Sandy Springs battles blight
Overcrowding hurts Latinos, community
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
September 19, 2004
by Jeffrey Scott
Deacon Joseph Ruberte makes the rounds once or twice a week visiting his parishioners, most of them poor Hispanic day laborers who live in apartments in Sandy Springs.
"Sometimes what you see will break your heart," says Ruberte, a burly ex-Marine and pastoral director of Holy Spirit Catholic Center on Northwood Drive in Sandy Springs. "You will see a run-down place with rats and three adult men sleeping in the same room."
That image is sharply at odds with the image the community of Sandy Springs has of itself as a thriving upscale community.
But government leaders and civic groups say it is, nevertheless, an accurate depiction of a growing problem in the northern Atlanta suburb, where about 10 percent of the population (86,000) is Hispanic or Latino.
The largely poor community lives in badly maintained apartments under crowded conditions that violate county codes. And those run-down properties, say activists, threaten to erode other real estate values.
"They are being exploited, conned into renting these properties --- and that's hurting everybody," says Eva Galambos, who heads the Committee for Sandy Springs, an organization that has pushed to have the community incorporated.
Galambos' group and two other Sandy Springs civic organizations, Sandy Springs Revitalization Inc. and the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods, hosted an Aug. 31 hearing on public safety and code enforcement to tackle the issue.
During the hearing, Steve Cover, director of the Fulton County Department of Environment and Community Development, said his office would propose a countywide ordinance, similar to one passed in Roswell, that would require all apartment complexes to be inspected within a year.
The ordinance would force apartment owners to meet the state code. But last week, Roswell Mayor Jere Wood, who called his city's ordinance "one of the most successful programs of my administration," said code inspections might not alleviate overcrowding.
"How do you prove a person is living there?" he said. "When you inspect, they can say they're just visiting."
Cover said last week that "legal issues" had delayed his presenting the ordinance to the Fulton County Commission and that he had scheduled its proposal for the Oct. 6 meeting.
Ruberte said he heard complaints about the apartment dwellers from non-Hispanics, but added, "It's not discrimination, it's about property values."
He said day laborers who gather each morning near the intersection of Northwood Drive and Roswell Road had become a problem because crew trucks stop in the middle of the road, creating a traffic hazard.
"Right now we're looking for another place for them to gather," he said.
Activist Galambos called it unfair to single out apartments along Northwood and nearby areas. There are run-down apartments, she said, up and down Roswell Road.
"The housing code is being violated left and right," she said. "I can show you a place not far from here, and you would look at it and be flabbergasted."
* Previously: Civic and neighborhood groups met last month to discuss run-down, overcrowded apartments in Sandy Springs.
* The latest: The county wants all apartment complexes inspected within a year.
* What's next: That proposal could be introduced to county commissioners Oct. 6.