Activists protested Sanford Capital back in 2015 over conditions at a building in Congress Heights. (Photo by Rachel Sadon)

After the attorney general sued the landlord Sanford Capital twice over deplorable conditions at its properties, and two media outlets published detailed accounts of the company’s myriad failings, the administration of Mayor Muriel Bowser is taking some action.

Bowser ordered city inspectors to review the more than 1,300 apartments the company owns, The Washington Post first reported.

“Mayor Bowser ordered the review because despite previous efforts to ensure adequate housing at Sanford properties we continue to receive complaints,” said spokesman Kevin Harris in an emailed statement. “A review will provide a more holistic view of the resident living conditions and better inform the process for how to move forward and improve these conditions.”

The review also just so happens to come on the heels of two high-profile and lengthy investigations.

The Washington City Paper published a cover story on February 2 that put it bluntly: “Life Is Hell for Tenants of Giant D.C. Slumlord Sanford Capital.” Three days ago, the Washington Post also ran an A1 story that outlined the ongoing situation for tenants in Sanford buildings.

Both pointed out that the city is both sanctioning the company (which has racked up $150,000 in fines for housing code violations) and enriching it, in the form of affordable housing subsidies.

Given the housing crunch, though, officials said they can’t simply stop working with the company. “When you have somebody who controls a large portion of the affordable housing in the city and we have a problem with them, there’s no way that we can say we are never working with that company again,” DHS director Laura Zeilinger told the Post.

Tenants at Sanford properties say they are ecstatic by the prospect of a review.

“I’m very happy. I could jump for joy,” said Pamela Glover, a tenant at the Sanford-owned Belmont Crossing, as she listed a litany of problems at the building: rats, broken locks, intruders, delayed maintenance. Glover had to hound the building manager to get the air conditioning fixed after temperatures in her apartment soared into the 80s; she said it only got done after she threatened to call 7 on Your Side.

Meanwhile, units below her apartment have been left vacant. They were apparently flooded by a backed-up pipe, creating residual problems that persisted for months. “It smelled like someone died in here,” Glover says, and she isn’t alone among residents of the property in developing respiratory problems. The company eventually drained the units and knocked internal walls down, she says, but the mold remains. Glover says she went to the hospital on Sunday and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection.

“This man is living in a $2.8 million home and we’re living in garbage,” she says. “I hope that the government, the mayor, takes over all his properties because he’s not fit to be a landlord. He’s not fit.”

Patrick Strauss and Carter Nowell launched Sanford Capital in 2005. Nowell lives in the $2.8 million home that Glover referenced; Strauss owns a $1.6 million home in D.C.’s Chevy Chase neighborhood.

As for why the city didn’t step in sooner, the administration didn’t provide a clear answer. The attorney general has filed suits related to two specific properties, but this is the first time the administration is reviewing the company as a whole.

“We can’t comment on pending litigation but Mayor Bowser believes all avenues should be taken to protect residents,” Harris said via email. “We know there have been fines levied against Sanford, but as we continue to receive complaints it’s clear more action is needed and that is why the review was ordered.”

Though the city has only sued a landlord for neglect a handful of times in the past few years, Attorney General Karl Racine announced that his office filed a complaint against Sanford “for multiple violations of the District’s housing laws” at a property in Congress Heights in early 2016.

While the parties reached an abatement plan in April, Racine sued again months later over the conditions at another Sanford property, the Terrace Manor Apartments in the Shipley Terrace neighborhood of Ward 8.

“This is a different property that demonstrates a pattern of neglect that’s similar to what we saw in Congress Heights,” Robert Marus, a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General, said at the time they filed suit. They have since agreed to an abatement plan, but Racine is also seeking restitution for rent paid while tenants resided in barely inhabitable units.

Tenants at Belmont, which Sanford only acquired in August of 2015, say that if the administration had addressed the problems at other properties sooner, they might have been spared the same litany of grievances.

“If the issue had been addressed when other people were going through it, it might not have got to us,” said Beverly Wright, a 13-year resident at Belmont and the president of the building’s tenant association. “Since the city is aware—are we going to get some results? Is anything going to happen? I don’t know. I’m optimistic.”