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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-09-18 Community Relations 4SpL3TH 8r w a PEACE ______.2 x x /86 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMIAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK COMMUNITY RELATIONS OCTOBER 9, 2018 6:11 P.M. Committee Members Present: Regina Williams-Preston Committee Members Absent: Jake Teshka, Karen White, Sharon L. McBride Other Council Present: Jo M. Broden Other Council Absent: Tim Scott, Oliver Davis, Gavin Ferlic, John Voorde Others Present: Jennifer Coffman, Bob Palmer Presenters: Regina Williams-Preston, Judy Fox, Tracy Skibins Agenda: Development without displacement: Disarming the Tools of Gentrification How to use the recommendations of the Racial Wealth Divide Report to bring about equitable economic development as it relates specifically to housing options in SB Committee Chair Regina Williams-Preston called to order the Community Relations Committee meeting at 6:11 p.m. She introduced the presenters as well as the other Council Members and City Officials that were present. Development without displacement: Disarming the Tools of Gentrification Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston, 838 N. Elmer Street, stated, We need to look at disparity in our community. Last year, our Administration commissioned a study to quantify that problem. Some communities are doing better than others, and specifically, African Americans seem to not be doing as well in the City of South Bend. We'll go through the Racial Wealth Divide report that was done by Prosperity Now, which shows the disparity between the communities. We'll also look at what the issues are that contribute to disparity. There are three (3) main City departments that we want to look at. The Department of Community Investment is responsible for looking at development and taking our tax dollars and investing them in places that make sense in order to move our City forward. Over the last few years, we've found that home owners are in need of home repair assistance. The City of South Bend went back and asked what they could do differently. We got a Westside pilot going on right now that puts $650,000 directly into Westside neighborhoods for homeowners to fix up their homes. We also have a whole department looking at the existing resources that may not be associated with the City of South Bend, such as Real INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.TIRADo JosEPH R MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERIC EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 I f 574.235.9173 I www.southbendin.gov CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Services, Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together, that can look at those public-private partnerships so we can focus our attention and make a greater impact. She continued, Tonight, we are going to talk further about the Department of Code Enforcement. We'll get into some of the things we've seen that might be part of the problem,and we'll talk about some of the solutions the City has already put in place. Finally, we are going to look at the Police Department. We've had a lot of community concerns, so in future meetings we will be addressing those. Committee Chair Williams-Preston then reviewed the agenda and stated, It is very important, if we are going to make a change,to recognize what's been happening,what the violations are, what the problems are, and what the issues are. We aren't going to shy away from that, as long as I'm up here as an elected official. We have to recognize and acknowledge those problems, and from those problems we can create solutions. This is about taking in the stories of people and recognizing this as truth. Now that we know how the policy affected you, what do we need to do differently? It won't be solved tonight, but it is just a taste of where we're going to go. She went on, This is an issue with Code Enforcement. One(1) of the ways that I came to be on the Council was around the experiences that I was having personally, as a private individual, with Code Enforcement. First(1St) and foremost, I think it is really important because there has been a lot of media attention about my situation, and there are probably still a lot of questions out there. Transparency is extremely important to me, and as an elected official, I am here to answer to you. With regard to the case, the City actually sued me and my husband around Code Enforcement penalties that we owed. This has gone on for several years because I've felt, as a private citizen, that it was wrong. I said this can't be right, this isn't okay. We refused to simply take the fine. So over the course of the last several years, my husband and I have been in and out of court, and in and out of meetings with the City of South Bend talking about what our issues were, and fighting to understand what the problem is and trying to assert our rights. A lot of why we are here today is because I have,without really wanting to, become a student of the Unsafe Building Law and the practices of Code Enforcement, all based on the work I had to do with regards to those cases. A year ago, my case was resolved. I'm happy to go over the details. The original amount was about $12,000 that the City had sued me for, and a lot of people said it was taxes. It wasn't property taxes, it was civil penalties and ordinance violations. In the end, it was resolved for about$2,000, and if anybody wants that information, you can always get an APRA request, and I'm happy to have a conversation with you about it. Part of the reason that was reduced was because we uncovered some inconsistencies in how civil penalties and ordinance violations were being done. By having conversations with the Legal Department, we were able to see how the practices were inconsistent. So, those penalties were dismissed. She continued, That was my case. They sued us separately. My husband's case, they had demolished three (3) of his homes. He had purchased them on a tax sale and they were all within a block or so from our house. We had twelve (12) houses on our block, six (6) of them were on the vacant and abandoned list, and had been deteriorating for fifteen (15) years. Right after we purchased them on the tax sale,he fell ill, almost died, and he wasn't able to work. That's how we ended up in the situation where we couldn't fix them up.That happened to coincide with the Vacant and Abandoned Tax Force, and 1000 houses in 1000 days initiative. Even though years had gone by without anything happening to these homes, all of a sudden there was this initiative. So he accrued civil penalties and fines,and eventually they just forcibly demolished the homes.We were EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2 10, CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK saying don't demolish them, we're going to have the money to fix them up, but they went ahead and knocked them down. So they were charging us for the cost of those demolitions and we said this was not okay. We didn't agree with it and that is why it took so many years in and out of court. Finally,my husband most recently did go through remediation and resolved that case, even though I still didn't agree with it. It lends itself to some of the stories you'll hear,that after so many years you just get tired. The total that he owed was $87,000, which would have absolutely put us into bankruptcy. He finally resolved it for$25,000. I am telling my personal story because this is a part of what is going on.Not just for me,but for other people. Going through the process myself is how I understood the details of what might be happening. Again, we still were not happy with the $25,000, because we're paying this to just get it over with. This is going to lend itself to part of this issue of the wealth divide we're going to talk about. I've been wanting to speak out about it for a long time, and now that it is resolved, we are able to have more of a conversation about it. She went on, I was excited to see the Racial Wealth Divide Report come out because it made me feel like the City is ready to do something. That's always the first(1St) step, admitting that