Man files multimillion-dollar lawsuit against city

By JUSTIN DENNIS

jdennis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

George Hauman has paid far less in utility bills in the past six years than the average city resident.

Until recently, he said he paid for only sewer service at his Hilton Avenue home, where he’s lived since 2013. The rest of the necessities – electric, water, heat – he provided himself by installing solar panels, a rainwater collection system and an on-demand water heater.

“I’m basically living off the grid,” Hauman told The Vindicator outside his small, customized South Side abode.

But two years ago the city’s code department “red-tagged” his home twice and fined him for failing to keep city electricity and water – though he said he’d been living self-sufficiently for about four years. Hauman started paying for city water only last year, under threat of arrest by city police officers for technically trespassing past code enforcers’ 30-day deadline to leave – for which an appeal was pending – he said.

Now he’s suing the city in federal court for $68 million, claiming city code enforcers trampled his civil rights by attempting to force him out of the home.

Mike Durkin, Youngs-town’s code enforcement supervisor, and city police officers came to Hauman’s home Aug. 14, 2018, to enforce the order to vacate.

Hauman claims in his suit he showed Durkin and the officers the utilities worked. One officer recorded him switching on the porch light, running the tap until it was hot and flushing the toilet. But that wasn’t good enough, the suit states.

Hauman’s live-in girlfriend agreed to start city water service just to keep Hauman out of jail, the suit states. Though city officials pledged to remove the red-tag after, they never did, Hauman said. He’s since covered it with a window decoration, since he’s not

allowed to remove it.

Hauman questioned how the code department can unilaterally push him out of the home without hearing or appeal.

“It’s unconstitutional. … They can’t do this without taking you to court. It’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Hauman said.

Hauman is representing himself in the suit filed Aug. 8 in the U.S. Northern District Court against the city’s code enforcement department and several of that department’s employees – including Durkin – as well as the city’s police department, property maintenance appeals board and Law Director Jeff Limbian.

Durkin declined to speak specifically on the case but said he remembers Hauman was “very aggressive” and uncooperative when approached by authorities last summer.

Though Hauman claims he’d been paying for sewer – and had agreed with an acquaintance to dump his trash in that person’s large trash receptacle – Durkin said city water and sewer bills are linked, and the city got neither.

He said if residents can prove they have working utilities, the code department will often back off. He said Hauman never let workers inside the home. Durkin said he was unaware of the video evidence claimed in the suit.

Durkin said he intended to collect all his files on Hauman’s home and reconnect with The Vindicator, but never did.

Hauman said he learned how to make his home self-sustaining by watching video tutorials on YouTube – where DIY “tiny home” videos have become popular – and by relying on his own intuition.

The solar panels on the rear of the home – just above Hauman’s small but plentiful vegetable garden – are a combined 300 watts, he said. On a sunny day, he can use his numerous heavy-duty batteries to bank the energy.

Before Hauman started paying for city water, he collected rainwater runoff from the roof of his garage, which he’d run through various screens and filters then store in 400 gallons-worth of food-grade barrels in the home’s basement.

“In a lot of ways, it’s safer than city water. I don’t have to worry about lead,” Hauman said, though he added he typically drank bottled water.

Pumps attached to the barrels pushed the water to the sinks, shower and toilet. Gray water from the shower would then be recycled to the toilet, he said.

“At this point, I’m looking at getting out of town,” Hauman said. “It’d be great to get a country place somewhere where the city won’t bother me.”

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson, records show. No further court dates have been set.