EAST NEWARK –
During the 2015-2016 school year, East Newark public school employees suspected that certain children attending the already crowded East Newark Elementary School were not bona fide residents of the borough.
In some cases, it turned out some kids were coming from across the Passaic River, from Newark.
In other cases, though, children were found to be living in the borough – but in an illegal housing unit, according to municipal and school officials.
And, in recent years, “we’ve been finding more and more of it,” said Patrick Martin, superintendent/principal of the borough’s only school.
Typically, Martin said, the situation involves a residence with two apartments, each with two bedrooms, living room and bathroom, renting for between $1,000 and $1,200 a month.
All of that is perfectly fine, he said, but then people will sub-lease part of their apartment to some other individual and sub-divide the apartment, allowing that individual to put a padlock on a door to create a separate entrance.
“We’ve found that the going rate for such a room is like $100 a week,” Martin said. “And it’s completely illegal. This goes on constantly and often we’ve encountered a mother in one of these rooms with two or three children. They’ve got a little refrigerator, hotplate and/or microwave.”
When it comes to heating the illegal unit, Martin said the gas or electric bill is sent to the apartment whose name is on the lease – not the individual to whom it is sub-let.
For new registrants to the borough school, “we should see a utility bill with [the child’s family’s] name on it” as proof of residency, Martin said. “In the old days, we just asked for your mail as proof that you lived there but that doesn’t work anymore.”
Two years ago, Martin said, enrollment at the borough school was 260; the last school year, it rose to 270, and currently, it’s 280. But aside from the St. George Apartments – which generated little or no new students – “there’s been no new construction” that could account for an influx of children, Martin said.
Since school officials lack the jurisdictional authority to demand entry to a private dwelling to verify their suspicions – no matter how well researched their suspicions are – they call on the local PD for help, Martin said.
When that happens, said Police Chief Anthony Monteiro, “we go to the location to speak to the people in the apartment to see if the family lives there.”
Or, Monteiro said, police responding to an address for some other reason will check for evidence of an illegal padlocked room. On occasion, he said, police will find inside such a unit, a bedroom with two families living there “and sometimes three or four families.”
He said these illegal dwellings have been discovered “in the basement, in attics, in normal apartments.”
Such findings, Monteiro said, are referred to the borough’s construction code officer, Mark Sadonis, who is expected to “square it away in court.” In many instances, he added, the owners of the buildings involved claim they “didn’t even know” about the illegal units in their buildings.
Sadonis said that when such complaints about these illegal “cubicles” are brought to his office’s attention, “we try to bring the owners to court.” He estimated that five such cases went to court during the past school year but couldn’t recall the outcomes. An attempt by The Observer to find out was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the borough’s municipal government is doing what it can to help control the spread of the illegal units.
On Sept. 14, the mayor and Borough Council updated its code regulating rental property registration to require that all rental units in buildings of fewer than 20 apartments be “registered [with the borough clerk] … yearly and with each change of occupancy,” beginning Aug. 15, 2017.
In addition to key facts about the property owner and/or agent, the law also requires the owner to file “the exact number of sleeping rooms contained in the rental unit,” along with “a floor plan” of the unit, plus “the names, age and gender of each tenant who is to occupy the dwelling unit” and “such other information as may be prescribed by the borough.”
Moreover, the law mandates that “each rental unit shall be inspected at least once a year” by an agent of the borough “for the purpose of determining zoning ordinance compliance, and to the extent applicable, to determine if the property complies with the Property Maintenance Code, BOCA Maintenance Code and Housing Code and/or Uniform Fire Safety Act.”
The law further requires that, “the maximum number of occupants, as determined by the construction code official, shall be posted in each rental unit.”
If a unit fails inspection, the law calls for the tenant(s) to vacate the unit pending compliance with the relevant codes within 30 days. Failing that, and/or the borough granting an extension, the owner can be subject to penalties.
The law specifies that, “No person shall … occupy any rental unit, nor shall the owner permit occupancy of any rental unit within the borough, which is not registered and licensed ….”
Armed with this new enforcement tool, combined with the doubling down on compelling the showing of a utility bill, Martin is hoping the tide can be turned.