there is something wrong. (Referring to the presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office), she stated, So we're saying there is a problem in terms of the racial wealth divide in this community, as is across the country. There is development happening and my husband and I are trying to figure out what we are going to do. We'd like to build a house. Should we stay here on our block, or should we build somewhere else? We're constantly having this conversation. I live right off of Lincoln Way, right off of Olive Street, and it is generally one(1) of the most blighted areas in the community. I've been trying to convince him that it is going to come up and it's going to be beautiful. I can't even convince my husband. He said it will never be good. He asks who will ever invest, this is the hood and it will always be the hood. Twenty (20) years ago, his family used to own property over by Notre Dame, and back in those days, that area was terrible. I asked him, would you ever have thought back then that homes right on that street would be selling for half a million dollars? He said you're right, there is no way I would have thought that. He said but they were on us so bad, Code Enforcement was killing us,we couldn't take it anymore. I asked, do you see that's what is happening to us right now? All around us it looks bad, we're getting all of this heat from Code Enforcement, so we want to give up and move out of our neighborhood that we've lived in our whole lives,because of the pressure of Code Enforcement. If he had been able to save his property, he would not have sold those homes by Notre Dame and our family would have an asset that we could then pass on to our children. But now because we got rid of it, to me, that is why I am saying to him, no, let's hold on to our property and let's hold on in our neighborhood because I know it is coming back. This could be an opportunity for us to build it up. As you know, I am African American. What my story illustrates is not just my experience, but people all over the country who have these similar experiences of gentrification. It's happening in big cities, but it is also happening in small cities all over the country. We have the opportunity tonight to begin this process of living up to the values that we all hold. We want diverse communities, right? We want diversity in terms of racial and economic experiences in order to do that,we have to be honest about what has been happening and figure out how we are going to be different from other communities across the country.We have a great opportunity to be leaders in a national movement for what we've been calling development without displacement. We all want beautiful communities, but how can we do it in a way that doesn't push out the people who are there now? She continued, African Americans, Hispanics, and people of color, traditionally, have these experiences. Over time they are not able to build generational wealth for one(1)reason or another. We end up in situations like this. The unemployment rate for whites in this community at the time EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 3 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK of this report was four point nine percent(4.9%), for blacks it was nine point two percent (9.2%). When it comes to income, they discovered that Blacks make only half (1/2) of what White households make. In terms of liquid asset poverty, which is basically how much money you have in the bank or what you have that you could sell pretty quickly in case of a crisis,this report found that Blacks are two (2) times more likely to be in liquid asset poverty than Whites. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Blacks in the City of South Bend live in liquid asset poverty. So if something goes wrong,they really don't have the money to cover that. For the Latinx community, sixty-three percent (63%) live in liquid asset poverty as opposed to only thirty-four percent (34%) of White families. The study also talks about households with zero percent (0%) net worth and the homeownership rate. Medium household income for Whites is about $41,000, for Latinos it is $35,000,and for Black families,it is only$21,000.This shows very clearly that we have a problem. If we value diversity and equity, I think you could say we have a problem. I would encourage you to go to that report to learn more about where we are. We need to do some real self-reflection as a community to determine what we need to do differently. We are focused on the City now,but what is the disparity in education? What kind of jobs are we able to get, Black vs. White vs. Hispanic? These are all different things we need to go into. It is not the City's responsibility to solve everything. We'd like to, but tonight we are going to focus on what the government policies are that help contribute to this problem and what are we doing about it. We've already begun the process of collecting some data on different things, and tonight, Code Enforcement is the Department we are going to talk about. How to use the recommendations of the Racial Wealth Divide Report to bring about equitable economic development as it relates specifically to housing options in SB Dr. Judy Fox, Notre Dame Law Clinic with offices at 1100 Eck Hall of Law, Notre Dame IN, stated,A few years ago, Regina gave my students and I some data about Code Enforcement in the City of South Bend. This is looking back from 2012 to February of 2017 (Referencing a map on the presentation). The darker the color, the higher the concentration of African Americans in that neighborhood, and the little black dots are the Code Enforcement actions in that neighborhood. The reason I started with this one (1) is that I did a study before this on sub-prime lending and foreclosure, and this section(pointing to the presentation) was targeted for sub-prime lending and foreclosing was highly concentrated.What we had,was this particular neighborhood along Lincoln Way between Portage and Olive on the east side. Families that owned homes during that time were targeted. People were going door to door to try to get them to refinance, and then people ended up getting foreclosed on and then investors moved in, so this has been a challenge. The pattern for the Hispanic population is similar but not quite as stark. The light areas are where most of the violations were found. That raised some concerns as to why this is happening. The numbers in these areas also correlate with the poverty. She continued, We know that this is a complex problem that is not unique to South Bend, but we need to find ways to improve neighborhoods without driving out the people that have lived there. South Bend has a series of issues that has exasperated this problem. One (1) of them is that our housing stock was built before 1960. A little over forty percent (40%) was actually built before 1940. Homes that are that old have condition issues and need improvements. The other interesting piece is that sixty-five percent(65%) of our housing stock is valued at less than $100,000. Banks, essentially, stop lending money to homes in that range. Specifically, they stop giving home improvement loans. Whether justified or not, it is not worth it to the banks, so folks in that range have limited ability to get income to make repairs. They also typically don't have a lot of liquid EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 4 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK assets. What we do know is that in minority neighborhoods, if they have any wealth, it is almost all concentrated in the equity of their home, disproportionately to Whites. We also know that the majority of Whites who buy homes had help from their parents whether it was with a down payment or a loan. That is not true with African American families. That is because if you go back fifty (50) years, African Americans couldn't buy homes in South Bend whether it was from redlining or zoning issues, or covenants in the deed. So they didn't have that generational wealth to pass on. She went on, I also want to talk about the process. There are a lot of people I haven't been able to help because they didn't follow the process correctly. This is because