Thomas Breen file photo
Judge Spader: If tenant's out by May, eviction case will disappear.
A state judge granted a Newhallville tenant an eviction reprieve after a Fair Haven Heights landlord testified that the renter could move into an apartment he owns on Lenox Street, thus sparing her from getting kicked out of her current home.
That was the outcome of an eviction trial held on Thursday morning in New Haven’s third-floor housing court at 121 Elm St.
State Superior Court Judge Walter Spader, Jr. continued the case until May 2 and told the tenant, her current Sheffield Avenue landlord, and her future Lenox Street landlord that he would drop the legal matter entirely if they followed through on their courtroom promises — namely, to have the tenant moved out of her Newhallville apartment by the end of the month.
He issued that ruling after Naugutuck-based landlord Frank Parise told the court that, earlier on Thursday, he got final approval for this same tenant to move into an apartment he owns on Lenox Street in Fair Haven Heights with the help of a state Rental Assistance Program (RAP) subsidy.
Parise told the judge he’d make sure that the tenant in question was moved out of her current apartment and into his by the end of the month. He’d even provide a truck to help her and her kids make the move.
“You want her to leave. She wants to leave,” Spader said to the Sheffield Avenue landlord who had filed the eviction lawsuit. “And Mr. Parise is saying she’s going to leave” and move into an apartment he owns.
"I Have A New Landlord Lined Up"
The state courthouse at 121 Elm, home to New Haven's third-floor housing court.
The case itself dates back to Feb. 15, when the Sheffield Avenue landlord filed an eviction lawsuit claiming that the tenant had failed to pay her rent and that her lease had expired. (Both landlord and tenant asked the Independent not to use their names or have their photos taken for this article. Parise also declined to have his photo taken, though he did agree to have this report identify him by name.)
In the landlord’s original eviction complaint, she stated that the tenant hadn’t paid the $50 portion of her $1,500 monthly rent, was ordered to move out by mid-February, and still occupied the premises. In court on Thursday, she elaborated that the tenant owed much more than just $50, as she allegedly hadn’t paid her $50 portion for almost the entirety of her three years in the apartment. In the “lapse of time” portion of landlord’s complaint, she also said the lease was up.
The tenant replied in her own late-March answer filing that she never received the legal notice to quit, and that the landlord had not fixed a number of problems with the apartment, including a mouse infestation and cover-less radiators that burned her children. She also contested the landlord’s rent-related claims in court on Thursday, saying that she had paid more than the landlord alleged. “I’m currently looking for another apartment,” the tenant wrote in her answer filing. “I’m a single mother of 3 kids that’s been there for 2 years and now that she moved back she does not like my children. I have all my portion of rent and would be paid once she fixes the apartment so my kids are safe.”
In court on Thursday, Spader began the trial by asking the landlord and tenant, neither of whom was represented by an attorney, to tell him their sides of the story, and to be clear about how they would like this case to resolve if possible. “What are you really looking for from the court?”
The Sheffield Avenue landlord said she has owned the three-family house for four decades. She moved down to South Carolina in 2018, even as she retained ownership of the Newhallville property.
“My brother remodeled my apartment,” she said. She said he made $12,000 worth of improvements: a new kitchen, new bathroom, finished hardwood floors, “completely remodeled.”
She said the current tenant in question moved in in the spring of 2021. While her apartment’s rent is $1,500 per month, the tenant’s portion is only $50, the landlord said. That’s because The Connection — a local social service agency that helps those struggling with homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness — has long paid the remaining $1,450.
The landlord said that The Connection held up its side of the bargain, paying the full $1,450 basically through the present. The tenant, however, hasn’t paid her $50 monthly portion since the second month of her lease nearly three years ago, she claimed. She also showed the judge a letter from The Connection stating that that their rental subsidy for this tenant would be ending at the end of this month.
The landlord, who said she moved back from South Carolina to her Sheffield Avenue home last summer, has had a very difficult time getting in touch with the tenant and has found that the condition of her renter’s apartment is “deplorable.” And she said that she had to move her elderly and sick mom out of the Sheffield Avenue house because of its poor condition.
Even though $50 per month is a relatively small amount, the landlord said, it’s added up over time (she has also tried to levy a $75 monthly late fee) and she wants and needs possession of the property back.
Looking south on Sheffield Avenue from Huntington Street.
During her time to address the court, the tenant said that her name was not spelled correctly on the eviction paperwork. She asked the judge to throw out the case entirely. “Technically, she’s not evicting the right person,” she said.
She also said that The Connection paid her full rent for her first year of tenancy, and so she didn’t owe any $50 monthly portion for those first 12 months.
She added that she already has a new rent-subsidized place to live in place. All she needs is until the end of the month to move in.
