DC sues the Ward 5 landlord who let an affordable building rot - no AC, no elevators, feces in the stairwells

On the seventh floor of the Delta Pearl, the trash chute backed up so badly that garbage piled all the way to the top. Elevators that serve the 10-story building stopped working in July and never came back. Air conditioning quit on July 1 - the same week Washington hit 102 degrees. For elderly and disabled residents, getting out means walking stairwells that inspectors found littered with trash, urine, and feces.

These are the conditions at 1400 Florida Avenue NE, better known as Delta Pearl: a 166-unit affordable apartment building in Ward 5 that received tens of millions in tax credits and public financing for a recent renovation, and is now the subject of a District lawsuit accusing its owner of running it into the ground.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed suit Tuesday against developer Buwa Binitie, his company Delta 2 Owner LLC, and property manager DP Management LLC - which does business as Faria Management - demanding emergency court intervention and immediate repairs. The case goes to the heart of one of the District's most stubborn housing problems: what happens when publicly subsidized affordable units are handed to private owners who stop maintaining them.

What the lawsuit says

According to the complaint, Delta Pearl has 199 unabated property maintenance violations accumulated over the previous 15 months. Of those, 169 were issued in 2026, and 71 were classified as emergency violations requiring correction within one day.

The building's air conditioning stopped working July 1 as Washington sweltered through temperatures that reached 102 degrees. Tenants reported temperatures inside their apartments reaching 84 and 94 degrees. The District alleges tenants repeatedly tried to reach management by telephone, email, an online portal and visits to an on-site office, only to find the office empty and their attempts unanswered. When the attorney general's office contacted management, a company official acknowledged the building's chiller was not functioning and blamed vandalism.

The building's two elevators have also been completely out of service since July. In a 10-story building, that outage has forced elderly and disabled residents to navigate flights of stairs described by inspectors as littered with trash, debris, urine and feces.

The security situation is just as bad. Much of the building's security breakdown traces back to a fire on the seventh floor in February that displaced nine residents. The blaze damaged the building's electrical system and knocked out its key fob security system entirely, leaving exterior doors and residential-floor stairwells unlocked and unmonitored for six months. The lawsuit also alleges the property's exterior gate, building-access system, and stairwell locks have been broken for months, allowing non-tenants to sleep in common areas and occupy vacant apartments.

The attorney general's office said inspectors documented nearly 200 unresolved housing code violations at the building, including trash buildup, rodent and roach infestations, water damage, exposed electrical wiring, inoperable fire-safety equipment, and unrepaired damage from the February fire.

The District alleges that the defendants failed to keep Delta Pearl safe and habitable and violated D.C. consumer protection and tenant receivership laws. With its lawsuit, the Office of the Attorney General is seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to address the most urgent issues at the property, a Preliminary Injunction to ensure all necessary repairs are made, restitution for harmed tenants, and civil penalties.

Public money, private failure

The Delta Pearl's collapse carries a particular sting because of how the building got here. Delta Pearl is a 10-story, 166-unit apartment building in Ward 5. Fifty-one percent of its units are designated as affordable housing for individuals earning below 80 percent of the area's median income. The property was originally constructed in 1979 as affordable senior housing. Delta 2 Owner purchased it in 2022, and Binitie obtained financing the following year to renovate and redevelop it through Dantes Partners in partnership with Gilbane Development Corporation and Delta Housing Corporation.

The building's owner, Binitie, previously served as board chair of the D.C. Housing Finance Agency - the very agency that finances affordable housing projects across the District. That history makes the allegations harder to dismiss as ordinary landlord negligence.

Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker, who attended the ribbon-cutting when the renovated building opened, did not hold back. 'Just two short years ago, I helped cut the ribbon on 1400 Florida Ave NE and welcomed neighbors into a beautiful space that was funded with tens of millions of dollars in tax credits and public financing. What has happened since then defies reason,' Parker said. 'There is simply no excuse for the disturbing and rapid decline of this property. My team has spent months escalating resident concerns to numerous District agencies, and I am grateful for Attorney General Schwalb's leadership in holding Buwa Binitie and Faria Management accountable for the deplorable living conditions these neighbors have been subjected to.'

