Staff Writer
Mercy Ministries, a Christian homeless outreach in Harrisburg, has been ordered by the city to vacate its boardinghouse on Crawford Avenue.
Everything but the electrical system needs repairing, Code Enforcement Manager Pam Costabile said, including the walls, ceilings, floors and fire alarms. Code Inspector Larry Lariscy and Fire Inspector Donald White told ministry Executive Director Fran Oliver on Friday that she has 10 days to move residents out.
Twelve people live in the boardinghouse, Mrs. Oliver said. She said the code inspector blind-sided her with a new list of repairs, and she plans to appeal to License and Inspection Director Rob Sherman.
"It's a little unreasonable to come in there and add things to a report that weren't on there before," she said. "I've got these people that are gonna' be back on the street, and they're disabled, and old and retarded."
In April 2008, Mr. Lariscy checked out the century-old, two-story quadruplex and found inadequate lighting, insufficient smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, padlocks on unit doors and tenants living in filth. Mrs. Oliver said she corrected those things and planned to do further renovations -- such as painting the outside -- until a grant application fell through.
"We're not trying to break any laws, but we do want to be treated fairly," she said.
Last year, Harrisburg activist Butch Palmer -- founder of Harrisburg Organization Networking for Gentrification to Keep Our Neighborhood from becoming a Ghetto, or HONG KONG -- publicly blamed Mercy Ministries and its boardinghouse for a rise in crime and trash.
He said that while he'd still like to see the ministry out of the neighborhood, it hasn't been causing problems lately.
"Mercy Ministries dramatically improved," he said. "They became more accountable. Even though they have not been relocated, our efforts were not in vain."
