By Rebecca Correa
Staff writer
July 19, 2008 02:05 am It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. When police stumbled upon a family of seven living in a Salem home littered with feces, cigarette butts and dirty diapers, it was upsetting but not shocking. The Twinbrook Avenue home was so filthy the family was ordered out after it was declared unfit for living by town health inspector Brian Lockard. He and other health officials from Southern New Hampshire said this case was severe, but it's not entirely unusual. "Unfortunately, these situations arise," Lockard said. "It's sad to say, but in every community there are homes like this, and there will be in the future, for whatever reason it is." The problem is that many of these situations go unnoticed because they're not reported, and health inspectors need strong evidence of health violations before they can inspect the inside of a home. Plaistow health inspector Dennise Horrocks said she has worked in town for six years and she has never had to declare a home uninhabitable. But that doesn't mean unhealthy homes don't exist, she said. She depends on calls from neighbors, family members or friends who notice the inside of a home is filthy. "It is hard (for health officers) to know about these situations," Horrocks said. "I think what people have to do is take everything into consideration. ... Do the children appear to be closely supervised? Not just what the outside of the home may look like." Health officers also depend on the Division for Children, Youth and Families employees, as well as police and fire officials. In the recent Salem case, police discovered the deplorable conditions in the home after a neighbor found a 2-year-old girl running down the street naked on July 4. Officers who returned the child to the home rented by Michael and Maureen Bell found the inside of the house strewn with garbage. When Lockard inspected the home, he found it among the worst living conditions he has seen this year. He said the stench of ammonia and mold growth posed an immediate risk to the health of the parents and five children, so he ordered them out of the home. It wasn't the first time Lockard had contact with the Bell family. Once in November and once in June, he sent the family letters, asking them to pick up trash outside their home that neighbors had complained about. Both times the family complied with his request, so he didn't have to enter the home until police did, he said. Even if he had tried to enter the home sooner, the Bells could have denied him entry. "It's difficult. I just can't go in people's homes; I have to have a reason," he said. "Anybody can deny me entry and, if they do, I don't have the right to enter people's property unless the police are involved or the house was vacated." In extreme cases, health inspectors can request an administrative search warrant from a judge to allow them to enter a home. But, most times, they depend on tips from the neighbors. In smaller towns that don't have a full-time health inspector, the job is usually done by the code enforcement officer. And those officials depend even more on tips from neighbors, according to Kris Emerson, Hampstead's chief building official. "In the neighborhoods there, they usually look out for each other, and we encourage them to notice if things have changed in the property and raise the red flag to us," he said. And while residents should be alert, Horrocks of Plaistow said, they shouldn't rush to the phone if there's some junk in the yard. "People can be junk collectors and have stuff outside, but that doesn't always represent the conditions on the inside of the house," she said. "What people have to understand is people can be really poor housekeepers, but that doesn't mean it's not healthy to live there. ... I think the Salem case clearly went beyond poor housekeeping." State health officials never intervene in these cases. It's up to local officers to do the job. Occasionally it's the state health organization that comes across the situation and calls a local health officer, according to DCYF director Maggie Bishop. Bishop said there are only a"handful" of cases similar to the Salem case in the entire state every year. "But in my position, I may not hear of all of them," she said. "I know of two in the past couple of years that are deplorable and unsafe. Deplorable is unusual. Typically, we have situations where we are concerned about the condition of the home, but things that can quickly be fixed." While the Salem family's conditions were deplorable, Lockard said he has witnessed "much, much worse." One women in Salem had dead cats on her front lawn and two dead dogs inside her trailer. In Hampstead, a woman had more than 80 cats in her home before she was ordered out. Officials said the most extreme cases seem to be people who suffer from some sort of depression, mental illness or substance abuse, and live alone. It's unclear what led the Bell family to let their home become as bad as it was, but Michael and Maureen Bell are each facing five counts of endangering the welfare of a child and will be arraigned in Salem District Court next month. The family was last known to be staying with a family in Hampstead and was ordered to hire a cleaning company that specializes in biohazardous waste. Bishop of DCYF said the department is investigating the situation. They have 40 more days to finish interviewing everyone involved and work with the family to permanently correct their living situation.
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