Boardman proposal for landlords would hurt many tenants hard

Boardman proposal for landlords would hurt many tenants hard

I just read the article on Boardman’s plan to register apartments and have inspections. First I agree with the one gentleman who commented we should not have to pay an additional tax since they already tax me enough.

My apartments are all occupied by a number of Section 8 housing tenants. That means my buildings are inspected multiple times each year, and I would hope that would mean that my units would be exempt from any such program, unless I was to have no Section 8 tenants.

More importantly I find it interesting that government’s answer is always to create another branch of government and tax to support it. We are already heavily taxed, and here is why businesses can’t succeed when government thinks it has to tax more, spend more and always to address the minority of a group and not the majority of the group.

This is a bad plan and will only drive up the cost of housing for those who are already the least able to support it since we as business owners will have to factor in the added cost of the tax, the manpower to have available for the inspection and so on.

I’ve already had hikes in heating costs, electric, garbage, taxes, water and now here comes another one. I have already had to begin increasing rents, and now it will be even more to add on to the lower-income individuals in our community. In my view, this is just another bad idea.

Scott Norton, Boardman

Senior citizens are easy targets

I’m writing to help elderly people. I was having trouble with my kitchen sink. I called someone to come and get it fixed. They were there in a half-hour. I explained what was wrong, and they gave me two prices. One was $800 to $1,000 and the other one was $400. I called my son to let him talk to the plumber. My son told him $400, because I’m on a fixed budget.

They started working and they had a hard time cleaning out the pipe. Next thing he tells me, I need something else, which will cost me $169.

I’m really getting worried, because I don’t know if I have enough money to pay them.

I called my other son to come over because I was really getting upset. He came right away.

In the meantime they go up on the roof, and this I couldn’t understand. Next they tell me I have a leak behind the wall and it’s running down cellar.

My son came and they told him it would cost me $300 more to fix it. My son told them no; he would fix it for me. He couldn’t believe it when he heard how much they charged me.

What I want to tell anyone who is alone and getting plumbing done, to try and get someone to be with them. When it comes to elderly people, they take advantage of us.

My son said what it should have cost me was around $250. Big difference from $450.

My house is over 50 years old, and I know the pipes are bad, but I still say they took advantage of me.

Sally Swanson, Youngstown