Town Takes Illegal Rooming House Owner Back to Court

The Town of Brookhaven said Wednesday it is taking the owner of an illegal rooming house at 150 Christian Avenue in Stony Brook back to court for failure to comply with conditional discharges of multiple housing code violations.

Brookhaven's public information officer, Jack Krieger, said in a statement that homeowner Steven Graziano "has failed to cooperate" with town efforts to bring the home into compliance with town code. According to Krieger, Graziano did not show up for a scheduled property inspection last week.

"The town will continue to take action against the property owner until he does comply with our codes and we will pursue this case up to the State Supreme Court if necessary," Krieger said in an email to Patch.

Graziano could not be reached for comment.

Patch originally reported last March that the town's involvement began with a motivated by a resident complaint. The town attempted to search the property multiple times, finally gaining access with a search warrant in February of 2011.

The house may have been home to a university party scene; a Twitter account, @stonypartyup, celebrated Stony Brook University party spots and tweeted the address 150 Christian Avenue on Sept. 3, 2010.

Over the last few months some nearby Christian Avenue residents, who would not give their names for publication, have described continued neighborhood nuisances at the home, most notably noisy parties. However, some said, the house seems to be quiet in these weeks following Christmas – while many college students are home for winter break.

"It's been a little frustrating for the residents because we've been exceptionally patient," said one resident, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "...This situation should have been resolved over a year ago. It seems to be a pretty open-and-shut case."

According to the town, Graziano initially pleaded not guilty to 13 violations of housing code last May. He later pleaded guilty to multiple violations and was sentenced to fines and a conditional discharge requiring that the home be brought within town code in a certain period of time. Since then, Krieger said, the town has also issued new tickets for continued violations of the town housing code.

The town could not confirm whether the home is the same one listed as a "famous party home" on the website Uloop.com – a university-specific site which bills itself as "SBU's Student Powered Marketplace." The listing does not give a specific address but appears to be located on Christian Avenue on the map associated with the listing.

A Stony Brook University spokeswoman said Tuesday the university's Office of Off Campus Housing has no relationship with Uloop.