New Haven Independent

She wanted to look him in the eye.

Anifalaje didn’t expect to see Joseph Levitin in the flesh Wednesday afternoon. She didn’t even know his first name was Joseph. She didn’t expect to get a chance to press him about his plans for the foreclosed-upon shell of a house he purchased across the street from the one she owns and inhabits.

It just happened. What happens next will determine the precarious course of a tree-lined, one-block winding road in the West River neighborhood whose homeowners are struggling with the effects of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis.

Batter Up

Anifalaje had a different plan for Wednesday afternoon. She wanted to show a reporter how two foreclosures have exacerbated a struggle she and her homeowning neighbors had already been waging to revive a beautiful but battered street called Batter Terrace.

Anifalaje, a 32-year-old accountant at a downtown medical office, began waging that battle since she moved into her home three years ago.

She fought it against Apple Management, a major landowner and management company in New Haven neighborhoods. Apple owns the “Old Malley’s House” next door to Anifalaje’s house, a stunning three-story Victorian. (It was nicknamed for the family that used to own the downtown department store.)

The house was getting less stunning by the day. The front door was left open at all hours. Junkies were shooting up in the front hallway. People were defecating on the property. Anifalaje pestered and pestered the company. Finally the front door was locked. She called and called and called about problem tenants. They’re finally gone.

That made a big difference, although Anifalaje worries about the long-term effects of absentee ownership: Dining rooms and other portions of apartments were carved up to cram in more apartments, in order to maximize revenue.

Next door to the Old Malley’s House was an abandoned, rundown brick apartment complex. That was another crime magnet. Now the building’s owner, Continuum of Care, has been fixing up the place. It has been working well with neighbors. It will soon open a halfway house there. The organization has a good reputation for working with neighbors.

In little time Anifalaje became a go-to person on the block. She paid attention. She found out information. She knew how to make contacts beyond the neighborhood. And she took initiative. She called block watch meetings. Last summer she and neighbors worked with the Urban Resources Initiative to put plants in the strip between their sidewalks and their street.

Seven homeowners occupy houses on the street, which loops between George and Derby Avenues. They represent the potential to improve Batter. They generally take care of their homes, some of which are old gems.

The other four homes have absentee owners. They’ve generally been the problem, along with a surge in street crime in the surrounding West River neighborhood.

The nearby Hospital of St. Raphael has tried to help. It offers employees up to $10,000 in help if they buy in the neighborhoods. But with the current uneven condition of the street, it’s a challenge even to pay people to buy there.

Foreclosure Microcosm

Then came the foreclosure crisis, which has set back renewal efforts in neighborhoods across town. The number of foreclosures in New Haven rose 80 percent in 2007, to well over 1,000, with many more on the way.A city task force this spring identified another 4,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure, often because they have shaky credit and took out subprime adjustable-rate mortgages.

Many homes are left in the hands of out-of-state lenders contending with huge nationwide portfolios of abandoned properties. (Click here for a spreadsheet with the latest list of which banks have filed the most foreclosures.)

Kevin Ewing (pictured), a community organizer who lives around the corner from Anifalaje, has seen how rapidly that has changed reality on the ground.

Thanks in part to LCI and neighbors like Ewing, the number of vacant and boarded-up houses in the area around Batter Terrace (mostly West River, part of Dwight) dropped from 60 to just 2. That was a year and a half ago. The number now, according to a new list by LCI neighborhood specialist Tracy Claxton: 42.

That pattern was repeated across town. The city had 1,600 vacant properties in 1994. Abandoned, or repurchased and neglected and milked by speculators or out-of-town lenders, the homes blighted neighborhoods struggling to turn around. The DeStefano administration’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) managed to slash that number to 360 by 2006. Now it’s zooming back up again.

Two of those decaying abandoned houses stare directly at Tokunbo Anifalaje’s well-kept front yard. Out-of-state lenders foreclosed on them and bought them, she said.

She has inquired into the ownership of the homes, into the work occasionally being done by people who stop by. She said that she found that before she can put in a bid to buy the properties from the lenders, someone beats her to it — someone from outside the neighborhood, investors and management companies with more contacts among the lenders looking to unload properties.

“Somehow,” Anifalaje said, “they find out before us.”

