Shanda Roberts — a single mom who grew up in foster care — stands on the brink of losing her dream home, as two condo-owners struggle with their neighbors in an atypical foreclosure.
Roberts and her neighbor Jesse Snipes own units at the Humphrey Place Condos, whose brick and wood fa√ßades face Jocelyn Square Park in the highway-bordered no-man’s land between East Rock and Fair Haven.
Their legal battle stems from a $2,000 special assessment fee levied by the condo association — a fee they have contested and refused to pay.
Like homeowners across the nation wrestling with a subprime lending crisis, Roberts and Snipes are worrying about what they’ll do if they lose their homes. But their tale lends an unusual view into the forces leading people into the throws of foreclosure.
“The Biggest Dream Of My Life”
Roberts, who’s 27, came a long way before landing at the condo complex at 55 Walnut St. A single mom of two boys, she works as a social worker for the state Department of Children and Families. From her wiped-clean kitchen, where an apron with her boys’ faces on it hangs proudly at the threshold, she recounted how she rose to own that home.
Roberts grew up in New Haven, but stable home life ended at a young age. By age 11, she was in and out of foster care. She spent part of high school homeless, until a teacher noticed she was hanging around school as many days as possible, eating meals there, with nowhere else to go. The teacher helped her get on her feet.
Caring for a young baby, she helped put herself through college, toting the child to class if need be, or to one of her two jobs. Along came a second child. With a degree in social work, she landed a job with the state, and made sure her kids had a home that was more stable than hers had been.
“I worked so hard so that my kids would never live like that,” she said.
“My whole life I’ve been struggling to get something and own it,” said Roberts. “That was the biggest dream of my life.”
She moved in six years ago, a couple doors down from where Snipes lived with his wife and two kids.
Snipes bought his place in 1993. He was one of the first to buy a condo there when the complex opened again after being shuttered in a previous wave of mortgage meltdowns. The nine-unit complex is wedged between the green of the park and the rushing cars of I-91. It was a cooperative social experiment attracting parents who wanted their kids to play within view of their porches.
Neighbors worked together to clean up the place when it got run down, Snipes said. Once, when a bid came in too high to paint the complex, Snipes and a buddy pulled out a ladder and did it themselves.
Today, the picture is decidedly less harmonious. The buildings are falling apart in places. Rotting upper decks lie covered in tarps (pictured). Water leaks down from the ceilings, rotting drywall. And a rift has split the association apart, with Snipes and Roberts falling on one side, and those in charge on the other.
Heading up the board of directors of the condo association is Easter Howard, who is better known as the chair of the board of directors at the struggling Community Action Agency.
Snipes’ differences with the leadership began when he came days away from buying a second unit for his son — only to have the unit sold to someone else, for a higher price. He sued the condo association and settled out of court for $18,000.
The latest clash may have more far-reaching consequences.
“Where Is My Money Going?”
The current dispute dates back to 2006, when the condo association was looking to sell one of the nine condos. Unit #2 was unoccupied at the time.
The association also deemed the complex in need of a facelift on the side that faces the (recently renovated) park. According to the agreement of the neighbors, improvements must be uniform, and are paid for collectively. The association took a vote in November 2006 on a new budget to sell the vacant unit, repair third-floor decks and renovate the façade. Snipes and Roberts opposed the budget. It passed by a 4-4 vote, which was considered sufficient for approval.
In court documents filed by their attorney, Benson Snaider, Snipes and Roberts object to that vote. The vote was “illegal and fraudulent,” they say, because two of the unit owners were absent at the meeting, and two members from one unit — Howard and her daughter — both cast votes, while other owners only got one vote each.
As part of that budget, the association levied a special assessment fee of $2,000 per unit to pay for “beautification” of the premises. The fee was to replace the wood on bay windows and repaint them, Snipes said.
Then, a couple weeks later, Unit #2 was sold for $180,000 — nearly $14,000 more than what had been budgeted for, according to documents provided by Snipes.
Citing the unexpected surplus, Roberts and Snipes refused to pay the $2,000 beautification fee. They wrote several letters to Howard asking for a meeting to explain why the special assessment fee was still being levied and what happened to the surplus.
“All we want to know is, where did the money go?” Roberts asked. The unit was sold on Nov. 30, 2006. She and Snipes said they wrote several letters in June, July and August of 2007 requesting a meeting.
“My response was the sheriff came to my door and said we were being sued,” Roberts recalled.
The suit cited the unpaid $2,000, the association sought foreclosure against Roberts, Snipes and a third condo owner. The third owner later settled out of court.
The irony of the affair: The attorney who slapped them with the lawsuit is the same one they’re paying to represent the association, through a monthly fee. The attorney is Ronald Bender of the Hamden law firm Bender, Anderson and Barba.
“We’re paying him to sue us,” said Roberts. She accused the association board of jumping right to foreclosure instead of discussing the financial situation in an open way. “Why was he in such a hurry to foreclose on us, when all we were asking is to have a meeting?”
“All I want is just an answer,” steamed Roberts. “I’m a single parent, I have two kids, I could be using that money for a lot of other things. I just have to know, where is my money going?”
To date, two years after a budget was approved, and no work has been done on anyone’s condo. A sum of $100,000 from the condo sale is sitting in the association’s bank account, according to a letter from Howard. Snipes and Roberts say they’ve seen no proof of interest and want to know what the money is being used for.
Meanwhile, they said they’re being driven out in a different method: The association, by another 4-4 vote, recently approved a move to hike its monthly fee from $200 to $525. The raised fee, combined with a $300,000 loan, is intended to finance further improvements to the complex.
Roberts and Snipes said that everyone else in the association is being given a break on that fee except them. The other condo owners, the ones who paid the $2,000 assessment fee, have been offered a “stimulus package” allowing them to take back $1,200 of the $2,000 they paid, according to Roberts and Snipes.
They said the other owners are being refunded the very fee they’re being sued over refusing to pay — but Howard isn’t calling it a “refund,” so Roberts and Snipes are still stuck in court.
“We’re being targeted,” said Snipes.
A neighbor in the complex confirmed he is getting a break on the monthly condo fee, and that the difference is being paid by his $2,000 special assessment fee. He declined to go into further detail or be named.
“I just want everyone to get along, and for this to be over,” he said.
Roberts and Snipes said Howard has stopped speaking to them and Bender has refused mediation as a means to settle the litigation.
Reached at home, Howard poked her head out of a second-story window and promised to set up a time to be interviewed.
“We can’t make any comment because this is an ongoing legal issue,” she later said by phone, after consulting with her attorney. “No members of the board of the association can comment.” She referred comment to her attorney, Bender.
“I am unavailable to comment with regard to your inquiries,” said Bender Monday.
Roberts and Snipes questioned the wisdom of pushing two paying members into foreclosure at a time of a housing slump.
Meanwhile, Roberts is struggling to make ends meet, keeping up with the $525 monthly condo fee — on top of a mortgage.
During an interview at her house, the phone rang a her house — “that’s the gas company,” she sighed. “Another bill I can’t pay. I barely got enough money for food.”
Owning the home “was the biggest accomplishment of my life,” said Roberts. “Now they want to throw me out and put my kids on the street.”
Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
‚Ä¢ After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
‚Ä¢ He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
‚Ä¢ “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
‚Ä¢ Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
‚Ä¢ Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
‚Ä¢ “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
‚Ä¢ WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
‚Ä¢ Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
‚Ä¢ Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
‚Ä¢ She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
‚Ä¢ Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
‚Ä¢“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
‚Ä¢ Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”
The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.
For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.
Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.