October 3, 2013
A house in Savin Hill is facing designation as a “problem property.” The home, located at 56 Sudan St. and a longtime source of complaints from neighbors, will be on the agenda of Mayor Thomas Menino’s “problem properties” task force when it meets this week.
A neighbor, Nicole Golenski, who recently moved to the street, contacted the Reporter about the apparently unoccupied property last week. She said she has seen women doing drugs on the property and teenagers setting off fireworks on the front porch. Additionally, she said, her girlfriend’s car was recently stolen after she parked in front of the three-family home.
“If you go around and talk to the neighbors in the vicinity of the property, they’re furious,” Golenski said. She said she sent a letter to the owner, Mary Young, who lives in Framingham, but she “never heard back.”
Young could not be reached for comment for this article.
The property, with a lot size of 3,400 square feet, is valued at $311,900, according to the city’s website. The owner is up to date on city taxes, but the property has a number of Inspectional Services Department code violations on its record, including failure to clear the sidewalk of snow, overgrown weeds, and improper storage of trash.
The home was boarded up last year as part of ISD’s “Project Pride” program.
On a recent visit to the house, a $40 ticket from the Inspectional Services Department was on the property’s porch, placed under the boarded-up front door. The violations, dated Sept. 25, include improper storage of trash ($25) and overgrown weeds on the property ($15). Trash barrels in the yard filled with leaves and wood debris were visible from the street.
The “problem properties” task force was established by Menino in 2011. The criteria for becoming a “problem property” include the police getting called to the property four times in a 12-month period; or the Air Pollution Control Commission receiving four noise complaints within a 12-month period; or ISD receiving four sustained and upheld complaints about noxious or unsanitary conditions within a 12-month period.
In a 2012 report, the task force, made up of City Hall and Boston Police Department officials, said they had investigated 144 properties and 18 were officially designated “problem properties.”
On the city’s website, the current number of problem properties stands at 19, including 7 Dorchester properties: 110 Greenbrier, which has been the site of shootings; 28 Michigan St., the site of a shooting and loud parties; 30 Topliff St., which has multiple code violations and porches listed as in danger of collapsing; 117 Bowdoin St., which has a record of breaking and entering incidents and the seizure of a “small” quantity of drugs; 62 Torrey St., which has sanitary code violations and noise complaints, along with fights reported on the property; 113 Evans St., the alleged site of shootings and drug dealings; and 91 Devon St., which has had incidents of disturbing the peace and assault with a deadly weapon.