“Walking Zombie” Houses Plague The Hill

by Thomas Breen | Oct 11, 2019 7:52 am

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Two boarded-up Ward Street houses that stand across the street from a Hill elementary and middle school have become hot spots for squatters and drug users—and are slated to be demolished next week, according to the local landlord who owns them. The properties in question are 43 and 47 Ward St. Both are owned by holding companies controlled by Matthew Harp, the owner of the large local real estate company Renaissance Management and the son of Mayor Toni Harp. The properties have long provoked concern by neighbors, who call it a blighted magnet for drug abuse in a stretch of town already inundated with problem locations. On Tuesday evening, Hill North Community Management Team Chair Howard Boyd pointed out the two problem properties as the sun began to set before the team’s regular monthly meeting in the auditorium of John C. Daniels Interdistrict Magnet School of International Communication at the corner of Ward Street and Congress Avenue. Both buildings stand across the street from John C. Daniels and down the block from the APT Foundation methadone clinic, which neighbors have long criticized for allowing patients to hang out on surrounding streets before, after, and in between treatments. Boyd said that, ever since the summer of 2018, he and his fellow Hill North residents have seen an uptick in people sleeping, smoking, drinking, and loitering on the porches of the two adjacent houses. He’s not sure whether or not the users are connected to APT, he said. All he knows is that people are spending more and more time there, turning the derelict buildings into popular gathering spots for illicit activity. In the morning of Aug. 1, emergency responders found a dead body underneath the school’s loading dock, just a few dozen feet across the street from these two properties and a half-block from APT. Asst. Police Chief Karl Jacobson told the Independent that the investigation into the dead body, which has yet to be identified, is still ongoing. Police found drug paraphernalia, including needles, on the scene that day and at this point believe the death was caused by an overdose, he said. “They call the Hill ‘The Walking Zombie’ now,” Boyd said Tuesday as he peered down the block from the school’s Ward Street side-entrance to the boarded-up houses, where a small group of adults stood talking, smoking, and laying down blankets for the cool fall night ahead.

“It’s been an issue for a while,” Livable City Initiative (LCI) Art Natalino, Jr. confirmed about the two houses after the management team meeting. “We continue to do what we can with the anti-blight enforcement process. And we will continue to do that going forward.” Hill top cop Sgt. Justin Marshall agreed. “Art and I are working very closely on the law enforcement end of addressing any loitering or trespassing there,” he said. “It is on our radar.” Matthew Harp, whose holding companies 43 Ward LLC and 47 Ward LLC bought the two properties in September 2018 and January 2012 respectively, told the Independent Wednesday that LGE Services LLC has been under contract since May to demolish the adjacent boarded-up homes. He and his contractor have run into five months of delays securing the necessary permits and state approvals to remediate asbestos at the property and then knock them down, he said. All that paperwork is now set, he added. The environmental remediation should be done this Saturday, and the buildings should be coming down early next week, he vowed.

