Reside In Peace? Rental Inspection Program? or Repeat Invasion (of) Privacy?
We'll leave you determine what it stands for. Oh, what a hot, hot topic this is for the VFM crew. Mainly someone behind their campaign, Mr. Joe Tompkins. He's been pushing this very issue for many years, and time and time again it's proven that it's not something the City supports. Here we are again though! This time with a letter to the editor that didn't get published, oh for shame.
Misinformation about rental licensing? But it's not just rental licensing, it's also about the inspections of rental units. JUST rental units, not all properties.
Here we go folks, down the rabbit hole.
Rental housing is safe and decent? Wait, wasn't their pitch to make sure ALL homes were safe and decent?
Per their site....
It is undeniable that a house in disrepair would bring down the value of the rest in that area. This is true whether it is owner occupied, or rental. If they want safe, clean neighborhoods, wouldn't it be beneficial if all house's in the City were to a certain standard? Like, maybe a Property Maintenance Code? Sounds reasonable, that's why the City has one of those in place, which they just updated. Check the blog "Oblivious or Duplicitous, you be the judge" for all of those updates, as well as, a link to the updated code.
But now, Joe states..
Here is the issue, rental housing is not the only unsafe housing. This is evidenced by the properties deemed "blighted". To which, the Blighted Property Review Committee can step in;
Tell us, don't you think that the Blighted Property Review Committee covers all of the "complaints" they are allegedly seeing and/or hearing?
The City isn't turning a blind eye, as the BPRC was just established this year! On 4/7/2021 to be exact:
This committee would look at properties that cannot be dealt with through code enforcement. Code enforcement, which we already established in a prior blog, that was recently updated. Which, if you ask us, is under utilized. This is evidence by the fact that the City has an agreement in place to also enforce codes in Hayfield and Linesville..
Seems like there's not much of an issue, as far as time is concerned, for Code Enforcement officers.
So now the question is, what exactly would a rental licensing or inspection program cover, that isn't already covered with another code or committee? It would arguably require more staff time, as all the units would have to be entered into a database. Speaking of databases, we already have one of those that tells us who owns each property. Hypothetically, if code enforcement and/or the BPRC were to be driving around looking for properties in violation, they could utilize this tool and find the owner and the address of said owner.
We'll look at Common Roots as an example. We simply went to the link above, and typed in 1189 South Main st. Here's what you get...
+
You can see Common Roots owns that, and the Redevelopment Authority owns the garden next door. Let's not even talk about that... Oh wait, we did. In the blog titled "overGROWn Meadville".
Ok, so then when you click on the property, you can view more details. Such as who owns the property and where the tax bill goes. This is great, because you can see if the owner is an out of town landlord, or owner occupied dwelling, or maybe a business owns it.
Wow, that was easy. As stated, the link above let's you go check out the tool for yourself. Now, do you know how much this site costs the City per year? Probably not, we'll enlighten you..
What do you think the estimated cost would be to have a database compiled of all rental units within the City, their owners and who occupies them? How often would this information need updated? Monthly, quarterly, yearly? Considering that tenants can move from properties any given month, and if (according to their numbers) 60% of the properties are rentals, that could be time consuming for staff, which time=money.
To date, there has never been any photographic evidence to support ANY of the claims that Tompkins has made. Also, if he came across these issues, and the tenant was afraid to make a report, couldn't Tompkins have, as a "concerned" citizen, made a report? If these places were so unsafe, why not make a report rather than a letter to the editor?
If someone needs legal counsel, but is unable to afford it in our area, there's a resource for that. Bet they aren't telling folks about that little bit either. We will though...
It's called Northwest Legal Services;
And yes, they cover housing issues...
Also, if the landlords are allegedly "ignoring" the complaints, do you really think that you'd be successful in getting them to register their apartments for the rental inspections? Which, referring back to the Erie program, which began in 2006, we found that the City actually lost money due to some landlords not paying the registration/inspection fees for their properties. (Go Erie article)
That figure would greatly impact the City, which the City needs to recoup the deficit somehow. How do Cities gain revenue? If you answered with "raise taxes", you're correct. That is the little bit they are not making folks aware of. Maybe because they have yet to think of it themselves? Absentee landlords will continue to be absentee. We need to deal with them utilizing the Code enforcement and then, if that fails, bring in the BPRC to acquire the property and bring it to standards.
The article also states..
See the bit "City Council and other city officials, in the past, also did not routinely review the rental inspection program's finances, including delinquencies." That's odd, seeing as the City officials and/or Council wanted the program, but yet, they don't regularly look into how things are going? That's alarming. Although, it seems times may have changed?
Two clerks working on this most of the time. Who pays City employee wages? Who pays for the printing supplies and postage to mail notices? Tax payers. What does rent go towards? Mortgage payments, stormwater fees, and TAXES. Therefore, if there becomes an increased investment of time, potentially even an addition of staff to accommodate going after those delinquencies, guess what would happen. Taxes would go up to cover the rising costs, which in turn can translate to raised rents.
Tompkins continues with..
Maybe, just maybe, these "powerful landlords", understand what could potentially happen. Maybe they also know that there are already codes in place, and now the addition of the BPRC, this covers everything the rental inspection (licensing) program would cover. This also avoids repeated invasions of tenant privacy.
"Attacking us online and spreading lies". Now, who's really doing the lying and attacking? How about the guy and the campaign who regularly refer to landlords as slumlords?
Or, this lie...
Mind you, there has been zero evidence produced supporting their claims that landlords have removed signs. There is however, video evidence that shows an individual removing political yard signs supporting Marcy Kantz, Nancy Mangilo-Bittner, and Jim Roha.
"Negative campaign", "Rumors, lies and personal attacks"? First, we are going to reiterate that this blog is NOT in any way sponsored, endorsed, penned or paid by ANY of the candidates. Second, if you think Ms. Kinders record is a negative campaign, we couldn't agree more. That was the point in sharing it. It is NOT a lie or rumor, it is FACTS supported by DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE. As far as personal attacks, it's been shown time and time again that VFM has attacked landlords over and over again for their own personal benefit and gain.
And to close..
Honest conversation? You mean like the folks are trying to have on your page, before comments get deleted and turned off? How about the FACTS that show Ms. Kinder has a track record of financial irresponsibility and disregard for BASIC laws? How about you talk about that?
For even more info regarding the rental inspection program, check out the blog titled "Rental Inspection; Invasion of privacy, tenant discrimination, or an attempt to generate cashflow?"
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