Denied

A Norfolk couple who were forced out of their home last summer when town officials declared it uninhabit­able have been denied an apartment at Hillcrest Village, the town’s subsidized housing complex for elderly and the disabled.

Not-So-Temporary Housing Longtime Norfolk residents Evald and Beverlyann Swenson have been living out of a mo­tel room on Route 1 in Foxborough for nearly six months, unable to get an apartment at Hillcrest Village on Rockwood Road in Norfolk. The Swensons left their home at 7 Priscilla Avenue in Norfolk on July 31 after the town’s building commissioner condemned it as unin­habitable. The executive director of the Norfolk Housing Authority has denied their applica­tion for a subsidized-housing apartment on concerns that they won’t take care of it. Photos by Matt McDonald Evald Swenson, 70, and his wife Beverlyann, 68, have been living at a motel on Route 1 in Foxborough for al­most six months.

America’s Best Value Inn Hotel, a motel on Route 1 in Foxborough, has been the home of Evald and Beverlyann Swenson since August 7. The Swensons moved to the motel, formerly known as the Endzone Motel, after they had to leave their home on Priscilla Avenue in Norfolk when it was condemned as a health and safety hazard. They are trying to get an apartment at Hillcrest Village in Norfolk, but so far they have been denied, on account of the condition in which they left their past home. This photo was taken this past Thursday afternoon, during a snow squall. Muriel St. Amand, the executive di­rector of the Norfolk Housing Author­ity, has rejected the Swensons’ applica­tion to live at Hillcrest Village, citing concerns about the condition the Sw­ensons left their former home in. Her decision has disturbed some town officials, including the town’s building commissioner, Robert Bull­ock, who condemned the Swensons’ former home last summer, forcing them to leave. “If I had known that they weren’t going to get a house at this point, I would have had second thoughts about condemning it,” Bullock said in an in­terview this past Thursday. “I think I would have just kept on pressuring them to get it cleaned up, and not gone to that extent.” The Swensons’ exile from Norfolk started in July, when the town’s animal control officer, Hilary Cohen, shot two rabid skunks on the Swensons’ prop­erty at 7 Priscilla Avenue. According to Cohen, the Swensons had been feeding and caring for as many as 15 semi-feral cats at the house, which she said was overrun with fleas, ticks, animal waste, and trash.

Where They Used To Live: The Swensons’ home at 7 Priscilla Avenue. Photos by Matt McDonald At least partly on the basis of pho­tographs Cohen took, the fire chief declared the house a fire hazard, the town’s health agent ordered the Swen­sons

Where They’d Like To Live: Hillcrest Village, a set of apartments operated by Norfolk Public Housing, located off of Rockwood Road. to hire an exterminator, and the building commissioner suspended the certificate of occupancy for the house. An ambulance showed up at the home July 31 to take the couple to Norwood Hospital, where they stayed about sev­en days.

In an interview this week, the Sw­ensons denied that their home was in as bad condition as town officials said and as the photos suggested. They also said their time at Norwood Hospital was unnecessary. “We were shipped off to the hospital for a week, and we weren’t even sick,” Mrs. Swenson said. “While we were there, someone came in and trashed the house and made it look worse than it was.” On August 7, the Swensons moved into a room at America’s Best Value Inn, which was known as the End­zone Motel until about two years ago. They sold their home the next month, hoping to move into Hillcrest Village when an apartment became avail­able. Bullock, asked how he feels about the Swensons not getting into Hillcrest Village, replied: “Travesty. I wouldn’t have kicked them out if I knew I was kicking them out on the street. Even though the conditions were a hazard to their neighborhood and to their health. I think not putting them in Hillcrest Village was a travesty.”

St. Amand said in an interview this past Thursday that she cannot address the Swensons’ case publicly be­cause it is under review. But she said when considering applications she has to look out for the housing authority’s property and for the other tenants. “The tenants are in close proximity to their neighbors here, so that’s a concern,” St. Amand said. She said she performs a criminal background check and a credit check on applicants, and that she also tries to determine how they left their last home.

“Generally, I have to contact the former landlord to see what kind of tenant they were, whether they paid their rent on time, whether their housekeeping was good,” St. Amand said. “… When it’s someone who owns their own home, I have to take account of their housekeeping.”

St. Amand has denied the Swensons’ application at least twice.

After an earlier denial, St. Amand met with the Swen­sons in November, along with a lawyer representing the housing authority and a lawyer representing the Swen­sons, according to a document obtained by The Norfolk Boomerang.

During the meeting, the Swensons argued the condi­tions at their home on Priscilla Avenue “were exacerbat­ed by limited finances and medical issues,” that they no longer have pets, that they have used social services and have received medical attention, that they have money to buy new furnishings and obtain a housekeeping service, and that they have lived in Norfolk a long time and want to stay there, according to a decision St. Amand issued dated December 16.

But St. Amand turned them down, because of the state of their former home when they left it.

