Portrait Of A Slumlord?

"Police were called [to 1375 Chapel St.] more than 200 times between January 2005 and March 2006--an average of more than three times a week, or more than 10 times for each of the building's 20 apartments. City housing inspectors know the building well, too. A sweep on Jan. 30 turned up 25 housing code violations, from a leaking sewer line to missing smoke detectors to piles of debris.

And yet the landlord, Anthony Perrotti of Milford-based Ottowa Enterprises, declares: 'They're not violations. We have no violations.'

Perrotti is one of New Haven's biggest poverty landlords. Through Ottowa Enterprises, Connecticut Housing Co., and his personal holdings, he owns about 240 apartments in greater New Haven and Bridgeport, with 75 to 100 more being rehabilitated. Perrotti estimates that 'at least 75 to 80 percent' of those apartments are in the city of New Haven, and that 90 percent of his tenants get some form of public rent assistance. Last year he collected about $445,000 through New Haven Housing Authority's Section 8 program alone, with more money coming through other government programs."