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EVICTION

Tenants Told to Leave ‘Napiville’ by April 1

The 14-unit property is for sale, say managers McEneaney and Meads

By Sam Pollak Feb 28, 2024

PROVINCETOWN — Tenants of the multi-building property at 25-27 Bradford St. known as “Napiville” after its late owner, Anton “Napi” Van Dereck Haunstrup, have been ordered to move out of their homes by April 1.

One of the seven buildings at 25-27 Bradford St., widely known as “Napiville,” used to house the Barnstormers’ Theatre company in 1915. The property is now for sale. (Photo by Sam Pollak)

According to a notice delivered to residents of the 14-unit property on Jan. 18, property managers Bernard McEneaney and Lisa Meads intend to sell it, evicting up to 13 people who currently live there.

“The property is for sale and there are interested parties who have a different vision for the property’s future,” the letter says. “All new construction will require the property be vacant as it will be a major construction site for some time in order to rebuild.”

The Independent obtained a copy of the letter and a reporter spoke to six tenants, all of whom confirmed that they received the same notice. Those tenants also said they have not found alternative housing.

In 2004, Van Dereck established a charitable trust that was meant to benefit the Center for Coastal Studies and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum after he and his wife, Helen Haunstrup, both died. Helen is still alive but has dementia and is now under the conservatorship of McEneaney, Van Dereck’s longtime financial adviser.

The realty trust that owns Napiville is distinct from that charitable trust, however. McEneaney controls both trusts, and many of their records have been sealed or impounded by courts. Officials at the Center for Coastal Studies, which Van Dereck had said should benefit from his properties, said they were not aware that Napiville was being sold.

The property has been subject to a series of notices and health orders from the town. Several years of unaddressed health and safety violations culminated in $20,000 in fines in October 2023.

McEneaney blamed the orders from the town in his letter to the tenants.

“The many upgrades that are required by the town licensing departments to continue operations” are “what has us where we are now,” McEneaney wrote. “Also it is required by the town to connect to the town sewer which is an astronomical expense I am not authorized to make.”

McEneaney’s claim to lack authorization is almost certainly false, as he has sole control of Haunstrup’s and Van Dereck’s assets.

Ali Maloney, owner of Barnstable-based AMG Realty, confirmed that she is the listing broker for the property, which is assessed at $3.5 million. She told the Independent last week that the property “is going on the market in the next couple of weeks” but declined to name any interested parties.

At press time, the property had not been publicly listed for sale.

“It used to be magical up there,” said Marcia “Mello” Kostick, a 70-year-old artist and street performer who has lived at Napiville for more than 20 years. “But now, like the foghorn that no longer blows, it has lost its magic.”

Control of the Estate

Napi Van Dereck was known for his eponymous restaurant and vast art collection and for being a long-term landlord to dozens of people, according to his obituary in the Independent. His estate was worth over $18 million, according to court documents reported in 2021.

When he died on Christmas Day 2019 he left everything to his wife and named her the personal representative of his will.

Helen had been diagnosed with dementia in 2018, though, and in 2020 a doctor declared her unfit to manage the estate. A battle played out in Barnstable Probate Court between McEneaney and Van Dereck’s half-sister, Judy Saffron, who had previously moved to Provincetown from Maine to care for her sister-in-law.

McEneaney won conservatorship of Haunstrup in October 2021. The next month he was named personal representative of Van Dereck’s estate. In court documents, McEneaney’s lawyers argued that he would adhere to Helen and Napi’s expressed wishes better than anyone else would.

McEneaney then evicted at least seven people who had worked at the restaurant for years, including Ellis Wilson, whom Van Dereck had described as the son he never had.

Saffron told the Independent that she hasn’t seen Haunstrup since McEneaney was made her conservator. “They have not let me talk to her since that day,” Saffron said.

Jane Paradise, a photographer and friend of the family, said that McEneaney has taken Haunstrup off Cape. “He shuttles her back and forth between North Carolina and Florida,” Paradise said.

A request to see court documents could not be honored, a Barnstable probate clerk told the Independent on Feb. 21, because the case has been impounded — sealed from public inspection.

McEneaney did not respond to inquiries about Haunstrup’s whereabouts or the sale of Napiville.

Expressed Wishes

Napiville is owned by a realty trust established when the property was bought in 1986, according to documents at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds. A 2023 court order lists Helen Haunstrup as the sole beneficiary of the trust and McEneaney as the sole trustee.

That court order is partially redacted, but it reveals that McEneaney amended the realty trust on Nov. 24, 2021, the same day he was appointed personal representative of Van Dereck’s estate. The amended trust gives McEneaney “full and absolute power … to convey any interest in real estate.”

