Dear Editor,

My mother lives at Village Court where tenants still do not know who gave the orders to bolt shut the sliding glass doors from the outside. The doors were bolted shut on the East section of the Mattapoisett Housing Authority’s Village Court complex June 2, 2011.

At the June 9th housing authority meeting, a prominent board member said she would “look into it.”  We are patiently waiting. The executive director blamed “Boston” and the “State.”

When tenants inquired as to who in “Boston,” she replied, “I don’t remember; I don’t know. I can check in the office. It was done as an experiment.”  Tenants deserve to know who ordered those sliding glass doors bolted shut from the outside. This is more than carelessness or negligence; it is criminal.

Although the doors were unbolted June 16, 2011, the MHA’s executive director is adamant the glass doors, which tenants have opened uneventfully and predictably for 30 years, remain shut for health and safety reasons.

Temperatures soared to 99 degrees in the hallways last week. Many residents felt sick.

I posit that the "new policy" to permanently shut sliders has little to do with health and safety. It is a pretext to cover up for the lack of maintenance over the decades which have contributed to many sliding glass doors and other mechanical systems either inoperable or barely operable. Asserting concern for tenant’s health and safety is merely a fig leaf to cover up for years of negligence in the supervision of maintenance personnel and shoddy workmanship at Village Court. It seems the real threat to tenant health, safety and welfare is the dysfunctional management of Village Court—not sliders ordered shut against the manufacturers intended use of providing ventilation.

I am asking for a top to bottom investigation of the Mattapoisett Housing Authority as well as the executive director’s judgment, managerial skills, and decision making abilities, particularly, as it relates to who gave the order to bolt the sliding glass doors shut from the outside.  Someone must be held responsible and accountable.

We need answers.

Sincerely,

Eileen J. Marum