From blight to bedbugs, roaches and rodents

By David Giambusso, The Star-Ledger

Ella Reed walks through her Newark apartment with an oxygen tank that helps fill her lungs damaged by chronic emphysema, then slowly lifts her twin-sized mattress to show where the bedbugs live.

Exterminators have been to Reed’s apartment, and although she lives in low-income housing, she has bought two new mattresses with her own money.

But the bugs, she said, keep coming back.

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-Ledger -- Stacy Figaro, 41, a tenant of New Community's elderly housing on South Orange Avenue in Newark, shows what she says are bug bites on her upper right arm

"I live on a fixed income," Reed, 60, said through short breaths, "I can’t afford another mattress."

Reed and dozens of other residents say the bug infestation is part of a pattern of neglect at New Community Corp., one of the city’s largest providers of housing for the elderly and disabled. Since July, residents have gathered at Newark City Council meetings to protest the infestation of bedbugs and mice, poor maintenance and shoddy treatment they say they receive from management.

New Community’s staff admit to a myriad of problems, including bedbugs, equipment failure and issues with staff members. But with limited resources, the staff of the $20 million not-for-profit agency said they’re doing the best they can.

"New Community is really committed to trying to do the best job they can," NCC special projects coordinator Richard Cammarieri said during a recent city council hearing. "There are flaws we need to correct."

The unhappy residents are the latest problem for New Community, which has long been under mounting financial strain — from cuts in government funding to delays in Medicaid reimbursement to its own management problems.

The community development corporation — one of the largest such entities in the country, which won national acclaim for its involvement in the state’s largest city — continues to spend more than it brings in through government grants and contributions. It has millions on the books in outstanding loans that have left it cash-strapped, according to its most current federal tax returns.

Community development entities like New Community are essentially neighborhood-based nonprofit groups, typically created to provide affordable housing or develop local businesses with the assistance of federal grants or private donations. New Community, though, has a far larger footprint, with 1,800 housing units in Newark, Orange and Jersey City.

Despite its problems, most say New Community is vital to Newark, providing services the city cannot, including medical services, job training and literacy programs.

Still, residents who live in the two high-rise buildings on South Orange Avenue for the elderly and disabled in Newark said the agency’s response is inadequate, that their living conditions have deteriorated and their grievances have been largely ignored.

"The elevators are broken almost every day. There’s bedbugs, rodents, we can’t get stuff fixed," said Dyran Thomas, 56, who has lived in a one-bedroom apartment at 140 South Orange Ave. for the past four years. "It’s constantly one thing after another."

BEDBUGS AND RODENTS

The bedbugs top their list of complaints. The Star-Ledger was invited by tenants to the building at 140 South Orange last week and saw several mattresses that appeared to be infested with bedbugs and roaches and holes where rodents had apparently eaten through the walls. Residents showed arms and feet peppered with small red bruises they said had resulted from bedbugs.

New Community spokeswoman Angela Stewart said in an e-mailed statement that management, including the agency’s founder, Monsignor William Linder, is actively pursuing resident grievances.

"It is the goal of New Community to work cooperatively with its residents," Stewart said. "Monsignor Linder holds monthly meetings with the tenant leadership of our residential properties."

Linder declined to comment for this story, directing Stewart to speak for NCC.

Central Ward Councilman Charlie Bell, who called special council hearings after hearing complaints from residents, said New Community has been making improvements, albeit slowly.

"I feel personally that they could do much better," Bell said.

New Community Corp, was the first community development group to provide affordable housing for Newark residents following the 1967 riots. Since 1968, it has grown into the largest development corporation in the city and provides more affordable housing than any agency outside of the Newark Housing Authority.

The two buildings on South Orange Avenue are among six New Community buildings dedicated to the elderly and disabled. The group’s mission is, "To help residents of inner cities improve the quality of their lives to reflect individual God-given dignity and personal achievement."

After residents complained that the agency’s mission isn’t being met, Bell held two days of special council hearings in September for tenants, New Community management and city inspectors.

