Kudos to the Kennedy Street Development Association for their hard work on getting properties owners of vacant and blighted homes to step up and respect the neighborhood.

929-931 Kennedy Street NW is now up for sale after the city was pushed to place a new tax lien on the properties. This place was cleaned up by DCRA (note the beach posters in the windows in the photo above), but has sat for years in a blighted condition. Now it can be brought back to life and enrich the neighborhood. (If you have $1.6 million, it can be yours...)

This type of action by concerned residents is critical to force derelict, absentee owners who abandon their properties as well as the DC government to take action on vacant and blighted properties. Besides negatively impacting the community, by not correctly taxing these vacant and blighted buildings, DC is leaving millions on the table that could be used to help the homeless, help revitalize neighborhoods and other necessary actions. The volunteers of KSDA, the ANC commissioners of 4D and others deserve praise for theirs years' long efforts. And there's more to fix.

From the KSDA Facebook post:

More good news on the vacant and blighted properties front!

After nearly two years working with various DC agencies, including DCRA, OTR, and DHCD, KSDA succeeded in getting the authorities to take action to enforce collection of a tax lien on the properties located at 929-931 Kennedy Street, NW, resulting in the owner putting the property on the market. We're very pleased to report that the properties have transferred ownership and we've been told that the new owner wants to move quickly to put the property back to productive use!

It's just too bad that we never got to visit the tropical paradise hidden inside.

Related articles:
- Fighting to clean up vacant properties, one house at a time (October 9, 2015)
- KSDA keeps up the pressure on vacant properties (September 21, 2015)