DC Department of Buildings inspects broken security doors

At the request of the Van Ness South Tenants Association, the DC Department of Buildings today inspected broken security doors at 3003 Van Ness.

Just two days earlier, VNSTA reviewed the security doors leading from the street into the underground garages, and from the underground garages into the West and South buildings. The tenant association found that it remains easy to enter the residential hallways of 3003 Van Ness from the street, through multiple doors.

The tenant association has recorded more than 80 videos of broken security doors at 3003 Van Ness over more than two years.

VNSTA awaits a report by the Department of Buildings.

See video below recorded on December 15th, 2024.

Equity provides information to residents regarding major mainline water leak

Equity Residential has shared some information with residents regarding the widespread flooding caused by a major pipe that burst on the 10th floor of the West building just after midnight on December 16th. (See information about the flooding along with photos in the previous news item below.)

At 1:03 am last night, Equity sent an email to residents, which said this:

This email is to inform you that we have shut the water off to the building due to an emergency water leak. Our team is on site assessing the issue, once we have a time frame for repairs, we will send a follow up email.

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NOTE: An earlier version of this post stated that Equity did not send additional information until 9:30 pm on December 16th. That has proven to be incorrect — management sent a second email, only to residents of the West building, at 11:58 am on that day. This second email stated:

As you are probably already aware we had a major mainline water leak that has caused significant water intrusion on the 10th floor. This affected the common hallways and stairwells areas as well as some apartments. The plumbing repairs are now complete and our team/contractors are working to access damage and start repairs.

Today, a service team member will inspect apartments in the affected areas (consisting of apartment numbers ending 5 through 21) between the 1st floor and the 10th floor. Should you notice any water damages in your home and your apartment number doesn't end in 5 through 21, please reach out and let us know so we can inspect your home as well.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused. We thank you for your understanding and patience during this time.

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Another email was sent to residents of the West building at 8:25 am on Tuesday, December 17th. It stated that:

We wanted to provide an update regarding the work being completed in your home due to the water intrusion caused by a mainline pipe malfunction. Contractors will be back today to complete a moisture reading in the areas that were affected in your home. They will begin at 9 am until all apartments are completed. Once the readings are complete we will follow up with next steps.

Thank you for your patience.

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Burst pipe causes massive flooding in the West building

After midnight last night, a pipe burst on the 10th or 11th floor of the West building of 3003, causing large-scale flooding all the way down to at least the 2nd floor.

Water poured through ceilings and walls of apartments below. Some residents reported water in their apartments several inches deep. Some electrical outlets crackled, raising concerns for safety. Water flooded some of the hallways and stairwells many floors below the burst pipe.

Residents alerted the front desk staff, who reported that an off-site maintenance team was at least an hour away. Someone set off a fire alarm. The water to the entire building was eventually shut off, but water continued to flood the lower floors for at least several hours.

See photos and video below.

Flooding on the 5th floor of the West building

Flooding on the G1 level of the West building

Flooding in a stairwell

Flooding in the hall of the 3rd floor of the West building

Flooding in one of the elevators

Flooding on the 3rd floor of the West building

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Tenant president testifies before DC Council on building security

Van Ness South Tenants Association president Harry Gural testified before the DC Council on Tuesday about chronically broken exterior doors at 3003 Van Ness. The testimony was part of a DC Council hearing on the SAFE Act, legislation developed by Attorney General Brian Schwalb designed to help increase building security in DC apartment buildings.

In his testimony, Gural told DC Councilmembers that calls by residents of 3003 Van Ness to 911 for help from the police have skyrocketed in recent months, with one or two calls per day. Other apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue have experienced similar increases in recent years, with calls from five to ten times higher than a few years ago.

Reading from actual 911 call data retrieved from the DC Office of Unified Communications, Gural said that in October 2024 alone, residents of 3003 Van Ness had called the police for a stabbing, assaults, theft, burglary, disorderly disturbance, domestic violence, and other incidents. In addition, in prior months, records show calls to the police for sexuall assault, aggravated assault, illegal firearms, drug dealing, overdoses, harrassment, stolen vehicles, and suspicious persons.

Gural’s written testimony including 31 pages of 911 calls, thumbnails of dozens of YouTube videos, as well as a March 2022 report by the tenant association, “Security Failures at 3003 Van Ness.”

Gural reported to Councilmembers that at the same time that there were these clear signs of high levels of criminal activity at 3003 Van Ness, building security remained extraoldinarily lax, with several exterior doors being broken at almost all times, allowing easy access to the building to non-residents. Even on the day of the hearing, video shows that there were four broken security doors at 3003 Van Ness.

Gural testified that he and other members of the tenant association had been recording video of these broken doors for more than two and a half years and have posted more than 80 such videos on the Van Ness South Tenants Association YouTube channel.

Dozens of other housing advocates joined Gural in supporting Attorney General’s Schalb’s SAFE Act, which is designed to put pressure on owners and managers of rental housing properties that do not take adequate steps to secure their buildings.

The SAFE Act will be reintroduced in January and will likely be voted on in the winter or spring.

Read Gural’s testimony, 911 data and other supporting documents

The tenant association encourages members who have an opinion about security at 3003 Van Ness or about the SAFE Act to add a comment below.