“We wanted to get ahead of this problem because we understood that people were coming from the APT Foundation and loitering on our property,” he said about why he started the regulatory process of demolishing the buildings back in May, before the summer began. Unfortunately, he said, he had little control over just how long it would take for state and environmental remediation approvals to come through. He added that his company has undertaken biweekly inspections since May to make sure that the properties were safe and secure. LGE Services’ Louis Gherlone confirmed that his company and Harp have been under contract to demolish the two buildings since late May. The delays, he said, have come from testing all the buildings for environmental hazards, and then getting pricing for asbestos removal, and then giving notice to the state. “Unfortunately, when there’s asbestos involved, it takes three to four months,” he said. He said he filled out the three necessary demolition permits on Wednesday, and is waiting for one last disconnect letter from the water company and from the sewer company. He said he already has disconnects from the gas and electricity companies. He said asbestos removal should take place Friday or Saturday, and demolition sometime next week. Nevertheless, Boyd said, these properties have been active hangout spots for a while, dating back at least to the summer of 2018. They may be boarded up, he said, but at least their porches are still very much in use. On Tuesday morning around 8:30 a.m., after students had arrived at John C. Daniels to start their school day, this reporter saw firsthand a small group of adults that had already gathered on the porch of 43 Ward. Empty plastic bottles lined the porch’s railing. Cigarette butts were strewn across the front yard. An assortment of trash and debris was piled in the crawl space beneath the front steps. “You paying for stories?” one woman asked in a hoarse whisper in response to this reporter’s question about whether or not she knew anything about the dead body found across the street in August. She stumbled over a small bicycle as she sought to pull a hoodie over her violently shaking body. “No thank you, no thank you, no thank you,” said a man in a red baseball cap with a cigarette held loosely between his lips. Meanwhile, behind 47 Ward St., small piles of trash stood before a boarded-up, two-car garage. A solitary man stood nearby (just to the left of the above photo’s frame), shaking and stumbling in place as he stared at the back fence. The city online land records database shows that both of these properties have presented problems for the city for some time, in some cases well before Harp bought them. In Oct. 2015, LCI filed an anti-blight civil citation against then-landlord Reginald Maynard for leaving 43 Ward with unregistered vehicles parked on the property, junk and debris strewn throughout the driveway, and a dilapidated exterior. In Jan. 2019, four months after Harp’s 43 Ward LLC company had purchased the building, LCI hit the new landlord with a $216 lien for the cost of securing the property on Dec. 31, 2018. As for 47 Ward, which the holding company 47 Ward LLC purchased in 2012, the city filed an anti-blight civil citation against the landlord in Jan. 2016 for having trash and debris on the property and a blighted exterior. The city subsequently released Harp’s company from that citation in Aug. 2017. In January 2019, LCI filed a $402 lien on the property to cover the cost of securing it on Dec. 31, 2018. The city subsequently released Harp’s company from that lien on July 12. According to the state business registry, 47 Ward LLC is legally owned by a Quogue, New York-based real estate private equity fund and national developer called Municipal Capital Appreciation Partners. Harp confirmed for the Independent Wednesday that he owns both 43 Ward and 47 Ward. He has long partnered with the New York-based developer. Harp declined to comment on what he plans to do with the two properties once the buildings are knocked down.

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posted by: BFLY on October 11, 2019 8:18am Slumlord at it’s best…using the LLC veil..brought 1 property in 2012…did nothing…

brought the other property 2018 ..did nothing. Harp is an inherited slumlord. Left these properties just like the rest of the properties in New Haven and in Ansonia that was condemned. The city should crack down…oh wait it’s the mayor’s son…

..

posted by: LivingInNewHaven on October 11, 2019 9:40am This article explains the process of demolition and what has to happen. Nobody wants asbestos and lead flying all through the air. Is that what you would rather happen Mr Boyd?

The Peoples Campaign has the other campaign shaking obviously. This is a media drop…used at a certain time when things are looking bad for the other side. Congratulations to The People’s Campaign, you’ve succeeded.

Long Live The People’s Campaign!!!

2 houses that are in the process of demolition clearance warrants this type of coverage, NHI?Political hit is what this is..

#ThisIsBiggerThanTH

#BootsShaking

#DispelTheLies Now awaiting the long winded JE rants in 3,2,1…

posted by: anonymous on October 11, 2019 9:52am They are people, not “shaking zombies.” Disappointed by the tone in this article.

posted by: BFLY on October 11, 2019 10:40am @ LivinginNewHaven Based on your comment One of the properties was purchased in 2012 and the other in 2018..that would hold true if it take 6 years to get an asbestos abatement then the second property that was purchased in 2018 will have to wait till 2022 for an abatement…

posted by: CityYankee on October 11, 2019 10:43am We all know why this junior slumlord got away and is getting away with this. Thank you, Mayor Harp, for continuing the long story of corruption in New Haven. It goes way, way back but this is the latest chapter.

posted by: DwightAndHowe on October 11, 2019 10:58am What’s the rate of successful transition from methadone clinic to employment? What’s the hurdle: housing, education, job opportunities?

posted by: Sabrina-in-NewHaven on October 11, 2019 11:00am The only reason these properties attract transient drug addicts and their lot is because the properties were abandoned. An empty home does NOT have to be a magnet for this kind of behavior if the owner (feigning shock and surprise) bothered to maintain it. I mean imagine actually keeping the grounds cleaned. Perhaps allowing some group to beautify it just for the sake of it. But why should he. It’s in the Hill. It’s across from a school full of children of color. Boy

