If you enjoy rats, rat droppings, dark alleys with addicts in need of emergency services, and an area with crime so out of control that police have instituted a mandatory curfew – then this property is right for you. The entrance to the property is literally in a dangerous alley with all of the aforementioned issues visible on any given day at any time of the day. I have never stayed somewhere so dangerous and sketchy – and I genuinely believe that this property should not be allowed to host guests. The alley entrance and the situation in that alley (rats, rat feces, literal crackheads, emergency responders dealing with addicts, etc) are what makes this property particularly problematic.
The front of the property doesn’t allow for guests to enter, and the main street is not much better. There were at least five vehicle break-ins outside the house while I stayed at this property. The area in general has so much crime that it is, at the time of this writing, under mandatory police curfew -- just search for "DC U Street curfew".
My stay was for seven nights, and I would never advise anyone at all -- much less solo travellers (particularly women) to stay at this property. On the plus side, the host is very responsive and the modest studio was fine on the inside. But, the surroundings are so troubling that I cannot in good conscience fail to share these important details with other potential guests.