November 30, 2009

BRIDGEPORT, Conn.--Grieving residents of the P.T. Barnum Apartments, the state's largest public housing complex, angered and outraged by the recent death of a neighbor and the hazardous conditions they are forced to live in, are raising their voices--and turning a tragedy into an opportunity to air their grievances.

The P.T. Barnum Apartments were built in 1951 as a 484-unit, 22-building complex for low-income families. A typical P.T. unit consists of a sunken first-floor apartment with a two-story apartment above that.

For decades, the P.T. apartments have housed some of the state's most impoverished residents. Over the years, the buildings have been remodeled to accommodate a current residential population of 1,080, mostly people of color. The latest update was made in 1992, when interior fire doors and fire escapes were removed.

On November 13, firefighters found the bodies of 22-year-old Tiana Black, her 5-year-old son Nyshon and 4-year-old twin daughters Nyasija and Tyasjia in their P.T. apartment.

They were upstairs, presumably asleep, when a fire started in the early morning hours in their kitchen. Firefighters found sooty handprints in a trail on the walls leading from the third floor bedrooms to the downstairs door--an eerie mark left by the family's attempt to exit their apartment. Their bodies were found just inside the door of the second-floor exit, where they apparently succumbed to smoke inhalation.

What makes this tragedy even more horrific is that the only exit in the two-story apartment is on the second floor. If there were fire escapes on the third floor, the family might still be alive.

Shockingly, the apartment egresses are within the legal fire code and the Bridgeport Housing Authority (BHA) is defending its position. The city claims that residents in these apartments do have another exit on the third floor--if they were to climb out onto a small roof overhang.

Hardly a safety exit, the portion of the roof officials are referring to is about three-and-a-half feet wide and is pitched forward, about 20 feet above a dirt-and-concrete ground. Parents with babies in tow, children and elderly residents would certainly be put in harm's way by crawling out a small window and crowding onto a small section of roof more than two stories above the ground.

HUNDREDS OF angry residents and supporters packed into a BHA Board of Commissioners meeting on November 16 to demand changes to their apartment complex.

Many expressed their anger and fear that they could end up in the same position as Tiana Black's family. Camille Sneed, a young mother and resident of P.T., said, "I'm in a household with five kids. I can't grab them all and jump out the window. Somebody said we're supposed to sit on the roof--that's not happening. Something needs to be done immediately."

Another resident voiced his concern about waiting a month for a repair to his door that didn't open. "We had to go through the window to exit. I just thank God that my family was never put in that position where there was a fire, because we would have perished."

City officials were present to answer questions. Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said in regard to the apartment complex, "These are big changes we have to make. These children and this mother will not have died in vain."

However, Finch also said that he doesn't "have a magic wand" to resolve the issues, a comment which seems to ignore the urgency of living in unsafe housing. He also said that he would try to find funding in the budget.

BHA Executive Director Nicholas Calace was also at the meeting, although he was less assured that the city would find the funding for building improvements. His stopgap plan to improve the safety of residents at P.T. is to implement fire-safety training, which, as a stand-alone measure, is an insult to residents.

Calace's disregard for the tenant safety was clearly expressed when he said, "They don't want to hear it, but this place is built to code."

Tell that to 11-year-old resident Emony Hamilton, who showed that she knew more about safety than Calace when she said, "We want all the little children to be safe. We don't want to throw them out the window." Calace's idea of safety does just that.

The death of this family points to the utter disregard that working-class people and disproportionate numbers of working-class people of color face in the lack of decent and affordable housing today. Close to 60 percent of Bridgeport renters can't afford the rent charged for a two-bedroom apartment.

At the same time, Bridgeport has the highest rate of home foreclosure in Connecticut, with many homes sitting vacant. It's not just low-income families that are in this predicament, since the fallout of the real estate market and the massive layoffs that accompanied the economic downturn there has been a 33 percent increase in the number of families on the waiting list for public housing.

Magic wands don't build fire escapes or safe housing, and if the residents of P.T. are to avoid another tragedy they can't wait until Mayor Finch finds funding. With city and state purse strings tight, they are going to have organize to put pressure on the city to demand that they have safe housing.