“The reason(s) for my decision is that when the dis­qualifying behavior is weighed against the mitigating cir­cumstances, the Norfolk Housing Authority is not certain that the applicants will not engage in any similar conduct in the future,” St. Amand wrote. “In fact, due to the sever­ity of the conditions at the applicant’s prior residence and the greater degree of danger to the health, safety and se­curity of others or to the security of the property of others or to the physical condition of the housing, the applicants must show that a recurrence of similar behavior will not occur in the future. The applicants have not shown that a recurrence will not occur in the future.”

Built in 1975, Hillcrest Village consists of 64 one-bed­room apartments that include a bathroom and a com­bined living room-kitchen in addition to the bedroom. The address is 33 Rockwood Road, a little north of Nor­folk Center. St. Amand said that Hillcrest Village is open to people 60 or older who meet the income requirements: a maxi­mum of $46,300 a year for an individual and $52,950 for a couple.

Rent is 30 percent of the adjusted gross income of the tenants. St. Amand would not give a range for the rents current tenants are paying.

Aside from the state of their former home, the Sw­ensons appear to be nearly ideal candidates for Hillcrest Village. They are both over 60, their income meets the requirements, and Mr. Swenson is disabled. A blood clot in one of Mr. Swenson’s big toes is killing a nerve, forc­ing him to use crutches to stand or walk. He is on oxygen because of a lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Priority for apartments at Hillcrest Village goes to people who live or work in Norfolk, who are veterans of the United States military, or who are members of a ra­cial minority, St. Amand said. Mrs. Swenson said she has lived in Norfolk for about 48 years, while Mr. Swenson has lived in Norfolk about 65 years. (Both worked for a refrigeration company in Boston, she as a clerk and he in maintaining freezers, be­fore retiring.) Mr. Swenson said he is a veteran, having served in the United States Navy during the mid-1950s and early 1960s.

Mr. Swenson said his mother, Mary Elizabeth Swen­son, who was known as Betty, was among the town resi­dents who collected signatures to get Town Meeting to approve building Hillcrest Village back in the 1970s.

Asked if he has sought help from other town officials, Mr. Swenson replied: “Why do I need help to get in there? I don’t see why I should need help to get in there.”

The Swensons have two sons in the area, but Mrs. Swenson said they can’t move in with them because one lives on a second floor and one has a home that is too small. As for why they didn’t move back to their home on Priscilla Avenue, a neighbor who bought the house said it has structural problems and needed costly repairs to the roof and the septic system, among other things. Bullock, the building commissioner, noted this week that he suspended the occupancy permit for 7 Priscilla Avenue only temporarily. “They could have moved back in there. I didn’t force them out completely. It was their choice not to clean it up and go back there,” Bullock said. The Swensons sold the house September 4 to their neighbor, Tom Norton, who has applied to the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals for permission to demolish the house and build a new one on the lot.

Norton, who is a longtime friend of the Swensons, said he doesn’t understand why the director isn’t allow­ing the Swensons into Hillcrest Village. “Her reasoning was that they have not shown that they would not do it again. But how do they show that unless they have another apartment?” Norton said. “… It’s just a terrible situation, is what it is. … It’s just something that shouldn’t have happened. The whole point to get them out of the house was to get them some housing. But it didn’t happen,” he said.

“… It just seems like the system has failed them,” Nor­ton said.

The Swensons are paying $265 a week for their motel room.

Mrs. Swenson said she has been told an apartment at Hillcrest Village would cost them about $700 a month, or more than $300 a month less than what they are paying now. An apartment would also have more living space. The living space of the motel room is about 12 feet by 16 feet, most of which is taken up by the king-size bed, a television on a bureau, and a refrigerator. The door opens into a short corridor about 5 feet by 8 feet that leads to the living area. The snug bathroom measures about 3 feet by 4 feet, not counting the sink, toilet, and tub.

The living area also has a closet. Asked how they eat, Mrs. Swenson said: “Microwave or send out. Some places deliver.” Meals on Wheels provides some meals during the day, she said. During a visit this past Thursday afternoon, some food in cans and boxes sat on two tables in the room. Mr. Swenson’s oxygen tanks were lined up by the back wall, near the room’s window, which overlooks the rear parking lot of the motel. During New England Patri­ots games at nearby Gillette Stadium, people going to the game pay a fee to use the parking lot, which is packed. Mrs. Swenson said nobody in the motel leaves on game day; she and her husband visit a sausage vendor outside.

St. Amand has worked for the Norfolk Housing Au­thority for about 20 years, the last three as executive director. She is the wife of a former selectman and the mother-in-law of a current selectman, Rob Garrity.

She said this week that she knows of only one previous time when applicants for Hillcrest Village were rejected because of how they kept house — about eight years ago, a couple misrepresented how they treated their previous rental, with help from a landlord who was eager to get rid of them, she said.

St. Amand works for the state, not the town, and town officials say her decisions on applications aren’t review­able by any town board, including the locally elected housing authority board.

The Swensons have appealed to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, but they have been told it may take six months or more for their appeal to be considered. A spokesman for the state housing agency could not be reached for comment shortly before deadline this week.