License Reform Spotlights Problem Motel

The city is seeking a new avenue to shut down hotels deemed to be problematic — with the New Haven Inn as a possible first target — by reforming a currently irrevocable rooming house license.

Livable City Initiative (LCI) Director Liam Brennan and Assistant Corporation Counsel Sinclair Williams pitched an ordinance amendment to that effect at the Board of Alders Legislation Committee meeting last Tuesday night.

The rooming house ordinance amendment was part of an array of planned housing and blight code adjustments presented at the meeting — alongside proposals to raise maximum blight fines and streamline notification to landlords. The committee eventually voted unanimously to advance all three proposals with a favorable recommendation to the full Board of Alders.

The city already offers rooming house licenses for property owners operating hotels or communal residences — any building in which at least four guests or tenants rent a designated room or bed without a private kitchen. The city has the ability to request background checks on license applicants and evaluate the impact of the rooming house on ​“the public health, safety or welfare,” including by factoring in the opinion of the police department.

The problem, according to Brennan and Williams, is that the ordinance’s appeal mechanism for property owners who get denied a license is outdated and defunct. The law refers landlords who want to appeal a denial to the Board of Code Appeals — a board that doesn’t exist anymore. In practice, Brennan said, ​“there’s no one for them to appeal to” — meaning that any license revocation could provide landlords with grounds to sue the city for denying their right to appeal.

“I think it’s fair to look at the impact” of rooming houses and hotels deemed to be harmful to the neighborhood, Brennan said in an interview, ​“but there also needs to be a way for the owners to get a fair hearing and a process.”

Brennan and Williams are proposing to change the ordinance so that property owners can appeal rooming house license denials to an independent hearing officer (with the potential to escalate to a judge), aligning the process with other blight and housing code appeals systems.

If alders approve this change, then the city will have a new mechanism for cracking down on hotels and rooming houses deemed to be unsafe or otherwise harmful.

Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez asked Brennan at Tuesday’s meeting how the ordinance would impact buildings that are operated as unsanctioned rooming houses.

Brennan replied that there are other mechanisms the city can use to respond to illegal rooming houses that do not have licenses. The city can use zoning laws to challenge illegal rooming houses in court and seek an injunction preventing them from operating, he said. His department is exploring other options as well: ​“We think theoretically we can cite them under the housing code.”

First Up: New Haven Inn?

Such a chance could have implications for at least one hotel in particular — the New Haven Inn at 100 Pond Lily Ave.

The hotel is a place that many turn to for temporary, last-resort shelter. It’s also a site infamous for crime, with multiple incidents of arson, burglary, and window-breaking reported there in the last couple of years.

The New Haven Police Department has advised revoking that hotel’s license due to persistent illegal activity there, according to both Brennan and Westville District Manager Lt. Pedro Colon. (Brennan stressed that LCI has not yet decided how it would proceed on that particular case if the rooming house license law reforms are approved.)

That recommendation stemmed from Colon’s predecessor, Lt. Brian McDermott, Colon said. ​“I second it,” he added, though he said that conditions at the New Haven Inn are ​“definitely a lot better than what it was in the wintertime… It has improved.”

West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith, whose ward includes the New Haven Inn, said she strongly supports revoking the hotel’s rooming house license. ​“I hear from the [nearby] residents constantly, every day,” she said, including complaints of hotel guests wandering into backyards and cleaning off in ​“watering holes” without clothes. She expressed particular concern about public drug use, drug dealing, and littered syringes from hotel guests. ​“They shoot up on the corners, at bus stops where the children have to get up on the school bus,” Smith said. ​“It’s not a safe place for kids to be at.”

Smith said that a number of the motels and inns in her ward have collaborated with her on bolstering security and reducing illicit activity, but she said that the New Haven Inn’s leadership has not cooperated with her. ​“New Haven Inn has been the biggest problem,” she said. ​“Make it affordable and safe. It’s not a safe facility for any of these people that are down on their luck and don’t have anywhere to go.”

Westville/Amity Alder and Majority Leader Richard Furlow, the vice chair of the Legislation Committee, said on Tuesday that he receives regular calls about the New Haven Inn, which is located blocks away from his ward. In addition to public substance use and needle littering, Furlow said he’s witnessed fights break out on the premises.

Revoking the hotel’s rooming house license would not get to the root of the problem, said Furlow, who attributed much of the crime to drug use and drug dealing. ​“My heart goes out to these people. We have to figure out how to treat drug addiction,” he said. Currently, however, ​“it spills out into the streets” and makes the neighborhood less safe, he argued — so shutting down the hotel could be a good start.

Inn Guest: "They're Trying To Clean It Up"

On Friday afternoon, the sounds of chirping birds and whirring drills filled the air outside the New Haven Inn.

The drilling sounds came from the back row of rooms at the inn, where most units were doorless, most windows had brand-new stickers, and most interiors comprised bare concrete, soon to be redone. A construction crew was working on interior renovations. The hotel’s owners could not be reached on the premises or through multiple phone calls. ​“We’re trying to make it better,” one construction worker said. ​“Make sure you write that. I’m trying to keep my job.”

The 100 Pond Lily Ave. motel is owned by A&C Realty LLC, a holding company controlled by Renuka Chadha of Hamden.

As the motel’s back row underwent construction, the front two rows were mostly quiet. A strip of landscaped flowers bloomed in the sun, alongside littered cigarettes, nips, and at least one used syringe. Every once in a while, someone would wander out of a room.

“There’s no crime up in here for the last couple months,” said one man as he walked out of one of the rooms, the word ​“staff” printed in all caps on the back of his shirt. ​“Ain’t no crime happening here.” When asked whether he works at the hotel, he simply laughed. ​“I just help out,” he said when asked again; he then laughed once more and hopped into a car to drive away.

One hotel guest, who asked not to be named or photographed, echoed assessments that conditions at the New Haven Inn have improved in recent months. She said she’d moved into the inn two days prior after being kicked out of her home. She said this isn’t her first time staying there; she’d come for a few days, here and there, in years prior.

“I know it used to be very worse with the drugs,” she said. ​“They’re trying to clean it up.” She said she wouldn’t have come here this time had the hotel felt as unsafe as in years past.

The guest said she doesn’t think the New Haven Inn should be shut down because the rooms are direly needed for people, like herself, who don’t have anywhere else to go. She argued that people who depend on drugs will get high regardless of whether the hotel closes down — that those residents also need a place to live. ​“You can’t control that,” she said. ​“There’s drugs everywhere.” 

“A lot of people don’t have rent,” the guest continued. ​“It’s already enough homelessness out there. They don’t have nowhere else to go — this is their home.”

She hesitated, then said, ​“It’s my home now, too.”