She pointed to a man wearing a t‑shirt and shorts four rows back in the public seating area of the courtroom. “I have a new landlord lined up,” she told the judge. That’s him in court today.
With that man’s consent, Spader then called him from the audience section to the witness stand to be sworn in and speak to the court. The man identified himself as Frank Parise. He said he lives in Naugutuck, and owns a multifamily house on Lenox Street in New Haven.
That Heights apartment “passed inspection today” to have a RAP-subsidized tenant move in, he said. “She can move in right now. I just have to sign the lease with her program.”
Parise added that he has a truck the tenant can use to get from her current Sheffield apartment to her new place on Lenox. He said he’d help her move out by the end of the month.
The Sheffield Avenue landlord repeated that she wants control of her property back. And the tenant repeated she wants to leave, and has a new place to move to. “I honestly don’t want this on my record,” she said about the eviction case, given how hard it can be to find an affordable place to live as a single mother with three kids.
So Spader took stock of the case before him — and that a solution that could be amenable to all involved appeared in place. He told the Sheffield Avenue landlord that she likely would not legally be able to charge a $75 monthly late fee on a $50 monthly rent portion, nor would she be able to charge such a late fee if she’s also claiming the lease has expired. He also said that the Sheffield Avenue landlord is in a better place than most in this case, because she’s been receiving $1,450 in rent every month from a subsidy even if the tenant hasn’t paid her part.
He concluded by continuing the case until May 2. If the tenant is moved out by then, he said, he’ll drop the case. If she has stayed, then he’ll rule in the landlord’s favor and allow her to move forward with the eviction.
“Hopefully we won’t have to see you again,” he said to all of the parties involved.
“It’s Not All About The Money”
After the judge handed down his decision, the Independent caught up with the tenant and both landlords in the hallway outside of the courtroom to ask how they felt about the judge’s decision.
“It was fair,” the Sheffield landlord said. The tenant said she too was “OK with the outcome.”
Parise agreed. “I thought the judge was very fair, in my opinion. He’s a very good judge,” listens to all sides, tries to do what’s right. He repeated his commitment to “do everything in my power” to make sure the tenant is moved out of her place and into the Lenox Street apartment by the end of the month. “I do believe [the eviction case] is going to be dismissed.”
The Independent then asked Parise why he decided to help this tenant out at all and choose her to rent out his Lenox Street apartment.
“My nature is I try to help everybody,” he replied. “She’s a young woman with three sons. I don’t think she was in the wrong.” He said he thinks she actually had been paying her $50 monthly portion, despite what the Sheffield landlord said.
“I listened to her,” he continued. “I felt bad for her situation.”
Parise, who grew up in New Haven and owns several rentals in Fair Haven, the Heights, and East Haven, said he wasn’t even planning on coming to court Thursday. But then he got a call from the tenant, frantically asking if he’d come to confirm that she had a place to move to. And he agreed.
“I came down. I verified [she has a place to go.] I think everything went well. The judge is a good man.”
He concluded by repeating his life mantra, so to speak. “I try to go through life trying to help people. It’s not all about the money.”
See below for other recent stories about New Haven evictions:
• Senior Dodges 50-Cent Eviction
• Landlord Prevails After Eviction-Paper Delivery Debate
• Sunset Ridge Becomes Eviction Central
• Eviction OK’d After Restaurant Shutters
• Eviction OK’d After“Lapse,” Rent Debate
• Mandy Leads Pack In Eviction Filings
• Eviction“Answers” Reveal Renters’ Struggles
• Eviction Suit Caps Tenant’s Tough Run
• Investor Skips Hello, Starts Evictions
• Eviction Deal Drops $1 Ruling Appeal
• Judge’s $1 Award Tests Eviction Rule
• Court Case Q: Which“Nuisances” Merit Eviction?
• “Or” Evictions OK’d
• Fair Rent: Dog’ll Cost You $150
• Rent Trumps Repairs In Elliot Street Eviction
• Though Sympathetic, Judge Blocks Eviction
• Family Feuds Fill Eviction Court
• Rent Help Winds Down. What’s Next?
• Eviction Withdrawn After Rent Catch-up
• Hill Landlord Prevails In“Lapse” Eviction
• Landlord Thwarted 2nd Time On Eviction
• Church Evicting Parishioner
• Hard-Luck Tenant Hustles To Stay Put
• Eviction Of Hospitalized Tenant, 74, Upheld
•Judge Pauses Eviction Amid Rent-Relief Qs
• Amid Rise In“Lapse-of-Time” Evictions, Tenant Wins 3‑Month Stay
• Leaky Ceiling, Rent Dispute Spark Eviction Case