I'm sorry to interrupt 11 you, ma'am, but the address of the offending 12 property is 34? 13
Here recently they decided they wanted to break in and tear off the panels from the front of this house. I took pictures to show you what happened. The front is open. This is the front. It's kind of not clear, but this will give you some idea. And the back is an alleyway, there's no house in back of them but a alleyway where they dumped all the trash everything. The only thing I'm afraid of now is that the children might want to play there. And sometimes with the front being open with trash in there, somebody might decide they 116 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 might just want to throw a match or something in there and set the place afire because that's what happened before this was boarded up because the man was there had a fire there and the house caught afire. So you can't sleep at night because you don't know who might just decide to go in there and set the whole place on fire.
So the problem is you need this property resealed and secured so that no 11 one can get in there?
We will get on that as soon as we can. We appreciate you coming in and testifying. We have your phone number so my office will get ahold of you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you very, very much for your patience. Please identify yourself.
I'm here in reference to a 117 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 nuisance property on the corner of 6900 block. That's the address, it's three doors away.
Yes. It's in West Oak Lane. Basically, the house is flat out a crack house. It's trash everywhere. And I saw an ad in the newspaper with the children and the dog and all that, and I said this is the same situation that we have. But it's just the trash everywhere. There's a dog. I called SPCA. Some other neighbors called SPCA and they still never came because the dog is still there.
No, they live there. It's a girl and guy and their kids. It's children there. It's just like the situation has just escalated over the years. 118 RESOLUTION NO. 990580
Well, like I said, it's escalated over the past three years to a full-fledged crack house. We've been living there for 33 years. And the traffic all night, it's just -- it's a corner property, so it's like they have like -- I wouldn't even call it an apartment on the bottom, but there's people living in there, prostitution, everything.
Have you had any contact at all with the police district themselves.
Not me myself, but the block committee, they've been trying. But like I said, I called DHS. My neighbor that lives directly next to them, she's called DHS. And I know that DHS has been out there, but I don't know what they did. I myself, I work for the city so I go to L & I and make my complaints. I don't know if they did anything because nothing seemed to have changed. Like I said, trash. You won't even walk pass 119 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 because you know a big rat is going to come out soon. The traffic all night, the noise, it's just disgusting. My mother's lived there for 33 years, like I said. And she's recently widowed and she's considering selling her home because of everything that's going on. And she can't even see selling the house with that two doors away. It's like, like I said, it's just terrible.
I appreciate your testimony, and we promise that we going to get on this immediately to see if we can't get something resolved so your trip all the way down here won't be wasted. Thank you. Did you want to say something?
The exact address is 6900 Forrest Avenue. And you heard, open crack, that stuff.
Is it afternoon? After hearing all the problems with roaches, what is 120 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 involved with us is not quite so bad, but I would like to be able to read a statement. We do have statements here for the committee. For the record, my name is Doreen Spelts, S-P-E-L-T-S, and I'm the president of the School of Hard Knocks, Incorporated. Throughout here I will refer to it as SOHK. We're a multifaceted youth intervention organization. We're nonprofit, 501(c)(3). We are a company that was incorporated in the State of Delaware and registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Attached to the testimony are different items. Number 1 includes material related to our organization. We're presenting testimony today because we will soon open our first community resource center at 2509 West Lehigh Avenue. And I'd like to take this time to thank you for inviting me. Your staff called me about this and I made arrangements to be here. A little bit of history, SOHK convenes a program of structured experiences for youngsters in schools, community centers, houses of worship, detention centers, and juvenile jails. The program was created in July 1993 by Simon Khaadim and the 121 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 late Thurman Ali Bonner, two men serving life at SCI Graterford. For two years, the Messrs. Bonner and Ahad, trustees in Graterford's OSU, interacted with nearly 3,000 youngsters between the ages of to 18. 