Landlord tastes the low life

Washington is trying to improve housing standards

By BBC Washington correspondent Rob Watson

A Washington slum landlord is beginning an unusual sentence to punish him for the conditions he has forced his tenants to live in.

Rufus Stancil is tasting the living conditions of his tenants, instead of spending the holidays at his own $300,000 home in one of Washington's posher neighbourhoods.

Mr Stancil's properties lacked heating, hot water and basic sanitation

Under a decidedly innovative deal with city prosecutors, Mr Stancil has agreed to move into accommodation where his tenants lived without heat, hot water and basic sanitation and where rats and bugs infest the hallways.

The deal is supposed to ensure that he swiftly carries out crucial repairs to his properties.

Not surprisingly perhaps, Mr Stancil's tenants are delighted at what they see as the poetic justice of the arrangement.

Good deal

But Mr Stancil has also got a relatively good deal.

He had been facing more than 17 years in prison and some $21,000 in fines.

His lawyer said Mr Stancil had agreed to the arrangement to express his commitment to making life better for his tenants and also to show that conditions in the building are not as bad as have been made out.

His unusual sentencing is all part of Washington's efforts to improve housing conditions in a city whose minority white population tend to live in attractive neighbourhoods but whose majority black population are often not so lucky.