Markeshia Ricks Photo
City inspectors on Blake Street.
Dr. Xu: I’ll do better.
Fire inspector Ray Saracco could hear the distinct chirp of dying smoke detectors from where he stood on the sidewalk in front of 32 – 34 Blake St.
“If they were replaced,” he said listening intently, “you would not hear that.”
When asked about her smoke detector, a woman on the porch said the sound wasn’t coming from inside her apartment. She suggested looking next door.
Saracco (at right in photo), along with Ward 27 Alder Richard Furlow and Evan Trachten (at left) of the city’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative, trekked around the side of the building to see if they could locate the source of the sound.
They didn’t find it. But they did find trash cans, some overflowing with garbage, one broken window and another window that was covered by a padlocked, wrought iron grill. The padlocked window is a fire hazard. To gather further information, Trachten chatted with a tenant who stuck her head cautiously out the door.
She said she didn’t have any problems except for the four-legged variety that don’t pay rent. She wasn’t talking about pet dogs or cats. She was talking about mice.
In a way, conditions at the property were better then they had been about a week prior, but not as good as they should have been. Saracco, Furlow and Trachten had previously paid a similar visit to inspect multi-family properties on Blake Street, four of which are owned by Bethany-based Jianchao Xu, a prominent Yale nephrologist who has also spoken out publicly against organ-harvesting in China.
Furlow and LCI had been fielding complaints from Xu’s tenants and nearby neighbors that the lots and yards of his properties at 32, 40, 50 and 56 Blake were a mess with trash. The exteriors of buildings were poorly maintained; common areas of stairwells were often dirty and strewn with trash. Some tenants complained of ongoing rodent problems.
LCI had already informed Xu and the property management company he owns, East Rock Associates Inc., back in June and July about the need to stay on top of trash and interior and exterior maintenance. After a follow-up inspection this month, the agency has issued orders requiring Xu to abate problems with trash, rodent infestation and interior/exterior maintenance within 21 days of acknowledging receipt of the certified order.
When LCI conducted its inspections, Saracco was brought in for a full accounting of housing and fire code violations of which the owner might not have been aware.
An old smoke detecter that Saracco ordered replaced.
Sure enough, Saracco found violations including blocked entrances and exits; exposed electrical wires; old and non-functioning smoke detectors and a window covered with a padlocked, wrought iron grill. He didn’t leave the premises until the exits were cleared, but he gave Xu 24 hours to get in new smoke detectors and to get the padlock off the window.
He was not amused last Wednesday when he discovered that those problems had not been addressed. He was even less amused to find that it had not been dealt with as late as Thanksgiving Eve.
Neither was Fire Marshal Bobby Doyle.
“We usually will give a 15 to 30 day window to get most things done,” Doyle said. “That’s if you have an emergency light out or you’re waiting on a battery to come in or something like that — no problem, we’ll give you time.”
Doyle said his office isn’t looking to penalize people, and if serious violations are found that might create a financial hardship then the landlord could apply for an extension. “If it’s something that’s major…we’re not going to expect you to have all that done in 30 days,” he said. “We’ll give you an extension form. As long as we’re working towards that, it’s all we ask.”
But if you ignore the orders of the fire marshal’s office you could be hit with a monetary fine, or put into the hands of the state housing court — which is what Xu was risking by not having abated the problems identified in that first inspection.
Doyle’s office and his investigators expect landlords to replace smoke alarms as soon as they are made aware of the the problem because working detectors save lives, Saracco said.
“Smoke alarms are one of those mandatory things,” Saracco said. “They’re inexpensive, and they’re easy to get. There’s no excuse to not be compliant with that.”
Troubled Property, Elusive Landlord?
When contacted by an Independent reporter about the state of his Blake Street properties, Xu (pictured at left) said he is eager to make things right. He said he knew about the fire inspection and thought that his management staff had addressed all of the violations.
He said he was surprised to learn that 32 Blake St. had old smoke detectors and a padlocked window. He said that he would remedy the problem the same day. He later called back to say that not only had he gone over to the site, but that the padlock was being removed and he was assured by his maintenance staff that the smoke detectors work.
“We do have a lot of problems with those properties,” Xu said Wednesday. “But we have made a lot of effort to evict one individual, and since she moved out things have been getting better. We are in the process of evicting a second individual who used to have trash all over the place. In general, things are improving.”
Alder Richard Furlow begged to differ.
