’T GET NO BETTER. WE GOT TO CHANGE IT, YOU AND ME! (TOBE NWIGWE)
HELP THE RESIDENTS OF RIDGECREST STAY IN THEIR HOMES!
Last week, I was in Court, on behalf of the lower income Residents of the Ridgecrest Condominium. I recently became one of their lawyers. It is not a luxury condominium to be sure. For many, Ridgecrest was all they could afford, purchasing their condos because home ownership is the only way to hedge against ever-increasing rents and remain in the place they love, Washington, DC.
For more than two years they have fought for the right to use their condo fees, they paid to make repairs to the building. Help them in their fight by donating to keep the residents of the Ridgecrest Condominium housed in HEALTHY and SAFE conditions!
They were never looking for luxury condos, but they do want clean, decent, safe, affordable, well-managed homes. The mold, leaky ceilings, a boiler at risk of blowing up and apartments without electricity are conditions under which they must live.
The city has cited Ridgecrest for code violations dating back to 2017. Conditions were so bad that they 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 exploding. Many of the Unit Owners are elderly, and after working much of their lives, have no options.
They have formed 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. As I write this, at least one third of Ridgecrest owners have had liens placed on their apartments because Water and Gas bills have not been paid by current management.
Some of their community members have already been forced out. Even though the unit had been in her family for three generations, one resident ultimately had to sell because no matter how many times she repaired the drywall the mold, black mold, just kept coming back (as seen in the images in the WJLA 7 Report, below).
With its rolling hills, open space, peaceful atmosphere, across the street from lovely woods, a nearby ice skating rink, the Nationals Training Camp for young, aspiring baseball players, a nearby school, and other natural amenities, many believe it has caught the keen eyes of developers and could become the next Barry Farms.
But with your help, it won’t end that way! In the past two years, the Independent Owners and Residents of Ridgecrest raised $24,440 to pay necessary bills, Condominium-wide bills, not individual bills. They have no money left for those purposes. Now, they need $100,000 to pay for the electrical repairs and mold remediation in all eight of the buildings, so they, like you, can have air conditioning during the hot summer months, heat in winter, and air free of killer mold. One older resident has sat still, surrounded by mold, in the dark, throughout this hot summer, with no air conditioning, without an operating refrigerator in which to keep food. Her testimony last week broke my heart. Another has asthma and a heart condition and no air conditioning. Will they have heat this fall and winter, will they be warm? The saga goes on.
Last year, WJLA 7 reported on the Order to Vacate the residents had received from DCRA.
Where will they go, if those eight buildings, housing hundreds are shut down? They have a GoFundMe Page. And Grassroots DC is helping with their fundraising, at this Link: https://www.grassrootsdc.org/
Give what you can, if you can, when you can, as much as you can. You'll get to Heaven! Pinkie told me. I PRAY YOU CATCH A WAVE THAT DOESN'T SUBSIDE. GO FOR BROKE FOR THE ONES THAT ARE BROKEN. WAKE UP EVERYBODY (TOBE NWIGWE, HOUSTON).
