AUBURN - Nearly 22 years ago, Wayne Quatrochi moved int
s Barber Street home when the area on the city's west side was still considered an old Italian neighborhood.

In those days, the quiet street was a mixture of single-family homes and well kept rental properties, where older couples had lived for years.

But, as time went on, he saw more and more of the small single-family homes converted into apartments. As the changes happened, the older couples moved away and were replaced by young families and transient renters. He suspects drug dealers are selling their wares out of a nearby rental property.

Today, about 70 percent of the houses on Barber Street are rental properties, many of which are owned by absentee landlords who neglect them, he said.

The changes have been so drastic, he's now considering selling.

"I don't like the neighborhood anymore. It was a nice place to live," Quatrochi said.

Nearly one-half of Auburn's dwellings are rentals, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. City lawmakers determined that the 5,500 rental units was such a problem that in 2001, they established a moratorium on rental conversions. It was quickly lifted four months later, but not until the city's planning department, code enforcement department and corporation counsel instituted new zoning guidelines designed to slow apartment growth.

The stricter zoning laws have helped, said code enforcement officer Brian Hicks. Yet he acknowledged there's still a glut of apartments in Auburn.

"How many are vacant or condemned?" Hicks asked, and at the same time wondering if there were enough renters in Auburn to fill the vacancies.

Hicks attributes urban renewal with creating the glut. Many of the city's largest and most elegant houses were divided up for rentals, and some were done before strict code enforcement was in effect or completed without the city's knowledge.

Lifestyles have changed, jobs in the city have disappeared, and Auburn's decreasing population have also contributed to the problem.

Certain areas of the city are like Barber Street. Orchard Street and surrounding streets were once full of single-family homes. One by one, longtime residents sold them. Looking to get money back on their investment, the new owners converted them to apartments.

Greg Rigby, who ran for mayor last fall on the Conservative line, has tried to improve his Owasco Street neighborhood, another area where rental properties are prevalent. He would like to see the city do more to improve its aging housing stock. As he sees it, much of the problem exists because some tenants "have a lack of respect" for property they don't own and some landlords "have a lack of responsibility for livable housing."

Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore agrees.

"We want single-family homes. We don't want multi-family," he said.

If the city is concerned about the problem, Stuart Meck, a researcher and housing specialist with the American Planning Association, said the city should be "aggressive and be relentless" in making sure apartment conditions are inspected and habitable.

In his neighborhood, Quatrochi has noticed a revolving door of tenants moving in and out of some apartment buildings on his street.

"There's new people every three or four months. I don't know my neighbors anymore," he said.

Transient tenants and absentee landlords cause a host of problems, said local Realtor Sean Murphy.

Some of those houses were once rented for years by young couples saving up to buy their first home. With low- or no-payment and subsidized mortgages, they no longer have to wait as long to purchase a home. In addition, they can now buy homes outside of the city they wouldn't have been able to afford a generation ago.

With so many homebuyers, there are a lot of vacant rentals.

And in some neighborhoods with a large percentage of rentals, crime rates are up. Some of the city's most crime-ridden areas are in neighborhoods with a high number of rental units, especially those with absentee landlords and transient tenants, said Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta.

In 2003, police were called to Barber Street 129 times, 162 times to nearby West Street, and 492 times to Orchard Street, according to city police statistics.

But drug-related crimes are the biggest problem in rental neighborhoods, Giannotta said. Getting rid of the drug dealing can be difficult.

A lot of the dealers come from Syracuse and Rochester, set up shop in an apartment on Friday, sell their wares, and are gone by Sunday, Giannotta said.

He blames absentee landlords.

"All they care about is getting their money from renters, and we deal with some people who don't care where they get their rent money," he said.

And it drives down property values.

"A jewel surrounded by owners who don't fix up their properties, it affects everyone in the neighborhood," said city assessor Sue Chandler.

But Hicks pointed out the abundance of rental property and related problems are not unique to Auburn.

In Elmira, the nearly 6,000 rental units - many that were created after Hurricane Agnes damaged hundreds of homes in 1972 - put a drain on the city, said assessor John Burin. A lot more people are living in the same neighborhoods, which causes more social problems. Parking becomes a problem, as does garbage pickup.

In 1998, stricter zoning laws were enacted when the city adopted a new master plan. With the new zoning, residents can no longer turn single-family homes into rental property. And any apartments that are left vacant for two years must convert back to one-family homes. A problem that was created more than 30 years ago may take that long to correct, Burin said.

Staff writer Craig Fox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or craig.fox@lee.net.