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...

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...