6 It was through those intervention sessions that the cofounders created seven community oriented programs geared for young people. Our prayer is to oversee some of their programs out of 2509 West Lehigh Avenue, a building donated to us by businesswoman Sharon Thomas. In June of this year we began improvements inside the building and then took the initiative to clean up a vacant lot at 2513 West Lehigh Avenue, which is next to our building. Attachment No. 2 is a news release dated October 12th which notes the most current status of our work at 2509 West Lehigh Avenue. Additionally, we've learned from staff in Councilman Darrell Clarke's office that this lot is eligible for adoption. We're in the process of completing the necessary paperwork to submit to Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation. Our goal is to turn the lot into a small community park for the children and seniors in the neighborhood. 122 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 Also attached to 2509 but next to the vacant lot is 2511 West Lehigh Avenue, an unoccupied building. We've been told by various residents on the street that no one has lived there for at least five years. We're concerned that this building will collapse as the exterior of the structure appears to be unsound. Also a sump pump has become a vital piece of equipment in our basement because water appears to be leeching into our space from the basement at 2511. We've also been told that buildings along this area of Lehigh Avenue sit on a former creek bed. During the time we spent working at the site, we've developed a good relationship with the residents in the community. Many times they've expressed their appreciation to us for what we've done, amongst their relief at seeing pounds of trash carted away, we sense a great amount of frustration and hopelessness and helplessness. Two weeks ago a resident on the other side of Sterner Street came to our site to ask if we could help her clean up the alley that runs behind her neighbors' homes. We're going to do it as soon as we can. We have two men working with us who are 123 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 completing their community service with this renovation project. They've developed into experienced workers who can be challenged to change a backyard or a neighborhood from blight to bright. Our mission is to recruit and train paroled men and women for our Shepherd Program and eventually offer full-time employment with the corporation. We currently retain five men and three women to facilitate structured experiences to youth-at-risk.
Many men and woman who've returned to freedom are eager to give back to society as a way to restore the wrongs they committed in their communities. Our experience with the Lehigh Avenue project has convinced us that we can bring effective and positive changes to neighborhoods across the city. In closing and after hearing everything this morning, I would ask that Philadelphia become more service friendly to its residents, whether they be senior citizens or people who work and pay taxes. They are bound together by the common thread that tells them no one hears them when they call. They feel totally disempowered. Many of these people can't sell their houses and pick up their belongings and live in a better neighborhood or a different 124 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 place in order to find a better quality of life. They're literally stuck here. A city is more than a place with great hospitals, houses of culture, universities, restaurants, and corporate offices. It's a place where people live and work. Please try to resolve this issue of city blight. We didn't hear too much about it, but there's an awful lot of city blight out there. It's destroying Philadelphia, and we who work with children, we can see what it is doing to them. On the map that you will be getting, I've drawn a map of Lehigh Avenue and Sterner Street which is the street that is back to back to Lehigh. There are vacant houses on Sterner. A couple have been boarded up by L & I. One of the houses on there, 2520, is boarded up in the front but it is not boarded up in the back. And in the back of that space is a horrendous amount of trash that needs to be carted away. Also, the fact that it is unboarded in the back allows for possibly some problems to take place. So we tried to address it. L & I was very, very helpful in getting bags to us and tools when we cleaned the lot, but 125 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 apparently they do not have to offer that same service when you're cleaning up alleys. And we really, really would like to have that one back 2520 cleaned up because we know with having children in there they're going to run up and down the alleys. Unsafe is unhealthy.
So it's two requests, one is either the demolition or capsulation of 2511 West Lehigh, and the securing and boarding of the rear 2520 Sterner?
Well, there are processes now that L & I has in place that if the building is not -- if the building is immanently dangerous, it can be removed. If it's not immanently dangerous, then the capsulation process which includes the replacing of a roof, the down spouts, the drainage to keep the kind of water problems and other things away from the properties next door. So they're going to evaluate that and determine which is the best angle. Thank you very much.
Mr. Regerio. This is 126 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 the last witness I have on the list. Anyone else to testify? Thank you very much for waiting. Please identify yourself.