A separate trust created in 2004, the Van Dereck Charitable Living Trust, expresses the wish that “the trust property be used primarily to support the Center for Coastal Studies … and Provincetown Art Association and Museum.” That wish was written “without imposing any legal obligation,” however, according to probate court records.

Records of the charitable trust have also been impounded.

“Napi indicated to me on many occasions that he wanted to leave substantial resources to the Center for Coastal Studies,” said founder Stormy Mayo, but he never learned any more details than that.

“We expect something will come our way someday,” said Center for Coastal Studies President Rich Delaney, “but beyond that we don’t know.”

Battle With the Town

According to Provincetown Community Development Director Tim Famulare, in addition to unresolved sewer issues, the buildings at Napiville have deteriorated significantly in the past four years.

“Since Van Dereck’s passing, there have been issues with planning for sewer connection, septic repairs, and the structural integrity of the property,” Famulare told the Independent. “They have not been making any progressive improvements.”

A routine septic inspection in October 2020 found two cesspools on the property and a “backup of sewage due to overloaded/clogged cesspools.”

The board of health signed an administrative consent order for the property the next month “based on the current use of the property meeting a priority for workforce housing,” according to town records. The order said the property managers were not required to replace the cesspools until a sewer connection became available, at which point they would be required to hook up to the sewer within 60 days. After that, the managers would incur a $500 daily fine until the sewer connection was completed.

But a notice from the dept. of public works on Feb. 23, 2023 telling McEneaney and Meads it was time to connect the property to the sewer went unanswered. DPW Director Jim Vincent told the Independent the property is still not connected. Vincent said the town has not levied the $500 daily fines.

According to town records, the administrative consent order will run with the title, so the new owners “shall become subject to the terms and conditions.”

In a brief phone call, Meads told the Independent that the new owners “will have to connect to the sewer.”

According to health dept. records, the town has also been struggling to get McEneaney and Meads to keep the structures at Napiville safe and habitable.

In January 2022, Building Inspector Jim Nickerson found that no units had working smoke alarms or fire extinguishers, and one unit had “inadequate heat.”

Three months later, Nickerson discovered one unit had a large opening “where rodents can enter the building” and another in which unsafe electrical work had been done, including an “extension cord going through the floor.”

Later that year, Nickerson found another unit in a “semi-demolished state,” and the town removed it from the property’s licenses.

An inspection in July 2023, however, “found an occupant” in that unit. Another unit had a roof leak that someone had attempted to repair “with a section of rubber roofing,” Nickerson wrote.

After the July 2023 inspection, Health Agent Lezli Rowell issued another order to correct, this time with fines attached. She ordered the managers to hire a structural engineer to assess the property, submit permits to replace hazardous electrical work, and connect to the sewer. She gave them 30 days to comply.

In October, after racking up almost $20,000 in fines, McEneaney hired an engineer to assess needed repairs, said board of health chair Susan Troyan. The town put enforcement in abeyance — but the building dept. “has not yet received any building permit applications,” Famulare said.

McEneaney has still not paid the town, Troyan said.

Meads told the Independent she was not aware of any health orders from the town.

“We have worked really hard with the property managers to get this done so that nobody loses their housing,” Troyan said. “They haven’t seemed to get over the finish line, or even past the starting line. They decided selling would be better.”

UPDATE

For Napi’s Renters and Others Facing Eviction, Stakes Are High

Leaving and staying can both have dire consequences

By Cam Blair and Jasmine Lu Sep 8, 2021

PROVINCETOWN — Eileen Spence was racing to find a new home on the last day of August. She and four other former Napi’s Restaurant employees had until the end of the day to vacate their apartments, all owned by the late restaurant owner’s estate, but after surveying most of the Outer Cape’s affordable housing complexes, they could only get their names on waitlists.

“There really is no housing available whatsoever on the Lower and Outer Cape right now,” said Hadley Luddy, the CEO of the Homeless Prevention Council in Orleans. “Getting off waitlists can take anywhere from three to ten years.”

Strapped for options, Spence plans on “riding out the storm,” staying put in her Freeman Street apartment until she’s able to secure a new place — or until she finds herself in court. “Give me some more time,” she plans to tell the judge, “and some more leniency.”

None of the other four former Napi’s staff members who were ordered to vacate their homes by the executor of the estate has been able to find housing either, they said this week.

Andrew O’Dell, regional director of the Tenancy Preservation Program, said that tenants whose leases are being terminated face a dilemma: stay until they can find a new place to live and deal with the legal implications, or face homelessness. Each choice can have dire consequences.

