10-09-18 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK it in court a number of times, we always lose, and people lose their homes. I think there are some situations where a$5,000 civil penalty that becomes a civil assessment is absolutely needed.There are some landlords in town where that is absolutely needed, but I think we need to consider the ramifications of that and what that can mean for someone who really is trying to do the best that they can do. The idea is that if it goes on your tax bill, you're going to pay it because if you don't, you will lose your home to a tax sale. But do we really want people to lose their homes to tax sale because they couldn't afford to fix their front porch? I think that is a question we need to ask ourselves. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated,Again, it goes back to this racial wealth divide. If those penalties are happening predominately in communities of color or low-income communities. One (1)of the things you'll notice on the map we were looking at,recognizing that all of those penalties are in those areas, because those are the areas where the most blight is and the homes are in the most trouble, so that's where you're going to find all of the civil penalties and violations. We're not saying that it doesn't make sense to look at those areas, but what is going to be our response? What is going to be our approach? We could use aggressive Code Enforcement and fine them until they fix it. But when you do that to poor people and they don't have the money to fix their house, they're not going to have the money to pay the fine, and they might end up losing their house if that fine goes unpaid. We know that those are the blighted areas and we also know that they are the low-income areas. What we are going to do instead is have a different response. Tracy said these are the choices we can make at the local level. Instead of fining, we can refer. Instead of creating a financial burden, we are going to provide assistance to help. It's not in every case, but it is about looking at it with more precision and looking at the nuances, rather than painting the broad strokes with a broad brush and doing the same thing for everybody. That takes people, money, and time. So by hiring another position like Tracy's position, that is where it came up in the budget. Tracy has asked for another position to look specifically at those civil penalties, so that is where we came together to say that we don't want to give more civil penalties until we start doing what they are saying and we better understand who needs to have those penalties and who shouldn't. Committee Chair Williams-Preston opened the floor to members of the public for comment. Sue Kesim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, I am a citizen advocate. I come to a lot of these meetings and blog about it to try to inform citizens about what is going on and how they can be more informed. I think when you ask a realtor what makes a great neighborhood, or what makes a great house, here are a couple of the answers. Number one (1) is schools. People will pay to get into a neighborhood with great schools, even if they don't have kids, because they know it helps the value of their home. Unfortunately, we've had 7,000 kids leave the school system. The second (211d) thing is they look for low crime. Depending on the ranking, South Bend is the most violent city, between thirtieth (30th) and fortieth (40th) in the nation in terms of violence. The third (3rd) thing they look for is great jobs.We have a lot of people commuting to Elkhart.The forth(4th)thing they look at is excellent infrastructure. We have great internet here, we have some of the fastest in the country. Our roads are in need of some repair. Our wastewater, we have four (4) areas that have sewer issues that are lowering some housing values. We do need to do some work on the water issues, and there are seven hundred (700) miles of curbs and sidewalks that need repair. A lot of people can't afford to even partially pay for those curbs and sidewalks. It used to be that the City paid for all of them. It was just part of what the City did. The City is now$290 million in debt according to the State, which means each person owes approximately $2,008 in debt. Those are EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 I IU574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 11