When Sharon Rohner was served with legal papers demanding unpaid rent on her room at the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA she was confused –although the papers had her room number on them, they had another resident’s name. And when she learned that an additional 53 residents of the nonprofit facility in Shaw (which is not affiliated with the national YWCA) had received similar papers, she was upset.

And although some of the cases are reportedly being dismissed, the experience has shaken the residents.

“The women were distraught,” Rohner recalled. Many went to the management saying “‘I paid my rent on time!’ and actually had their rent receipts in their hands.”

According to residents and their attorneys, about half of the facility’s residents have received legal papers in the last few weeks demanding that they pay anywhere from a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars in back rent. The demands came in the form of a “complaint for possession of real estate,” which is not an eviction notice, but the usual form for a claim of unpaid rent in Landlord-Tenant Court.

Several residents who received legal papers say they have always paid their rent on time, and that they have the records to prove it. “I have my [rent] receipts, and my lawyer says don’t worry about it,” said one resident who got a notice.

Rebecca Lindhurst, a staff attorney with Bread for the City, a Shaw-based social services organization, has agreed to assist the tenants. She said that many of the tenants receive rent support through the District’s Department of Mental Health while others have social service professionals who manage their Social Security or other money for them. With these third parties involved, she said that these claims could mean a significant amount of paperwork and effort.

Wilton Nedd, the attorney for the YWCA, declined to comment. Board members for the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA and the building’s management company Vision Realty did not return phone calls.

The impact on the residents of this legal action has been magnified by the ups and downs of living amidst ongoing – and welcome – renovations to the building.

And the pace of renovations seems to be picking up. Residents report that management is beginning to resolve long-standing problems like leaky plumbing, dilapidated bathrooms, and a persistent infestation of biting insects, thought to be bedbugs.

Despite these signs of improvement, some residents are worried about their future at the YWCA.“It’s really getting some people down. They don’t know what’s going to happen,” said one resident. “You don’t know in this city what’s going on – because everybody is going condominium crazy. You don’t know if they’ll sell out.”

There is no indication the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA plans to take any such steps.

Still, the organization is dealing with the same pressures faced by many other providers of low-income housing. Like most properties in the rapidly changing Shaw neighborhood, the value of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA is on the rise. The building’s current value is $5 million and is estimated to increase to $6.8 million in 2008, according to D.C.’s property tax assessment records. This would mean a higher property-tax bill. And operating costs have sometimes outstripped income, according to the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA website. In fact, for 2005, the latest tax information available, the organization reported a net loss of $164,000 and just $614,803 in net assets.

Monthly rent on the 117 units, which range in size from single rooms with a shared bathroom to efficiencies with a private bathroom, averaged $369 in 2005, according to the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA’s most recent tax records.

The organization and the building it has occupied for 87 years have a long, proud history in Washington. Founded in 1905 to provide affordable housing to African-American women, the organization was the first YWCA for African-American women, and always remained independent of the national YWCA.

To help in negotiating the challenges of renting in a changing Shaw neighborhood, residents of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA hope to form a tenant association. Gloria Robinson, a community organizer with OneDC, a Shaw-based community empowerment group, said tenant associations can play an important role in protecting renters’ rights in the event of a sale, conversion, or other change in a building’s status. And they can give all renters leverage in dealing with day-to-day concerns.

In the meantime, the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA residents will be dealing with their concerns in Landlord-Tenant Court. Court dates in the Phyllis Wheatley cases are coming up in March and April.

Ted Henson contributed to this article.

Street Sense will follow this story in the coming weeks – watch for an update.