On June 3, 2019, Mayor Luke Bronin, city leaders, and organizers gathered on the steps of 65 Albany Avenue, in Hartford, to discuss the new Hartford housing code proposed by Mayor Bronin. This is the building where the No More Slumlords Campaign was launched.  Joshua Serrano, resident leader and now CAC organizer, spoke along with peer resident leader, Teri Morrison.

Josh’s full remarks are below.

Good morning. My name is Josh Serrano. I am a community organizer with the Christian Activities Council and former resident of slumlord-owned Clay Arsenal Apartments right here in this neighborhood. My fellow residents, family and I suffered for years because of a lack of oversight by HUD and a lack of effective housing code AND City enforcement.

My fellow residents and I organized successfully with the Christian Activities Council to rid our city of Emmanuel Ku and other notorious slumlords. Now we are looking for long term systemic changes so that we urgently prevent these conditions from happening in the future.

A new housing code is a great first step. We thank Mayor Bronin and the Department of Development Services for proposing a new code that seeks to address the many issues uncovered in the No More Slumlords campaign.

The Christian Activities Council applauds this first step, but notes, importantly, that it’s just the start of combatting this long term issue.  We call on the City of Hartford and City Council to take a comprehensive approach and assure the residents of the following before we can claim victory:

  1. We encourage the City to reach out to legal experts with firsthand experience like Greater Hartford Legal Aid and Connecticut Fair Housing – to get a thorough vetting of the new Housing Code to ensure there are no unintended set backs for residents.
  2. There is need for better enforcement. With the proper systems in place to support inspectors, the City could have prevented some of the deplorable living conditions in the first place. For example, current code requires that each landlord have a Certificate of Apartment Occupancy. These certificates call for an inspection anytime there is a new tenant moving into an apartment. This is a good policy, but it had not been enforced for decades until we demanded it as part of the no more slumlords campaign. The reasons given were lack of updated technology, lack of inspectors, and inability to effectively identify vacant units. In this case, good policy is voided without proper resources, enforcement and a transparent sustainable infrastructure.

Again, we thank the Mayor and the Department of Development Services for taking this important first step. We look forward to ongoing assessment of the new code with input from legal aid experts and we hope to see a comprehensive implementation plan. Thank you.

The proposed housing code is entirely new, and it would provide the city tools to promote better quality housing, over time. For the first time, the code requires apartment buildings over a certain size to be licensed on a four-year cycle. The proposed code enacts citywide standards for clean, safe, habitable housing; improves indoor air quality by regulating mold and toxic levels of lead; empowers city officials to inspect properties to assess compliance; provides the tools to bring violators to justice; and more. The proposed changes have been submitted to the City Council and will now go through the regular Council approval process.