James McGrath, founder of D.C. tenants rights group, dies at 82
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Version 0 of 1. James P. McGrath, who founded a tenants’ rights, protection and advocacy organization in Washington and led it for 25 years, died March 3 at a health-care center in the District. He was 82. The cause was complications from a heart attack he suffered in January, said a friend, Rob Leardo. Mr. McGrath retired in 1999 after 25 years as a researcher and federal pay specialist at the Library of Congress. Earlier, he had been a congressional committee staff member, an aide to House Speaker John W. McCormack (D-Mass.), a researcher at a Washington law firm and a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. For 45 years, he lived in an apartment near Dupont Circle in Northwest Washington, and in 1992 he formed the nonprofit D.C. Tenants’ Advocacy Coalition (TENAC) to press for strengthened rent control laws, tenants’ rights in dispute with landlords, and housing code improvements. The founding of TENAC coincided with the early years of a national urban gentrification trend in which inner-city neighborhoods were restored and renovated, often displacing longtime residents who found themselves confronted with rent increases they could not afford. Mr. McGrath lobbied the D.C. Council for laws barring excessive rent increases and arbitrary evictions. He sought means of redress against leaky roofs and ceilings, malfunctioning air conditioners, and heating systems that failed. As a witness at City Council hearings, he mocked complaints by landlords and property owners associations that rental regulations were depriving them of honest profits. James Patrick McGrath was born in Boston on Sept. 1, 1937. He graduated from American University in 1966 and received a master’s degree in literature from Georgetown University in 1973. Survivors include two brothers. Read more Washington Post obituaries |