Comments on: Tenant Eviction in Columbia Heights

By: Mari

Mari — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:22:08 +0000

When you fail to pay your rent, you and your stuff go to the corner.
These people just had a lot of stuff. Imagine the most cluttered house you’ve ever been in, now imagine all of that clutter out on the street. There are other things that get you kick out besides non-payment of rent. My grandma lives in subsidized housing for the elderly, and she has to keep her unit “clean”. Which means every 2-3 years I and a handful of relatives have to invade her apt, toss out 2 dumpsters worth of crap and make it less of a firetrap so she and the rest of her clutter won’t wind up on the sidewalk.
From my point of view, it looks like a cluttered house, with decades of stuff that no one bothered to throw out before, the good, the bad, and the trash, all on the sidewalk.

By: Wha???

Wha??? — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:06:00 +0000

I can not believe the surprise about this. Having lived in DC for a while I have seen this kind of eviction all over the city….stuff on street corners on Capitol Hill, Dupont, Upper NW, even Kalorama.

As others have pointed out, someone who gets evicted has ignored repeated attempts to get them to pay their rent. When it’s time for the deadbeats to go, their stuff goes too. If nobody is there to take it away, it is put on the street. What is so hard to understand….eviction means it’s time to LEAVE!!!!

By: Legba

Legba — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:40:37 +0000

The worst bit was that when guys from the city showed up that evening to haul away the items in the street, even they were having a hard time understanding how this could happen–particularly with a marshal present.

By: Moo

Moo — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:35:28 +0000

I live right around the corner from where this happened. I went by when they were inititally pulling out the tenants’ things and I, kid you not, the US marshal was yelling at the people removing the items from the home because they were taking the time to organize things on the sidewalk. Then, the US Marshal proceeded to start kicking the objects.

I called the DCRA and complained but who knows what’s going to happen with that.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:14:59 +0000

“you folks from omaha or ohio that claim to be washingtonions may be offended by an eviction.”

Gawrsh, us hayseeds just don’t know much ’bout life, now do we? Ya mean, they actually kick people out and stuff? Dang! I’ve always wondered what life was like in the big city, an now I know. Thanks for da educashun, mistah.

Oh, and for the record: what’s with this bullshit “claim to be Washingtonians”? Either you are or you aren’t, you live here or you don’t. How about: people who claim to be intelligent posting idiotic comments on message boards?

By: guest

guest — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:02:19 +0000

I live 1 block from this place and happened upon the eviction in progress as I was riding my bike to work. I can verify that there was a US Marshal on the scene, indicating it probably was a legal eviction. I don’t know anything else about the circumstances, but it did surprise me that all of their stuff was just thrown out on the street. It took all day, because when I came home in the afternoon, they were still taking stuff out.

By: get real

get real — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:24:11 +0000

Marshalls are required to be present at an eviction, but they don’t lift a finger. They are just there to supervise. The landlord is required to hire at least 10 people to remove the personal belongings from the dwelling. DC is VERY tenant friendly and, as this may not have been a legal eviction (I’m sure it was,) I have no sympathy for the tenants. I can almost guarantee they were notified of this eviction prior to Wednesday.

By: poo poo

poo poo — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:42:24 +0000

ok, ok.
you folks from omaha or ohio that claim to be washingtonions may be offended by an eviction.

it happens.

it has to, based on dc law. if you don’t like it, run for office and change things.

dc laws are messed up. tossing stuff on the street is pretty much the only way to get rid of folks that drive up your taxes and waste away your property.

welcome to the big city, midwestern cornhawkers, or whatever you call yourselves….

By: inked

inked — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 03:13:06 +0000

In a legal eviction the Marshalls come and moe out the tenants’ belongings. If these tenants were in a legal leasing situation you could not legally have a contractor (or his workers remove the belongings). So maybe they were legal tenant and the story is wrong, or maybe the eviction was illegal, or maybe they were squatters.
Dc has very pro-tenant laws, but illegal evictions definitely do happen.

By: Wayan

Wayan — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:40:21 +0000

Tenant evictions are common, I see them all the time, but when was the last time you saw one with that much stuff, spread that far along a street, that late at night?

This has to be a near-record!