Thread: Illegal housing probes grow

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/sto ... 4599c.html

Illegal housing probes grow

BY LAURA WILLIAMS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The Farmingville bungalow that housed up to 64 illegal immigrants is just the tip of the iceberg in Suffolk's illegal housing problem, officials warned yesterday.
Farmingville alone has 117 open investigations into illegal boarders, Brookhaven town officials said.

"More and more houses are coming to our attention," said Brookhaven Town Councilman James Tullo (R-Farmingville). "We find out about them when neighbors reach out to us, or sometimes we stumble on them."

But the problem is not just in Farmingville.

There are close to 300 illegal-housing investigations going on throughout the Town of Brookhaven, said Inez Birbiglia, the town's spokeswoman.

"These are in almost every hamlet in Brookhaven," Birbiglia said. "From Rocky Point to East Moriches to Centereach to Calverton and Bellport. It's a regional issue, not just Farmingville."

The owner of the Farmingville house at 33 Woodmont Place was busted Monday for allegedly cramming as many as 64 immigrant workers, believed to be mostly from Mexico, into the 900-square-foot house. The house was jammed with 44 mattresses.

Rosalina Dias, 31, of Selden was charged with criminal contempt and criminal nuisance.

Along with its filthy, squalid conditions, the house was a safety hazard, officials said. Exposed wires dangled from the ceiling, and in the basement, more electrical wires hung over a propane tank - near a lighted candle.

"Our job is to guarantee the health and safety not only of the occupants, but of the taxpaying residents" living nearby, Tullo said.

Though Suffolk County police did not give details about any active investigations, they did confirm they are indeed planning similar busts.

"We expect to do more of these," said Douglas Rilling, deputy inspector of the 6th Precinct. "We're in the planning stage now."

But next time, the cops plan to have support groups on hand to help illegal tenants find new housing, even if it's just temporary, Rilling said.

"We're enlisting support groups now so they'll be on the scene next time," he said.

In the Woodmont Place case, the tenants stuffed their belongings in plastic bags and had to fend for themselves.

"We had no reports of vagrant people wandering the streets [Monday] night, so to the best of our knowledge, they found housing," Rilling said.

"Anything was better than what they were in. It was an accident waiting to happen."

Originally published on June 22, 2005

The described housing patterns are common in the Southwest. This has benn so since at least the 1950s that I am aware. Slum lords are making a killing. Many of the places rented are even garages!

figure the fortunes being made if you chrge rent by the head and by the day. A 900 sq ft house / apt can bring as much as $70 to over $100 a day! Do the math.

Also, the communicable disease problem (as with med resistant T.B) is a delayed cost that is going to visibly explode on the American scene as we speak.

Well, welcome to Aztlan folks.

BOYCOTT TOURISM TO MEXICO.