Areas at the Block have turned seedy, although some tenants have no serious complaints about building maintenance.
Chapter Two
Twenty-two years later, here is what Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) staff member Cynthia Reid had to say in a May 29 report to the agency's directors about how management has delivered on its promises:
"The property has been poorly managed, both physically and with regards to resident selection and services," she wrote.
"The units are tiny, functionally obsolete, in poor condition, with no amenities, limited parking, and a lack of safety and security. The reputation has been bad for years, and perhaps is now operating as poorly as it ever has — frequent police calls, issues with elevated lead levels in several children, an unsafe place to live in or near… Efforts to put pressure on the owner to improve the physical and social conditions at the property had no effect. The owner has operated the property within the terms of the law and the Section 8 Contract — albeit at the bare minimum."
(For years, the building was managed by Holyoke, Mass.-based Marken Properties, and is now managed by Mt. Holyoke Management, according to on-site managers at the complex and officials from Housing Vermont. Berezin — who is also a co-owner of Armory Square — is the head of both companies, according to Massachusetts state records.)
Berezin did not respond to repeated requests from the Valley News, by telephone and in writing, for an interview. His company's on-site managers at Armory Square likewise declined to comment, referring questions to Berezin's office in Holyoke.
In 2005, Windsor Town Administrator Don Howard wrote a letter to Kathleen Berk of Vermont Housing Authority demanding that Section 8 funding be revoked from Armory Square to force its management to address the building's chronic problems with drugs and crime.
"It is intolerable to see the effect upon both the tenants and community resources," he wrote, adding that the management company had shown a "blatant lack of cooperation" with the town in making the complex a better place to live.
Responding to Howard's complaints, Berezin sent a detailed, five-page letter to state housing officials defending the complex's management record. He argued that the town was willing to deal with problems at the Block only when outside money was available.
Berezin said that Windsor's municipal government, chronically short of cash, was failing to do its fair share in the struggle to improve conditions at the building.
"It seems to us that the reason things really fell apart is because the town faced severe budget cuts and political changes," Berezin wrote.
For several years beginning in 1999, Berezin noted, Armory Square received federal grants to combat drug crime through a number of measures, including extra police coverage at the Block and beefed-up security measures such as surveillance cameras.
When these grants ran out, he said, he could no longer afford to fund crime-prevention efforts at the same level. The response of the town's police department, he said, was essentially to abandon the complex's residents to their fate.
"The grants are sorely missed," Berezin wrote.