My name is Salvatore Regerio. I live at 722 North Bodine Street. I'd like to register a complaint about a house directly behind me, 721 North Third Street. The name of the people who live there is Maximo, M-A-X-I-M-O. They've been living in the neighborhood for many years, I understand. I've only been living there for two years. I bought my house two years ago. It's a very small street. The street that I live on, it's just houses on one side. It has a church that occupies the other side of the street. My complaint is that the people who live behind me, it's a husband and wife. As I said, they've been living there many years. I believe the woman who lives in that house was born there. She's made it very clear to me and to all my neighbors that relatives of hers owned my house other houses on the street until me and my neighbors started buying them. She feeds stray cats, pigeons, squirrels, and anything else that runs around the neighborhood. 127 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 She has had at any one time up to cats in her backyard. My neighbors, who I understand have complained about her for years to L & I and nothing has been done about it. I myself have made several calls to L & I. When I described the problem, if you were to go out there on any given day other than about 6:30 or 7 o'clock in the morning or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, other than those two times of day, if you went into her yard, which people have done, I have seen official-looking people going into her yard on many occasions from complaints that my neighbors have registered, you would never know anything was going on in her backyard. She keeps her backyard spotless. All during this past summer even with the drought she is constantly washing her backyard. I didn't complain about that the fact that she was wasting water because we figured if we complained about that she wasting water, the problem would get worse. She feeds the cats and pigeons. The cats then come into all our backyards. We all have these little postage stamp back yards. The cats come into our yards and leave their droppings behind in our yards, they dig up our plants and flowers, 128 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 they drive our pets crazy. I have two dogs who are going out of their minds with frustration not being able to get to the cats. My neighbor had two cats many years. She just a month ago had to put the cats to sleep. Unfortunately, she couldn't be here today to tell her story because she was working. She had to have her cats put to sleep because her cats in retaliation for these stray cats leaving messes on her doorstep, her cats were starting to wet all over her house kind of in retaliation and frustration. She had to put her two cats, who she had for many years, put to sleep. As I said, my dogs are going crazy. My neighbors animals are all going crazy because of this. These cats just come and do whatever they want. They put feces on our roofs. Our houses smell from the cats. As I said, if you were go out to her house right now and you walked into her background, you would see no evidence -- the point I must stress here is that if you go out there now, you would see no evidence of cats, birds, squirrels or anything. If you came into my yard, you would find cat feces. There's a telephone wire that runs along the back of 129 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 my house above my yard, and birds perch there in the morning and the afternoon when they're waiting to be fed and they leave dropping all over my backyard. I can't keep my lawn furniture on the back part of my yard. I have to fold it up every day, bring it to another part, this little, tiny yard, because of the bird droppings. I can't be out in my yard at certain times of the day because of the birds perching on the wire. Squirrels come and bury -- dig up all my plants in my yard and flowers and buries the nuts that she leaves.
Every morning her and her husband go out with these big aluminium dishes filled with cats, food for the birds, and they throw pounds and pounds -- I don't know where they get the money to do this, but loads of peanuts for the squirrels. And everything gets -- all the droppings and peanuts get left my yard and all my neighbors' yards. If you went to into her yard now, again, as I said, you would find her yard spotless. You would think that I was crazy. When I called L & I and I told them the problem, they said me and my neighbors would probably be cited because of the messes in our yards and her yard would be found to 130 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 be clean. Somebody would have to come out to house 6:30 or o'clock in the morning, stand in my second 4 floor bathroom and watch this scene unfold . It's 5 every single day. 6 She has complained to -- when she needs 7 to she will tell you, I owned your house or my aunt and uncle owned your house and I don't get along with anybody. I fight with everybody because I feed the cats and the birds, but I don't get along with anybody and I can do whatever I want. I put a furring strip along the back fence of my yard with nails sticking out of it to try to stop the cats from walking cross. She had someone come into her yard, know it with off with a hammer and yell across into my house that they would be back tomorrow to do something further. I put a large palm tree in my backyard this year. One of the branches was hanging over into her yard. She called the person who holds my mortgage who used to live in my house and told him that she was getting the District Attorney's Office after him if he didn't have me remove this tree and the flag that I was hanging on the back fence because the tree was hanging over into her yard and 131 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 the flag was hanging on a fence which she put up. So not to make anymore trouble with the person holding my mortgage, a friend of mine removed tree and the flag. So she keeps winning and winning and winning, and I'm getting no where. I called your office. I talked Sherry, she said she would get back to me Monday. She called me and told me to come here.
One of the things I'm wondering is if your neighbors and yourself are as frustrated as I think you might be, would it be feasible for you guys, the street to get legal counsel to sue civilly this individual for your inability to enjoy your property?
My understanding from one of my neighbors on one side who's been living on the street many years is that that's been tried. They've petitions and all but --
Part of the problem is, that he's right, L & I will come out there and see that --
I'm just wondering whether or not if we would investigate perhaps the civil court's ability to modify her behavior. I mean, obviously she knows you guys are upset with her.
