By William Kaempffer
The New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Two Richard Street properties owned by a Fair Haven housing developer are “deathtraps” for firefighters, and properties on Clay Street and Murray Place owned by the same nonprofit likewise are in “deplorable” condition, according to a fire officer stationed in the neighborhood.
The blunt assessment came as part of a citywide campaign by the Fire Department to identify potential hazards. Last month in Fair Haven, Lt. James Kottage inspected dozens of blighted properties “and with a little homework discovered Mutual Housing Association of Central CT appears to be the owner of many.”
The nonprofit, which is now known as NeighborWorks New Horizons, says it has plans to overhaul many of the structures, but the recession stripped the funding.
“We have construction plans. We have architecture designs. We’re that far along,” said Tim Protzman, a special project coordinator for NeighborWorks. “Because of the state budgetary crisis, some programs for which these buildings had been approved were defunded. We’ve had to scramble to get new funding.”
But, meanwhile, the houses pose a significant threat to firefighters, said Kottage, who is assigned to Engine 10 on Lombard Avenue.
“I am extremely concerned for the safety of any firefighters if a fire occurs in one of these deplorable properties,” he said in a memo to the department command staff last month. “During my inspections, many of these structures are unsecured and attracting illegal activity.”
Other city departments now are involved. Livable City Initiative workers went to a property on Murray Place Friday morning and boarded up access to a four-bay garage where a squatter was found dead Thursday morning. Police spokesman Officer Joe Avery said the man died of natural causes.
City Building Official Andrew Rizzo planned to issue a demolition order for one of two houses on Murray Place that appears to be beyond repair, and said he might do the same with several others if the nonprofit can’t keep them secure.
From Rizzo’s perspective, the problem isn’t exclusive to NeighborWorks. Keeping unoccupied or abandoned buildings boarded up is a citywide problem when, as temperatures drop outside, homeless people and vagrants look for shelter.
“You can board up a house tonight and come back the next morning and it’s open, and somebody’s in there,” Rizzo said. “They just pull the plywood right off. At the same time, we don’t need to put the firemen in needless danger.”
“Hopefully, they’re going to get some money this year.”
According to city land records, NeighborWorks owns 16 properties and undeveloped parcels in Fair Haven. A check last week revealed recent or ongoing work at several, including properties on Clay and Poplar streets. Several other properties had tenants, but about half sat with plywood over windows, tarps covering roof holes and no sign of activity.
According to Protzman, NeighborWorks has rehabbed more than 320 affordable housing units in and around New Haven and sponsors affordable homeownership programs. It also has a protocol when it purchases unoccupied buildings: First-floor windows all are boarded up, all utilities are shut off and meters removed. He said the organization works to keep up with the properties, checking them several times a month, collaborating with a local church to monitor the Richard Street structures and working closely with police.
The nonprofit receives a mix of public and private funding, he said, but the Fair Haven projects were stalled when the state slashed funding amid the budget crunch.
“We’re not pointing fingers.” The reality, he said, is that in normal economic times it takes two to three years after a site is acquired to secure funding, draw up designs and rehab a house.
“We’re finding that, in this economy, it’s five to six years,” he said.
Kottage said the concern for him is what happens in the interim.
“We would have to treat this like an occupied structure, knowing that homeless people might be camped out inside,” he said, standing outside a home on Richard Street. “If a firefighter crawls in there, he’ll just fall right through the floor from the third floor to the basement. It’s a deathtrap.”
Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Black forwarded Kottage’s memo to the fire marshal’s office. Engine companies citywide are doing pre- incident planning, he said.
“We’re just going through our normal channels to make sure everything is on the up and up, to make sure homeowners are keeping their neighborhood safe, but also us safe.”
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