The Tenancy Preservation Program (TPP) is a neutral party service provided by the Mass. Housing Court that works with landlords, tenants, social service agencies, and the courts to resolve eviction cases involving tenants whose cases involve disabilities. According to the state website, TPP attempts to maintain the tenancy, but if it cannot be preserved, the program “coordinates the tenant’s transition to a more appropriate placement, preventing homelessness whenever possible.” The program has existed since 1999, but its services became available to Barnstable County only in 2019, when Cape housing court cases were moved from Plymouth to Barnstable.

O’Dell explained that tenants who choose to remain in their rented homes past the expiration of their tenancy run the risk of being formally evicted. Although they may keep a roof over their heads in the short term while they search for another place to live, that decision can threaten their ability to find housing in the future. Evictions are public information and remain on one’s record indefinitely.

“A place becomes available and, within a few hours, you’ve got hundreds of applicants flying in,” said O’Dell. “Just thinking logically, a landlord sees an applicant with an eviction against him — they’re putting that one aside.”

O’Dell said that when the choice for tenants is between jeopardizing all their future prospects for housing by staying or leaving their homes at a time when finding a year-round rental is virtually impossible, some decide to leave, even if they have no place to go. “Many will go to stay with a relative or friend, couch surf, or sometimes live in their car,” he said. “It definitely happens.”

It is unclear whether formal eviction proceedings have been initiated against Napi’s tenants. Bernard McEneaney, the trustee of the Van Dereck estate, and Anthony Alva, the attorney who delivered the notices to quit to the tenants, have not responded to the Independent’s repeated phone calls seeking comment.

Spence and four other tenants received 30-day eviction notices on July 31. Their tenancy officially ended on Aug. 31. In the month following an eviction notice, many landlords and tenants agree on a later date when the tenant will vacate, O’Dell said.

All five of the former Napi’s employees are Jamaican. They all say they have not had any contact with either McEneaney or Alva since receiving their notices in July.

They were all tenants for over a decade of Anton “Napi” Van Dereck Haunstrup, the late founder of Napi’s Restaurant and a prominent landlord in Provincetown. Four of the renters, Delroy Brennan, Dwight Sangster, Ellis Wilson Sr., and Kay Spence, worked at the restaurant the entire time they rented from Van Dereck up until last year. They all said they were fired; McEneaney said they were not fired but had quit their jobs.

Some of the eviction notices list employment at Napi’s as a precondition of tenancy. Eileen Spence, who rented from Van Dereck starting in 2009 but worked in other places, said that was never a requirement. “I was only there for four months doing a little busing [in 2020], and I had been renting for 12 years prior,” she said.

Kay Spence and Sangster, two former Napi’s employees who are in a relationship, are still searching for accommodations for themselves and their two children. Likewise, Wilson is juggling a housing hunt for his own family while doing custodial work. Delroy Brennan said he is working from 5 a.m. until 2 a.m. the next day, seven days a week, as a cab driver and hasn’t had luck finding a place either.

A landlord who decides to pursue eviction of a tenant who has not vacated after the end of a tenancy can file in either district or housing court. O’Dell recommends that tenants summoned to district court have their cases transferred to housing court. “It’s in their best interest,” he said. By providing mediators trained to resolve housing disputes, the Southeast District Housing Court, which serves Barnstable County, can help landlords and tenants come to a “reasonable agreement” and keep cases from going to trial, he said.

A trial before a judge, by contrast, may amount to “throwing your fate to the gods,” O’Dell said. Most landlords are represented by attorneys — but most tenants are not.

EVICTION DEADLINE

Former Napi’s Workers Still Have Nowhere to Go

Manager Sabuda said he wanted no Black employees, Jamaicans charge

By Cam Blair Aug 25, 2021

PROVINCETOWN — With seven days remaining before the Aug. 31 deadline on their eviction notices, five former employees of Napi’s Restaurant still had nowhere to go as of Tuesday this week.

Delroy Brennan and Ellis Wilson said that in the preceding week the general manager at Napi’s, Dan Sabuda, has tried to get them to leave even before the 31st, telling them that their apartments were already supposed to be vacated. Wilson said that Sabuda had showed up one night after midnight “banging on the door,” and that his family is “afraid.”

One of the renters, former Napi’s dishwasher Kay Spence, told the Independent, “It’s not like we want to stay here — it’s just that we can’t find anywhere else.”

Spence and Dwight Sangster have looked for housing as far away as Brewster. Another renter, Eileen Spence, said she inquired at Nauset Green, which offers affordable units in Eastham, and was told to check back in the winter.

