Pubdate: Fri, 15 Feb 2002
Source: Fayetteville Observer-Times (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Fayetteville Observer-Times
Contact:  http://www.fayettevillenc.com/foto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Author: Missy Stoddard

FRUSTRATION OVER TROUBLES GROWS ALONG ENOCH STREET

James Cameron has been complaining about the people next door for three years.

Last week, he began to see some action.

Cameron lives at 116 Enoch St. Next door are four apartments in two 
cinder-block buildings, sitting in a dirt yard littered with trash. Cameron 
says that for the three years he has lived on Enoch Street, the apartments 
have been a gathering spot for drug dealers and drunks. Enoch Street is off 
Murchison Road, less than a mile from Fayetteville State University.

"They urinate outside, day or night," Cameron said. "I've been told some of 
them have sexual intercourse out there. It's just noise and vulgarity. Ride 
through here about 9 or 10 o'clock at night and you'll always see 20 to 30 
people over there cursing and raising hell. There's no sense talking to 
them; they don't care."

Residents and police refer to the two apartment buildings at 118 and 120 
Enoch St. as "the hole."

Problems like the ones on Enoch Street are not uncommon in poor 
neighborhoods filled with cheap rental properties, although residents say 
that the apartments are one of the worst examples. Police and city 
officials say getting the properties cleaned up can take a long time.

Cameron, who is 69 and retired from the Army, is a soft-spoken man. He 
lives on Enoch Street with his wife.

Cameron and others in the neighborhood have called the police repeatedly. 
They have gathered for Community Watch meetings, complained to building 
inspectors and told their City Council representative that they want the 
property cleaned up.

But the problems persist.

Gathering Spot

There are two apartments in each of the buildings on Enoch Street, although 
one of the units is vacant. Cameron's home is within feet of one of the 
apartment buildings.

Moses Best, chairman of the Murchison Road Combined Community Watch, said 
the apartments are one of the worst areas in a neighborhood full of 
low-cost rental homes.

"Good God, it's an eyesore," Best said. He said it is particularly 
upsetting that so many drug dealers gather at the apartments, which are 
just a short distance from three churches.

The Rev. Thomas Leak is pastor of Smith Temple Church of God in Christ. A 
small field is all that separates Smith Temple from the apartments. He said 
trash from the property often ends up in the church lot. Some people are 
reluctant to come in the neighborhood, he said, because of the reputation 
of the apartments.

"It is quite a nuisance in the community," Leak said. "There is heavy 
traffic, from morning till night, and I don't think it's from drinking Pepsis."

The apartments have been the source of complaints about drug dealing, noise 
and other nuisances for years, said Fay-etteville police Capt. Tom 
Bergamine. Police have conducted undercover operations and tried other 
means of controlling the problem. But police say people arrested there end 
up back at the apartments as soon as they get out of jail.

It's not so much the tenants who cause the problems as it is people 
gathering outside the apartments, Cameron and police say.

Political Connection

Best, Cameron and some other residents have complained that politics has 
kept the city from taking a tough stance with the apartments' owners, 
Walter and L'Tanya Haire.

Walter Haire, a former city building inspector, is the brother of City 
Councilman D.J.Haire. Enoch Street is in D.J. Haire's district.

"It's politics, man," Best said. "(D.J. Haire) always listens to people 
complain, but he never does anything."

But city officials and police say that there has been no political pressure 
to go easy on Walter Haire. The process of cleaning up a property is just a 
slow one.

Walter Haire did not respond to messages left for him seeking comment on 
the apartments.

D.J. Haire, who owns a home repair business and manages University 
Apartment Rentals on Filter Plant Drive, says he has done nothing to 
interfere with the process. He has made cleaning up neighborhoods a 
platform plank in his campaigns. He said Wednesday that he has fought hard 
for residents in his district. Family and friends are treated the same as 
any other constituent, he said.

"I deem it fair for the city of Fayetteville to do whatever is necessary to 
get these properties and owners taken care of," he said. "It makes no 
difference to me. I scream loudly. You have got to take care of property 
and be responsible."

D.J. Haire attends Community Watch meetings where residents talk about 
problem properties.

