On a Friday morning in mid-November, more than 130 Springfield property owners were summoned to Housing Court to answer for violations of the city's housing code: trash-strewn yards, wildly overgrown lawns, unregistered cars.
"Neglected properties are breeding grounds for crime and detract from otherwise upstanding and proud neighborhoods," Mayor Domenic Sarno said in announcing the effort.
That, sadly, is not news to city residents. Springfield has long been know for its historically and architecturally rich housing stock. But in recent years, that housing stock—or, rather, a portion of it—has also become one the city's biggest problems, as delinquent landlords, middle-class flight, rising crime and the foreclosure crisis have all contributed to a significant number of run-down or abandoned properties in neighborhoods across the city.
Those Housing Court cases were part of a larger-scale effort by City Hall to try to reverse the trend, which drives down property values and drives frustrated neighbors out of the city. If those efforts are successful, said Lisa deSousa, a city attorney who works in code enforcement, property values will increase, and people will become more willing to invest in the city.
"It's turning the momentum back in a positive direction. Unfortunately, it's a long process," deSousa said. "It's a slow march. I hope it's a steady march."
*
Last month's Housing Court cases—part of a program that the mayor's office calls "Operation Clean Sweep" and the Law Department calls "Clean and Lien"—was the city's fourth such effort in 2009. All told, the program has brought about 500 property owners to court this year, according to deSousa.
In fact, deSousa said, the city has thousands of cases in Housing Court. "Clean and Lien" specifically addresses properties with city code violations, "cases where we have chronic non-compliance," she said. If the owners don't show up to the court hearing, the attorneys seek court orders to allow the city to clean up the properties—tow unregistered vehicles, remove trash and, if necessary, board up houses. The city then puts liens on the property for the cost of the work.
The program began in 2005, under the Ryan administration. The Sarno administration has continued the effort and expanded it, according to deSousa, who started as a part-timer in the Law Department and now works on the effort full-time. Two other attorneys also work on the project, as well as several legal assistants and law students from Western New England College.
The city has also begun requiring that vacant properties, and those in foreclosure, be registered with City Hall. The party responsible for the property—be it a private owner or a bank—must pay a $100 registration fee, and provide the name of a property manager located within 30 miles of the city, deSousa said.
In addition to the revenue generated for the city by the registration fee, deSousa added, the program also saves the city resources now spent chasing down absentee owners when there's a problem at the property, like a fire, or a flood caused by pipes bursting in an unheated house. It also helps police know which houses are supposed to be vacant, so they can keep an eye out for drug dealing, squatters or kids hanging out in unoccupied buildings. "We need an orderly way to determine what the status of these properties are," deSousa said.
About 435 properties were registered with City Hall by the Nov. 1 deadline, said deSousa, who estimates there are about 1,000 more that should be registered. Right now, staff is working to track down property owners who haven't yet complied; those who continue to fail to register will be ticketed.
While "Clean and Lien" and the registration program address visible symptoms of irresponsible property ownership, another effort addresses a deeper problem: properties that have been abandoned.
The city, deSousa said, is beginning a push to get such properties put into court-ordered receivership. In some cases, she said, the owner has simply walked away from the property, making no effort to bring it into compliance; in other cases, a bank has begun to foreclose on the property but not yet taken ownership, leaving the property in limbo and the foreclosed-upon owner with no incentive to make necessary improvements.
"Receivership is a huge club," deSousa said. In such cases, the court appoints a receiver to take control of the property and make improvements, such as addressing safety and health violations, or boarding up vacant buildings. To pay for that work, the receiver gets high priority for any money generated when the city sells the property at auction. While the city gets first crack at the proceeds to cover overdue taxes, liens and other money owed the city, the receiver is second in line for payment. Banks or other institutions that hold mortgages on the property only get paid what they're owed after the city and the receiver are paid—a situation, deSousa noted, that might inspire them to step up and take responsibility for the property before it's put into receivership.
"It forces mortgage or lien holders to say, 'Am I willing to risk losing my priority status [for proceeds from the property's sale], or do I want to step in and get this up to code?'" deSousa said. Often, she said, the answer will lead them to meet with city attorneys to hammer out agreements, enforceable through the court, that call for them to address the property's problems.
