A Black Church Built Homes for Families After the Riots. Now the City Is Suing Over Mould and Rats

• New Bethel Baptist Church built the 76-unit Foster House in Shaw about 50 years ago
• DC’s attorney general sued the church over unsafe conditions for low-income seniors
• The church spent nearly $250,000 on legal fees in less than a year
• Its pastor says the city is trying to force a sale in a gentrifying neighbourhood

About 50 years ago New Bethel Baptist Church built Foster House at 801 Rhode Island Avenue NW in Washington, DC, to house families displaced by the riots. Today the 76-unit building is roughly half empty, and the church is locked in a legal fight with the District over its condition, The Washington Post reported.

Tenants described mould in the walls, rodents, roaches, leaks and broken appliances, and one resident, Zhenlu Guo, 72, had a bathroom ceiling collapse in 2020. City regulators have opened more than 120 code-violation investigations since 2005, and federal housing inspectors cited 32 violations in 2015 and 49 in 2018. DC Attorney General Karl Racine’s office sued New Bethel, alleging unsafe conditions for low-income seniors, and after a missed repair deadline the city asked the court to appoint a receiver. “The Black church is supposed to stand for a decent society, but to me, that means caring for vulnerable citizens,” said tenant Matthew Yansane.

The Rev Dexter Nutall, pastor since 2009, sees another agenda. He accused the District of trying to push the church into selling by draining its resources through litigation; New Bethel spent nearly $250,000 on legal fees between March and December. “My fear and concern is if anyone other than New Bethel ends up with this property, even more people will be pushed out of Shaw,” he said.

The church has its own plan. In 2018 it placed Foster House in a joint venture with developer Evergreen Urban under a 100-year land lease, with a vision of replacing the building with a 198-unit mixed-income development. Nutall said he wants to guarantee that current residents who still qualify for the subsidy can move back, but was unsure how many deeply affordable units would survive. “Our original vision for it was 76 or more deeply affordable units. But I’m not sure how that vision looks after we have gone through this year of litigation,” he said.

For Jamaican churches at home and in the diaspora that are considering becoming landlords, Foster House is a warning as well as an inspiration. Housing people is a long commitment: maintenance, reserves and professional management matter as much as good intentions, and a church that falls behind on repairs can find its tenants, its regulators and its property all at risk at once.

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