Child Harp you are worse than your mother. She may not know how to grow a city so it can maintain livable conditions for all residents but there is nothing scummier than absentee landlords. Oh wait, their lawyers are scummier. Sorry for that oversight. And anyone else who wants to come on here and give his side. I’m totally not interested. Don’t @ me.

posted by: Rebecca on October 11, 2019 11:06am I am a landlord and realtor and have needed to hire state-licensed crews to remediate asbestos several times over the years, at different properties, large and small. It never took over a week or two, including receiving all needed permits (which the abatement agency applies for as part of their fee). Want to better explain what took months in this case, Mr. Harp? I can recommend some good local abatement agencies if you’re still having trouble getting it done…,

posted by: CityYankee on October 11, 2019 11:09am I recall, Dwight&Howe;, that the recividism rate for cocaine was 90%. I imagine it is similar to that for methadone as a “cure” for drug addiction. It is just lifetime maintenance as they destroy their families, use up social service funds and hospital/clinic services till they die.

posted by: Sylvester L. Salcedo All interested parties/stakeholders need to talk to each other in one place on one day: The John C. Daniels School, NHPS District leaders, APT Foundation, Yale Medical School, Yale School of Public Health, Yale New Haven Hospital, Cornell Scott Community Health Center, all area businesses and non-profit agencies, and city officials, elected and appointed with responsibilities for this immediate area within a 3-4 block area of the John C. Daniels School. How about October 15, Tuesday, all night??? Time is of the essence. I believe the Hill North Management Team has the Daniels School auditorium already reserved for that evening? https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/should-a-discarded-syringe-also-be-the-last-straw/ Sylvester L. Salcedo, PTO president, John C. Daniels School, New Haven

posted by: CityYankee on October 11, 2019 12:26pm Maybe this is best time to bring an issue like this to light, esp since it hasnever been answered and looks like not resolved either. Have taxes on Harp properties past and present, been paid? That is a fair question . If not; why not? Why are houses like this still up and rotting? Fair question. When the press looks into democrat kids an family; it’s a witch hunt (Ex. Biden). Trump’s son-in-law? That’s fine. I say, for once, let’s try the shoe onto the other foot!

posted by: Paul Bass on October 11, 2019 12:43pm (The following comment was submitted by Matthew Harp): In our conversation prior to the article, you mentioned that you would actually reference the APT Foundation’s history within the neighborhood as center to the article. No one was stabbed in front of my building (https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/daniel_streit_manslaughter_confession_/); no one died on my property; and there is no more correlation between the unfortunate death across the street, than there is with the APT Foundation. My mother does not have any ownership interest in my company. That your article attempts to link her to me is false and misleading. I am an independent business owner. I do not make decisions in conjunction with her any more than Schmully Hecht or any other independent owner makes with her or his mother. Actually, less so given her role. Moreover, there is no indicia of favoritism from LCI as I have received blight notices. Your paper had an opportunity to do something worthwhile here. And had you done that, I would not mind my name coming up. But you did not. The buildings are set to be demolished next week. The problem was en route to being solved well before the unfortunate death. However, the loitering outside the APT Foundation will remain. The fact that primarily black and brown youth with will continue to see substance abusers, in rehab or not, each morning before school is an atrocity that any parent with means would seek to avoid. That no solution exists is attrocious. You could have used this article as a follow-up to December’s piece about the APT Foundation’s promise to do better and asked for metrics to see if it had. You could have debated the continued wisdom of having in and out-patient treatment centers near where kids go to school or receive summer programs. You did not. You talk of journalist integrity and independent standards, yet your writing in this piece appears to lack the wisdom and search for truth those things require.

posted by: 1644 on October 11, 2019 12:49pm cityyankee: The taxes on these properties are current, with the only outstanding amounts being payments not due until January 1, 2020.

posted by: 1644 on October 11, 2019 12:53pm The properties, particularly 47, don’t look too bad. A good renovation, perhaps a gut rehab and new roof for 43 looks quite feasible, and would maintain neighborhood character.

posted by: STANDUP on October 11, 2019 1:40pm Mr. Harp does not care about our communitys. If their were a house in every neighborhood that look like the property he owns it would look like a zombie town.

