$Stock*Shop*Charts*News*Option$

[Stock Lobster]

Boston: Foreclosed and forgotten, and arson outbreaks

Lawrence trying to catalogue, secure abandoned homes to stave off another arson outbreak

By Russell Contreras
Globe Staff / March 16, 2008

When Fire Captain William Lannon came across a fresh orange, specks of heroin, and porn, he knew someone was living in the vacant house.

Next to a mattress was a bag of folded clothes and a dusty television plugged into a socket still dishing out electricity. Marijuana butts, beer bottles, and empty bags of chips surrounded an old sofa in the living room. The bathroom had no running water, but the toilet had been used. Recently. In the basement sat stacks of unread newspapers.

Walking through the house in Lawrence's Arlington neighborhood, Lannon shook his head.

"This is a bonfire waiting to happen," he said. "All it takes is one inebriated person to drop the right cigarette butt in the wrong place."

As Lawrence continues to take hits from the nation's mortgage crisis, city officials are racing across neighborhoods to find as many abandoned and foreclosed houses as possible in an effort to prevent the widespread arson experienced here in the 1990s.

While compiling their database, they are finding abandoned structures with wide-open doors, broken windows, and, in some cases, tenants still living in foreclosed three-decker homes as if nothing had happened. Other times they find abandoned houses rigged illegally for electricity, rooms burglarized of copper, or drug houses recently open for business.

The findings have alarmed officials who worry that banks have not properly secured the foreclosed properties from vandals and that the city is at risk of seeing more fires like that one this year in South Lawrence that spread to 15 buildings and left nearly 200 people homeless.

"We need to get out in front of these issues," said planning director Mike Sweeney, who is heading the city's new Foreclosure, Economic Development, and Safety Task Force. "This is not unique to Lawrence, but we need to stay ahead."

According to the latest numbers, Lawrence officials have identified 316 foreclosed homes and 440 more in the process of foreclosure. They expect those numbers to keep rising.

During a recent inspection trip of abandoned houses, Lannon and fire inspector Ray Silva visited a Bennington Street three-decker owned by a company in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. In the snow-covered driveway were tire marks, signs that the house had seen recent visitors.

The front door was open.

Lannon and Silva yelled "Fire Department," then took a quick tour. Inside, they found old furniture, prescription medicines, toys, and torn wires from the ceiling. The electricity had not been turned off.

At three houses in the city's Lower Tower Hill, the two men found evidence that boarded-up houses had been broken into. One had fresh fruit on a kitchen counter, while another was cleaned out as if prepared for open-house tours.

Silva said that when he and Lannon make such visits, they often have to bring weapons, just in case.

"You never know what or who you are going to find in there," said Silva.

Occasionally, banks will foreclose on a property but not evict the tenants, who keep living on the property rent-free, said Lannon.

Unfortunately, he said, the heat gets turned off, pipes eventually burst, and renters resort to space heaters to stay warm - another fire hazard. No one is around to fix the wear and tear, and renters stay until they can't take it anymore.

Sweeney said inspections like these and the new task force's efforts are pushing the city to remain proactive in trying to account for abandoned properties. Because of the new task force, for example, city departments for the first time are using the same methods to collect data on empty houses, Sweeney said. Before, different departments had different numbers and didn't coordinate.

Sweeney said the task force also has spearheaded a better working relationship with utilities. In the past, utility companies have had a hard time cutting off power and gas in abandoned properties. Now utility companies and the Fire Department are working together to legally cut off power.

The task force also persuaded the City Council to pass an ordinance this month that requires banks and lenders to register a foreclosed property with the city and take responsibility of securing and maintaining it, or face a $300 fine per violation. Banks and lenders will be also required to have a representative within 20 miles of the city.

The challenge, however, is locating all the lenders, said Lannon, especially since some are out of state and can be reluctant to give out information when contacted.

Unlike the 1990s, city officials are discovering that the mortgage crisis is not affecting only the working-class Arlington neighborhood, but every part of this 6-square-mile city. This time, however, Lannon said, city officials have data on insurance policies and who owns what properties, in the event of a suspicious fire.

Still, Lannon said, Lawrence always gets hit the hardest during economic downturns, and this time is no different.

"When the rest of the country gets the sniffles," said Lannon, "Lawrence always ends up getting pneumonia."

Russell Contreras can be reached at [e-mail].

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/16/foreclosed_and_forgotten/?page=full