The renters, all Jamaican, received eviction letters at the end of July. Bernard McEneaney, executor of the Van Dereck estate, said the five are being evicted because they no longer work at the restaurant. McEneaney, Napi Van Dereck’s longtime financial adviser, stated that the housing, owned by the estate, has always been contingent on employment at Napi’s. The renters dispute McEneaney’s contention that their housing was conditional on working at Napi’s.

Marie Boni, a former office employee at Napi’s Restaurant who worked under both Van Dereck and McEneaney, also contradicts McEneaney’s assertion. “That was never conditional,” she said. “It was never implied you had to work there.” Boni was fired by McEneaney in 2020.

McEneaney said that the five former employees quit their jobs. But the Jamaicans all said they were fired, and two of them said it was done in an explicitly discriminatory way. Dwight Sangster and Craig Parks, another former employee, each said that Sabuda had told them he wanted no Black people working in the restaurant.

McEneaney and Sabuda did not respond to the Independent’s requests for comment this week on the charges made by the Jamaican tenants. Anthony Alva, the Hyannis attorney whose office delivered the eviction notices for McEneaney, was contacted by phone but declined to comment.

After Aug. 31, if the tenants are still occupying the apartments, McEneaney may file a complaint in Orleans District Court. A judge could then order the tenants to vacate by a certain date. In instances where there is a verbal lease agreement, or at least no evidence of a written lease, as in this case, there are “not a whole lot of defenses” for tenants, said Hyannis attorney Michael Pierce.

Pierce, who lists landlord-tenant disputes among his specialties, said that the federal eviction moratorium, renewed earlier this month by the Centers for Disease Control, offers protection to most tenants, but that “there’s a lot of interpretation as to its scope.”

The Supreme Court will likely soon hear a case brought by a group of landlords in Alabama and Georgia asking to strike down the moratorium. On Aug. 20, a federal appeals court upheld it, but since that ruling the landlords have asked the Supreme Court to step in to block it.

Although the Supreme Court upheld the last moratorium in a 5-4 ruling in June, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted with the majority then, has recently said he believed the CDC overstepped its jurisdiction.

The current CDC moratorium replaced the earlier eviction ban, which lapsed in July. The current one covers areas of the country experiencing “substantial and high levels” of Covid transmission, including Barnstable County.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 3.5 million people say they face eviction in the next two months.

PROBATE

They Worked for Napi for Years; Now They’re Being Evicted

After being fired by new management, they say, Jamaican workers must leave longtime homes

By Ben Glickman and Cam Blair Aug 18, 2021

PROVINCETOWN — Anton “Napi” Van Dereck Haunstrup, the late art collector and owner of Napi’s Restaurant, had no children. But Ellis Wilson, he often told friends, was “the son he never had.”

Wilson, 46, came to Provincetown from Jamaica for the first time in 2006 to work at Angel Foods. He got a second job as a dishwasher at Napi’s, and Van Dereck provided him with a place to live. Summer after summer, Wilson returned, eventually bringing his family with him in 2016.

In 2011, Napi helped Wilson apply for a green card, granted two years later, allowing him and his family to live permanently in Provincetown. Wilson worked his way up at the restaurant, eventually taking over maintenance of Napi’s dozen or more properties across town.

For decades, Napi helped many other Jamaicans establish lives in Provincetown. Now, less than two years after his death, those lives are being uprooted.

In May, Wilson said, he was fired by those in charge of Napi’s estate because he had taken a second job during the pandemic. He was told he would have to leave his apartment, where he lives with his wife and three sons.

Four other Jamaican employees, including three who worked for Napi for almost 20 years, say they also were fired.

Dan Sabuda, the current manager at Napi’s, refused multiple requests to be interviewed for this article. But Berni McEneaney of Marstons Mills, Napi’s longtime financial adviser and the executor of his estate, has denied that anyone was fired. In a phone call on Monday, McEneaney said, “Nobody was let go from Napi’s. Period.”

Instead, he said, the former employees voluntarily stopped working at the restaurant when it reopened in May. “In all cases, they were not available to come back,” he said.

The former employees all contradict McEneaney’s denial.

“We did not quit,” said Tony Cleary, the former kitchen manager and a tenant of Napi’s for 19 years. “We did not leave the restaurant. We were all fired and evicted.”

An Aug. 31 Deadline

Ellis Wilson began looking for new housing but found nothing. At the end of July, he received an eviction notice from McEneaney’s lawyer. He has until Aug. 31 to vacate his apartment at 5 Freeman St.

“I just want to protect my family and get out of there,” said Wilson. He said he doesn’t know what he will do if he can’t find housing.

