I was a naive Seattle transplant looking for my first place in DC. How could I resist 2 bedrooms, 2 baths roommate style apt. for only $1000 per month' The unit was created by joining a one bedroom and efficiency and the space was amazing. What was not amazing was the roaches, weird old smells that returned after the fresh paint and floor refinishing odors faded. There was a prostitute in the unit above mine and pot heads blasting music so loud you thought it was in your own living room.

My roommate and I coasted along for two years managing with relatively little drama. Days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 I was constantly on the phone seeking out the status of my extended family. Then I got a call that the ceiling in my apartment was falling and water was rushing into the living room and my bedroom. I was in complete disbelief until I saw it for myself.

Both rooms were completely ruined as were all of their contents. I didn't have renters insurance and I lost everything. The owner (who has several raggedy properties in DC and Philadelphia) was not sympathetic and at first refused to put me up in a hotel until they found me a new unit.

After my continuous prodding and my law school roommate threating legal action (she had just finished interning at a fair housing organizations), the truth finally came out after a series of lies. Lie 1: the tenant above me moved our and purposely left her bath tub and all sinks running and flooded her unit. That didn't wash when I went to the unit and there was no water rushing through the halls or seeping under the doorway. Lie 2: The toilet flooded and maintenance didn't know until it was too late- FALSE! The TRUTH: Maintenance cut off the water and when they turned it back on they did it too fast and the rush of water was too much for the old pipes and they burst in between floors. The irony is that they finally put me in a hotel for two weeks and then moved me into the unit that they originally claimed had flooded.

I moved out the following year and the only thing I miss is that large space and the cheap rent. I caution you not to be lured to Capitol East by the changing H Street Corridor two blocks away or easy access to Eastern Market and Pennsylvania Avenue. IT'S NOT WORTH IT!!!!

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