they didn't understand it. So, a Code Enforcement officer goes out and finds a violation and issues a notice or a ticket. If it is just a ticket, you can challenge it, but there is typically a hearing if there is going to be a demolition or if there are a lot of violations. In the hearing, you go in to talk about the situation. First (1St) of all, the mistake people make is that they don't show up to the hearing. If there is an order issued in the hearing, like a demolition order or if they have tried to contact you ten (10) times and you're not responding so they are going to ask for a penalty, there is a certain amount of time in which you can appeal, but if you don't appeal in that two (2) week period of time, no lawyer in the world can challenge that. Secondly, it is not the City that determines the amount you are going to pay,it is the judge. I've been in many Cities where the City has recommended no fine, and the judge determines that they should owe a higher amount. So to some extent,the City doesn't have the control over this that some people think they do. The judge makes the determination on the amount. Then once there is a determination, if you have an appeal and it goes to collections, you can't challenge the amount in a collections situation. It is then just a matter of whether or not you are going to pay. One(1)of the most important things is staying in communication with Code and to show up at your hearings. That can go a long way for those types of things. This is not a unique problem to South Bend. There is a joke going around in property circles and it goes like this: the Whites are moving to the neighborhood, there goes the neighborhood. Gentrification is the message of the day. The problem we are seeing U is that the developers that go in and build housing are not interested in building affordable housing or low-income housing. So if we get rid of all of that housing, because it is in very poor condition, there is nowhere for people to go. And what we know about South Bend is that between last year and this year, while the population has increased, the number of households has decreased. We have more people living on couches with friends and neighbors. People are not able to set up a household because affordable housing is a problem. The challenge is to find a way to save the houses that can be saved and find ways to help people who want to stay in their neighborhood,be able to make the necessary repairs. What I don't want, and I don't think the City wants it either, is for people to be living in unsafe conditions. So, we don't want to tell Code Enforcement, we're poor, or we're Black or Hispanic, so it's ok for us to live in substandard housing. That is not the message we want to send. We want to try to find ways to improve that housing. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated,That was a nice overview of the problem.This is multi- faceted. Banks are not lending, there is a legacy of discrimination, we're in a situation where people of color have fewer assets. That is a problem that is not easily overcome. Tonight, we're here to talk about what we can do as a City government. One (1) thing I found in my experience is that showing up is key. I always showed up. I also wrote letters and emails. We had three (3) Code Enforcement directors in the period of time we were having issues. So there were a lot of issues in terms of turnover and leadership, and trying to understand all of the differences. We also went through a transition between paper records and digitizing everything, which was important, EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574 235 9221 f 574.235 9173 111)574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5 4111)CITYOFSOUTHBEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK but it also came with some problems. Judy said not to miss your hearings, and if you don't agree you need to file an appeal. We found that in order to appeal, you have to actually file a lawsuit against the City. That means you have to spend money and go through a daunting process, especially when you don't have a lawyer to do that for you. So these are the barriers we have to get over. It is true that the judge makes the decision,not the City. But the judge is paid by the City, and Code Enforcement makes a recommendation. When we look at those hearings, how do we have something that is a little more standardized, where it is just not one person's decision? The Unsafe Building Law states that legally, when there is a problem, you can assess a civil penalty anywhere between zero ($0) and $5,000. That is a big range. How do you decide if it is going to be a fifty dollar($50)penalty,or a$2,500 penalty?That is where the City of South Bend can make decisions. We have the data,but we can also be informed by stories and the experiences of people. Everything that was done was legal based on the current laws.We make a lot of those laws locally, and if we find that people have been hurt by those laws, then it's our obligation to look at those laws and possibly change them. We had a recording,but we couldn't hear it, so I'm going to read it for you. We were constantly downtown asking questions of the director of Code Enforcement, and I was always recording so I could better understand the process. I am going to read one (1) of the conversations I had with the former director, and it is going to lead into another testimony we have tonight. It was September 8, 2015, and we were in the middle of the budget hearing process. I was not yet on the Council, I was just there trying to understand the process. When Code Enforcement had finished their presentation, I had some questions for Randy. I had specific questions about special assessments and how they get on your taxes, and when they fall off. I was recording so I could get the language down. When those legal things come to you, if you don't understand the language, you're in trouble. He started telling me some of how he went about addressing this issue of problem properties. She continued, He said, When I first (1st) got here to the City of South Bend, the first (1st) time I met the Mayor, I said there's 100,000 people in this City. 1,000 people think we're doing a great job, 1,000 people think we're doing a crappy job, and 1,000 people absolutely hate us. The ones that dislike us are the ones we're going after. So you know, the police asked me about a bar the other day that is operating in, and they were talking about my neighborhood, he said I can't remember what it's called. I asked, The KickBack? He said yeah, the KickBack. He said, they said, you guys (the Police) got anything on that? Can you guys go check this out and see what you've got? I said,hang on a minute... this is in our CAN meeting, I bring it up, so we were there, we wrote a citation, we wrote a fine for this, we wrote a fine for that, we did a grass violation for this. And then I asked about the new computer system and the new way that they're actually recording these things. He said yes, it makes it very quick and easy for us to define what's going on. And again part of that is working with CAN and the police department for chronic nuisance, we're sharing information daily, such as, he's got two (2) violations, I've got two (2) violations, now we need another one (1) to bring it into a chronic nuisance. So you know, again we're improving the process. And then we would go out and do it...and you know maybe in a way it is. Because we had a conversation about if this is fair. He said but if you think about who we are going after, who we would go after. He then asked, do you know, and I couldn't really understand the name,but he said,he's a scumbag. He runs prostitution out of his houses,he runs drugs out of his houses,he's just not a good person at all. He's always on one(1) of our hitlists. So,he'll move to a different house. We'll go out one (1) day and cite him for tall grass. We used to go cite it for tall grass and litter. Well,we'll hit it for tall grass on one(1) day, and come back the next day and hit it for litter, now that's two (2) violations. If you do it the same day, its only one (1) violation. So people like that, that's the way we are actually going after them