For Safety and Health’s Sake

Town’s Apartment Inspection Committee begins research on how other communities ensure that apartments are fit for habitation

By Mark E. Vogler

SAUGUS – Members of a new Apartment Inspection Committee created by this year’s Annual Town Meeting have embarked on research to see how other communities in the region are making safer apartments for the public. The five-member panel – which is comprised of three Town Meeting members, a selectman and the town manager or his designee – is on a fact-finding mission to report back to next year’s Town Meeting on what the town can do to ensure that apartment tenants are protected from unsafe and unhealthy conditions.

“We don’t want a catastrophe,” the committee’s chair, Peter Manoogian, told The Saugus Advocate this week.

“It seems to me that everybody should have safe and sanitary housing that’s fit for human habitation. It’s not a burdensome thing. But it’s going to require some public education,” he said.

Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree has attended the first two meetings and seems to be taking a close interest in the committee’s work and is hopeful that it leads to some meaningful regulations. “Earlier this year, Town Meeting members supported the formation of a committee to investigate the feasibility of registering and inspecting apartments in the town,” Town Manager Crabtree said.

“The article specified that the town manager or his designee be included on the Apartment Inspection Committee. I look forward to hearing from the committee members and seeing what they come up with for recommendations to Town Meeting for a possible bylaw proposal,” he said.

How Article 24 evolved

Joining Manoogian and Crabtree on the committee are Selectman Anthony Cogliano and Town Meeting Members Sue Palomba (Precinct 1) and Darren Ring (Precinct 10).

Town Meeting members voted overwhelmingly back in May in support of the measure (Article 24), which would examine the process used by at least two other nearby communities to register and inspect apartments. The committee would also produce a report by the 2025 Annual Town Meeting that may include a bylaw proposal that would identify procedures, costs associated with a registration/inspection process and recommendations for implementation.

Saugus Fire Chief Michael C. Newbury, who has been a big fan of the article that Manoogian crafted, said he likes the idea of inspecting apartments upon the renewal of leases. “This is a common practice in many communities around the Metro Boston area,” Chief Newbury said in a statement that Manoogian distributed at the Annual Town Meeting.

“It has been something that has been discussed by our fire prevention team for some time,” the chief said.

“If Article 24 passes, I will gladly obtain the best practices from the fire prevention divisions throughout the area and share them forthwith. I believe that inspecting apartments upon a transfer of a lease would be an appropriate measure to ensure proper life safety codes and standards are met at the beginning of each new lease,” the chief said.

A surge in Route 1 apartments

Manoogian calls the possible adoption of regulations for Saugus “a public safety thing,” which is already in place in the communities of Everett, Lynn, Malden and Revere – cities that committee members have been assigned to review.

He recalled a 2011 fire on Lincoln Avenue where a 50-year-old man who lived on the third floor of a three-story house later died shortly after being rescued by firefighters. The homeowner, who was awoken at 5:30 by a smoke detector, said she was unable to awaken the third floor tenant.

Manoogian said he sees the issue as a matter of equity and fairness. “Why shouldn’t apartment dwellers not have the same benefit of protection that homeowners have?” Manoogian said.

He added that it’s become an issue of major concern for him in light of the surge in apartment construction on Route 1. “We’ve got a lot of apartments coming on Route 1,” Manoogian said.

Currently, the Board of Health and the Saugus Housing Authority are involved in the inspection of low-income and elderly housing units in town. Those apartments wouldn’t be the subject of a new town bylaw providing apartment registration and inspections, according to Manoogian. Who gets regulated and how often are some of the questions the community will have to address, he said.

“If we do adopt a bylaw, we shouldn’t straight jacket the Board of Health or Inspectional Services and the regulations should be broad,” Manoogian said.

“It should address the basic questions, like What makes a place suitable for human habitation? The Town of Saugus should implement an inspection procedure. We should also decide whether we’re going to do owner-occupied apartments,” he said.

“Ultimately, it will come down to a public hearing even before we go to Town Meeting. And there will be another hearing when it comes up before Town Meeting,” he said.

Reports of 5,000-plus illegal apartments

It’s not clear how many apartments in Saugus would be affected by the adoption of a bylaw to register and inspect apartments. During last spring’s Town Meeting, Precinct 2 Town Meeting Member Peter A. Rossetti, Jr. recalled that a former building inspector once estimated “more than 5,000 illegal units around town.” If they are illegal, they are probably not being inspected for health and safety code violations.

At this week’s meeting, Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Darren Ring gave a report on his research of the City of Malden. He noted that the city outlawed keyed locks on bedroom doors. The city regulations require smoke detectors in each bedroom and in the front and rear hallways. Three-family dwellings or more must have name and emergency contact numbers posted in front, visible from the street.

In Revere, apartments must be inspected before the issuance of an occupancy permit, according to Manoogian, who went to that city to conduct his research. He noted that Revere inspectors do a thorough inspection of apartments. They test the smoke detectors, the water temperatures, whether the toilet shakes and even the lint screen in the drier.

“I have a hard time just checking the lint in my belly button,” Manoogian quipped, just to make a point of how involved Revere inspectors are in their apartment inspections.