Wilson is one of seven Jamaican employees who told the Independent they had already been or are currently being evicted from housing provided by Van Dereck. Of those, five say they were fired around the time the restaurant reopened last spring.

A part of “Napi-ville,” the complex of units at 25-27A Bradford St. where Napi Van Dereck provided housing for his restaurant workers. (Photo Ben Glickman)

Napi and his wife, Helen Haunstrup, founded Napi’s in 1978. They built it from the remains of garages where the two ran a flea market on Freeman Street.

Napi was known for bringing Jamaican workers to Provincetown. He provided rental housing in more than a dozen properties he owned, including ones on Bradford and Freeman streets, next to the restaurant.

Napi died on Christmas Day 2019. His will specified that Helen assume control of all his property, including the restaurant, apartments, and a sizable art collection. A 2021 court document valued the Van Dereck estate at over $18 million.

Shortly after Napi’s death, a legal battle began over control of the estate, and over his wife’s care. Helen, 81, was diagnosed with dementia in 2018, according to court documents. In January 2020, her primary care physician stated that she was no longer able to manage the business or her finances. Judy Saffron, Napi’s half-sister, and McEneaney both sought legal control in probate court.

McEneaney won and was appointed conservator of the estate by Judge Arthur C. Ryley. The case regarding the guardianship of Helen Haunstrup, however, is ongoing.

Documents from the conservatorship case show that McEneaney argued that he understood and would adhere to Helen’s wishes better than anyone else. His representative made the case that McEneaney could run the restaurant in the same way that Napi and Helen had done for decades, in order to support Helen’s well-being as well as Napi’s legacy.

“It was important to them to provide folks in the community year-round employment and housing…. This is evident by the number of long-term employees they have,” reads one letter submitted in the conservatorship case. “They did not have children; their employees and customers are their family and community.”

‘Everything Is Lies’

The former employees were evicted because their housing was provided only as long as they worked at the restaurant, McEneaney said this week. That has always been the way it worked, he added, including when Van Dereck was alive.

McEneaney declined to comment on individual cases, citing the legal implications of divulging workers’ information and the fact that he is not involved with the “day-to-day operations” at the restaurant.

Responding to a phone call attempting to reach Sabuda, office assistant Lisa Meads said of the Jamaicans, “I don’t want to waste our time on those people. Everything is lies.” Anthony Alva, the attorney retained by McEneaney to carry out the evictions, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Independent spoke to nine former employees at Napi’s Restaurant who had recently left their housing or are now under threat of eviction, including Dwight Sangster, who worked in the kitchen. Wilson and Sangster both received letters ordering them to vacate their properties and stating that “your occupancy … was entirely arranged and contingent upon your employment by Napi’s Restaurant.”

The Independent also obtained eviction notices and other letters from four of the former employees. Only one — sent to Delroy Brennan, who worked in the kitchen for 19 years — cites a cause. Brennan’s notice stated that he was $1,200 behind on rent and that he had 14 days to vacate his apartment at 7 Standish St.

A June 17 cease-and-desist letter sent by attorney Alva to Sangster alleges that he was illegally subletting his unit without permission and living with Kay Spence, who had worked as a dishwasher since 2016 and is in a relationship with Sangster. Spence disputes this: she says that Sangster had allowed several family members to stay with him briefly, and occasionally stayed with her.

An eviction notice sent to Sangster, dated July 30, does not mention this allegation or any other cause.

Eviction Moratorium Could Help

A new federal eviction moratorium announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 3, replacing the previous moratorium that expired Aug. 1, protects renters living in communities experiencing substantial or high transmission of Covid-19. That includes the Outer Cape.

According to attorney Michael Pierce of Hyannis, who specializes in landlord-tenant disputes, the moratorium should protect tenants from eviction in almost all cases, unless “they endanger the health and safety of other tenants.” But “the moratorium is new and open to interpretation, and so there is a lot up in the air,” he said.

Several long-tenured employees say they were informed in May, when Napi’s reopened after being closed since December 2020, that they were being let go. Brennan was informed by phone in May that he was no longer on the schedule. Spence was asked about her availability in May but was never contacted again.

Kevin Linsey learned he had been fired from a notice left on his car, which was parked at Napi’s. It read: “Private Parking. After today You will be towed.”

Linsey, who had worked and rented from Van Dereck for 19 years, said neither Sabuda nor Meads would admit to leaving the notice, but that neither questioned its implication: he was no longer an employee. Other employees said they had similar notices placed on their vehicles.

Of the seven who face eviction, five have not found new places to live.