aggressively, using the law- EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 6 4 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK they use the law against us, so we'll use the law against them. And that's who we target, those landlords that we go after in that manner. So, that's where I'll end reading, but there was more of the conversation. I read everything, so I wasn't taking it out of context,but that is available in case anyone wants to see it and/or talk about it. She went on, I didn't realize it while we were having the conversation,but as I went back through my notes, I was really concerned by that. I understand the intention,because if we have a problem property, we have to push those people out. But if we are subjectively using the law to target certain people, who gets to make that decision? And it becomes, to me,much too subjective for a City agency. So, who's next? Right now it is someone who is running drugs and prostitution, and I think most people would agree you don't want that in your community. But who gets to decide what the problem properties are? Could it be there's too many undocumented people? Whatever it is, to me, it felt like there needs to be a more empirical way to make those decisions as to who is getting fined. We need to apply the law evenly and equitably across all situations. We have in the audience Ms. Tyria Bailey. She is the owner of The KickBack, the restaurant he mentioned as one (1) of the people on their hitlist that they are going after. She is going to give a testimony about what her experience was during that time. Tyria Bailey, 643 LaPorte Avenue, I opened up my business back in 2014. I started having problems with Code Enforcement with fines for grass, bushes, and some trash that they got from a residence around the block or down the street. I had several problems with Code Enforcement over and over again. I paid several fines, not because I felt like I was wrong,but because I felt like it was a bill that needed to be paid. That's all I've got. Committee Chair Williams-Preston asked if she could add to the story, and Ms. Bailey gave her permission. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, She purchased a property, and as they were fixing it up and getting ready to create their business, she was told she was not allowed to have a business license. So one (1) of the things she talked about, and again, there are a lot of holes in this story, just because of not understanding the process. It's like all of this legal stuff and the processes from the City, if we don't understand it, we're sunk. We don't know how to fight that or stand up for ourselves and say yes or no. All she knows is that she was told she could not have a business license,because of the"Y"Not Shack. I'm almost fifty(50)years old and my dad used to go there, so it was there a long time ago. She was told that it caused a lot of problems and the City really doesn't want a restaurant or bar working out of that location, so she was told she could not have a business license. She did what she could to try to fight that. So then they said let's have a meeting about it. She went down there, but what she didn't know was that it was some kind of official, formal legal meeting, and she wasn't prepared for that. They actually had someone who said well, I'm not a part of either party, but I'm going to make a decision in this case. She was telling me that the City had all of these people lined up, even uniformed police officers, coming in talking about the problem property. She was scared. She wondered why the police officers were there, and it was very intimidating. She plead her case, got a notice later that said she won, and she was allowed to have a business license. She went on, The problems started right away. Code Enforcement started with the fines. Specifically, there was one (1) police officer that used to come into her business every single day asking where so and so was. Some people feel that having a uniformed police officer in their EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 7 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK establishment is great, it makes them feel safe. I'm here to tell you that in other communities, communities of color, it decreases your business and it is very intimidating, and customers stop coming around. She had other issues and problems, and I won't go into all of the details,but what she described was harassment. It was stressful. She was paying fines that she didn't believe she owed,but that was because she didn't have time to fight it. She was running a business. The other piece of this is that she was also told she couldn't have a liquor license. Again, there are a lot of things we don't know about this situation, and maybe there are reasons. But what is disappointing is that as a business owner in this community, she didn't have support. It felt like, based on the circumstances,she was being targeted. Hearing what we heard about the previous Director of Code Enforcement, we know now that she was, in fact, being targeted. This is just an example of the practices that happen when we're redeveloping a community. Cities decide who they want there, who they don't want there, and that subjective practice can be problematic to say the least. So, we talk about, not just homeowners, but African American business owners. She is a black business owner trying to make her way in her community, but these kinds of practices have created a problem and a barrier for her to thrive. This is just one (1) story that we were able to bring out because it is directly connected to something that we, as the City of South Bend,have control over, and that's what we want to focus on tonight. It doesn't look pretty, but we're ok with that. We're going to address it, and we're going to validate it. Then we're going to ask now what are we going to do different? Again, these stories are not unique. I have had several people tell me stories. We decided that tonight is not going to be the time to hear all of these stories, but this is just one (1) of the more egregious ones. We are looking at creating another time separate from tonight, where people can come if they have stories to tell. Those stories can be data. We don't know how, as City officials, our actions and determinations affect residents unless we hear from them. So there will be another time to hear all of the stories. I'm really excited to have the new Director of Code Enforcement here, and over the course of the last two (2) years, I've really seen the change. That is largely because of the advocacy of many of you that are here tonight. It is because of the willingness and bravery of the people like you who come forward and inform your elected officials of what's going on so we can challenge ourselves to look at the practices. We've made a lot of progress. Personally, I've seen our City Department of Code Enforcement interacting differently with the residents of South Bend, and Tracy is here to talk about some of the things that they've learned and that they are doing now. Tracy Skibins, Director of Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I started in Code Enforcement about eighteen (18) months ago. I am going to share with you my initial experiences with Code Enforcement, and we can proceed from there. I didn't know what to expect, and I knew it would be important for me to be a part of the Code Enforcement hearings. We have Code Enforcement hearings every Tuesday and Thursday, and when at all possible, I attend every hearing so I can hear people's stories, their struggles, and the issues that they face. What became immediately apparent to me is that it really doesn't serve us well to add on civil penalties to someone who needs to repair their home if they don't have money in the first (1St) place to repair their home. We know that in Code Enforcement, again, we can't speak to past policies and procedures, however, that puts us in a very difficult situation. Just as Regina said earlier when she was quoting Randy, we do have people upset with us because we're not doing enough. But, we also have people upset with us because we are trying to do, in their eyes,too much. That puts us in a very difficult