A tenant in the 200-block of East 9th Street fought off three intruders Wednesday night, according to reports in today's Courier (see here) and Ledger (see here).
But the thing that literally leapt off the page was the following (from the Courier version) --
Police responded to a 911 call for a fight in a basement apartment on the 200 block of East Ninth Street shortly before 10:30 p.m. Wednesday evening. The incident began when three men entered an unlocked common side door and knocked on the victim's basement door...[emphasis added]I have ranted about illegal apartments before, but mostly in the context of revelations brought out by fires that leave the affected tenants homeless.
But here we have a case of home invasion (the second in as many months).
Early in its term, the Robinson-Briggs administration bowed to pressure from real estate investors and multi-family owners and abandoned the city's anti-overcrowding 'Safe Homes' initiative.
As I noted in January 2007 --
Under Mayor McWilliams, Plainfield adopted [a] 'Safe Homes' initiative aimed at inspecting rental units throughout the city and attempting to root out overcrowding -- conditions which pose a threat to the health and safety of tenants, although VERY HEALTHY to the landlord's bottom line...The net effect, in my opinion, has been an increase -- how dramatic cannot be measured -- in illegal basement apartments and illegal boarding house arrangements.
Inspection professionals refer to purposeful overcrowding as 'stacking', and if you read between the lines of the sales prices and neighborhoods in the Friday real estate section, you can begin to get an idea of what might be going on to make the presumptive mortgage payments. Stacking can generate MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS PER WEEK TO LANDLORDS where running unchecked.
Though, of course, we're not likely to ever know -- as the Administration abandoned the Safe Homes initiative early in 2006, under pressure from real estate investors and the owners of multi-family properties subject to the scrutiny contemplated by the ordinance.
Part of why we will not know is that the Robinson-Briggs administration is simply not interested in combating overcrowding.
Coincidentally, today's Courier also carries a story of Woodbridge fining the owner of a tiny Oak Tree Road Cape Cod $10,000 for housing 11 immigrants in filthy, unsafe and illegal conditions (see story here).
I had noted before that Woodbridge Mayor 'Mac' McCormac had drawn on the ordinances of several other towns to shape Woodbridge's and had also armed the town's inspectors with computers for quick access to property and inspections records -- as well as setting up a hotline for anonymous tips (see here).
And Mayor Robinson-Briggs?
In 2006, she took away the laptops the Inspections Division used in the field, and disbanded the 'Safe Homes' staff.
Anonymous tip hotline? Dream on.
Thank you, Mayor.
- Courier: "Trio sought after home invaded in Plainfield"
- Ledger: "Resident fights off three intruders in home"
- 1/08/2007: "Illegal basement apartment fire at 127-29 Johnston Ave. leaves 13 homeless"
- 1/29/2007: "Plainfield: Overcrowding? What overcrowding?" -- Fire at 1003 Park Ave. leaves over 30 homeless.
- 8/10/2007: "Illegal apartments: What Woodbridge and Plainfield can learn from each other"
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2 comments:
Dan,
Didn't Jerry Green just receive an award for his leadership on "rental housing issues"....way to go..
I will not debate the illegal alien issue. There are pros and cons. But we need to stop illegal housing and especially overcrowding. The issue comes down to DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY AND PROPERTY VALUES. These homes where renters are stacked up - are being raped and beaten and turned into junk property - for which the whole city pays the bill because beaten-down houses lower their tax value, so people who improve their homes get socked with higher taxes.
Inspections should be enforced and not give in to political pressure and sympathy for the problems of illegals. I have sympathy for illegals and think we need to make the way for easier immegration - but that's not the issue. The issue here is the destruction of houses by illegal over-use, eventually rendering the houses as junk property.
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