SPRINGFIELD -- The city on Thursday released an email from Building Commissioner Steve Desliets reporting the results of an inspection at South Congregational Church, where a Peruvian woman facing deportation sought refuge in March.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno balked at the church's use of its space to house Gisella Collazo and her two American-born children, and called for a code compliance inspection. The city obtained a warrant in Western District Housing Court Wednesday to conduct the inspection.

"The unit did pass the inspection for the minimum life safety and sanitary requirements, except for some minor violations the can be quickly fixed," Desliets wrote in an email after the inspection Thursday morning.

"Building Commissioner Steve Desilets and Fire Lieutenant Richard Martin have done their jobs and their report speaks for itself," Sarno said in a statement, responding to Desilet's message. "We just want to be sure that public health and safety issues are being complied with."

Read the full email below.

From: Desilets, Steve

Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2018 11:32 AM

To: Sullivan, Marian; Pikula, Edward; Mayor Sarno

Cc: Jordan, Denise; DeSousa, Lisa

Subject: South Congregational Church Inspection

Mayor/All

At 9:00 a.m. this morning I performed an inspection along with lieutenant Richard Martin from the Springfield Fire Marshall's Office of the dwelling unit being used to temporally house a family at the South Congregational Church. Our inspection was performed today to establish whether or not the area being utilized to house the family was an existing use and meets all the minimum requirements of the Building, Fire, and Sanitary Codes for the family now being housed.

The inspection found that the area being used appears to be an old existing housing unit utilized by the church, containing a full kitchen, bathroom with shower, sinks and toilet, two bedrooms and common living area. The attorney representing the church agreed to send a letter to me stating this use for a single family unit will not be increased to except any more families or occupants with the understanding that would than constitute a possible change of the accessory grandfathered use R4 to an R2 full Shelter use. The attorney also agreed to send me historical documentation of the existing dwelling unit and its use for our records.

The unit did pass the inspection for the minimum life safety and sanitary requirements, except for some minor violations the can be quickly fixed, missing window crank hardware, window stuck closed, non code compliant locking device on egress door, blocked egress door by a table,

The Building Department will send a violation notice to the church for the violations found and will reinspect for compliance in 7 days.

Steve D