situation. So as I sat in the back of the room during the hearing process,which can be very confusing to somebody who does not know what to expect, I realized that many of the people who come to see us need resources. They need a contact sheet of information of people they can reach out to for assistance with utilities, roof repair, or Real EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 I I D574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 8 iv CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Services for older people. One(1) of the things I've done is develop a list of resources that we put on the hearing table in front of anyone who comes in to speak to our Code Enforcement during the hearing process. They can take the form if they want to and reach out to those resources themselves. We don't ask their back story, we don't ask how much money they make or other personal questions like that, however, the hearing officer will ask what their plan is. Oftentimes when people say they don't have money to turn their utilities back on, I try to discreetly meet with that person in the hallway to talk about resources that might be available to them. We even have a few inspectors that met with individuals at their residence to ask if they've thought about applying for grants.We find that oftentimes the house is in such a state of disrepair,that they've been turned down for the grants because all of the funding for that specific grant would have been used on that specific house. If you have a roof with a hole in it, it does a lot of damage to the inside of the house. These great organizations have to spread the wealth among a lot of people, and they can't just invest it in one (1) person. That puts us in a difficult situation, because we have neighbors complaining about a specific house that is in disrepair,but we know that we have a person in there who can't afford to make those repairs. We see those issues on a daily basis. We've worked with Community Investment to come up with a list of resources as well. This year, we worked with Rebuilding Together, which has been fantastic. I even called a high school friend whose father is in charge of a local union group here in town and begged him to help someone on Olive Street repair their roof. That's not really part of our job in Code Enforcement,but we know that there is a gap that we need to address. We know there is a need to work with our residents who are in need and can't financially or physically make repairs. I have noticed that there seems to be an issue with people who are skilled at repairs, like contractors and things in our areas. I've heard from residents that they can't get anyone to come to their house. Notre Dame is taking all of the skilled contractors, and if they do get them to come to their houses, they take the deposit and then never come back to make the repairs. Again, they look to Code Enforcement as to what we can do to help them. It is a sticky situation for us to be in. While I do agree that civil penalties are not necessarily the answer in all cases, we have those landlords who are charging people rent to live in these homes. Those are the owners for which it would be appropriate to ask for civil penalties. If you are charging people rent to live in substandard conditions, we have to do something to try to get that person to repair their property if they are going to continue to rent that property out. So you have the homeowners that are trying to do the best they can to repair their houses, and you also have those landlords who maybe are not doing enough. I can tell you over the last eighteen (18) months, we have been doing the best we can to try to figure out who is who, and try to best help South Bend as a whole. We want it to be a safe, clean place for everybody to live, work and visit. I think we're on the same page here, but what I ask from you, as a representative of Code Enforcement, is that if you have suggestions for the situations we find ourselves in trying to help people, let us know what we can do to help these people who are struggling. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, You are doing such a nice job. I would like you to talk about neighborhood cleanups, how that's connected, and how on their own, your inspectors are building relationships with neighborhood associations. Ms. Skibins stated, Since January through October, a lot of the inspectors have attended neighborhood meetings. They've been to twenty-one (21) events. Some of those include neighborhood cleanups. Code Enforcement supplies the gloves, trash bags, and we collect all of the debris that is collected afterwards. We work with the neighborhood associations and they are responsible for recruiting the volunteers. If you call and say you have twenty (20) volunteers coming out on a random Saturday, we will show up and pick up the trash with you, collect EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 9 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK everything, and give you guys mad props for organizing something like that. We had Rebuilding Together help with a widow who lived on the south side on Broadway Street. We work with the Downtown South Bend liaison when we clean up after the homeless population. So, instead of just removing people from the area, we also try to put people in touch with resources, alternative housing, food, shelter, you name it. We work with Solid Waste to add trash cans to places where we notice there is a lot of debris that is collected in the area. We also work with Adult Protective Services, Child Protective Services, we connect people to the ND Law Clinic, and we're always working to build that list of resources for individuals that we can disseminate as needed. We're not perfect, but we're trying to work with the residents of South Bend. Committee Chair Williams-Preston led a round of applause for Ms. Skibins. She stated, Part of what I felt Tracy has been doing is making changes to a process that really has a long legacy of focus on compliance.As a Council Member,what I've learned now is revenue generation,because when we do those fines, we can bring in money. The more fines, the more money, because we need money to continue to keep the City beautiful. I was on the Council when they asked for your position, and questioned why they needed the position,but I did vote for that budget overall. I was still skeptical as to why we'd pay another person to create more problems. But one (1) of the first (1St) things she did was show up to the Code Enforcement hearings. So the department has moved from a philosophy of revenue generation to a philosophy of service. I think that has a lot to do with what we've done in terms of bringing Tracy in. She has also been much more responsive to listening. It is not just her, it's also the inspectors and the whole department. Even before Randy left,there was this shift in paradigm as to how we are going to move forward. This isn't about one (1) person, this is something that is happening all over the country. It is just the process that, normally,these types of departments take.We are challenging ourselves to do something different. One (1) of the things that I love, we found one (1) retired gentleman in the Kennedy Park Neighborhood Association,Harry Gatlin.Harry uses his truck and calls himself the Environmental Specialist. The Code Inspector in that area connected with him and Sam Brown, so Harry is happy to go out and help people mow their lawns and clear their bushes, so now instead of simply assessing a fine to someone in that neighborhood, he calls the neighborhood association to let Harry know that someone needs help. At one (1) of their meetings they talked about how many people they've gone out with,as a crew of volunteers,to help. Maybe an elderly person or.a person with disabilities, needs help to clean up their yard. If people do not have the capacity to clean up their yards, that could lead to more fines and fees. So this is a service that is getting at our goal of having a beautiful, safe, and clean neighborhood, but doing it in a different way that is not about revenue generation, but about service. Dr. Fox stated, One (1) of the other reasons this is important