posted by: DwightAndHowe on October 11, 2019 2:04pm Without methadone, what happens to addicts? How long does it take to get completely weaned off of methadone? Life-long dependence does not seem to be a “cure”.

posted by: STANDUP on October 11, 2019 2:20pm I am a mother my kids represent me. She unfortunately she be held at a higher standard. He is a slum land lord.

posted by: LookOut on October 11, 2019 2:21pm CitYankee - this is not a party issue. If Matthew Harp was handed these properties because his mother is/was mayor, that would be newsworthy (I’m not suggesting this is true at all). The fact that Biden’s son got a $600K/year job in an industry with which he had no experience reaks of corruption and questions should be asked. If Trump’s kids got a foreign job with huge pay in an area that they couldn’t possibilty contribute, that should be news. Our government was designed to work for the people. Sadly, people of both parties now use government as a way to enrich themselves and their families.

posted by: DwightAndHowe on October 11, 2019 2:52pm In New Haven, do we lack enough homeless shelters or do many homeless people not want to stay at the shelters?

posted by: CityYankee on October 11, 2019 4:05pm Dear Lookout: Corruption is not new; nor is it limited to any one party. It is ancient and eternal!

posted by: Atticus Shrugged on October 11, 2019 5:48pm @Standup - Definitions matter. Being accurate should matter. It is slumlord, a combination of the word slum and landlord not “slum lord.” It means one who receives “unusually large profits from substandard, poorly maintained properties.” Nothing in this article references any profits. Indeed, the properties are vacant, thus there are no profits. And he’s apparently current on his taxes, meaning he’s losing money. Thus, he is simply the owner of derelict property that he is demolishing. Not as fancy as slumlord, or in your case slum lord, but factually correct. @BFLY - the New Haven Independent has done several articles about actual slumlords. Again, this is a vacant property. See: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/farrar/ or https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/slumlord_unloads_another_hill_property/ or from the New Journal at Yale http://www.thenewjournalatyale.com/2019/02/pikes-pattern-of-neglect/.

posted by: Razzie on October 11, 2019 5:55pm I too struggled to grasp the central premise and objective of this article. Was it about APT and its impact on the neighborhood? Was it a look into a day in the life of a methadone user? Was it about the perils facing Hill elementary school kids? Was it about a current community revitalization project? If any of these, I am afraid it missed the mark. But if it was intended to paint a picture of a corrupt mayor who cares nothing about school kids, sick and discarded drug abusers, residents and the communities they inhabit, then unfortunately ... and tragically so… it hit the mark. For that is the inference I am left with after sorting thru all the competing story lines. It is tragic because everyone knows Toni Harp’s history of service and accomplishment to New Haven and the people who live and work here for the last 30+ years. It strikes me as little more than regurgitation of the talking points and false narratives of the political campaign. Too bad. This story could ... and should… have been better. Much better as a contribution to our understanding of the many and complex problems faced by this segment of our daily existence. Unfortunately, New Haven has come to expect this identical story line every 2 years. They ran it when the mayor’s husband was alive. And they subsequently ran it every 2 years she stood for re-election as mayor. (They simply insert her son’s name in the story now that he has taken the mantle for his late father). But this story is no more true now than it was when Mr. Harp was alive. You can ask anyone who was ever fortunate enough to have known him or interacted with him. This story is trash.

posted by: Razzie on October 11, 2019 7:24pm “You paying for stories?” one woman asked in a hoarse whisper in response to this reporter’s question about whether or not she knew anything about the dead body found across the street in August. She stumbled over a small bicycle as she sought to pull a hoodie over her violently shaking body. “ WTF! ... How did we get to this craziness?! But who needs to pay for stories when it is so easy to just make sh*t up.

