Zach Despart

Free Press Staff Writer

Burlington police have responded 178 times to a Church Street apartment building since January 2015, a rate that police say sets the address apart from any other in the city.

Police say the frequent incidents that draw them to 184 Church St. are rarely criminal — police made just 6 arrests during that period — but strain the department and pull officers away from other priorities.

"It’s not like we can say, 'We’re not coming, this sounds too picayune for us,'" said Officer Bonnie Beck. "We must respond if we’re sent there."

The building's owner, Joe Handy, said he was unaware of the problem until January of this year, though police said they repeatedly left messages with his company throughout 2015.

Polilce and Handy agree the calls are from, or because of, a few problem tenants in the 17-unit complex near Church and King streets. Though police and Burlington's code enforcement director met with Handy about the issue in February, the calls have kept pace. Officers were summoned to the address 12 times in January and 18 in February, call logs state.

Burlington police aren't the only city department familiar with the property. Housing inspectors on Thursday afternoon declared the building unfit for human habitation — displacing residents — after discovering a sewage leak.

A history of disturbances

When Lacey Smith began working on the department's community liaison team in August 2014, she said 184 Church St. was already known among officers as a problem property. Police visited 91 times in 2013 and 79 times the following year, call logs state.

Smith, who helps mediate incidents between city residents that don't rise to the level of criminal activity, said she began working with tenants at 184 Church St. in January 2015. By February, Smith said she was trying to contact a property manager for the building by phone and email. No one returned her queries, Smith said.

“I do a lot of work with landlords and tenants,” Smith said. “The lack of response I felt was not comparable to anyone else. It was just silence.”

Frustrated with Handy's inaction, Smith called Code Enforcement Director Bill Ward for help. Ward, a former Burlington Police Department lieutenant, enforces the city's minimum housing code and has the authority to cite landlords who fail to comply.

Ward keeps a list of what he terms "nuisance properties," addresses which draw a disproportionate amount of police calls. In February, he brokered a meeting between Handy, code enforcement and the police department.

Ward said Handy listened as he and police described a litany of issues with the property, and said the landlord agreed to distribute flyers to residents, warning that if 911 calls kept pace, tenants could face eviction. Ward said he has yet to see improvement.

“That action effectively had no impact on the number of calls for service,” Ward said.

184 Church St.’s downtown location attracts tenants and contributes to the building’s frequent run-ins with police, officers and tenants said.

The complex sits across the street from a COTS waystation for homeless adults, and crowds from downtown bars spill onto the sidewalk nearby. In December, one man shot and killed another in front of the waystation, after police believe the pair argued in a nightclub on the same block.

Tenant Ozzy Osborne, who said he moved into 184 Church St. after relocating from Washington, D.C. last summer, said itinerant people often sneak into the complex. Osborne said his upstairs neighbors argue and are the source of frequent police calls.

“It’s a lot of screaming and yelling and commotion, sometimes for hours,” Osborne said.

A downtown bargain

Joe Handy's company, Sisters & Brothers Investment Group, LLP, owns $16 million in real estate in Burlington, city land records state.

But Handy agrees that 184 Church St. is far from the most desirable addresses in Burlington. The green siding is fading. Rust corrodes the bottoms of dual front doors. Cigarette butts litter the ground in front of the steps.

The last time code enforcement inspected the property, in 2013, inspectors found 44 violations which Handy later corrected. The units are due for re-inspection this year. Holes in the lobby walls seen Thursday afternoon, and a dark red stain in a door frame a tenant said was blood would likely fail inspection, according to the city's minimum housing code.

Handy, who spoke to the Burlington Free Press from his corner office above Handy's Service Station on South Winooski Avenue, made no attempt to dress the place up. Instead of making excuses for the building's flaws, he said he is proud to have rented out the property for more than a decade.

Handy sees himself as an anomaly among Burlington landlords, because he offers downtown housing at rock-bottom price to tenants other property owners would likely deny.

“Here we are, the whole city of Burlington wants low-income housing,” Handy said. “But really, (landlords) say, ‘I don’t want to be a part of this… let somebody else do this.”

Of 17 units in the three-floor building, Handy said 14 are market rate. He lists these one-bedroom units for $700 to $900 per month, including utilities, in a neighborhood where one-bedroom apartments rent for more than $1,400.

"In a way, I'm helping the city by offering these services," Handy said.

Handy, whose company owns more than 500 apartments in Chittenden County, said he could renovate the 19th-century building and charge far higher rents. But he said he feels compassion for people down on their luck, and recalled how is family initially struggled after emigrating from Lebanon.

"If someone comes in and says, 'Hey, Joe. I need a place to live,' I can't really say no," Handy said.

As for the frequent police presence at his property, Handy claimed he knew nothing until this year. He said the police never contacted him before January and doubts his property managers would hesitate to relay a message from police to him.

Handy said if anyone in city government wishes to contact him, he'll be precisely where the Burlington Free Press found him — behind the counter of the gas station his family has run for decades.

“They call me all the time when there is an issue with one of my buildings,” Handy said. “You think they’re not going to call me for this?”

When Bill Ward, the code enforcement director, called him, Handy agreed the frequent 911 calls were a problem. The landlord decided to evict one of the problem tenants for nonpayment, but said renter protections afforded by Vermont law make the process arduous and expensive.

"It will take you, to get someone out, it’ll probably take you 4-5 months," Handy sighed. "Sometimes even longer."

No quick fix

Bonnie Beck, the police officer, and her colleague Lacey Smith hesitated to predict how soon the department could see a detente at 184 Church St. Smith said she hopes to see a difference in the next year. Beck, echoing the frustrations of officers on the street, hoped for a decrease in calls in a month.

Both acknowledged the systemic issues that plague the complex, even as tenants come and go: poverty, drug use and mental health concerns.

Beck credited Handy for housing residents who can't afford market-rate units or have worn out their welcome in government-supported facilities. But Handy is ultimately responsible for providing a safe, quiet home for his tenants, police agreed.

"For whatever the reason, he has allowed this to transpire," Smith said. "He definitely faces an uphill battle getting this under control."

Burlington landlord still defies city

Contact Zach Despart at 651-4826 or zdespart@burlingtonfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZachDespart



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