TRURO — About 50 residents of a rundown Route 6 motel that serves as affordable year-round housing were spared eviction on Thursday night when the Truro Board of Health voted against condemning the property.
Despite what board of health members described as serious state code violations — including overloaded electrical outlets — the board voted 4-1 to extend the Truro Motor Inn’s license until the end of the year. The property owner, Daniel Delgizzi of Braintree, was given less than a month to get repairs of all sanitary code violations under way. This includes upgrading a failed septic system.
If the owner of the property, who has a history of ignoring town regulations and failing to pay property taxes, doesn’t make progress on those repairs before the board of health’s deadlines, the town will petition the state housing court to order a receiver to take charge of the property.
The receiver, said Truro Town Counsel Gregg Corbo, would then use the rent paid by the tenants, estimated to be about $400,000 a year, to make the repairs.
Carolyn Delgizzi of Weston, representing the owner, her father-in-law, told the board of health that her family would be able to meet its timeline to get the renovation of the motel under way.
The board’s vote avoided eviction of the year-round tenants, which was the possible scenario that brought more than 50 people to the meeting at Truro Town Hall on Thursday. Several occupants of the motel made emotional pleas to protect their home. One tenant, Paul Wundrock, accused town officials of targeting the inn for “racist and classist” reasons.
“Maybe an invisible servant class is all they want here,” said Wundrock, who was applauded by the other tenants.
Wundrock was nearly thrown out of the meeting when the board of health chair, Tracey Rose, called in a police officer after he refused to stop speaking when his time was up. Wundrock did sit down before being removed by the officer. But the moment highlighted the tense position that the board of health is in, caught between the need to penalize the owner’s negligence and a desire to keep people from becoming homeless.
“I’m looking at people in this room who need a place to live and I cannot in good conscience put them out on the street,” said board member Mark Peters. “So with deep reservations I’ll vote for this and God have mercy on all our souls if something happens.”
Follow-up reporting on this landlord’s infractions in other towns is under way at the Independent.
K.C. Myers is the Independent’s senior reporter.
