News

Advocacy groups target Talmar Wood owner

Complex accused of building neglect, illegal policies toward tenants

By Derek Dobachesky

Posted on Jan. 29, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.

rose collins

GIMME SHELTER - Talmar Wood has come under fire for allegedly poor living conditions.

Two low-income advocacy organizations are looking into tenants’ complaints against Talmar Wood, a housing development near campus.

On Jan. 20, the Northern Regional Maine Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods (MAIN) hosted a meeting in Talmar Wood with Judd Esty-Kendall from Pine Tree Legal. Esty-Kendall spoke to the five residents who attended the meeting and addressed some of the legal concerns that they had pertaining to issues such as mold, condensation and security deposits.

According to Laura Moore, president of Northern Regional MAIN, mold is one of the biggest issues facing tenants in Talmar Wood. Moore said that oftentimes the Housing Foundation, which manages Talmar Wood and several other low-income housing units in the area, does not fix the problems with condensation in the housing units. This in turn leads to mold developing, and then residents are denied their security deposits due to the mold.

“[Esty-Kendall] looked at it, and said it was basically illegal because they were passing their responsibilities for the mold off onto the tenant.”

At press time, representatives from the Housing Foundation were not available for comment.

Moore’s daughter, University of Maine alumnae Jessica Leonard, posted an e-mail on FirstClass last week urging residents who have had issues at Talmar Wood to contact her. One of the reasons that Leonard decided to take this approach was that she was “afraid many [Talmar Wood residents] thought that they would be pressured into a tenants’ union,” which is one of the reasons she believes the turnout at the meeting was low.

In the near future, Leonard hopes to work with the biology department at UMaine to test the mold in the units to determine if it is harmful; it is a requirement for the Housing Foundation to address this issue. According to Leonard, mold testing is beyond the means of most Talmar Wood residents.

“People of Talmar don’t have hundreds of dollars to get the mold tested themselves so many are forced to just live with it,” Leonard said.

After assembling complaints from residents, Moore hopes to address their issues with the Housing Foundation in a “nice, kind, gentle way.” Northern Regional MAIN plans on contacting board members soon, including executive director Duska Hayman of the Housing Foundation, in order to arrange a meeting in March.

If they are unsuccessful in addressing the residents’ concerns through this avenue, Moore plans on working with the Housing Foundation through Community Mediation Services in Augusta.

Although there are issues between residents and the Housing Foundation that remain unresolved, the Housing Foundation does attempt to work with the residents on most issues, according to Moore. In the past, individual residents have contacted the Housing Foundation, and “a lot of the times they do come down, they do whatever they’re allowed to do.” Maintenance is limited, however, in what they can do for the residents, and at times the concerns of residents go unaddressed.

“It depends on whose story you’re listening to,” Moore said.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.