Demolition funds unfairly allotted, East Side leader complains

By Peter H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

As the Mahoning County Land Bank works toward beginning demolitions of vacant homes under a $4.26 million Neighborhood Initiative Program grant this year, an East Side community leader is complaining that his side of town is being shortchanged.

“The city’s Northeast Side showed substantial need for demolition, especially when compared to other parts of the city. However, when funds were allocated, the Northeast Side received a pittance in comparison to other areas,” complained Artis Gillam Sr., president of the Northeast Homeowners and Concerned Citizens Association.

The complaint from Gillam, a former 1st Ward city councilman, was contained in a letter he wrote to Daniel R. Yemma, county treasurer and land bank chairman.

In his response, Yemma wrote that, unlike previous federally-funded programs aimed at the most blighted areas of cities, the NIP targets demolition to “tipping point” neighborhoods.

“NIP includes the identification of qualified target areas, where actual data proves demolition will help stabilize neighborhoods adversely affected by questionable mortgage writing practices,” Yemma told Gillam.

People who live in neighborhoods neglected by the program “have the same rights as the people who live in these so-called ‘tipping’ areas,” Gillam said in an interview.

Gillam also wrote to Douglas A. Garver, executive director of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which administers the NIP grant, expressing the same complaint he made to Yemma.

Gillam complained that the city’s 1st and 2nd wards, which cover the East Side, were slated for only 11 and nine demolitions, respectively, under the NIP, while the city’s other wards, which cover other sides of town, were slated for many more demolitions under the program.

The 4th Ward was slated for 87 demolitions and the 7th Ward, 49; while the 5th and 6th wards were each slated for 17, Gillam said.

Gillam said it’s unfair that a disproportionate share of NIP demolitions is going to the predominantly white 4th and 7th wards, while many fewer demolitions are slated for other wards of the city, which are predominantly black.

‘separate water fountains’

“If tipping point neighborhoods is the only neighborhood strategy implemented, then we are still drinking from separate water fountains,” Gillam wrote to Garver, alluding to past practices of racial segregation in Southern states.

Gillam got a response, not from Garver, but from Carlie J. Boos, OHFA’s neighborhood initiative compliance manager, saying the state requires NIP grantees “to carefully select target areas that are part of a larger, comprehensive strategy to stabilize home values.”

Nineteen percent of Mahoning County homeowners owe more money on their mortgages than their homes are worth; and, if they suffer income loss, their foreclosure risk is high because they can’t sell a home they can no longer afford, Boos explained.

“NIP stabilizes property values by removing and greening vacant and blighted properties, thereby preventing future foreclosures for existing homeowners,” Boos told Gillam.

Distressed foreclosure sales “further depress property values and continue the downward spiral,” Boos said, adding that NIP demolitions are “a critical component in ending this cycle.”

Debora Flora, land bank executive director, explained that her agency must follow the rules of the NIP grant, which targets neighborhoods that previously were strong, but in recent years began struggling with foreclosures and vacancies and could now benefit from stabilization through demolition.

“The essence of the grant is in response to faulty lending practices of the last decade or slightly longer,” Flora said.

“We are supposed to be addressing the areas that were most severely affected by lending practices that contributed to property abandonment, and now blight, in these neighborhoods, and we feel that we did that,” she added.

“Certain people can get certain things, and others don’t get it,” Gillam countered. “If the rules are saying that certain people can have the privileges, and other folks cannot, then the rules should be changed.”

Flora said the racial composition of neighborhoods had nothing to do with how demolitions were allotted to them.

thorough analysis

In selecting which neighborhoods would benefit from NIP-funded demolitions, Flora said her office conducted a thorough neighborhood-by-neighborhood analysis of recent foreclosure and vacancy rates, the amount of property value lost, and the number of homes needing demolition.

Based on that analysis, the land bank slated the NIP demolitions for Youngstown’s East Side, with a concentration near the retail center at Lincoln Knolls Plaza; portions of Campbell and Struthers; the northern part of Boardman; the Buckeye-Lansingville, Handel’s and Idora neighborhoods of Youngstown’s South Side; several neighborhoods on Youngstown’s West Side; the northeast corner of Austintown; and the Crandall Park area on Youngstown’s North Side, Flora said.

“We had to first show that these were the areas where we felt we needed to focus on, and then, we used the same data to apply the money to where we thought we could bring about the greatest change with the resources that were available,” Flora explained.

“All of the (targeted) neighborhoods are receiving some of the benefits of the NIP-funded demolition, but some neighborhoods were affected more severely (by the foreclosure crisis), so some neighborhoods are going to see more NIP dollars spent there.”

Gillam complained that targeting NIP demolitions to the Lincoln Knolls area means the demolition needs of other areas of the East Side are neglected.

“We had to drill down further within some of these neighborhoods to identify and concentrate the resources because: How are you going to create change unless you concentrate the resources so there’s something tangible realized?” Flora said.

Yemma said he began the real estate tax foreclosure process on properties for the land bank to acquire for the NIP demolition program last summer.

So far, the land bank has begun acquisition, via tax foreclosure or owner donation, of 306 houses and actually acquired 34 houses, Flora said.

An additional 34 houses won’t be acquired because their owners redeemed them by paying delinquent real estate taxes and court costs, she added.

demolitions start soon

Flora said the first NIP demolitions here will likely be in February or March.

All NIP-funded demolitions must be completed by Oct. 31, 2016.

The NIP grant allows up to $25,000 per demolition, but OHFA estimates demolitions will average $12,000 each.

The land bank must not only acquire each home to be demolished, but also conduct asbestos testing and abatement and post-demolition grading, seeding and beautification of each lot.

No local matching money is required for the NIP grant.

“We’re not looking for any single grant opportunity to fix what ails us here. We’re looking for every opportunity, but we have to be true to whichever opportunity is in front of us,” Flora said.

Flora called attention to a map of Youngstown showing 1,455 homes demolished by the city and 465 privately-funded demolitions over the past four years across all areas of the city.

But she said the best available estimate is that Youngstown still has 4,000 homes in need of demolition.

“As we’re performing demolitions in the city of Youngstown, unfortunately, other houses are taking their place on the (demolition) list. The abandonment continues,” she lamented.