Agency Spokesman To Provide Statement On 525 13th St. NE

As many of you know, Rena Quallis's family was forced from their home (525 13th St. NE) because of a fire on May 17, last year.

The D.C. government came and boarded up the house, but that is all that has been done. The house still has a lot of garbage and debris in the back, and the front looks like it did in May just after the fire, with black smoke and things falling off the front of the house.

I called the D.C. Housing Authority's press office on Wednesday and got through to Zachary Smith, the agency's director of public affairs, yesterday. Mr. Smith was very helpful but was unable to come up with a statement by today. He said that he would do more research on the house but that as of now it looked like his agency was not the owner of the house, and he had no comment as to what was going on with the house.

I faxed Mr. Smith some forms I printed from the Internet stating that the D.C. Housing Authority does own the home. He promised to get back to me next week with a formal statement. §