Here’s a success story that may not seem like one: Evictions are way up at the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH), to approximately six per month system wide. This soft, but firm-spoken woman said she can raise that to twenty per month.
The woman, Kathryn R. Sylvester, HANH’s special assistant for legal affairs, made the remarks this week to residents at the Matthew Ruoppolo Manor, a development in Fair Haven. The complex has a mix of older people and those struggling with substance abuse or behavioral problems, can be volatile and lead to legal confrontations, Sylvester said that after her devotion to her children, the next object of her dedication is using aggressive legal means to rid HANH buildings of nuisance residents and to improve the quality of life.
Sylvester and a team of two paralegals have taken HANH’s eviction-proceedings business in house, for the first time in years. Under the direction of Executive Director Jimmy Miller, the results are considerable: savings, greater efficiency, and, most importantly, a more secure, less-nuisance plagued atmosphere for HANH’s 6,000 residents throughout New Haven.
“Our aim is of course not to do evictions,” said Sylvester, a former foreclosure lawyer in the private sector, in remarks at a Wednesday Tenant Residents Council meeting at Ruoppolo. “In fact we go out of our way to avoid evictions. Every non-payment of rent triggers both a legal proceeding, but, most importantly— and this is new — it also triggers now a social service response. Why?
“Because most instances of non-payment are red flags that there’s a problem. Perhaps the tenant is spending money on drugs. Or giving some of their monthly to check to a grandchild putting pressure on them. Or has to pay for medicines that might be covered under insurance but the person hasn’t applied.”
“Believe me,” said Sylvester, “when we are compelled to do an eviction, it is from the heart. Before that happens, we walk people to social security, to drug stores. We try to fix things every way we can. We involve Cornerstone,” she said, referring to the social service agency that works at three of HANH’s buildings housing the elderly and disabled, such as Ruoppolo.
In most instances, Sylvester said, arrangements or stipulations are made for repayment of overdue rent. And most non-payment situations are solved. “When the stipulation for repayment is violated, however, we have to proceed, as a last resort, to housing court, for eviction.” And, when necessary, she said, as in a recent case when she herself heard a tenant making arrangements to sell crack, “We do so aggressively. It can all happen within a month.”
Even though the real reason may be drugs, or nuisance behavior in the building, Sylvester said, non-payment of rent is usually the legal pretext for eviction. “There’s only one housing judge… for the entire city. And the court understands non-payment. They do not sufficiently understand the impact on the lives of others in these highly concentrated building if someone repeatedly breaks the rules. Or lives in drastically unsanitary conditions. Part of our job is to educate the court.”
Sylvester said that there are enough cases that the housing court judge has set aside part of every Tuesday for HANH matters. Sylvester and her paralegal, Jennifer DeJesus (pictured with one of the Ruoppolo’s tenants, Rick Best, who asked also to be identified in print as “the poet”), have 300 open cases. They think they will be working up to a total legal caseload of nuisance, non-payment matters numbering around 500, out of a total population of 6,000 in HANH.
“That’s, of course, in addition to the other kinds of legal work we do here,” she said. When Sylvester began, about a year ago (around the same time that Miller came to HANH), she was supervising outside lawyers who were then handling most of the eviction matters. Bringing the work in house a few months ago has resulted in a monthly outlay down from $16,000 for outside attorneys to $3,200.”
“I’ve been here for five years and have had three other bosses, and she’s the best,” said DeJesus. “And it’s a real advantage to doing the work this way. We really know our tenants in a way the outside attorneys did not.”
Not coincidentally, on-time rent collection is also at an all-time high, 99%, last month, as opposed to 40% three years ago. That’s a remarkable improvement and a collection rate that would be the envy of the private sector.
“Those funds now being available,” she said, “means they can then be used for increased social services to provide assistance to people pre-emptively so that do not fall into a non-payment situation leading, potentially, to an eviction.”
What did Rick Best, the poet, think of being told by Sylvester and DeJesus that they were his attorneys, and he could come to them about any issue of concern? “I think it’s very good,” he said. “As a community, we have to all help each other.”
And he proceeded to talk to Sylvester about a privacy matter, keys, and who has a right to access to the HANH apartments.