NORWAY — A Maine State Housing Authority official said Friday evening that the agency is doing an internal investigation to find out why its agent, Avesta Housing of Portland, failed to recognize numerous safety issues that have been uncovered in many local low-income housing units.

“Clearly something went horribly wrong,” said Peter Merrill of MSHA’s MaineHousing program.

About 75 people, including tenants, landlords, town and state officials, homeless advocates, police and fire chiefs, business owners and clergy, met at the town office to begin addressing substandard and life-threatening issues in Norway’s multiple apartment buildings.

The meeting was sparked by a three-month investigation by the Advertiser-Democrat into conditions in some local apartments. The investigation began after allegations of locked secondary exits and lack of smoke detectors surfaced following a rooming house fire in May. The report focused on problems in apartments under the federal government’s low-income housing program known as Section 8.

During the sometimes emotional and contentious, near two-hour session, Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman, who orchestrated the meeting along with Norway Fire Chief Dennis Yates and Paris Fire Chief Bard Frost, heard from tenants who at times expressed fear that landlords would retaliate if they reported improprieties such as locked doors and non-working or no smoke detectors. They also heard from landlords who blamed tenants for some of the problems.

“Someone is going to die in a fire if we don’t take a hold of it,” said Main Street business owner Pattie Thomas. She said the town must take its Main Street back.

One landlord said the problem of substandard housing evolved from easy access to General Assistance and low income housing that prevails in town.

“Part of the problem is it is too liberal,” Town Manager David Holt said of the General Assistance criteria.

The federal Section 8 program assists low-income families, the elderly and disabled with housing in the private market, according to the Main Department of Health and Human Services. Housing vouchers are issued and administered locally by public housing agencies. In this case, it’s Avesta Housing, which receives federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Section 8 rental units must meet minimum standards of health and safety, as determined by the public housing agency that administers the program.

Amanda Bartlett, a housing inspector for MSHA, said the inspections are baseline sanitary checks and not full-life safety, plumbing or electrical inspections that a fire department would do.

Dwellings for subsidized tenants must pass the program’s housing-quality standards as long as the owner receives housing assistance payments. Avesta must inspect each subsidized unit at least annually to ensure that it meets minimum housing quality standards.

Some at the meeting blamed the landlords for not providing decent housing to their tenants, but Chris Fitch, the grandson of Madeline Pratt, owner of 12 Section 8 apartment buildings, said the landlord is not always to blame.

“Look at the tenants before you look at the landlords,” Fitch said.

Pratt’s 12 apartment buildings were the subject of much discussion during the meeting. One of her buildings at 467 Main St. burned to the ground in May, which left 11 tenants homeless. One tenant was charged with arson.

“I almost died in the house,” former tenant Ron Ryder said. “It had no smoke detectors.”

But other tenants said Pratt, who is 91, has tried her best to make the buildings livable but relies on a part-time caretaker, who many said simply does not do the job. Pratt, all acknowledged, has opened her apartments to many homeless tenants who did not have any money nor initially any Section 8 housing voucher to pay the rent.

Heidi Hopper, 28, who is a former homeless woman who has lived in Pratt’s King Street apartment building for the past two months, said outside the meeting that Pratt provided her an apartment, accepting the $118 that the town paid for until she received her Section 8 voucher. Her roommate James Jenkins, a former Marine drill instructor and homeless man, said he knows tenants have taken out smoke detectors themselves because they are annoyed when they go off.

Fitch and other members of Pratt’s family acknowledged some lack of work by the maintenance man, but said he is part-time and not on duty during the weekends.

The town is working on updating the rental occupancy ordinance that has not been updated since 2000. Holt said officials will begin to look at the ordinance to update it. Any changes will be submitted next June for annual town meeting approval.

“The town is trying to get it right,” he said. “It won’t be a quick fix.”

“Clearly this ordinance is not working today,” Corey-Whitman said.

Meanwhile, Corey-Whitman said she will begin inspections of all rental units in town looking closely at safety issues.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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