Help Feed the Holmead Rent Strikers!

Tenants at 3435 Holmead Place in the heart of Columbia Heights in Northwest DC have been on rent strike against slum housing conditions and discrimination for more than a year. The building is managed by UIP, a powerful developer that’s notorious for pushing Black and brown working class tenants out of rent-controlled apartments in order to jack up rents and gentrify neighborhoods. Many of the apartments have leaks, mold, infestations, and broken appliances. They frequently lack heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. Tenants, most of whom are Latinx immigrants, have experienced disrespectful and abusive treatment from management. They believe that the landlord is deliberately neglecting their apartments so they’ll get fed up and move out. Instead, tenants decided to stand together and fight.

The rent strikers are still going strong, but the pandemic has taken a heavy toll. Leaders in the building have lost family members and gotten sick themselves. Almost everyone lost their job, and many couldn’t get unemployment because they are undocumented. They have struggled to feed their families and most would have been unable to pay the rent even if they wanted to. 

Tenants from Holmead Place have been in court for months trying to prove that they should not have to pay the rent because of the rampant code violations in the property. But now UIP’s lawyers are trying to force them to deposit back rent for the entire year before their cases can continue. Holmead tenants are committed to defending their rights in court, but they may have to endure painful economic hardship to do so. While we are still waiting to find out what the judge will require, Stomp Out Slumlords is raising funds to help our rent strikers cover basic necessities.

The Holmead Place rent strike was an important source of inspiration for other tenant leaders and organizers who have been fighting to cancel rent, and we want to make sure we have their backs as they enter the next phase of struggle.