EXCLUSIVE: Illegal - Old Worcester Firehouse Violates State Law
Thursday, February 23, 2012
An old firehouse in Worcester has turned into an overcrowded single-family home, prompting questions about whether state rooming house laws are being violated.
One the of tenants at the Worcester Firehouse, Greg Opperman, told GoLocalWorcester refused to disclose how many people were living in the home, citing a state law that requires residents to file for a special license if too many people are living at a given property.
While Opperman wouldn't say just how many people are currently living at the property located at 126 Eastern Avenue, he did give a GoLocalWorcester reporter a tour of the house, where a chore board in the kitchen has the names of 12 people with designated daily duties in the house.
The Fire House dates back to 1901
The 4 or more rule
According to Massachusetts State Law, if there are “4 or more renters living in a building who are not related to the person operating the building," it automatically becomes a rooming house. Operating such a rooming house without the proper license is against state law.
Opperman, who is identified as the co-op Treasurer, told GoLocalWorcester he is aware of the law, and would not disclose the number of people living in the building, “because of state laws,” he said.
Director of Worcester's Division of Housing & Health Inspec Amanda Wilson confirmed the property is not licensed as a rooming house.
Opperman is a 26-year-old independent software consultant and amateur photographer. The WPI alumnus said he worked as an intern in the 111-year-old Firehouse building, with the Participatory Culture Foundation. The non-profit media company held office space in the building while he was a student. He told GoLocalWorcester at the time, one young man was already living in a room in the 3-bedroom building.
Opperman said he moved into the Firehouse soon after, and that in March 2010, the then-landlord, Prentice Pilot, “declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy.”
“He said, ‘I’m out of here, you guys can stay here as long as you want,’” said Opperman. Opperman said he and others paid rent during their entire tenure at the house to Pilot, before purchasing it last month. “We actually had to pay a lot of rent, because it wasn’t per unit or room, it was per person,” he said.
Public records indicate the property was bought by the co-op for $162,000. The deed is currently in the names of Abdul Sherai and Rebecca Rothberg. They are listed as joint, unmarried tenants occupying the residence.
“I can’t tell you how many people are living here, but you can probably figure it out,” Opperman said. He indicated he is a full-time tenant, along with 25-year-old musician Mickey O’Hara. Both Sherai and Rothberg have legally declared the Firehouse as their homestead.
The building is located at 126 Eastern Avenue
12 to 200 on a Friday night
Opperman said he wants the co-op housing to exist for artists and musicians to have a steady place to live while collaborating creatively. “But we all have real jobs,” he said.
Mickey O’Hara, a 2009 Clark University alumnus and electronic musician, moved into the property while it was on the foreclosure market. He had been playing in a band called Water, started “hanging out in the basement after practice,” and then became a full-time resident in May 2010.
Both Opperman and O’Hara said one of the primary functions of the Firehouse has been to host shows, from both local and touring bands.
“We can have anywhere from a dozen to 200 people in here on a Friday night,” Opperman said. Shows are played in the ground-level area residents call the “basement,” which now houses a full trailer and basketball hoop. Opperman said it was once the office site for the non-profit where he said he interned during college. The Worcester Fire Department told GoLocalWorcester that because the property is listed as a single-family home, it has never been inspected for potential fire hazards.
"I don't even know how many people are living over there, there are people going in and out all the time. Lots of people. The music is not too loud, but there are big parties up and down the whole street. They park their cars and block my driveway," said Lillian Degado, who lives 3 houses down from the Firehouse.
GoLocalWorcester contacted the Worcester Police Department, who said their records indicate that only 2 noise complaints have been filed against the property in recent years, one in 2005, and one in 2010.
Safety risks
The National Association of Housing Cooperative defines a housing co-op as “when people join with each other on a democratic basis to own or control the housing and/or related community facilities in which they live. Usually they do this by forming a not-for-profit cooperative corporation. Each month they simply pay an amount that covers their share of the operating expenses of their cooperative corporation.”
While the Firehouse Housing Cooperative, Inc. has incorporated itself through the state, the State Secretary’s Office told GoLocalWorcester that documentation does not pertain to operation or licensing.