posted by: okaragozian1 on October 11, 2019 11:08pm As a past resident of Hill North until but some 8 months ago I feel I have something to add to this commentary. Specifically, it is quite sad that people abuse drugs and it is quite good that the APT Foundation helps those who abuse drugs. It is quite sad that there is no City support for the persons who arrive at the APT Foundation for medical care. Uniquely, no one expects Yale New Haven Hospital to provide for patients who leave the hospital premises so why is there some insistence that the APT Foundation do “something” about the patients who visit them? After the APT Foundation patients leave the premises of the APT Foundation these patients are free people to do whatever it is they do. There are no loitering laws in New Haven preventing the staggering medicated zombie patients of the APT Foundation from shuffling around aimlessly in Hill North, so what do you expect the police to do? And liberal near-do-well do-gooders have hamstrung the police from doing anything that even falls in their right to do as no matter what the police does is criticized incessantly by the left-leaning self-loathing misfits who call New Haven their base of operations. You have the community residents screaming for the police to do something, but by lack of law and leftist communist agitant protests against police for doing anything leaves the hands of the police handcuffed.

posted by: okaragozian1 on October 11, 2019 11:25pm I see the value in the lives of all who are alive. Specifically, although the drug-addicted have been castigated, maligned, ostracized, humiliated, hurt, and otherwise discarded as irredeemable such is not always the case. These people who can not overcome their addictions can really be redeemed to perform tasks which are of good use to and for society. Many are able bodied, quite clever and uniquely inventive and sly in their survival skills as anyone has to be living in today’s unforgiving society. The pool of talent which can be harnessed is not great, but it is sufficient as, psychologically speaking, the only weakness these people have is that they want to be “happy” so bad that they have to use drugs to get “happy”. Absent this preoccupation of “getting happy”, the drug addicted are just regular people with, perhaps, some lose morals and misguided thinking. If you can train a tiger to jump through a flaming hoop, the idea that the drug-addicted person can not be re-claimed back it society is somewhat circumspect. I am not saying that the proverbial zombies walking about in Hill North are Nobel Prize geniuses but I dare say that given the proper guidance they can be redeemed back into society to be functional. What all these drug addicts have lost is a sense of purpose, a sense of vision a sense of commitment to goals and a sense of self-worth and also a sense of achievement; their lives are centered in wallowing survival, pity and ever-fleeting happiness. There has to be a National, State and City and community effort to help up the fallen; how to do it is beyond my feeble grasp, unfortunately.

posted by: okaragozian1 on October 11, 2019 11:48pm Digressing now to property matters, there is no doubt that there has been some corner-cutting and wink-and-nod “look-the-other-way” stuff been going on in New Haven simply because someone knows someone who knows someone. Putting a finger on this behind-the-scenes corruption has been hard since New Haven is quite tribal in nature and in composition by all vested interests irrespective of the vested interest’s racial makeup; you can see as much tribalism in a Murphy’s Pub as you can in a barbershop in the ‘hood. With this type of disjointed dynamic, everyone tries to get along without too much of a fuss. “Outsiders” to New Haven have always “hired” locals as their pawns to do their bidding. Although Mr. Harp is no pawn - by virtue of the wealth he has inherited - he is, nonetheless not really his own man as long as big “outside” money is affecting his judgement. Now I am not saying that “outsiders” are asking Mr. Harp to do something outright bad against Hill North, but that Mr. Harps’s judgement is perhaps not in full alignment with the concerns of the neighbors he has next to the properties he owns leaving a person to wonder, “Why?” Ultimately, a lot of shell companies are setup to truly hide the ultimate owner(s) of a property so that there could be disavowal to whatever is done. Mr. Harp may be bearing the brunt of the decisions made by the “outsider(s)” as their “front-man”. I believe that, for money and consideration, Mr. Harp has sold his community soul and community commitment and his community responsibility to his financial backers and I believe this because of the prolonged period of time these noted properties have been allowed to languish into decay under his supervision. In the ‘hood they have a name for a person who aligns himself with interests in-opposition to his own roots and community obligations for financial gain - I think they call a person like that a sell-out, but I’m not too sure about the lingo.

