Construction Maison

In 2013, Randy Dillard was living with his four sons and a daughter in an apartment at 198th Street and Bainbridge in the Bronx. The windows were broken; mold and mildew streaked the walls. In the winter, Dillard’s family had to boil water on the stove to bathe; there was no heat or hot water. When the New York City Housing Authority conducted an inspection of the apartment on behalf of Section 8, the federal rent assistance program that financed Dillard ’s rental, the unit failed the test, and Section 8 stopped paying Dillard ’s landlord, demanding that he make repairs. That winter, Dillard was hospitalized for two months with a bout of emphysema; when he came out, he was served with eviction papers for nonpayment of rent. advertisement “I stood in the middle of my hallway looking around my apartment thinking: What am I going to do with my stuff?” Dillard tells Fast Company . “I told myself: I’m going to end up homeless. I’m going to wind up in a shelter.” Dillard got word of a Bron...

Whitney and Luke Bowerman dream of building cottages on one of the few larger lots remaining in Olympia’s Eastside neighborhood. They want to leave the existing trees on the Fairview Street Southeast lot , and reflect the character of the neighborhood in their design. The cottages would join a new, three-bedroom house also designed to fit the area. But the city of Olympia has made it expensive to build cottages, the Bowermans said. They estimate that city fees alone will run $30,000 to $40,000 per cottage. And the cottages will be just between 500 and 800 square feet. “The impact fees for a 500-square-foot cottage are almost the same as for a single-family home,” Whitney Bowerman said. “But you can’t rent them for as much,” Luke Bowerman said. If changes aren’t made to reduce the costs, the Bowermans said, they might have to abandon the cottage idea and build a more traditional subdivision. Out of respect for the neighborhood, they don’t want to do that. Meanwhile, Olympia is poised...

The former BP station on East Post Road in White Plains. Photo by Bill Heltzel The White Plains Housing Authority has sued BP Products North America for allegedly contaminating water and soil at a former gas station near Winbrook Apartments . A toxic plume under the former BP station at 34 E. Post Road, the housing authority claims , has migrated toward an apartment building. The plume allegedly threatens the health of residents and potentially jeopardizes financing for a $350 million plan to replace five buildings. The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 17 in federal court in White Plains. BP did not respond to a voicemail and an email request for comment. Winbrook is the city’s oldest public housing site , comprising five 90- unit structures built in the late 1940s. The apartments are in downtown White Plains on South Lexington Avenue , Fisher Court and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr . Boulevard. The gas station was next to Winbrook’s Building 33, home of about 350 residents. BP owned or o...

1ST DISTRICT Banks St. 3114: Virginio Valdez to Ujwal S. Patil and Shaina L. Krok, $137,000. Banks St. 3508-10: Aramburo & Associates LLC to DDB2 Property LLC , $380,000. Poeyfarre St. 920, Annunciation St. 1049, Unit 154: Lev I. Shulman to Ryan E. Wall and Elizabeth C. Wall, $210,000. Poydras St. 1200, Unit 206: Poydras Properties II LLC to Agree Ltd. Partnership, $14,376. S. Scott St. 611: Samuel C. Kimball and Whitney G. Magendie to Brian M. Smallwood and Emily S. Williams, $305,000. S. Solomon St. 523: Succession of Italia Bacuzzi Dearing to Natalie G. Thomas, $250,000. St. Charles Ave. 1205, Unit 917: James P. Reed to Evangeline Davis, $157,000. St. Charles Ave. 201, Unit 1500: Bre Nola Parking LLc to EZ Park LLC, $27,551. 2ND DISTRICT Begonia Lane 16: Denise A. Tebbe and James T. Tebbe Jr. to Laura F. Guidry and Benjamin V. Guidry, $900,000. Bluebird St. 2: 2 Bluebird LLC to Jeanne A. Mullen and Jonathan C. Powers, $213,000. Brooks St. 330: Jonathan G. Owen and Rebecca S...

Rodents in the walls, air conditioner on the fritz, and floors falling in. Despite enacting what Dallas city leaders call the toughest rental housing regulations in the country, some Dallas renters say conditions are barely livable and don't understand their rights. Tenants at the Gaston Uptown Apartments in East Dallas are afraid to complain and on the offensive in the fight against rodents. One man sits in an open doorway because the air conditioning is out on one of the hottest days of the year. He says he served in Vietnam. Last year, the city enacted what leaders call the toughest housing regulations in the country to crack down on slumlords. But those who live at the Gaston Uptown Apartments say they do not know their rights. The building sits in the district of Dallas City Councilman Philip Kingston . “I promise you you're not even in the bottom 20% of housing quality in Dallas if you went over there,” the councilman said. “I don’t know what you’re suggesting. Tha...

Natalie Marra benefited from the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), a provision in the District that provides strong protection for tenants to avoid a forced move. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) Four years ago, when her apartment building at 1921 Kalorama Road NW in Washington was up for sale, Natalie Marra, a resident for more than 30 years, was determined to stay in the home she loves. “It took almost two years of tough negotiating, but there was a core group of seven of us in the tenant association that worked with a lawyer to make sure our rights were protected,” Marra says. “We negotiated the right to live in our apartments under rent control for the rest of our lives. Believe me, none of us ever plan to move now. Why would we? We have great renovated apartments and low rent.” Marra and her neighbors benefited from the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), a provision in the District that provides strong protection for tenants to avoid a forced move. Elder...

We offer our predictions on communities that will rank among the city's most desirable in 2026. Plus a look at developers who are working to make those visions a reality. February 18, 2016 (page 7 of 7) 8 developers with insight who are rethinking our urban neighborhoods   BY DEBRA SMIT G reat neighborhoods — with ample green space , commerce and good housing stock — empower their residents to grow and prosper. Developers are key when it comes to weaving together the physical threads of a community, particularly in urban neighborhoods frayed by years of blight and decay. These are among the developers who are working to revitalize some of the city’s most challenged neighborhoods, striving to be restorers of streets in which to dwell. All have one eye, certainly, on the bottom line. Still, they are well aware of expectations that they give measured consideration to quality of life in the neighborhoods in which they build.   Wi...