Dixwell Row Homes Head To Auction

A row has broken out at row homes on Henry Street — leading to holes in the roof, allegations of mismanagement, ownership confusion, back-tax frustration, and two properties heading to the foreclosure auction block this weekend.

That’s the latest with the University Row Homes, a three-story brick building that includes multiple addresses on the northern side of Henry Street between Orchard Street and Dixwell Avenue.

Two of those properties — the nine-unit block at 139 Henry and the six-unit block at 127 Henry — will be auctioned off at separate foreclosure sales on Saturday at 12 and 12:15 p.m., respectively. 

State court records show the City of New Haven filed tax foreclosure lawsuits in December 2023 against those properties’ owners, University Row Homes Inc., for two years of unpaid taxes and interest. Court judgments from late March found that 139 Henry owes nearly $38,000 in tax debt to the city, and 127 Henry owes $24,000. (Another University Row Homes Inc.-owned block, the nine-unit property at 133 Henry, is scheduled to go to a third foreclosure auction in July for more than $48,000 in back taxes and interest.)

So, this much is clear: 139 Henry and 127 Henry are scheduled for tax foreclosure auctions on Saturday.

What’s also clear is that these properties suffer from roofs in serious disrepair.

“When it rains, it pours,” one University Row Homes tenant — who asked to remain anonymous — told the Independent. Last time it rained, she said, the five-gallon bucket she placed in her upstairs filled halfway. And this is a new problem: ​“It just happened last year,” the tenant said. 

Another resident, Christina Lyde, who’s lived at University Row Homes for nearly 25 years, said the same thing: ​“When it rains, it leaks, like pouring.”

Alex Opusyznki, who runs a New Haven-based real estate investment firm that tried to buy these tax-debt-ridden row homes — and that plans to bid on them at Saturday’s auctions — also confirmed that their roofs are in need of significant repair work. 

“A bullet came through my window,” said another University Row Homes resident, Demeka Anderson, who’s lived in the Henry Street row homes since 2017. She said that the property management company for the complex fixed that hole with just painter’s tape. 

“This chose us,” she said about the current state of University Row Homes, ​“we didn’t choose this situation.” 

What’s much less clear is, well, who exactly owns the property and who’s been responsible for maintaining it and paying its local real estate taxes.

The Henry Street row homes are nominally owned by University Row Homes, Inc., a co-op organized in 1969 under section 221(d)(3) of the National Housing Act of 1961. Thirty-two people live in the 12 occupied units at these addresses.

Court documents illustrate, however, the ambiguity around the properties’ title and around who is supposed to pay the bills. 

In April 2023, the City of New Haven issued a lis pendens notice, i.e. a warning of a foreclosure suit, to ​“University Row Homes, Inc., c/o HB Property Management, LLC.” That latter company is a North Haven-based property management group, formerly run by Hank Barkon, that hasn’t been the property manager at University Row Homes in over a decade. 

The property is now managed by Better Quality Management, which is based out of Hartford.

No court appearances were filed by University Row Homes, Inc. to prevent or delay Saturday’s foreclosure auctions for 139 and 127 Henry. However, in an April 25 document filed in the 133 Henry foreclosure case, University Row Homes claimed that ​“a number of tenants are not paying rent,” making it difficult to come up with the money to pay back the taxes.

All four of the University Row Homes tenants the Independent spoke to said they paid rent each month to Better Quality Management. In February, residents received a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development letting them know that the agency, which had been subsidizing rental payments under a Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contract, was considering ending the payments due to ​“failure to maintain the physical condition of the property.” 

The Independent was not able to ascertain from Better Quality Management how much money HUD was covering. Sharon Manns, who manages University Row Homes on behalf of Better Quality Management, declined to comment for this story.

Another University Row Homes resident who asked to remain anonymous told the Independent that University Row Homes, Inc. Board President Michael Maynard, who lives in one of the Henry Street buildings, was employed by Better Quality Management to maintain the property — but that he was removed from that role a few years ago, and that maintenance has gone down hill since then. 

Maynard did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. 

Some of the residents the Independent spoke to were confused and frustrated over whether they are co-owners or tenants in a building that was originally conceived as a co-op — a way for residents of a historically Black neighborhood to build wealth and equity over time. 

Lyde said she was told when she moved in that her security deposit granted her part ownership and voting shares in the building’s management. ​“It’s in our lease,” said Lyde. Anderson echoed that sentiment: ​“I thought me and my children were owners.” 

Given the persistent holes in the roof — and the subsequent loss of subsidies, piling up of tax debt, and imminent foreclosure auctions — some of the residents are now wondering where their money went. If the money that was coming in from rent and from HUD wasn’t being used for maintenance or taxes, Lyde wondered, ​“where were these funds going?”

Anderson took a real estate class and learned that what she thought was a co-op ownership structure was in fact more like a standard landlord-tenant relationship between the co-op board, helmed by Michael Maynard, and the other residents. ​“I was really sad,” she said. 

Enter Opuszynski.

Opuszynski is the CEO of Vanguard Private Client Group, a local landlord and real estate investment company that, among other efforts, is currently building 15 new apartments on State Street.

Opuszynski told the Independent that he noticed that the properties at University Row Homes were headed to foreclosure, and he was intrigued. ​“One of the [things we do as a company] is we look for people we can help,” he said.

So he tried to buy the tax-debt-laden properties before they headed to foreclosure. He claims to have ​“exhausted [his] abundant resources” doing legal research on who exactly held the title to the building. Ultimately, Opuszynski said, his firm was ​“unable to procure enough evidence for title insurance to be issued on the property” — making it impossible to buy ahead of the foreclosure sale.

So now, Opuszysnki intends to show up at Saturday’s auctions and put in bids on those properties there.

Opuszynski said he came in to collaborate and ​“facilitate an equitable sale of the property.” He ultimately blamed University Row Homes, Inc. Board President Michael Maynard for not turning over ​“multiple boxes of legal documents” that could have helped clear up the title issue.

Opuszynski praised Manns, saying she procured ​“portable vouchers” for tenants, when ​“that’s not her job” as property manager. Lyde disputed this framing — telling the Independent that a representative from Elm City Communities communicated that the residents would have received vouchers either way.

Karen DuBois-Walton, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of New Haven, confirmed that though Elm City Communities is not involved in relocation assistance (which has been contracted to the Virginia-based Leumas Group), a majority of the tenants have received their vouchers, allowing them to seek out new places to live with their existing subsidies.

Meanwhile, residents say they’ve been told heat and hot water will be cut off after July 1st — so they’re under a time crunch to move out. At the conclusion of an interview with the Independent, one of the tenants said they had to go back inside to take ​“a hot shower for one of the last times.”

Last weekend, Black Lives Matter New Haven sought to draw attention to the coming Henry Street foreclosures through an Instagram post detailing the property’s history and blaming Manns’s property management company for alleged mismanagement.

Black Lives Matter New Haven Co-Founder Ala Ochumare appraised these coming foreclosure auctions as evidence of a morass of legal and financial troubles working to hurt those who actually live at these Dixwell properties. ​“The wheels of justice,” she said, ​“turn very quickly for the system.”