posted by: Guillermo798 on October 12, 2019 12:23am “It’s been an issue for a while,” Livable City Initiative (LCI) Art Natalino, Jr. confirmed about the two houses after the management team meeting. Howard Boyd said that, ever since the summer of 2018, he and his fellow Hill North residents have seen an uptick in people sleeping, smoking, drinking, and loitering on the porches of the two adjacent houses. Hill top cop Sgt. Justin Marshall agreed. “Art and I are working very closely on the law enforcement end of addressing any loitering or trespassing there,” he said. “It is on our radar.” Well Sgt. Marshall, If these residences are “on our radar”, how long does it take to eliminate the problem? You have an elementary school across the street from your Hill North District 5 Office. 43 and 47 Ward residences are around the corner from your District 5 Office. APT Foundation Methadone Clinic is 700 feet from your District 5 Office. Let us not confuse the issue with who owns the property, who’s the Mayor, or who is attempting help drug addicts. I see this as an abject failure on the part of the New Haven Police Department to eliminate a problem within a two block area surrounding an elementary school! Sergeant Marshall, what are the priorities of North Hill District 5? Sergeant Marshall, what does it take to stop loitering, drinking, and drug use from an area less than one block surrounding an elementary school? Sergeant Marshall, you have a methadone clinic one block from an elementary school, what are your Officers priorities to insure the safety of the school? I would be interested to hear you response. The format is right here.

posted by: DwightAndHowe on October 12, 2019 8:17pm “I dare say that given the proper guidance they can be redeemed back into society to be functional.”

===== I agree. Also, there can be no personal stability without employment. So, how do we get them jobs or training to obtain jobs?

posted by: DwightAndHowe on October 13, 2019 8:19am Even though I’m a conservative and don’t buy into much of the “racial optics” of politics, who thought it was a good idea to place a methadone clinic and a school so close to each other? Would this have happened in a different neighborhood? On a different note, why do homeless people get fines for looking for shelter in abandoned houses? Not all are doing drugs, and obviously they cannot pay the fine - the result: they end up in jail. How does this help..at all?

posted by: 1644 on October 13, 2019 1:43pm DwightAndHowe: I am pretty sure that those responsible for siting the school were DeStefano and Mayo. If I recall rightly, a lot of housing needed to be destroyed to make way for the school, and many were unhappy about that destruction. As others have commented, APT’s clinic has been there for decades before the school. Its siting likely has more to do with proximity to the medical center the any animus toward the neighborhood. Many key staff have responsibilities at the medical center as well as the clinic.

posted by: Kevin McCarthy on October 14, 2019 7:06am Anonymous, normally your comments are thoughtful. The article’s headline is “walking zombie houses plague the Hill.” It discusses buildings, and at no point does it refer to individuals as zombies. DwightandHowe, I volunteer at Sunrise Cafe, a breakfast program that serves homeless individuals. Last week, one of the guests noted he had slept outside that night rather than deal with the bedbugs at the shelter. Another guest would routinely sleep on a boat moored on the Mill River rather than at the shelter. (The boat subsequently was moved.)

posted by: Hill Resident on October 14, 2019 5:07pm @ Kevin McCarthy: Actually, the term ‘walking zombie’ IS referring to the people who are squatting in these abandoned houses ... not the property, although in many cases blighted properties are called zombie houses. That term zombie to describe the drug users referenced in this article has been coined in ‘the hood’ & on ‘the streets’ to describe people who are high off drugs or coming off their high, & who wander the neighborhoods (in this case the neighborhood is the Hill) with the sole intention of looking to cop more drugs or looking for somewhere to lay down in between. They can be found walking hastily early in the morning, tweeking throughout the day, & roaming late into the night. They seem to never sleep ... some can be found nodding off mid stride at the curb or outside the store, & they seem never to eat unless it’s with plate in hand while walking and their frail malnourished emaciated frames corroborate this. They rarely speak to anyone unless to ask if you have drugs or money for them to buy drugs. Non-drug users are relatively invisible to them, except for that purpose, they’ll walk right by you & never notice you. That is the person(s) referred to as a ‘walking zombie’. And excuse me if I/we sound a bit calloused with our terminology for these haunted souls. But that is what tends to happen when one is exposed to something horrible everyday, you become a bit desensitized. Not that you don’t recognized an issue or acknowledge the pressing need for it to be addressed. But because (sadly) it has become such an integral part of your daily existence, you don’t react the way you used to. You don’t have that luxury anymore. But the truly sad part is that our children are having that luxury taken away from them ... that walking zombies and zombie houses are becoming their ‘normal’. And FYI - Sgt Marshall & NHPD are doing their best but the jails can’t house all the zombies in New Haven, & they shouldn’t. They need the treatment that they don’t get at APT.