Cleaning up blight in Waterbury

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) -- The city of Waterbury -- like many cities -- has been trying to cut down on blight. On Monday a team of volunteers lent a hand, and there's plenty of work to do.

Getting off the bus in one of Waterbury"s toughest neighborhoods is culture shock for boarding school students from Taft School in Watertown.

"Being able to work in this place kind of brings reality to we are in a boarding school and its kinda secluded," said Taft student Elizabeth Shea, "so it's a good thing we get to do and we should do it more."

She and 100 other Taft students fanned out across the city, helping cover up graffiti and pick up litter. Waterbury residents say they need all the help they can get.

"We've seen our neighborhood go down for many years now and this is a great thing," Patricia Sockwell said.

Waterbury officials say they are seeing an increasing number of abandoned properties owned by so-called absentee landlords.

"The problem is you have an absentee landlord and some of the tenants feel it's not their property and it's up to the landlord to take care of it," Alderman Gregory Hadley said.

Waterbury recently adopted new rules requiring landlords to clean up properties or face fines. It's a visible problem these privileged students are seeing first hand.

"When you come through here you just realize how lucky you are," Shea said.