A 'stupid' mandate that costs Bristol $30K a year

The city spends more than $30,000 a year storing the possessions of evicted tenants that usually go unclaimed and unwanted.
“It doesn’t serve anyone,” said Kit Plourde, who heads the city’s social services department.
Proposed legislation in Hartford would drop the mandate that requires cities and towns across the state to care for stuff that’s hauled to the curb whenever a landlord secures the eviction of a tenant.
“Let’s get it done,” said state Rep. Betty Boukus, a Plainville Democrat whose 22nd District includes portions of both Bristol and New Britain.
Boukus, who has introduced a measure to kill the mandate, said the change makes sense.
Plourde said that tenants who are thrown out almost always know the day is coming because they’ve been in housing court for weeks.
They take most everything they might want with them whenever they go, she said, and typically leave behind junk, broken equipment and items they simply don’t care much about.
While some do reclaim possessions the city pays to store, Plourde said, most never do.
Wolcott Mayor Thomas Dunn called the requirement a particularly stupid unfunded mandate.
He said it doesn’t make any sense for his town to go pick up stuff after evictions and pay to store it.
Instead, Dunn said, the law should require the landlord to keep the material for a couple of weeks, something that can usually be done right on site.
Making the change, he said, “is a simple thing” and should be done.
Plourde said that years ago her department would store things for awhile and then auction off whatever wasn’t claimed in a sort of tag sale that took employees a day or two to organize.
But with only four overworked staff members left in her office, Plourde said, that’s no longer possible.
Instead, the stored junk is sold as a lot for a minimal amount.
The public works department winds up hauling some of it away to the incinerator, Plourde said.
Plourde said there are much better ways to help poor people with $30,000 than picking up and storing stuff that’s usually unwanted by anyone.
Boukus’ bill to repeal the mandate is before the legislature’s judiciary committee. Only one lawmaker whose district includes Bristol serves on judiciary, state Rep. Bill Hamzy, a Plymouth Republican whose 78th District includes northwestern Bristol.
There are at least half a dozen similar bills, some of which would transfer responsibility for storing tenants’ possessions to landlords or state marshals.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com