is that if you fine someone who is poor, you aren't going to get the money anyway, and the City ends up spending a lot of money on collections. So,it is counter-productive in that sense as well. I would say that they are not collecting a lot of those fines. I,personally,work very closely with Code Enforcement on the other side with homeowners, andone (1) of the real problems we have had is with the civil assessments. I have a lot of people who were forced into foreclosure because of that. It shows up on your tax bill, and mortgage companies do everything electronically. So the $5,000 civil assessment shows up on your tax bill, mortgage company's computers says this person's property taxes have gone up $5,000 this half of this year,that means their property taxes have gone up$10,000. That means we have to add $1,000 per month to their mortgage payment for escrow. They only reevaluate that once per year, so there are very few people who can afford to pay between $600 and $1,000 on their mortgage for a year while the mortgage company cleans it up.Unfortunately,despite arguing EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 10 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 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK some of the things that we need to work on. I think one (1) of the things is, like gentrification, if you let an area decay and you let the crime set in, that land becomes very cheap for developers to come in and take over. Some of the reasons that happens are, I went to a meeting, and there are approximately 2,400 properties in tax sale right now that the County owns. What's happening is, a lot of investors from outside South Bend are taking those and they're holding on to them hoping that the owner will pay and they'll get a ten percent (10%) interest profit on it. When they don't, they just let it go,they are not improving the property, they don't care about the neighbors. I think something we need to look at is how we're doing our tax sales and how that's affecting people. I did some studying, when a neighborhood becomes around twenty percent (20%) rentals, the neighborhood is ok. When you get over twenty percent(20%)rentals,you start to have crime. You have a lot of people who aren't invested in the neighborhood, because they aren't owners. According to the last figure I heard from Tim Scott, fifty-four percent (54%) of South Bend is rentals. So if you're renting a property, you're not a stakeholder like the owner. That's something else we need to look at in terms of zoning. One (1) of the things that has contributed to this is the Urban Village Planning Model, that doesn't include the neighborhoods as much as it should. You were talking about people giving a deposit to a contractor, and the contractor taking off with it. It might be a great thing to offer escrow accounts so the people getting the repair done could put the money in the escrow, and when the work is done,they get paid. That's a thought to help the people who are getting taken advantage of. Nate Levin-Aspenson, 330 W. Colfax Avenue, stated, I am the chair of the Indivisible Indiana District Two (2) Equality Committee, and we've taken an interest in looking at the issue of Code Enforcement and the role it plays in the process of gentrification and displacing people from their homes. I am so pleased to see the City and the Department of Code Enforcement starting to move toward a different philosophy that is more service-oriented. While these things are the subject of tonight's forum, we've worked on some suggestions that I would like to put for consideration of what to do and what specific changes to make to Code Enforcement policy. There is a lot of discretion, and it is a very useful tool, but without accountability, it can go very wrong. We propose, for the 2019 budget period, which would be a good use of the newly proposed staff member, to track the Code Enforcement penalties and citations that are levied during the 2019 period and specifically track the demographic information of the people you are levying those fines against, desegregated by race and if possible, by income. Then, by the end of 2019, take a hard look at whether or not these current practices disproportionately target our Black and our people of color residents of South Bend. Then, make a real commitment to ask, if we do find that they are, what changes can we make to have that discretion that's used, and what methods of accountability are put in place to make sure that they are used and distributed justly. I think that during that time, it would really behoove us to put a pause or a moratorium on the practice of special assessments since there is so much possibility for people to lose their homes. I think if we find out that we've used these policies and they have been applied disproportionately or unjustly, and people have lost their homes because of it, that's not something we would want on our conscience. Marty Wolfson, 809 Park Avenue, stated, I want to thank Councilmember Williams-Preston for a wonderful program. This has been very informative and I'm so delighted by the change in Code Enforcement. I really applaud the new director for her empathetic and compassionate approach. One(1)thing I think Regina said is crucial to all of this has to do with the racial and wealth divide in South Bend. I think it's very important to talk about Code Enforcement and other issues relating to this specific program of housing,but unless we realize that we need to address at the same time, EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY 1 INNOVATION 1 INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 12 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE O F T H E CLERK the issue of racial wealth income disparities, we'll be constantly fighting an uphill battle. If you have an aggressive Code Enforcement in areas of the City where these racial wealth and income disparities are present,it will be counter-productive,because you won't get the money. What's the point of having aggressive Code Enforcement for people who can't afford to pay the fines? They just lose their homes and the City won't get any money anyway, and if I remember correctly, the City Task Force report on vacant and abandoned housing said that aggressive Code Enforcement should be focused on areas of relative affluence,compared to areas where people are poor,because of that very reason. If you cite people and they can afford to make the repairs, then you'll have accomplished something. If you simply cite people for aggressive Code Enforcement and they can't do the repairs, what is the point? I think Nate's suggestion of a survey of where we are doing Code Enforcement is a useful one (1), and those would be useful results to know. I think another point that Judy Fox made is very important, that we don't want to just say, let's just forget about substandard conditions in poor neighborhoods. We want people to live in neighborhoods that are safe, so we should inspect houses in those neighborhoods. I don't know how feasible this is within the current political parameters that we face, but we should inspect those houses for reference to the kinds of agencies that were mentioned to help people. We should inspect them and address the issues that Dr. Fox mentioned about the banks and their refusal to lend to people to fix up their houses. We should also inspect those houses so that the City can develop innovative proposals to finance programs that would help people to make those repairs. My final point has to do with racial wealth and income disparities. As Regina mentioned, people are renting because they don't have the wealth, and they can't rely upon their parents to get the money for a down payment, so they are renting. But, those people care about their neighborhood as much as people who own their homes. There also are landlords who care about the neighborhoods. There are people like Regina who bought homes to try to rent them to people in their neighborhood and to fix them up, and some of those landlords could use some financial assistance as well. We shouldn't just look at them as evil people, as many of them are also struggling and trying to do the best they can. Sylvester Williams, 