Occupancy record dubious
Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Try to visualize living night and day
with 22 others, including 14
children, crammed into a 1, 747-squarefoot home infested with biting mice and other vermin. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the various pets and that broken bathroom. I used to naively believe that a herd house was one where six university students, each with a vehicle, wreaked havoc while sharing the rent on a three-bedroom in a family neighborhood. The great granddaddy of herd houses is what Springdale police and code officers discovered on Oct. 29 along with piles of garbage, feces, faulty utilities and other hazardous conditions, and mattresses on the floors of all four bedrooms, the living room and even in the garage.
I happen to know that it is physically possible to squeeze that many human beings into an average-sized house because the Guinness World Records book says that 27 adults once squeezed into a Volkswagen Beetle. While I doubt that 23 house occupants would even get a sniff from Guinness, the number did blow away Springdale’s previous overcrowding record of 19. Incidentally, 13 is the legal maximum for that size house in Springdale.
Good grief, 23 people is comparable to Hog coach Bobby Petrino and his entire offense and defense. You’d need 23 chairs so everyone could sit down at the same time. I can’t even imagine the fights over who controls the remote.
What made my skin crawl the deepest, however, was learning of the child brought from the house to the Northwest Medical Center in Springdale with rodent bites on his ears, legs and head. That discovery naturally prompted nurses to notify the state Department of Human Services, which then contacted authorities.
Our reporter Richard Massey wrote that in a separate incident at the same house in May, a resident was charged with unsightly and unsanitary conditions for keeping a derelict boat in the unfenced backyard. The fine was suspended after the man removed the boat, but when he failed to make payments on assessed court costs, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He eventually surrendered and was set to appear in court with the others today.
Nine adults living in the household of families from the Marshall Islands are charged with one misdemeanor count of unsightly and unsanitary conditions and overoccupancy. Perhaps the Springdale city attorney should consider moving this case to a larger courtroom.
Sgt. Billy Turnbough, head of the Springdale Nuisance Abatement Program, told Massey that he “had no sympathy for the adults who allowed a child to be repeatedly bitten by rodents.”
“My opinion is this: If you are an adult and you live in this house, you are just as guilty as anyone else,” Turnbough said. “I charged everyone. I’ve been to a lot of houses and seen a lot of conditions, but nothing to the point where a child was being bitten by mice.”
The injured child reportedly was treated and released to the family. Authorities closed and red-tagged the house on Nov. 3 after an inspection in which they detailed numerous problems.
Mike Chamlee, Springdale’s head building official since 2005, called the house filthy and said it will remain closed to occupancy until repairs are completed. He said some of the alleged violations discovered concerned life safety.
Shortly after the raid, the residents reportedly emptied the house, dumping an enormous pile of garbage near the street. The resulting mini-Mount Magazine of discarded broken furniture, television sets and general waste was so large that the city had to retain a contractor for $ 700 to haul it away. When they returned the next day, yet another large pile of castoffs appeared in the same spot.
Chamlee, who toured the house, said he was stunned by the sheer number living inside, some of whom spoke English well.
“In my experience, 23 is the most we’ve ever had,” he told me. “But these kinds of overcrowded conditions unfortunately aren’t all that unusual in town.”
Perhaps the most thankful person on the day following the raid and resulting exodus was the next-door neighbor. He said that, for the first time in quite a while, there were no bottles thrown into his yard overnight, his flowers were springing up after being continually trampled and evenings previously wracked by loud music had suddenly become blissfully quiet, even peaceful. These kinds of events can spark universal appreciation and perspective of the simple gifts that order, space and solitude can provide in our daily lives.
—–––––•–––––—Staff columnist Mike Masterson is the former editor of three Arkansas daily newspapers.
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