Illegal housing for illegal aliens
The MetroWest Daily News reports on Framingham’s, Marlborough, Malden’s, and Milford’s efforts to clamp down on illegal housing:
Authorities in those towns say they are trying to curb overcrowded apartments or illegal rooming houses to protect the health and safety of the people who live there, along with their neighbors.
While each town relies on zoning, local bylaws and state codes to fight overcrowding, local officials take different approaches to the problem.
“There are a gazillion rules on the books, and you’re using them judiciously to get an end result,” said Pam Wilderman, Marlborough code enforcement officer. “The end result is public safety.”
…
Milford also is working to get an apartment certification program up and running. Landlords will have to register rental units with the town, which will set a maximum occupancy based on the state’s sanitary code.
“The problem is persistent and it places many of our residents in danger, but it also puts a tremendous strain on community services,” Mazzuchelli said. “Other cities and towns are trying to address this as well.”
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Chris Webb, director of public health for Malden, said the rule was created to deal with a “huge problem in this city with illegal apartments.”
Like Milford, those illegal units often divvy up any spare space into extra bedrooms, he said. The city also may consider a unit certification program, somewhat similar to Milford, Webb said.
Overcrowding presents concerns about tenement-style living, Webb said.
“I walk into a three-family that has 35 people living in it, and there isn’t so much as one living room and they congregate in the kitchen around the food,” Webb said. “There’s concern for the spread of disease.”
What’s driving the illegal housing problem are the enormous communities of illegal aliens in Massachusetts. Governor Deval Patrick could have had the state chip in by letting troopers take on some immigration enforcement responsibilities, but he prefers to pass the buck to towns and cities, based on the rationale that illegal aliens would rather not be bothered by immigration enforcement. I hope the Governor doesn’t decide that building-code and zoning-law enforcement are too bothersome, too.
