Officials in charge of housing for courses at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) have kicked a landlord off the official housing list following complaints from radiologists attending the institute's radiology-pathology course in Washington, DC.
The AFIP Department of Radiologic Pathology offers its four-week Radiologic Pathology Course (RadPath) several times a year to practicing radiologists as a means of helping them identify disease by combining radiology imaging with pathologic correlation. More than 21,000 radiology residents and practicing radiologists have taken the course over the years, and RadPath fulfills training requirements for more than 510 radiology residency programs.
The course is held at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and a cottage industry for temporary housing has sprung up around the course schedule for radiologists who travel to the area for the courses. AFIP maintains its own official housing list, and ads for housing can also be found on Craigslist and via Google search ads.
But AFIP attendees may need to take precautions when venturing off the official housing list to book accommodations. Walter Reed housing representatives say they've received several complaints from AFIP attendees regarding one particular landlord, and complaints have also been described in postings on the AuntMinnie.com Forums.
The landlord operates a Web site with a top five Google ranking for the search term "AFIP housing." The site touts AFIP housing in the Takoma Park area of Maryland, two blocks from Walter Reed. Amenities include free cable television, WiFi Internet access, and hot water.
Housing complaints
But several radiology residents who attended RadPath's April and July courses claimed that although the ads describe accommodations within walking distance to Water Reed, they instead were directed to substandard housing miles away. Several residents told Walter Reed housing officials that they lost the deposits they had paid in advance after refusing to accept the substitute accommodations.
The landlord was originally on the official AFIP housing list for a two-bedroom apartment close to the RadPath courses, according to Jimmy Price, a housing referral specialist for Walter Reed. Price had inspected the Takoma Park accommodations, as he does for all housing on the Walter Reed list, and found them to meet the facility's standards.
But several radiologists who made reservations with the landlord said that when they showed up to claim their reservation, the landlord said the Takoma Park apartment had been flooded, and instead took them to accommodations in Wheaton, MD, miles away from Walter Reed. Several declined to accept the substitute housing, and the landlord refused to refund their deposits.
Price inspected the second site after the complaints and found it to be far below the medical center's standards: It was a basement room with no handrails on the stairs and substandard furniture; neither the cable television nor the WiFi Internet worked, and the gas wasn't turned on.
"I went out and inspected the place, and it was terrible," Price said.
Following the inspection, Price contacted AFIP officials and requested that the landlord be removed from the official housing list. The landlord is no longer on the list, but the Web site still shows up on Google searches, promoting the Takoma Park location close to Walter Reed. The landlord did not respond to AuntMinnie.com e-mails sent to the Web site requesting comment on the disputes.
RadPath attendees have little recourse in disputes such as these, and so should protect themselves in advance by only reserving housing from the official AFIP list and checking references.
"Maryland doesn't have strong room rental regulations. It's kind of a Wild Wild West out there," said Rosie McCray-Moody, an investigator in the Office of Landlord-Tenant Affairs for the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which has jurisdiction over housing in the Walter Reed area.
Similar issues have occurred with listings for temporary housing associated with National Institutes of Health programs, McCray-Moody said. The housing agencies often take landlords on their word regarding the quality of their housing, and only remove landlords from the official list if they get complaints, she said.
Given the AFIP course's track record of instructing more than 21,000 radiologists, the incidence of problem housing seems low. But Craigslist ads for AFIP housing bear standard warnings that all potential renters should heed: Namely, not to deal remotely with landlords or make up-front payments.
The next AFIP RadPath sessions are September 21 to October 16, 2009, and February 8 to March 5, 2010. Walter Reed's Price urges radiology residents to use the AFIP's official housing list on its Web site and check with him directly at 202-782-3153 to verify recent complaints against any potential landlord.
By Alexandra Weber Morales
AuntMinnie.com contributing writer
August 13, 2009
Related Reading
AFIP wins reprieve from closure, September 7, 2005
RadPath program stays course as military bases close, August 24, 2005
Proposed base closures won't affect AFIP seminars for now, May 16, 2005
Copyright © 2009 AuntMinnie.com