Pursuing receivership is costly and time-consuming, deSousa said; fortunately, the Attorney General's office is assisting the city with the effort, while the Springfield Housing Court has worked with city attorneys to allow them to bring larger numbers of cases to court.
"Courts are not in a big hurry to appoint receivers. In fact, it's a remedy of last resort," deSousa noted. "It's a tool that the court doesn't use lightly, for sure, but it's a very powerful weapon in our arsenal."
City Councilor Tim Rooke has another idea for the city's arsenal: an ordinance that would require Springfield landlords to register with the city.
Rooke had first proposed the ordinance in 2007. Under the plan, owners of rental property would have to apply to the city for a permit, which would only be granted if the property passes an inspection for compliance with city health and safety codes. (Owners of two-family units who live at the property would be exempted.)
Once a permit is granted, the property would be re-inspected every two years, although the city could do earlier inspections in response to tenant or neighbor complaints, or if city officials suspect there are code violations at the property. Permits could be revoked if code violations are found, or if the property owner knowingly rents to tenants who commit criminal acts there.
When the proposal last was brought to the City Council, it met with some resistance from property owners and realtors. "The concept is noble; the reality is awful," Kevin Sears of Sears Real Estate told the Advocate at the time. While he agreed with the notion of pressuring bad landlords to get in line, he said, in practice, "this kind of thing would only punish the good landlord and hurt the rental market," including tenants, who would end up absorbing the cost of the permit in their rent.
In the end, the City Council sent the ordinance to committee, where it died. But with a new City Council being sworn in next month, Rooke hopes the idea will get a fresh hearing. The city regulates all kinds of businesses, he said; why not the rental-property business?
"It's a very effective tool," Rooke said. " For all the responsible landlords, it's easy." And bad landlords—ones who don't keep up their properties, or turn their back to criminal activity in their buildings—would quickly be put out of the rental business.
John Lysak, Ward 8's councilor-elect, told the Advocate he doesn't know enough specifics yet about the landlord-permit proposal to say whether he'd support it, but he generally backs such efforts. "It's a huge issue," he said. "There needs to be something to hold people accountable."
Lysak hopes to see the city get more federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, funds for demolition. The city has already received $3.5 million in demolition funds, which it's focused in the Old Hill, lower Forest Park and South End neighborhoods, Lysak said; he's anxious to see more of that money available for other neighborhoods, too, including his ward.
Lysak also would like to see Springfield consider a program, modeled after one in some Rust Belt cities, that takes lots left empty after a house is demolished and divides the land between the neighbors on either side. That practice, he said, would get the land on to the tax rolls, and would also help increase the neighbors' property values.
*
Keith Wright spent much of last summer walking the streets of his Forest Park neighborhood, knocking on doors as part of his campaign for the City Council's Ward 6 seat. But along with his campaigning, he said, he also spent a lot of time admiring beautiful old houses, well-maintained yards, and other signs that people are investing their time and money in their homes and neighborhoods.
"There's so much beauty, in terms of architecture, in terms of landscaping," Wright said. "The housing value [in Springfield] really can't be beat, up and down the Valley."
Wright describes himself as a glass-more-than-half-full guy, and clearly wants to avoid the tendency of many in the city—residents and elected officials alike —to lament the hard times that have fallen on Springfield. So while he acknowledges that his ward has pockets of poorly maintained properties, or blocks where one eyesore casts a shadow over its well-cared for neighbors, he also points to the many bright spots he sees: the rehab of the former Longhill Gardens apartment complex into the lower-density Forest Park Apartments; planned renovations to Forest Park Middle School.
Wright also sees signs that the city's efforts to address individual problem properties are slowly paying off: a homeowner he met while campaigning, who told Wright of his relief when a vacant house next door to him was boarded, in advance of being sold at auction; a burned-out house on Sumner Avenue finally being torn down.
"My sense is we have a more professionalized city government that is aggressively targeting people who aren't being good community members, and that feels good," Wright said. "I feel cautiously optimistic. & I think if we continue with this progress more and more people will feel it and experience it, and that will be good all around."
