Brazilians Try to Repair Lives After Fire

By MANDY LOCKE

Three weeks after an Edgartown house fire destroyed the home of 14
Brazilians, the displaced immigrants still struggle to secure a new
foothold on the Island.

"A lot of the people are still recuperating. Much of that
money [they lost] was to get them through the winter. They are trying to
get on their feet again," said Elio Silva, a member of the
Brazilian community familiar with those who lost their home.

A late night fire - ignited by what officials believe to have
been a small space heater in a partitioned bedroom - consumed the
three-bedroom, one-bathroom Curtis Lane home earlier this month. The
tragedy destroyed all but a set of clothes for each of the foreign
workers, including an estimated $4,300 in cash.

At least two of the fire victims headed home to Brazil last week
with their expired work visas and nothing more to show for six months of
work in America than a few hundred dollars. The rest of the Brazilians,
friends say, claim floor space in other cramped houses while they work
to save enough money to offer the sizable deposit required for most
Island rental properties.

But they take the loss in stride, Mr. Silva said. "I guess
when you don't know any better, you don't miss what you
never had."

Conditions in the Curtis Lane home, owned by Therese and Benjamin
Hall Sr. and often referred to as the "chicken shack," were
poor at best, former residents said. The home had no smoke detectors.
Extension cords ran across the front yard to a battered van that served
as sleeping quarters for one of the 14 tenants. Sixty-four-year-old
Mercia Souza, the cook for the all-male household, slept on a mattress
in the attic.

"They are in too vulnerable a position to complain. For them,
it's just one more thing in a world of obstacles facing immigrants
here. It's just a step along the way," said Rev. Donnel
O'Flynn, minister of Grace Episcopal Church, who has joined other
Island clergy anxious to help the Brazilian community.

The Martha's Vineyard chapter of the American Red Cross
offered the fire victims clothing vouchers for the second-hand store in
Edgartown - gifts the homeless Brazilians seized this week in the
form of sweaters and jackets as the Vineyard autumn weather turned cold.

Several other citizens rallied to their aid recently with efforts to
collect food and money. But the efforts, some volunteers suggest, have
been futile thus far.

"Helping them is a challenge for our community. We don't
have a reliable way of dealing with the Brazilian community," said
Reverend O'Flynn, who has in his church office bundles of clothing
collected by parishioners after the fire.

Heightened vulnerability and worry spread through the Brazilian
community in recent weeks in the aftermath of not only the fire but also
the drownings of two members of the community in Sengekontacket Pond.
Word of an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) search on the
Vineyard triggered rumors across the Island last week.

INS officials in Boston, however, denied any arrests and would not
confirm an official visit to the Island. Other sources said INS agents
had been on the Vineyard to ask questions in business circles.

"We're out to remove criminal aliens from the streets of
Massachusetts. We're not out to do area control," said Paula
Grenier of the public administration office for the INS's Boston
division, explaining that sweeps to check immigrant visas are not high
on the priority list for an agency caught in a budget squeeze.

The fire offered the Island community a bleak picture of the living
conditions commonly endured by an estimated Brazilian population of
2,000. Cramped conditions are usually but one of a host of sanitary and
safety issues in their homes, which range from Asian bed bugs to exposed
electrical wiring. And immigrants often pay exorbitant rents for these
substandard conditions. Ms. Souza reported that her 14-person household
paid $12,000 a month for sleeping space in the Curtis Lane home.

As the fire victims seek security before winter sets in, Edgartown
officials are mobilizing to attack the housing problems plaguing so many
of the Island's foreign workers.

Copies of a rental housing licensing program in the town of Yarmouth
circulated through Edgartown's town hall this week, and town
officials will be discussing the potential of adopting these model
regulations and of creating a housing department within the town.

Overwhelmed by owners jamming their substandard properties with
tenants in the 1970s, the town of Yarmouth began requiring property
owners to license rental properties. The licensing process grants the
town housing inspector access to the property to verify minimal code
adherence.

"We've been considering Yarmouth's approach for
quite some time. The fire highlighted the fact that we need to get to
it. It's become clear that now's the time to do it,"
said Edgartown health agent Matthew Poole.

If adopted, the town could require all rental property owners to
register properties with the housing inspector. Such a program would
most likely require an additional inspector for the town financed
through licensing fees.

Enforcing Massachusetts human habitation sanitary code -
otherwise known as "slumlord" regulations - has been a
nightmare for town officials.

Health agents may only gain access to a rental property suspected of
violations if the tenant invites them in or the court grants an
administrative search warrant. Fearing eviction or deportation, tenants
are often skeptical of officials like Mr. Poole - particularly
those foreign workers living here illegally.

The threshold for issuing search warrants, said Edgartown district
court clerk magistrate Thomas Teller, is high.

"Officials must have an awful lot of knowledge about
what's going on in a household, and those sorts of facts are hard
to gather," Mr. Teller explained, noting that in his 39 years as
clerk magistrate he has issued less than four.

Town officials count their blessings that the dangerous situation
claimed no lives in the Oct. 10 fire.

"If you pack a house with lots of people and have extension
cords running all over the place, you are asking for a problem.
It's very easy when you have people cramming in a room or in a
basement to have bodies to account for," said board of health
member David Murphy.

But informing Brazilians about their tenant rights will continue to
challenge Island officials.

"Educating the Brazilian community about their human rights,
not just their rights under Massachusetts law, is vitally important.
They need to know they should not be taken by their landlords,"
said Philippe Jordi, executive director of the Dukes County Regional
Housing Authority.

In the meantime, some in the Brazilian community are doing their
part to spread the word. But word, Mr. Silva said, may come in the form
of a red-flag warning.

"We want Brazilians to call us first before they come. If they
knew about the living quarters, they may think twice. They pay rent
before they come and end up with one bed when they thought they would
get a room," Mr. Silva said.

"We need to let people know sometimes they are better off
staying where they are," he added.