Housing ‘washed out’: Chicopee Housing Authority tenants describe life under former executive director

CHICOPEE — For nearly a decade, Mia Gomez has lived in a two-bedroom apartment at the Chicopee Housing Authority, now with her 9-year-old son.

Conditions, she said, have been bad since she moved in — and are getting worse.

“There’s mold in the bathroom, my basement floods when it rains heavily and my kitchen ceiling collapses,” the 31-year-old said as she sat on the front steps of the apartment with her sister Maribel on a warm autumn day. . González.

Gomez said the housing authority had known about the problems in her apartment since she moved in, but had barely made any improvements. The only good thing about living there, she said, is having a roof over her head.

“I was homeless before,” she said.

In 2021, a relative of Gonzalez’s husband filed a complaint against Monica Blazic, the former executive director of the Chicopee Housing Authority, and the housing authority itself, alleging that Blazic discriminated against tenants who were black, Hispanic or disabled.

The plaintiff, one of three involved in the lawsuit, reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that Blazic refused to transfer her apartment for years while suffering from end-stage kidney disease. The complaint was handled by HUD’s civil rights compliance unit, which ensures that housing authorities comply with fair housing laws.

Then she took her case to federal court. She claimed the discrimination began in 2013, eight years before the lawsuit was filed.

The tenant needed another apartment to accommodate a home dialysis machine, which her doctors felt was a safer and preferred treatment, said Jane Edmonstone, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the case and director of litigation at Community Legal Aid in Springfield.

Her apartment was on the second floor, had no elevator access and was “too small and poorly equipped for a dialysis machine,” Edmonstone explained.

Instead, the tenant, who was frail and had trouble breathing, had to climb the stairs, court documents state.

While the Chicopee Housing Authority acknowledged the tenant needed a new apartment, the tenant did not receive one for several years, even after filing a federal lawsuit, Edmonstone said.

“The Chicopee Housing Authority did not make a reasonable accommodation request,” she said.

Part of the reason was that the housing authority didn’t have enough apartments to fit her needs, she said. The other problem, though, was “those apartments were there and they became available and (the Chicopee Housing Authority) just didn’t prioritize her moving into them,” she said.

Community Legal Aid became involved with tenants at the Chicopee Housing Authority after it began noticing a trend of tenants filing discrimination complaints.

HUD has determined through an independent review that there is “sufficient evidence of discrimination” at the Chicopee Housing Authority. That finding involved the U.S. Department of Justice, Edmonstone said.

The federal housing department also found there was a “pattern and practice of illegal conduct or alleged illegal conduct” at the housing authority, she said.

Edmonstone’s second client also had kidney disease and required home dialysis. She has nothing to do with the first customer.

The tenant’s doctors sent letters of recommendation to the housing authority to request better apartments for their patient, she said, to no avail.

“Our clients, who had been waiting for years (for a new apartment), were stressed about their health,” she said. Being “worried about inadequate or unsafe housing when you’re going through a medical crisis is very, very difficult.”

Blazic and the housing authority have continued to deny engaging in any bias.

Many residents disagree.

“(Monica) picks and chooses the apartments that she wants to upgrade,” Gomez said, as she stood on the front steps of her apartment. “I heard from my neighbors that she only upgrades apartments with non-minority residents.”

In an email, Elizabeth Partyka-Narey, the housing authority’s new executive director, said the Chicopee Housing Authority continued to deny that it “acted in this manner.”

“Capital projects are prioritized and regular maintenance tasks are performed solely based on the need and urgency of the issue,” she said.

Partyka-Narey said the housing authority continued to deny allegations that Blazic engaged in racial discrimination or bias and said “as of the date of the Consent Order, there is no evidence to support such a claim.”

Under the consent order, the housing authority agreed to pay $460,000 in damages and fines, cannot hire Blazic and must make more units handicap accessible. They must also hire a disability rights coordinator within two months of signing the consent order; write a new “Reasonable Accommodation Policy”; and train all employees and contractors who have any contact with disability accommodations annually, according to the order.

The housing authority is complying with the consent order, according to Partyka-Narey, but she did not elaborate on what the housing authority has accomplished so far.

The three-member Chicopee Housing Authority Board of Commissioners hired Blazic in 2008 as executive director.

“She came highly recommended by the executive director, Jim Lynch,” said Bruce E. Socha, chairman of the board.

Socha explained that one of the reasons Blazic was hired was because she held a similar position, but he couldn’t remember what that position was.

At some point in her tenure with the housing authority, Blazic was too executive director from the Ludlow Housing Authority, The Republican previously reported.

Socha maintains the housing authority’s position, as well as Blazic’s, that he did not engage in bias with tenants.

“I don’t believe what the tenants said,” he said.

Socha said HUD considers the Chicopee Housing Authority one of those the highest performers in the state for a public housing agency.

“Monica held everyone (on her staff) to the same level,” he said. “To get this kind of recognition is quite a feat.”

Blazic officially retired as executive director in July, according to the city’s Pension Office, but continues to plays a consultant role for the authority, according to the consent order.

When reached by phone by a reporter seeking comment about the authority and her role as both executive director and consultant, Blazic abruptly ended the call.

She also did not respond to a request for comment via text message.

Residents detail living conditions

Inside her two-story unit, Gomez showed a reporter and photographer the places where her apartment had been neglected. There were patches of what appeared to be mold scattered across the ceiling. The bathroom floor had a hole next to the tub. Gomez said water is leaking.

“Sometimes I smell mold when I shower,” she said.

The stair railing is loose and unstable. Downstairs in the kitchen, which is decorated with lemon wallpaper, Gomez showed where her tile could be removed. Remnants of water damage could be seen in the ceiling.

Another housing authority resident, Mickalina LaRoche, told a reporter that there were several instances where Blazic “had no respect for anyone,” especially black residents.

“Living under Monica was a blast,” said LaRoche, a 17-year resident of the housing authority. “She’s Cruella De Vil.”

LaRoche, who lives in an apartment on Meeting House Road, said there was one instance where a road perpendicular to hers received maintenance and trash pickup, but hers did not.

“We don’t have the skin for the connection,” she said, explaining that she and her neighbors are people of color, while the other street is predominantly white.

Another resident, Confessora Lopez, who has lived at a housing authority property on Elcon Drive for 17 years, said Blazic took her to court over rent disputes.

Lopez said she heard about the lawsuit involving Blazic and was not surprised by it.

“My nieces left Chicopee because of Monica,” she said. “(Monica) also denied a request for my daughter to re-let my contract.”

Meanwhile, Miguel Garcia, an eight-year resident of the Chicopee Housing Authority, said of the property, “It’s not very good to live here.”

Garcia was walking around the authority with his youngest son when a reporter asked him about the living conditions.

“It doesn’t fix anything,” he said. “As soon as I get custody of my (two) children, I want to leave the state.”