New Haven Independent

Tucker and other tenants moved out of a Newhallville home in advance of yet another foreclosure sale Saturday brought about by one of the city’s most aggressive property-snatchers, the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA).

It came as a shock a month or so ago for Tucker to find a foreclosure sign in front of the Sheldon Terrace house where’s she’s rented for two years. Within weeks she found a new place for herself and her two kids Alethia and Kevin.

Tucker’s rent is going to be the same, the heating bill is likely to be less, and the place she’ll be moving in a few days is very convenient. In fact, it’s right next door.

The WPCA foreclosed on 58-60 Sheldon in an action to collect $3,247.49.

The authority has been on a tear placing liens on properties for uncollected sewer fees. It has also been following up with sales of foreclosed-upon properties, such as Saturday’s Sheldon Terrace auction and another at 45 Bristol St. a month ago.

The authority filed 120 foreclosures in the region just in 2008 alone, 90 to 95 of them in New Haven proper.

Meanwhile, a mayorally-created task force has set to work preventing foreclosure filings and keeping people in their homes. Yet it has so far decided not to address the WPCA, which has accounted for close to 10 percent of all foreclosures in New Haven in 2008. Instead, it has set its sights on trying to locate and negotiate with out-of-town lenders.

The authority’s oft-stated policy is not to follow through by actually taking people’s homes away. That again proved untrue Saturday in the case of 58-60 Sheldon.

What About Tenants?

Addressing the fates of tenants in properties rapidly changing hands has emerged as another concern in the foreclosure crisis. The WPCA technically forecloses only on the sewer fee payer, that is, the building’s owner, not its tenants. Still the tenants are, usually without warning or recourse, also often driven away.

The quasi-government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently decided not to kick tenants out of homes they’re foreclosing on. No such luck for tenants like Tucker targeted by the WPCA.

A bill recently proposed in Hartford is seeking to promote the continuance of tenants’ residence in foreclosed buildings, a move designed to keep unoccupied buildings and blighted blocks at a minimum.

As Bernadette Tucker watched from her third-floor window Saturday, the WPCA bid $11,236 for the substantial, 1920s-era three-family home on its quiet, well-tended street close to Science Park. In a quick round of spirited bidding among three parties, offers went up by increments of $5,000, then $10,000. The successful bid, for $170,000, came from an Orange couple, Stanley and Joyce Menacherry. The house’s most recent market appraisal price was $230,000

Menacherry, an executive with a biotech lab, said he thinks a silver lining to the foreclosure crisis is that people are going to be moving back from the burbs to smaller cities like New Haven, close to Yale. He intends to fix the 58-60 Sheldon property up to attract them. His vision, he acknowledged, is built to an extent on the sadness and dislocation of Tucker and other foreclosed tenants.

Another of those tenants watching the proceeding, as he moved out of the first-floor apartment, was Scotty Stafford. He too located a new place, in Hamden, where he’ll soon be moving with his wife and daughter.

The second-floor tenant, added Tucker, for reasons unrelated to condition of the building or rumors of foreclosure, had moved out between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Although Tucker said she’d had some roof leaks and other relatively minor issues, in general her relationship with the landlord was amicable, and the building was in fairly good shape.

“I love the block. It’s quiet. My mother lives down the street. There are Yale professors too, and when that sign went up, I was so surprised and upset. I had no idea what was going to happen to the house, nor did the other tenants. We didn’t want to get kicked out.”

Tucker said she was fortunate to talk to a friend who told her she was moving out of the first floor of the building right next door.

“I immediately talked to the landlord. He checked out my credit, and he offered me to rent me the apartment.”

Tucker said that the $1,150 she currently pays in rent would remain the same. The new digs have gas heat, which she expects will cost less than oil heat in her old place.

Would she have moved out had she had an option to stay, for example, from the new landlord, the Menacherrys?

Tucker thought for a moment and then said, “No, I think I was planning on moving out anyway. I find the first floor preferable to a third-floor place too. Eventually I want to buy one of these houses and become an owner too.”

Stanley Menacherry and his wife Joyce indicated said they were sympathetic to the tenants’ plight. But they said they liked the idea that the house would be empty so the repair work might be done without the emotional issues entailed in dealing with tenants.

So, Tucker’s initiative, and those of the other tenants, was likely well taken.

A second auction was scheduled Saturday on an WPCA foreclosure action, at 223 Sherman, over $3,565 in unpaid sewer fees. At the eleventh hour, a payout was arranged.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• Home-Rescue Squad Ignores WPCA
• Sewer Agency Unloads House
• Foreclosure Evictions Halted
• Let The Bank Have It, This Time
• Hazel St. Sale Reflects Economic Climate
• Hill Foreclosure Triggers Memories, & Prayers
• Foreclosure Fee-Slashing Judge Leaves Town
• She’ll Be Watching Deutsche Bank
• A Last Pre-Foreclosure Look At A Lifetime Past
• New Yorker Snags Foreclosed-Upon Gem
• Foreclosure Dream Goes Sour
• Judge Slashes Foreclosure Bounty
• Tax Break Saves Woman’s House
• Bank Replaces “Gunshot Alley” Landlord
• Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
• Foreclosure’s Neighbor Worries More About Speeding
• Networking Replaces Foreclosure at Christy’s
• Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
• “So Don’t Worry About Pablo”
• Bankruptcy Postpones Foreclosure
• Next-Door Foreclosures, 53 Years Apart
• They Met On Foreclosure Way
• 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”

To learn about the ROOF Project, a community-wide effort to help New Haveners navigate the foreclosure crisis, click here.

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.