So far mostly people are telling me I'm probably stuck until their lease is over. meanwhile I also need to pay down my debt and improve credit score. 

We consider background checks and credit checks only good for 60 days. 

I would look at it in terms of whether you can afford a worst case scenario where you're covering the deductible and have a credit line or cash to front the re-build cost and getting reimbursed from insurance afterwards.

Some of them have phone numbers as well, but pretty much all of them are marked as Do Not Contact.Does this seem like an effective track to stay on?

I have refinanced those to 85% loan to value with a credit union and got over 10% back out which was about 200K. 

Property owners get an annual update on their SEV & Taxable Values with their city property tax bill, typically sent in December.So now, the city assessor tracks the SEV, but homeowners are taxed based upon the capped Taxable Value.

Any prospective resident with bad credit or a prior eviction is going to have an impossible time finding a place to live.  

With a large portion of the incoming migration coming from international residents moving to the District, emphasizing improving and bringing back Washington D.C. sports teams to the city should create a strong desire for domestic residents to want to live near a fun, community engaging activity that is very relevant to those that live in and around the city.The District also has other programs it is running to make the District more attractive to live in outside of just working in the area, such as the Office to Anything program (Source) and the Housing in Downtown program (Source) which will incentivize developer through tax credits to convert office buildings into new construction housing and new construction retail properties, which should continue to attract more residents back to the area.D.C. also understands that with all of these big changes we have seen, the strategy and allocation of resources from the government moving forward should be reassessed to create a city that is adapting to the future trends to remain a safe and desirable place for residents to live.

When you are getting into raising big dollars from sophisticated investors they are going to want to see a track record and a well thought out and detailed business plan.

So act quickly, do as the others are saying and screen him according to your standard criteria. credit, references, eviction history, etc.