By Christopher Haraden

As community organizations and individuals have focused on cleanup efforts throughout town this spring, neighbors living near the Hull Housing Authority’s apartments on C and D Streets say the property has been in poor condition for years, although an exterior cleanup began this week following inquiries from the Times for this news story.

**CAUSE FOR CONCERN.** Neighbors of the Hull Housing Authority’s apartments on C & D Streets say the properties have been poorly maintained for years. The authority and the board of health stepped up enforcement of cleanliness standards this week.

“In the past few years, it has become a nuisance,” said Gary Hulverson, who lives across the street from the Nantascot Apartments, when asked about the conditions observed at the site on Monday, including a mattress, an automobile door, debris in the yard, and items such as grills and children’s toys blocking the front sidewalks.

“There’s now a BBQ-type smoker and hot plate that are out front and frequently in use. There are an abundance of toys, car seats [and] occasional loud, sometimes vulgar, music played,” he said. “Hopefully this will and should be addressed by the town.”

“Yes, we are aware of the issue,” said Michael Flaherty, the authority’s executive director. “We have had conversations with residents at the development and informed them of our expectations. We will continue our efforts to improve the conditions of the exterior of the development.”

One neighbor said multiple telephone calls to the housing authority’s office about the condition of the housing complex were not returned. The Times’ outreach to two authority members this week was unanswered. After multiple attempts to contact Public Health Director Rachel Gerold, we received an email reply on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have been in touch with the Hull Housing Authority to clean out the areas of concern,” Gerold emailed. “They are making progress and we expect efforts to continue through this week. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”

By Wednesday, the BBQ smoker and the children’s toys were removed from the sidewalk and much of the grounds had been cleaned. The wooden trim around the entry doors and on some parts of the facade remains scraped to the bare wood and unpainted. A mattress was discarded behind one of the buildings on Central Avenue.

One resident of the apartments, which were built for veterans in 1949 but now are not restricted to those with a military connection, said the town sent tenants a letter this week about the condition of the property.

“The steps we have taken specifically are to inform residents of their responsibility with their personal property. They have been informed that the common area of the development is not a storage area for their personal property,” Flaherty said. “We have informed them that the authority would be disposing of any and all personal property on the exterior grounds of the development, which we are in the process of doing.”

Flaherty said that when inspectors on Tuesday told an authority tenant to remove the mattress from the yard, the resident “dragged it over to behind the dumpster, and when maintenance discussed it he was verbally abusive to our staff member. Residents have been provided multiple times with a flier of instructions outlining the proper way to have a mattress disposed of.”

Hulverson added that the many of the seven buildings, which contain a total of 28 units and are located along C and D Streets and Central Avenue, are in poor shape.

“Several years ago, most of the entrance doors were stripped of paint and never repainted,” he said. “There are shingles coming off all of the roofs.”

The Hull Housing Authority’s most recent capital improvement plan – filed with the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities – calls for $344,885 to be spent on roof replacement and $133,403 on interior work in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

“The preliminary steps have been take to replace the roofs. We are in process to go out to bid in the not-too-distant future,” said Flaherty, the executive director. “It is my hope that they will be completed in the fall before the onset of winter. Same with the interior finishes. Inspections of apartments have been completed and this work is also going out to bid with the same timetable.”

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