Thomas Breen photo
Ocean Principal Shmuel Aizenberg, landlord attorney Ian Gottlieb, and state prosecutor Donna Parker (right) Tuesday.
One of New Haven’s largest landlords was hit with another $6,250 in court-ordered fines for 25 more now-fixed housing code violations — marking the third time this year that he’s been financially penalized for delaying to address livability concerns at his company’s local rental properties.
That landlord is Shmuel Aizenberg.
Aizenberg runs the local megalandlord-property management-real estate investment outfit Ocean Management, which through its affiliates controls over 1,000 mostly low-income apartments across the city.
On Tuesday, Aizenberg stood alongside his attorney Ian Gottlieb in the third-floor housing court at 121 Elm St. to plead guilty to 25 different counts of violating state statute 7 – 148C(10)(A). He then agreed to pay the maximum $250 per violation, for a total of $6,250.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Parker explained to state Superior Court Judge Walter Spader that Tuesday’s fine-inducing infractions relate to housing code violations that the city’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) found at two Ocean rental properties.
Thomas Breen Photo
429 Poplar St.
Parker said that, on March 24, a LCI housing code inspector found “holes in the walls,” a “rodent infestation,” missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, leaks, and several other violations at the three-family house at 429 Poplar St. She also said that, on April 12, LCI found “chipping paint,” doors that didn’t fit properly, and a host of other violations at the two-family house at 181 Fairmont Ave.
“All of the issues have been addressed,” Parker said about these LCI-discovered housing code issues.
She, Gottlieb, and Aizenberg then told the court that Aizenberg had agreed to plead guilty and pay $250-per-violation fines for 10 infractions at 429 Poplar St. and 15 at 181 Fairmont. Parker said the state nolled (or dismissed) two additional housing-code-violation-related infractions for Ocean’s two-family house at 165 Starr St., since that criminal housing docket matter was relatively new and Aizenberg promptly addressed the issues.
As he ordered Aizenberg to pay a total of $6,250 in fines, Judge Spader made clear that “these are infractions.” They are not misdemeanors. “There’s not any criminal record” that comes from Aizenberg’s guilty pleas to these infractions, he said.
Nevertheless, Spader continued, this is a “significant fine.”
“These kinds of things can be remedied by quickly responding” to LCI’s housing code orders, Spader said.
Now that all of these matters have been resolved, the judge said to Aizenberg, “hopefully we won’t see you again” on the criminal housing docket.
Aizenberg’s latest round of court-ordered fines for housing code violations at 429 Poplar and 181 Fairmont come after he was ordered to pay $2,500 in fines in August for now-fixed housing code violations at 87 Willis St. and 191 Ferry St., $3,750 in fines in May for now-fixed housing code violations at 133 Plymouth St., 267 James St., and 167 Scranton St., and $500 in fines in October 2021 for now-fixed housing code violations at 55 Carmel St. and 76 Thompson St.
This latest fine also comes as the Elicker Administration is looking to pay Aizenberg’s company $1.3 million to buy a handful of separate rundown Dixwell Avenue properties for $350,000 above their appraised value in a bid to develop affordable housing in a revitalizing stretch of the Dixwell neighborhood.
Click here to read a previous Independent story about how and why LCI-detected housing code violations can escalate to the point of prosecution. Click here to read about Aizenberg’s critique of LCI after a court appearance last year in which he accused the city agency of communicating poorly with landlords about what needed to be fixed when.
I'm afraid that $6,250 is just part of the cost of doing business for these characters...and I am also baffled by news of the upcoming purchase on Dixwell. There must be part of the city's calculus that I just do not understand.