Eileen Spence, who worked at Napi’s for several months in 2020 but rented her Freeman Street apartment from Van Dereck since 2009, received an eviction notice on July 31. She must vacate her apartment by the end of August. “I don’t know where to turn right now,” she said. “Maybe I’m going to be on the street.”

Spence said her apartment was never tied to employment at the restaurant. “Napi would never do something like this,” she said. “They’re just using brute force and trying to manipulate people.”

Tony Cleary, the former kitchen manager, showed the Independent a text he received from Lisa Meads during an exchange following his termination: “Good luck to you and your minions!” she wrote. “Why don’t you all move to an island with the thief Judy!”

“Judy” is Napi’s half-sister, Judy Saffron, who said she also was ordered out of the apartment Napi had provided for her when he asked her to come to Provincetown to help care for Helen in 2018, more than a year before he died.

Cleary said, “We all feel like we’ve been betrayed.”

RESIDENCY

FAWC Fellow Who Wouldn’t Leave Faces Eviction

Akiko Jackson says she has no other options

By K.C. Myers Mar 3, 2021

PROVINCETOWN — Last year’s Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) resident fellows accused the nonprofit that hosted them of racism. Then the pandemic hit, and several of those fellows had nowhere to go when their residencies were over.

The center’s board and management agreed to let five of the fellows stay an extra month and a half in FAWC housing, until June 15, while they found other accommodations. Four of the five did just that.

Now, eight and a half months after that extension expired in June, sculptor Akiko Jackson is still living at FAWC, claiming that she has nowhere else to go and defending herself against an eviction action.

Sculptor Akiko Jackson, one of last year’s FAWC visual arts fellows. (File photo)

FAWC offers 20 artists highly coveted seven-month fellowships each fall and winter. In November, soon after Gov. Charlie Baker lifted the state moratorium on evictions, FAWC served her with eviction papers. Her case remains in limbo in Housing Court, behind a backup of cases resulting from delays due to the pandemic, Jackson told the Independent this week.

“I am unfortunately still here,” said Jackson, who is originally from Hawaii. “I keep quiet and considerate, I stay out of the way during work hours, and I’ve made myself as tiny as possible.”

No one on the FAWC side of this story, including its attorney, would discuss Jackson’s situation or the reasons behind the decision to evict her.

Since 2010, according to her résumé, Jackson has gone directly from one residential fellowship to the next, a lifestyle that she said allowed her to work on her art “within a community of peers.

“It was a sustainable practice because my next commitments always went as planned,” she said. “That was before Covid.”

Her residency at FAWC was scheduled to end last April 30, and she claimed to have had three short-term fellowships lined up for the following months but declined to name them. Covid-19 restrictions shut them all down, she said.

When FAWC’s Executive Director Richard MacMillan told her she needed to find another place to live by June 15, Jackson said, she had no options. Her family had all left Hawaii years ago. The $1,000 monthly stipend FAWC gives its fellows ended with a final payment in May. She thought it would be a few uncomfortable months, she said, but that surely by the time the eviction moratorium ended she would have found something.

But the pandemic went on and on.

Jackson said she applied for affordable housing but had no luck. “I had no idea it would be this difficult,” she said. “I was at a loss of knowing what to do.”

According to her website, Jackson has a master’s degree from California State University, Northridge and an M.F.A. from the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, and has won numerous fellowships and awards.

She said she applied for the job of visual arts coordinator at FAWC, and offered to pay rent to live at the Brewster Street apartments owned by FAWC. Jackson said her offer was rebuffed with a “robotic no response” from MacMillan, from Lynne Kortenhaus, president of the FAWC board, and from Carol Warshawsky, chair of the board.

Calls and emails from the Independent to Kortenhaus, MacMillan, and other board members were not answered. The attorney representing FAWC in the eviction case, Michael Pierce, also did not respond to a call or email.

Jackson was one of the 2019-2020 fellows who made a lot of noise about what they perceived as racist and classist behaviors by FAWC staff. They made these complaints publicly, first at an exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in the winter and later in a long “call for action” sent to FAWC supporters and board members.

The FAWC responded by increasing the monthly stipend from $750 to $1,000, something MacMillan said had been in the works anyway. And the work center then announced new commitments to increase efforts to diversify and train staff. MacMillan also announced his resignation last year, effective March 1. The current interim director, Margaret Murphy, also declined to comment.

In February, MacMillan posted a statement about FAWC’s progress in addressing the diversity challenge on its website. The actions listed included the hiring of Damisa Amante Jackson of the Disruptive Equity Education Project (DEEP) of Manchester, N.H. Damisa Jackson will “identify the immediate and necessary actions to improve our culture,” MacMillan wrote.

