Jessica Masulli Reyes

The News Journal

A Democratic congressional candidate defeated in the September primary now faces another challenge – a lawsuit from city, county and state attorneys alleging the landlord is running a sham charity that houses approximately 150 tenants in deplorable conditions and tries to strip them of their rights.

The lengthy complaint filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery says Scott Walker has racked up 371 housing code violations in the city of Wilmington and New Castle County in the last decade.

The full extent of the conditions, however, are unknown since Walker's "golden rule" for his tenants is that law and code enforcement employees are not allowed access to the properties at any time, the complaint said.

At one property in the first block of Hessler Lane in Holly Oak, officials found raw sewage being pumped out a basement window and into the backyard where it was accumulating, the complaint said. Walker told The News Journal he did not authorize this "emergency measure" used to deal with a sewage backup.

Other pictures included in the court filing show overcrowding, black mold, faulty electrical and plumbing, and piles of outdoor debris at some of his approximately 15 properties.

Walker, 65, characterized the lawsuit as an "intimidation tactic" meant to silence him from speaking out -- as he did in the primary race -- against housing discrimination that affects Delaware's minority and disabled communities and the harassment of property owners.

"My popularity in the state has scared them so they are coming to destroy," he said Wednesday. "It is a Hail Mary attempt to silence me and to silence my free speech about the discrimination problem in Delaware."

In response, Carl Kanefsky, a spokesman for Attorney General Matt Denn's office, said the facts and pictures in the complaint speak for themselves.

Walker was a political newcomer when he ran this year in a crowded race of six Democrats to fill Rep. John Carney's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost to Lisa Blunt Rochester and finished in fifth with 5 percent of the votes.

The Milford-born businessman was best known in the campaign for his unconventional political signs. Hundreds of spray-painted plywood planks, created with help from his tenants, dotted the highways. He was often seen waving at motorists from his decorated 1992 Lexus ES near busy intersections.

The central theme of his candidacy was that, if elected, he would curb discrimination that he has seen over the past decade as a landlord.

He claims in regular lawsuits against local governments to have been targeted for housing disabled people in what he previously called "family-style housing" that is "commensurate with the price."

Attorneys with the city of Wilmington, New Castle County and state Department of Justice have fired back, saying in the lawsuit that the crowded and unsafe conditions are violating Delaware law and housing codes.

They claimed Walker's charity, Disabled Disadvantaged Delawareans Foundation, is a "mere sham." The foundation is not tax exempt, and even though it purports to assist disabled people, none of the properties are handicapped accessible or are approved to operate as a group home, the suit said.

Instead, the properties are "fraught with deplorable living conditions, regular calls for service, numerous criminal incidents, and hundreds of code violations," the suit said.

The single-family homes regularly house 8 to 12 adults and children in rooms partitioned off by shower curtains, blankets or plywood. Outside the homes are trash, debris and high grass, while inside there are numerous health, safety and welfare dangers, the suit said.

Even though some of the homes have been declared unfit for human habitation by code enforcement, Walker continues to solicit and house tenants who are unable to participate in the rental market because of poor credit, felony convictions, sex offender status, disabilities or substance abuse, the suit said.

"I've taken them when no one else would take them," Walker said. "I'm housing homeless people on my dime."

The complaint said that when the tenants have leases, they sign them without knowing the properties are just weeks away from being foreclosed upon. They are also required to waive their rights under the Landlord Tenant Code.

When asked about the waiver, pictured in an attachment to the lawsuit, Walker said he does not know where that document was created.

"I know the landlord tenant code," he said. "You cannot ask someone to waive off their rights. That is illegal."

Walker called the suit politically motivated and unpatriotic.

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"Someone doesn't like the fact that I got so many votes in the Democratic primary," he said.

The suit claimed he is violating the state's consumer fraud protections and needs to be stopped.

Attorneys are asking a Chancery Court judge to expedite the proceedings and hear their case in the next five months. They are seeking judicial orders that would force Walker to fix the public nuisances and stop violating the Delaware Consumer Fraud Act and city, county and state codes.

They are also seeking a penalty of $10,000 for each violation of the Consumer Fraud Act and the cost of bringing the action.

Walker said he welcomes the chance to bring this issue into the public eye.

"I'm really looking forward," he said.

Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.