“The issues with this property didn’t just happen,” said Furlow (pictured above). “Wood can’t rot on a porch in two months. I can only speak for the properties on Blake, but those properties are being subsidized. He’s getting his rent. It does’t appear that he is concerned with the upkeep of the property and who he rents to.”
In addition to the four properties on Xu owns on Blake Street, he owns another 11 in other parts of the city, Xu said. Between 60 percent and 70 percent of his tenants’ rents are paid for by the federal government through its Section 8 program. He also noted that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has inspected those properties and they always pass. Furlow said he finds that fact astonishing.
One of two furnaces uncovered at 56 Blake.
But city inspections often unearth problems that federal inspectors have missed or don’t consider. (Inspections by LCI helped blow the lid off of ongoing problems at the beleaguered Church Street South Apartment Complex.) Rafael Ramos, LCI’s deputy director of housing code enforcement, said that the agency has already sought a housing court action (which is pending) to stop Section 8 payments for 40 Blake St. because of the same problems that have been documented at Xu’s other properties on the street. He said it was escalated to that level because Xu’s efforts to comply with the orders were not satisfactory. Though the current tenant is moving, he said, Xu is not allowed to rent that unit, through Section 8 or otherwise, without making those repairs and having a passing re-inspection.
Furlow said the problems on Blake Street have been going on for a long time. The landlord has often made promises for change, but invariably tenants come back with the same complaints, Furlow said. More recently, Furlow said he has asked for a meeting with Xu, to no avail.
“He is very elusive. The only time he sends anyone over to clean is when I complain,” Furlow said. “The rodent problem? That’s ridiculous. Yes, the tenants have to keep their houses clean, but keeping the house sealed so that rodents don’t get in — that’s his job.”
Xu said he practices medicine and is in the business of being a landlord only “part-time.” He said he doesn’t want a reputation as a bad landlord, and is committed to addressing the problems, many of which he attributed to two or three “difficult tenants.”
“We ask the tenants to take the trash out and maintain the common areas,” he said. “Each side is only two units, so it’s very easy for them to take care of their own trash. Of course we are responsible for the lights and smoke detectors, but sometimes it is hard for us to keep track, but I think it is much better and addressing the fire hazards are a top priority.”
Not About One Landlord
The Blake Street properties owned by Xu have been among the first multi-family dwellings that the inspectors from the Fire Marshal’s office have been called in on to inspect. They won’t be the last.
Fire Marshal Doyle said the department has been short staffed for a few years, causing a backlog. The test for inspector/investigators just wrapped up this past weekend and those who make the cut will be headed off to class in the new year. That will help him fulfill a promise to step up inspections citywide. The office has gotten a jump start on inspections as they work with the Building Department, LCI and even the police department on investigations.
State statue for fire code enforcement places the duty to inspect all three-family or more dwellings with the fire marshal’s office. Doyle said now that the resources and technology are going to be in place to do it — the department is upgrading from MS-DOS and floppy disks to cloud systems and Tablets — investigators are going to be busy.
Saracco said it’s not about singling out any particular landlord, but helping to make the city safer. “We want people to call us if they have issues,” he said. “If our phones are ringing, we’re doing our job.”
Furlow said he’s not going to let up on Xu or any other landlords failing to provide people a safe, clean place to live. He applauded the efforts of LCI’s Ramos and Trachten to hold landlords accountable and said he welcomes the fire marshal’s office to the fight. But he also would like to see the city crack down on landlords who are slow to mitigate basic maintenance problems, let alone conditions that are actually unsafe.
“And it’s not just about Dr. Xu, but all who own multiple properties in the city,” he said. “If you can’t fix the property, at least talk to LCI. Don’t just ignore it and let it continue to devalue and depreciate. Talk to LCI about the immediate need for the safety of the tenants and look for some long range plans to make repairs. I’m not saying it should be,‘Fix this or get out of the city.’”
While it’s not all about Xu, Furlow said when it comes to the Blake Street properties he wants to see the owner either get them up to code or sell them.
“I think LCI would be willing to work with him if he were to do what he is supposed to do,” Furlow said. “He has more responsibility to make sure that these things get done. We’re not asking him to turn them into penthouse apartments, but what we saw was subpar. Ultimately, he’s the owner and it’s his responsibility to make sure the building stays in good condition. He should be ashamed of himself.”
Xu was contrite.
“Communication is the key,” he said. “It is never our intentions to purposely violate any codes. I will get it done.”