Man opts for lockup after struggle with illness, Northampton housing authority

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GORDON DANIELS

Bill Fabrocini stands with his can-and-bottle cart in Northampton June 8, before going on later that day to throw a brick through a shop window. He says that because he faced eviction by the city Housing Authority, he broke the window, and then refused to pay bail, in order to be jailed.

NORTHAMPTON - With a piece of paper on his door saying he would be evicted, 59-year-old Bill Fabrocini hatched an unconventional plan to quickly find a new place to live. One evening earlier this month, he threw a brick through a plate-glass window, then waited for police to arrest him.

Since then, he said, he's been enjoying himself at the Hampshire Jail and House of Correction.

Fabrocini could bail himself out for $50. Instead, he's opted to stay behind bars at least until his next court date July 6. A self-described "loner," Fabrocini said he doesn't have anywhere else to go.

Wearing an inmate's orange scrubs with a pair of black-rimmed glasses tucked into the collar, Fabrocini sat down at the jail for an interview with the Gazette this week.

"These people have treated me good in here," he said of jail staff.

The good treatment he's received at the jail, he said, contrasts starkly with what he describes as years of unjust treatment by the Northampton Housing Authority, which runs the Forsander apartments in Florence.

Fabrocini said housing officials had been "harassing" him since 2006, when his minivan was impounded and items he collected started accumulating in his apartment, in a shared hall and on a porch on the second floor of the High Street housing complex's building R.

City and Housing Authority officials say they have not harassed Fabrocini, but that the objects Fabrocini gathered and kept was creating a health and safety hazard in the building. A series of inspections and court hearings led to his eviction.

"It's a shame, but it had to happen in order for everyone else in the apartments to remain safe," said Jon Hite, executive director of the Northampton Housing Authority. "I don't know what we could have done differently in this one."

Housing Court Judge Robert Fields, who upheld the eviction, wrote in his May 7 ruling that the Housing Authority had demonstrated a "sincere willingness" to help Fabrocini clean up, but that Fabrocini turned down all offers.

Sheriff Robert Garvey said there have been a few local examples over the years of people committing minor crimes and going to jail because they have nowhere else to turn.

"It's a very expensive way to take care of homelessness," Garvey said.

The average cost of housing an inmate in Hampshire County, he said, is $35,000 a year, which works out to roughly $100 a day.

One man's story

Originally from Springfield, Fabrocini said he had lived at Forsander for the last 15 years.

In his youth he was a heroin addict, and did time in state prison. By comparison, he said, the county jail seems like "vacation." He especially likes the jail gym.

Fabrocini said he struggled in the past with bipolar disorder, but hasn't taken medication for it in eight years. Exercise and talking about his feelings at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, he said, keep the mental illness in check.

He said he has been sober for nearly 21 years.

Fabrocini, who lives on Social Security benefits, earned extra money by collecting redeemable cans and bottles from trash receptacles all over the city. He said he's been doing it for about eight years.

He also scavenged other items he found useful that were left in trash cans and Dumpsters. A lot of what he found he gave to other people, he said.

"I don't believe that God makes junk," Fabrocini said. "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

After his van was impounded, he started making the rounds with a shopping cart. He modified the cart by attaching shopping baskets and cat litter buckets for extra storage. To the handle he attached an umbrella, so he could work in the rain.

Every day he pushed his cart from Forsander along Route 9 and into downtown Northampton. At the end of the day he'd return home with his quarry, storing items inside and in a trailer in the parking lot, which he said was stolen sometime after the van was impounded.

Hoarding concern

Hite said Fabrocini's hoarding caught his staff's attention about two years ago.

Hite said the authority offered to work with Fabrocini and help him dispose of the built-up clutter. Fabrocini responded with angry letters and asked to be left alone, Hite said.

The Fire Department discovered the clutter in and around Fabrocini's apartment while responding to a false alarm Dec. 14 in building R.

Fire inspectors subsequently found four fire code violations in Fabrocini's apartment, according to a Feb. 5 letter from Capt. Shawn Denkiewicz to Northampton's health department.

Denkiewicz's letter describes objects blocking entrances and exits and accumulated on the staircase and landing, as well as paper covering smoke detectors. Denkiewicz also recommended Fabrocini remove combustible objects from the area of heat sources.

Health inspector Aimee Petrosky inspected Fabrocini's apartment Feb. 13. She ordered Fabrocini to remove pieces of paper taped to the ceiling around smoke detectors and warned that the clutter on his porch and inside could provide "harborage" for rodents, though there was no evidence then any animals had taken up residence.

Photos taken during the inspection show, among other things, dozens of empty cat litter buckets stacked together.

The Housing Authority initiated eviction proceedings in April in Housing Court. In a one-page, handwritten response filed with the court, Fabrocini states, "I feel that I'm not guilty of anything."

He later represented himself in a four-hour hearing before Fields.

"Such recalcitrance leaves the court with no basis to stay these proceedings in accordance with a reasonable accommodation plan," Fields wrote in his decision ordering Fabrocini evicted June 9.

The Housing Authority cleared out Fabrocini's apartment Wednesday, removing about 600 pounds of belongings, Hite said.

Hite said in the last six months there have been three other serious hoarding cases in complexes run by the Housing Authority. In each of those cases, he said, tenants have been more cooperative, working with housing staff, and their families and friends, to clean up and restore their apartments to safe condition.

He said staff checks in regularly with these tenants to make sure they don't start piling up belongings unreasonably again.

A decision made

Once his eviction was final, Fabrocini said he made up his mind not to be homeless. Without friends or family to take him in, he said, he settled on jail as the best place to go.

"I'm not going to stand on the sidewalk and bum quarters and sleep in alleyways," he said.

After smashing the window and a neon sign behind it, Fabrocini faces charges of malicious and wanton destruction of property over $250. He's due back in court July 6.

If the court imposes a fine, Fabrocini said, he'll ask to work it off by serving more time behind bars.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.