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Protestors shut down work on Frankford boarding house
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Protestors shut down work on Frankford boarding house
About 60 demonstrators from Frankford and Northwood this morning showed up to protest work on what they've been told will be an addiction recovery house or boarding house at 4834 N. Penn St., in a neighborhood already estimated to be saturated with 150 such houses. Neighbors began organizing against the project over the past few weeks, and the Department of Licenses & Inspections last week issued a stop-work order on the renovation, for which no permits had been pulled. But roofers showed up despite the L&I order this morning, and neighbors had to confront them to insist that they cease attempts to work on the property, Northwood Civic president Joe Krause said.
Deacon Lamont Purnell, the owner of the house, "was there this morning and talking with different people, and each person got a diff story of what he was going to do there," says Pete Specos, Frankford Civic Association president. "We have about 10 different versions of what he wants to put there." Purnell hasn't yet come before a zoning committee in either neighborhood, but he told the Daily News he wants to house at least 30 residents in the 11-apartment building.
Krause says it doesn't matter what the stated intent is for use of the building. "He's singing the same song we've heard year after year. He'll give us six or seven different uses, and the ultimately goal is to get as many people in there as they can. Once they get the zoning changes, tehy can put anybody they want in there."
Frank Bennett, an attorney and vice president of the Northwood Civic Association, says the groups are considering legal action if necessary, to ensure that no housing is created without proper facilities, including ktichens and bathrooms for each apartment.
Purnell is scheduled to meet with Northwood on July 17, and Frankford on Aug. 2, to go over his plans. But given the history of boarding houses in the neighborhood, almost anything he suggests will be a tough sell. Neighbors say boarding houses, and recovery houses in particular, have been transforming the neighborhood — and not for the better.
"We could protest different houses each day — the time and effort that it would go into protesting each house and keeping them from opening, it wouldn't be worth staying in the neighborhood," Krause says. "But now, people can't afford to move out. Their houses are worthless because this area is now known for crime, unregulated crime."
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