“Ernest Chrappah, director of the DCRA [D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs], said his staff is examining building permits and whether any complaints had been made against the contractors or construction company,” The Post reported in a July 1 story about the collapse of a five-story building on Kennedy Street NW during a thunderstorm earlier in the day. The site, which I visited that afternoon, was startling, with multiple floors collapsed into piles of rubble. A search dog had located a construction worker who had been stuck under three stories of debris for more than an hour. Four others were injured.

Chrappah told The Post he was only aware of one complaint about the building; it was called in by a neighbor who said a crane had been illegally parked, he said, and the crane was gone by the time the investigator arrived.

Would that Chrappah had been with me on the scene of the disaster late Thursday afternoon. He would have heard J. Edward Constable and Madeline Caliendo, who live next door to the collapsed building, tell me about something Chrappah seemed to be unaware of, namely, citizen frustration.

Caliendo said the couple’s experience in dealing with DCRA has been “totally negative.” She said their complaints to DCRA about construction-related damage to their home and the contractor’s alleged lack of a proper permit for the crane have gone unresolved. Constable said they have gone so far as to hire a lawyer and structural engineer to help them deal with DCRA.

Chrappah’s reference to a complaint about a crane can be confirmed. I have a copy of his May 13 complaint alleging that “the developer, 10 Square Development, LLC at 916 Kennedy Street, NW appears to have secured the use of a crane for their construction without a permit and improperly blocked a community alleyway [for] several hours with the crane.”(Neither Chapprah nor 10 Square Development responded Friday to calls seeking comment on the collapse.)

But that was not Constable’s only communication with DCRA.

The office of Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D) furnished me with a copy of a May 19 email from Constable to LaTrice Hernon, Program Analyst in Chrappah’s office, regarding missed inspections. It reads:

Good morning, Ms Herndon,

Could you be so kind to confirm that an inspector came by on the May 18th 2021 as you indicated by your email below?

I did also give a detailed response of my concerns to your second email at 4:45 pm dated May 14th 2021 on the morning of Monday May 17th 2021. I assume you are doing your best given the circumstances and there has been some miscommunication.

I waited at home on both the 14th and 18th all day to be available for a DCRA inspector as those were the dates DCRA said I should expect an inspection. Ms. Herndon, if no inspection has been scheduled or done can you have the assigned inspector contact us to confirm a date and window of time so that we can plan accordingly.

The cost of our time, frustration levels, and damages we are incurring escalates with DCRA each day due its lack of execution in enforcing the District Building Codes and agreements.

Ms Herndon can you email a response so we can all be kept abreast too the resolution of this matter and its progress.

My best

J. Edward Constable

That was more than six weeks ago.

My interview with the couple took place under terrible conditions. Constable stood barefoot in the street next to a shaken and upset Caliendo. They couldn’t keep their eyes off the badly damaged home from which they had been evacuated, and to which they may never return.

A member of the rescue crew interrupted to ask whether there were any essential items left in the home, because Constable and Caliendo would not be able to reenter their structurally compromised residence. The crew would risk entering the building to get what was needed. His medication, Constable said. Advertisement

DCRA and Kennedy Street have a history.

Two years ago, a fire at 708 Kennedy St. left a 40-year-old man and a 9-year-old boy dead. The building was an unlicensed rooming house with numerous potential “life safety violations” including “make shift doors with locks which would make it difficult to exit in an emergency,” a police officer notified DCRA and the fire department months before the fire. DCRA, it turns out, had gone to the hazardous property, couldn’t get inside, and closed the case.

I wrote at the time that Chrappah showed himself clueless about DCRA’s role in the rowhouse tragedy. His initial response to the fatal fire, I noted, was to lecture tenants in rental properties about their responsibilities. “Please reach out to us,” he instructed.

Constable and Caliendo reached out. Where did it get them? Advertisement

They now know what other residents — and WUSA9, which has been relentlessly reporting on DCRA for three years — have known for a long time: Chrappah’s department is sloppy, lethargic, and way, way short on competence.

There’s Kennedy Street to show for it.

And Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and the Council, who put up with it. Yes, “put up with it,” because the council voted to break up DCRA, Bowser vetoed that bill, and the Council overrode the veto — yet DCRA still exists, larger than life, and a nightmare for citizens who are paying a price for its miserable existence.