THE VILLAGE
How D.C.’s AG Racine Tackles Issues of Housing and Homelessness BY C HR IS TOP HER J O N E S What should be done about the crisis of housing and homelessness in the District? While many hold theories, the District’s Attorney General, Karl A. Racine wields powerful tools to address matters directly. With a team of nearly 700 lawyers and staff in 12 offices and divisions, Racine’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is charged statutorily with serving the “public interest” of the nation’s capital and Racine himself is committed to “applying the law creatively” on behalf of D.C. residents at risk of losing housing. The Georgetowner spoke with AG Racine recently to discuss his outlook, efforts and initiatives. In 2015, District voters elected Racine to become the city’s first elected Attorney General -- unlike most AGs around the country who are appointed. He’s now serving in his second 4-year term, having been reelected in 2018. Since his election, Racine has gained national prominence not only through the OAG’s multiple lawsuits against Trump organizations and his recent decision to require Covid vaccines for his workforce, but by his work as president of the bi-partisan National
Association of Attorneys General. Previously, he served as an Associate White House Counsel in the Clinton administration. He was also the first African-American managing partner of a top-100 American law firm, Venable LLP, and served for many years as an attorney for the D.C. Public Defender Service. Racine’s profile on the OAG’s website, outlines his public service roots. “Born in Haiti, Attorney General Racine came to the District at the age of three,” the bio reads. He “attended D.C. public schools, including Murch Elementary, Deal Junior High, and Wilson High, and graduated from St. John’s College High School. He earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was captain of the basketball team, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he volunteered in a legal clinic supporting the rights of migrant farm workers. His commitment to equal justice was inspired by his parents, who fled authoritarian rule in Haiti to start a better life in the United States, and by the lawyers of the Civil Rights Movement, who used the law to make positive social change.” Upon reelection in 2018, Racine posted on his profile his particular commitment to ensuring housing stability and economic
security for D.C. residents. He said he was “honored to serve again” and would “use the next four years to expand work on priorities, including preserving affordable housing, employing evidence-based juvenile justice reforms, cracking down on slumlords, holding unscrupulous employers accountable for wage-theft, and protecting consumers from scams and abusive business practices.” While the mandate of the OAG is to defend the District in lawsuits and provide legal advice to the Mayor, city agencies, and the D.C. council, the OAG’s “public interest” objective gives Racine leeway to address a range of complex issues that contribute to the problem of homelessness in the District -- from abusive landlords, to crime, to juvenile justice to fraudulent or illegal practices that put residents at risk of losing their homes. “We’re able to use the law in the public interest and that’s where we really focus our efforts when it comes to issues related to housing,” Racine told The Georgetowner. One of the principle pipelines into homelessness, Racine argues, involves abusive landlords finding ways to force tenants out so they can upscale their properties and demand
higher rents. “Unfortunately, there still remain slumlords in the District of Columbia,” Racine said, “and many of [them] have a business model where they literally purchase a building that has paying tenants or tenants who have paid via a [housing] subsidy and the longterm goal of these slumlords is to get those tenants out so that the properties can either be renovated or redeveloped and attract a whole new type of tenant that can pay higher rates.” So, AG Racine dispatches OAG lawyers to the scene. “Our lawyers go in and we hold those landlords, owners or management companies accountable for not providing a safe, inhabitable place to tenants who in some form or fashion are paying for that service,” he said. “Essential to that business model is not providing services for the existing tenants. So tenants are forced to live with leaky roofs, leaky basements, mold, all kinds of vermin, and other unsafe and uninhabitable conditions.” VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM FOR THE FULL ARTICLE.
3010 CAMBRIDGE PLACE NW 3010 Cambridge is a meticulously maintained, four-level Victorian on sought after, tree-lined Cambridge Place in the heart of the East Village. The house is detached on three sides and offers hardwood floors, three fireplaces, high ceilings, and large rooms. You will find a large living room with a bay window overlooking Cambridge Place, a fireplace, and built-in bookshelves on the first floor. The large dining room has a second fireplace. The newly remodeled kitchen offers granite countertops and top of the line Bertazzoni stainless-steel appliances, and a view of the private rear garden. The top-level owner’s suite is beaming with light and has two walk-in closets, a primary bath with a double sink, a walk-in shower, a Jacuzzi bath, and heated floors. Top-level laundry. Two large bedrooms on the second floor with a shared hall bath. A family room on the lower level offers a fireplace and walk-out access to the back garden. A lower-level office or craft room completes the space—built-in bookshelves and cabinets throughout for storage and display. Elfa closets provide plenty of flexibility for clothing storage. Lovely back garden with flagstone patio and roof deck over the detached one-car parking garage. The garage is easily accessed by the side alley. Located close to M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, and only a block from Montrose and Dumbarton Oaks Parks. Within proximity to several historic house museums and Georgetown University for cultural events.
THE DIAZ-ASPER GROUP Julia Diaz-Asper 1206 30th Street, NW Washington, DC 20007 Brokerage +1 202.333.1212
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GMG, INC.
AUGUST 18, 2021
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