When asked about the situation at his brother's apartments after a Feb. 5 
meeting attended by residents of the Murchison Road area, Haire said that 
every time he has heard residents complain about his brother's Enoch Street 
property, he has notified the city and his brother.

"I cannot speak for my brother," he said. "I'm not the property owner and I 
don't manage any properties. The city's got to do what they've got to do."

Walter Haire contacted the Police Department's nuisance abatement 
investigator on Feb. 6, the day after D.J. Haire was asked about the 
problem by a reporter at the Community Watch meeting.

Public Nuisance

Police say they have kept close watch over the problems on Enoch Street. By 
December, lawmen had documented enough evidence to declare the apartments a 
public nuisance. By that time, officers had been called to the properties 
more than 150 times in less than three years.

The state's nuisance abatement law allows police to sue commercial and 
residential property owners whose buildings have been the source of 
repeated complaints about noise, drugs and violence. If the owners don't 
stop the illegal activities, the department can pursue a civil lawsuit and 
seize the property.

According to Sgt. Jessie DeVane, the nuisance abatement investigator, when 
repeated complaints are filed, he researches the address to see how many 
calls for service have come in. If there are an excessive number for 
disturbances or violence, a point system is used to determine whether the 
property is a nuisance. If an area scores too many points, DeVane will go 
to court to have the property declared a civil nuisance.

If landlords don't cooperate, taking care of the problem through the court 
system can take between six months and a year, DeVane said.

Typically, DeVane said, businesses, especially nightclubs, are the source 
of nuisance complaints. Residential complaints are much less common.

DeVane said he always tries to work with property owners to settle the 
problems out of court.

"My goal is to get the property owner to work with the Police Department to 
clean the property up so it's a nice and better place for the whole 
neighborhood," DeVane said.

Police Letter

On Dec. 13, DeVane sent a letter to Walter and L'Tanya Haire. The letter 
advised the Haires that the property was subject to civil action because it 
was being used for illegal activity. The memo reads in part:

"The Fayetteville Police Department has responded to numerous calls at this 
location. The calls for service are reported unlawful activities on or 
spilling over from the property. These calls include repeated acts that 
create and constitute a breach of the peace (i.e. narcotic activities, 
suspicious vehicles, domestics disturbances and suspicious 
persons/activities)."

According to police records, lawmen responded to 108 calls at 118 Enoch St. 
between June 27, 1999, and Jan. 29, 2002. The records indicate the calls 
were for such things as drug dealing, stabbing, shooting, suspicious 
people, suspicious vehicles, noise and service of criminal papers. At 120 
Enoch, police had 44 calls for similar complaints during the same period, 
according to police records.

At the Feb. 5 Community Watch meeting held at the Smith Recreation Center 
on Slater Avenue, DeVane told about three dozen Murchison Road area 
residents that the city had begun taking action to get the Enoch Street 
property cleaned up.

At that meeting, DeVane said that the Haires had not responded to his 
letter and that he had no choice but to take them to court.

The next morning, DeVane said, Walter Haire called him offering to work 
with police.

DeVane said Walter Haire told him that he had tried contacting him several 
times, but that DeVane had never returned his calls.

DeVane said he never received any messages from Walter Haire.

Bergamine said Walter Haire agreed to get a trespassing agreement for 118-A 
Enoch St., which is vacant. Anyone caught on the front stoop or immediate 
area of that apartment can be charged with trespassing. Haire also agreed 
to issue eviction notices for the residents in 120-B Enoch St. Bergamine 
said there have been numerous complaints about that unit.

DeVane said Walter Haire assured police that he would take care of the 
litter and piles of debris scattered about the property.

But five days later, a half dozen men were hanging around the property and 
lighters, beer cans and liquor bottles lay scattered about the ground. Two 
rusting mailboxes rested in a side yard. Behind the apartments, a 
broken-down boat lay in the grass along with a rusted grocery cart.

Cameron said he has stuck around for three years because he refuses to be 
driven out of his home. He was both excited and cautious when he learned 
action may finally be taken to clean the place up.

"It's the best news I've heard in a long time," he said. "I'm not going to 
give up."
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