The Greater DC Diaper Bank has filed a lawsuit against its former Silver Spring landlord and property manager, alleging a leaky warehouse roof went unrepaired for years, damaged its inventory, and ultimately forced the nonprofit out of the building it had called home since 2013. The suit seeks $775,000 in damages and accuses WWDC Industrial Park LLC and Donohoe Real Estate Services Inc. of failing to fix persistent leaks at the group's distribution hub on Monard Drive.
According to The Baltimore Banner, which first reported the filing, the diaper bank says it reported the leaks more than a dozen times without adequate response from the landlord. The warehouse at 8846 Monard Drive in Silver Spring, Maryland, had served since 2013 as the nonprofit's central inventory and volunteer packing site, with the lease eventually expanding to cover several buildings on the street. The lease specified storing and distributing diapers as a permitted use of the space.
Roof Leaks Disrupted a Core Program
The nonprofit alleges the leaks damaged its products and slowed, then eventually halted, distribution operations for its baby pantry program, which provides food, formula, wipes, and baby bathtubs alongside diapers. The organization says it ultimately shut the baby pantry program down entirely to avoid health code violations tied to the water damage. Per the Banner's reporting, the diaper bank lost tens of thousands of dollars in inventory and says the pantry closure cost it more than $600,000 in donor contributions that would have otherwise gone to families in need.
The Greater DC Diaper Bank moved out of the Monard Drive warehouse in January. The case was originally filed in D.C. Superior Court before being transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to court filings reviewed by the Banner's Marijke Friedman.
Landlord Fires Back With Counterclaim
WWDC Industrial Park has pushed back hard, filing a counterclaim alleging the diaper bank itself breached its lease contract and failed to pay rent. Both WWDC Industrial Park and Donohoe Real Estate Services have filed motions seeking to dismiss the lawsuit outright. Donohoe, for its part, has said the dispute is between a tenant and landlord to which it is not substantially connected, distancing itself from WWDC's role as the actual property owner even as it managed the site.
Attorneys representing WWDC Industrial Park did not respond to a request for comment, per the Banner's report. Whether the case can settle the underlying legal question — whether a landlord's prolonged failure to fix a leaking roof rises to the level of constructive eviction under commercial lease standards — remains open. Maryland legal guidance notes that severe, unrepaired structural defects that impede business operations can support a tenant's breach of contract or constructive eviction claims, though the dossier does not indicate how a court might rule here.
A Regional Safety-Net Gap
The stakes extend well beyond one warehouse dispute. Founded in 2010 by Corinne Cannon after the birth of her first child, the Greater DC Diaper Bank has grown into one of the largest diaper banks in the country, having distributed more than 65 million diapers over its history. The organization typically moves an average of 9.5 million diapers a year to more than 40,000 families across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia through a network of over 75 partner agencies, according to the Montgomery County Volunteer Center.
That regional role matters because federal safety-net programs like SNAP and WIC explicitly prohibit funds from being used to buy diapers, according to the National Diaper Bank Network. A national study the network released in April found that nearly 40 percent of U.S. families with young children experience diaper insecurity, with one in four parents missing work or school over childcare diaper shortages — underscoring why a disruption at a hub the size of the Monard Drive warehouse, which drew more than 1,000 volunteers annually before the relocation, carries consequences well beyond the buildings involved.
IRS filings show the organization operated on total revenues of roughly $4.57 million against expenses of about $4.71 million in 2024, with 15 staff members, according to Cause IQ. That tight margin helps explain why the alleged $600,000 hit to donor contributions and inventory losses loom large for an organization that runs on private donations and foundation grants rather than government aid.
An Old Name in DC Real Estate
Donohoe Real Estate Services is no small player in the region's commercial property market. The firm traces its roots to 1884, when it started as a residential outfit on Capitol Hill, and has since grown into one of the oldest and largest commercial real estate organizations in the Washington area, per its own company history. It is currently WWDC Industrial Park's property manager for the Silver Spring site at the center of the dispute.
With motions to dismiss now pending and counterclaims on the table, the case is likely to hinge on documentation of the repeated leak reports and whether the water damage was severe enough to meet the legal bar for constructive eviction. For now, the Greater DC Diaper Bank has relocated its operations, but the fight over who bears responsibility for the disrupted diaper distribution — and the six-figure toll it says the disruption took — is only getting underway in federal court.
