WARREN Council supports housing program

The program complements a home rehab project already under way.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Five homes in the city and another five in other parts of Trumbull County will be bought, rehabilitated and sold to new owners if an application to a state housing program is approved.
City council gave its endorsement Wednesday to Sunshine of Warren-Trumbull Area Inc., which is seeking about $350,000 through a competitive program of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. Council's endorsement carries points that are calculated into the formula to determine which applications receive funding, officials said.
Anthony Iannucci of Sunshine estimated it would cost about $20,000 to $25,000 to buy each of the houses and about $80,000 to $85,000 to rehabilitate each. The homes would then be sold to those who meet lower income requirements for about $75,000 each with $25,000 of that being a mortgage through Sunshine.
The remaining mortgage would be from a lending institution.
If the homeowner remains in the home at least 15 years, they wouldn't have to repay the $25,000 mortgage.
Selecting houses
Iannucci said three houses on Belmont Street already have been identified for the program.
The 10 houses that would be rehabilitated and sold if the application is approved complement Sunshine's effort to rehabilitate another 20 houses in the city's 2nd and 4th wards. That project is being completed with $2.6 million from the Ohio Department of Development and city community development funds.
"We're really trying to make a difference in that neighborhood," Iannucci said.
Councilman Alford L. Novak, D-2nd, said home ownership is the way to turn around neighborhoods that are becoming increasingly blighted.
"Some of those homes, the way they are now, you'd be lucky to get $15,000 for one of them," he said. "These are the areas that are in trouble and this is what we have to do or we'll wind up with neighborhoods being 100-percent rental."
Mayor Michael J. O'Brien also supports the project. After the homes are rehabilitated, they'll be available to residents with less than moderate incomes, he said. That also means fewer homes the city must board up, take to health board hearings and ultimately demolish, O'Brien said.
Second reading
Council members also gave second reading to an ordinance calling for $7,425 to be paid to Davis Williams & amp; Co., the Cleveland law firm that represented the city in a Civil Service Commission hearing last year for Police Chief John Mandopoulos. The hearing pertained to the chief's reported conduct outside of a U.S. Route 422 nightclub and comments he was accused of making to a television reporter.
Greg Hicks, law director, said that the former administration sought outside counsel because one of the lawyers in the law department was to be called to testify at the hearing.
"Under the canons of ethics, lawyers cannot represent clients if one of the members of the law firm is going to be called to testify," Hicks said.
The law department also has to defend the chief in other lawsuits filed against the city, he said.
"The then-mayor and the then-safety director made the decision to get outside counsel and they were correct in doing that," Hicks said.