Wilson said operating an illegal rooming house poses serious health and safety risks to residents. "It's absolutely a safety concern. It's listed as a single family home, and if emergency personnel went there, that's what they would expect. If there was a fire, they wouldn't know how many people need to be out and safe, they don't know what's going on behind that front door," she said.
The license is only $75. "But there are more stringent safety requirements with that license, because the people who live in these types of houses tend to be more transient," Wilson said.
Requirements include making repairs, supplying enough living space per individual (150 square ft. per person), and preventing fire hazards, but also extend to maintaining the sanitary codes for rooming houses.
In November 2011, several Worcester landlords went to court over housing groups of Holy Cross students without a lodging license (see City of Worcester v. College Hill Properties, LLC). College Hill Properties was fined $7,300.
“Because safety, health, and welfare concerns stemming from lodging houses have more to do with management than zoning issues, licensure is an effective regulatory device,” the Worcester Housing Courts wrote in that decision.
Wilson said the co-op has not even applied for the proper license. She said if her department inspected a property and determined it was not properly licensed, they would issue a seize and desist order, and possibly go to housing court.
Opperman said he does not plan to make any further changes to the Firehouse, or the co-op set-up. He and O’Hara indicated that neither had plans to change their living situation in the near future, and look forward to a show they will host this Friday.
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Comments:
B F
5:50pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Are you serious, Meghan? In this economy you're trying to land some investigative piece at the potential trade off of causing these folks to become displaced? It's an interesting project that has a lot of potential.
Instead of trying to cause it to fall apart with loud accusations why not be constructive and use your journalism skills to help these people find proper guidance, funds, etc.? Why not show the positive aspects of the firehouse? Why not talk about the benefits it offers in keeping youth involved in music in the arts - keeping them out of trouble and away from drugs? I just don't understand why someone would expend the energy trying to ruin a good thing that's helping those within the community.
If you truly cared about the art/music community and culture you wouldn't be so quick to toss these guys under a bus. I can only surmise you've got some personal reason to pursue this and thus makes you unfit to have an unbiased piece on this topic.
Daniel Benoit
8:52pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012
B F. I agree entirely. The people at the firehouse should be commended for what they are doing, and have been doing for a while now. They care more about, and have given more to the Worcester art and music scene than just about anyone. They deserve our help and guidance, they are doing nothing but giving back to a community they care about.
B F
9:15pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Also worth noting - the square footage as listed on the sales records I found say it's 7398 sqft. Given the stated requirement of 150 sqft per person and the assumption that there are 12 people already living there - the Firehouse could legally hold 37 more people.
Jacob Gaulin
3:43pm on Saturday, February 25, 2012
Meghan Ottolini, you should be utterly ashamed of yourself. This article is in incredibly poor taste. The firehouse has done so much for the community. They have given art and music to a city that craves it. To take such a beautiful place and reduce it to this petty article is morally reprehensible. Maybe you can use your power to destroy art and culture this time, (I hope not) but you will never destroy the good people of Worcester. You have wasted your time writing this destructive and morally bankrupt drivel. I hope somebody never tries to steal something you love because it feels awful and evokes feelings of deep anger. Shame on you.
N F
2:16pm on Sunday, February 26, 2012
I would say that this is the worst, most mean-spirited piece of journalism I have ever read, but this garbage is more like some sort of idiotic attempt at a self-serving "gotcha" tabloid piece than actual journalism. The fact that you toured a beautiful old building being utilized by what seems to be progressive and talented young people for the benefit of the Worcester arts community, and then chose to write about a rarely-enforced law (being violated by college students all over the state) attests to your despicably low quality of work. You should indeed be ashamed of yourself as a person for trying to slander a great asset in the city, and also embarrassed on a professional level for not even really slandering anyone effectively.
This article runs against what I thought this website was--a pro-Worcester, intelligent, respectful, and well-informed perspective. This is the exact opposite of all those things. Maybe you wrote this sadistic drivel as some sort of pitiful cry for attention, but you just lost your website a reader.
Dylan Clark
7:43pm on Monday, February 27, 2012
Firstly, I will introduce myself as a member of the Worcester arts/music community. I have lived in Worcester since 2004 and have always supported alternative culture here and elsewhere.
Secondly, I will add that I am a former resident of the Firehouse and and truly sickened by this poor excuse for investigative journalism.