TENANT-MANAGEMENT STRIFE

Transcripts provided this week to The Star-Ledger reveal deep divides between residents and New Community leaders, with speakers on both sides engaging in acrimonious debate. The dominant complaint in the hearings was the infestation of bedbugs, but talks turned to accusations of mistreatment by New Community managers.

Residents accused one manager of intimidation and harassment calling tenants "ignorant," "illiterate," and "troublemakers."

The manager, Emuobosan Newkirk, responded at the hearing by saying "that’s not the true story," and accused the residents of "cussing and bumping on my door and saying all kinds of stuff."

Other residents say tenants’ complaints are exaggerated.

"She’s the best manager we’ve ever had," said Larry Coley, 77, president of the tenants association at 140 South Orange. "I don’t know why they’re saying all this."

Bell said New Community has told him that the concerns of residents are legitimate, and the agency will provide sensitivity training for managers.

INSPECTIONS IMPASSE

On the second day of council testimony, a spokesman for the Department of Neighborhood and Recreational Services said city inspectors had been barred from entering at least one of the New Community buildings when following up on resident complaints.

"Lately, our inspectors have been turned away either by security or by management, or they’re getting the runaround to some degree," said Thomas McDonald, spokesman for the department, which is in charge of inspections and code enforcement.

"I don’t want to get messages from our inspectors saying, ‘They won’t let us in,’ because that’s not acceptable to the city, and it appears that you’re hiding something by not letting us on your property."

The building manager at 180 South Orange Ave. said no one told her the inspectors were turned away. She said it would not happen again. "I will assure that you will have access," said Fonda Porter.

Before September’s hearings, 180 South Orange Ave. passed an inspection by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, of which Linder is a board member.

Throughout the hearings, residents said the most important problem is poor maintenance, specifically the infestation of bedbugs.

City health officials said bedbugs must be treated holistically and exterminating in one apartment does little good if the bugs move to multiple apartments. During the hearings it was established that only certain clusters of apartments were being treated on a case-by-case basis.

According to Bell, the problem also lies with residents.

"Some people will deny that they have a bedbug problem," Bell said this week, adding that others are reluctant to admit exterminators into their apartments.

Bell said all the residents should be temporarily relocated in order to fully eradicate the bugs and their eggs. "It’s just having the will and the financial wherewithal to do the job."

Stewart, of New Community, says management is spending $200,000 on bedbug extermination — up from $152,000 last year — and that they are not alone in battling the pestilence.

"The problem of bedbugs is by no means unique to New Community and has been a problem in other apartment complexes within the city of Newark," Stewart said. "It is also a national issue that has impacted facilities ranging from hotels to college dormitories and is not easily eradicated."

OTHER MAINTENANCE ISSUES

While bedbugs top the list of many residents’ complaints, some say the infestation is part of a lax approach to resident concerns.

Vincent Heyward, 53, and his wife have lived at New Community for two years. He said a bullet hole in his bedroom window has not been fixed since he moved in. Two months ago, Heyward’s kitchen faucet fell off the sink. Despite numerous requests, no one has come to repair it, Heyward said.

Thomas said that last week paramedics were called to attend to a resident on the 15th floor of 140 South Orange but became stuck in a faulty elevator and had to be rescued by the fire department.

"I was waiting for the elevator on my floor and they said we couldn’t get on because they had to get the EMTs out of the elevator that got stuck."

The New Community spokeswoman did not deny the incident occurred and said they have intermittent problems with their elevators.

"New Community recognizes the importance of elevator service to our residents," Stewart wrote in her e-mail. "Commons Senior, or 140 South Orange Avenue, has two elevators and it is a rare occasion when at least one of the elevators is not functioning."

Bell said part of the agency’s problem is its lack of resources. Financially, "they’re in serious trouble," he said.

The conundrum for city leaders and residents is that New Community is one of the only organizations that is still dedicated to providing housing, medical care and job opportunities for Newark’s poorest residents.

"Father Linder is one of the last hopes in the city of Newark for poor people and housing for poor people," Bell said this week. Citing a new direction by the Newark Housing Authority to provide more mixed-income housing, Bell said, "The government is getting out of the business of providing housing for poor people."