Fines against Equity Residential lowered from $1.2 million to $164 thousand

In August, we reported that the DC Department of Buildings (DOB) had levied $1,218,612 in fines on Equity Residential for almost 750 violations at 3003 Van Ness over the past three years. Updated data, which shows far less in fines, is now available.

The information was retrieved from the DOB’s SCOUT online data system and Landlord Violations Tool.

The fines were the result of the DOB’s "proactive inspection" of 3003 Van Ness, which was supposed to inspect the entire building. Sixteen months later, only a portion of the building has been inspected, but the exact percentage isn’t known.

It also isn’t clear that any of the $1.2 million in fines has been paid to date.

However, review of Department of Buildings online data for 3003 Van Ness as of Dec. 11th, 2024, shows that the amount has been lowered by more than $1 million to $164,492. It appears that the reason that the amount has dropped so precipitously is that, according to DOB, Equity Residential has fixed the violations that had been cited.

If that is correct, it means that Equity Residential will have paid little or nothing in fines for widespread violations of the housing code.

Moreover, it isn’t clear if Equity Residential has fixed housing code violations in the units that were not inspected by the Department of Buildings.

The Van Ness South Tenants Association will seek clarification from the Department of Buildings about its policy about housing code violations and fines.

Residents of 3003 Van Ness who want to find out if there are any outstanding fines for violations in their units can view the PDF file above or the identical Excel file below.

Download an easier-to-read Excel version of the current fines

Exterior security doors are still broken

On the same day (Dec. 10th) that the DC Council held a hearing on proposed legislation to strengthen security at apartment buildings, an informal inspection of security doors at 3003 Van Ness found that four security doors remain broken. The broken doors allow easy access to anyone outside the building to enter the underground garage, and from there to enter the apartment building.

The Van Ness South Tenants Association has been reporting and recording video of broken security doors at 3003 Van Ness for almost three years — more than 80 videos have been posted to VNSTA’s YouTube Channel.

On the same day that the four videos below recorded, the DC Department of Buildings reported that it inspected the doors at 3003 Van Ness that morning - but DOB found only one broken door. However, as the video shows clearly, at least four security doors at 3003 Van Ness were not functioning properly on December 10th, 2024.

The tenant association has reported these broken doors to Equity Residential many times in the past. It reported them to Equity again on Nov. 20th and then again today (Dec. 11th). Today, the tenant association submitted a request to DOB for an inspection of these doors.

Fire doors have not been repaired

The inspection of 3003 Van Ness by the DC Department of Buildings found that most doors to apartments lack a self-closing mechanism, which is necessary for fire safety.

This fire safety issue was reported by DOB inspectors, but it appears that only a few doors have been updated with a spring mechanism that would close the door automatically as the resident exits his or her apartment. This is necessary to slow the spread of fire in the case of an emergency.

The tenant association recently began an informal survey of residents to find out how many doors have been repaired. So far, 95% of respondents report that the doors have not been repaired.

It isn’t clear why Equity Residential is not addressing this fire safety issue.

High number of calls to police persist in October 2024

The high number of calls from residents of 3003 Van Ness for police assistance continued in October, including for assaults, a stabbing, disorderly conduct, verbal harassment, burglary and noise complaints.

Until about five years ago, 3003 Van Ness was a quiet building occupied mostly by seniors and young professionals. Very few calls from police assistance were made from the building. The number of such calls has skyrocketed in recent years, both at 3003 Van Ness and at other large apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue. The Bowser administration has taken no action to address these issues.

VNSTA receives letter from DC police regarding security at 3003 Van Ness

The tenant association today received a letter from the DC Metropolitan Police Department, in which MPD stated that it had notified its Violent Crime Suppression Division about security problems at 3003 Van Ness.

The letter also stated that the building could be made security if Equity Residential were to share the video feeds from its security cameras with MPD’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC). MPD encourages the tenant association to ask Equity Residential to participate in the RTCC program.

Read the letter in print-friendly format at this link.

Tenant association presidents sends letter to Equity re: broken doors and Nuisance Abatement Act

Harry Gural, president of the Van Ness South Tenants Association, sent a letter today to Equity Residential general manager Dan Burkes, requesting again that the company repair all broken exterior security doors at 3003 Van Ness.

For years, the tenant association has complained to Equity Residential about poor building security at 3003 Van Ness. VNSTA wrote reports on poor security, wrote letters and emails to building management, and asked city officials for help. For more than two years, it recorded video evidence of broken exterior doors at the property, and broken doors leading from the underground garages to the main building.

Today’s letter is another attempt to get the attention of Equity Residential, a $27 billion company based in Chicago. The letter not only provides evidence of exceptionally poor security at 3003 Van Ness, it cites possible penalties for such failures in in buildings that have had problems with drugs, prostitution or firearms. Specifically, it quotes a section of the law which names penalties that a court can order for violating the law:

“Ordering all rental income from the property to be placed in an escrow account with the court for up to 90 days or until the drug-, firearm-, or prostitution-related nuisance is abated;”

“Ordering all rental income for the property transferred to a trustee, to be appointed by the court, who shall be empowered to use the rental income to make reasonable expenditures related to the property in order to abate the drug-, firearm-, or prostitution-related nuisance;”

The letter is cc’ed to senior Equity Residential management, as well as DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Department of Buildings Director Brian Hanlon, officers of the DC Metropolitan Police, members of the DC Council, and others.

Read the entire letter in print-friendly format.