City officials are researching whether a “nuisance property” ordinance can stem a recent tide of violence in the Hawkins Street area.
“It’s been in the works,” said Second Ward Alderman David Lenart, who represents the neighborhood.
Lenart said he recently proposed a local law that would hold landlords accountable for problem renters.
The law has been discussed by a subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen. City Corporation Counsel Joseph Coppola is working on the details, Lenart said.
“After so many (police) complaints at a certain address, there’s a task force — the building inspector, the fire marshal, the electrical inspector, the blight officers — they’ll meet with the property owner and, if the problems continue, a fine is possible,” Lenart said.
There have been several violent incidents on Hawkins Street, between Sixth and Seventh streets, during the last 30 or so days.
First, on May 19, a 19-year-old man was stabbed several times. He survived. Hours after the stabbing, someone shot up a house near the scene. No one was injured.
On Sunday, a 17-year-old woman was struck in the hip during a drive-by shooting near the intersection of Hawkins and Seventh. Police said she wasn’t the intended target. She suffered minor injuries.
Residents interviewed by the Valley Independent Sentinel Monday gave two different theories as to what is triggering the violence.
1. Youth gangs: Specifically a group calling itself the Roc boys from Ansonia and the PCG (Purple City Goons) in Derby.
— Police discredited this theory Monday, saying there’s no proof gangs are connected to Sunday’s shooting.
2. Family feud: Two neighboring sets of Hawkins Street families who’ve been fighting with each other, apparently over a male-female relationship that went sour.
— Police said Monday they’re aware of the feud and are trying to determine whether a weekend dispute between the factions is connected to the drive-by shooting.
Solutions?
Lenart said a small, specific group of people are responsible for the trouble.
“It seems to me that it is isolated to a few groups that are giving the area and the city a bad rap,” he said.
Ken Hughes, president of the Derby Board of Aldermen, supports the creation of a task force.
He said his fellow Aldermen need to talk about what’s happening in the neighborhood and figure out ways to help the police department manage the situation.
Residents interviewed said they want to see a heavier police presence in the area overnight. Police Chief Eugene Mascolo told the Valley Indy Monday that police already focus on the area.
“We need to do whatever we can to help the police department address the problems on those streets,” Hughes said. “If we can do that, then we’ll open up our police department to be in other places of Derby.”
The underlying assumption among elected officials is that landlords aren’t paying attention to their tenants, a tiny portion of whom are creating havoc on Derby streets.
Based on what police are saying, this seems to be the case on Hawkins.
After a certain number of police calls to a specific address, the city could further investigate, Hughes suggested.
“We could have the task force do a complete inspection of these buildings,” Hughes said. “In essence, what we’re doing is holding the landlords responsible for the actions of their tenants. No landlord, in one of these older, multi-family buildings is going to want the task force going through their properties with a fine-tooth comb.”
Hughes said city officials would have to research the constitutional ramifications of creating such as task force.
At least one other city in New England is considering a similar idea.
In Lynn, Mass., a city elected official proposed creating a “nuisance tenant” law, according to an article published in March on Boston.com.
The article reported:
“The measure, which may be the first of its kind in the state, would give the city a new tool to force property owners to address drug-dealing or other illegal activity in their buildings, according to Ward 6 Councilor Peter L. Capano, who is sponsoring the proposal.
Capano said the ordinance is designed for “egregious situations’’ in which landlords do not respond to repeated problems with tenants in their buildings.
“It would speed things up for neighbors and residents who live in the adjacent area, providing them with some quick relief to this type of behavior,’’ he said.
A variety of municipalities across the country have laws dealing directly to properties where chronic drug dealing is an issue.
Curfew?
Hughes, like several Sixth Street residents interviewed Monday by the Valley Indy, suggested Aldermen explore whether a curfew could be put into place in the neighborhood sometimes referred to as the “HALO” section of Derby.
HALO stands for Hawkins, Anson, Lafayette and Oak, some of the streets in the neighborhood.
A curfew on teens in Vernon was declared unconstitutional in 2003 by a federal court.
“If it’s legal, it’s a great idea,” Lenart said.
Hughes said the issues in the Hawkins Street area will probably be discussed at the next Aldermen meeting.
The Aldermen were scheduled to meet Thursday, but Hughes said the meeting will most likely be rescheduled for next Wednesday because a proposed contract with the city’s sanitation company isn’t quite ready to be considered.
The HALO neighborhood has long been a topic of discussion in Derby.
The specific zone was created by the city in the 1990s. A 2001 document laying out plans to redevelop the area describes the zone as an area of the city that housed people who worked in Derby’s once-thriving factory sector.
After the factories closed and the workers moved away, “the tenant housing in the HALO zone deteriorated and suffered from a lack of investment, leading to higher levels of crime, blight and substandard housing,” the document reads.