Other plans include collecting information from former and current fellows to ensure “all perspectives” are considered. Those concerns are to go to the newly formed Diversity, Belonging, Inclusion & Equity Trustee Committee at FAWC.

The 20192020 cohort of fellows at the work center. (Photo courtesy FAWC)

Lydia Hicks, the former FAWC visual arts coordinator, resigned in February 2020, accusing the administration of creating a hostile work environment. On Feb. 25, 2021, she published an essay on Medium, an unedited social media platform, expanding on her case against the nonprofit.

Hicks stated in her essay that she told one of her bosses at the work center that she felt her life had been in danger when the Provincetown police responded to an incident involving a neighbor’s dog and a FAWC fellow’s dog.

Asked if it was fair to make such a serious charge on social media, Hicks replied, “I do not believe that social media should be the first line of defense. I decided to write the article after spending the last few years attempting to advocate for fellows, but key figures of the administration refused to address the basic needs of safety. For me, this article is the last line of defense and a cry for help. It is certain that I will be further ostracized for speaking out about this but if it helps them drop this ridiculous eviction charge, then it’s worth it.”

Berta Walker, a former longtime trustee of FAWC, called Hicks’s essay “fake news.”

“To be called racist after having a history of openness,” said Walker, “I mean, it’s OK to make mistakes if then you agree to improve, which the Fine Arts Work Center has done.”

Editor’s note: Due to a fact-checking error, an earlier version of this article misstated the correct name of the Disruptive Equity Education Project (DEEP).

CURRENTS

This Week in Truro

By The Independent Jul 23, 2020

Meetings Ahead

Meetings are held remotely. To watch live, go to truro-ma.gov and follow the “helpful link” to Truro Channel 18.

Thursday, July 23

Climate Change Action, 10 a.m.

Friday, July 24

Energy Committee, 8:30 a.m.

Monday, July 27

Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, July 28

Select Board, 5 p.m.

Thursday, July 30

Zoning Board of Appeals, 5:30 p.m.

Conversation Starters

Covid 19 Update

As of July 20, Truro had one confirmed active case of coronavirus and 10 additional cases considered recovered.

Eviction Ban Extended to Oct. 17

Gov. Charlie Baker has added time to his current ban on evictions and foreclosures as part of legislation to help home owners and renters during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pause was going to end on Aug. 17 but is now extended until Oct. 17.

This will be good news to the 20 or so remaining tenants of the Truro Motor Inn, a former motel on Route 6, where residents live year-round in rented motel rooms in violation of town bylaws and health codes.

After years of trying to get compliance from the owners of the Truro Motor Inn, the Truro Board of Health on June 30 voted not to renew the owners’ license, thereby rendering the place illegal for occupancy. Any evictions, however, will be stayed until the governor’s ban is lifted.

For assistance with rent and mortgage payments the Baker-Polito administration launched a new $20 million statewide fund called the Emergency Rental and Mortgage Assistance program. More information can be found at the state’s COVID-19 Resource Page. —K.C. Myers

housing

Towns Face Tough Choices for Tenants of Delinquent Landlord

Provincetown and Eastham are going after 11 Delgizzi properties for unpaid taxes

By K.C. Myers Oct 10, 2019

Delgizzi house that has been taken by Eastham. — 2815 Route 6 in Eastham, a duplex owned by the Delgizzi family has been taken by the town for nonpayment of taxes.

TRURO — Last week the Truro Board of Health gave a landlord up to 15 days to begin repairs to his motel where about 50 tenants live year-round. If Daniel Delgizzi, of Braintree, and his son David fail to meet the town’s deadlines for the Truro Motor Inn repairs, the town will petition the housing court to place the properties in receivership.

This will put the monthly rent from 36 units, estimated at $400,000 a year, into a special account to be used only to repair the property to so it meets health codes. Using a receiver in this way has proved to be an effective tool to protect tenants from uncooperative landlords, said Raymond Yox, managing attorney of the Hyannis office of South Coastal Counties Legal Services, an agency that provides legal aid to the poor in civil cases.

On Cape Cod, the Pocasset Mobile Home Park was rehabilitated through a receiver, its failed septic system fixed, and returned to the original owners with conditions in 2018, he said.

A similar solution is sought in Truro, where last Thursday night emotions ran high as tenants, many from Jamaica, crowded into town hall to talk about what would happen if the health board shut down the motor inn for serious code violations including overcrowding, overloaded electrical outlets, and a failed septic system.