I did a bit of "investigative journalism" of my own, and facebook(via google, what a world this is!) told me the phone number (301-787-4183, for the record) of the author of this piece of writing, Meghan Ottolini. As a(former, pending further developments) reader of golocalworcester.com, I felt compelled to contact Ms. Ottolini and inquire about more information about this house. I wanted to congratulate her as an upstanding citizen, a true crusader for archaic housing regulations and a courageous muckraker shining the virtuous spotlight of public scrutiny on one of the great ills of our supposedly enlightened and modern society: small groups of young adults who live together and occasionally host free events for anyone who would like to participate in art in the arguably cultureless city of Worcester. I was given no opportunity to say any of those things. I simply inquired about more information about this so-called "Firehouse." Ms. Ottolini did not appreciate my phone call asking that simple question. She asked who I was, and I told her my name and said that I was a reader. She demanded to know how I got her phone number, and I told her "google(which is the truth, I am no private investigator of her caliber by any means)." She seemed upset, so I attempted to kindly assuage her by saying that I was just interested in learning more about her research. Which, by rights, I was. She hung up on me, so I assume she is not exactly steadfast in defending her journalistic integrity. That is an extrapolation on my part, however.
I truly am disappointed in golocalworcester.com. Being an actual member of the actual Worcester community and a lifelong resident of Worcester County(unlike the author, who lives in the "Greater Boston Area" and is actually from the Greater Baltimore Area), I am discouraging friends, associates, and acquaintances from patronizing golocalworcester(facebook, twitter, and word-of-mouth are powerful mediums, I needn't remind the kind reader) until her inflammatory article is removed and she issues a written apology to the residents of the Firehouse. The citizenry of Worcester are benevolent and forgiving; we won't hold it against Ms. Ottolini or the golocalworcester.
David Taberner
12:59am on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
It's hard to blame Ms. Ottolini for writing such a slanderous piece. She is, after all, just a young journalism student (expected to graduate with an MS from BU this year), trying to make a name for herself -- but building a resume at the expense of others, unless it is for a Just cause, is unethical. I hope this will be a learning experience for her and that perhaps next semester, for her own enrichment, she will sign up for an Ethics course.
To sum up the Firehouse: it is run by industrious, intelligent men & women who perform a service to the community that Ms. Ottolini does not seem to understand. Worcester is a wonderful place, rich in history & culture but high in unemployment and future prospects. In this post-industrial landscape, places like the Firehouse act as alternative, not-for-profit, venues to facilitate and foster art & music in a struggling city.
Why she would choose to attack such a place is beyond me, but I would suggest to her (if she is reading this) to pursue more interesting subjects: corruption in City Hall, the Police Dept, etc. Or better yet: bring to light the everyday struggles of the hard working people of this community. Perhaps the more confusing thing is, why is this outsider writing about our city at all?
B F
10:11am on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Dylan, while I appreciate your support I don't think calling and harassing her is the best method to show it. While I don't agree with this piece we need to also heavily respect her 1st amendment rights. Suggesting that she remove this article is an obstruction of that right. The reason I wanted to initially reply here is to offer a counter-argument at the source so those who read the article can also read an alternative perspective. So again, while I'm glad you support the cause of the firehouse I don't believe your methods have the best interests of it at heart and could actually damage its credibility. Please heavily consider the repercussions of your actions in the future.
Mars VonVector
10:35pm on Sunday, March 04, 2012
Meghan, you are a terrible person. Go away.
Mars VonVector
11:04pm on Sunday, March 04, 2012
I would just like to add that this is NOT journalism; it is an invasion of privacy, and being a snitch and a rat.
B F
1:32am on Monday, March 05, 2012
@Mars - this IS journalism. It's just misdirected journalism in my opinion. The whole "snitch"/"rat" comment implies that you agree the operation is illegal which is not a direction this discussion needs to go in. To come here just to talk trash says a lot about your character and I can only hope you're not affiliated with this place.
Mars VonVector
1:49am on Monday, March 05, 2012
I am not in any way affiliated with this place. The whole "snitch"/"rat" comment does assume a law is being broken, but your wording, "operation is illegal" blows the whole situation out of proportion as well.
I am sure that if I were to go and measure the distance between the curb and the wheels of half the cars on this authors street, that half of them would be out of regulation; does that make their 'operation illegal', and should "journalism" be conducted on them?
It's not journalism.