WEST HAVEN — Lisa McNellis will rearrange some furniture in her apartment — not because she wants to, but because she has to.
McNellis, a tenant since 2012 in the 254-unit Surfside apartment building under the control of Savin Rock Communities — the regional housing authority — has an end table between her bed and the window that she will have to move in order to distance her bed from water damage that is causing bits of the ceiling to flake off and fall onto the floor.
“It’s gotten worse with the storm,” she said, almost two weeks after heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Elsa caused minor flooding in the area and challenged the most vulnerable infrastructure throughout the city.
Residents of the subsidized apartments for seniors, disabled people and others say they have been waiting for too long for the crumbling building to get the attention it needs. Housing authority officials say they have increased security at the building, are seeking funding to make repairs, and that the coronavirus pandemic caused delays.
But for now, outside the building’s front entrance, bits of cracked sidewalk spill into the road, something that five-year Surfside resident Rich Deso said is a safety hazard for residents with mobility impairments. Around the building’s exterior are cracks in caulking and even holes in the siding leading into the interior.
A cracked sidewalk in front of the West Haven Surfside apartments on July 21, 2021.
Brian Zahn / Hearst Connecticut MediaA mushroom in the lobby?
“We’re not going to live like this,” Deso said. “We could trip, especially people who have walkers and scooters.”
Inside the building, Deso pointed to black residue left around the sides of air vents in the hallways.
“People are breathing this stuff in,” he said. “What if there’s mold?”
Carpeting in some hallways has become mildewed from water leaking from tenants’ showers underneath the walls of their units into the hallway. In others hallways, buckets catch water dripping from pipes in the ceiling.
Parts of an apartment ceiling flake off from water damage above a West Haven Surfside complex tenant's bed on July 21, 2021.
Brian Zahn / Hearst Connecticut Media“This place is filthy. It’s disgusting and it used to be so nice,” said Linda Tracy, a 22-year resident of the complex.
Fran Trapani, who has lived in the complex for 11 years, said she sees health hazards all over.
“People are sucking this air into their lungs,” she said.
Residents also mentioned a mushroom that they said grew in the lobby the week prior.
Louis Shiarella, who has lived in the building for five years, pointed to the cracks in the sidewalk and wondered why nobody with the housing authority could fix it.
“Everybody is afraid because of what happened in Florida,” said Tracy, in reference to a 12-story condo collapse — in Surfside, Fla. — that had 97 confirmed victims as of Friday.
One resident, who declined to give her name for fear of retribution, said when residents bring concerns to Savin Rock Communities they are told there will be remodeling in the future.
“I think they’re pacifying residents at this time,” she said.
Surfside apartments tenant Rich Deso looks at leaking pipes on the first floor of a complex apartment building as water drips in to two buckets left on the floor below on July 21, 2021.
Brian Zahn / Hearst Connecticut MediaWhen the coronavirus pandemic reached Connecticut in 2020, residents say the promised start to that remodeling began to get pushed off further and further.
“Obsolete”
Savin Rock Communities Director John Counter said when he was hired to his role in 2014, the building already had been neglected for years too long.
“In April or May of 2020, the building was designated obsolete by (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development),” said Counter. “That’s no small feat.”
“We have applied for and are working through the closing of about a $24 million construction loan for substantial rehabilitation,” Counter said. However, the pandemic brought the federal grant application close to “a grinding halt,” he said.
Today, Counter said he hopes the actual process of remodeling can begin in a period between December of this year and February 2022.
A mildewed carpet inside a hallway of the West Haven Surfside apartment complex on July 21, 2021.
Brian Zahn / Hearst Connecticut MediaCounter said he is aware of the damage to the building, but gutting and replacing water lines in the building is “cost prohibitive” without federal grants.
“We’re living with some small leaks. It’s nothing that impairs anyone’s unit and we’re doing 24-hour maintenance” in cases of emergency, Counter said. When the conditions of McNellis’ unit were described, Counter said his department has a digitized work order process and complaints must be reported to Savin Rock Communities.
“When you’re trying to maintain something designated obsolete, stuff pops up all the time,” he said.
Despite the physical state of the building, residents said they are much happier with the state of security in the building after they complained that lax measures had created the preconditions for the alleged sexual assault of a 74-year-old resident in April by an outsider with no established link to the building or its residents.
Residents said a regular security guard watches the lobby during night hours, until 5 a.m. Deso said the guard is diligent in checking for identification and has effectively stopped people who have no apparent reason for being in the building.
The Surfside public housing complex in West Haven July 22, 2021.
Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut MediaCounter said the building did have security at the time of the alleged assault, but the hours were not what residents wanted. Following that incident, security hours were “shuffled” and an extra guard was added to meet resident concerns.
“The feedback I’ve gotten is that the security firm is doing a great job,” he said.
brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
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'We're not going to live like this': West Haven's Surfside tenants say building is deteriorating - New Haven Register
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