Joanna Wasick, who leads the attorney general's Housing and Environmental Justice Section, said: 'We are suing for the extreme neglect of the property that is endangering the health and safety of the tenants. What we have learned from the tenants and seen ourselves in our investigation is that those conditions are truly shocking.'

Department of Buildings Director Brian Hanlon said the agency worked closely with tenants, community leaders, and agency partners to document the conditions at the Delta Pearl, calling its nearly 200 unabated violations 'extremely concerning.'

Binitie's defense

Binitie has not been silent. He told WJLA that Delta Pearl's conditions are serious and that residents deserve safe, properly functioning homes, while also saying the ownership group is reviewing the attorney general's complaint with counsel and will respond through the judicial process. He said the property's financial crisis stems from prolonged court delays and widespread rent delinquency, noting that roughly two-thirds of tenants are behind on rent, leaving the building with more than $1,800,000 in unpaid rent and a loss of more than $1 million in 2026.

That framing - owner as victim of a broken eviction-court system - is one the District's housing courts have heard before. The attorney general's office is not buying it. Schwalb said: 'The conditions at Delta Pearl are shocking, as has been ownership's refusal to promptly address them. This extreme level of disrepair and neglect, and the health risks it poses to tenants, are unacceptable. We are suing to force Binitie and his companies to make critical safety repairs and to do so immediately.'

Buwa Binitie, founder and CEO of real estate conglomerate Dumas Collective, owns both Delta 2 Owner LLC and Faria Management, which holds properties across the District. [Analysis: The breadth of that portfolio means the outcome here could have implications beyond a single building. A receivership ruling, for instance, would put a court-appointed manager in charge of a property owned by one of the District's more prominent Black developers - a dynamic that adds political sensitivity to an already charged situation.]

Why this matters beyond Florida Avenue

The Delta Pearl case is not an isolated complaint. It lands at a moment when D.C. is trying to figure out what accountability looks like for the developers and property managers who receive public subsidies to build or renovate affordable housing and then let it deteriorate.

Department of Buildings inspectors issued 15 emergency notices over nonfunctioning elevators between December 2025 and August 2026, including six in July alone - yet the building kept operating, and the elevators never got fixed. That record raises a structural question the lawsuit itself cannot fully answer: why did administrative enforcement not work, and what has to change so that it does?

For residents living there right now, the calendar is not patient. Labor Day has come and gone, but the heat in DC does not break until late September, and a building with no working air conditioning and no working elevators is the same problem on September 4 that it was on August 4. The court's response to the TRO request is the next thing to watch.

What D.C. Residents Should Watch

• The TRO hearing: The attorney general's office is seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to address the most urgent issues at the property. A judge's ruling on that emergency request - likely within days - will determine whether residents get AC and elevators restored before a full trial.
• Receivership possibility: The lawsuit asks a judge to intervene at the 166-unit building at 1400 Florida Avenue NE and force repairs. If the court appoints a receiver, it would effectively remove Binitie's companies from day-to-day control - a significant step.
• The public-subsidy question: More than half of the building's units are designated as affordable housing for individuals earning below 80 percent of AMI. Council members and housing advocates are likely to push for a broader review of how the District monitors buildings that received public financing after construction or renovation is complete.
• Binitie's other properties: Faria Management holds properties across the District. Housing advocates will want to know whether conditions at Delta Pearl are an outlier or a pattern.
• Ward 5 politics: Councilmember Zachary Parker escalated this for months before the lawsuit landed. How aggressively he pursues legislative fixes - stronger receivership triggers, faster penalty enforcement - will be a test of whether the Council uses this moment to write new rules or simply moves on.

Sources: D.C. Office of the Attorney General press release (verified); Washington Informer (attributed); WTOP News (attributed); WJLA/7News (attributed); Washington Post (attributed); Hoodline (attributed); PoPville (attributed).