Thread: Housing 28 In Home Gets Landlord Busted

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/sto ... 4339c.html

Housing 28 in home gets landlord busted

June 21, 2005
BY E.W. BLANKENBAKER
DAILY NEWS WRITER

The first clue is the four satellite dishes on the roof. The next is the trash-strewn backyard.
Take into account the worn-down facade and the abandoned shopping carts, and it becomes quite apparent the house at 33 Woodmont Place in Farmingville is no ordinary home.

Suffolk County officials announced yesterday that the eight-room house was home to at least 28 men and that the landlord, Rosalina Dias, 31, of Selden had been arrested for criminal nuisance and criminal contempt.

"This was a public safety issue. Just look at the wiring," Brookhaven Town Councilman James Tullo (R-Coram) said, referring to several pictures of the extension cords that crisscrossed the inside of the home, over a propane tank and across the floor.

In total, there were 44 beds set up in the home. Most, if not all, of the men who lived there were immigrant day laborers, neighbors said.

"It is not a racial thing. They have no right to interfere in our environment," Dianne Aragones, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1978, said. "I really do feel sorry for them. Nobody would want 50 people living [in one house] in their community."

The presence of hundreds of day laborers in Farmingville has created an ongoing conflict in the community. The tension came to a head in 2000 when two Mexican laborers were lured to an abandoned building in Shirley and nearly beaten to death.

Neighbors started complaining to police about the Woodmont Place home nearly a year ago, officials said.

Police said the tenants of the home were paying $225 to $250 apiece per month in rent to Dias.

It was clear yesterday that Dias and her tenants had long ignored upkeep of the one-story, single-family home.

The backyard was strewn with empty beer bottles and piles of trash, several stacks of cinder blocks and a hand-cranked cement mixer covered in weeds.

Several shopping carts filled with piles of trash were scattered about the yard.

When Dias ignored a state Supreme Court order to evict the necessary number of tenants, Suffolk County police got a search warrant. Cops arrested Dias yesterday about 10 a.m.

The town councilman said officials had contacted Catholic charities to see if they could help with placement of Dias' former tenants.

Originally published on June 21, 2005

The town councilman said officials had contacted Catholic charities to see if they could help with placement of Dias' former tenants.

If they are not legal, they should be sent to their own country.

The original Story Title was this

Suffolk Cracksdown On Illegal Immigrant Housing

I wonder why they changed it?

Suffolk County officials announced yesterday that the eight-room house was home to at least 28 men and that the landlord, Rosalina Dias, 31, of Selden had been arrested for criminal nuisance and criminal contempt.

The tenants thought they were in the Mexican Hilton.