“Before I moved there, I moved seven times,” said one man from Jamaica. “We plow streets … we take care of the old people and if it weren’t for David [Delgizzi], we wouldn’t be here today.”

Amy Paine said she had lived there since 2015. She waited 27 years before getting a state housing voucher but still couldn’t find a place to rent until she came upon the Truro Motor Inn.

“If you people pull this license there are going to be a lot of homeless people,” Paine said. “It would be a shame. There is no place for us to go.”

Many properties, lots of unpaid taxes

The Truro Motor Inn was the first property that Daniel Delgizzi purchased on Cape Cod in the 1960s, said Carolyn Delgizzi, who lives with her husband, David, in Weston and was the only family member to attend the Truro meeting. She said her father-in-law bought other properties over the years, including two restaurants, the Lobster Pound in Orleans and the Lobster Shanty in Eastham. Several of these properties are now rundown and occupied by tenants with no other choices in an extremely tight rental market.

341 Bradford Street in Provincetown another Delgizzi property foreclosed on. — Another Delgizzi property that has been forclosed on, this one in Provincetown at 341 Bradford St. (Photo K.C. Myers)

The Delgizzis are years behind in property tax payments. Provincetown is in the process of taking tax title on a Delgizzi-owned property at 341 Bradford St., said Alexander Williams, the town treasurer.

In Eastham, where the Delgizzis own 10 properties, taxes have also not been paid on some of them since as far back as 2014. The town of Eastham is also pursuing takings of those homes, said Town Administrator Jacqueline Beebe.

Beebe said dealing with the Delgizzis has been a constant battle. Besides the delinquent taxes, none of the properties has a rental certificate, so they do not get inspected, even though they all have tenants, including several children, Beebe said.

One tenant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Delgizzis refuse to tie into the Eastham town water system despite the fact that the well water at their Route 6 property comes out of the faucets brown.

Another tenant living at a complex of duplexes owned by the Delgizzis in Eastham said she pays $1,850 a month in cash to house herself and her children. She says David is a “good landlord” but she doesn’t understand why he has not paid taxes.

“The town staff and I are all public servants, and we’re trying to support our residents and protect public safety,” the Eastham town administrator said. “How do we take a property owner and landlord like the Delgizzi family and get them to comply and pay taxes without harming the very people we’re trying help? We’re strategically trying to get the results we need without hurting these people.”

Towns take different tacks

Carolyn Delgizzi said there are no problems with the family except that her father-in-law is elderly. She said they plan to pay back all the taxes very soon and comply with the Truro Board of Health’s timelines.

Truro town officials, however, said that’s highly unlikely.

They described years of struggle with the Delgizzis, their constant postponement of inspections, and repeated no-shows at board meetings. The family has been on the town’s regulatory radar for years for problems at their Truro properties, which include about 73 housing units comprising former motel rooms, cottages, houses, and apartments. Peter Van Stratum, of the board of health, said the chance of the Delgizzi family cooperating is “less than zero.”

Another board of health member, Mark Peters, said once a group of tenants from a Delgizzi property on Moses Way with 21 units came “en masse” to a board of health meeting “in their pajamas and bathrobes” to protest rumors of eviction due to the town’s repeated attempts to get trash and unlicensed vehicles removed from the property.

One unit at the motor inn had an extension cord that looked like it came from the Christmas Tree Shop on one electrical socket. It was connected to a refrigerator, microwave, and TV, Stratum said. “These are things I find unacceptable,” he said. “All these things have been recognized and we say ‘Everyone go ahead and live there.’ If something happens, then the town of Truro is liable.”

The Delgizzis’ behavior is “insulting,” Stratum added.

But since the receivership plan would allow the tenants to stay for the time being anyway, the board voted 4-1 in favor of that, rather shuttering the inn. Stratum cast the sole negative vote.

Delgizzi house in Eastham — 625 Route 6 in Eastham is one of 10 properties in Eastham owned by the Delgizzi family. (Photo K.C. Myers)

Eastham is pursuing a property taking for nonpayment of taxes, which is a slower process. Beebe is also trying to keep the Eastham tenants from becoming homeless, she said.

Beebe said it’s taken two years of court action to get two of the Delgizzi properties at 2835 and 2815 Route 6 into town ownership. The Delgizzis owe around $33,000 in taxes on them. But if they pay that off within a year, ownership reverts back to them, she said.

Beebe said she’s trying to be fair and also get results. The Delgizzi situation exposes the desperation of trying to find decent housing on the Outer Cape. Many of the tenants earn too much to quality for affordable housing, Beebe added.

“One positive is it has brought all the community of housing advocates and the government together,” she said.