VACANT BUILDINGS: Trash Piling Up Behind 1323 Emerald

Sharon Cochran, 1300 block of Emerald Street NE, relates a call she made April 5 to Carlynn Fuller of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, at 442-7295, regarding the vacant house at 1323 Emerald St. NE. As reported in the April 5 Corner Forum, the house was owned by the city a few years ago. Stanley Jackson, the director of the agency, advised calling Ms. Fuller. He said the city is actively trying to recapture properties sold in Homestead lotteries that have not been developed by their new owners. The photo, taken from the alley, is of the rear of the house.

I called her, and she promised that she would have somebody come out and clean it up, and that the owner of this property had been turned over to the corporation counsel, to try to get the house back to the city so they could do something, but nothing has happened. I need to call her back, clearly.

The thing of it is, a lot of these things are computers, so this is stuff that shouldn't go to the land fill necessarily, because it contains mercury and other poisonous things — and paints. A lot of these are hazardous chemicals. This is very old paint. [The paint bears a Hechinger label.] Hechinger has been closed for 10 years now. §