702 Lincolnway West, stated, I've got four (4) questions that were called in on WUBS radio station. First(Pt), I'd like to appreciate Councilmember Williams-Preston for this testimony and confession service this evening. Secondly, amnesty is trending across America. How can amnesty be applied to those who owe the City money and those who bought houses and left the City? How can amnesty be applied if they return and do the right thing? Thirdly, since winter is coming fast, a senior citizen called in and asked what could be done to help when snow is shoveled from the sidewalk and the snow plow comes down the street? It pushes the snow back on the sidewalk that I had just paid to get off. They asked, Is there any help for me? The other question is stated an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I don't know if anybody's seen the cat woman's house yet. On the south east corner of Carlisle Street and Warren Street, there is a troubled cat lady house. She has so many cats, she don't know what to do. They counted over twenty-five (25) cats in her house. Is there anything that we can do in our neighborhood to help the cat lady? Committee Chair Williams-Preston thanked him for his questions and asked if anyone from the City wanted to give answers to those questions immediately, and asked if anyone else would like to speak. Jose Arevalo, 3809 Fellows Street, stated, I'm a recovering landlord, and I'm also a realtor and an investor. There are a lot of issues here involving national policies because Judy Fox can't take on mega corp bank policies that were blessed by Congress in our little situation we have here in South EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 13 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Bend. So, there's a lot of national policies here but what can we do locally. (Pointing to the young man next to him)he stated, This is my son, Quan. He is a student at Kennedy Primary Academy. Quan Arevelo, stated, I'm seven years old, and I go to Kennedy Primary Academy. Jose Arevelo stated, My son goes to Kennedy Primary Academy, right in the middle of the hood. Related to the issues about Code Enforcement, and all of the issues surrounding that, a few years ago, I was a graduate student at Ohio State University. While I was there, I took on a summer internship. It was with the City Code Enforcement,with the City of Bexley, Ohio. If anyone knows where that is, it is just a little community surrounded by the City of Columbus, and that's where the Governor's mansion is located. It is a very small community, and by the nature of it, it is a very affluent community. One (1) of the things I learned there is to have equitable enforcement of all properties in the City, because we're talking here about how the City is picking on low income people and people of color. I think the issue here is that we don't have enough Code Enforcement, or that we don't have fair Code Enforcement. That's a big issue. So how do we deal with that? One (1) of those issues is that a friend of mine told me that there is chipping paint on the garage that is sitting on the property where our Mayor lives. I don't think he'll ever get a fine or a hearing for that chipping paint. It's a lead issue, because that house where he lives was built before 1978. One(1) of the things that we hear a lot of concerns about is what's going on in the neighborhoods and how to turn investors. Well, landlords are not all that bad. I know a few own more than one hundred (100) properties or so, and my son and I aren't close to that. One (1) of the things is that there is a County process and a State process which allows for out of town investors to help the County meet its financial needs, and that is why we have County tax sales. If local investors aren't investing, then out of town and international investors do that, and that's a good way to support our County Government while we meet the needs of the community. Another survey is a good thing to do,but another survey just delays the problem further.We do one(1)more survey to prove what? Discrimination is alive and well, and so is selective enforcement. But I think having a more equitable enforcement of all properties in all parts of the City would resolve this, because people of means would be able to pay fines right away.My home is surrounded by lush bushes and privacy fencing, and no one knows that I don't mow my lawn more than once a year and I don't care. I don't care and my neighbors don't care. In my own way, I am preserving the environment because this is Indiana prairie that I am preserving, so there are multiple ways of looking at it. So it's not just about lush greens that imitate grasses from England or something like that, like all of these fake lawns that we have. Anyway, so equitable enforcement, I think, is the key to all of this. Thank you. Cherri Appenger, 533 S. Kenmore Street, stated, I live on the west side of town and I'd like to know about the grant for the west side homeowners. They said it's the west side or the LaSalle Park area. I grew up in the LaSalle Park area. I live across Western Avenue now, and they told me I don't qualify because I live on the south side of Western Avenue. How do they set the guidelines? I thought all of that was LaSalle Park or the west side. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, I wasn't a part of the process of choosing those neighborhoods, but some of the things that they considered were that those areas that have traditionally not been invested in, and where we've been hearing from residents about issues. A lot of folks in those particular neighborhoods have been coming to the City and saying that they need help and home improvement, and what they decided to do was to concentrate the dollars and increase the amount of money. What we normally do is we open it up to everybody all over the EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov 14 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK City, so we're spending a lot of money and we're helping people,but it's hard to see that progress because it is going to homes all over town. They said what if we chose a small area and put all of our money in that one (1) area, and then people can see that we're actually improving something. The goal is that if this works, if we see that this is a great way to move forward, then each year, they'll move that area. So, the first(1St) year, we had around $650,000 to put into that small area. I think what they're talking about is making a smaller area and the Mayor, on his own, decided to actually double the amount of money that they can put in from the City budget for home improvements specifically. Ms. Appenger asked, So they are just focusing on a portion of the west side, not the entire west side? Committee Chair Preston answered, Not the entire west side, but next year it will be another section, and the next year, it will be another section. That's why they said when you call in, everybody should call in even though you aren't in the boundaries, because part of the decision- making process of where to go next year is going to be based on the number of people who called in. So it's just a pilot that we are trying to see if we can make an impact, as an attempt to be responsive to what we've heard from the community. Because you're right, the lines have been drawn, and I hear from a lot of people that they are right across the line and it can be very frustrating. So coming to a neighborhood near you, but the interesting thing you need to know is that this is just one (1) pocket of money. This effort has spurred an entire initiative from the City. Why wouldn't the people tell you that you don't qualify for this program, but here is another list of programs you might qualify for? There are other programs that I'm sure you may qualify for. Tracy is working on developing a list because we have to get you that information. So it's in process. I would encourage you, again, to call 311 and give them your information and let them know that you want to know. There is a script being written right now, so I would encourage everyone in the listening audience to continue to call and say I have a problem, I need help. At some point that script