D.C. Code § 26-201

(a) Any 5 or more persons who desire to form an incorporated building or homestead association, all being citizens of the United States, and a majority of them residents of the District of Columbia, may make, sign, seal, and acknowledge, before some officer authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds, and file for record in the Office of the Recorder of Deeds, a certificate, in writing, to the same effect as that required in Chapters 1 and 3 of Title 29 for the formation of the corporations therein mentioned.
(b) When such certificate shall have been filed for record as aforesaid, the persons who have signed and acknowledged the same, and their successors, shall become and be a body politic and corporate, in fact and in law, by the name stated in the certificate, and by that name have succession and be capable of suing and being sued in the courts, of the District, and of purchasing, holding, and conveying such real estate as may be necessary to the conduct of its business, and to make reasonable bylaws not inconsistent herewith.