On the (moldy, smelly, rat-infested) ground with city inspectors on September 1
Employees of the Inspectional Services Department worked 12-hour days while college students moved into Boston.
William “Buddy’’ Christopher, the commissioner of the city’s Inspectional Services Department (ISD), had high hopes on the morning of September 1, move-in day.
“Today will be the final test,’’ Christopher said from his office on Massachusetts Avenue. “Based on the intensity of last night, today should really be a breeze.’’
Christopher had been out till 9 p.m. the night before, canvassing the city with housing inspectors, looking for code violations. Over the weekend, roughly 50 ISD inspectors worked with officials in charge of transportation, code enforcement, public works, and neighborhood development in an annual ceremony of inspecting apartments during Boston’s largest moving week of the year.
The spectacle is more important than ever this year, after a 2014 investigation by The Boston Globe found many rental units occupied by students to be riddled with dangerous code violations. In addition to hunting down violations, inspectors are out today to meet new students and residents, letting them know about the services the ISD offers.
But the message can be hard to get across sometimes, as students are often unsure of what happens after the men and women in yellow vests descend on their new apartment.
That’s why the theme the ISD wants to hammer into students’ minds this fall is, “We’re only here to help,’’ Christopher said.
“There’s this perception from years ago that we’re going to hold students responsible for what their landlords have done and that’s so wrong,’’ he continued. “No students will be thrown out for things their landlords have done.’’
The city has tried to make it easier for students to stay safe by launching a new program that lets residents call the number 311 or download a related app to report city violations, and has encouraged universities to stagger their starting dates so residents wouldn’t have to rush to move in 48 hours.
These changes may have alleviated some stress, but housing inspectors still face a trying week filled with frazzled parents, angry landlords, and the occasional rat or bed bug.
‘The dream team’
Three city workers pulled up to the brown multi-level home on Parker Hill Terrace Road in Mission Hill before eyeballing the yard, littered with overgrown ragweed and piles of trash, including discarded tables, broken mirrors, bicycle wheels, and a stained mattress. No one seemed to want to get out first.
“I’ll just wait here!’’ housing inspector Yolanda Thomas joked.
She was accompanied by John Meaney, assistant commissioner of the ISD, and environmental inspector Brian Oliveri. The trio, a self-described ‘dream team,’ had received a complaint from the new tenant’s parents about the condition of the house. Thomas said the property owner, Fredric Goodman, was an ongoing case.
What the inspectors found inside was grim.
The tenants said the sink didn’t work, mouse droppings scattered the floor, the refrigerator was moldy, and there wasn’t a single working smoke detector in the two-story apartment. A moldy couch sat on a balcony overlooking the backyard.
Meaney looked visibly upset as the Northeastern student’s father pointed out the grease-streaked walls. “The landlord said it would be broom-swept,’’ the student’s father, Robert Prato, said. “Not full of grease and disgusting.’’ Meaney called Goodman.
“Pardon my language, but it’s a shit hole, Fred,’’ Meaney said, pacing through the home’s first floor. Meaney scolded Goodman for not cleaning the apartment after the previous tenants left. “You’re talking about yesterday,’’ he said. “There are new tenants here today!’’
Meaney outlined the various code violations, giving Goodman 24 hours to fix the smoke detectors. Normally, the ISD writes up all of a landlord’s violations in the evening before serving them the next day, but a property that lacks smoke alarms is a more serious offense. For more minor infractions, landlords typically get seven days to fix problems before re-inspection.
Goodman later told Boston.com he had no issues with the ISD, blaming the outgoing tenants for leaving the property in poor condition. “It was an unfortunate situation caused by the outgoing tenants and their improper disposal of trash,’’ he said. “The whole ordeal was terrible for me.’’
The home at Parker Hill Terrace was not alone in its housing violations.
Mission Hill has been a hotbed for offenses this year, according to a heat map created by the city’s principal data scientist Curt Savoie, which shows the neighborhoods racking up the most code violations. Between 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the dream team had only inspected a few streets in Mission Hill, but had already written notices for rat-chewed trash bins, makeshift parking spots, illegal construction, and overgrown vegetation.
They’d also discouraged two Northeastern students from commandeering a sofa that was probably harboring bedbugs, and had alerted the Boston Police Department to a student lying immobile in a bed of weeds on Sachem Street. The sleeping man wore nothing but tight blue sweatpants dotted with Hawaiian flowers, and his pale face was tilted back into the sunlight, his mouth making an ‘O’ shape.
The inspectors weren’t sure if he was “high’’ or “hungover,’’ but after realizing his lips were turning blue, Meaney found a nearby police officer to check on the man.
Despite the busy morning, the inspectors remained smiling, cheerily handing out pamphlets welcoming students to Boston. They took a brief break to buy cold Diet Cokes and peaches from the Mission Hill Stop & Shop, which they ate out of the back of the van.
“This is a fun day for us,’’ Meaney said, wiping sweat from his brow. He laughed, but it did seem like the inspectors enjoyed their fieldwork. They deal with housing complaints all year, but multiple city employees described moving week as their “Superbowl.’’ (“No deflated balls,’’ someone shouted at the department-wide morning briefing.)
After inspecting the Parker Hill Terrace home for half an hour, Meaney, Thomas, and Oliveri walked back to the white ISD van. “Thank you so much,’’ Prato’s son said as Meaney handed him the ISD welcome pamphlet and gave his father his business card. “We’ll be back,’’ Meaney said.
Story continues after gallery.
Photos of Allston Christmas 2015:
Treated as the enemy
Many of the inspectors’ interactions with students weren’t quite as pleasant as the one that took place at Parker Hill Terrace. When Meaney approached a group of students lugging a sofa into an apartment complex near Sachem Street, they eyed him suspiciously before saying they had “already gotten’’ a welcome pamphlet.
That’s because many students, as Christopher pointed out, aren’t entirely sure what will happen to them if they report their landlords.
“I met some students from BU who said they lived the entire month of last January without heat,’’ Christopher said. He shook his head. “One woman said she was worried she wouldn’t get her security deposit back. I told her we would have gladly stood with her to make sure that didn’t happen.’’
Even if a landlord’s property is condemned, they’re responsible for putting the tenants up in a hotel or different unit until the coding violations are resolved, Meaney said. But ISD can only help students if they come forward.
Other students simply don’t know their rights, Meaney said.
“They think of themselves as students,’’ Meaney explained. “Like second-class citizens or something. They might not even vote yet or pay taxes, so maybe they don’t feel entitled.’’
Meaney added that for some students, choosing their first college apartment would be the first major life decision they make. Some don’t want to admit if they’ve made a mistake. “You can see how discouraged they are, if they move in and realize they’re living in an illegal bedroom,’’ Meaney said. “Some of these kids have never even taken out the trash before. You really get a snapshot of what their life is about.’’
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