will come online and they'll be able to give that information and share with you where to go. Pete Taddeo, 52870 Cumberland Ct., Granger, stated, I'm in South Bend quite a bit. I relate to everything that was said tonight by every person. Let me start with the owner of the restaurant. I am one (1) of your big competitors on that side of town. I own the Popeyes Chicken among other things, and if you need some help getting your business up and running, I know that when I first bought Popeyes twenty(20) years ago, it was a mess. If you'd like some help, I'm ready to assist you any way I can. We're a big user of Code Enforcement. We are pushing about 1,000 rentals in the County, about five-hundred (500) are in the City of South Bend and about one-hundred ten (110) Section Eight (VIII) homes. All of the landlords, all of the problems, and the problems of the tenants, I relate to. I relate to the slumlords and the greedy landlords who just take advantage of the people. One (1) of the things I appreciated is, Tracy, that you go out into the hallway to speak to people. I would like to suggest that we come up with a group similar to SCORE which helps people formulate business plans. We could put together a group of twenty(20)to thirty(30) or forty(40)people that would be available to help these people that don't have help.A lot of these people don't have lawnmowers, and they don't have twenty dollars ($20)to pay anybody to mow their lawn. I've gone out to help mow, but I am pretty limited with what I can do physically. I think we've invited you to our meeting, Tracy, I'm not sure if anyone has contacted you, but welcome to the job. Over the years, I've had a strong relationship with Code Enforcement, and under two (2) Code Enforcement Directors, I hoped to become a court appointed receiver. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 wvvw.southbendin.gov 15 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Basically,a receiver would take over a property,and in this case it would be somebody who bought a property from tax sale and they just let it go and they don't have an interest in the community. A receiver would step in, take control of the property, fix it up on their own dime, then take it to foreclosure, so they have to pay for it or they lose their property. Nothing got done there, although we did a lot of investigation. I can relate to you about what you say about penalties. I am a court appointed receiver and I have a very advanced education in theoretic mathematics, and I worked on the Apollo Mission on some very sophisticated problems, so I make it a point to never talk down to an attorney. [Dr. Fox,] You demonstrated that you have a good working knowledge of the issues with Code and the penalties and things of that nature, and I wouldn't mind talking to you from time to time and being a resource for you. Regina, I know you well and we've talked about matters of Code Enforcement and I'd like to continue to have those conversations and involvement. Young lady here from the City Clerk's Office, several months ago, I met with Kareemah Fowler, the City Clerk. I asked hey, you just did Amnesty for people paying parking tickets, how about amnesty for all the people who have violations and penalties? She apparently talked to the Mayor, and with everybody so busy we never followed up,but I think we need to follow up on that because Reverend Williams brought that up. Someone called in about amnesty, and we could get all of those penalties renegotiated down. GlendaRae Hernandez, 702 E. South Street,with a temporary address of 321 Rue Flambough,Apt. 501 stated, I am also a member of the South Bend Human Rights Commission and I have been for many years. I know you said the Feds drew a line where they won't lend, but that's illegal. Especially when it hits neighborhoods of color and that sort of thing. I'm here to say that people should go to banks, they should go to credit unions, apply for the loans, and if they get turned down, go file a charge with the Human Rights Commission. If they start getting all kinds of charges, it may change that illegal behavior. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, We're going to take the last few moments to answer some of the questions that came up. Dr. Fox stated, The issue of people investing in tax properties is common practice all over the country. There is no way to make it an illegal practice, but we can enforce the laws that we have that I don't think are being enforced. Say that you shouldn't be able to buy properties at a tax sale if you have abandoned properties, properties that you owe property taxes on, or code violations on. What we find is the same people are flipping properties between themselves, their companies and their friends, and avoiding paying taxes and penalties. I've got data and I can show you how much that's happening. On the banking issue, Senator Donnelly did work on a bill that will make it easier for small banks to provide this lending, so hopefully that is going on, and I do know that the City is looking at ways to help good landlords as well, landlords that are really trying to do the right thing. We are trying to encourage people to rent from landlords who provide safe housing, and discourage them from going to the handful of slumlords in town that are trying to take advantage of people. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, We talked about having a referral process, connecting good landlords with good tenants and making it happen. Did you have any suggestions about the cat house or snow? Ms. Skibins stated, I will look into that address and also the person with the question about the snow can contact 311 or Code Enforcement and file a waiver. When it comes to the plows going EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION I INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson BvId South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 16 . CITY OF SOUTH BEND 1 OFFICE OF THE CLERK through the street, and putting the snow on her sidewalk,that's not something that I can help with, but I would consider contacting the Street Department. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, So that is also a problem for the City,we need to put in our list of questions as to how to resolve that. I wanted to offer the other elected officials or representatives from the Mayor's Office the opportunity to speak. We appreciate you coming out tonight, because this is one (1) of the most important things that I believe we can do, is listen. No matter how hard that can be, it is a great way to improve our practice because that's what we are here to do. With that,look out for the next session. If you didn't get the opportunity to share about the issue of renters, and there is a huge problem with evictions in South Bend and all over the country. Dr. Fox stated, Yes, we are number eighteen (18) in the Country and our rate has skyrocketed in the last few years. We are evicting way too many people, probably because as a State, we have some of the worst landlord/tenant laws in the Country. Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, She is working and fighting for us, and working on those issues and that is something that we will address in future meetings as well because we need not just beautiful and safe homes for homeowners, but if we're going to achieve our goal of diversity in our neighborhoods with regards to income and rights, we are going to have to be able to create affordable, beautiful and safe rental opportunities as well. We look forward to working with the Real Estate Investors' Association and any other State agency that is interested in working out those kinds of problems. We'll be moving to the next issue of Police, so look out for those forums coming up. Thank you to Reverend Williams again for allowing the use of this space, and we hope that he'll invite us back to continue this important dialogue. With no further business,Committee Chair Williams-Preston adjourned the Community Relations Committee meeting at 8:04 p.m. Respectfully S itted, Regti, illiams-Preston, Committee Chair EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 I I U 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 17