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New lease is sought for rental program
Youngstown plans funding to retain inspections chief to expand
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s rental-property registration and inspection program is making progress, and even though a contract with its administrator expires Monday, the city plans to retain her, Mayor Jay Williams said.
Maureen O’Neil’s contract to oversee and implement the program paid her $40,050 from a federal grant over an 18-month period. She’ll remain with the city on a month-to-month contract for the next two to three months as the administration looks at ways to pay O’Neil for a longer period of time, possibly as a city employee, Williams said.
O’Neil will be paid $2,225 a month, the amount she’s paid per month in the original contract. The administration is discussing from where the money to pay her will come.
Also, the city administration is looking at how the registration and inspection program can coordinate efforts with code enforcement and neighborhood- services programs, Williams said. The administration will meet with city council shortly to discuss various options, he said.
O’Neil’s “role and the rental-registration and inspection program may change to incorporate it into a larger look at how to best serve the city’s neighborhoods,” Williams said.
O’Neil said, “The important thing is to keep the program going. I’m happy to work with the city in any way I can.”
The department has completed about 840 rental- property inspections since it started Sept. 7, O’Neil said.
Also, a little more than 2,000 landlords with about 4,400 rental units have registered with the city, she said.
Some landlords publicly complained about the program before the inspections began and still have concerns about the annual license fee, but they are complying, O’Neil said.
“We’re very satisfied with the improvements made by landlords to their properties,” she said. “The relationship with the landlords has improved dramatically. We’ve made a lot of progress. We’re willing to work with landlords. We want the city to be better.”
The city program requires rental-property owners to pay the city $20 per unit for an annual license and have those properties undergo a safety inspection. If a property is a multifamily dwelling, the first unit is $20, and each additional unit in the structure is $15.
The city pays $15 per inspection to the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, which hired two inspectors to do the work.
Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, chairman of council’s community development agency and finance committees, said there is no doubt the program must stay in place.
“We support the program and want it to work,” he said.