DC’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act granted the 1400 Aspen Street Tenants Association the right to seize their building after a decade long fight. LISC, supplemented by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Preservation Loan Fund, provided $3.9 million in acquisition financing to the association. Since rising above the COVID-19 pandemic and buyout offers, residents in the building are now settling into their upgraded permanent homes.
Pictured above: Development consultant Martha Davis and 1400 Aspen St. Cooperative members Rachel Oswald and Carlos Flores in the building’s new laundry room.
Today, there’s a Whole Foods, a Japanese bistro, and new market-rate apartments on the rapidly developing Walter Reed campus in northwest DC. These are often precursors of displacement for low- and moderate- income people, especially people of color. But members of the 1400 Aspen Street Tenants Association are assured that they won’t be priced out of the bustling neighborhood any time soon and are poised to reap the benefits of home ownership.
After a years-long fight to buy and convert their building into a limited equity cooperative, Co-op President Carlos Flores and his neighbors are just beginning to understand how to use their new tenant rights as the building’s rehab receives its final touches.
The 1400 Aspen Street Tenants Association seized the opportunity to take ownership of their 30-unit property through DC’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase ACT (TOPA) in 2015. Under TOPA, when a DC property owner decides to put their property on the market, tenants get first dibs on buying it at the same price. LISC, supplemented by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Preservation Loan Fund, provided $3.9 million in acquisition financing to the association which helped keep the building affordable in perpetuity at 80% AMI.
With discussions of legislation to curtail how many buildings can qualify for TOPA currently brewing, the 1400 Aspen Street Cooperative demonstrates the importance of TOPA, and how it can succeed with adequate support.
The Cooperative now has permanent financing and ownership shares are stabilized. They've also been able to fund renovations including an electrical heavy-up, updated kitchens, energy-efficient features like solar panels, and the addition of communal space. Even with all these upgrades, residents have only seen one increase in their monthly rent since becoming owners, and they voted on the amount.
“We’re happy that we have more control over what we can do,” Flores, who has lived at 1400 Aspen St. for 14 years, said from the building’s new community room. “We’re able to stay with the same neighbors, the same people, and at a good price.”
The journey began nearly a decade ago, when Flores and his neighbors, a diverse mix of Ethiopian and Latino immigrants and long-term DC residents learned their building was going up for sale. Back then the tenants had to meet in the laundry room, the only available communal space, to discuss their options.
With support from the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) and the experienced development consultant Martha Davis, the tenants association was able to exercise their right to purchase and move through the acquisition and cooperative formation process. After two and half years of litigation, in Spring 2019 the residents won their case and by February 2020, they were finally ready to purchase the building. Only a month later, as the1400 Aspen Street Cooperative members were just starting to settle into a new phase of home ownership, the COVID-19 pandemic hit DC and the world, threatening health and economic stability.
Even without the additional stress of a public health crisis, moving towards a cooperative model to benefit from its advantages which range from tax rates to having a say in who your neighbors are, can be an uphill battle. Cooperative members don't always manage to implement their plans as they’re laid out at the time of the purchase, for example.
In the years following closing on acquisition financing at 1400 Aspen St., an approximately $4.9 million loan from the city ensured the full rehabilitation of the property could move forward as scheduled, Davis explained.
Determined to counteracting displacement, LISC stepped up to support the 1400 Aspen St. project after tracking Walter Reed redevelopment plans for over a decade, from a renowned military medical campus to a new mixed use neighborhood. An early-stage investor in the area, LISC has backed other affordable, supportive, and senior housing there and a DC International Charter School nearby.
“Aspen Street Cooperative stands out because the residents led the process. As much as any new home purchaser, these tenants earned their ownership through their vision and resoluteness,” said Ramon Jacobson, LISC Washington DC executive director. “Now, at the end of construction, they begin a new stage – as owners of a fully renovated cooperative in the heart of a transformed neighborhood in the nation’s capital.”
Although cooperatives also come with the challenge of onboarding new resident leadership and keeping residents engaged in future years once maintenance and other issues have been resolved, Flores remains committed to his leadership role and investment in the community.
“It’s a lot of work but we keep on fighting,” he said.
Tenant Rachel Oswald, who has lived in the building since 2013, shares a similar sentiment after working with her neighbors for years to achieve a common vision for their permanent homes. Although she found a buyout for her unit tempting in the initial stages of the co-op process, she ultimately chose to stick it out. While her studio was being renovated, she had to relocate to her sister's house in Baltimore, but the wait paid off.
“I think it was worth it. I just think people have a lot more pride about where we live and I just feel like there's a sense of ownership,” she said.