Markeshia Ricks Photo
An electrical box outside of an apartment, covered by black plastic.
The City Building Department has declared several structures at Church Street South Apartments unsafe and issued orders giving the owners of the complex 10 business days to fix a roof, repair deteriorating stairs and obtain the proper permits to make the repairs.
The orders, from city Building Official Jim Turcio, are one of three new developments in a effort by government, tenants and legal-aid lawyers to force the owners of the rundown 301-unit subsidized housing complex across from the train station.
• The Livable City Initiative (LCI), City Hall’s anti-blight agency, has sent the complex’s owners, Newton, Mass.-based Northland Investment Corporation, with orders to make extensive repairs to 27 different apartments, or face possible criminal prosecution and up to $100 a day in fines.
• Legal-aid lawyers representing struggling tenants have written to the federal government requesting new inspections of rundown apartments.
“This is the only order you will receive,” Turcio’s three orders, sent by certified mail this past weekend to Northland’s Newton and Hartford offices, stated in bold letters, threatening legal action.
According to one of the orders, obtained by the Independent, city officials found during an Aug. 5 court-ordered inspection that the roof “has failed in numerous areas for the 34 Cinque Green Building. Also the interiors of Units 12A and 11B of the above referenced structure show evidence of water infiltration.”
In addition to an unsafe roof, the inspection found that “work was being performed at the [Great Green Building Unit 6] without a permit in violation of State Building Code 105. Specifically, a block wall as part of an egress assembly was removed and an apartment unit was gutted without required permits/approvals.” The inspection also deemed the same building unsafe because of “deteriorating concrete block and steel lintels on the underside of egress stairwells and on column supports are causing means of egress to be unsafe in several locations.”
Each of the orders states that barring compliance, Northland faces fines of at least $200, but no more than $1,000, or jail time for no more than six months.
Paul Bass Photo
Turcio (pictured) separately reported to state Superior Court Judge Steven D. Ecker with results of the Aug. 5 inspection Ecker had ordered. The city’s and legal aid’s court complaints against Church Street South are currently before Ecker.
“I believe there are serious concerns with the lack of maintenance in these buildings; the window sills are soft to the touch and rotting with signs of water damage throughout the units,” Turcio wrote. “The length of time this building has apparently been leaking is a real concern.”
Northland Senior Vice President Peter Standish did not answer questions from the Independent about conditions and the latest actions taken against the company by the city and its tenants.
“We are working directly with the city and the affected residents to rectify the situation as quickly as possible,” Standish said in a previous email to the Independent. “The safety and security of our residents is our primary concern.”
27 Problem Apartments Cited
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Inspectors check the roof on Aug. 6.
The orders coincide with separate LCI orders for Northland to make extensive repairs to 27 different apartments, or face possible criminal prosecution and up to $100 a day in fines. The orders give the complex’s owner much as 21 days to make certain repairs and as little as zero hours on others.
The orders were delivered on the heels of an order by Judge Ecker to Building Official Turcio to inspect conditions at the complex. That inspection took place the week before last. One of the apartments was condemned after the inspection, while a stop-work order was issued on an improperly conducted repair of an exterior staircase.
(Read more about that here.)
HUD Targeted
Meanwhile, New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) is calling on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reinspect the housing complex and account for the disparities between what LCI has deemed housing code violations and what a HUD inspector last year deemed safe enough conditions that a new inspection need not take place until 2016. HUD keeps Northland in business at Church Street South with $3 million a year in rental subsidies.
NHLAA has helped three tenants file housing court enforcement actions in state court. It is working with 15 other families, according to a letter signed by attorney Amy Marx and Director of Litigation Shelley White.
“Based on this factual record, we are extremely concerned that the most recent HUD REAC score is in error,” the attorneys wrote in a letter to Samuel Tuffour, physical inspections operations manager for HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center. “Not only do the facts seem to indicate that the complex is not in passing condition, but we note that the HUD REAC scores for this development have a puzzling recent history.”
An attempt to reach Tuffour for comment was unsuccessful. A recorded message said that he is out of town until Aug. 24.
Even HUD found problems at Church Street South. It gave the complex a low 26 (out of 100) in a February 2013 inspection, which is far below a passing score of 60. But the score jumped to 81 when HUD last reinspected the complex in October 2014. New Haven’s LCI, meanwhile, has routinely failed the complex.
A rotted windowsill in Del Hoyo’s apartment.
“We find these [HUD] scores troubling as the development’s scores rose 55 points, from a significant failure of housing conditions in February 2013 to a solid passing score 20 months later … without any major capital investments during this time period,” the legal-aid attorneys wrote to HUD. “Tenants and community members have complained about serious housing conditions for many years. Such complaints persist to the present.”
Tenant Del Hoyo with attorney Marx.
Laynette Del Hoyo lives in one of the apartments that HUD inspected. While the HUD inspector noted a mild presence of mold and mildew, a July 8 LCI inspection report notes 22 violations that needed to be corrected in Del Hoyo’s apartment.
The patched ceiling of Del Hoyo’s kitchen.
Eleven of those violations were related to conditions causing the ceiling and walls of her apartment to be damp. LCI has made multiple inspections of Del Hoyo’s apartment only to be told that the repairs have been made. During reinspection, LCI has deemed the repairs makeshift at best. (Read more about that here.)
LCI inspector Tomas B. Reyes went so far as to write instructions on how to address a violation involving the need to “provide adequate electric convenience outlets.”
“Center bedroom front: (Correction) Water filtration issue TO BE resolved, THEN walls and ceilings TO be repaired properly, THEN electrical outlet to be secured,” he wrote, emphasis his. Northland has 21 days to remedy that violation.”
In another apartment #11C, Reyes gave the owners “zero hours,” to “replace rotted/defective/missing gutters and/or down spouts.”
In apartment #97A, Inspector Edward Rodriguez instructed the owners to “isolate left basement bedroom and provide mold abatement plan from licensed professional mold abatement contractor,” within hours of receiving the order.
Previous coverage:
• Complaints Mount Against Church Street South
• City Cracks Down On Church Street South, Again
• Complex Flunks Fed Inspection, Rakes In Fed $$
• Welcome Home — To Frozen Pipes
• City Spotted Deadly Dangers; Feds Gave OK
• No One Called 911
• “New” Church Street South Goes Nowhere Fast
• Church Street South Tenants Organize