New Haven Independent: WPCA Targets Church

WPCA Targets Church

by Paul Bass | January 16, 2008 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

One of the city’s older black churches is scrambling to stop the sewer authority from grabbing its building.

A foreclosure sale is scheduled for Feb. 2 for the Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ at 285 Dixwell Ave.

The sale was scheduled after the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) won a judgment of foreclosure sale against the 340-member church in State Superior Court in a bid to recapture unpaid sewer bills.

The case is one of at least 125 foreclosure suits the WPCA has filed against New Haven property owners since the authority was spun off from city government and became an independent, suburban-dominated utility in mid-2005. The WPCA has become the most aggressive utility in town in going after people’s homes for unpaid bills, rather than relying on judgment liens or other forms of debt collection. Click here to read a story about that.

The authority said it needed to institute an aggressive, multi-front collection policy in order to boost a 92 percent collection rate that has cost it $1 million in lost revenue. Its tactics, meanwhile, present a challenge to a city already wrestling with a brewing foreclosure crisis. (Click here to read about city government leaders’ vow to make the issue a top 2008 priority.)

“That’s the world we live in,” Trinity Temple’s leader, Bishop Charles Brewer, said Wednesday. “The church has been in the community for 100 years. It’s been on that spot for 40 years. I don’t think a municipality would have filed this suit.”

The WPCA’s suit against Trinity Temple is different from almost all its other foreclosure actions in an important respect — it’s for a bill that goes back to 1991 and stood at $8,678.81 by the end of December 2006, according to the court file.

By contrast, the majority of WPCA foreclosure cases reviewed at the court clerk’s office were for less than $2,000 in debts, as low as $793.

Trinity Temple’s property is worth $750,000, according to the court file; the congregation has $500,000 of equity.

Therefore, said the church’s attorney, Robert Perrotti, a foreclosure probably won’t take place.

“They’re in the process of trying to refinance” and therefore get the cash to pay the WPCA, Perrotti said. “They’ve gotten an appraisal, but with lots of weird conditions. Lenders deal with churches [as] a specialized area.”

The court originally ordered a sale of the property for last August. That sale was called off because the church was refinancing its mortgage. However, as that process was delayed, the new Feb. 2, 2008 sale date was set.

“They owe us a lot of money,” said Dominick DiGangi, who runs the WPCA. “They haven’t paid in a long, long time. The bank stepped up, and we held off.”

The church’s financial problems mounted over the years as Bishop Brewer encountered extensive health problems, according to attorney Perrotti.

Brewer said Wednesday that he had been hospitalized in recent years with problems with his ulcer and a sciatic nerve. He’s better now, he said — except recently he got pneumonia. He was interviewed in the bedroom of his home on Roydon Road, where’s he’s recuperating, and asked not to be photographed. (The WPCA filed a foreclosure suit for that house, too; Brewer said that case has been closed without a sale going through.)

Brewer has led Trinity Temple for the past 37 years. His father, also named Charles, ran it before him. His son (Charles as well) is preparing to succeed into the position.

And, the WPCA’s lawsuit aside, it appears there will be a church for the son to run.

Read previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• Subprime Mess Targeted
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”

The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.

For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.

Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.

Comments

Posted by: Hartford Johnson | January 16, 2008 1:04 PM

There are 340 members in this Church and NONE can help manage the finances? None of them care enough to gather a collection and pay what they owe since 1991? There isn't a sob story here.

Posted by: new new haven resident | January 16, 2008 1:53 PM

Where is the Mayor on this? I am suprised that this has been in the news for awhile and i have heard no comment. this worries me--as a new new haven resident i really like it here and thought that the level of crap that goes on in other ct cities did not exist, to such a bad extent, in new haven. i hope i am not proven wrong.

Posted by: doug | January 16, 2008 2:26 PM

$8,700? Lot's of shame to go around on this. Church leaders need to do a better job of either paying bills or getting a payment plan together. That's essentiually the congregation's investment at stake.

But for the folks at the WPCA, well... good luck on that one-way trip to hell.

Posted by: Outta-order | January 16, 2008 2:28 PM

1991? Can't say I disagree with the WPCA here. When did they plan on paying their bill? The bible says give unto ceasar that which is ceasar's..pay your bills!

Posted by: Our Town | January 16, 2008 4:18 PM

I don't like what I'm thinking...that this is indicative of something deeper and darker, that the sale of this entity has exposed something of how business was done in New Haven. Is it possible that this debt was overlooked previously for political reasons and that there are more of these "debts" that remain unpaid because they were traded for support or votes?

Posted by: James | January 16, 2008 4:26 PM

Welcome, New New Haven Resident! Prepare to be proven wrong, and a warm welcome to the bureaucratic crap capital of the northeast. Lots of other crap to be had here as well, if you get tired of the official government crap.

That being said, I don't see how this qualifies as "crap." If you don't pay your bills, you get in trouble. If you continue not to pay your bills people will seek renumeration via other avenues. Unless you are referring to the church's actions as "crap." If that is the case, you're in for a big surprise as this is the prevailing attitude in this town. Don't pay your bills, don't take responsibility for your own actions, don't vote, but by all means, DO complain loudly when you are called to answer for your actions.

Posted by: Walt | January 17, 2008 1:00 PM

Did I mess up or does less then $9,000 divided by 340 members and divided by 16 years mean that the sewer charges were a couple (under $3) per year per member and they could not (would not)pay for treatment of the sewage emanating from their property !!!

What phonies!!

PS Have admired that building for years , It appears very well maintained, but the Rev. should pay his bills.

Posted by: new new haven resident | January 17, 2008 1:59 PM

in response to james. i meant to post my comment to the other WPCA story where it was stated that the WPCA is foreclosing on homes that owe around $1,000 and less. i can see your point in reference to the church, but not in reference to homeowners who owe much less and are getting foreclosed on. far from not being responsible, i think that many of these people (myself included) are being choked by electricity rates, other energy rates, taxes, etc. DESPITE working full time (and more) and that is with a college degree from a good school. i don't view situations such as these as "not taking responsibility" for one's actions; but rather as a shift in this country where the basic necessities (water, heat, etc) are treated as luxuries and are the new, big corporate money makers. i do not think it is right or responsible that a company is allowed to FORECLOSE on a home (what happened to liens?!) because of about $1,000. i think that the mayor should definitely have something to say about this.
finally, new haven may not be perfect but there are numerous things that have been done well here--if you don't beleive me, try living in hartford.

Posted by: Outta-order | January 17, 2008 3:30 PM

I too have always admired that property. I don't know if members of the congregation are residents of Dixwell but I've always wondered why they never even tried to spruce up the front of the building. Plant some flowers or something. They are in such visible spot, and could do so much to combat the appearance of that hell hole of a store across the street. The acceptance of the status quo in these neigborhoods is appalling. Maybe a foreclosure action might be a positive thing. But if the deal the cities and towns penned with the WPCA looks anything like the Breen debacle of the past, we will have plenty of foreclosed and abandoned buildings to worry about. With an empty q-house in close proximity, I hope the church members get it together.

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WPCA Targets Church

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