After DC apartment explosion, I-Team finds missed warning signs and no insurance

An explosion shook an entire apartment building in Northwest D.C. the morning of Sept. 20 and residents ran. It felt like an earthquake, one resident told the News4 I-Team.

D.C. Fire blames the explosion in Columbia Heights on a gas leak from a stove inside an apartment. The woman using that stove was sent to the hospital. No one else was hurt, but D.C.’s Department of Buildings said no one could live in the building at 1433 Columbia Road NW until repairs were made and 41 building code violations found after the explosion were fixed.

Following the explosion, D.C.’s Office of the Tenant Advocate, a city-funded office, snapped into action and spent more than $250,000 on emergency housing for the tenants. It’s money it would get back with liens on the building, but that’s a court process and the building already has been tied up in court for years. Additionally, the OTA supplied rental vans to help tenants move to new housing.

More than a month later, District-funded emergency housing for the residents has run out but needed repairs haven’t even begun, according to the city. The I-Team found it’s not the only obligation the building’s owners, Helenia and John Steininger, a mother and son, have ignored.

A lawsuit filed last year claims the Steiningers owe D.C. Water $81,019.33 in delinquent water bills. D.C. Water asked the court to appoint a receiver but kept the water on. Property tax records show the family owes $206,655.68 in property taxes. The records show they haven’t paid taxes in the past three years, possibly longer. A tax sale is pending.

Maybe most concerning, the property has no insurance to pay for repairs. Court records in the property tax case show Ms. Steininger and her son told the court they had no insurance on the building and according to court records, “repairs will be expensive.” There is no law in D.C. requiring landlords to have insurance.

The News4 I-Team called and emailed the owners and attorneys who represented them in the past. We didn’t get any response to our questions. A visit to Ms. Steininger’s Northwest D.C. home didn’t yield answers either. A caregiver for the elderly owner wouldn’t let our team speak with her and didn’t say when she could.

Minutes after our visit, the owner’s son emailed, not to answer our questions but referring us to an attorney who indicated she doesn’t represent them on these issues. Her son didn’t reply to our questions either.

Residents had described substandard conditions for years

The conditions are no surprise to Abel Núñez, executive director of the aid group Carecen. Núñez said the group has tried for years to help the tenants deal with the conditions and a landlord who they said didn’t insist on safe repairs.

“The conditions are horrible,” Núñez told the I-Team. “This is a place that you would consider being run by a slumlord. But it wasn’t that black and white because the owner wasn’t necessarily exploiting them, more than just allowing them to do what they would do.”

He explained tenants told him they were allowed to do illegal sublets and make their own repairs to the building. One tenant told us, “We were very worried because they don’t say nothing about the lights, about their repairs, because they don’t do nothing.”

The building was last inspected in 2018, when 30 violations were found. Online records don’t show if repairs were made. City law makes it the landlord’s responsibility to maintain a safe building.

Speaking last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters, “I am not sure what the viability of that building is at this point. It’s in really bad shape.”

As he was helping his aunt move out of the building, part-time resident Stanley Valencia told the I-Team he felt D.C. officials could have forced the owners to do more.

“They definitely should have done more,” he said.

Carecen’s Núñez said, “The city should create mechanisms to identify the owners, to either help them get right with the law and do what they need to do for their property or transition them out.”

Núñez told the I-Team, “They were willing to sacrifice good standard of living because they could afford to live in a neighborhood that they wanted to live.” In doing so, Núñez said, they sacrificed their own safety.

After the explosion, the D.C. Department of Buildings ordered the owners to submit a plan to fix the building and start repairs by mid-November. They still haven’t submitted a plan, let alone fixed anything.

DC’s Department of Buildings turned down an interview offer from the I-Team but explained “since day one … the District government has been working with residents. The Department of Buildings is ready to issue the permits to the landlord to do the necessary repairs and, until that happens, the building unfortunately must stay closed. In the interim, the District government is working with the tenants on removing their belongings if they desire and is also connecting them with community resources.”

The Department’s written statement didn’t say anything about the years before and it’s unclear if the residents, who were paying below-market rent, complained – seemingly trapped by low rent in a high-cost city.

“That is the tragedy,” Núñez told the I-Team, “because if they’re saying, ‘If I fight, but in the end, I win, but lose my apartment… I really lost.’”