Chinatown mass eviction update: landlord expels activists invited by tenants

On the 19th of September, local activist Sam Jeweler reported that security guards at Chinatown's Museum Square apartment complex expelled a group of ten tenant canvassers he was part of. The canvassers were present at the request of some of the tenants to inform others of their rights against Landlord Bush Co's planned mass eviction of everyone in the building.

Museum Square is home to over 300 Chinese-American and African-American families. It one of the last remnants of actual Chinatown in DC. Landlord Bush Companies wants to tear it down and replace it with luxury condos. Bush Co's is trying to get tenants to take their Section 8 vouchers elsewhere-even though there is a ten year waiting list for Section 8 housing in DC! If Bush Companies goes through with this mass eviction, Chinatown will lose its remaining Chinese population and hundreds of people may have no choice but to camp outdoors. Not surprisingly, security guards are doing all they can to ensure that tenants never learn their rights. Forcing tenants to go outside if they want to meet with tenant organizers is one way to do this.