D.C.’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) isn’t just for tenants and tenant associations. The law, which gives current residents the first right of refusal to buy their building if it goes up for sale, can also help affordable housing providers secure apartments.
Woodley House, a local nonprofit that provides affordable housing and services for D.C. residents with a mental illness, recently purchased one building they’ve long housed clients in through TOPA, allowing the organization to make necessary renovations and updates to the building and provide their clients with a more habitable space to live.
For 66 years, Woodley House has been offering an alternative to long-term hospitalization for adults in the D.C. area struggling with mental health disorders. While Woodley House has seen major growth over its lifetime, the organization hopes to increase the number of people it serves from between 300 and 400 to 600 by 2030, a goal that requires them to continue to grow, according to Dan Schiff, development director, and Ann Chauvin, chief executive officer. As the vast majority of clients come to Woodley House without a home to return to, the organization prioritizes being a resource for those vulnerable to homelessness. This includes the upkeep of housing units to ensure clients have comfortable and safe places to live.
Most recently, Woodley House bought and renovated the Terry-Pincus Apartments in 2023, which it had previously leased as four shared apartment units for up to 12 clients since 2010. While the property was being leased, the landlords did little work to the apartments to keep them in habitable condition for the clients who lived there, according to Chauvin. Woodley House had to begin searching for units elsewhere, despite the amenities like outdoor space, common area for clients to use, and a quiet street that made the property ideal.
Before the pandemic, the state of the apartments was quickly reaching a point of no return, Chauvin said. Some bedrooms were no longer habitable, meaning there were fewer beds for clients, which was unsustainable given the need that Woodley House sees. The scramble to find a new way to house the clients who had been living in these apartments, some for extended periods of time, presented a challenge given the high cost of renting apartments in D.C., and the disruption clients would face in their living situations. When the landlord decided to sell the building on the market, Woodley House had the first right of refusal to purchase as the current tenant. But the building was listed at a price that would’ve made the monthly payment price twice that of what Woodley House had been renting at, Chauvin said. The organization knew that there was no feasible way to stay in the building.
Chauvin explained that most of the clients who come to Woodley House through the organization’s crisis program are experiencing homelessness. But clients may also be referred from a private hospital, if their insurance will not pay for the help they need at the hospitals themselves. In these cases, social workers at hospitals like Sibley Memorial Hospital, the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, Georgetown MedStar, and Howard University’s Hospital make calls to organizations like Woodley House to see if there are available beds.
In other situations, the calls come directly from medical units who see patients being discharged and cleared medically, but who need help psychiatrically. If these types of calls are made, and there are no available beds at Woodley House or at similar programs, Chauvin explained, it leaves these individuals with few options, especially if they don’t have a home to return to.
So, maintaining access to what would become the Terry-Pincus apartments was essential, Chauvin said.
As per TOPA law, which allows long-term tenants of a leased building benefits like early offers on buildings, the sellers made Woodley House an offer before they put the building on the market. However, at a high cost Woodley House turned down the offer and the building was put up for sale, putting Woodley House and the clients who lived in the building in a vulnerable spot.
However, Chauvin and the rest of the Woodley House management team was familiar with TOPA laws, and hoped that if they waited it out, they would get another chance through the Right of First Refusal act, stating that “tenants have the right to match the material terms of any contract for sale between the landlord and a third party” as per the D.C. Office of the Tenant Advocate. And that is exactly what happened:once the sellers accepted an offer from a developer who had been able to negotiate the price down to a range Woodley House could afford, Woodley House had the opportunity to match the price within 15 days. With the help of a loan from the Disability Opportunity Fund, a nationally certified Community Development Financial Institution Fund, Woodley House was able to match the price of the outside buyer. They would finally be the owners of the building they’d had clients in for almost 15 years. They decided to name the building after Ann Terry-Pincus, who Chauvin described as, “a tireless champion of Woodley House… (who) joined the board of directors more than 50 years ago, served as board president, and continues today as one of our most vocal and engaged supporters.”
Once Woodley House became the owners of the property, the work to renovate it and make it a habitable place for clients to live in began. The organization conducted year-long renovations that involved installing: a brand new central HVAC system, a new roof, water heaters, a new electrical system, kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures. The addition of new floors, drywall, coats of paint and landscape enhancements all transformed the property. Woodley House received the building’s Certificate of Occupancy in July and now has six clients living in the Terry-Pincus Apartments, with room for six more.
Woodley House’s vision is “that all District of Columbia residents with mental health disorders will have a dignified place to live, services needed to thrive, and respect and inclusion in the community – and are a part of a world in which mental health is viewed as health,” Chauvin said. The acquisition of the Terry-Pincus Apartments with the help of TOPA and the Disability Opportunity Fund helps make this vision a reality for those who are housed in the apartments and suggests a potential model for other housing nonprofits looking to expand their housing programs.
