Rental registration is bad idea

Rental registration is bad idea

I am writing this letter to let the people of Youngstown and the city administrators, especially the city council, know that I oppose the city rental registration.

I am a precinct committeeman for 18 years, and I care for the people in my community. I’m a block watch president for 20-plus years and a Youngstown city landlord for 30 years. That is why I would like to explain why the Youngstown city registration (rental) is not going to work. It will only to make things worse. The good and responsible landlords will move the business out the city and more empty properties will become more eyesores.

The city administration should be doing a better job trying to eliminate the crime; that way we can bring back good people. Police and the sheriff’s departments should use the money allocated to them wisely. We are losing too many officers. We need them on the streets fighting crime.

The city housing inspectors, if they have any, should be looking for the persons responsible for those eyesores in the city. We have a lot of want-to-be landlords causing those problems and the good landlords get the blame. They collect the low rent money and do not repair the properties at all. Those are the ones they should target, as well as some homeowners who do not have money for repairs but at least should clean the property.

This law is politically motivated and is not supposed to be like that ... we are all supposed to work together to better our city and help the people like us good landlords work and make the city a better place to live.

I am a member of Mahoning Valley Real Estate Investors Association. I am writing this letter because my residence is Youngstown and I have the experience fighting crime and working with the people in my community.

I have some properties in the city, and I welcome anyone in the administration to come and inspect them and see who is saying the truth. I like that my tenants live the same way as I do.

Raul Valentin, Youngstown