She has hopes for the white house across the street. “Some bank in California” had it, but the loan was processed by a company in Texas — which, she said, does have a sale pending. A friend of the previous owner is in line to buy it, she reported; he has been showing up and doing work on the property. (The sale hasn’t yet been listed in city land records. The records show U.S. Bank acting as trustee for an Oregon trust called MLMI Surf foreclosing on the house in July.)

She’s more worried about the house next to it. She tried to buy it. Her idea was to house staffers from the 24-hour facility Continuum of Care will soon open across the street. She figured that would be a “win-win” to stabilize the neighborhood.

But a management company snapped up the house before she could put in a bid. The new owners’ sign went up front: Levitin Management.

Workers started coming by to repair the second floor. She chatted them up. She found out that the second-floor porch was being repaired, allegedly to put in an extra bedroom. That made her concerned about another landlord trying to squeeze more people in.

She was concerned, too, to learn that the landlord asked the work crew to hurry up with the second floor, because a tenant is moving in come October. Anifalaje noticed that the front porch is still a shambles. The front windows are boarded up. The third-floor windows are gone, the apartment open to the elements. What kind of tenant would move into a house in that condition, she wondered? She feared the answer could be a “desperate” tenant, rather than a solid neighbor.

Who is this Levitin Management? she wondered aloud as she and Ewing spoke about Batter Terrace Wednesday afternoon. And what exactly is the company’s plans for the house — and her block?

A black Lexus pulled up. A man in a white shirt and sunglasses stepped out. Here was her answer.

“Done Right”

His name is Joseph Levitin. His company manages about 600 apartments in multi-family buildings New Haven, West Haven, and East Haven, he said. He said that along with partners he owns part of or all of about 15 properties.

Levitin said he didn’t have an inside track on the house he just purchased. He just checked MLS (the Multiple Listing Service). He said he paid about $96,000. He even tried to buy the one next to it, but lost out, he said.

(Land records show the sale going for $106,000 on Aug. 15. The buyer is listed as Solo Investments LLC of 419 Whalley Ave., with a Michael Levitin listed as a “member.” The property was foreclosed upon in April by HSBC Bank USA acting and two other noteholding and lending agencies, one in Orlando, Florida. Records show Solo Investments snapping up properties on Plymouth Street, County Street, James Street, Davenport Avenue and Clay Street since the spring.)

As Bob Marley tunes drifted to the street from the second floor where a worker was making repairs, Anifalaje and Ewing got right to business. They peppered Levitin with questions. He answered politely. More was unsaid than said, as the two sides eyed each other — the landlord who could wreck or help the neighborhoods; the neighbors who could make his life difficult and/or help his investment by keeping watch on their block.

When are you fixing the other two floors? they asked.

As soon as possible, he said. Within a few months.

Then why haven’t we seen more workers on the property?

They’re coming, he said. They’re at other jobs now.

Why are you going to rent the second floor while the first floor remains boarded up?

Because otherwise thieves will clear out the place, he said. Already thieves removed copper pipes. They stole eight upstairs windows. Eight new windows.

“That’s why you should work with me,” Anifalaje responded. “We watch every house on the street. If we know what to watch for.”

Levitin promised that he plans to fix the front porch. “We’re going to ten-point the chimney. We’re changing the windows.”

“You think you’ll have windows on the third floor” by October? Anifalaje pressed.

“We’re already ordered the windows… We’ll get it done.”

“Not just done,” Anifalaje interjected. “Done right.”

“Hopefully. That’s what I’m paying for.”

Ewing asked Levitin whom he would rent to.

“We check for convictions,” he said. “We pay twenty-something dollars for background checks. We’re not looking for headaches.”

Ewing pressed: What about Section 8 tenants? If their background checks are clear, Levitin said, and they can make they rent, he’ll rent to them. He doesn’t specifically look for Section 8 tenants, he claimed. He advertises on the Internet and in the Register. (Ewing clarified later that he has no objection to Section 8 tenants. He does object to landlords not being careful about to whom they rent; and not responding to neighbors’ complaints when a tenant turns out to be trouble.)

The first meeting between the landlord and the neighbors wound down. They exchanged cards. Anifalaje invited Levitin to participate in the next round of street planting next spring.

Before they bid good-bye, Levitin granted his new across-the-street neighbor’s request. He removed the shades. And smiled.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• Little Garage Draws Big Bids
• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
• Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
• In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
• Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• 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”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”

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.