For the first 10 years, Stephanie Lawton loved living in downtown Silver Spring at the Arrive building complex.
Her rental unit featured a huge bedroom and plenty of closet space at a great price, not to mention a walkable location to a Metro station and nightlife for socializing with friends easily. Arrive also offered amenities like a sundeck and outdoor track, and little extras like movies on the courtyard lawn during the summer.
The high-rise building, which advertises itself as a luxury apartment complex, takes up a city block in the 8700 block of Georgia Avenue and has nearly 900 units with lease prices for available ones that range from $1,350 a month for a studio and just under $2,400 for a two-bedroom apartment.
But conditions have deteriorated over the past three years, Lawton said.
Roaches have infested her place. She spotted rodents in her apartment twice this year. And from their balconies, Lawton and her neighbors say they’ve seen rats overrun the courtyard.
Halloween was the last straw, when her cat Thom killed a rat in her apartment.
“I am trying to move ASAP,” Lawton said. “They offered me a different unit in the building when my lease ended but I don’t believe there’s anywhere that’s going to be much better.”
Lawton’s experience is far from unique.
A video posted to TikTok this month ignited disgust online as a woman who appeared to live at Arrive filmed a rat climbing her kitchen wall and a plastic bag filled with dead rats following an exterminator’s visit. The woman showed a dead rat on the floor near her kitchen as she cried.
“This one is dead for some reason! I don’t even know how it died,” the woman said on the video. “I just want to leave the house. Like, can I please leave?”
Resident complaints and video footage of the rats spurred Montgomery County officials to inspect and condemn the woman’s unit last week.
Montgomery County’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs officials said they also ordered the inspection of every unit in the building after finding the rodent infestation.
“I was shocked as many people were to see the state that people have been living at in Arrive,” said Montgomery County Council president Kate Stewart, who represents the area and said her office has been pushing for changes at the building for years.
Arrive had already been scheduled for a routine inspection next month, in compliance with a county mandate to inspect multifamily properties every three years to ensure health, safety and code compliance.
Scheduled inspections typically include 50 percent of units, but DHCA inspectors plan to inspect all 882 units at Arrive beginning Dec. 10, officials said.
The building has been under scrutiny for years, following a 2023 fire that killed resident Melanie Diaz and displaced hundreds of residents. Diaz’s death eventually led county lawmakers to strengthen tenant rights and safety protections, including requiring management to inform tenants of emergency plans and giving residents 24-hour access to a building representative.
County officials received about 15 complaints from Arrive residents in 2025, including plumbing and hot water issues during the first half of the year, according to county records.
This fall, several Arrive residents filed complaints with the county, according to Housing and Community Affairs records.
Following a Nov. 14 complaint about the apartment in the TikTok video, inspectors gained access Nov. 18 and found “significant rodent activity in the unit,” agency officials said in a statement.
“Our inspectors found multiple dead rats inside the unit, and clear signs of ongoing activity. Therefore, the unit was condemned,” the statement read.
Inspectors also investigated neighboring units as several other residents reported issues with mice and roaches, officials said.
“The property has been placed on notice and is required to immediately begin drill and dust treatment and conduct search and seal measures throughout the building,” the DHCA statement said. “We will closely monitor compliance and escalate the matter further if the conditions are not addressed promptly.”
DHCA spokesman Matt Cournoyer said the agency helped the tenants from the condemned unit with temporary relocation assistance and encourages “any county residents experiencing housing code violations to call MC311.”
Arrive has multiple locations throughout the Washington area.
Trinity Property Consultants in California, which runs the Arrive brand nationally, did not return a call and email requesting comment. Two employees at Arrive Silver Spring hung up on a Washington Post reporter when called for comment last week and an online request for comment was not immediately returned.
Stewart, the county council president, said she’s confident county inspectors would work to get the building into compliance and government housing officials can assist some residents to get issues resolved or to relocate.
But she worries some residents may fear retribution from building management for making complaints and expressed frustration that issues have piled up for years.
“I’m very disheartened to hear that many of the complaints that residents have had has fallen on deaf ears of the management company,” said Stewart.
After 13 years, Lawton has had enough.
Her bathroom ceiling collapsed in July after months of complaints to management warning of a water leak. Roaches infested her apartment despite her cleanliness, and multiple attempts to exterminate proved ineffective, she said.
The 44-year-old now pays $2,500 on a month-to-month basis — paying a couple hundred dollars extra monthly rather than signing a lease to allow flexibility to leave immediately.
“I really hate moving. But the last three years have been a significant challenge,” Lawton said.
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