Record-Journal
09-14-2007, 01:51 AM
MERIDEN -- A vague smell of urine and garbage permeates one of the stairways of 40 Cedar St.
But the building’s elevator is broken, forcing residents, even the old and the sick, to ascend the six flights of stairs, moving past the occasional pile of garbage or discarded TV on their way to the top.
At Mills Memorial Apartments, lights are smashed, floors are dirty, and residents complain of repairs requested but never delivered.
The 140-unit complex of five buildings is under the charge of the Meriden Housing Authority, but residents say it isn’t doing a good job managing the complex.
Both the six-story building at 40 Cedar St. and the seven-story building at 144 Pratt St. have broken elevators.
According to residents, the elevator in the Pratt Street building has been broken for a month, and the one on Cedar Street has been out of service for three months.
Tenant Cheryl Greenwood said she finds it difficult, with a blood clot in her leg, to climb the six stories to her apartment, and her multiple calls to the MHA have been met with silence or vague assurances that replacement parts for the elevators are on the way.
Andre Trudelle, executive director of the MHA, said the elevators had not been broken for the entire span described, but instead had been repaired and then broken again several times.
“The cause is vandalism,” he said. “These parts are extremely hard to get. They’re old elevators.”
Trudelle said that he signed a contract to have the recent damage repaired three weeks ago, and the delay since then has been due to waiting for delivery of the parts. The long-term solution would be to replace both elevators.
In the meantime, he said the elevator on Cedar Street was being worked on, and the Pratt Street elevator likely will be repaired Monday.
Greenwood said she’s living in the public housing complex as a last resort, and isn’t enjoying the experience.
“As far as the Mills go, they’re disgusting,” she said.
She has a litany of complaints, such as the lack of screens for her windows, no racks in the oven, dirty facilities, garbage left in the halls, and a lack of security.
Greenwood said that she’s afraid to go enter the complex at night with money, fearing she’ll be robbed. “You wake up at three or four in the morning to fights and screaming,” she said.
Police Sgt. Leonard Caponigro, department spokesman, said the housing complex has not been a problem for police in some time.
Police have been called to 144 Pratt St. 49 times this year, which Caponigro considered ordinary given the housing density.
A minor assault, criminal trespass, window breaking, and harassment were some of the more severe instances, but the majority of the calls involved issues regarding abandoned or unsafe cars, drug possession, and other nonviolent crimes.
Lillian Reid lives in a fifth-floor apartment at 144 Pratt St. She doesn’t necessarily fear crime, but said the the lack of maintenance has made the buildings unsanitary, and if nothing is done, conditions might become dangerous.
“The walls are broken and everything is rusty,” she said. “They never paint. There are roaches around because they don’t clean the stairways.”
Reid said that many of the outside lights are either broken or have burnt bulbs, making it unsafe at night.
A maintenance worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the housing authority, said that the number of workers maintaining the facility has been slashed dramatically.
The worker complained of a bureaucracy that does not pass on work orders to the staff and won’t allow repairs of expensive items.
“We used to be on top of this,” the worker said. “This place is going downhill. It’s not maintenance’s fault. We don’t have the manpower.”
The worker said that much of the damage was caused by tenants who don’t care about the facility. But Victor Ramirez, a resident, said the fact that anyone can wander into the buildings off the street is the cause. “People pee in elevators and hallways,” he said.
Trudelle said all emergency damage is repaired within 24 hours, but the MHA’s limited staff can’t address everything. “The manpower we have is all we can afford at this point,” he said.
He said the maintenance staff cleans the buildings every day, and that the garbage seen in the hallways is being put there on a daily basis by tenants.
In a presentation last month to the MHA Board of Commissioners, Trudelle said the federal government had only given the MHA 82 percent of what was required to maintain its buildings this year.
But the building’s elevator is broken, forcing residents, even the old and the sick, to ascend the six flights of stairs, moving past the occasional pile of garbage or discarded TV on their way to the top.
At Mills Memorial Apartments, lights are smashed, floors are dirty, and residents complain of repairs requested but never delivered.
The 140-unit complex of five buildings is under the charge of the Meriden Housing Authority, but residents say it isn’t doing a good job managing the complex.
Both the six-story building at 40 Cedar St. and the seven-story building at 144 Pratt St. have broken elevators.
According to residents, the elevator in the Pratt Street building has been broken for a month, and the one on Cedar Street has been out of service for three months.
Tenant Cheryl Greenwood said she finds it difficult, with a blood clot in her leg, to climb the six stories to her apartment, and her multiple calls to the MHA have been met with silence or vague assurances that replacement parts for the elevators are on the way.
Andre Trudelle, executive director of the MHA, said the elevators had not been broken for the entire span described, but instead had been repaired and then broken again several times.
“The cause is vandalism,” he said. “These parts are extremely hard to get. They’re old elevators.”
Trudelle said that he signed a contract to have the recent damage repaired three weeks ago, and the delay since then has been due to waiting for delivery of the parts. The long-term solution would be to replace both elevators.
In the meantime, he said the elevator on Cedar Street was being worked on, and the Pratt Street elevator likely will be repaired Monday.
Greenwood said she’s living in the public housing complex as a last resort, and isn’t enjoying the experience.
“As far as the Mills go, they’re disgusting,” she said.
She has a litany of complaints, such as the lack of screens for her windows, no racks in the oven, dirty facilities, garbage left in the halls, and a lack of security.
Greenwood said that she’s afraid to go enter the complex at night with money, fearing she’ll be robbed. “You wake up at three or four in the morning to fights and screaming,” she said.
Police Sgt. Leonard Caponigro, department spokesman, said the housing complex has not been a problem for police in some time.
Police have been called to 144 Pratt St. 49 times this year, which Caponigro considered ordinary given the housing density.
A minor assault, criminal trespass, window breaking, and harassment were some of the more severe instances, but the majority of the calls involved issues regarding abandoned or unsafe cars, drug possession, and other nonviolent crimes.
Lillian Reid lives in a fifth-floor apartment at 144 Pratt St. She doesn’t necessarily fear crime, but said the the lack of maintenance has made the buildings unsanitary, and if nothing is done, conditions might become dangerous.
“The walls are broken and everything is rusty,” she said. “They never paint. There are roaches around because they don’t clean the stairways.”
Reid said that many of the outside lights are either broken or have burnt bulbs, making it unsafe at night.
A maintenance worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the housing authority, said that the number of workers maintaining the facility has been slashed dramatically.
The worker complained of a bureaucracy that does not pass on work orders to the staff and won’t allow repairs of expensive items.
“We used to be on top of this,” the worker said. “This place is going downhill. It’s not maintenance’s fault. We don’t have the manpower.”
The worker said that much of the damage was caused by tenants who don’t care about the facility. But Victor Ramirez, a resident, said the fact that anyone can wander into the buildings off the street is the cause. “People pee in elevators and hallways,” he said.
Trudelle said all emergency damage is repaired within 24 hours, but the MHA’s limited staff can’t address everything. “The manpower we have is all we can afford at this point,” he said.
He said the maintenance staff cleans the buildings every day, and that the garbage seen in the hallways is being put there on a daily basis by tenants.
In a presentation last month to the MHA Board of Commissioners, Trudelle said the federal government had only given the MHA 82 percent of what was required to maintain its buildings this year.