Avis Barnett, 60, originally of Montego Bay, Jamaica, moved to Glenwood six years ago. Inside the bathroom of her one bedroom unit is a gaping hole, revealing layers of plaster and the building’s outer brick wall. The rotted window seal is now black from mildew, the paint is peeling, and a thick layer of mold crawls up the wall of the shower.
Barnett has asked Glenwood’s management to address the hole for two years.
Nothing has been done. She recalls having a broken toilet in her unit for three weeks before management addressed it. ” told me that they were busy and couldn’t fix the problems,” said Barnett. “They told me to use the unlocked unit across the hall to wash and use the bathroom.”
Barnett works for a catering company in northern Virginia but fears she will not be able to remain at Glenwood. “I don’t know if I can stay, or if I can afford to stay,” says Barnett. “I don’t know where I’ll go. I may be homeless.”
Her story is one of the many that residents of Glenwood Apartments share as they fight, not only for better living conditions, but also for reasonable, affordable rents.
“It is an absolute travesty,” Army veteran Charles Carmon, 67, said.
Carmon moved into his one bedroom unit in 1989. He has been asking AMC to address the water damage in his bathroom, the leaky tub, and the unit’s peeling paint and mold. “They think we are ignorant. But this is a common occurrence. It’s been going on. It’s nothing new. … They feel that this is something where people have no education or the tools to deal with it.”
Carmon likes the northeast neighborhood because of its proximity to the Veteran Affair’s Hospital in northeast D.C. but will elect to move if the increase goes into effect.
Caecilia Key, 55, an accountant in Washington, D.C., moved to Glenwood in 2004.
She is ready to leave her apartment. “There are mice in the building, my bathroom ceiling is cracked and peeling, and it looks like it is sloping in.” Inside her one bedroom unit, a slow leak in the unit above her has damaged her walls. She alerted AMC five months ago about the problem. It has still been unaddressed.
A single mother, Key relocated to Glenwood from her apartment on Massachusetts Avenue in northwest in search of more affordable rent. Currently paying $919, her rent will soon jump to $1,470 a month if AMC’s hardship petition to District’s Department of Housing and Community Development, Rental Accommodation Division is successful.
Pointing to the severely damaged walls and mold growing in her bathroom, Key, currently home on medical leave, openly wept. “I’ve asked them to fix this but they haven’t. I just want out. I’m ready to leave.”
For several new tenants of Glenwood, the experience has become a nightmare. Deborah Bey has grown tired of asking AMC to address the ceiling leaks, the mold in her bathroom, the water leak under her kitchen sink, and the cracked and loose tiles on her bedroom floor. After a year of asking AMC to fix it, Bey opted to move out. “I’m over it,” says Bey. “They won’t fix anything.” Her last day at Glenwood was March 15.
Kevin Cross, 41, of Alexandria Va., moved to Glenwood six months ago. Cross showed the peeling paint inside his bathtub. “They painted it,” Cross said. “They should have glazed it, but they painted over it and now it’s peeling away.”
Cross pointed out a large, orange, industrial-sized extension cord snaked across the width of his kitchen. “They never came to fix this socket, and so they plugged the stove to the cord and have it plugged up in an outlet on the other side of the kitchen.”
Cross moved in to Glenwood because of its spacious floor plan and its great location. “I’m staying,” Cross said. “We have a right to stay.” Cross stated that since management mailed the first series of letters to Glenwood residents informing them of this rental increase on October 29, 2013, several tenants have left. “It’s a scare tactic and a way to force people out.”