So I'm wondering whether or not -- do you have a videotape of this whole thing?
Is there some way that we can maybe get some tape of it? You're probably waken up in the morning by the birds.
Or my dog going crazy. I can't use my house -- I shouldn't even say this in public, but I can't use my house alarm anymore because my dog is 42 pounds and he stands very tall. I couldn't understand why day after day my house 133 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 alarm kept going off, the cops kept going to my house. I finally realized I have a French door on the back of my house. When he see the cats going by, he just jumps up and bangs into the door and it kept setting my house alarm off. So I'm paying an alarm company and I can't keep my house alarm on. I have to lock my dog in my bedroom at night so that I can sleep on the third floor in peace with the alarm on. And I'm out during the day and I can't keep my alarm on.
Let us examine the possibility of doing something from a civil suit with not costing you guys anything, to try to put a lawyer or lawyers who will take that on and perhaps get to a point where we can get a court to order her either to pay damages or to stop her activities. Any type of videotape you could or your neighbors could provide would be helpful in providing the necessary evidence to try to bring that thing to some conclusion. We have your phone number. We'll get back to you. There is no one else here to testify on this resolution. We do have two pieces of business to do, two ordinances. One is 990605 and 990495. 134 RESOLUTION NO. 990580 I'm sorry, someone else to testify on the resolution?
I just want to give you an update on Wilt Street. We have 10/26 date for Equity Court on that. Cureley called the company, took that back to court, got that for us today.
In the meantime, are we going to be able to make some contact up there, too?
Well, they were out there. The police and DHS were out there conducting the hearings. The other part of this is that we did mention is a problem is service for those court dates, so just on to keep that in mind also, that we have a problem now -- in fact, we asked the servers to go out and try to connect while the police and DHS is there. If they can get in, maybe they can serve her at the same time, but there's another impediment. Even if we use our influence to get these things up for immediate court action, we have that service problem. If they don't get served, we can't hold them accountable. I just want to thank you gentlemen, each 135 BILL NOS. 990495, 990605 of you, for the support that you give to L & I.
Thank you for your testimony and for being here today and for your help. Are you going to testify on these bills?
Let me read the two bills into the record and then you can say you have no 11 objection to the passage of it. First is Bill No. 990605 which is an ordinance amending Subcode PM of Title 4 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled "The Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code," by extending the emergency nuisance abatement program to include the First Ward, the Second Ward, the 39A Ward and the 29B Ward. That's Bill No. 990605. And Bill No. 990495 is an ordinance 20 amending Subcode PM of Title 4 of the Philadelphia Code entitled "The Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code," by extending the emergency nuisance abatement program to include the Fifth Ward. Will you please identify yourself for the record and proceed? 136 BILL NOS. 990495, 990605
Yes. I am Otis Hagler, Jr., Legislature Regulatory Affairs manager for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Council Chair, we have no objections to the passage of these ordinances.
Thank you very much. There's no one else to testify on these bills, that concludes the public hearing of the Licenses and Inspections Committee. - - - 137 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC MEETING COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - - - Wednesday, October 20, 1999 - - - Public Meeting conducted by the Committee on Public Property and Public Works, held in Room 401, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the above date, to consider action on the following: BILLS 990605, 990495 - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY, Chairman COUNCILMAN FRANK DI CICCO COUNCILMAN MICHAEL NUTTER COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - 138 BILL NOS. 990495, 990605
We now convene a public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco for a motion on Bill No. 990495.
I move that Bill No. 990495 be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at the next session of City Council. (Properly seconded.)
All in favor? There are none opposed. Bill No. 990495 will be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation, in additional a request will be made for the rules suspension to allow for first reading at our next Council Session. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco a motion on Bill No. 990605.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Bill No. 990605 be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next regular session. (Properly seconded.)
Moved and seconded. All in favor? There are none opposed. Bill No. 990605 will be reported out this committee with a favorable recommendation and a request will be made for rules suspension to allow for first reading at our next Council Session. Thank you for your attendance. This concludes the business of the Licenses and Inspections Committee. Thank you. (Council adjourned at 1:00 p.m.) - - - 139 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of October 20, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS ___________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR and Notary Public