Cleaning Up the Mess

A city cleaning crew came to the neighborhood on Tuesday, Feb. 10, to finish the cleanup in the back of the house, 525 13 ST, NE.

The house was damaged in a fire on May 17, 2003, boarded up several days later by the D.C. Housing Authority, which owned the place, and has been vacant and become a public eyesore since then.

As Tammi Cioffi, 536 13th St. NE, reported the trash pile-up problem around the house in several issues of the Corner Forum and pushed the Housing Authority to take action, a city cleaning crew finally came on Jan. 30. The cleanup, however, was hampered by the recent snow storm.

The crew told me on Feb. 10 that they had removed three loads of trash from around the house and finished the cleanup at this site. As Ms. Cioffi reported in the last issue, the D.C. Housing Authority was planning to sell the house either through an existing housing assistance program or to a private owner. §